Lord of the Rings Interactive

The siege at Mel Senshir was the most amazing scene of any video game I've ever played. It was just like being in the Lord of the Rings movie, except I was controlling the main character. It was an interesting perspective because there were hundreds of things going on as I was trying to complete my one task.

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I enjoyed the battle and cut-scenes so much that I actually didn't save the game after completing that segment. I didn't want to advance the game too quickly! I hadn't started the Day 1 DLC, House of Valor yet and there's another one coming later this week. So I want to go back and do those before this epic battle.

Reckoning Screens

I probably should have gotten the PC version if I knew I was going to go crazy with screenshots. With PS3, I can only shoot the non-action scenes because there's no pause function during battle... which seems to be the norm with video games these days.

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These came out OK though. The trick is to turn the flash off, shoot far away and zoom in. Also, it's better to shoot at a high MP and then reduce the size by almost 50% in Photoshop. This will cut down on scan lines.

Alyssa Goldenblade: Amalur Edition

RPG Resume
Alyssa Goldenblade was a D&D character I created ages ago and makes video game appearances in any fantasy themes RPG that allows players to create their own characters. She's a combination of the Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures and Dragonlance campaigns and made her video game debut in the first true RPG for NES, Ultima III: Exodus. That was the first game that had character creation where players could choose classes and distribute points to various attributes. In Ultima, Alyssa was a paladin, the closest thing to a knight. Then came the AD&D PC games, Champions of Krynn, Death Knights of Krynn and Dark Queen of Krynn where I was able to create Alyssa the way she was meant to be, as a Knight of the Rose. It was in that series that I promoted her to leader of the party because she rolled the highest HPs of all my characters. Strategically, it was better to put the highest HP characters in the front of the line.

Kingdoms of Amalur
All of Alyssa Goldenblade's appearances were previously in multi-character RPGs, so Kingdoms of Amalur is her first solo role. I usually create my main character, Shadow Dragon for solo RPGs, but couldn't really find a character combination that looked like him for the game. But there was a perfect combination to make an Alyssa with slightly shorter hair. I also wanted to make a female character for a couple of reasons. The sprite is smaller than the bulky males. They say that the 2 are equal, but I've taken more hits as a male character while trying out the demo... even died 3x. The other thing is that many of the enemies are female and the ways you can kill in the game are very gruesome. I would have a problem doing that as a male character. Currently, Alyssa is at level 33. I have most of the ability points allocated to "might" since she's a knight primarily. I also powered up the "finesse" weapons proficiencies in longbows and faeblades and the "mage" weapons in sceptres and chakrams... pretty much the way she was meant to be. In Dragonlance the Knights of Solamnia had some spellcasting ability. And the "finesse" abilities mix in her ninja skills from Oriental Adventures.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

POV: 3rd
Graphics: 10
Controls: 8
Difficulty: 5

After replaying the demo over and over, my pre-order of Kingdoms of Amalur arrived about a week late from it's initial release date. All of the bugs that plagued the already good demo were fixed. If you've played the demo, here are the items that were fixed:

- Crashing: if your audio starts losing some channels, it means the game is about to crash your PS3 and you should quit and restart
- Camera: The auto focusing in the demo was not that sensitive
- Targeting: In the demo, sometimes you aim your weapon in one direction and it auto-targets something in a totally wrong direction.
- Rendering: As you run across the lands, the scenery renders correctly and quickly.

I knew the crashing was going to be fixed, but this is such a great game that I would have lived with the other bugs. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (KoAR) combines all of the things I enjoy about previous favorites. It's got vast world that you can explore and return to previous places. That was the kind of thing I enjoyed about early games like Legend of Zelda and Metroid. Then there's the customization and Dungeons and Dragons aspect from games like Ultima: Exodus and Dragonlance: Champions of Krynn. There has never been a game that combined the right parts of an RPG with a 3rd person action game. The moves and combos are comparable to the best action games such as Batman: Arkham City and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. With the 3rd person action, there are also multiple quests and problems to solve. It has a rarely used aspect of collecting components to build your own weapons and mix potions as well. Mini Ninjas was the first game I came across that had the potions aspect, but I've never seen a game that allowed you to build your own weapons and armor. The character building the the best I've seen also. Each character you create is totally unique because you're choosing a mixture of skills, not necessarily a pure warrior, wizard, theif or cleric like other RPGs.

