Welcome to Endo’s Game. We are currently still in the process of getting things started so bear with us.  Please be warned that there is some adult language in the podcasts.  When leaving comments be warned that we won’t approve any with links in them.  We appreciate any patience you throw our way, above all else, enjoy the site!

This is the first episode of Jormungand and it introduces us into the world of arms dealing. The episode revolves around Jonah’s introduction to Koko’s team, and the dangers involved in dealing arms. Whether it is another branch of her client government  or a rival arms dealer trying to steal her clients. The action scenes involving Jonah are both exciting, and emotionally jarring.

Day in the life of a boy soldier.

The realization that hits when watching Jonah kill without hesitation, and the fact that he is a pre-adolescent boy. It is something that will come up continuously come up during the course of the series.

Jonah and Koko roles are somewhat reversed, where Jonah is more reserved, and Koko is more child like.  The same can be said about the rest of Koko’s bodyguards. We have only met two other bodygaurds so far. The only other female in the main cast is Valmet, and she has a major yuri crush on Koko, and Lehm who has served as Koko’s bodygaurd the longest.  Lehm is so far your average laid back anime guy.I guess everyone in this line of work is weird, as we will find out through out the series.

Obviously this was just an introduction just to show how gritty, and silly a show it can be.  As the series continues, and the plot develops, I will write my thoughts along as well.

Update: next episode will be on monday due to weather, work, and Sim City.

You know, because the website is black… get it? It’s funny damn it!

Anyways we are all kicking it into high gear here at the site, ok, well a higher gear then neutral anyways. We are going to attempt to start putting out some lets play type videos and here is the first one that survived recording mistakes and superb disappointment.

Now I am going to go fight Bogan to the death so he can’t ever change the website backround color.

Since I have become an even bigger geek, I have decided to start posting my thoughts, and sometimes review anime.  I think I’ll start with Jormungand.  Here is the plot synopsis from animenewsnetwork.com: “The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, an international shipping corporation that secretly deals in the arms trade. As one of the company’s unofficial weapon dealers, she secretly sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcement as most of her work is actually illegal under international law.

The Two main characters: Jonah on the left, and Koko on the right.

Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly composed of ex-military veterans. Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers. Jonah joins Koko as he wishes to find the arms dealer responsible for his family’s death. What follows is Koko and her crew’s escapades around the world.” What makes this anime interesting is that you see most of the story through the eyes of Jonah, who is the real star of the show. I am going to do this on an episode by episode basis, starting either Tuesday or Wednesday.

These are just some quick thoughts I had on Diablo 3, which I find disappointing. A great game, but disappointing nonetheless. So let’s begin with the lack of character classes. Four character classes just comes up short to me, especially since the the plethora of classes you could choose from the previous entry. The games classes feel like base classes in D&D, fighter(Barbarian), Ranger(Demon hunter), Wizard(Wizard), Paladin or Cleric(Monk). The only exception to this is the witch doctor, which to me does not fit the setting of the game in anyway. Which just brings me back to why didn’t they just bring back the necromancer class. I don’t care how you explain it away in the game just give me the necromancer back. The positive to these classes though is that the design team took a D&D 4th edition approach to playing these classes in multplayer.  It is  no longer  required that someone will have to play a certain class for the sake of the party. Now you can all be what you want and play the game, without the difficulty of missing a certain class.

This leads me to my biggest complaint about the game: Why only four people to a Game !? I have seven or eight friends who play D3, yet at anyone time I can only be in a game with three of them. In D2 it was I believe seven players in a single multiplayer game. This is what really left me crestfallen about D3. I just remember all the years of D2, having lans with six of my friends, and just dungeon crawling. I hope they fix these thing in the expansion pack.

Oh yeah, I also think the traps are stupid. I always seem to come the opposite way the traps are set, so I have already killed all the enemies, and then see the chandelier that I was suppose to drop on them. The designers should have made it so that doesn’t happen. It’s a novel idea, but it just fails in application of it.

Don’t let my thoughts fool you. It’s a good game, but also a disappointing one.

None of us have forgotten you, were are all just as busy as Bioware tech support (yes I went there). We have reviews to write and I have a few things in mind for the tech corner. Give us some time and we will not disappoint, until then just keep reading old articles and pretend like you missed something from before.

