Show Notes for Podcast April 29th, 2010

NEWS:

Activision + Bungie for 10 years.

Sony is happy and excited to see what the team behind Halo can do when given the power of PS3.

Next Call of Duty titled “Black Ops”. Hinted towards being set in Veitnam.

TF2 119th update, commemorated by the launch of 12” statues being sold soon.

Steam on Mac on May 12th.

RELEASES OF INTEREST:

Super Street Fighter IV
Nier
Dead to Rights: Retribution
Just Cause 2 DLC (It turns the parachute into a jetpack)
Pixel Junk Monsters Deluxe (PSP version of the PSN title)

Daft Punk's Discovery

I have finally discovered the website that I have been helping Drew and Eric do podcasts for, even though I'm writing a post about it and still have never ventured off to see what the site looks like.

My name is Terry and that is all I care to say for now ...

Kansas City's Max Out Tourney (LATE)

I'm not going to suger coat it. This should have been done on Wednesday and it should have had pictures and all kinds of shit. I just screwed the pooch on a lot of stuff and I apologize. However, it's not going to kill me I guess. I'm not going to cry about it and I can only hope people are not going to complain. SO, here's the report, 1 week late, that should've been done on Wednesday.

By: Drew “Simsar” Misemer

Make no mistake, arcades are dying in America. There’s little to no space were the bulky single game cabinets of yester year live with people playing on them in constant streams, dropping quarters and dollar bills to try their shot at making it to a new level or finding out how good they are in comparison to the person next to them. No, the arcades might have disappeared but the community at large migrated into something much more formidable. The community rallied to make the arcade as mobile as them and to unite under new times in a better format than the simple ‘Winner stays’ that used to rule the sticky carpet floors of some mall.

In Kansas City, the place to be is the Max Out tournament held in a small but homely Coffee House/Bar called Toad’s Pub and Perk. Sounds ridiculous? Good, cause that’s not all, you will not meet a better group of guys. Special props to the first couple guys I ran into, John “JSpot” Spottswood and his friend Luigi 182 for making me feel accepted. As well as “Radian” Le who made sure I was having a good time despite my spectating. I have little to no true fighting experience so to be welcomed at a fighting game tourney like I was one of the boys is a rarity. The true kick off was at high noon with the teams matches in Street Fighter 4 beginning. A strong player emerged, one of JSpots friends going only by Kevin showed a strong Balrog. Dominating the ever loving hell out of the bracket, Kevin and John managed to win the whole thing as Balrog and El Fuerte.

You could see that it wasn’t the overpowered characters that won but whoever. I've seen teir lists, read hundreds of comments on this character or that combo, but I never saw a bunch of Sagats running the table. There wasn’t any complaining about being cheap or over powered, no tier list in sight it seemed. Just people gathering together to really see who among them really carried a set big enough to call themselves the top dog. During all this the BlazBlue rally which was only four challengers all together still managed to put on a show with an incredible Arakune by B1argh coming in at number one and Hakumen by one going as CactusGuy coming into second. You might think to win a game like BB is all button mashing but the way they play it, you realize this is weeks and weeks of memorization and practice for them and that its an insult to call them a masher.

I do have to admit I needed help with the lingo, like R. Kellyed and Pringles but after I got it, I couldn't stop. One thing for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom I won’t forget, Duck Sauce for Polimar. That’s right, DUCK SAUCE, I got it in the article. You want to know what that means? Go to Max Out, ask the dude who says Duck Sauce and if he’s not busy showing someone up, you can get an answer.

The real fireworks started when Street Fighter 4 singles matches officially got underway. People from Saint Louis drove the whole way here just to battle and hopefully improve the turn out for the battle itself. Kevin was a clear stand out for winner, working the ranks crushing people with Balrog left and right. Another one however was a Dahlsim player named Scamp with the way he could control space and time in his matches. Of course these two met and the Balrog lost out to the paced and patient Dahlsim. Not to be defeated so easily, Kevin managed to storm through the rest of the losers bracket to meet up with Scamp one final time in a finals match to remember. The Saint Louis guy on camera I noticed was too drunk to keep it steady, thus I actually recorded the entire thing, holding the camera as steady as I could for any and everyone to watch. Special thanks to scampjohnson for giving me the links to those videos.

Teams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77C9T5JwU_I

winners semis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfmq__jqPxE&NR=1

winners finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NH-hYj7bx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_geN8J3kk4

grand finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zibibY0E0CE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZoxpUwetvU

Scamp’s Dahlsim was just too patient and too good at controlling the battle that no amount of fireballs, spin kicks or jump ins was going to change it. It was still a spectacular final regardless because it was a study in pacing and how well some players manage the game. Dahlsim might be considered low-tier but unless there’s a way to actually get past the ‘gauntlet’ as one Saint Louis player going by Ed said, it’ll be a hard thing to justify when it works this well.

Hype matches were abound of course after the tournament with people taking bets and having a good time. Special thanks to Ed for being cool enough to talk with me and actually give a bit of his philosophy on the subject. I look forward to meeting up with the so called ‘S Team’ of Saint Louis again in the near future as well as attending the KC ‘Hook Ups’ at both JSpots house and Le’s house on Tuesdays and Friday’s respectively. Anyone mildly interested should probably jump on shoryuken.com and go looking for the KC thread for dates, times and people to chat with. I will hopefully be making these ‘hook ups’ and tournaments a regular thing for improving my game and I’ll be glad to see anyone else there sometime.

