6 things Ruining Video Games for me

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Video Games have been around for a long time. Since I have been old enough to retain memories, I have been playing video games. It’s something that I love doing, and has helped me and many others on so many different levels. However, recently the video game industry has been slowly pushing me away, with new trends. Ideas to make more and more money, and to slap the consumer/gamer in the face. Trends such as —

DLC Rip-Offs
This is probably the thing the video game industry has been doing that pisses me off the most! They take a newly finished and fully completed game. Look at it, decide it kicks so much ass, that they will just chop out parts of the game, sell the now partial game for full retail price, and then announce the rest of the game, that you already paid for, can be purchased as DLC!

 basically, they charge you an extra 5 bucks or so, in order to play an “Extra” level. Usually these “DLCs” clearly were ripped from the game, because they are mentioned in the game. Take for instance LA Noir, it mentions in your journal at one point, that you are investigating your third case in your current dept, despite the fact, that it’s only your second case. Why? because the DLC with the case before it, wasn’t released yet.

The worst offender is Alan Wake, which is a game, without a fucking ending! Apparently, they were going to sell extra “chapters” which presumably would finish the story, however not all the planned chapters came out, because nobody was willing to give them the ransom money they demanded to see the rest of the story. So, people who bought the game and played through it, pretty much are fucked since it’s a game without a fucking ending.

Not all DLC is bad though! Take GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption and — Well, im sure there’s another one that I just can’t think of off-hand. These games actually make DLC that I am more than happy to buy. They sell you a complete game! It’s long, and complete without missing missions and plot holes that leave you scratching your head. Then they release DLC that tells ANOTHER story. Almost like expansion packs! In fact, I would go so far as to call them expansion packs! These are good DLC items! I applaud Rockstar for this behavior. Not so much for the LA Noir DLC though. You guys are slacking there in my opinion.

Console Exclusive DLC
When a game is released on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, many times one of the consoles will end up getting a console exclusive DLC; usually in the form of a mission, level, case or something along those lines.

Now, this doesn’t really have any particular effect on me personally, since if one system has an exclusive mission or whatever, I will just buy it for that console. However, not everyone has that option. Which is what pisses me off. The people who buy the game on the PS3 or X360 pay almost the exact same amount as each other. So, why the hell don’t they get the same fucking content as the other console players?

I am sure it is due to the console company paying extra for the right to those exclusive bonus items, but in the end it fucks the games fans over who didn’t get it on the console with the exclusive. It may not be favoritism, but it sure as hell seems like it sometimes.

Game Passes
When a game comes out, they sometimes also sell in the console DLC store, Passes. There’s two kinds of passes as far as I can tell. One is a good kind, the other pisses me off to no end. The good kind? It gives you access to all the DLC released for that game at a discounted price. So, if you know you want to get all the DLC for a particular game(IE; L.A. Noir), then buying that pass is a good idea.

The bad kind of pass is when a game with Online competitive play is released. They will cap your online level advancements to some ridiculously low-level, and then sell a “Pass” that will allow you to advance beyond that level. If you chose not to buy the pass, you can of course continue playing online, but you will be a really low-level, and not end up with access to all the advanced perks that everyone else is using to kick your ass, because yes, even if you can’t advance in levels, you will still play against people who bought the pass and can gain more levels.

Granted, occasionally, this pass is available for free, if you buy the game new, and before the code in the box expires. otherwise, you are pretty much fucked!

Lack of Originality
Come on people! Enough with the sequels. I know you want to play it safe, but release some new fucking titles already! It works sometimes you know! If it didn’t we would all be playing Mario Brothers 26 right now. Sure, sometimes you get a stinker like Alan Wake, but other times you get a masterpiece like Heavy Rain.

Don’t get me wrong! I fucking love sequels, I am hoping and pleading for a Red Dead Redemption sequel, or a new Splinter Cell game. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to experience the thrill of a new adventure with a new character! After all, there’s only so many sequels a man can take!

Cookie Cutter Games
Sure, I could have fit this into the Lack of Originality category. I simply decided not to. The reason? That’s simple! See, to me, it’s a big enough annoyance, to warrant its own category.

So, what do I mean by Cookie Cutter exactly? Games that are way too similar. Games like rhythm Games(See below), Matching block puzzle games, shooting bubble puzzle games and so on! However, the worst offender I believe is todays current First Person Shooters. The majority of them take place in modern settings, and located in the middle east. So, the backgrounds pretty much all look-alike, sure some might have varying stages of realism, but at a glance they are all pretty much identical. There’s also the first person view, but that totally doesn’t count, because it’s a first person shooter. What does count however is the lack of healthbar that they all seem to have adopted. Instead of health, most FPS games just get redder and redder around the edges of the screen to show how much damage you have, and then you hide for a bit, and you are good to go.

