Played MMORPGs

• Star Trek Online
  Star Trek Online is a good game overall, I don’t see why companies like GameSpot and the like rate it so bad (5.5). However, it does feel incomplete but that’s to be expected of most MMOs when they’re just starting up. Give it a year and your opinion may change. I don’t plan to be playing 24/7, but every once so often as things change and when I have some time to go where no man has gone before.
• EVE Online
  I tried playing it again in the summer last year, and found that it was still as boring as ever, or took up too much time to justify keeping the ISK intake in and buying PLEXes. If I can’t be bothered to make ISK and buy PLEXes, why should I continue to play the game? I’m not even paying for it (only paid the initial $5 re-entry cost), so oh well.
• Mabinogi
  I notice Nexon has reached some of the new content Mabinogi has in Korea, though whether I will come back to take a look at it is another story. It’s nice to see that there are a few changes in Nexon policy for the better, but whether that will translate to having a company that can properly support players and provide quality customer support is another thing altogether.

Recent Purchases

I’ve recently made some orders online, for ESPGaluda II and a Hori Fighting Stick EX 2. Now you may say, why the FSEX2? It’s because right now it’s $39.99 CAD from Amazon.ca and it’s not an offer I’m going to easily throw away. The thing is supposed to be some $60-70, so it’s definitely a bargain. Compared to the $150+ price range that tournament-level sticks have, with a bit of tinkering (I know the process already, and I have the tools and people with expertise for it), I may one day have something that can compete with those sticks.

Upcoming Releases

• Mobile Suit Gundam UC – March 12
  Yes, I already watched it, but I am getting the Blu-ray. If you’re not, I don’t know what you’re doing.
• Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu – March 25
  Not exactly a game I’m looking forward to. The fandisc, shall we call it, appears to have a lot of service for those who are fans of Chaos;Head, but I’m more in love with the Steins;Gate aspect of the world. If there’s anything interesting about the game that I will miss out on, such as Steins;Gate related stuff, then I might give it a shot. Otherwise, this is going on the backburner… until maybe it goes cheap?
• Ketsui: Kizuna jigoku tachi – April 22
  The legendary shmup of shmups, shall we say. This is a must-buy. Though it’ll be 360 only, that’s what the FSEX2 is for.
• Angel Beats – April 22
  This is an anime I will be keeping tabs on, it being written by Jun Maeda. I notice he’s taken a step away from visual novels, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with writing stories.
• Lost Planet 2 – May 18
  Already pre-ordered this one for the 360, really looking forward to it.
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – May 25
  I haven’t pre-ordered this because I’m waiting for it to come out on PSN, so I can buy it. Screw the UMD format, because flash memory access times are where it’s at. MGS4 was a total disappointment, but Peace Walker is turning out to be the game that MGS4 should have been, and then some. In fact, MGS4 should never have happened.

Current Anime

As a final note, I noticed that the plethora of current anime is all just total garbage. It’s all full of moeblobs and focusing on girls but very little on good storytelling. There are a few exceptions out there, but sadly they are a minority in the sea of anime where everything is all about what’s under a girl’s clothing. Sadly, because of how stupid the otaku in Japan are, this will only continue to worsen until I don’t know what kind of bubble pops. I will pray that those who know how to continue writing good anime will continue in the industry doing what they love.

P.S. Mizushima may be high from all that love he has for the Middle East, but he did make Gundam 00. Great times.

And the better news? Capcom has also announced split screen multiplayer for Lost Planet 2, a feature that doesn’t show up enough in today’s multiplayer shooters.

OH F*** YEAH!!!! SPLIT SCREEN BABY!!!!

I’m also quite tempted to buy the Blu-ray now.

P.S. Non-mainstream Japanese theme song is a plus.
P.S.S. English and Japanese mixed in some places is lol. Does this mean the English voice acting is working alongside the Japanese versions too?

Umm, wow. I knew the CAOD forums were really bad, but then this? Really, CCP?

Just a FYI.

Also, Gears of War in Lost Planet? LOL!