Trophy Hunter: Assassin's Creed II

[SPOILER WARNING]

Overview:
- Estimated trophy difficulty: 4/10
- Offline: 51
- Online: 0
- Approximate time to Platinum: 20 - 25 hours.
- Minimum playthroughs: 1
- Missable trophies: 0
- Glitched trophies: 0
- Do cheats disable trophies?: N/A
- Does difficulty affect trophies?: N/A
- Trophy breakdown for Platinum: B: 44/S: 15/G: 1/P: 1

Step 1: Complete the story.
This step is simple enough just play through the game all the way to the end. Chances are you will get most of the Miscellaneous trophies by the end but you don't need to get them before you complete the game as you can continue playing after you've beaten it. I suggest you do all of the tombs before you finish the game. Going through all of the tombs not only gets you trophies but you get Altair's armor which is the best armor in the game and will help you get through the game. There is one miscellaneous trophy that you MUST get before the end of the game to prevent you from having to do another playthrough and that is Fly Swatter. By the end of this step you should have all of the story related trophies, all the tomb related trophies and Fly Swatter.

Step 2: Combat trophies
You should have completed the story by now and chances are you have some if not most of the combat related trophies already. If you don't have them now is the perfect time to do so. You don't have any missions to worry about so you can just go around killing guards in the ways necessary to get the trophies. By the end of this step you should have the trophies Street Cleaner, Messer Sandman, Doctor, No-Hitter and Sweeper.

Step 3: Side missions and Money
After the story you should have a lot of money. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get yourself some trophies. You should by enough courtesans, paintings, upgrades to your stronghold, and pretty much anything you need. You should also do all of the side missions in this step as well. This is also a good time to get the view point trophies even though by this point you probably already have them. By the end of this step you should have the following trophies: Kleptomaniac, High Dive, I like the View, Lightning Strike, Red Light Addict, Man of the People, Victory lies in Preparation, Art Connoisseur, Assassin for Hire, Macho Man, Steal Home, Mailman, Handy Man and Podestà of Monteriggioni.

Step 4: Collectibles
These should be some of the last trophies you go for. The longest and, arguably, most frustrating trophies in the game are saved for this step. Don't worry though as it's not that bad when you use a map for the locations of the Feathers and Glyphs. You should also get all the statuettes in your Villa if you haven't already. At the end of this section you step have the trophies: Myth Maker, Vitruvian Man, Tip of the Iceberg, A Piece of the Puzzle, In Memory of Pertruccio and Show your Colors.

I hope this guide sets you in the right path to get a relatively easy platinum. If you want maps of the feather locations and glyph locations I recommend the maps at Games Radar as they are nicely laid out and easy to follow.

Happy Hunting

e_O

Trophy Hunter: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

[SPOILER WARNING]

Overview:
- Estimated trophy difficulty: 4.5/10
- Offline: 46
- Online: 2 Required
- Approximate time to Platinum: 15-20 hours.
- Minimum playthroughs: 2
- Missable trophies: 0
- Glitched trophies: 0
- Do cheats disable trophies?: No
- Does difficulty affect trophies?: Only the Charted! trophies
- Trophy breakdown for Platinum: B: 36/S: 8/G: 3/P: 1

Step One: Hard playthrough with Treasures

Just play through the game on hard and enjoy it. This is the playthrough to get all of your treasures. I suggest printing out a checklist of all of the treasure locations and just mark them off one by one as you get them. There are 101 treasures in the game (counting the Secret Relic) and many are easy to miss unless you have a list. I also suggest using Rooster Teeth's videos for treasure locations on YouTube as they detail out 20 treasures at a time (and they are quite entertaining too!).

The other thing you should think about while playing is the combat trophies and weapon trophies. Always try to use a gun that you have yet to get a trophy for. Most likely, you can forget about getting the "200 Kills: GAU - 19" during your two playthroughs, so I suggest you leave that one for Step Five. Also try to kill 75 enemies in a row without dying for the "Survivor" trophy on this playthrough. If you miss the Survivor trophy don't fret because you can pick it up also in Step Five. As you play try getting headshots as much as possible as it is the quickest way to kill enemies as well as it gets you closer to the 250 Headshots trophy.

[SPOILER]
The sequences that will give you the most trouble in this and the Crushing playthrough are most likely:
-The first helicopter fight
-The train sequence's helicopter section
-The Lt. Draza fight
-The bridge section at the monastery where you must take out the snipers and deal with a RPG
-*possibly* The Lazarevic fight
Just be persistent and you will eventually get past them.
[SPOILER]

Step Two: Combat Trophies

Now it's time to take a look at the combat trophies you didn't get in step one. Go through the chapter select and choose chapters that you feel comfortable getting the trophies in. Feel free to play on very easy for these trophies.

Step Three: Online

There are only two online trophies required for the platinum in this game, and they are both fast to get. Play one round of competitive multiplayer and one round of Co-op multiplayer, you do not need to win the matches in order to receive the trophies.

Step Four: Crushing Playthrough

Now it's time to tackle Crushing. Don't worry about getting any other trophies in this playthrough, just focus on getting through the game. My biggest hint I can give you for your Crushing playthrough is to use cover and play smart. Think of Crushing as more of a puzzle game because you need to figure out the order that goons need to be killed as well as all of the spawn locations.

Also... headshots, headshots, headshots!

Step Five: Clean-up Weapon Trophies

When finishing crushing, you might still need one or more weapon trophies. 200 Kills with the GAU is easy to miss. Just buy any missing guns from the store along with infinite ammo and one shot kills. Then use chapter select to get the last weapon trophies. There is one location in chapter 19 that is perfect for getting all the kills you need as there is an infinitely spawning soldier. After the part of the level where you rescue a man being attacked by a soldier, go to the right and climb up the building across from the turret (there should be haystacks on the roof). Sit on the roof and kill all of the soldiers, kill the turret gunner, now watch to the right of the turret on the ground for a soldier running to replace the downed gunner. That soldier is on an infinite respawn as long as you stay on the roof with the haystacks. When you jump off the roof he will stop respawning.

