The release of The Elemental Age is just around the corner.  In addition to the gorgeous new item set and other gameplay enhancements, we will be adding two new playable races to the Arena.

Elemental Humans

In thanks for their assistance in defeating the Singlemind, the elementals have imbued some Elemental Allies with the powers of nature.

Orcs

Though the Vistav orcs have long been a feature of the Arena, they are now joined by their exiled brethren, the Flamehammer Tribe.

New Wallpapers

To celebrate the impending Elemental Age, we have also whipped up two gorgeous new Duels wallpapers (Click for full-size versions):

 As game publishers still insist on releasing a full year’s worth of product over the course of about two months (Other game publishers, I should say.  Challenge gives you gaming value 24/7, 365, yo), October through December can be a busy yet incongruously unproductive time for gamers.  When it came time to write my game blog, I was having trouble picking just one of the way-too-many games I have been playing since about mid-October.  So, I decided to write a whole slew of Fun Size reviews to inform and hopefully titillate.  This is actually not a complete list, but for the sake of brevity, I am only including games released this holiday season.

Fallout 3:  One the one hand, Fallout 1&2 are strong contenders for my favorite game ever.  On the other, Oblivion was kind of an ambitious failure, filled with as many flaws and weird design decisions as it was pretty (but plastic) graphics and deep (but easily broken) gameplay.  So, I was cautiously optimistic when I fired up Fallout 3 and, fortunately, that cautious optimism was rewarded.

The game lacks the depth of the original Fallouts. No getting married, then selling your wife into slavery, thus getting your face tattooed as a slaver, thus changing your conversation options for every NPC in game here (In fact, I spent the later portions of the game with a twelve foot tall super-mutant following me around yet, strangely, no one seemed to notice), but that’s okay.  The fact that Fallout 3 sold appoximately a chugillion more copies than Fallout 1 or 2 speaks volumes about the “make it prettier, dumb it down” philosophy at work here and to focus on what Fallout 3 isn’t is to ignore what it is: A really great game that totally works on its own virtues.

Essentially, jamming Fallout into Oblivion fixed most of what was wrong with that game.  There are still a hundred things I could nitpick, but whatever.  Fallout 3 will suck you in like it was made of radioactive quicksand.

Did You Finish It?  Sort of.  I finished all of the main quests and about half of the side quests.  I am planning on going back and getting to the rest at some point before the DLC comes out.

Fable II:  Your enjoyment of Fable II is going to be directly proportional to your willingness to just sit back and let Peter Molyneux tell you a story.  Most of the folks I have talked to about this game were either really, really emotionally engaged in it, or they weren’t.  Luckily, I was in the first group.  While I still don’t think it goes far enough, Fable II makes you really feel the moral consequences of your behavior better than any game I can think of.  The path of good is a hard road that will leave your character poor, weak and physically scarred, the only reward is the adoration of a bunch of irritating commoners and a smug sense of self righteousness.  Evil on the other hand is easier and more profitable, assuming that you can put up with being reviled by these people that you probably hate anyway.  In other words, Fable II is just like real life (Snark, snark snark).

Did You Finish It?  Pretty much.  There were a couple of quests that are only activated after purchasing specific real estate that I couldn’t afford by the end of the story.  Fortunately, in what should become a standard design decision for pretty much all RPGs, Fable II doesn’t end after you complete the last mission.  Rather, it dumps you back into the world, so that you can continue to play the content you left behind and see the effects your final decisions had on the world.  As with Fallout 3, I will be revisiting this game when the DLC is released in January.

Silent Hill: Homecoming:  Not as bad as I was expecting.  Still not great.  Basically, if you thought that the Silent Hill movie improved on the first three games in any way, this is the game for you.

Did You Finish It? Not yet.  I am actually still debating  whether I want to finish it at all.  It is one of those games that is just good enough to keep you playing, but not great enough to become any kind of obsession, or bad enough to make you shut it off with a disgusted but relieved sigh.  Speaking of which…

Mirror’s Edge: Bhaal already covered this game in exhaustive detail so let me just say I pretty much agree with him, except I hated it more.  Like a great actor reading his bad poetry, the game seems to take some kind of perverse pleasure in teasing you with really great stuff and then hiding it behind a second-rate impression of something you didn’t come to see in the first place.  Like running across gleaming rooftops?  Here’s a dank sewer level.  The running mechanics work a lot better than the camera and collision detection?  Have some precision jumping puzzles in your sewer.  Running away works better than combat?  Well, let me just dump you into more than a few sections where combat is your only means of progression.

