And SPD is his Game!

Heheh ok im going to kiss a little ass here so be warned.

i picked up this little a ditty a few days ago and my first impressions were awesome enough as it is.

what is it you ask?

its an RPG

wtf?

a Sonic RPG?

yes! Arr Pee Gee!

well its developed by BioWare. so that in itself should tell you quite a bit about it.

if that DOESNT, BioWare are the folks that brought us such awesomely awesome games as Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1&2, Baldur's Gate, Never Winter Nights, and lots of others.

first off the list of playable characters is pretty awesome. you can have 10 playable characters to choose from, from Sonic and Tails at first to any of the following through the course of the game: Knuckles, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rogue the Bat, Dr. Eggman/Robotnik (yeah weird huh?), Cream the Rabbit, E-123 Omega, and the new character Shade the Echidna. the game even features cameos by Vector the Crocodile and G.U.N. 

and of course the game takes full advantage of the DS's touch screen technology by using the stylus to navigate through game menus, combat menus, activate special attacks called POW moves and move on the map.

the game even goes so far to incorporate each of Team Sonic's special abilities. i refer to these as move abilities because accessing certain parts of the map require certain move abilities. Sonic's speed allows him to use ramps and loop-the-loops and move quickly through pipes and such. Tails, Cream, Rogue and even Knuckles to an extent can fly (or in Knuckles' case, glide). of course Tails will get the ability to travel very far while Knuckles (i think) is stuck with only Fly level 1. other move abilities are Warp, Invulnerable, Climb, and Smash. all will be needed at one point or another to access 100% of the map and almost always for quests.

its got a great story in my opinion, dealing with (without giving anything really away) a new menace threatening to steal the Master Emerald. even Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and Shadow are forced to play for Team Sonic to get rid of this new evil!

and of course as an RPG it does revolve around battle sequences and gaining EXP.  when you do level you are allowed to put an extra point into their stats to further customize the character, and you are able to spend 5 points to puchase POW abilities. some of these abilities even involve other characters (so plan whos in your party well!) to do massive damage and even inflict special status effects!

and of course Sonic would be powerless without his Rings! only this time rings are used as currency, buy equipment, items, or save yourself from a gameover by paying with rings. some rings will even ressurect your characters mid battle (like a standard resurection item), other items include things to temporarily boost stats, HP items, POW points items, and items to sure status effects. and not be left out Chao are in this game as well, only this time they can be assigned to specific characters to enhance that characters abilties, stats, you name it. there are 40 different Chao in the game each with a different effect and will hatch and grow automatically once youve found the Chao eggs in each landscape.

all of that makes this game awesome, but there are a couple snags that keep it from being totally awesome.

first off is the signiture BioWare dialog. although its great in other games by these guys, the dialog choices usually serve to determine your characters alignment or personality... they dont in this game. dialog choices are just for fun or for advancing conversation more quickly, or finding out more information at times.

the only other gripe i have is that the game is a bit too easy. i didnt have a hard time until i did a quest several levels early, and even then i was able to do it in a try or two. as long as you are remotely close to the level you are supposed to be while doing missions or quests you'll never really be in danger. i am of course only about 75% of the way into the game so im hoping it gets "pleasently challenging" sometime soon.

all in all im pretty pleased with the game and its kept me pretty involved since i got it. its defintaly worth a play if you like any 2 of the following: RPGs, Sonic the Hedgehog, DS games, breathing, women.

My GF is an AWESOME GF! pt.2

Well.... yet again. i have to speak of how totally wicked awesome my GF is.

y'see... we celebrated our 18 month anniversary just wednesday.

i bought her a very nice Citizen Eco-drive stainless steal and Swarsky Crystal watch. i ended up paying way less than i expected to

thanks to her, and a little luck :)

and for me.... she pulled me aside and asked me what i would rather have...

a PS3 or a Xbox 360 Elite.

Wow

no really, WOW.

she told me if i didnt mind combining this gift with my b-day/christmas gift i could have one of these magical consoles.

now i already have a 20gig Xbox system from way back.

like initial launch way back

needless to say its in poor health. 

all those launch Xboxes had some sorta issue, and mine still works but barely. 

it actually freezes up.

no real red ring though

so i could replace that, with its already full hard drive and dimishing health, with a crisp new (and black) 120 gig HDMI cable havin' Xbox 360 Elite or an 80 gig PS3.

what did i choose??