Well hopefully this guide can set you on the path to platinum. Good luck and Happy Hunting.

e_O

New Section: Trophy Hunter

I have come up with a new segment that will go up weekly. The segment will be called "Trophy Hunter". Each week I will delve into a game from my collection and try to platinum it. I will then guide you through the quickest way to achieve the platinum. I will detail out how many playthroughs, how long it took, and how many trophies you will gain in the process. I might do miniature posts during the week for PSN titles that have no platinum and can be 100% in a playthrough or two. I will head each segment off with a large spoiler warning because I will be going fairly in depth into some strategies.

I have made a new PSN ID for this venture so I can start out fresh: Ie_OI (the "I" are capital "i"). Feel free to add me if you wish to track my trophies and get a sneak peak at the next weeks game.

My first segment will be on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Happy Hunting


Get your Portable ID!

e_O

Super Street Fighter 4 and shoryuken.com

So, I was hoping to get the Dojo edition of street fighter 4 but I waited to long to get it and have since missed my chance. I'll altogether annoyed because I should have did it the minute it crossed my mind but I waited to get Dad's permission to use the credit card and his fucking waffling on the subject has since screwed me over, thus no Dojo edition. So I settle for what everyone else gets unless I magically run across this at a con or something on ebay becomes god damned affordable. I'm more pissed because I had it in the cart on the shop for over a week and it dissappeared. Shit stays in your cart on Amazon forEVER yet this dissappears. Kind of annoying, I thought I had it reserved.

Anyway, so if you haven't noticed, the Highscore has a sister site on wordpress.com now. Both blogs offer their own good and bads but hopefully I'll begin to find a way to make the network co-exist together seamlessly with some work and skill. I just hope we start getting some comments and love from the community, seeing as we're probably on the bottom of the barrel when it comes to internet hits. Some people probable hit these pages for porn or something obscure and get this wild blog about games and stuff.

I also mention SRK because their forum is retarded. If you sign up to make posts, you don't have permission to post and have to wait for an unknown amount of time at the moment before you get a chance. Better yet you can't read AYTHING because you don't have permission. I'm not joking, GUESTS have more permission than people who register. What kind of shit is that? Regardless, there's not a lot to talk about, except Splinter Cell: Conviction which will be out tomorrow. Knowing Erik he'll be taking the game down a peg maybe.

Small update, sorry for the lack there of.

:D

P.S. wordpress.com site doesn't let me do the colonD they actually hve emoticons... damn that's weak.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker...Now With More Ad Space!

Hideo Kojima announced this week at the Peace Walker completion ceremony that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will contain a large amount of in-game advertisements. With these advertisements comes some interesting new additions to the game:

• Assassin's Creed straw dive makes it into the game.
  
• Konami teams up with Sony, Walkmans can be used in-game
• Clothing brand Uniqlo will make 10 special Peace Walker shirts, available April 26, 1,500 yen
• Above shirts will include a code for an in-game matching shirt
• A Monster Hunter area in-game has actual Monster Hunter monsters in it!
• Many other Monster Hunter tie-ins: Felyne, Ration Grill Sets, co-op play of missions and more
• In-game magazines: Famitsu, Dengeki, Shounen
• Suntory tie-up: Mountain Dew cans in-game, 8 IRL cans released in Japan
• Above drinks will include a code for an in-game Mountain Dew shirt (above)
  
• Fritos and Doritos will appear in-game as a recovery item
• Axe brand deodorant will appear in-game as a recovery item

The one that stands out above all else to me is the Monster Hunter team up. Having Snake hunt down some of the beasts of Monster Hunter sounds ridiculous but also very cool.

e_O

Via: Kotaku

Next Pokémon Games Announced, Due this Fall

The fifth generation of Pokémon games have been announced. Going back to their older (read:simpler) naming conventions, the games are being titled Black and White. While many a person will be making Michael Jackson meets Pokémon fanfic now, I personally love the new names.

The games are being released on the DS and are due out in Japan in the Fall. We can only assume that the North American release will be a few months later.

That is all we know so far.

e_O

Via: http://www.pokemon.co.jp/bw/index.html

Window Shopping: April 5-11, 2010

WII

[No new releases]

WiiWare

Fishie Fishie
Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 2

Virtual Console

Ironclad (Neo Geo)

DLC

Guitar Hero 5 / Band Hero: Fall Out Boy tracks
Rock Band: Individual tracks

DS

[No new releases]

DSiWare

Game & Watch: Helmet
Game & Watch: Manhole
Game & Watch: Vermin
Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop

DLC

WarioWare D.I.Y.: Suck Goo! by Ron Carmel, Big Name Games
WarioWare D.I.Y.: Ikachan! by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, Big Name Games

PS3

[No new releases]

PSP

[No new releases]

Xbox 360

Borderlands Double Game Add-On Pack [The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned / Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot]

XBLA

[No new releases]

DLC

Deal of the Week: Geometry Wars 2 [Gold only]
Guitar Hero 5 / Band Hero: Fall Out Boy Track Pack
Just Cause 2: Chevalier Ice Breaker
Lips: Add-on songs
Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory
Mega Man 10: Bass Mode
Mega Man 10: Special Stage 1
Rock Band: Individual tracks
XBLA Inventory Blowout Sale

Games on Demand

Fable II
Kung Fu Panda
System Updates
System Update – USB Memory Support

PC / Mac

Borderlands Double Game Add-On Pack [The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned / Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot]

DLC

Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory

Apples 'n Oranges

Well, apparently critics are being paid to entertain people with gibberish and ignored for what they were originally being paid for which was to be annoying and judgmental on everything. The Apple iPad, which spawned more toilet humor jokes in a single hour on the internet launched and without even having to try, it has broken more sales records than should be legally possible. Amazon and Barnes and Noble tried their eReader and netbooks have inched out the lower tech people by giving them a notebook with downgraded specs and power at a low cost.