Also, while Faith is one of the more iconic character designs in recent gaming memory, that is all she is.  A cool design in search of a personality or story.

Did You Finish It? God no.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: I haven’t spent nearly as much time with this as I would have liked (yet), but I can say without a doubt, this game is World of Warcraft.  It improves the things are great about it, doesn’t do much to change what isn’t.  In game cinematics, “Phased” zones and vehicles are all awesome.

Did You Finish It? My Horde Rogue and Alliance Paladin are both 72.  I played about three levels worth of Death Knight.  So, no.  Not even close.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen: In 1992, Dragon Warrior IV just blew my mind.  Sure, the whole thing eventually culminates in a cliched “Chosen one battles evil fated to blah, blah, blah” story, but along the way, playing as a city guard looking for lost kids, a runaway princess, twin dancer/fortune teller sisters and a fat merchant felt like the most innovative story EVER!

So, I picked up the new DS remake, hoping that lightning would strike the same idea twice and maybe this is the nostalgia talking but, yeah it totally does.  The game is still charming as hell with its oddball story and weird phonetic dialogue.  There is a bunch of kind of unsettling neo-Catholicism that I didn’t remember but all in all, quite entertaining.

Did You Finish It?  Nope.  It is my current “Bus Game”, meaning I will probably be on it for a while.

Left 4 Dead: This is the first game in my experience that is actually better to play with a group of random, irritating strangers over Xbox Live.  You see, being trapped in a hopeless situation with a group of angry racist strangers who you would probably murder yourself if you didn’t need to, at the very least, use them as a zombie shield, gets to the heart of the zombie apocalypse concept better than I have ever seen.   The game is at its best when you are just barely hanging on, so when “PhAt_NuggZ69420″ starts gibbering profanity and runs off, only to return moments later, covered in zombie vomit (zomit?) and leading a train of gibbering monsters, Left 4 Dead really hits its chaotic stride.

Did You Finish It? It’s doesn’t have a real “end”, but I did finish all of the scenarios at least once.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood: While I’m not the sort of deviant who would purchase a Sonic the Hedgehog game in this day and age, I am the sort of handsome, upstanding paragon that will buy anything with the word “Bioware” stamped on it.  So, I ended up with this:  The best Sonic game in over a decade and the worst Bioware game ever.

Bioware boldly claims “We’re the story guys!” at every opportunity they get and with good reason.  Unfortunately, the story here is the weakest part.  Which, actually, isn’t really a complaint.  A Sonic the Hedgehog game with a story along the lines of Mass Effect would be absurd and pretentious enough to… Well to be a modern era Sonic game, I guess (not praise).  I think my issue comes with the disconnection between the kiddy visuals, simple story and the freaking brutal difficulty.

Casting spells uses a mechanic similar to (and by ’similar to’, I mean ‘exactly the same as’) Elite Beat Agents’, in which you need to tap, swipe and drag your stylus in specific orders and rhythms to successfully cast anything.  Note:  I said cast.  This isn’t done for bonus damage.  If you miss one note in the damn rabbit’s fifteen part healing dance, you get zero healing.  Nothing.  And you effectively lose that turn.  This renders things like healing extremely unreliable and, thus, more or less uselss.  Despite that, when you get into a good groove and you are doing well, it can be an engrossing little game.

Did You Finish It?  Not yet.  It was “The Bus Game” before Dragon Quest came along and probably will be again someday.

Animal Crossing: City Folk:  Have you ever played Animal Crossing?  Then you’ve played this. The only reason to buy it if you have one of the first two is to have a networked version on a console.  However, if you haven’t played it before, go get it.  I don’t care who you are, how tough or grown up you might consider yourself, the simple charms of Animal Crossing contain powerful magic and will enchant you.

Did You Finish It? You don’t finish Animal crossing.  You live it.  And I am living it.

Persona 4: Haven’t actually played it yet, but on Starry’s recommendation, I ordered it and should be getting it today.