The graphics are amazing for the size of the game. While they don't beat out Batman: Arkham Asylum, the vast landscapes make up for it. If you get the PC version, like most games, there's a noticeable difference in quality. The PS3 version is at 720p and looks a little jagged if you look closely. One of the best parts of character creation is that you get to make your own from top to bottom, something missing from all of the RPGs of today. As you play the game, your character changes depending on armor and weapons you pick up.

The controls are good, but not as responsive as the Batman games. The combos are pretty cool as they combine multiple weapons with magic. The evading takes a bit of getting used to if you're a Batman player because it's less smooth. But generally, if you're good at Arkham Asylum or Arkham City, it's the same idea with KoAR, but with weapons.

The stories and quests are pretty good too as the creators took a lot of time and though in creating a world with rich history. It's almost as detailed as the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings franchises. I've completed over 50 quests already and have only gone through about 1/4 of the map. One thing's for sure, I won't be providing a walkthrough of this game! This game makes Arkham City look tiny!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Unboxing

Last month, I did my weekly check for demos in the Playstation Store. I haven't downloaded one in a while and came across Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I thought it would be another bad D&D themed adventure game. I've downloaded and played many, only to delete them after a few minutes of gameplay. This one was very well done though. I don't think there has been a game like this since the days of Genesis & SNES. It combines the fun aspects of RPG and sword-swinging adventure games.

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In the demo, players are limited to 45 min to explore a small portion of the Faelands. It's packed with several quests and hours of gameplay. You probably have to play from scratch 3-4x to complete everything in the demo. I had so much fun that I knew I was going to buy the full game. And if you know me, I rarely buy video games! I even went along with the preorder fanatics, shopping multiple stores to see which one offered the best bonuses. I was going to buy from Gamestop because they had special armor along with the Fate-touched weapons that came with any preorder. But after adding it to the cart with shipping and tax, it came out to $75. So I ended up buying from the official limited edition store for $90. The way I break it down is... $60 for the game, $15 for the soundtrack, $10 for the dice... then you get the map and cards. So it ended up being a better bargain.

Full game review coming soon!

Chinese New Year 4710

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Chinese New Year Dinner

The snow from yesterday was pretty limited. It stopped shortly after noon and left maybe about 4 inches total. So it didn't affect the roads... not even the small streets that don't get the plowing. So Auntie Day and Uncle Hal were able to get here from upstate.

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Knowing Tung Yi Fung gets packed on holidays, we went at our usual 5pm. It seems like people are catching on to this strategy though as there were already several tables populated when we walked in. I'd say the restaurant was full by 5:30! We finished before 6pm and there was a line at the entrance!

1st Snow of 2012

We made it through December and most of January without snow, but finally got some today. I actually thought the forecast would be wrong and it would end up being slushy rain, so I was a little surprised to wake up to this. It's below freezing and not rain, so the snow came out light and fluffy. It's supposed to continue throughout the afternoon and accumulate to 5 inches, which means it'll be a little higher in Queens.

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Holiday Food Fest

After traveling to the Dominican Republic, Philippines and Singapore this year, it's hard to imagine that holiday week was the best week of my year. But I really enjoyed not traveling and just catching up with friends for lunch or dinner. Here's the complete list in one spot because I posted late and back-dated a few:

- Happy Buddha
- Green Papaya
- Christmas Dinner
- BCD Tofu House
- Picnic Garden
- Palace Diner
- Blue Smoke

Happy New Year