If I Only Had 11 More Days...

    Since the apocalypse hasn’t yet trended this year, I think it’s safe to say that we dodged another bullet folks! Job well done! But just because we’re not on a trajectory orbit to plunge into the most recently discovered asteroid and subsequently eternal darkness doesn’t mean that we can’t pretend… If I only had 11 more days on this earth, and was forced to spend it playing games, here’s what I would do.

    At Dear Backlog, we have lots of deeply rooted, shameful gaming secrets that should they ever come out, we might be forced to actually deal with them. Well, I can’t bear this burden with my merely mortal shoulders anymore. Plus, we’ll all be kapooie in about 264 more hours, so what the hell! I’ve got nothing to lose. The truth is, I’ve never played Mass Effect 2 or 3. The original Mass Effect, which I’ve beaten twice, is one of my favorite games and set the stage for the most exciting sci-fi universe since Star Wars. So in my pending death, let it be known that I would finally cross Mass Effect 2 and 3 off my Backlog.

    I picked Mass Effect not just because it’s a game I know I would enjoy, but also because I believe that it is one of the greatest accomplishments in interactive media. It’s a Triple-A title that captured the imaginations of a generation and actually came through on it’s promises. We were able to play one character, our character through 3 games and now Commander Shepard is a household name in the gaming community. It offered us branching paths and choices that felt weighty. It sold well and caused uproar when players felt the ending wasn’t perfectly executed. It was all there.

    The cool thing about this quasi-end of year/life resolution is that I might just be able to pull it off. I do have 10 days off for the holidays. My roommate did just beat Mass Effect for the 2nd time, all but forcing him to hop on Amazon and order a copy of 2 and 3. And I do feel like playing it.

    What are your plans for the holiday break? If you only had 11 more days before being scorched from the face of the earth, what game would you play? I know I technically said two games, but the rules for the purpose of this article is that you just have to keep it in the family. Please feel free to let us know in the comments below or hit us up on on twitter.

    You can follow me @derrick_be if you want to see how I end up spending my extra time! It might not be Mass Effect, but surely it will be sprinkled with cool games.

    Anyways, Happy Holidays to you all! Thanks for stopping by and reading Dear Backlog. It’s a labor of love and we love you! Cheers!

- Derrick Bettis

@derrick_be

Convince Me Back to Azeroth: 2013 Edition

It’s about that time again when my loins literally ache to play World of Warcraft. It happened when Wrath of the Lich King came out. It happened when Cataclysm came out. It happened when Mists of Pandaria came out. And now, on the heels of Blizzcon 2013, it’s happening again.

I don’t know what it is about Blizzard but they sure know how to get a busy boy excited. With the recent announcement of Warlords of Draenor, I find myself once again visiting WoW Websites like it’s my job. Maybe it feels that way because many of these visits have happened at my job... (*disclaimer* if my boss is reading this, know I added that last part just for laughs). I’ve also been acting rather strange lately; Listening to The Instance: World of Warcraft Podcast, asking my WoW friends what they’re currently doing in-game, and obsessively searching for the best deal on my third Battle Chest. I just can’t stress enough the fact that something really does stir in me once a year to come back to Azeroth.

What’s weird is that this feeling is all too familiar. And I know how it ends; with me playing the game all winter break only to reach level 41 before deciding I don’t have enough time to be the very best there ever was and leaving it all behind. I know this. But no matter how hard I try to pretend like I’m not curious about how it’d feel to burst down the door on a new expansion, I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing out. I want to feel that. I want to be part of the hoopla that happens every year that gets the kids talking like they’re fantasy lore mathematicians.

So this post isn’t about how this year is going to be different. In fact, this post is going to be the opposite. This post is going to be me justifying why I and all of you should indeed take a walk down memory lane… for a wise man once said that if you’re going to fall down a deep dark hole that involves cheeto addictions and 5am raids, then it’s best to bring others with you. Join my ranks.

Here’s 5 reasons why we should party together in Azeroth.

1.