There are actually a bunch other games that I have been playing that weren’t released this year, but I hadn’t had a chance to play previously like Neverwinter Nights 2, Gears of War, Guitar Hero III and Zack & Wiki.  I will probably discuss NWN at some point, and maybe the others as well.

As the launch of The Elemental Age draws near, I will be stopping in to drop (at least) weekly previews of various items, features and art work.

Today, I have art and stats for the new Legendary Fists:

Monos and Dextros - The Hands of Fate Power Rating: 835 One Hand: Fists 45-135 Damage +75 Strength +10% Dodge The Elemental Age Legendary

The brothers Monos and Dextros could mean Strength and Dodge in their native language, as these fists provide a hefty dose of each. Their cousin High Damage and their sister, Reasonable Power Cost are also present.

As the launch of The Elemental Age draws near, I will be stopping in to drop (at least) weekly previews of various items, features and art work.

Today, I have art and stats for one of the new Legendary staffs:

Kalax - The Mindforge Power Rating: 808 Main Hand: Staff 45-135 Damage 100 Armor +75 Intelligence +10% Hit The Elemental Age Legendary

Kalax is a meat and potatoes caster staff that packs a little armor, a hefty intelligence boost, the highest +Hit of any staff so far and, like the rest of this Elemental set, some of the dang purdiest art the game has ever seen.

I will be back again soon with more elemental goodness.  Hopefully I can slip a peek at the new races in…

Mirror’s Edge that is. November was on fire with games. I probably bought more games in the month of November than most of 2008. One of those games was Mirror’s Edge. Mirror’s Edge is from EA’s DICE studio and is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and (soon) PC.

I played Mirror’s Edge on my Xbox 360 with an Xbox Live Gold subscription. I was drawn to the game by it’s stunning visuals and unique gameplay. However, the glitz and glamor didn’t last long. My first problem came up in the demo. Side note: the demo is available as a free download from Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Store. The demo is just the tutorial level for the game - called Playground. You will immediately notice that the button setup is a bit odd. To jump, climb, or wall-run you press the Left Shoulder button while standing, next to a wall, or running next to a wall. To crouch, slide, and roll you press the Left Trigger while standing, running, or falling. These two buttons alone almost kept me from purchasing this game. However, my personal favorite is the Right Shoulder button that performs an instant 180 degree turn. Every FPS should have an equivalent to that. The Right Trigger throws punches when standing, throwing kicks when in the air or sliding, and shooting when holding on to a gun. It’s also used when running into certain doors to open them. But what happened to A, B, X, and Y? These are reserved for the rarely performed actions of object toggling (pressing elevator buttons, etc), getting direction hints, “bullet-time” slow motion, and weapon stealing. These buttons are weird, but together they are a symphony of acrobatics. So, I bought the game.

Strangely enough, the gameplay visuals are actually more impressive than the cut scenes. That’s not to say that the cut scenes are of poor quality. They’re merely a different style of graphics. Dio will vouch for my lack of anime knowledge, but I’ll do my best and say that the cut scenes reminded me of Afro Samurai. I think they chose to go with this style of cut scenes as there are no polygons involved and the next level can be loaded in the background while you watch the scene. The game has done well to simplify things in the world and in the game’s story. The different sides in the game are named “Reds” and “Blues”. The runners (what you are) are the “Reds” and the police are the “Blues”. The story consists of interactions between the two sides which takes you over rooftops, across storm drains, through subway tunnels, into cargo boats, and running along city streets.

I found the story to be the weakest part of the game. I often would lose track of my character’s mission since I would become so frustrated by performing the same extremely complicated string of runs, jumps, and grabs over and over again until the timing was precisely right. I would have preferred to be puzzled on what to do next instead of knowing what to do but not being lucky enough to get it right the first 100 times. Several times I would shut off the game because of this. When I came back to the game later I would realize just how bad the game’s ability to save is.

Like too many games lately, Mirror’s Edge auto-saves checkpoints instead of letting you save when you want. I’ve grown accustom to this form of saving, but I’m befuddled by the mini-saves that only last until you quit the game. It took me awhile to even realize this was the case. I would turn the game on, select continue, and think I was crazy as I swore I had played way past the starting point. Not to mention what it takes to get back to the last mini-save. To get back you have to die. I threw myself off so many high buildings just because of this.

