Nick Rempe

Bulletin Bill has started. This year I am starting a new project...

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:11:27 -0600

Bulletin Bill has started.

This year I am starting a new project that I hope will be mildly successful. It is called Bulletin Bill, a community published and distributed video game magazine. I am still working out some of the details, but I can promise that content will be showing up very soon. I ran into one major problem this weekend and I hope that the details get ironed out before Monday, but it isn’t looking very good.

Right now, you can see the initial post and the landing page for Bulletin Bill at www.bulletinbill.com

I have been playing a bunch of games, but mostly for...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:59:49 -0600

I have been playing a bunch of games, but mostly for trophies/achievements.

Currently, I purchased PixelJunk Shooter (pictured above) and have been loving that. On the side, I have been playing Brutal Legend, Battlefield: 1943, and Batman: Arkham Asylum to clean up all the remaining trophies/achievements that I have. This is super tedious as it is boring to read about. I think that playing the multiplayer aspect of these games is making me more agitated and annoyed. Battlefield is still pretty decent, but it feels like I always get placed on the losing team and that this team only has me to lead them to victory. Brutal Legend is still awesome, but the multiplayer people playing it are completely serious about what they are doing, to the point that they are lynching me for picking a wrong army or geyser. It’s awful.

Anyway, I am off to work out and work a little. I hope that I get more time to sit and play some titles.

Nolan North, the voice of this console generation. Uncharted 2...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:08:07 -0600

Nolan North, the voice of this console generation.

Uncharted 2 took the Game of the Year award at this year’s Spike Video Game Awards. This is a good thing because I feel like I need more validity when it comes to how awesome Uncharted 2 is. I can only say so many things about the game when people start to tune me out. But what I am tired of saying is that it is a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Exclusivity is a hurdle that I wish we didn’t have to do jump. I never have thought that in the future after Nintendo, that we would have four huge consoles fighting over marketshare, as well as mobile/portable alternatives. With the popularity and saturation of the consoles, games are flooding shelves and the competition is almost impossible unless your marketing budget is as high as some movies.

To hear that some people haven’t had the pleasure of playing Braid, Miner Dig Deep, or Fat Princess is disheartening, but it is an effect of the marketplace.

I have it all, I wish my PC went a little faster, I wish I had some extra cash to spend on games, but I am glad that I don’t have decisions. Uncharted vs. Gears of War. Metal Gear Solid vs. Halo. Pixel Junk: Eden vs. Shadow Complex.

I wish Nolan North would even out the playing field with an “one console that plays everything” and call it NN64.

Busy

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:17:40 -0600

I had a rough week at work last week, then had a couple days to catch my breath, only to fling myself back into the fray at the tree farm. It really isn’t draining on me, I did get to play a good chunk of Mass Effect, but not as much as I would like.

Because of this, I am getting a longer Christmas break and putting all my chips in for that weekend being bangin’ awesome.

I will try and get some writing done, but I have no motivation to do so. If anything does get posted, treat it like gold. I am going to catch up on Yo Gabba Gabba appearances, the Jack Black one made me shit myself.

Geth Death. Playing through Mass Effect for the first time and...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:03:46 -0600

Geth Death.

Playing through Mass Effect for the first time and glad that I am not alone. There is a small, but popular LTTP thread on GAF that is following someone’s first play-through of Mass 1 (or so that is what the Bioware doctors call it). This game has its hooks in me pretty deep.

Space soap opera, this is the best way to describe it. But since the action is much more exciting than in Star Trek, you keep coming back to it. After turning it off, I will usually boot it up within the next day and try go get some time in. But it isn’t just an hour, it usually is two or three… which would explain why I am writing this post so late.

I am sure that I am a few hours away from blue alien sex. This is very exciting.

This is truly the age of dragons

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:34:16 -0600

Two weekends ago, I sat on a couch with Zach and Rod thumbling through the first few hours of the Dragon Age: Origins as an Elf/Warrior/Commoner campaign. It was - for lack of a more epic, dragonish descriptor - amazing.

The problem with Dragon Age: Origins is that it comes with a helping of “you just don’t get it”. Nicole was driven to sleep by the dialog and the amount of time that we were spending messing with the radial menu. I come from a land of Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate where my entire teenage years was spent being weaved into the stories, menus and mechanics of these games. I have invested into titles that today seem dull and static to Nicole. Dragon Age: Origins is a refinement of these systems with a healthy amount of cutscenes, dialog, camera work, voice acting and visuals to keep your mind busy forever. Just watching through most of the beginning, you are constantly reminding yourself to go back and explore, or reroll a character to act a certain way. This game is only attractive to those kinds of people, but it doesn’t have enough “wow” factor to keep an casual onlooker interested. But that isn’t the point of the game, it is more of a love letter to people that have already spent the amount of time on Bioware’s previous titles.

