Video Game Bash #7: Microsoft Exclusives

My last weekly Video Game Bash was in May. Sorry to anyone who kept wondering when the next one would be posted. I was tired of bashing games, so I took a very long, very unnecessary break. I'm back with Video Game Bash #7:

I hate how Microsoft throws words like "Only on XBOX" out without any meaning behind them. It was a marketting ploy, a good one at that. Sure, Halo was exclusive to the Xbox, but it didn't stay that way, not even for a very long time, and it wasn't brought to PC via an emulator, either!

Wait, I have to revert what I said, "and it wasn't brought to PC via an emulator," to "and it was coming to the PC via hackers until Microsoft decided to port the game to Windows Vista."

I mention this because of a now abandoned project, CXBX, which was planned to convert Xbox XBE files to Windows EXE files. It was something Microsoft didn't like, because they want money above anything else, and Halo was probably already planned to be ported eventually... so Microsoft completely disregarded the exclusiveness of Halo on the Xbox and brought us a slightly improved Halo for PC, which also had an optional modding studio called Halo: Custom Edition.

Thanks, Bungie. I bought Halo for my Xbox, when it was brand new, and I never saw any new content for it; these PC players got frequent updates and a huge modding community with an official level editor! Why can't I have the new features, too?!

This didn't end with Halo. No, this continued through Halo 2. Once Halo PC was released, Xbox got a bit of a consolation prize, Halo 2. It sure was great... for a few hours. Unfortunitely, Halo 2 didn't have a level editor, but it did look better and have greatly improved weapon assortment. Also, the vehicles were breakable, stealable, and boostable, wait, isn't that the same as stealing?

Anyway, I bought Halo 2 on its release date, just so I could be one of the cool guys for a short while. I even got the Limited Edition version of the game, which really didn't offer anything special other than the neat case. After that, I realized I didn't like the campaign. I was really only playing a multiplayer fragfest. I already had that from Unreal!

Moving along, I kept hoping for Live updates to fall in my lap, since Halo 2 was able to be played online, but I didn't pay for Xbox Live. No way! I had XLink Kai. This is where Halo 2 shined. For hours, every single day, I would chat with 6-15 other players in the matches, and some mysterious ghost character would show up. He would appear, disappear, he never walked, he even threw grenades backwards and always stuck someone. It was freaky, but I was a geek, so I knew something fishy was going on. I got into the modding community and learned all I could about softmodding my console, just to modify Halo 2. I was really inspired, I know.

Long story short, I modded Halo 2 (even made a few Halo 3 style weapons), but it was very difficult and nowhere near what you got to accomplish with Halo: Custom Edition. After a while of being bored of Halo 2, even after modding it, an expansion pack (the Multiplayer Map Pack) was released both on Live as a download and in retail stores as a DVD with some rather dull video content as a bonus. It was pretty neat, but it didn't entertain me at all, because it was pretty much just for multiplayer matches and didn't even offer any interesting gameplay changes; no new weapons or anything!

Once Halo 3 was announced, all Halo 2 players shit their pants at the thought of how awesome it probably wouldn't be. However, it was the driving force in Xbox 360 sales, and I can't argue that Halo 3 is bad, because it is actually quite awesome. The point of my saying this is simply: I don't have a Xbox 360, so I was actually happy to hear that Halo 2 was coming to PC. Unfortunitely, it was being made specifically for Windows Vista, which is the biggest pile of shit I ever saw... and I see a lot of shit.

Moving on, Halo 2 was no longer an exclusive to the Xbox, and the PC version got a built-in level editor. (Bungie was kind enough to supply two new maps to the Xbox version, Derelict and Hang 'Em High. Yes, Halo 1 conversions. Sad, isn't it?) Halo 3 got a built-in item-placement engine called Forge, which everyone considers as a level editor. I can't help but wonder whether or not Halo 3 will be released for PC in the next couple years, and, if it is released for PC, I'm sure it will have a level editor, as well.

The moral of this drastically long story is: Don't trust Microsoft.
Oh and the only advice you should take from this post is that the Halo series isn't "Only on XBOX" and Halo is even the most likely Xbox game to be successfully played through an emulator.