The saving grace of Mirror’s Edge once you tire of the stunning visuals and realize the gameplay’s not so unique after all (God of War, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, etc) is the Race mode. In Race mode you perform time trials on each of the different levels in the game. These levels are unlocked after being completed in Story mode. Finishing a time trial with at least the qualifying time gives you “skill points” that are compared against others and unlocks more versions of the level with different checkpoints to run through. You never race anyone else in real time, but the system records every move you make in the level and replays it in “ghost” form so you feel like they’re really there. Unfortunately EA had to tarnish this wonderful part of the game by requiring you to login with an EA account and agree to some terms of use. I have an Xbox Live account for a reason - the game should be smart enough to make use of it instead of requiring these extra unnecessary steps. I can tell this has had an effect on the number of people who play the Race mode based on being told I’m “this week’s record holder” after I finish a level just a few seconds under the minimum time. What a shame.

In summary, if you’re looking for a visually stunning game, then play the demo a few times. If you’re looking for more God of War/Prince of Persia/Assassin’s Creed gameplay, I suggest renting the game so you don’t feel burned by the lack of replay-ability. If you’re like me and already stuck with the game after paying for it, then don’t forget to play the Race mode. But don’t hope for being rewarded much more than the lack of rewards in Story mode.

Duels: The Elemental Age is set to launch early 2009 and will include:

* 2 new races

* More than three hundred new items

* New elemental themed pets

* New, elemental themed Actions

* A new multi-week serial quest and PVP event that will challenge Duelists of all levels and introduce two all new expansion factions.

* Awesome additional features throughout the expansion!

Just a few months ago, the city of Phyrra found itself under siege. Brave Duelists fought back and with the aid of the reawakened elementals, repelled the Singlemind force. Victory, however,  was not without its price.

Much of the city had been turned into a battleground and large sections, including the House of Healing, the Green Scene and the fabled Hall of Gates now lay in ruin. At the behest of the city’s Archons, the elementals have agreed to stay on in Phyrra and assist in its rebuilding.

Phyrra, the city of Doors is being transformed into a wonderland of natural beauty and labor is required to see the project to completion. The elementals have summoned shamans and druids from across the world to the Elemental Plain and requested assistance in this massive undertaking.

Prologue to ‘The Elemental Age’: Orcs Don’t Dream

Once again, Krunk wakes up to the sound of his own deep, terrified screaming. He is glad to be in the city. The thick stone walls block the sound and the other Flamehammer orcs are spared the shame of his weakness. How could his brethren sympathize with his plight? Orcs don’t dream. Or at least they’re not supposed to.

Before coming to Phyrra, when he was still a Vistav orc, Krunk had feared nothing. Even under constant threat of Red Tide attack, hunting lands scorched and salted, women and children taken in the night rediscovered in the cold morning nothing but used up husks. Even as the specter of death had cast a long shadow over the Vistav Mountains, Krunk had not lived in fear. Rage and thirst for vengeance had been his response to the horrors of existence, fear and cowardice abstract insults with little practical truth.  That all changed the day Grol Flamehammer returned from the Elemental Plain.

The shaman stood before the collected Warlords of the Vistav tribes. He explained that had sought assistance from the elementals themselves. They agreed, but for a price. Far to the south, the elementals had assisted the civilized beings of Phyrra in the face of an unspeakable alien threat: the Singlemind. Though they were triumphant and the invaders repelled, much of the city was razed in the conflict. The elementals had a simple request. The Vistav were to come to Phyrra and assist in the rebuilding. In exchange, the elementals would bless the war effort. Their weapons would be granted the power of storm; the wind would carry their arrows true.

The deal was not well received. Many Vistav saw Phyrra as a decadent Hell, filled with the grotesque flotsam of a thousand diseased cultures. It was no better than slavery to serve those too weak to survive in the true world, outside of the swaddling embrace of stone walls and magic. Others, however, saw pride as a reasonable sacrifice for the final destruction of the Red Tide. Lines were drawn. Blood was spilled. In the end, Grol Flamehammer and his followers were banished. Now homeless, the newly christened Flamehammer orcs set out for Phyrra and their new elemental allies. The trek south was long and brutal. Cold and hunger claimed many lives. More were lost to beasts and each other’s rage. After thirty days, the remaining Flamehammer found themselves on the Emrian coast looking over the gleaming domes of the City of Duels.