#SYNERGY

The first and foremost reason you can catch me in Azeroth these days is because of Battle.net, and more specifically Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. I’m a complete sucker for card games and Hearthstone is the godsend I’ve been waiting for since The Pokémon Trading Card Game was released for Game Boy Color back in ‘98. I’ve been a competitive TCG player since the Pokémon TCG was originally released and it’s not a coincidence that I also love everything else Pokémon. Now that WoW has a free to play TCG, I’m sure I’m fulfilling Blizzards fortuitous prophecy by wanting to check out WoW. Hearthstone is the perfect gateway drug for me. If you haven’t played it for yourself, you’ll get your chance when it hits open beta in December or January. If TCG’s are not your spiked cup o’punch, then just you wait! Blizzard will be releasing it’s second gateway drug, Heroes of the Storm, a Blizzard All-Stars DoTA 2 of sorts, when it’s done. My knees buckle at the thought that maybe one day I could get a special card/skin in Hearthstone/Heroes of the Storm by downing a boss in WoW.

2. Community

This may be the biggest reason I keep returning to WoW. After watching and reading about Blizzcon 2013, it’s clear that Blizzard has one of the best gaming communities out there. Their fans are so passionate that they buy virtual tickets to the show... after the show is already over. And let’s not forget that WoW still has 7.5 million people who vouch for it every month with a $15 charge to their credit cards.

I also have two best friends that have played WoW since launch. Obviously it’d be great to spend more time with them playing games especially since we no longer live in the same city. The thing that I’ve always loved doing is hearing them talk about their adventures in Azeroth. I see the twinkle in their eyes as they brag about a loot drop they received or an epic quest they completed. I’d like to experience that with them.

3. Warlords of Draenor

Seriously?! Bad-Ass Rock 'n' Roll Orc Gods from Hell? Please count me in!

Besides the simple fact that the announcement of a new expansion is exciting by itself, I’m really stoked to see what Garrisons look like in WoW. I’ve never played an MMO that had housing and Garrisons look to be quite the introduction.

No two Garrisons will look the same. Yup, someone built that!

I’m also excited that if I am level 90 by the time the new expansion comes out, it’ll be almost like a reset button in progress as all players will be pushing to the new level cap, 100. Sometimes when you miss the hype train and come in all thrifty a year later, you feel left out because everyone has already read Harry Potter and there’s no one to talk to. But seriously, to hit the ground running right alongside my friends and not have to play catch up is very enticing! Not to mention that if this whole “Convince Me Back to Azeroth” -thing doesn’t work, Blizzard will be giving me a free level 90 boost (DING!) for simply purchasing the expansion. That sounds like a win-win for me.

4.

The art. Need I say more? The correct answer to that question is no.

5. Player Versus Player

PVP is extremely important to me in an MMO. I love SWTOR but epic PVP just isn’t possible in that game due to the limits of the Hero Engine. And although WoW is running on a much older engine, it has always been able to support open-world PVP. In Warlords of Draenor they’re adding a new open-world PVP zone with no player cap. I can’t wait to see what Blizzard has in store for us.

Well I’m off to play my level 9 Pandaren Monk named Velshir. If you think of any other reasons I should commit my existence to the Horde, please drop me a comment below or hit me up @mutrap. Otherwise I’ll be back with some Pro-Tips in a couple days that’ll help you jump back in. Until then...

/cheers

Derrick Bettis

@derrick_be

God of War: Ascension PS3 Demo Review 3/10

    Even as a fan of the God of War series (the trilogy at least), I wasn’t terribly excited about this prequel; God of War: Ascension. Having played the demo, I am still not terribly excited about it. Here’s why.