Hope you enjoy all the goodies hidden in this post. See ya!

MCR (MyCokeRewards) Codes

I'm giving away 15 MCR codes! You can simply comment on this blog, asking for the codes, or you could join Syboard and send me a private message there.

I'm accustomed to people asking why I'm giving these codes away (instead of using them myself), and I must explain: It's an advertising gimmick. It makes people visit my blog more than normal. Also, I already got a bottle opener from MCR last year. I would rather just give the codes to someone else than spend them on the crappy prizes. Hopefully, my codes will help someone get a good prize.

The video game bash will be back shortly.
(I got tired of bashing games for a while.)

Weekly Game Bash #6: Lost Games

I'm on time this week! Anyway, I started adding subtitles this week. I just think it helps you to find what you're looking for, even if it's somewhat vague.

In my previous bash, I mentioned a new Zelda fan game, and, this week, I want to cover games lost to the void. To start us off, Nintendo created the Zelda series, which spawned many fan creations, but whenever something good came along, Nintendo bit us in the neck and sucked out all our ideas.

For example, Graal Online used to be a Zelda MMORPG, but Nintendo sued, and Zelda Online became the less popular Graal Online. Soon after that, Graal became a pay-to-play game, because the developers got depressed or something, but the biggest annoyance is the fact that Graal private servers don't last long and are never given much thought. Also, if you want to create an official playerworld, you have to pay Cyberjoueurs. You're essentially paying to work. Make sense?

Another example is how Four Swords came after this 2-player Zelda game. Unfortunately, the creator of the 2-player game vanished, and his site went kablooie.

Yes, it seems a majority of the lost games are Zelda tributes, but another game I miss is the old Runescape. Sure, we have a much more powerful engine now, but I can't find a working RSClassic server anywhere, and JaGeX no longer supports it. This means the game is lost and may never be found. However, if you know of a nice RSClassic server to play, send me the link, because I would love to play it again.

On an unrelated note, I may have more MCR codes soon. I save them up just to give them away. Am I nice or what?

Weekly Game Bash #5

This time around, I decided I would 'bash' something I love: Zelda! The "Legend of Zelda" games rather.

I love the third game, "Link to the Past," also known as Z3 or Zelda3. It was apparently favored by others, too, because it inspired Graal Online's creation, and I hear of the game constantly on review sites (Graal and Z3). Z3 had a very addictive musical score, and the graphics had their own style.

However, the game had its flaws, loads of flaws, and most of the flaws were fairly noticeable. The enemies, for example, were extremely dumb. They all either had fixed movement or simply ran after you. Another flaw was how easy it was to find rupees, the currency in the game. You simply had to chop bushes to shreds or blow them up. You could also run straight through the bushes if you had the special boots. The problem with this is that you have an endless supply of money but nothing to spend it on, nothing worth your time, anyway.

Moving on, let's look at "Ocarina of Time," also known as Zelda64. You guessed it, the game was for the console called Nintendo 64. I loved Zelda 64 as well, and the music got even more addictive, but the game had some very, very annoying flaws, and by 'annoying' I meant Navi, your faerie companion. Navi yelled at you throughout the game, even when you did things right. She constantly reminded you that she was tagging along by blurting out words like "Listen!" and "Hey!" Yes, I wish I could kill her, too.

Finally, I got to play "Twilight Princess," also called TP, which is an amazing coincidence, because it actually cleans up the filth that makes the Zelda series somewhat tiresome. It still has you go after a sword, then, a shield, and even a bomb bag, but that's what we've come to expect of Zelda games, and TP gives you that nostalgic feeling like you've been to all these places before, even though the world is completely different. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it could be.

Even in TP, you cut bushes for money. Well, you cut tall grass, anyway. Most people believe you cut bushes in all the games, but really, there are some exceptions, like the first two games. Still, the bush-whacking scene is pretty much owned by Nintendo.

