What I have another BLOG?!?!

Yep it's true, my life is so exciting I have made another blog!(http://hashgamestime.blogspot.com/) NOW WITH 120% LESS INFORMATION!!!

Review: Dragon Age: Origins

Well this time I have decided to review a game I have been playing lately again; Dragon Age: Origins. It's a RPG/Strategy game that you will be(at higher difficulties) pausing a lot to give orders to your squad. As with any Bioware game there is a lot of story and a lot of text. The dialogue options are very numerous and sometimes I feel like I am talking more than fighting(which can be good or bad)

To start you pick your character, class, and background, which is said to give you unique story openings. You then create a character and change his facial features how you like. Since I am a simple man without any creativity I made a human warrior, from a noble background with short dark hair and basic complexion and began my journey.

As far as the gameplay goes there is atually a lot of strategy involved... at higher levels. If you are like me you play on normal difficulty and go "RAWR SMASH SMASH" to most options. Oh yeah, and there is also an option to have sex/romance with 2 people of the opposite sex and 1 of the same sex. I chose to do it with Morrigan and let me tell ya, the scene was pretty hot!

Best 30 seconds of my life. Now back to the gameplay! You have the option of playing in third person view or scrolling to look in a more top down view and anywhere in between. The top down is supposed to be better for strategy but for me there's not really any strategy outside of poke everything with my sword if it looks at me funny. But on most actions you take your party will have some sort of approval or disapproval. For instance doing something nice will piss Morrigan off, but doing something nice will make Leliana happy. Depending on your party members approval rating they may get bonuses such as improved constitution, or if low enough, they may leave your party or fight you.

As far as plot development, it feels like your typical cookie cutter RPG as far as your the hero who saves everything and beds the women(or men) of your choosing. Basically you get screwed, you escape, then you get screwed some more, you escape. Then you decide to rally all of your support and kick the ass of the man who screwed you while also defeating the giant horde of monsters coming to rape you. But the dialogue is outstanding throughout. While some places feel cliché others had me laughing, some of the best dialogue happens when you have different combinations of party members and they banter with each other while you run around.

Each dialogue sequence will usually have 3 main options(with variations too sometimes) which can boil down to nice guy, neutral, and I'm going to eat meals out of your skull. I chose the last one because I'm a prick.

Overall the game is fun for the most part but if you like a lot of action it's probably not for you then because you'll most likely do more talking than playing.
The graphics are nice, the gameplay is nice, the game in general is pretty fun so I would definitely recommend it.
Overall: 8.5/10

Review: Diablo II

This time I am reviewing an old favorite; Diablo II!

To start, my apologies on not posting on time. A lot came up in a short amount of time and my review was pushed to the back. Now on to Diablo II

Most if not all of the people who are reading this have already played Diablo II. If you haven't then Diablo II is your basic dungeon delving hack and slash RPG and if you failed basic math the sequel to Diablo. Diablo II offers 5 classes(7 with the expac)

For this review I decided to do it as a Necromancer. The graphics of this game a subpar by almost any measure, but it is understandable since it is OVER a decade old(Released: June 29th 2010) for those of you who are like me and remember the day this game came out then it must make you feel pretty old. However the graphics did not destroy my experience at all. It had a lot of fun playing the game, and my army of skeletons sure made things interesting. Running around with your screen full of your own minions who do your bidding never gets old.

This game is not for those who enjoy button mashing, since 90% of your time will be *click**click**click**click**click**click**click**click**click**click**click**click*
and even more *click* You *click* to hit an enemy once(that's right no auto attack and when you have 20 enemies running at you at a time that's a lot of *click*) you *click* to move, you *click* to pick up an item you *click* to do basically anything. Maybe there are more keystrokes that I was too stupid to find but either way I clicked a lot compared to modern games. Mind you I enjoyed all of this mindless clicking as the game was *FUN* through all of this clicking I felt a sensation that I have not felt for many games these days and that was enjoyment.

The skills trees are diverse and offer a wide range of ways to play(the amount of modifiers they add per level makes it feel impossible to understand but in that good depth sort of way). I looked up a guide on the best way to play a nec(since I am an idiot with no imagination) and there were tons of methods(I chose the summoner one) and one of my favorite things is this game is not happy go lucky like modern games are with bloom coming out the ass. It's dark, it's not happy, there are people impaled on spike and you have an ability(and a bad ass one at that) as a nec that makes corpses explode in a gore bath. Basically if you invited this game over to your house for a party it would shit in the middle of your floor and have sex with your dead dog, and drink all your beer without apologizing for anything. Yet you would invite it over again even 10 years later because it is so much fun.

The one thing that pisses me off(but in a good way if that makes sense) is the inventory screen. You have a select number of squares and items will take up a various amount, you can move them around if you wish to maximize space but you can't carry everything and if you carry a billion pots then you're screwed for loot.

Really, the system makes sense though in a way. But more often then not you'll be going back to sell your junk to pick up more junk.

Speaking of junk, there is a lot of items to choose from. With so many different stats and modifiers you need a college degree to understand them all and which is better. I literally found a wand and had to compare it's 4 modifiers against my 5 and figure out which is better and why. I was constantly swapping new items and armor for the latest thing quicker than Charlie Sheen could bang that 7gram rock(yep, made CS reference) This game though will make you feel like an addict, and you'll keep coming back to it. Like an abusive relationship you just can't quit it.

The multiplayer is where this game shines though, you can have multiple people play the campaign with you and let me tell you that makes this game fun as hell. It's mostly no different than single player except monsters get harder, and you have assholes who steal your loot. So if you can find some friends then have at it.

I can't really describe this game in anything but it's fun level. The sound is bad, there's a rudimentary crafting system, if you enjoy grind and love playing forever to get max level it has that. It has multiplayer even some PvP(which I never did because they would have killed me before I could reach for my mouse) it has a shit ton of hack and slash and complex skill trees. Basically if you have bee living under the PC gaming rock or too young to even know about this game go pick it up(They still sell the damn thing in Walmart, I want to see CoD do that). It's worth your time

Overall
Graphics: Shit tier
Sound: See above
Gameplay: Addictive

Overall I would rate this game a 8/10 maybe y view was skewed by the hours I spent on it as a child, but I don't care, I love it to this day.

Not a review this time, but a discussion on video games.

Next review will be over Diablo II coming... tomorrow!

What is it these days with video games having such a negative connotation? I mean, look at me. I am a university student who is a math and computer science major(next semester moving on to computer engineering). I am also in the honors program of said university. I am also fairly active and in shape and have had many healthy(well sorta) relationships.. Did I mention through all of this that I have played video games fairly heavily since I was a child(longer than I care to remember)

Yet through all of this I still hear of video games getting a negative reputation. On the news I have heard of Dead Space 2 getting negative remarks about it's graphical violence and what not. I find it silly to think that children are persuaded into thinking this is real and should be imitated, and if they have a mental problem where this occurs shouldn't the parents be watching what they do? I guess that is the root of the problem though... Parents. Parents don't want to watch Jr. after work and instead allow an Xbox or Playstation babysit him while they relax. Then when they wonder why their child misbehaves they blame it on the video game instead of their own shoddy parenting. All in all, parents need to grow up and realize that video games are not a very good scapegoat when you have people like me(and most all of my friends as well) who play games all the time and maintain healthy lifestyles and GPA's in school.

I apologize for the rambling as it is late, but anyone have any comments?