Yes, the red edges health meter was cool when I first saw it. After a few million dozen times, it started getting old. Just because something worked for one company, doesn’t mean every single FPS from that point forward needs to adopt the same health meter. Come up with your own shit! Make the game your own, instead of a Modern Warfare carbon copy! Sure, it might not sell as well, but at least you will be your own game and not a “Modern Warfare Clone”.

While FPS titles maybe the worst offenders, they are far from the only offender. Take a look at MMORPGs. a good majority of them are identical to World Of Warcraft. Why? Probably because WoW is so insanely popular, that it would be a safe bet, that if yer playing their game, that you also are playing World of Warcraft, and maybe this is their way of making you feel at home. I don’t know, but it’s annoying. If I wanted to play WoW, I would be playing WoW, not some copycat that charges the same amount. Basically, if I am looking for an MMORPG and NOT going to Wow, Which most likely I have heard of, since it is clearly the most popular MMORPG out at the time of this writing, then there is a good chance that I want something different from what WoW provides!

Rhythm Games and their add-ons.
The rhythm game genre, is the only game genre I detest. I am not a huge fan of sport games, but will occasionally play them. I will never play a rhythm game. Does this make the genre horrible? Well, it kind of does, at least for me. I am fully aware that many people love this particular genre. For me, it just makes no sense. I don’t see where the enjoyment of pushing buttons to the beat of a song becomes interesting. I used to tap my pencil to the rhythm of songs in school, and I never thought to myself that this is so fucking exciting, it should be a video game.

My hatred for the genre is beside the point. What bugs me is the massive amounts of this genre that’s out there. Seriously, how many fucking rhythm games do you need? It get’s worse too! Everyone of those fucking rhythm games, releases an busload of DLC that consists of new songs to tap to the beat of. Since this shit is easy as fuck to produce, they go ape-shit and just start cranking out DLC like it was going out of style.

It eventually gets to the point, that I don’t even bother checking the “What’s new?” in the online console store, because I know it will be jammed with millions of rhythm DLC titles.

Most likely there’s more that is making the video game industry seem less interesting to me, but off-hand I can’t think of any. I’ll get back to ya!

UPDATE: I thought of some more, and have updated this list from 4, to 6 things ruining video games for me!

Star Trek Online going Free to Play

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With the success of commercial MMORPGs going Free-to-play, Cryptics success with its Champions Online MMORPG switching to a f2p model, and Perfect World‘s recent purchase of Cryptic, it should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, that Star Trek Online will also be switching to a Free to Play model later this year.

How will this affect the game? Well, since they haven’t released any details about how it will be set-up yet, I can’t rightly say. However, I do know, that Champions Online blended seamlessly into it’s F2P model, and I imagine the game company will take similar steps toward making the STO F2P model work.

My only concern is UGC. How will this F2P model impact UGC and it’s content creating community? I am sure free accounts won’t be able to create missions, but will they have the ability to play them? Will they have to purchase a pass? So many questions that still need answering.

What’s this mean for my subscription? Will I switch to a free model or continue to subscribe and be a “Gold” character? That answers easy! I’ll remain a gold account. I have been a subscriber since it came out, and I don’t see any reason to switch.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

As far back as the NES days, Castlevania has been known for 2 things — Shitty graphics, and side scrolling action. The newest Castlevania game takes both and throws them out a window.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, like most newer games based on a classic franchise has decided to move from a side scroller format, to a 3D roaming setting. This gives the player more freedom, and gives them a sense of discovery while traversing and exploring their new surroundings. Plus, it’s kind of expected nowadays.

On top of the new roaming setting, the game series got injected with an extra dose of kick-ass graphics, that rival most games currently out.

Let me be blunt, and address the elephant in the room. Yes, C:LoS is a clone of the God of War game series. In fact, someone not really paying attention to what you are playing, could be forgiven for thinking it was God of War III. So, if you hate the God of War games, I am pretty sure you will hate this game. It’s kind of a given.