I remember specifically spending a few hours dungeon crawling in Diablo 2 while under a blanket, with a heater underneath it and waiting until we could dig ourselves out of the snow in order to go to school. Television didn’t appeal to us a teenagers as much as a high fantasy video game did.

I have been spending a lot of time with Dragon Age: Journeys and have come to an idea that I don’t want to play games like this in the browser, it lessens it. I really do want to download it for free and put it into fullscreen so that I can take advantage of all the prehistory. I hope to get a copy for Christmas and to spend 4 relentless days pouring over menus, drops and dialog. I would like to give Journey’s the same attention, but it is built for me to treat it like a red-headed stepchild. I have been conditioned by Flash games to only spend five minutes playing them and then leave. But do I only have this repulsion because of the other bazillion things to play?

Best Buy will have Dragon Age: Origins for $35 on Black Friday, this has been added to my list of things to do on that specific Friday. The other part of the list - and there is only one other thing I have to do - is play more Borderlands.

CAN’T WAIT!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:49:54 -0600

CAN’T WAIT!

Sorry for all the Modern Warefare 2 hate. This video shows that...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:49:14 -0600

Sorry for all the Modern Warefare 2 hate. This video shows that hidden gems do exist in a serious game. If any of these things happened in the multi, I would have shit my pants.

What's old is new

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:43:54 -0600

New Super Mario Brothers Wii.

Who would of thought that we would be sitting here and accepting a game (a game with high praise that is) with “New” in the title? 5 years ago, I would of told you that it didn’t exist. It couldn’t exist. It shouldn’t exist. That was before New Super Mario Brothers on the DS. When I got that game on launch, I was thrilled to play a Mario platformer on DS especially that Mario 64 left such a poor taste in my mouth (Mario 64’s controls did not transfer to the DS, it’s all about that trigger Z button on the 64). But this was hard to swallow, “New” was in the title.

Sure I smoked it, I loved it, but there was a lot of weird things to do in it. The multiplayer is strange and not that much fun. It could be because I was playing with my brothers, but just doing a competitive game within a small level wasn’t really worth programming. Give me another world or level. Another hype factor in the game was the mega mushroom. You only used it maybe twice in the game and it only was effective for 15 seconds, it was bullshit.

Now we are on the cusp of the biggest release of the year in my opinion. Sure, everyone had their renaissance on Tuesday with Modern Warfare 2 but this game is much more than a shooter with a killer online attached. This is the game that you will purchase, sit with friends that have all played a platformer before, and hand hold each other through the levels of the Mushroom Kingdom. This will relight the nostalgic kindle in your heart and keep burning for as long as you have people around to play with you.

It will outsell Modern Warfare 2, it will be much more fun that Modern Warfare 2, and people are doing themselves a disservice thinking otherwise. I mean, how revolutionary was shooting civilians anyway?

I will answer that with another question.

How revolutionary is the penguin suit?

I have been chipping away at Batman: Arkham Asylum. It...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:24:24 -0600

I have been chipping away at Batman: Arkham Asylum. It doesn’t help that there are about 20 other games I want to be playing, but Batman is extremely compelling.

Batman is a detective. Using this mechanic it slows the pace of the game down a little and allows you to really soak in everything about Arkham Asylum. Making this a smaller more manageable space, than let’s say a GTA4, really gets you familiar with the entire layout of the complex. I am fairly confident that I can cruise from one area of the game to the other with extreme ease and speed, much like Batman. The detective mode also lends itself to familiar gameplay in Metroid Prime. Scanning things, finding ways to get out of situations, exits, gargoyles and finding Riddler clues is really fun. These supply more longevity to the game, especially for completionists. It’s extremely awesome.

Voice work. The original cast from the animated series signed on to do the voices and the nostalgic value keeps me listening for more. Joker, Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Harley and Riddler already have a vocal attachment to me, and when the interview tapes play, it is like having these nuggets from the television show at your disposal. Also, Joker is constantly on the PA making fun of you or lecturing his cronies.

Weapons and upgrades. You gain a lot of weapons to help you in Arkham and all of them are fun to use. Using your XP to purchase other weapons, or fun Batman-like toys is also interesting. I played with the remote controlled Baterang for like 40 minutes. Also, whenever Batman uses the explosive gel he draws a bat on the wall/floor. It’s obvious that this guy has issues, but really, I can’t believe they are taking it this far. Batman dreams, lives, breathes bats all the time. I can get into this.