Having tested the iPad, I've found the familiar work of the iPod's page like system, coupled quietly with a broader sense of depth. Apple wants to make people get lost in this thing, however they're over complicating the whole thing rather quickly. Just allow it to update everything on facebook instantly and let camera whores take a million pictures and that iPad will be everyones new favorite toy to update everyone on their friends list with pictures of their muddy dog that just trashed their house. Jokes aside, I've noticed that even under graphical stress, the thing doesn't heat up like my iPod touch which BAKES the hand to which you hold it to play with.

I honestly have only found two seperate problems with this thing. One is the price, which echoes the heralded PS3's 599 US DOLLARS joke.
The other thing that is both a bad move and still going to work for no reason is the 3G support. Its not a switch you just drop in to something, its not a plug in like a socket. Apple releasing some iPads with 3G and releasing the others a little earlier with out them? Pretty stupid, but its still going to work because Apple seems to have achieved Pixar like fail proofing on all their products. History suggests people don't like being screwed out a feature they could have gotten from the get go and that's proven by Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel no one was going to play but played anyway. I remember that boycott well. It got a lot of attention and for good reason. Valve releasing a game one year after the first one? Something is up, considering Valve doesn't release a game until there's a reason to do so in its mind. Valve being a company that innovates over publishing, especially since it makes plenty of money just maintaining and having people digitally publish through Steam nowadays. Still, Apple is ignoring this and could very well fault themselves on something this stupid but they're going ahead with this 3G iPad in just a few short weeks.

Now for the orange part of the section, cause I'm tired of trying to discuss the iPad. Me and Erik were rolling around the town yesterday investigating other major releases, both videogames and other things. Movie wise, I'm still waiting on the Losers, but Kick Ass will arguably take a bigger box office draw thanks to a more liberal approach to killing everything. The Losers might hit cult status, much like another one of my favorite movies Speed Racer, which was critically panned for good reasons and bad alike. I loved the Losers as a comic book and I can only hope this movie gets a little recognition, considering it was stuck in development hell since 2003 when the comic was still releasing and Kick Ass was more recent by a wider margin. The guys on the website think the two comic book films will cancel eachother out, I honestly don't buy it. I know the Losers was obscure so only some people will know it was a comic book film and the rest will see this as a nice 2 hour action film with Zoe Saldana and that dude from Watchmen (Jeffery Dean Morgan). Kick Ass will get the same crowd but I'm more than sure a few people will be unavoidably deterred to the gratuitous amounts of violence involving young kids and giant men dressed in black. I think the conservative nature of the Losers might make it a more successful picture thanks simply to lessened need to be overly controversial. I'll see both just to enjoy myself.

Game wise, Erik and my other friend Kyle (The Final Boss) both made interesting and astute observations concerning the game releases. It's been nearly a month of drought, oddities for sure, considering the rigorous release schedule games have been on since January, starting with Bayonetta. Between Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii and Super Street Fighter that's another Capcom dominated month. However, I actually got jumped by Splinter Cell, releasing for the 360 as well, which I forgot about thanks to the fact that it took double the regular time to actually release cause Sam Fisher looked like a hobo and that pissed too many people off. Still, I look at the summer and once again get this feeling of being barren. Again, I'm reminded of the beautiful marketing on Grand Theft Auto 4 which released just a week or two before school got out which left people playing it nearly all summer thanks to a huge gap in between games.

Pretty bad ass strategy. Still, I just hope the drought of the games over the summer doesn't effect me too much, I got a lot riding on the success of Super Street Fighter 4.

:D

Possible Marvel vs Capcom 3 in Development

Everyone probably remembers when Super Street Fighter 4 was announced about a certain 'list' of characters that were going to be in it. Unconfirmed and quietly, the list dissappeared from most of the internet, yet the list itself (Which I read and saved) proved 100 percent accurate. The characters on said list did appear and now the same people have said that Marvel vs Capcom 3 will likely be announced in May. You gotta be joking Drew, you say in that tone of raised eyebrows and crossed arms. Look, while a one for one is not hard to base on random luck, why don't you read it from the people who said it?

http://teamspooky.com/content/?p=299

We might have a fighting game christmas if this releases this year. Between SSf4 and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift in July, I need to get to work on grabbing one of those joysticks...

The Podcast is live

http://thehighscore.mypodcast.com/2010/04/The_High_Score_Ep_1-300634.html

god help us all. I just hope we don't get attacked by angry soccer moms and crazed Xbox fan boys. I don't think I this blog can repel a force of that magnitude.

Super Street Fighter 4

It is no secret that I originally didn't care about fighting games for the longest time. I know why now, it was cause I was afraid of losing, getting my ass kicked and ultimately be humiliated. I'd been humiliated a lot in my younger childhood, being manipulated, backstabbed and laughed at too many times by most of my peers. It took a multitude of things to get me to pick a controller and actually throw down.

duom.deviantart.com

Yeah, my last post on deviantart is about Street Fighter 4. It was one of the biggest steps, the other was my friend pulling me into a fighter with Street Fighter 3. It's funny, after I got comfortable, I began to throw down a lot harder and actually get good. In SF4, I rolled with Sakura, who was a nice cross of Ken and Ryu with out being too flowchartish and annoying. Please refer to this picture when I talk about flowcharts.

Regardless, when Super Street Fighter 4 was announced, I couldn't care less. Nothing really jumped out at me, my friend Kyle had already made a guess that they would release something like this. We both shrugged and went back to Street Fighter 3 and played our typical mains of Makoto and Dudley. It is no small coincidence nor irony that we get these two characters in this iteration. I remember the phone call vividly, Kyle being out of breath, he was in shock clearly. He informed me of the announcement of the Street Fither 3 characters being announced in Super Street Fighter 4. My interest exploded that very instant. Makoto's involvement has made me interested but the multitude of other characters have been cropping in interest. It's a feat to actually get me to jones for a game, like REALLY jones for it.