There are a few issues I have with this game. The first, and the biggest is the difficulty of the game. Instead of gradually increasing in difficulty, allowing you to get comfortable with the controls, C:LoS just decides to let it rip! Thankfully the first boss is easy, but since he’s a tutorial boss, that’s to be expected! After that, your next boss is fairly simple, and not too much of a complaint. The third boss however, is a gigantic pain in the ass! Now, for people who have played God of War, it might be simple, but you’ve had three fucking games to adjust to those gameplay mechanics. It’s like the developers just expected people to have already played GoW, and they feel they don’t need to slowly train you.

Controls of the game, again, an almost exact copy of GoW, so if you are used to it, you will do fine. For me though, I had an issue with the camera controls, or lack there of. This particular issue pissed me off in the GoW games as well. If I want to turn my camera around and look behind my character, I should damn well be allowed to!

Don’t get me wrong, im not saying it’s shit! It has Patrick Stewart doing the fucking voice in there, how could anyone say anything bad about it? That’s like bad mouthing the entire Enterprise crew!

What I am saying however, is that the game wasn’t that enjoyable for me. Some people will love the game to know end. In fact some people do! Like this guy, who apparently loves it so much he decided to become the main character Gabriel Belmont. Creepy? Sure! However, he clearly loves this fucking game!

Also, on the upside, the GoW games are insanely popular, and are playstation exclusives, which means Xbox only owners never had the honor to experience this ground breaking game series. So, since C:LoS is multi-platform, Xbox owners now get a chance to experience something similar to GoW.

World of Warcraft goes Free to Play?!

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MMORPGs are going Free to Play left and right! Recently Age of Conan went free to play, and even more recently City of Heroes announced it too was going free to play. Hell, there’s even talk of sony’s newest MMORPG DC Universe Online going free to play!

For good reason too! Free to Play means bigger money! Lots more people try it and get hooked on it, and end up becoming a premium member, or at the very least spend money to upgrade their character. Me for instance, I am not a big fan of monthly fees, because I am a casual gamer. What would take most MMO gamers an afternoon to accomplish, it takes me about a week. So, it makes more sense for me to slowly buy the newer content for me, as I progress up to the point to access it.

So, it’s a given! Tons of MMORPGs are going Free to Play. In fact most of them. What about World of Warcraft you ask? YES! It already has gone Free to Play – Well, Kind of anyway.

Ok, it hasn’t gone Free to Play.

What it has done however is adopt a limited Free to Play model to take the place of a 10 day trial. Now, you can play the game, and get a good feel for the game, because instead of just 10 days, you can play your character up to level 20, for free! Then, if you want to continue past level 20, just upgrade your account.

Why would World of Warcraft do this though? I mean, WoW is the MMORPG juggernaut right? The King of the hill! Other MMORPGs have to bow down to its greatness right? I mean, I will be honest and upfront here. Even I can’t deny that WoW is the most popular MMORPG on the market, and I detest WoW! Seriously, I really can’t stand the game. I used to enjoy it, and subscribed for a good many years, but then realised that the game never changed. Even the new content was the same old crap with a different name or color.

So, with it being so popular why adopt this new limited f2p/free trial model? I couldn’t say with any certainty. In fact, the only ones who really probably know are the bigwigs in charge of WoW. I can however take a wild guess.

You see, last October World of Warcraft had a staggering 12 million users. However as of January, the amount of subscribers was 11.1 million. Do the math people. In less than a year, World of Warcraft lost 1 million subscribers. So, it’s not really all that surprising that they would introduce a similar strategy to see if they could boost their numbers back up.

Will it work? Probably! As I said, I am not a fan of the game, but it’s a good beginners MMORPG. It’s not overly technical, so it’s easy to get yourself set up and gaming, even if you know nothing about gaming. So, yeah, it will probably increase their numbers! These people will try the game, get hooked, and not want to lose their spiffy level 20 character.

The big question is, will the increased numbers last? Probably not! The game has been around a long time! It’s teetering at the moment, and all it will take is one really good MMORPG to come along and give it that little nudge to push it off its throne. The upcoming Starwars MMORPG looks like it might have the power for that final nudge, however only time will tell.

As usual, I could be wrong about all of this, but I don’t think so!

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

There was a game released on the Playstation 2, Called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I am sure you have heard of it, because it was insanely popular. It was so popular that Disney felt basing a movie on it would be the bee’s knees.

Years pass, and sequels are spawned. The Playstation 3 begins cranking out playstation 2 compilations. It’s no wonder that one of these compilations is the Prince of Persia Trilogy.

People who have never played the games before are given a chance to play these classic stories, in HD, stereoscopic 3D and with Trophies.