I haven’t messed with the challenge rooms or passed the game yet. I am still taking this game as a slow burn, but please be patient with me. It is a perfect shit storm out there right now, AND NEW SUPER MARIO BROTHERS WII COMES OUT ON SUNDAY.

Shit.

Criminals

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:57:00 -0600

me: liz have you ever had friends get into an accident and then fight their case in court?

Elizabeth: not that i know of...

me: k

Elizabeth: are you guys trying to decide if you should fight it or not?

me: yes

she is pissed because i am calling her a criminal

since my family has no criminal background, i told her to call her mom up

or her brothers

that didn't go over well

Elizabeth: hahaha....awww i'm sure it didn't

me: kewl, i am going to keep researching

Elizabeth: yeah....because did you say that if she fights it then it won't hurt her insurance?

me: yeah

i am pretty sure it goes up

and she is the only reason why it is so high in the first place

Elizabeth: awwww

poor nicole.

October is over, now back to normal

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:01:15 -0600

October was full. Full of weddings, outings, parties, birthdays, schedule conflicts and thanks to Nicole’s crazy weekend, car wrecks. I am more prepared for November and feel like I have a one up on the entire month. When I get busy, I play a lot of catch up and tend to stay up for inhuman amounts of time trying to wedge everything in. On top of work, I had exercise, and three fantastic games to play through before the wreckage of November hit.

Here we go. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Incredible. Brutal Legend - Incredible. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Incredible.

I really hope that I can spend more time in Brutal Legend’s multiplayer mode. Riddler’s puzzles need to be solved. Nathan Drake needs to score some money in multiplayer and find all the treasures. There is so much in these games that it is baffling why they would all release in the Fall.

Chris’ birthday on Thursday, Sunday with family, and Thanksgiving with Nicole’s family. Better stock up on beer and whiskey now.

Zombieland/Brutal Legend/Batman: Arkham Asylum

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:51:13 -0500

Zombieland was a surprise. I thought for sure that it would be a little better than average, but I found that I was laughing a lot more than I usually do in a theatre. Especially during the Bill Murray cameo, everything they wrote for that section of the movie was comic gold. It felt good, 90 minutes was perfect, and the company that I went to the movie with was comfortable. But a few words for those fine folks at Wynsong, “You dicks have a mold problem FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT.”

I just beat Brutal Legend and am currently starting my second play-through. I pretty much love everything about the game, you can really tell when they tailored the entire game as a love letter to metal. Which is something that I am really, really attracted to. But the writing, voice work, animations, gameplay, MUSIC, cameos, fucking everything is so fitting that I really could care less about flaws. I can’t wait to polish up my skills in multiplayer and take it to Xbox Live. Game of the year, easy.

Batmang is something that is said around the house a lot. For example, if something is broken, I approach the situation the way Batman would. So when I am playing Batman, it is almost second nature. It is like playing the Superman version of myself in a videogame. Either way, I am not done with it yet and it is pretty engaging. I will type more tomorrow.

I am now awake after staying up all night at the Val Air...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:21:00 -0500

I am now awake after staying up all night at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines watching a fake metal band play. There is a gigantic difference between watching a normal show and then a show based off a cartoon that airs for 15 minutes once a week.

What they did during the Dethklok show was play video to accompany the music that they were playing. We would watch an intro video about Tribunal having a plot to turn the fans into mutants in order to stop the cashflow going to Dethklok. Then throughout the night, we would touch on that story as we were getting other videos between songs. We also watched the important problems that plague all metal shows and how to cope with them from Facebones. After that, we took a look behind the scenes which showed what really goes on during Dethklok shows. This extra content was top notch and I was surprised that they put all this energy into the show. I thought I was going to go watch a fake metal band play songs and joke about it but I was dead wrong.

The other thing that impressed me was when they would play a song, they would accompany the shows music video with it, but with Murmaider and Thunderhorse, they completely redid some of the art just for the concert. Murmaider in particular was incredibly well done with naked mermaids killing lobstermen, it was completely insane from start to finish.

I didn’t have any beef other than the typical douches that would roll up to these shows. Some kids got into a fight, some threw shit up on stage, it varied but I found it very strange from my 27-year old perspective. I was expecting a 50/50 nerd/douche ratio, I got more of a 3/97. Which is really disappointing because the show was so well done. If I would have known they were going to put all this production into this show, I would of been more aggressive in getting people to go.

In conclusion, I have basically seen a 90-minute Metalocalypse episode that you haven’t seen and you never will see.