With team battles, the SF3 characters, the lowered price, I really can't say no. Kyle and Me are already back into fighting games like we're addicted, especially with Street Fighter 3 again. I'm plotting to get an arcade stick so I don't get blisters anymore. I know that I try to keep myself from getting hyped up for games, but I guess once in a while, giving into it is not so bad.

PSN: simsarOO

I'll be on PS3 version, friends and rivals welcome to anyone looking to help me improve my skills as well as yours.

:D

P.S. I've been having format issues, so forgive the posts being jumbled, blogger has a way of just eating a bowl of retard flakes before working properly.

Con-nections

Yeah, so I was at the Kansas City PlanetCon all weekend and have a backlog of crap to catch up on. It bothers me that I've been out of conventions for so long, but at the same time did a sort of forced exile do to a need for increasing my maturity as well as my portfolio. This actually brought back that original instinct I developed when I was hustling the convention circuit so long ago that memories of it are now tinged with a layer of nostalgia and happiness despite the gross amount of bullshit and blunders I've had occur when I was in them.

Either way, I'm not going to blog about the con as much as the people I met there. Damont Jordan, Talent Caldwell, Rick Burchett and the slew of others who sent me e-mails and friend requests. AND YES, I did join god damn facebook. I already have gone to the hypocrite side of life and it annoys the bloody fuck out of me seeing my name on this damn website. I keep telling myself I'm doing this to stay in contact with everyone I used to know. You'll see a large amount of unknowns. Anyone LISTED in comics means I've met them at least once and they may/may not remember me.

Regardless, I'm making a post to also welcome podcast Bro and all round good dude, Erik "Ozzy" Osmera to The Highscore. It should be noted that he is a contributer and will hopefully keep this blog a little better oiled than when I was just doing it alone. I just hope we both don't neglect this and screw ourselves over. Yes I am looking for contributers, YES I am looking for reviewists! NO I can not pay anyone, I can't even pay for myself right now. So please, be kind, we are but humble gamers with very little money but big creative dreams involving world domination and COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION!

Taken from DeviantArt's http://spikewible.deviantart.com/
^Total stranger, awesome comic.

Either or, I'll admit, is tempting but first we have to get there and then we have to beat the guy in charge and THEN we can do whatever we need to. However, I think I paraphrased a bit of it.

:D
(ph34r this emoticon)

More Work/Less Time = More Fun

I'm known for making only a handful of sense when I need to, so don't crack your brain or bust your butt trying to make sense of that title. It's why I'm here. I've been entertaining a few ideas about what I really enjoy and what I love to do and counterbalanced them with my lazy and unproductive personality. Honestly, it's kind of hard to balance not wanting to get up until eleven in the morning with wanting to make so much stuff for people to have and enjoy for themselves.

For me, I've always enjoyed entertaining people, be it a small crowd of friends or an entire room of strangers, I never get tired so long as I can get a laugh and a smile from people. This leads to a lot of strange looks from people as I am extremely eccentric when it comes to my habits. I'm a constant attention whore if the mood strikes me but you'll find I'm so fiercely loyal and nice to a fault that its usually the eccentric side that saves my bacon from getting served up most of the time. People write this off as pure ego, which i do have, but having gone well over 17 years without said ego and finally growing one of my very own, I'm not about to part with it.

This ego and this perseverance have arguably shoved me forward despite my laziness and procrastination roadblocking me on several different occasions. More so, I've pushed others forward and showed them what they're really capable of thanks to this stupidity and egotism I have about myself. I guess when I boil it all down and look at the bear bones, my true skills lie in finding people and inspiring them to be what they dreamed of. I rarely play muse to myself as I think most of my ideas are sub par, my catalyst is the duoship of a friend that really sends me forward into creativity's bosom. Its in that bosom that ideas just free flow out of me, bad or good, they're creative.

This effect can also be achieved by simple challenges which force me to use what I have in my arsenal at said time to overcome and defeat the challenge. Granted this is usually solved in simplistic ways like throwing money at it or ignoring it till it goes away. On rare occasions however, I've found myself improvising and making things up that are based on lies so extreme that its nigh impossible to buy into the very notion of belief. Yet people believe me and then I am forced to make the lie the reality and make the truth the lie. Irony and me are good friends if you ever meet me in real life.

Still, work more/less time means I'm taking on more work so I will have less time. Work can be fun though, especially when its something you love. The podcast is going strong and like I said I' lazy and have yet to actually get off my ass and do what needs to be done. Second off, I'm working on doing a Webcomic soon enough. My podcast co-host is getting equally shafted by said newspaper I will not mention. he's also entertaining the idea of loading up comics. I'm still working out a schedule, script, plot, characters but I have one setting I'm certain of.The story will be set at an apartment and it will not be as gay as friends and I will promise to keep it real as much as humanly possible while including the most absurdist humor I possibly can.

I take my inspiration from the strips of Penny-Arcade, Megatokyo and PvP Online. All three are still running ater ten years, each maintaining their own little worlds and work endlessly to co-exist with large amount of new contentand artists trying to break everyone of them. Granted with so many people more obsessed with Facebook and Farmkill (This mispelling is intention), I figure this comic has about a good a chance as any. It will be hand drawn, I'm not too sure about color. I'd love to do so, but its not my decision.

Either way, I'm plotting the story as I speak, its based loosely off me and my friends real lives yet crossed over with some of our more inane banters. Hopefully I can make this be something more than yet another failed attempt at grabbing attention.

:D

Drew

P.S.