If their arrival in the famed metropolis was cause to celebrate, that cause was short lived. Upon arriving in Phyrra, the Flamehammer orcs dreamt for the first time. Or, more accurately, they had their first nightmares. Krunk was greeted that night by a dark reflection of the world he knew. In it he saw a shadow Phyrra: gateway to a thousand hellish worlds. Within its obsidian walls he was assaulted by visions of violence and debauchery so vile as to turn even his stout orcish stomach. The next morning, none of the Flamehammers mentioned the visions. With quiet resolve they set out to make good on their commitment to elementals and the slow restoration of the city.

Once again Krunk wakes up to the sound of his own deep, terrified screaming and, after a few moments of waking confusion, rises and makes his way to the Hall of Gates. The reconstruction zone is a buzzing hive of activity. What were once brown rock walls are being reshaped by great stone, tree and fire elementals, pulsing veins of multicolored magma flowing between thick branches, and encircling columns of solid flame. Were he not half-delirious from midnight escapades into the mouth of horror, Krunk would have been amazed at the lavish natural beauty he was helping to create.

As the sun sets over the domes of the Phyrran skyline, Krunk follows a group of his fellows to a dim underground tavern, formerly known as the Green Scene. It too was nearly destroyed in the Singlemind invasion, though restoration here has been far less impressive. The floor is still littered with debris and deep stains. The orcs sit in this morose pit, drinking silently, late into the night. Though none will express it, they are each loathe to return to their quarters and the dark incubus that awaits them. Too soon, however, Krunk is alone in his tiny stone nook and sleep takes him.

Krunk is harried once again by phantasms from the shadow world. He sees his dark twin, dining on a tiny carcass with a five fingered hand. His eyes go wide with terror, as his twin looks up and smiles, black teeth sticky with meat.
“Bring me more.”

Once again Krunk wakes up to the sound of his own deep terrified screaming. The vision of his own face, darkened and scarred fills his vision. As he rises and makes his way to the Hall, those mirror-familiar red eyes float before him. As he hefts runed blocks of warm, indestructible ice into a fiery scaffold, the glare hovers, boring its twisted desire into him. When he looks his brothers in the eye, he sees this same wary revulsion.

As night falls, the orcs return silently to their quarters. When sleep once again drags Krunk into the foul trench of Dark Phyrra, he is confronted with his savage self, standing in a mockery of the Hall of Gates. The dark Krunk is flanked by enormous black shapes, featureless but for paired white lights, searing his mind with their gaze, making him feel alternating waves of hate, greed, wrath and the need to destroy. Krunk’s dark half embraces him and whispers in his ear, the scent of dead things and dust heavy on its breath.
“Bring them to me.”

And when Krunk wakes, he is not screaming. In fact, a peaceful smile has spread across his tusky mouth. He knows how to make dreams stop now.

First, I must give credit where it is due. Without the guidance of Tadius, I would not be aware of the Persona universe, complete with creepy Shadows, loyal Personas, and teenage characters in cute school uniforms. It was with great anticipation that I waited for the North American release of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, the latest installation in the Persona universe (released last week). The game was definitely worth the wait. Though I’ve yet to finish the game (tons of gameplay), it has already becoming one of my favorite games of all time. Persona 4 follows a murder-mystery storyline that your character stumbles upon. You are cast as an ordinary high-schooler, sent to live in the quiet town of Inaba with your uncle and cousin. Just as you begin to settle in to your new life, mysterious deaths begin to occur all around you. When one hits a little close to home, you and your friends are thrust in to a world unknown to the rest of humanity, with little knowledge to prepare you for the struggles ahead. To help you get through your battles and solve the case, your ability to collect Personas surfaces.

