So many games, so little time.

Sorry all for the long wait between posts. Between real life, work, and Skyrim, I'm finding it hard to write on here. The last couple months have been great for games. We've had BF3 come out as well as Modern Warfare 3. Skyrim has come out and the new Legend of Zelda. I've also been trying to play more games of Warhammer 40k, I added a small page on the side with pics of most of my Space Marines. Ill add more pictures as I play games with more people and get more of my other armies painted up.

Back to the video games though. Lets start with BF3. I still haven't played the single player. To me BF3 is all about the online play. I own the game for both PC and PS3. Finding games is easier in the PS3 version due to battle log being buggy and finicky about letting some computers and browsers enter games. Both versions have great graphics and game play. I still prefer to use a mouse to shoot though. The game really gets better when you play with friends who are great at communicating. The unlock trees work well with the game giving you steady rewards for just playing. Weapon specific unlocks are great because it means you have to use the weapon and be good with it to get the really good unlocks. The vehicles in the game are of course fun. They added the ability to immobilize vehicles now. Getting a lucky shot on a tank and making it stationary for a few seconds can be pivotal to winning a close match. Aircraft zoom around engaged in dog fights which makes even the air its own unique battlefield. helicopters armed to the teeth provide wonderful moving fire bases, unless piloted by completely inexperienced people. Then they become easy targets. In the right hands I've seen choppers tear up entire squads of enemies over and over and over. The different classes or kits of players have great customization and pretty cool gadgets. Recon personnel can laser designate vehicles for other classes to blast down with javelin missiles, or use drones to spot out and mark enemy movements and positions. That last tactic worked wonders in a match where all I did was spot people on the map for them and tell them which way people were coming after them.  I've played some games with the members of GaW (gaw.enjin.com) they have great communication and rip up the battlefield where ever they go. Overall the game is great fun so far and  it only gets better when you have friends to play it.

Now for the one I've spent a ton of time playing. Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim. This game is big. Not just on a scale basis, but on the "holy crap its going to take me a long freaking time to do everything in the game big." With several races to choose from and unlimited possibilities, or seemingly limitless, of how to play the character you create. It has to have replay value as well. Skrim is set as the northern most nation of Tamriel and is part of the Empire. Civil war has broken out amongst the native denizens of Skyrim, the Nords, and threatens to cut their ties to the Empire. That big plot point is but a minor quest in the game though. As you start out your about to be executed by the Empire all because you got caught around the same time as the leader of the rebellion. As you lay your head down on the chopping block a monstrous echoing roar fills the air and a dragon comes sweeping down and begins to lay siege and torch the fort. After escaping you find that dragons have returned to the world after thousands of years of nonexistence. As you report to a major city, after traversing a beautiful landscape and navigating around a mountain, you hear about another dragon appearing and it making its way for the city. You end up slaying the beast with the guards and only to find its soul becomes sucked up by you, and its body burned up to the bones, leaving a large skeleton as  reminder of the battle. After you return you find out you are a dragon born, a legendary warrior foretold in prophecy. The story continues for hours and there are many ways to go about the quests that revolve around it. Dragons randomly attack you and villages. The world has a working ecosystem and beautiful night and day cycle. Your character gets more powerful the more you do things. Want to use a bow, cool go ahead and when you get better at it it brings you closer to leveling up. Wearing armor and getting hit helps your armor skill, crafting items, selling stuff, casting magic, and even picking pockets are all some of the ways of getting more powerful in the game. To make it better you have talent trees in the form of star formations. They represent the different things you can do to level up your character. When you level you gain one point that can be put into any star formation, As long as you meet the right proficiency of the skill.  These add amazing abilities to your character and give them a general archetype of what they do. Even after you've hit max level, 50, you can still improve skills and get better at everything.  Overall this game is amazing. I've encountered a few glitches but on a game scale this big a few glitches aren't game breakers. I still have to finish the story, due to the ridiculous amounts of side quests and faction quests I have not even done. This game will be one of my long running favorites.

