I finally feel like I am at a point where I can say I’ve adequately played through the majority of Skyrim and present a true idea as to its good points and bad. As you can probably tell by the title of this post, there are far more of the good. Skyrim represents true value when thinking of a $60 video game. Beyond Skyrim’s near-perfect blend of exploration, strategic battle, and RPG elements lies a game that is more than a game: it’s an experience. I am 28-years-old, a husband and father, college-educated and gainfully employed, and I am playing an experience in Skyrim that is a true escape from reality, one that I feel a part of. Most would say that is lame, sad even. Maybe they’re right, but haven’t you ever read that one book, saw that one movie, played that one game that took you from your current standing on Earth and completely transported your thoughts and actions, your emotions and perceptions, to some fictional place where your fantasy resides? I haven’t felt this way about a video game since ’95 when I first played Chrono Trigger. So with that in mind, here is my article on why I think Skyrim is the best game of the year and could very well end up being the best game of this decade.
Read the rest of this entry »
I have read on forums and experienced some issues myself in receiving the Skylanders’ achievement entitled: “Gotta Buy Them All”. There are several youtube clips showing some trickery for swapping your save files which I have not yet tried. I contacted Activision explaining the situation:
I have maxed out the abilities on several Skylanders that have only been owned by me and have not received the “Gotta Buy ‘em All” achievement.
To which Activision responded:
I am sorry to hear you are having this problem.
If you have leveled up multiple Skylanders all of the way and still have not received the achievement, then this may be an issue with your save.
Please note the following “fix” is not officially supported by Activision. This has been known to solve this issue for some people and may be able to resolve this issue for you.
1. You need to have 1 Skylander that is 1 upgrade from having everything unlocked. Please note that the upgrade cannot be the one that requires the Soul Gem.
2. You need to have a USB/external memory unit for your XBox 360
To resolve this issue;
(in the XBox 360 Home Screen)
Select Settings > System > Memory > Storage > Games and Apps > Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. You will need to take your save file, and move it to your external memory unit. Once this is done, there should be no saved data in the Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure folder.Once this is done, launch the game and it will be as though you have started from scratch. You will need to play to the point where you save Persephone, and can once again purchase Upgrades. Once you purchase the final upgrade (that does not include the required Soul Gem), you should unlock the “Gotta Buy Em All” achievement.
Once you have the achievement, you can once again move your Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure save data from your memory unit, back to your hard drive. This will allow you to continue from your original save point.
If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please reply to this incident or contact us by phone so that we can continue to assist you.
I am going to try and level up one more Skylander, ensuring that I buy his unlockable power before the other upgrades and if that doesn’t work, I will go the route suggested by Activision.
Good luck, Skylanders!
Welcome to the New Year!
Enjoy an hour and a half of Wes and Dave discussing bullshit and their year in video games.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
You may remember that I included Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure in my article about gaming trends I despise. I absolutely despise the multi-pronged marketing tactic used to sell this game because it is so goddamned brilliant.
The only thing those marketing bastards could have done to be even more devious would have been to include particular figurines exclusively with different console releases. I know they thought about it, they had to have. The 3DS version does include an exclusive “Dark Spyro” figurine and two additional that differ from the home console versions. However, the Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 all include the same 3 figures. Perhaps it is too evil even for Activision to try and force me to buy a copy of the game for each of the 3 major consoles and a handheld. Obviously it would be possible to resort to eBay and Craig’s list to obtain these exclusive figures for exorbitantly high prices, but luckily it hasn’t come to that… yet.
All of these figures are theoretically available in individual packages as well as 3 packs. There are a couple of “adventure packs” that include a Skylander figure, a couple of bonus items that can heal your Skylanders or otherwise affect gameplay with different types of modifiers such as slowing enemies or providing you with ghost swords that automatically attack enemies. These adventure packs must unlock content already in the game because there is no installation required for the levels they provide you access to, nor are you prompted to download anything.
I know this is been out almost a month, but hey, I just got it. It was a worthwhile payment from my old man for cleaning out his gutters. Finally his fear of heights is paying off for me. After a scavenger hunt for a Wii Motion Plus adapter (which I purchased from Amazon for $23 with Red Steel 2), last night I was finally ready to get started on the latest iteration of the Legend of Zelda. I played about 2.5 hours, so I’m hardly in it. However, I do have some initial impressions and I’m going to tell you what they are.
First thing I noticed was the excellent musical score. The symphonic touch to the game’s tunes was a wonderful addition to a series that has always featured innovative, memorable music. Accompanying the wonderful score is the game’s terrific art style. Graphics are irrelevant for the Wii because it will never out-do the worst-looking game on the PS3 or 360 at only 480i/p. What Nintendo has had to do, and has done so fairly well, is reinvent the shitty-graphics-wheel by making innovative changes to the way things look within a game: Kirby’s Epic Yarn a prime example. Skyward Sword features a very watercolor-esque effect, with soft, hazy colors fading together, hiding the jagged polygons from the days of yore.