Right off the bat this demo has me scratching my head. This demo was the first that I’ve ever seen that was “sponsored”. You start up the demo and you are first shown a commercial for The History Channel’s new show Vikings. Which beyond the fact that it’s very odd that a cable TV show is sponsoring a video game demo, Vikings is completely unrelated to God of War in general. I mean, come on, the Greek empire never even spread to the lands the Vikings called home. So after the sales pitch the actual game demo doesn’t even begin! You must choose to play it from the many options on the main menu including trailers for Vikings and God of War and “informative” videos about the real vikings and Norse mythology. And in History Channel tradition, these videos were pretty historically inaccurate at best. Putting that aside, it is still very strange to me to see a triple-A game such as God of War whoring itself out like this.

Wait, what? Also, Skyrim logo much?

The demo itself was fun enough once I finally got to it. The demo takes place with Kratos in the “Prison of the Damned” where the Furies themselves keep those who have broken oaths with the Gods. And in God of War tradition, Kratos immediately sets to eviscerating his way out of that damned place. On the plus side this is definitely a God of War game. On the other hand I could not tell this God of War apart from the last one. Like all the other entries in the series you’ve got to slog through a few waves of enemies before you get to the colossal boss of the level. You get to see a few new enemies though such as a small scarab-like bug that attacks in swarms. But later you see these bugs attach themselves headcrab-style to Kratos’ fellow prisoners and transform them into creatures basically identical to the jackal-looking enemies from the other entries. From this point on you see nothing new or exciting if you are at all familiar with the franchise. And to top it all off, the demo ends after an entirely too lengthy battle with one hand of the great creature when another comes and crushes Kratos into a wall. Yes, thats another hand, not a second hand, because it has 6 I think. I shudder to think how many times we’ll have to fight this bastard. And thats it. Roll credits. (There are no credits...) This kind of anticlimactic ending would be one thing if we were unsure of the character’s future in the series, but in a prequel? Like I said: thats it? 

He’s Kratos! God of Been-there-done that...

And then, I hope you watched all the pre-demo videos you wanted first because you’ll have to quit the demo and restart it if you want to get back to that initial menu. 

All in all I give this demo a 3/10. That’s a resounding: meh... This demo doesn’t offer anything new for fans of the series, nothing that I could see that would hook a newcomer, and it was all brought to you by The History Channel! The one new thing they added, multiplayer, is not even present in this demo. After playing the demo, I will not be buying the game at release and I probably won’t buy it for more than $30 pending how well it is reviewed. So here’s just one thoroughly unimpressive demo.  Yay? No, I think not.

- Skye, Resident God of War Expert

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus PS3 Demo Review 1/10

Street cred.

I love card games. Correction. I love card games that involve sweet looking monsters/characters. I also enjoy traditional card games like Euchre, Spades, and Poker, but never really got into them beyond a social thing.  Now let me get more specific. Over the years I’ve enjoyed playing these Trading Card Games (TCG’s): Pokémon, Digimon, Magic: The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. If I would’ve had access to friends that wanted to try Naruto or Dot Hack, then chances are I would have loved those as well. There’s just something about collecting rare cards and putting them together in a unique way. I used to think I loved playing TCG’s because of the competitive nature, and sure, that was one reason. However, I think the main reason I’ve always loved TCG’s is because it enables artistic expression. As you build your deck, you get to create! The rules are your boundary, and it’s up to you to figure out how to create something that can win. How you go about winning is completely up to you.

As soon as I saw the years listed, my Spider-Sense started tingling!

    You would think that the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus Demo and game would be a shoo-in for me. Sadly, that’s not the case. This demo is one of the most basic demos I’ve ever played. Literally the only redeemable factor for this demo is that you can try the card game from the comfort and convenience of your home.

XrossMediaBar. Oh, is that how you spell it? Stupid. Fucking. Name.

    I’m going to start off by talking about a problem that’s exclusive to the PS3 version of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus. On PS3, when you scroll through the demos or games you’ve downloaded on your XrossMediaBar, sometimes when you stop on a game icon, it will change your background to some graphic that represents the game you’re about to play. I like this. It’s very unique and most of the time it adds a nice touch right before you select it. On the other hand, there’s games like the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus Demo. When you move the cursor over this game, you’re immediately hit with a hyper electronic instrumental that takes your XrossMediaBar experience from 1-17 even with the volume turned down. I haven’t even selected the game yet and already it’s trying to pump me full of adrenaline. Not to mention I’m trying to play at night and people are sleeping. Thanks for the surprise Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus. And fuck you too.