One of those people who are experiencing the game for the first time, is me. See, I was never really into platformers back in the PS2 days, in fact the only types of games I would even consider playing were RPGs. As you can imagine, I missed out on playing many great titles.

As time passed, my tastes in games expanded, and now I pretty much enjoy every video game genre imaginable. Except most sports games and all rhythm games. Those suck. I have tried them, and I despise them.

So tonight, I began playing Prince of Persia and the Sands of Time, and I have to admit, I didn’t like it all! In fact, I would go so far as to say it sucks. Not just sucks, but suck much ass!

It’s not that I don’t enjoy platformer games. I love them! In fact the Uncharted game series, is one of my top favorite series! I also love Assassins Creed Ezio Trilogy, I enjoy God of War and Tomb Raider. In fact, I love most platformer games! So, it came as quite a shock when I discovered that I detested PoP:SoT.

I know many people love the game, and most people will say how it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. To them I say, you really need to try a new brand of sliced bread.

So, what do I dislike about the game? So many things! To begin, with the story is very poor. It doesn’t reach out and grab me, and make me want to keep playing to see what happens next. Which is a bad thing, considering the controls feel clumsy and awkward. Usually, even when a game has crappy gameplay, if the story is good, I will keep playing, because I don’t want to be left hanging.

This wasn’t the case with PoP:SoT. In fact, I quit playing less than 2 hours into the game, and have no intention of looking back, or trying the next two installments of the POP trilogy.

Back in my day….

I always told myself, that when I got older, I wouldn’t be one of those people. I wouldn’t go around saying, that back in my day we had things harder than todays children, because at the time, I figured that there was no way kids could get things easier. I mean, we could watch movies in our house whenever we wanted, which was pretty damn cool.Hell, We could even play video games at home without having to go to the arcade! Shit, we even had the fucking internet pop-up in my childhood!

Hell, we even had light-up shoes, cause we were bitchin' like that.

So, taking all that into consideration, the last thing I figured I would ever think, is how we had ANYTHING harder than any generation that would come after us. If anything, I figured the next generation would have it harder, because I assumed that by now, we would be living in an atomic wasteland, because that seemed to be the route the world was taking at the time.

In the end however, we didn’t end up nuking ourselves to Timbuktu, and somehow to my amazement, certain things got easier for the next generation. Not everything mind you, I mean back in my day, I remember when gas only cost like a buck fifty, and now look at how much teens are having to pay for gas! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Suckers!

*points and laughs*

Anyway, the point of this post is so I can do, what I said I would never do, and say the following phrase; Things are so easy now! You know, back in my day shit was so much harder to do!

This time I am going to focus on video games, because video games kicks much ass!

Believe it or not, video games have changed a LOT over the years, not just in terms of graphics and sound, though those are the biggest and most obvious changes, but that’s to be expected! It’s part of technology progressing, but there are also smaller more subtle changes in modern video games, that are in no way associated with the advancement of technology. Changes that were put in place purely to make your video game life that much fucking easier!

Changes like:

RPG Leveling up process

Growing up, I was a huge RPG fan! I loved Pen and Paper RPGs, so it was only obvious that I would try Computer/Console RPGs. When I did, I was hooked! I lived and breathed games like; Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Willow and Phantasy Star.

I remember popping in an RPG and spending a full day practically just walking around the first town, killing monster after monster, building up my experience points so that I could level up enough to take on some tougher monsters that were surrounding the second town.

Days were spent just killing monsters, all so you could get powerful enough to kill more monsters! basically, it was a total grindfest! People complain about how MMORPGs have a lot of grinding, but that’s pretty much how many RPGs were back in the day. Nowadays, you don’t even need to grind! Just start your RPG of choice and move from area to area. By the time you reach your next location, just from “Exploration Experience” you are practically level up enough to take on the boss, if you killed some things on your way there, then you are not only leveled up enough, but probably over-powered!

You don’t need to grind anymore in RPGs, which is a good thing in a way, because it means you don’t need to tear yourself away from the epic story being told. You can remain immersed in the saga. So, I see why it’s that way, but still, it makes RPGs so much more easier!

Passwords

When I first started gaming, many games didn’t have a battery back-up, which meant that you couldn’t save your game! So, in order to allow gamers to play huge epic sagas that took weeks of gameplay, they created a password system. When you went to “Save” your game, you were given a password! Then, when you turned your game on again, you would go to the password screen and input your password to continue your saga.