Oh yeah, you know it baby.

ok well i do have to say i own one PS3 game. do you know how many PS3 games im interested in owning?

one.

Metal Gear Solid 4.

thats pretty much it.

so to fix both my dying Xbox problem and my HDD space problem i went with the Elite.

lol i know Sony fanboys everywhere are cursing my name.

all in all though.... thanks my wonderful lover. you are indeed the best.

even better than Solid Snake!

(and thats saying alot!)

Admiral On Deck! /salute

Got me hat from a Xarc run last sunday! 

Thanks PA!

in any case i now can earn meself the right to be called Commodore, 

but since im a ham when it somes ta titles, i think ill go by Admiral

fitting since i have an entire nother LS should i need the manpower!

not to mention alot of friends ive made in Pocket Aces too.

so all in all i have my veritable fleet.

heheh... 

hehehehh... 

hehehehehehh. 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

CNN projects Obama

No... its not *actually* official yet and you can make all the case you want but... things cant change too much.

and... im now listening to McCain's consession speech.

its a good one, i definatly have to applaud him for his grace and open-mindedness even in loss.

but overall... America has now done something incredible. 

ive seen global news coverage... and people are going nuts, this is a global event, really and truly.

now all hope turns to Obama, please let us all hope he can deliver what he says for the good of our nation.

Heres to the new president of the United Stated of America!

Fable-ulous!

Heheh. yes. i got it...

well as im sure you can assume... and assuming is for asses btw...

but yes you can guess im going to review the damn game now.

you were right!

does that happen often?

probably not... anyways

Fable II, sequel to the highly successful albiet lacking Fable for Xbox.

the shiney limited edition will look like this:

and contain this a download card for the "Otherworldly Download pack" which features the  "HAL" armor set and "Hal's Sword".

being the completely awesome epicness this game is this is what the Hal armor is:

hell yes.

Master Fucking Chief armor

what more do you want? sheesh.

oh yeah the other bonuses?

you also get access to the Halls of the Dead dungeon, (off the main pier in Bloodstone, look for a dive spot) and within that a legendary sword called "The Wreckager"

well anyways thats what ya get....

there was supposed to also be a mini hobbe figurine and a set of 4 or 5 Fable II tarot cards.

where those went i'll never know....

anyways... if youve played the first game i'll save ya some time.

Go Get This Game.

well that is if you like what the first had to offer but wanted more.

we ALL wanted more.

did you like owning a massive property empire in Fable? 

now you can own even more... and all your money is deposited directly to your characters every collection period! no more running!

did you like having one wife per city so no matter where you are you could always get some blacked out sex screen with some girl calling you norty?

you can save sex out of wedlock now! or if you do choose to get married you can even have children in Fable II, and not only that but watch that roving eye, cause if your wife(s) find out about mistresses/other families they'll give ya the ol heave ho!

speakin of sex outa wedlock, there are hookers in this game, but watch it cause sleepin with them skanks might result in getting an STD! and if that wasn't enough, you can even have sex with multiple men, women, or any combonation thereof! (theres even an achievement for it LOL)

did you like the morality system?

Fable II expands on it by having 2 distinct character aligntment bars Good/Evil and Morale/Corrupt. fall into any place on the two for a more descriptive character personality.

Emotes have been improved in Fable II also giving you more choices, and giving every NPC in the game 3 different ways to judge you: Love/Hate, Fear/Light Heartedness and Ugly/Beautiful

The fields and world are much much larger than the first Fable, about 10x more so as Lionhead states.

even battle affects you characters appearnce this time around. being defeated results in the appearence of permanent scars on your body... and villagers will even comment on them!

Get tattoos, haircuts, facial hair, make up, and a variety of clothing to upgrade your appearance! not only that but there are a variety of Dyes to change the color of anything you dont like, clothes included!

and quite possibly the biggest change to the game... mans best friend! (no not porn)

yep you have your own little doggie (i names mine Indiana)

he can bark to alert you if enemies are near, sniff out treasure chests you can't see, sniff out treasure buried in the ground, attack downed enemies to finish them off, distract enemies that may be trying to shoot you from a distance and even preform tricks to show off for the vilagers of albion. 

all in all this was a great game, with many things to do after you be the main story line and a great experience overall.

oh.

did i mention you can do CO-OP now?!

lol yup, over Xbox Live even.

you can even unlock achievements by watching your friend accomplishments if youre playing with him on his game.

what would i give this game? 

i'll give it an AWESOME/10