It's pretty hard to find flaws in a game you love, but I can clearly see tons of flaws in the Zelda series, and I love the Zelda series, but the huge flaw is not necessarily a flaw in each game but a flaw in the games as a whole. If you've played more than one Zelda game, you know the stories are not linked to each other, and you know that every time you play a Zelda game, you will start fresh. At the beginning of TP, you were the boy, Link, without any weapons or tools or even a horse, even though you received a horse named Epona in "Ocarina of Time." Actually, they even recycle the names of characters, even the horse you get in TP is named Epona. Seriously, do we care to have the stories or do we want Zelda games to make sense?

For closure, you may want to check out the videos of this Zelda MMO. Graal was called Zelda Online until its makers got into trouble with Nintendo's lawyers. Let's see how long this project lasts... once it's playable.

Weekly Game Bash #4

This week, since I'm very interested in programming games, I thought I would point out mistakes the professionals have made in their best and most popular games. This isn't as much a bash as it is a quick reference of common game design flaws, and you shouldn't think these games are bad just because I have pointed out their flaws. Try the games if you can.

Just because I'm obsessed with it, let's start with Sauerbraten. Its biggest flaw is the lack of control over what players do. Almost everything is done clientside. This means that you could use as many macros as you like online and get away with it. There is no security. Furthermore, not as much of a flaw as it is a missing feature is the ability to make intersections in the cubes. This feature isn't really needed, but it would make some small tasks a lot easier.

Moving on, I have been playing Sim City 3000 again recently, and I noticed that I couldn't find any way to use the onramp tile. It confused the heck out of me. This is a flaw in the design of the game's menu. There should have been some tooltips or something.

One of the most popular games today is Halo, well, the Halo series. One major flaw in the first game was the lack of online play, and you can fix that by either playing through XLink Kai or playing the PC version of the game, which brings me to the major flaw in the series: The PC version comes out later, but it always has more features. Halo 1 got a very nice level editor and a ton of features you could only find in Halo 2 for Xbox. Halo 2 recently got its PC counterpart, which also got a level editor, which was even better than the Halo 3 Forge. Halo 2 was also visually more appealing than anything before it in the series, and Halo 3 didn't look any better. When you make something exclusive to Xbox, don't port it to anything! And if you do port it, give the extra features to the console version as well.


Half-Life 2. Yep, that game everyone says is awesome but never even plays. I have two issues with this game. First, the system requirements are way too high. Second, why the heck do I need Steam!?

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, often referred to as just Oblivion, is off the charts when it comes to system resources. I can't even run the game unless I fully support DirectX9. There's a feature I could easily support software-side, but Oblivion requires it to be run hardware-side. I can't even turn the feature off. However, I think I may have found a hard-to-use workaround.

One more, Runescape, often referred to as RS, is one of the most accessible online games ever. It can be played through your web browser as long as you can run Java, but there's a major flaw in the accessibility of the free version of this game. If you pay to play, never stop paying, because any pay-to-play items you had will not work in the free version, and your bank will become stocked with tons of items you can't even hold onto until you pay again. The big flaw here is your bank will be overflowed with useless items you don't want to lose, and you'll be forced to stop playing that account until you can go to the pay-to-play servers again.

Weekly Game Bash #3

I had some trouble deciding what to 'bash' this time, so I'll just mention a few random games (or so-called games) I've played and mention why I despise them. To start us off, I'm playing the Forsaken MU server. I don't know if the real thing is as bad, but updates take a while, and I get very impatient, waiting to play for just twenty minutes before the next game of my daily routine...

Live Search Club! That's right! I've been saving my points to get a Xbox 360, which is 25000 points, and I already have over 1100 points. The Live Search games have been pretty hard until yesterday, when I got to play a trivia game with Matt Lauer plastered on it. Matt is never going to be a model, ok!? Anyway, the trivia game is all guess work, but you can earn points real fast by tracking the right answers and redoing each trivia session to get as many points as possible. The reason I hate Live search Club is the insanely slow website. It can sometimes take several minutes to load the simplest of games, like the trivia, and the game itself isn't even very graphical. Also, sometimes, MSN loads instead of Live Search.