1. The people canceling their subscriptions and/or pre-orders… seriously? Do we look like we care? If the game isn’t what you want, then you shouldn’t have come in the first place. Open beta access? You could have been like me and grabbed it from the nearest free provider; Ten Ton Hammer was mine, which was yours?
2. Skill point cap? When was the last time we had an MMO where the skill point cap was infinite? I can think of Mabinogi, but you know how much of a grind that game is…
3. People not reading dev posts when they are posted. What the hell is wrong with you guys? They say something about re-specs, and then you totally ignore it and post something inflammatory and/or totally misinformed, without a care in the world what the actual circumstances are. That’s cool.
4. The design for an MMO is meant to be able to expand further and further. So what if Starfleet was the only faction that was planned in the first place before Klingons were introduced? Are you saying that Klingons should not be thrown in? Sounds like killing features for the sake of killing them.
5. How many bug reports have you submitted? I’ve submitted nearly 30 or so, as informative as I can get them. The rest of you lot that are slacking are too busy whining and complaining about the game, rather than being constructive about it and submitting feedback to Cryptic. This is why the game won’t progress any better, and it’s because you lot aren’t being helpful at all.

   On top of that, you pressure the devs to push out updates quicker, and when they do you complain how big their patches are. Gee, I wonder why?

6. This isn’t EVE Online, so please leave the stupid CAOD-like threads out of these forums.

Hopefully we won’t be seeing you once the actual game hits… I hear only subscribers get to post to forums then.

In a nutshell, live long and prosper.

P.S. Try to be a software developer in a large team before coming to play an MMO still in beta; trust me, it’s a very enlightening experience.

On another note, have a look at this stuff. Lifetime subscription for $240 US, 12-month for $120 US. Based on the 12-month, I’d have to play at least 2 years, and based on the regular price I’d have to play at least 16 months for the lifetime subscription to be worth it.

But I have seen worse games, and they have lasted 3 years and still kicking (e.g., Phantasy Star Universe).

Also, (Liberated) Borg as a playable race? Very amusing, lol..

Just wanted to give my two cents on the lifetime subscription. Certainly it seems like a risky plunge, being $240 USD, and needing to play at least 2 years for the subscription to be worth the risk. However, there are two cases of players out there:

• Players that can spend 24/7 time on the game
• Players that can only play once in a while

Certainly, players who spend 24/7 in the game might benefit the most. However, these kinds of players are likely to max out their character in the shortest period of time, explore everything, and then have to wait on Cryptic to develop new content, or they have to go on and make new characters to get more bang for their buck. Hmm.

Now, what about casual players? They don’t certainly seem to benefit the most. However, these kinds of players will take a lot more time to level up their character, and end up spending more of their time socializing, exploring, or just chilling out in STO. Chances are more likely they will spend a lot more time in-game, because they still have a lot to do. In particular, by the time they do manage to get it all, Cryptic is likely to start looking at new venues in the lore or quests, and so on.

In fact, based on this analysis, it is more likely casual players might be the ones who benefit the most, and the players who play 24/7 will end up going for maybe 6-12 months and then burn out. Just my two cents though, what do you guys think?

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27577
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27580
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27581
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27583

Back in 2005 and 2006, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo made pledges to make their consoles region-free. Do you want to see how far those pledges went?

Microsoft

Started off touting how all its games would be region free. Then, they backtracked and said any games made by Microsoft would be region free. Turns out this ended up being the case, as some games like Steins;Gate are region-locked to Japan only.

Also, you can’t buy Japanese games from Games on Demand if you’re in America, and vice versa. Doesn’t matter if you have a Japanese 360 or not, it is IP-locked. Same goes for their video store.

Finally, programs like 1 vs. 100 are also region-locked by console; even if you have a Canadian IP, if the console isn’t then you can’t go in.

Sony

Sony does a little better, but still not enough. All their PS3 and PSP games are touted to be region-free, that’s great. PS2 games are still region locked, though I imagine that’s more related to licensing agreements from the past that just bite them back in the ass.

However, their video stores are country-locked. Canadian users can’t access the US Video Store, and neither can UK users. We also can’t access the Japanese video or comic store. Gee, I wonder why? It’s not like they can compete with one another, since only people who can understand the language will benefit; the rest of the masses not so much.

Also, their comic book reader for the PSP is region-locked. The US comic book reader will not work on UK and Japan PSPs, and the Japan reader won’t work on US and UK PSPs, etc. Guess what this means if someone happened to bring their PSP into Japan, wanted to buy a comic and then read it? Given the PSP has a crappy resolution to begin with, they are better off buying a cold, hard copy of the said comic.

Nintendo

They started off saying they would be region free. Are they in any way? I won’t even go there.