For those unfamiliar with the Persona series, each Persona installation is an RPG based in a universe not unlike our own. Here, people work, go to school, join clubs, and live their daily lives in a similar fashion that we do. There is a dark side to this otherwise ordinary world, though. There exists a place where Shadows roam, and it is your duty to stop them before they stop you. You are given Personas, alter-egos you can call forth to help you in battle, that are talented in their own ways. As you level up through the game, your Personas do as well, and will continue to earn and develop their unique talents. You can fuse different Personas together to create new, more powerful Personas (one of my favorite parts of the game!).

I love the changes made for Persona 4. In Persona 3, the player used a pistol-like weapon to unlock their Persona during battle. In Persona 4, players actually use cards to call forth the Persona of their choice. In Persona 4, you are able to ‘Register’ your current Personas in a Compendium and, for a fee, can call forth those Registered versions whenever you want to. This proves handy when you begin the Fusion process. Another big change in Persona 4 is that you can actually control every character in your team. Instead of relying on the game to pick your friends’ Attacks, you can direct commands for every character in your party (which is a HUGE improvement!). The character stats also were reworked, and Stamina is nowhere to be found (much to my relief- I would get so angry having to quit fighting Shadows because someone in my party got tired!). You just have to monitor your power, and make sure you take enough boosts with you to compensate for losses in battle. Persona 4 has also thrown out the Moon Phases calender, and now delivers a daily-changing Weather Forecast (which you learn to live by).

Persona 4 is a great example of an RPG. As a high school student, there are tons of things to keep you busy and help you improve your attributes. Between going to class, joining a sports team and an after-school club, landing a part-time job, baby-sitting your cousin, and spending time with your friends, how’s a kid supposed to find time to save the world? Fear not, the game plays at your own pace. Though I’ve become obsessed with watching the Weather Forecast in my in-game world, I’m able to choose how I spend my free time and develop my character. Your friends become the Support you need to get through school, as well as battles, and the cast is easy to like. The story is, in my opinion, amazing, and is full of plot twists, action sequences, and plot-enhancing storylines that bring you deeper in to the world.

I love this game. If you like RPGs, don’t hesitate to try this one out. If you aren’t familiar with the Persona series, the game does a great job with introductions and is easy to jump in to. Though the game isn’t for everyone (use of language and apparent ‘partial nudity’ earned this game a rating of Mature in the US), it will delight players who enjoy a mixture of turn-based fighting, role-playing elements, and cute anime characters.

This is my review of playing the game from beginning to end. I honestly can say this is my favorite console game of All Time (maybe, definitely for Xbox). After putting in over 450+ hrs played, consisting of not only offline single-player but online multiplayer across Xbox Live, this game never has lost its shine in my eyes. If I could sum up the game play of the game in a sentence I would have to say, “If Magic the Gathering was a 3^rd person shooter/action game, this is what it would look like!” Not to mention the strategy within the game is unlimited. How can you create a combo that destroys your opponent and leave him thinking “Whoa, what just happened! I was at full life to nothing in no time flat.” Then the brain starts turning “I wonder what exactly happened, let’s play against him again and watch his spells to teach me what this neat combo he keeps rolling me with.”

I’ll admit the game became an obsession, between me and my friends we would sit there and learn the angles at which spells/powers could hit my character and the timing between tossing up blocks to negate a sword slash to the face. I became so good I learned the exact sounds that each ability would make so I could be running trying to destroy one opponent as the other is chasing me down. (2vs2 play online).

One of my favorite moves was when I would bait someone to chase me and then I would jump off the edge of this one map. As I am falling I turn around and cast this spell which tracks him. When it hits him it causes a stun which drops him to the ground. Then I would shoot him with a bolt that would cause him to levitate off the ground for a few seconds to give me time to get down. Now I am waiting for the precise time to cast my final spell which is a ground based shockwave. So at the moment he hits the ground the shockwave goes off and he dies. All 20 life poof, I win woooo!

Anyways man I just wrote a bunch about this game and my experience. The base line is this if you want a game that makes you really think about your composition of your arsenal (their version of a deck) to devastate your opponent. I highly suggest this game. It is also backwards compatible with Xbox 360 and still should be.

The single-player story is quite in-depth with various characters that bring style and flair to the experience with their personas. Even if the game had no multi-player online, the single-player experience was well worth the purchase. The multiplayer only sweetens the deal. You can find the game usually for less than 10 bucks at any used game shops.