About Nicole's Birthday Present

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:23:00 -0500

me: well, we'll see
at least i don't that we'll file for divorce this year
i forgot the word think after i
Elizabeth: you may not use the D word!!!!!
ridiculous.
heck no. nicole will be so excited.
awww...cheesy moment...i miss you guys.
me: I'm allergic to dairy

Audio

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:16:28 -0500

Fat Princess is on my PS3. Which means that I have been playing...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:49:31 -0500

Fat Princess is on my PS3.

Which means that I have been playing it. Which means that I have been loving it. Distill everything that makes TF2 great, add some cuter graphics, remove twitch and add cake. So far I lean more towards the worker, until I start feeling cocky and move up to a more offensive position. The way they made being a worker fun yet still feel like you are contributing is great. The visual cues on screen help a lot and let you forget unnecessary communication or chatter, that is a great thing to have when most people on PS3s do not have headsets (BTW Sony, pack that mother in the boxed product please).

I am done for the night, caffinated cake rush has diminished. Now for an all day wedding, or should I say legalized naptime?

I just finished all the DLC for Fallout 3. I did what every...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:02:48 -0500

I just finished all the DLC for Fallout 3.

I did what every noble man who is in love with Bethesda would do, purchase them as they are released. Sure, I might be spending $50 on top of the $60 I paid for the game, but it is called brand loyalty for a reason. Much like Apple, there is a tax for being first.

Anyway, was it worth it? Yeah, I have played Fallout 3 for about 100 hours, which is nuts. But at $1 an hour for entertainment, I am willing to pony up. This is what I think of the DLC parts, from greatest to worst…

1. Point Lookout

2. Mothership Zeta

3. The Pitt

4. Broken Steel

5. Operation Anchorage

Now I didn’t figure in the level 30 cap that you get when you purchase Broken Steel, just buy that one anyway for the level cap increase. The game of the year edition will be a steal at $60 and be on sale sometime before Christmas, that is what I would focus on if you didn’t play these DLC components as they came out.

I will talk later but I have some Fallout achievements to wipe up.

Eff Dave Matthews, I think that Mastodon is brilliant.

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Eff Dave Matthews, I think that Mastodon is brilliant.

(The photo is from Uncharted 2, buuuuuttt…) Uncharted:...

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:49:00 -0500

(The photo is from Uncharted 2, buuuuuttt…) Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is in my PS3 and I am playing it a lot.

I need to say that I am only half finished with this game and that my final thoughts will come later, but there are a few things I need to get out there so that I can remember them. Now on to some positives…

The animation of the characters, facial expressions, voices and overall aesthetic is something that really should be talked about more about this franchise. I have an overall feeling of how Nathan works in the environment, what he will interact with or how is dialog will fit the situation on screen. The same goes for the other players, they all feel very real and believable. These characters are set up to tell an interesting story that is being bogged down by the gunplay.

At the beginning of the game, you are given a few puzzles and environments to traverse through with little conflict. The combat feels great at some times, which is entirely dependent on how many guys you are fighting on screen. The sweet spot is about four, when it gets more than that, you start to notice that you are no longer in control of the situation and start to make mistakes. It is too bad that some of the weapons are hard to use as effectively as you would like when confronted with a large amount of bad guys. Often, I would run out of ammo and result in using the grenades which were a pain to use because of the tacked on six axis controller functions. You would have to aim, then tilt for distance. It takes some getting used to, but right now, I am still not comfortable with it. The only problem with the combat is that it happens way to often. You are given a 15/85 mix of puzzle or adventure/shooter. That means that 85% of the time, I feel like I am not that in control, that almost every confrontation is a gamble to whether or not I will make it out alive. But in comes the games saving grace.

The cover system is needed and on par with GoW with me. I find it easy to transfer to other places on the map and hide in cover. When you are blind-firing, you can get it to work to your advantage as a distraction, but you can also zoom in and start landing in some head shots. This slows down the progression of the game, especially since I am not the run and gun Halo type. However, this ultimately creates another problem I have always had with the GoW games, which is the whack-a-mole gunplay. Basically, when combat happens, run up to cover, stay there, shoot when they pop out, rinse, repeat until the end of the game. Fortunately, the game mixes it up by adding other elements so that you always don’t feel like you are running through a maze and shooting guys. The waverunner segment was good, but when it came to completely stopping so that you could shoot whoever was bugging you, it started to show some problems. It wasn’t fun to ride the waverunner, it was just a new set of legs to make me feel like I was transversing the maze faster. Either let me shoot or let me drive, being both isn’t working for the game.

My eyes are getting heavy and I need to lay down, I will continue when I finish Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I can already tell that I will end up loving every minute of the game regardless of the combat flaws.