    That takes me to the atrocious audio in the game. The only good thing about the audio for the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus Demo is that you can mute it and put on something else without effecting your gameplay experience. The only music present in the demo were obnoxious instrumentals. There is no voice over. I turned the volume way down and listened to the CheapAssGamer Podcast while playing through the single player.

    The demo, limited as it is, arguably does what it’s supposed to do very well! It is a great simulation of playing the actual card game. Gone are the days of games with Yu-Gi-Oh! in the title that obviously didn’t understand all the rules and decided to fill the holes with bad ideas (I’m looking at you Duelist of the Roses). In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus you’re given the actual card game with access to over 23,000 cards, though the demo limits you to a 40 card deck. Duels play out just as if you were playing the TCG. Of course, you’re losing the social interaction and everything that comes with playing a person in real life with your real cards, but you’re gaining the comfort and ease of playing any time you want at the click of a button.

    In the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus Demo you start out with a basic deck, and by basic, I mean it sucks. I’m an above average TCG player, and I was having trouble winning 50% of my matches. A couple of times I lost due to a misunderstanding or wrong button press, but generally it was because I just didn’t have a good enough deck. In the demo you are rewarded even if you lose, but Konami did a pretty terrible job with balancing the difficulty level. After playing two tournaments, I could tell which opponents the developers never wanted me to beat and which ones they did. If I’m playing a balanced TCG and I have decent cards, I should never feel as if I’m automatically going to lose, and that’s how I felt. This goes tenfold in a video game. This goes one-hundredfold for a demo trying to convince me to buy the full game after I’m done.

    I have no idea why Konami can’t make a Yu-Gi-Oh! game with a cool story mode and cast of characters. If you watch the anime, it’s quite entertaining! I believe it was originally intended to be an add-on to the TCG experience, but the anime for the most part can stand on it’s own. It wouldn’t be hard to just pull specific segments out of the anime or create a generic story about how your character is playing the TCG in his own neighborhood! Instead, it’s obvious Konami wanted to cash this Yu-Gi-Oh! game in because, among other problems, the story in the demo is soulless. In the demo, the single player attraction is nothing more than a three round tournament with side characters. Even the dialogue that happens in between matches means nothing. Some of the text I read could have been put between rounds of any competitive game and still made sense. They didn’t try at all.

Am I being too harsh?

    The graphics are about the same. They’re uninspired and seem to only be there to do the trick. They don’t move. All you see is a slideshow of anime stills. The graphics during the duels could only be called functional. You don’t get to see your opponent. There are no special graphics or cutscenes for attacks or special summons. You’re opponent doesn’t even talk during the match. Worst of all, what I’m about to tell you next may cause me to punch those who developed this game if we ever cross paths. While I was playing I lagged. This is the most technically unimpressive game I’ve played in a while and it lagged. Why?

Yeah... this got me excited for what’s to come.

    Let me now briefly mention the tutorial. They took the rulebook and walked you through it.

    The Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus PS3 Demo receives a 1/10. I obviously had very high hopes for this game. Looking back, I don’t know why. I’ve almost always been let down by TCG video games in the past, especially when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh!. This demo follows that trend and is only worth playing if you’re seriously thinking about purchasing it or you’re wanting to learn how to play. It’s the same Yu-Gi-Oh! game we’ve been playing minus the heart of the cards.
    I would never buy this game. If Konami gave me this game for free I still wouldn’t play it.

- lvl 99

.hack//FF>ME (Part 3)

    .hack is far from perfect but that’s where some of it’s charm comes from. To play a game that’s quite flawed but still draws you in is something that happens less and less nowadays. Many gamers choose what to spend their limited time playing based on reviews. Games that scored low or didn’t have enough money or time put into their marketing often slip through the cracks. It’s hard to say whether the .hack series had enough time or money, but there’s no doubt it was made with lots of love.