By the way, when I say password, I don’t mean something like “Heartbeat” or “Horseback” or even multiple worded passwords like “Goat Mountain thunder”. No, that would have been too easy! They were crazy passwords, that used letters, numbers, symbols, lower and upper case sensitivity. Like this password screen:

unfuckingbelievable!

Now, not ALL passwords were that long and insane, some were shorter, some even longer and crazier, but either way it was always a pain in the ass! Especially compared to todays gamers who just needs to press a button and poof! All saved! In my day, most gamers had a notebook, that had all their game passwords scribbled down! Some gamers, like yours truly, had multiple notebooks, because just one wasn’t going to be enough.

Now, that’s just a thing of the past, but….

Speaking of Saving!

…It’s not like you need to anyway! Not only do you not have to fiddle with passwords, but most of the time, you don’t even need to choose a save option! Most RPGs and even non-RPGs have a built-in “Auto-save” feature, which saves the game for you every 5 mins it seems like!

Whereas in my day, if we got too fucking lazy to grab our pen to write down a password, we could lose hours of gameplay due to our characters untimely demise.

Damn Slackers!

Too easy!

Video games nowadays are just way too easy! Sure, some have an option that allows you to choose a difficulty setting, however those same games also have an “Easy” setting in their difficulty list, which basically plays the game for you! Seriously, just set the game to easy and walk away for a half hour, and when you come back, there’s a good chance that you will have finished the damn game!

When I first started gaming, games were nearly impossible! It’s why so many old-school gamers have the konami code burned into their memory! After all, most of Konamis games were impossible to beat without the damn code! Games so difficult, that you literally had to fucking cheat to play it! Even with the cheat, the game was still a challenge!

Watchout for the lazer!

Sure, we had some games that had difficulty settings, and sure they had an “Easy” setting, but most times, unless you were playing a Disney title, even “Easy mode” would be frustrating enough to make you want to rip your hair out!

Clearly a fan of the Contra series!

Take Cover!

Most games started you off with “Three Health Bars” back in the day, which basically meant you could get shot three times, before you came face to face with the dreaded “Game over” screen, which i wouldn’t be surprised if most modern gamers have never seen in their life.

For modern Gamers

Sure, after you got hit and lost a health bar, you could come across a health pack to heal yourself up, but those were few and far between. Your best bet, was to just do everything in your power to avoid getting hit at all!

Gamers today rarely care about any of that, since a lot of modern games don’t even have a health bar! Just run out into the open and shoot shit til your screen is nearly red, then run behind a wall for a second til your case of extreme red-eye goes away, and yer perfectly ready to do it again!

Riddled with bulletholes? Nothing a few seconds rest won't cure!

I’m not saying that all of this is bad! In fact, I understand why games are made easier! Games today focus a lot on story! back when i started gaming, a story consisted of something like this:

Epic saga right?

So, back in the day, stories were more of an after thought! Most gamers didn’t even pay attention to a story, myself included! What would be the point, you see what our stories were! Most of the time, it was better to fabricate your own story in your head as the game moved along!

Nowadays, you have great stories with good voice acting and incredible cut-scenes! Games are made easier, so people can fully enjoy the story of a game, rather than be held back for weeks at a time, while the story is basically paused until you are able to advance it.

Even I play modern games the first time on “Easy”, just so I can experience the story first hand, and then play again on the harder settings.

So, as I said; I get it! That doesn’t change the fact that games in my day were ape-shit harder though. Just sayin’.

Infamous 2 Easter Eggs

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Infamous 2 on the Playstation 3 not only is a great game from Sucker Punch, but it’s also chock full of easter eggs, which isn’t that surprising considering how huge the game world is. Why wouldn’t they hide things that would amuse those who took the time to explore the city that they put so much effort into.

Here are just three easter eggs I have discovered, as well as some screen shots of the easter egg. If you have found some, please share with us, by posting a comment below!

Red Ring Electronics is apparently a chain of electronic stores located in New Marais, as it can be found in several locations throughout the city. This is obviously a jab at the Xbox 360, and its “Infamous” Red Ring of Death.

While traveling through New Marais, you will eventually make your way to the red light district, which is full of brothels and theaters showing movies, apparently named after popular video games. Two titles not shown in the above screenshot is “Call of Booty” and “Uncharted Love”.

The above screenshot can be found written on some of the Roof tops in Flood Town, and if you are having trouble reading it, it says “I AM STARVING!” and then below it, someone has scrawled in orange text “You can has Cheeseburger”, which if you have spent more than 15 minutes on the web, you probably already know about the website: icanhascheezburger.com, which is obviously what the above is a reference to.