Popzara (politely) asked I make mention of a major contest they are holding on their website. Its not PAX as that has started today and my Editor is hopefully not fixing to hang himself today. Its a contest concerning a load of anime from this website called AnimEigo.com. check out link for some heads up.

What's up people in internet land.

The website I work for, Popzara.com, has asked me (politely) to give a heads up to any and hopefully everyone of a nice promotion they are doing with Playswitch.com



Yup, PaxEast is just two weeks away and tickets are sold out already and have been for a couple months. People who are desperate oughta get in on this noise and take a chance at winning the tickets.

For those lucky enough to have snagged said impossible tickets, you should look at their other promotion which might land you 3 free games (New Releases included). All you gotta do is wear a sticker and be at the convention.

Pretty kick ass right? Yeah, that's what I thought too. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for my full review of Final Fantasy 13, coming (hopefully) tomorrow.

Hope you win!

Drew "Duo" Misemer

Final Fantasy 13 (The third 5 Hours)

I'm getting a kick of putting these things into hours. It really gives me a modular assessment of time. Regardless, I'll get right on topic for those reading.

When we last left off, Snow and Hope had fallen off an edge. Snow wakes up and carries Hope through the area in true do or die fashion while Lightning and Fang both make their way through the city. Fang is still apologetic to Lightning but isn't worried much for Snow. Meanwhile, Snow finally collapses after hauling Hope up a ladder. Hope wakes up and realizes what Snow has been doing and again tries half heartedly to be angry at him. The conversation turns as Hope continually attack him for his running away from his guilt and Snow admits it. He says he'll do everything he can to make it right before ever apologizing to Hope for this whole matter. Hope realizes that Snow isn't as stupid as he thought and forgives him. A monster descends and attacks Hope and Snow but Snow gets knocked cold due to previous injuries from the fall compounded by getting hit with a giant limb.

Hope battles it out until Lightning and Fang arrive after seeing the commotion. They defeat the hulking beast and arrive at Hope's home. He's still worried about what his dad will say. When his father sees them, they have a scene of reunion before Hope drops the bomb. The fathr is busted up by the matter but ultimately gets stalwart with his son, proud that he's making choices for himself. His resolve is only strengthened by Snow telling him what his wife told Snow to get Hope back home. The whole scene is cut short thanks to the idiot running the military of Palumpolum showing up. Snow steps out and tries to convince the soldiers that l'Cie are people too and that they're not trying to do anything to destory Cocoon. Some of the soldiers buy it but the leader scoffs and tells them to get ready to open fire.

Gas grenades get thrown from behind and in the confusion the leader is shot to death. Snow, still weak can't fight and Lightning and company take stride with Hope taking a jab saying he'll throw a few shots for Snow. The airship the troops came from take aim at the party and the ensuing battle the party tears it apart piece by piece. The cavalry arrives and gets everyone aboard. Lightning orders Hope to tie up his dad and say they forced him to help them to keep him from getting caught up in the matter Hope and his father say good-bye one more time and the party runs.

Meanwhile, in the city of Nautilius, Sazh and Vanille arrive by boat. A major parade is about to start and Sazh takes her to it. Since it's been said prior, Vanille is from Pulse and is mildly shocked by how people are truly scared of the world below them. She sees a bit of her focus again, though again nothing is truly explained in it, just images. Sazh starts to realize something is getting her down but can't put his finger on it. They go to see the Chocobos. Just like Hope and his dad, things are not left to settle as the army shows up and attacks once again. It's hard to believe at first but the game throws a hard curveball and drops me. The military is using Sazh's son to hunt his father and the rest as Dajh is able to find Pulse energy. Sazh wigs out and hugs his son but Dajh turns to Crystal just like Serah. In pure grief, Sazh is ready to kill anyone. The woman who hasn't been named but is more stuck up than a shirt washed in pure starch spills everything. She shows Sazh a video of Vanille and Fang talking about attacking the fal'Cie in Bodhum where Sazh and Dajh were on vacation. Sazh realizes this is all Vanille's fault. Vanille runs off, trying to escape this matter once again. She sees a throne randomly and on it is Sazh but he's a spirit. he points his gun and shoots ethereal bullets at Vanille telling her she should die.

On the floor, Vanille looks up and sees Sazh, the real one looking at her. He pulls out his gun but he can't bring himself to shoot her. Wild with grief and unable to do anything to get rid of his rage, his Eidolon surfaces. He takes everything he has and attacks, with Vanille helping him to spite herself somewhat. After he defeats it, he collapses from the weight of the situation. He takes out a pistol and puts it to the side of his head. The screen goes black and you hear a gun shot. Vanille is taken away along with Sazh in a coffin or something with the woman making a remark.

This remark can be seen here, but this is actually a funnier video of it. :D LINK

The rest of the party sees a video on the news of a live execution of the l'Cie, a.k.a. Sazh and Vanille. Lightning remarks that it's a trap and the two of them are the bit. Fang chimes in saying that she lost Vanille once, and isn't about to lose her again. Snow puts on his smile and says he could care less, he just wants to stick it to the Sanctum but they might need a plan. The newscaster remarks that the figurehed of the Sanctum will also be in attendance which solidifies Lightning's need to throw herself at this suicide mission.

I'll cut off there for now. Yes I know, that seems rather short but trust me, there's a lot to chew on that I'm cutting and summarizing. The real twist was Sazh's dilemma and ultimate crushing defeat. Vanille really has proven how deep she is despite her bubbly personality which I originally thought would grate on me. The game continues to deliver and I'm more than certain that the next ew chapters things are going to drop off but it looks like I'm about five to ten hours away from beating the game outright. They say I've nearly reached half way but I'm willing to bet I'm lot further than that.

Final Fantasy 13 (The second 5 hours)

So, for better or worse, I've went another 5 hours into the game, and lost a good couple hours of sleep thanks to it. Either way, i guess all I can do is stomach it and continue moving forward in my pursuit of finding something truly god forsakeningly wrong with this game. Its not perfect but it's welcoming at least.