Like I stated already there were a lot of games that are out that I still haven't had time to play. Modern Warfare 3 is most likely next on my list. I have played ample amounts of both BF and Modern Warfare. I know that there tends to be hostility and bias between people who play them. I promise I won't bring my bias to the table when I review and play MW3. Both games are great and both have their faults and flaws. I just really don't like playing with cocky prepubescent high school kids on MW that have mics. They anger me. Assassins Creed: Revelations is also in the works. Zelda will be played in time as well. There are only so many hours of sleep I can choose to not have.

For those of you who play or are familiar with Warhammer 40k I plan on putting some more pictures up of my armies soon. When I play my friends I'll try to have pictures of games being played. I have a ton of new necrons to paint as well as finish some of my space marines.

Thanks for reading and remember: Follow. But. Follow only if ye be men of valour, for the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived. Bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair. So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth. 

Orks, there are always more orks.

I would be lying horribly if It weren't true. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine came out today for those of us in the United States. Just spent 8 hours hacking and slashing my way through the game, and was decently satisfied with the story. Seeing as I play 40k, and I play space marines, I was interested in seeing how the game brought some of the gear and mechanics of the miniatures game into life. I was impressed for the most part. There is just something awesome about the English accented orks that I love.

 Your character, Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, starts the game off being unorthodox. Diving with a jet pack into a war torn sky evading exploding ships and landing on ones deck to be rid of it. At the begining of the game it reminded me of God of War, which it is but with orks and guns.

Titus strives to establish himself as a bad ass right away in the game. Carving up gretchkin and orks with a knife and mowing down wave after wave of hapless orks with his boltgun. Eventually crippling the ship and riding it down as it crashes upon the forge-world planet.

The game slowly introduces new types of orc, 'ard boyz, Nobz, and even weirdboyz, but they all felt the same. Shoot em enough or hack them to bits enough and they die. It takes far too long in the game to get a new enemy. Which is the welcome but frustrating arrival of the Chaos Space Marines. They are much more brutal and pack serious firepower. I say frustrating because by the time they showed up i was way too absolved in the ork killing tactic of stand in the open and shoot them till they get too close, they chop them to itty bitty bits with a chain sword. That tactic ended in repeat failures for the forces of Chaos.

It probably seems by now that i didn't like the game. On the contrary. I did. I spent the entire time glued to the TV not being able to stop pulling the trigger. The game is so well designed graphically that it was fun just running through the devastated city. I never encountered getting stuck or lost. With all of the objects that are in each area of the game I was expecting to get stuck in a piece of cover or terrain at least once. Enemies did, but I'm ok with that. Saved me bullets.

As far as the seeing stuff from the minis game in this game. I was very satisfied. The game unlocks lots of stuff really quick. This allows you to, in between active fighting areas, rearm and customize Titus. I experimented with classic chainsword and bolt gun, to the insanely fast firing Stormbolter and Power-axe. However, I will say there are a few levels in the game that I had tremendous fun with. You get to use a jump pack, and a power hammer. Rocketing yourself into the air just to ground pound into large packs of enemies, sending them flying. As you recovers start swinging away on the hammer and your rewarded with slow motion carnage of ork bodies and blood everywhere. After these frays even Titus is covered in blood. I was very impressed at the effect.

The weaponry is also very nice. There are a few things that I am disappointed at however. You get to use the sniper rifle and las-cannon which are devastating long range weapons. The plasma gun and Plasma cannons however, we just far to cumbersome to really enjoy using.

If you play Warhammer 40k you will have an understanding of who the space marines are. If you don't the game just kinda lets you find out. There were alot of interesting things that did appear in the game. The Inquisition is in it, as well as mentions of the tyranids, though they never do make an appearance in the game. The Blood Ravens chapter of the space marines make a visit, only to be coldly thanked by Titus. For those people that have forge world minis...don't worry. There is even one fight that takes place on a moving Titan.

All in all it is a fun game. There is no cooperative play yet. But that is going to be a free dlc in October. There is vs multi-player though. Ill be playing that for a few days before i give a review of that. From the little I've played so far they seem to done a decent job at making it feel like your playing the different types of infantry the minis game has.

Until next time I leave you with some advice from the Codex Astartes:  Better to be crippled in body, then crippled in mind.