    When I first began writing about .hack I wanted to talk about how it was one of the first games to succeed with a multidisc story arc. Mass Effect is definitely the pinnacle of multidisc story arcs, but it certainly wasn’t the first.

If you own any of these, you're automatically a collector.

    Looking back, one of the many problems the .hack series faced was that each installment of the game played out more like an episode of a show. By the end of a .hack game, one of the reasons you wanted to play the next one so badly was because there was little conclusion. After finishing .hack Part 1 and Part 2, I didn’t feel as if anything was really resolved yet. I’ll compare it to an episode of Lost. Every episode of that show ended on a cliffhanger. I may be exaggerating there, but I think it’s understood what I’m trying to say. Hopefully by the end of Part 4, I’ll feel as if the .hack story wraps up.

Imagine watching Season 3 first. Now imagine playing Mutation first. Same thing.

    In Mass Effect, you never felt compelled to finish subsequent releases in order to complete the story arc. After finishing the original Mass Effect, I wanted to play Mass Effect 2 in order to get more out of the characters and the world. I didn’t need to play Mass Effect 2. The original Mass Effect story reached a rewarding conclusion. I’ve even heard that people playing the Mass Effect series out of order still enjoy it. People playing .hack for the first time that picked it up out of order would probably be disappointed. I imagine they might be taken aback by the mystery of the world, but certainly to enjoy it they would have to track down previous games and play them first.

I wish .hack would have a compilation.

    Rather than comparing the .hack series to Mass Effect, I think it’s more appropriate to compare it to the Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy became one of the first multidisc story arc games. The difference being that you got all the discs at the same time. After finishing disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII you would certainly need to play the next 2 discs in order to reach any resolution. There was no conclusion before changing discs. Final Fantasy simply needed many discs because the game was too big for just one cd-rom.

I own this game on PSN. If only .hack was available there too.

    I don’t know if the .hack series released the way it did because of storage limitations, but it might have been a better game, and better received, if all the parts were originally released as one. If they couldn’t do that, it would have been nice if the separate games would have finished with stronger conclusions. As the series stands, sometimes it feels like they made the entire game, then just decided to ship parts of it every 6 months. Again, I don’t see anything wrong with this, but none of the games felt like seasons. They all felt like episodes. You absolutely needed the next installment to make sense of the first one and vice versa.

    I wanted to applaud .hack as being one of the first games that carries over saved data. I wanted to compare it to Mass Effect, but thematically, it just doesn’t compare. .hack is more comparable to a Final Fantasy game that chose to release and sell their games separately. It’s still a very rewarding experience, but certainly not an easy one to have.

    In the next article of this 4 part series I’ll be looking at the future of the franchise. Stay tuned for next Friday!

- lvl 99

.hack//Love (Part 2)

    If you look back on the reviews that the .hack series received you’ll see that it garnered less than average scores. But if you look at the user reviews you’ll see that they tell a much more positive tale. I don’t like .hack because it’s a perfect game. It has many flaws; some of which just make the game hard to play. Sadly, not many were fixed in successive installments. But sometimes art can transcend that. .hack is one of these rare gems that contains something better than itself.

    Story:

    The story of Dot Hack was quite original when it first came out, but by now has been copied many times over. Basically, you play as the Twin Blade Kite, a teen playing his first MMORPG. You’re friend Orca leads your first foray in the game world, conspicuously dubbed “The World.” While adventuring with Orca in a dungeon you run into Skeith, a mysterious NPC that “Data Drains” Orca. Skeith’s Data Drain not only destroys Orca’s high level character but also leaves his real life person in a coma. This isn’t Skeith’s first victim. You find out that other people playing the game have experienced a similar reaction. Kite then receives a “Twilight Bracelet” that allows him to use Data Drain as well. Bugs begin to appear in the game and it’s up to Kite and his friends to discover the mystery behind them. They must also find a cure for the comas and dodge enemies: Data Bugs like Skeith and other players that believe Kite is to blame.