Cheers Folks

I AAAAMMMMMMMMM BAAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!! After dealing with some family issues, My mind is back on track, and what better to start my “inaugural” come back post than E3.  I am just going to keep it to the big three for now, and discuss individual publishers in subsequent posts. Overall I was not overly impressed by the big three, and I’ll go into detail with each company as to why. So then let’s begin with:

MICROSOFT:

 This company keeps confusing me with their message. Are they the “Gamer’s”  console or are they trying to become the multimedia kings. Do not get me wrong they are not the first to make that push, but they are the first to really focus on it. They focused more on what they are  bringing to their streaming content, than on their first party content titles, such as Halo 4.  It seems to me the like they are trying to become more like a cable service, then a gaming machine. I would be fine with that if they offered all the services they had for one lump sum, but that’s obviously not the case. Instead of being like cable where you get a set amount of content with just your subscription, and then you pay extra for HBO etc., etc., it appears to me that you pay for the privilege to access the content, and then pay more for the accoutrement like HBO etc., etc.. If they are trying to to become a competitor to cable services that is fine and dandy, but they need to bundle all that they offer into one price, otherwise it seems like a costlier alternative.

 After all my whining above about not focusing on games, ironically the thing that surprised me was their SmartGlass project. This a really cool and nifty idea, that seems to work most for media purposes. The uses it had for movies is what intrigued me the most.

And you thought Apple was the only one able to sell nifty, but useless technology.

The ability to watch the movie, while reading interesting facts or tidbits pertaining to the scene or cast on my tablet is a film buff’s dream. using your phone as a remote control is cool, and as a complimentary gaming device with your friends. Now this is what worries me, because what types of games are you really going to be able to play since all phones have different specs, and are developers are really going to embrace it. There are now a lot more devices to program for than Sony’s Playstation Vita or Nintendo’s Wii U controller.  The biggest question is as always, is this feature a system seller? It’s nice for people who already own a 360, but is it going to be a deciding factor for those choosing between the three consoles? Well only time will tell.

The biggest news is that finally Microsoft Internet Explorer is finally coming to the Microsoft Xbox 360. It only took six years. YAY!!

NINTENDO:

Nintendo’s press conference to me can be summed up in one word:  FAIL!! The y not only left me disinterested, but feeling a little sorry for them.  All the Wii U is is the Wii on Steroids, and catching up to the rest of this generation.  Their main selling point were games that will have already been out for a year by the time Wii u launches. The small amount of new content in these games were not justifiable enough to pay Sixty dollars to play through these games again. You would have thought that they would have more of their flagship titles for Wii U, but all they had was Super Mario Bros., and it hardly seemed to push the Wii U’s hardware. When I first saw it I thought it was for the Wii. I just would have thought that they would have pushed it to it’s “limits” much like they did for Super Mario Bros 64. They had a Zelda demo video last year that was mysteriously absent this e3. I also expected a Smash Bros. title, but to no avail. There was nothing they showed that made me go “oooooh, I need this NOW!!”The only thing I will give them credit for is Nintendo Land. It took them over a decade to finally accept and realize that the gaming community now requires online functionality for its multiplayer, but they seemed to gather their inspiration from the same place Michael Jackson got it for NeverLand Ranch.

I should be playing this in a van with "Free Candy" written on the side.

The Wii had cuteness for it’s charm, NintendoLand does not. I feel it would be the same as if for my 27th birthday I dressed as a cowboy, had a magician, a pony, and a moon bounce for all my friends. I do not think you would be able to break out at parties, because it is too childish. The Wii had a simple elegance to it, where NintendoLand is Pee Wee’s Playhouse. 

As I have said before, it is great that they have finally made a online service for multiplayer, but I feel its execution is highly questionable.I think it is safe to say that the people who are going to utilize this are the people with jobs, since it is primarily meant to be paired with the handheld like Wii U controller. I do not see parents buying their children a controller that has to at least be around $100.

SONY:

Now we get to what I think the winner is, but not by much. They had an awesome beginning with Beyond Two Souls which I will go into later, and what I am about to go into which killed their momentum the playstation storybook.

This is what are kids need to learn, that burning books is fun!