This part of the game, things begin to actually get more character development. Lightning and Sazh actually start to realize that they're not only working for themselves but Vanille and Hope (yes that's his real name) as well. Vanille manages to actually squeeze Sazh for information about himself. Sazh is a father of a young Dajh who was quietly mentioned by him earlier in the game. Dajh is a l'Cie himself but he was made one by a Cocoon fal'Cie which makes hm a celebrated warrior. I dunno about this but I can't help but think the army of Cocoon is lacking intelligence in key areas as this kid is only 6 or so years old and still relying on his dad. Vanille is placed in the scene with Dajh which leads me to believe that she was directly involved in this mess and it becomes obvious later on.

Lightning and Hope mean while have split off, with Lightning aiming for revenge and self fufillment due in part to her mind being unable to cope with her Sister. Hope follows her with the intent to get strong enough to get revenge on Snow for his mom. Hope knows that killing Snow won't bring her back but he doesn't care and just wants him to pay for it. Lightning doesn't know what to say as she pushed Hope into this mindset by not talking him down at all. Lightning and Hope make it to Palumpolum (A nod to Palum and Porum from Final Fantasy 4) and start sneaking into the city to gain transport to Eden so Lightning can exact revenge against the Sanctum for screwing her and her sister over so hard. She convinces Hope that the Sanctum is as much at fault for his mother's death as Snow is and that they also need to pay. Hope, blinded by revenge doesn't care and seeks to get over his grief by fighting.

Lightning and Hope make their way through the city fal'Cie (Carbuncle, I love the nods to the old games). Its then that Hope makes an anology about how the fal'Cie treat the humans more like pets than anything else. Lightning realizes that she's been on a leash her entire life and that this whole idea of attacking the sanctum is not only a bad idea but something that the pulse fal'Cie wanted her to do probably in the first place. Now thinking clearly, she abandons the idea of a raid. Hope, broken by the loss of will from Lightning starts shouting about how she can't lose her nerve and that this was all her idea. Lightning admits she's wrong and tells Hope that he can't lose his name sake because fighting without hope is just as bad as waiting to die.

The two are quickly spotted and surrounded by PSICOM soldiers and the finally enlisted Guardian Corp. They're both saved thanks to Snow showing up and with Shiva throwing off a multitude of of the soldiers and protecting the two of them. Lightning shoves Hope with Snow and runs off to cover their escape. The awkwardness from being thrust into Snow's protection beings grating on Hope immediately and the tension starts mounting wuickly as Hope gets more and more begrudged at Snow's straight forward and inadvertent hurting of his feelings. Meanwhile, the calvary that helped Snow after he was captured along with the Australian Chick going by the name Fang meet up with Lightning. It's with Fang that Lightning learns more about what really happened to her Sister and why this whole thing started. The realization that Dajh and Sazh are casualties of their interloping, that Fang and Vanille are both from Pulse and that Lightning's sister becoming a l'Cie are all Fang and Vanille fault pushes Lightning to the edge. She slaps Fang after the realization. Fang tells Lightning that Serah can come back from her crystal form, and that Fang and vanille will help, but Lightning and the rest need to help them too.

Fang calls up Snow an shouts at him after he doesn't check in. Lightning jumps on the com and talks with Snow a bit before remembering to warn Snow about Hope and his problem. before she can, Hope takes the com and says he's going ahead with his plan before it cuts out. Lightning panics slightly, realizing that Hope very well might kill Snow and ruin this whole thing before they get a chance to do anything. Snow and Hope make their way to the rendevous point which is Hope's house. On the way, Hope gets closer and closer to killing Snow with a knife that Lightning gave him on their trip to the city. After beating up on a boss, Snow finally pushes Hope to his limit. After the fight, Hope moves in on Snow to exact his revenge but an explosion send him in the same fashion of his mother lfying off the side of the railing. Snow in a break neck attempt lets go of the building edge and grabs Hope and they both fall with Snow hitting multiple objects and landing with the pair of them out cold.

That is where I stopped as it was 2 in the morning by that point and I'd started at 9 something that evening. It sucks because I know with some spare time, I could easily blow through this game very quickly but school is a gint obstacle and Spring break is just next week. Regardless, the characters are really coming together and the motives and stuff concerning them is starting to not only take shape but it's compelling. Each character has something that relates them to me in some way. Lightning and Snow grew on me instantly. Vanille was annoying but I ultimately see her vaive front is a shell to protect herself. Sazh was always a good comic relief but knowing what drives him now makes him a more wholesome character than I originally thought.

The game tries to make these characters as real as possible. Their fashion sense might be lacking but ultimately you can not argue that these characters are trying to be as real as possible. the put up fronts, they lie about their emotions, they act out agressively and have real breaking points. They sometimes more human than we are.

More to come, plus review of Final Fantasy 13 as well. I'll make sure to keep running this game down, even after I review. I more than sure I won't beat it when I review it but if I don't review it now, I lose the edge. Either way.

:D

Hope you all dig!

Final Fantasy 13 (the first 5 hours)

Yeah, I say 5 hours because unlike some idiots, I got school and mid-terms to deal with and I can't take time off from school when I got spring break and the like in between that noise. So with that, I've only logged 7 hours so far, but I'll only talk anout the first 5 and make comparrisons like I usually do.

This game is cut and dry at the beginning. Lightning, the chick who would be Cloud but refuses to Emo at the moment, is in search for saving her Sister, Serah. Searh is being held in this giant thing called a fal'Cie (Fall See). With the help of the Token Black Guy named Sazh, who is the only voice of reason to any outsider playing this game, Lightning tears through a train of soldiers, and blows up more things than are required by most games to explode. This isn't a bad thing, Final Fantasy is known for bombastic starts but 13 takes the cake, even if it took a few nods from Final Fantasy 7.