Gameplay thus far is kind of hard (for me) to get used to. I gave up on motion gaming years ago because it sucks. Zelda is the one game (thanks Other M) that can pull me back in for a taste. The 1:1 movement is pretty good, but I still don’t think it is entirely accurate. That may just be the way my remote is oriented, but I still didn’t feel like my movements were Link’s movements, per se. Precise slices with the sword were not so precise, and flying my bird with remote tilts was more difficult than I thought. But like I said, I’m in 2.5 hours and haven’t touched my Wii in a year-plus. I was also trying to play this game in the most comfortable, lazy position possible. Once I sat up and improved my posture things did get easier. I also noticed as I was getting more accustomed to the controls I was performing sword strikes that I wasn’t even trying to. Vertical hack followed up immediately by a diagonal slash! Take that bats (I know, keese)!
The game, as always, features goofy characters that toe the line of gender neutrality. And, as always, the game starts off…fucking…sl..o..ww. I realize there are those (grandparents, middle-aged parents, girls) that probably never played video games before the Wii and almost certainly never played a Zelda game. The game’s first 2.0 hours is their boring, spoon-fed tutorial. Just like every other modern Zelda game. It’s unbearable to me at this point in my life. It is the exact same reason I haven’t progressed beyond an hour in Majora’s Mask since I purchased it on the VC. I lowered my head and powered through, though. I knew once I got through this fart-haze I would be in lilac land, taking in the wondrous, innovative puzzles and incredibly-well-thought-out labyrinths.
I’m eager to jump back in to this game. The potential is beginning to really rear its glorious head.
Certainly by now you’ve read a review of Skyrim, the latest Elder Scrolls iteration to grace our boring Earth (unlike the always-interesting Tamriel). The last thing you need from me is to write yet another account of how great the game is; you know it’s great, even if you haven’t played it. Instead I want to take you on a journey into the life of a Wood Elf in Skyrim named Halodir, the character to which I pull the strings for. So go right on ahead, prepare for a day in the life of Skyrim citizen Halodir by stepping into his Dark Brotherhood-issued Shroud Boots, which just so happen to allow silent running (no, not that Silent Running).
Halodir the Sneak Thief
Looking to give someone a lump of coal this Christmas? Best Buy has you covered–Metroid: Other M for $5, free shipping. Bah.
Saints Row 2 is one of my all time favorite co-op games for the Xbox 360. It even ranks up there as one of my favorite co-op games of all time, so needless to say I have eagerly been anticipating the next installment in the series. Saints Row 3 (or the third) has not disappointed. It continues in the fine tradition of excellent co-op gameplay and over-the-top weapons, characters and scenarios that we have come to expect from the series.
Ten years have come and gone since the clunkiest, heaviest, and most unexpectedly-awesome console of all time arrived on store shelves. The Microsoft and their DirectX Box has seen many different shades of emotion from this gamer. First there was unabashed hatred for the machine as I, at the time, was a FLAMING Nintendo fanboy. I had embraced the Playstation and PS2, but Microsoft? Fuck them. Then a couple years passed with the Gamecube seeing minimal good third party games (aside from Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness, and maybe two more). The PS2 was killing it in the retail sector, but I was still not beholden to its grasp. Why not try the Xbox, which, at this point was almost three years old. Halo 2 had been released and I still had no idea who the Master Chief really was. I just knew I heard so many good things about the Big Ring’s first two iterations along with games like Splinter Cell. Caution was thrown to the wind and my Xbox purchase was made. Reaction = fucking terrific. Well done, Microsoft.
Comically big.
Weirdly, my favorite thing about the Xbox was the hard drive built in, undoubtedly the reason for the immense heft this console was packing. The first thing I did when I unboxed the, er, Xbox was rip several of my CDs (Hah! People used CDs in those days! Uncanny!) to the hard drive so I could utilize the custom soundtrack feature that so few Microsoft games employed. Even better, though, was the fact that I did not have to save my games to a memory card any more. I don’t know why that mattered to me, but it did; I loved it. Games also moved much faster through load screens with the storage device and the built-in processor.
Needless to say, since I purchased my Xbox in 2004 the needle on my barometer has slowly but surely been shifting to the Microsoft console empire. Nintendo put out some excellent first-party titles for the Gamecube which still gives me happy memories of the console but they went on to slap me and other Big N fanatics in the face with a motion-controlled turd, the Wii. Sony built the PS3 to a price point that no one could afford or wanted to pay for, plus many of their games weren’t worth the time and effort (Lair, I’m looking at you). The Xbox 360 kept rolling with its big brother’s momentum and pushed way ahead of its other two rivals in the console wars. Pound-for-pound, it is hard to defy Microsoft’s quality of excellence since late 2004 when I hopped on-board.
"At least we got the Xbox right."