Worse than Live Search Club is the game that consumed a lot of my youth, Runescape. No, not Run Escape; Rune Scape. It was great in maybe year 2002, when it was still only a pseudo-3d game, when everything was pretty much free-to-play, however, in 2004, most of the game was pay-to-play, and they simply forced all the old players to either convert to their new game or resort to playing private servers, which were never a big deal, because they never acted like the real game. If you've ever played a private server for any MMORPG, you probably understand what I'm talking about, for example, faster movement, including easy teleportation to every important area of the world, and easily leveled-up characters. In, I think, late 2006, I began to, casually, invest time into the 'members' (pay-to-play) version of RS, because I started getting money from my cousin to play it with him, which proves how lonely you can get playing a massively multiplayer game. I recently converted back to the free version, but all my members items are still on me, so I'm forced to either lose all my hard-earned equipment or start paying that monthly fee again. I rather just not play.

Next week, I will delve into game programming and the faults in many popular games, including Halo, Half-Life 2, and Fable. Please, comment on my bashes, because I thrive on feedback.

Weekly Game Bash #2

In the past few years, I've started to consider Halo my favorite first-person shooter or FPS. It was the first FPS I played on Xbox, and few games in its genre ever topped it, on consoles or PC. It was presented as an exclusive Xbox game, which made it very alluring for most Xbox owners. Seeing the "Only for XBOX" stamp on the case made me think, "Oh, a game the PC gamers will finally miss out on!" Obviously, that theory didn't hold true, because a version for PC was developed, and it was much better. I regretted buying the Xbox version of the game.

Then, Halo 2 was released for Xbox owners. Wow, did it suck major balls compared to Halo PC... but I still enjoyed playing the campaign stages, even if the story was complete crap, and I still play Halo 2 online today, well, sometimes... when I'm not playing Sauerbraten.

I know, I know I've mentioned Sauerbraten constantly. That's just further proof of how awesome it is. It even beats Halo 3's Forge, which was hyped to be a marvelous level editor. Forge was, instead, a spawn point modifier. Granted, it has better gameplay backing it, being Halo 3 and all, but Sauerbraten can be played constantly, day and night, never running out of challenges for you.

A quick note: I know I was a few days late with the second video game bash. I'll post another bash topic in about three days to make up lost time.

Weekly Game Bash #1

Every week, I will post about games I don't like and what I hate about a good game...

I was searching around for a good Tifa Lockheart wallpaper, and Google presented me with this Soul Calibur III custom character. That could be any black-haired lady with great breasts! I never actually got to try out the SC3 character options, but I did see quite a few vidocs about it. As far as I can tell, it's like WWF Smackdown 2 from the late PSX generation. Sure, you have a lot of options, but the characters are always so generic. At least, I can make characters in these games, though. Look at Super Smash Bros. Melee or even Brawl. Okay, Brawl has a level editor, but it sucks more than a cheap whore.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Great game. But short. I don't know if it's just my skills or if the game is designed for retards, but I found the story mode to be insanely easy to get through. The final boss was a bit difficult, though. The levels are great, and there are unlockable stages, but the level editor is worse than the Halo 3 Forge. Yes, I hate the Forge, but I'll save that for next week. I absolutely despise the Brawl level editor. It is like a RPG Maker 1995 tile system slapped on a Fighter Maker game engine with almost no opportunity for originality.

Brawl doesn't even make use of the Wiimote! Argh! There's a stage in Brawl based on the most Wiimote-friendly game ever, Warioware: Smooth Moves, yet even that stage has absolutely no opportunity to use the Wiimote sensors. The minigames, nope, no Wiimote usage. The Masterpieces are game demos of real old Nintendo classics, which is pretty kewl, but why play through Brawl to play Zelda for only five minutes when you could just emulate the games on your PC?

Brawl is just a fighting game. All the extra features are crap. Want classic games? Emulate them or buy the real thing. Want to edit levels? You're out of luck unless you want to get into game modding, and I highly doubt Brawl will ever become a mod-friendly game, like Half-Life.