    Characters:

    .hack has one of the craziest cast of characters. First off, there are 15+ characters that will join your friends list allowing you to party with them whenever they are online. You don’t directly get to play as them, but you do get to tell them what to do while they’re in your party. I’m going to list some of my favorites. Not all of these characters join your team.

    BlackRose is your main sidekick throughout the game. She starts as a newbie at the same time as you and becomes your first friend after losing Orca. She’s a Heavy Blade character that is cute and very strong. She seems to questions the weird goings-on more so than Kite.

    Mia is a sketchy character that hacked “The World” so that her avatar would look like a cat. She’s a Blademaster who helps you solve some of the mysteries of the Twilight Bracelet. Mia is always after Aromatic grass though we may never know why.

    Elk is Mia’s sidekick, and is essentially what you are to BlackRose. He is a Wavemaster who stutters a lot and seems unsure of himself. It’s clear he is in love with Mia though it’s also clear she doesn’t feel the same way. Elk is always after the elusive item, Aromatic Grass. Seemingly, so that he can give it to Mia.

    Balmung of the Azure Sky is one of the Descendants of Fianna. He received this special title by conquering a special one time event called The One Sin, alongside Orca. He’s a Blademaster and one of the most powerful characters in the game. He suspects Kite of being responsible for Orca’s coma as well as other problems going on in The World.

    Helba is a Wavemaster with an unprecedented ability to hack. Somehow, she is always one step ahead of Kite and other characters in the game. She seems to know more than she lets on.

    Aura is one of the reasons things get complicated in The World. She is a ghostly girl avatar that eludes Kite’s every move as he tries to track her down. She seems to hold the key to solving the mysteries of the game.

    MMORPG Simulation:

     .hack does a great job of making you feel like you’re playing an online game. First off when you first load your saved file your brought to the desktop of your PC. This is where you can read and reply to emails. You can also use the internet to read headlining news.

uploaded picture of checking mail

    When you click the icon for The World you’re sent to the login screen for the game. This is where you can read the forums before beginning play. They’re quite active and generally have something new to read every time. Many tips can be found here from other players.

    Once you login to The World you’re ported to one of the servers. These servers have Root Towns which are basically the gathering spot before you set out into dungeons. It was fun talking to all the random player characters. Some of them talk about special events in game or reflect what’s currently happening in the story. Some of them break the fourth wall and talk about their real life. You can even trade with the player characters. Most of my good armor I recieved by doing this.

uploaded picture of me trading

    All player characters are aware that Kite is actually just an avatar for the actual player. Occasionally the players you talk to will break the fourth wall and address you directly. This further immerses the player because it reminds you that even though you’re playing Kite, he is not the “main” character. You are.

    During battle, characters will talk with bubbles over their heads to let you know what they’re thinking. It makes it feel as if they're actually real people, frantically typing while they're playing. And since they’re real people, you can’t directly control them. This proves to make battles frustrating sometimes, but it ultimately creates a better sense of mood.

    The fighting system in this game isn’t super deep or even that fun, but it basically plays out exactly like MMO’s do. You spam auto attack at close range and cast a spell from time to time.

    When you get into a bugged dungeon the screen will tear every once in a while to remind you that it’s unstably coded.

    Immersion:

    This is the part of the game that trumps all the design problems. .hack lives and breathes. There’s a sense of happening while you’re away from the game. In a real MMORPG, when you save your character and quit the game, the world you’re playing in doesn’t just freeze in place. It continues to grow and change without you there. .hack emulates this using tactics such as the ones I mentioned above. This immersion also creates a sense of mystery because you don’t know what certain characters are doing while you’re away from the game. Every time I play .hack, it feels like I’m stepping into a crime scene and trying to figure out how everything went wrong. Something happened while I was away and I’m the only one who can figure it out and make it right.

    In the next article of this 4 part series I’ll be explaining a major down fall of the games. Stay tuned for next Friday!


- lvl 99