So, in the spirit of this tenth anniversary of Microsoft consoles sitting in our homes, I will now list the ten best games/franchises/miscellaneous that the Big X has introduced to my attention span:
- Halo franchise
- Elder Scrolls III, IV, V (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim)
- Gears of War franchise
- XBLA
- Mass Effect franchise
- Fallout 3
- The Orange Box (Portal, HL2+, TF2)
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic franchise
- Splinter Cell franchise
- Dead Rising franchise
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Even I got bored with my fantasy football weekly updates. To put it kindly, I’m doing pretty good in one league and borderline terrible in the other–there’s your update.
Still, things are afoot at GameDrunk HQ. I finally got Skyrim in, no thanks to Amazon or UPS. Pre-ordered through the world’s largest online retailer with the assurance that I would get release-date delivery, which was last Friday. UPS had other plans, holding this meager-in-size package hostage in, of all places, Nashville. And since UPS doesn’t deliver to common folk on the weekends, I went EVEN LONGER without my Elder Scrolls fix. But alas, the game came in yesterday whereby my 360 promptly absorbed its disc.
First impressions: terrific, of course. I am incredibly impressed with the graphics and sound, all fully-utilizing the promise the 360 has always had. The lighting effects really cause moments where you think, “wow, that looks real.” It’s one thing to say something looks real but in a cartoony sense. This game offers photo-realism, a quality I did not think possible with this current generation of consoles.
I didn’t get to play it as long as I wanted, but I did slay my first dragon (in the main storyline). I also veered off and took a side-quest for a merchant who had one of his valuables stolen. I must say the game seems easier than Oblivion did (I am on medium difficulty); leveling up is moving faster than expected and arrows are giving off a surprisingly-large amount of damage for so early in the game. It seems more real, though. Somebody gets shot with a fucking arrow, they feel it. They don’t sit there and take 12 more in the throat before falling from the mortal coil.
It feels very much like Oblivion + Fallout 3 = Skyrim; and I can’t tell you how great this is. Bethesda took my two favorite games of this generation and essentially combined them, CharDee MacDennis style. I’ll certainly be more into the game tonight and hope to have enough hours logged to where I can give an appropriate review by the weekend.
Also on the horizon, Wes receives Saints Row: The Third today. He’ll be briefing us all on its splendor.
Season Passes for DLC
Ugh…
This dubious strategy is being adopted by many and is showing no signs of slowing down.
League: Your Every Fantasy
I played Child Pleeze this week, who was storming into town with Aaron Rodgers at QB and Calvin Johnson at WR. These two gents did their job, combining for 30 of the team’s 54 points. The problem, as you can imagine for Kerry’s team, is that he only scored 54 points, which wasn’t enough to take down my 63.
Because of the lackluster effort by Atlanta’s DEF thus far, I dropped them in favor of a San Francisco team that was showing promise. San Fran took that promise and ran with it, hooking me up with 22 points. For those keeping count, my defense score only 8 less than Kerry’s dynamic duo. Adding to this marvel was Old Reliable, Drew Brees, who scored 18. And though I gloat, my lineup was not terribly smart. I kept Dwayne Bowe on the bench, knowing I should have started him, and he accumulated 17 points that I couldn’t use. Also scoring on the bench (finally!) was Shonn Greene. Fortunately Willis McGahee and Greg Olson both reached the end zone and cemented my win and escalation back into 1st.
Final Score: 63-54
Current YEF Ranking: 1st
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League: GameDrunk.com’s BSFFL v6.0
Seriously I have to believe that at least three of my starters physically died on Sunday. All three started, but not so you’d really notice. Joe Addai (who I had a real good feeling about) pulled a fucking hammy 5 minutes into the game; 3.5 points total. And, learning from my mistake the week before leaving the Kyle Orton/Eric Decker combo on the bench, I started them looking for similar results, only to see a COMBINED total of 1.86 points. Repeat: 1.86 points. Orton went out in favor of Tim Tebow at the half–he only scored me 0.26 to that point.
Meanwhile, Derrick’s team had the fucking game of their lives. Five players scored at least 19 points with Pierre Garcon exploding for 29.5 (20 more than projected) and Benjarvis Green-Ellis throttle-cocking me for 27.9 (17 more than projected). The fact that I managed to score 120 overall is a fucking miracle, thanks to the Detroit Lions trio of Calvin Johnson, Javhid Best, and Brandon Pettigrew (who combined for 65 points; more than half my score overall).
Final Score: 120.38-178.50
Current BSFFL Ranking: 6th
A month and one day is all that stands between the real world of Earth and the return to the fantasy world of Tamriel. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be released 11/11/11, and in preparation, Bethesda has been good enough to provide a few screenshots. Initial thoughts on each pic as follows:
A vast, vast, vast landscape. Vast.
First, the map, courtesy of ElderScrolls.net. What’s weird is how disappointed I felt when I first saw this map, thinking, “That’s not big enough.” That, of course, is a completely stupid thought to have, considering Cyrodil was roughly the same size and I would venture to guess that the actual in-game world of Skyrim trumps Cyrodil all day long.