So, what have you found in your journey through New Marais?!

Another MMORPG going Free to Play

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As time goes on, more and more MMORPGs are adopting Free to play business models. In fact, recently we have been hit with a flood of commercial MMORPGs going Free to play. Titles such as EverQuest 2, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Champions Online have all opened a free-to-play option in their games, which allows they gamer, to pay for the game at their own speed. After all, not all gamers live on their MMORPG of choice. Not everyone plays enough to go from level 1, to level 80 in a weekend.

So, as I mentioned their are a ton of MMORPGs already offering free-to-play, and now a new one will be joining the already large, and still growing list. The game, is Age of Conan. So, if you are a fan of Conan, and want to explore the bloody world of hyboria, then all you have to do is wait. I am not sure what type of Free-to-play model they will be adopting, but I am thinking probably similar to Lord of The Rings Online. Time will tell I suppose.

My Star Trek Online Wishlist

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One of the best MMORPGs on the market right now, in my opinion is Cryptic’s “Star Trek Online“. Not because of the IP, but because it’s a really well-developed game! Sure, the name “Star Trek” is what first attracted me, but it’s the game play that has kept me subscribed for the last year.

After all, a good IP does not guarantee a good game. Take Star Wars Galaxies for instance, or Star Trek Armada. Both had great IP’s and majorly suckage games.

So, what makes STO stand out from the rest? Well, to begin with the game is always improving. The developers care enough about this title, to go to great lengths to keep it from getting stale. Things are always being added, or improved. In fact, STO has only been out slightly over a year, and already the game has seen more advancement and improvements than any other MMORPG I have played. They have remastered older episodes to add cut-scenes and voice overs, and to make the missions more involving and epic.

Not to mention the foundry which allows you to create and share your own star trek missions with the game community. This means there is a constant stream of new content being added daily, from some very creative minds.

Is the game perfect? No, of course not, but it’s well on its way to getting there! Here are a few things that could be added that would increase my enjoyment of the game.

1) More factions: Currently you can play Federation and Klingon, but I would love to see some other playable factions. The Romulans, Cardassians or even the borg.

2) More visitable iconic planets: Currently you can beam down to a handful of iconic star trek planets. Like Andoria, Vulcan and Risa just to name a few, but I would love more! Ferenginar or Earth for starters! Sorry, I don’t count Earth Space Dock as earth.

3) UGC Slots: Some more slots for making UGC in the game would be nice. It would be a shame if people started deleting some of the great missions available, so they can make new ones.

4) Non-STF mission versions: This probably seems really stupid to people, but one thing I would like to see is versions of the end game missions that don’t require STF. Maybe have the Non-STF versions not give rewards or drops, but there just for the story. Fact of the matter is, I play games for the stories and in an STF(Raid) people tend to rush, which means others who might not have experienced it, miss out on some kick ass storylines. If they had a non-STF version with no rewards, people could play through it for the story, and then play the STF version for the epic lewtz while everyone is rushing around like mad-men.

5) More Q!: Come on, who doesn’t love Q? How about some Q love?? Give us some Q missions, or a Feature Episode series starring Q.

6) Favorite Authors: Since the arrival of the Foundry, the STO community has been blessed with some great missions and authors. Some authors create incredible Feature Episode style missions as well. So, it would be nice if there was a way to tag an author as a favorite, so that you can be notified when your favorite content creators publish a new story for your gaming enjoyment.

Anyway, those are just a few of what I would like to see.

Duke Nukem Forever: June 14th

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I have to admit, I never thought it would happen. At least not in my life-time! Yet, it’s almost here; The release of the king of Vapor-ware: Duke Nukem Forever(Or as some used to refer to it as, Duke Nukem Forever in development)! June 14th 2011 is the date, that the game will grace PS3’s and Xbox 360’s(And of course PCs).

I have been looking forward to this game release for close to 14 years, and now that it’s finally drawing close, I have to say I am not that anxious. Mainly because, I am fully aware, that no matter how kick-ass this game turns out to be, there is no way in hell it will be 14 years of waiting kind of kick-ass! For 14 years I have been building this game up in my head, and to be honest there is no way in hell that the developers could have come out with anything that will say; “See? Wasn’t it worth the 14 years waiting?”

Anyway, it’s good that it’s finally coming out, and I will definitely give it a play-through, but I don’t have high-hopes for it.