We cut to Snow, the Bandana wearing self proclaimed Hero, who is running towards the fal'Cie and started a rebellion just to distract the government long enough for him to rescue his blushing bride to be. The manual already states that Serah, Lightning's Sister is also Snow's fiancee`, but if no one bothered to read then this point that out fairly quickly.

The reason Serah is in such trouble is because she's a l'Cie (La See) and is cursed to fufill her mission or turn into a butt ugly monster with no soul. Her mission, she doesn't really know but from my best guess, I think it was to unite Snow and Lightning in the same room so they could be turned into l'Cie themselves and carrying out the big mission of saving everyone's asses. During this escapade, a kid by the name of Hope and a girl named Vanille are dragged into the conflict because Hope's mom took up with the resistance and help Snow. She's killed saving Snow and falls off a bridge after a bomb goes off and let's go of Snow's hand after she goes limp. This leads to Snow emoing out for about 15 seconds before ultimately getting over this problem and returning to the primary objective to save his girlfriend. Hope wants to beat Snow down for killing his Mom, not knowing it wasn't Snow's fault, and Vanille pushing him to chase after Snow.

It's funny, I think the same voice actor for Hope is the voice actor for Vaan from Final Fantasy 12, which ultimately means that he's a cardboard cut out in place of a good character and will fall to the way side because of this. No matter, you rarely play as him through the first part as the story mainly focuses on Lightning, Snow and Sazh who are the primary interests for these beginning hours.

Upon arrival on the fal'Cie, the group meets up on the large scale behemoth and find Serah who tells them to save Cocoon (Their big floating hometown/city/giant sphere thing). She turns to crystal and Lightning get extremely mad. She beats up Snow (One punch leaid him out flat.). Snow remarks that they need to protect Cocoon and Lightning, too bitter and enraged to listen storms off to kill the fal'Cie at the core of the place. Snow, realizing that killing the fal'Cie might make himself feel better as well joins Lightning as they take on this guy. The is quick but killing a demi-god proves a poor decision as now the entire group are branded l'Cie and given unholy amounts of magical and physical prowess. The government, realizing this floating object that's well over a tall building is a dangerous thing, destroys the fal'Cie and it plumets into the large lake at the bottom of the area where all the fighting began. In its death throughs, it turns the entire lake to crystal and the lake itself is arguably 100 times larger than a cruise ship, you can say that's a lot of crystal.

The group rejoins and they all realize they're bound and screwed by fate because of the l'Cie mark they all have. They run into the crystal form of Serah again. Lightning says good bye quietly and walks off before Snow gives her another reason for her to deck him and she seizes the opportunity. She lays him out twice before he stays down. He still argues they need to save Cocoon and Lightning could care less, choosing to make her own path rather than die a slave to a now dead demi-god.

Leaving Snow chipping away at the crystal to dig out Serah, Lightning, Sazh, Hope and Vanille move out to find a way of escape this place. The find a ruined base and an airship that will allow them to escape. The cutscene ensues and you see arguably some of the best action displayed in a game as this aerial dogfight goes through canyons, clouds and a giant floating fal'Cie named Pheonix that is apparently one of the good ones. With that, they crash land in a junkyard miles from everything.

Meanwhile, Snow is captured after a long fight with not only the army but the Eidolon (Eye Dole On) Shiva who transforms into the bike we see him riding in some of the trailers. A woman with a light australian accent sub dues him and takes him and Serah away. Snow notices the woman was also branded with the l'Cie mark but it is twisted and off from the more obvious one that Snow is brandishing.

My thoughts stem to this game giving a shout out to its previous ones and my hope is that this series gets a few different games as the world is rich and diverse and you can feel it when the characters speak. Gameplay is a mix of 10's and 12's gameplay with a simplified gambit system that works much like a manual shift for a car and attack animations that are wild and enjoyable to watch. The characters don't level up but get stronger by moving around a grid much like FF10 with the sphere grid. It uses a shifting narrative like Final Fantasy 9 and cuts to the characters exactly when you might raise a thought to how the other characters might be doing at that moment.

Lightning is more or less an amalgam of Terra from 6 and Squall from 8, showing that she's extremely strong willed and tireless in her pursuits but still vulnerable in spite of this. Snow is the first final fantasy male lead who hasn't got a serious emotional problem on them since Zidane. There's no major worrying or fear of making an ass of himself, he just does things and works through the consequences regardless.

You have the weak willed Hope who under Lightning gains a pair and you have Vanille who helps Sazh find a reason to actually throw the dice of fate and try and make a difference instead of giving up. Vanille is the strangest of the characters as she chooses blind optimism and go get'em attitude and a stark contrast to Lightning's grumpy demeanor.

For the first 5 hours, I'm impressed. People said that it'd take 20 hours to get going hard and heavy on this game and I didn't really need even that much. It offered up a plot and characters I can actually understand. It has heroes I can relate to but there's no over arching villain aside from a barely mentioned old guy who runs the government that might be the final boss but problably isn't. I'll give the first 5 hours of a game a lot of leneancy but I'm just glad it didn't fall flat on its face.

I was scared of it being linear but I looked back through final fantasy 10 and remembered it was retardedly linear. I was worried about the party being fully healed after each fight but the amount of fights you get into and the lack of potions makes that just less maintence in the long run. The game has been sped up to suit a more growing need to get up and go attitude that the gaming market is going with. People don't like slow and methodical as much as they like hectic and fast paced. The next 5 hours I'm sure the plot will thicken up to a large scale and possible threat that might give me the overall fightening factor I will be looking forward to overcoming in the finale.

Hope you all dig,
Drew "Duo" Misemer