Now like Microsoft before them, Sony has opted to bring me a mixed opinion. On one hand I find augmented reality quite intriguing, ever since I first saw it for the nintendo 3ds, and on the other I truly do not care for the way they chose to implement it. I know there are gamers out there who have children, and are probably excited for this. Alas, I have no children, so I could care less for what they have showed even though I am a Harry Potter fan. It is times like these that makes me wonder do the companies know who their audiences age group that are watching or following these press conferences live, especially considering the public schools were still in session. Now despite all that, I think it will be a pretty big success because of one person: J.K. Rowling. I have to give Sony credit for this move, especially since it is a big one. The Harry Potter fanbase is deep and wide, and to be able to draw from that well should be quite profitable. What got me excited me about the storybook was thinking about how it could be used in Heavy Rain, and LA Noir. Hopefully developers will give it some thought.

Now to talk about what I thought gave Sony the Win. The First which I have mentioned previously, is Quantic Dream’s new title Beyond: Two Souls. This ambitious title is to follow  the main heroine Jody Holmes over a fifteen year period, and her connection to a “spirit” named Aiden. The actress playing Jody is academy award nominee Ellen Page.  This ambitious title was what Sony chose to start their press conference with, and it is clear to see why.  After  the powerful and emotional roller coaster ride that was Heavy Rain, I am waiting with bated breath. Obviously my Game of E3 winner, and my most anticipated upcoming game.

The next game is what I thought that secured Sony’s victory after the disastrous momentum killer that was the storybook: The Last of Us. This  apocalyptic third person shooter form acclaimed developer Naughty Dog, looks every bit as ambitious as Beyond: Two Souls.  The main character Joel, was hired to escort a twelve year old girl named Ellie across the United States.  What really caught my eye is it appears that scavenging and conservation seem to be core gameplay aspects, as well as combining items to make weapons, tools, etc., etc.. The city shown in the video is reminiscent of the movie I Am Legend. I just hope that the core mechanic will be stealth first, and action second.

Well these have been my thought on what I believe to have been a lackluster E3 for the big 3, I hope they realize who the presentations should be aimed at, and to plan their presentations accordingly. As I have said before, I believe that the audience tuning into the press conferences are mostly adults, considering that most of the broadcasts are during the day when kids are at school, Sony had their press conference at night some you can make a case for them, but i rather not. I honestly just think that the storybook could have been revealed on anyone one of the many websites covering E3, instead of on their press conference, where it just killed  it, and lead to twenty to thirty minutes of tedium. Hopefully next year they will do much better.

The angel Tyreal descended upon us from the heavens with the fanfare of trumpets to announce his arrival.  As the clouds parted he bestowed upon you that which was Diablo 3.  At least that was the image many of us saw in our minds on May 15 as we waited for the midnight release of one of the most anticipated games of the year. (continue reading…)

You would think that after this many years of brutal launches on Battle.net Blizzard would have figured out a working system that would handle the hordes of gamers wanting to play their games on release day. However here I am, staring at a server authentication screen instead of playing Diablo III. I was so excited because I got off work early and my collectors edition Diablo III came early but the excitement is gone. I really do feel like the heavy pirating is reason for these problems we face with big game releases, however Steam seems to have a better idea on the matter. They make things better for the gamer thereby encouraging sales. I have bought more games through the steam system then I have any other way. Considering my time gaming before Steam and that fact that I don’t game as much anymore that is saying something. Well I am going to go back to waiting for the bad solution to pirating to let me play my 100 dollar game, wish me luck.

It came and went with the fanfare expected.  E3 is now gone and its time we tell you what we think.   We’ll be going over what the group thought of the big three,Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.  Sit back and enjoy the show!

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So as of late I’ve been going through some health problems(both physical, and familial), so I have not been seen or heard from as of late. So to make it up to you I’m going to do what no Final Fantasy 7 fan should do, and that is play Dirge of Cerberus. Now I consider my self a Ginormous FF7 fan, and so when this game came out way back in 2006, naturally I picked it up.  Big Mistake!!!! Bogan and I tried playing through this, and if I remember correctly, we did not get very far. It was not not because of lack of skill, but lack of entertainment. It truly was a piece of crap. I haven’t owned a game this bad since the Super Nintendo days, when I was given Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City! as a birthday gift. So I will be starting this on Monday(So I can mentally prepare myself for this), and giving updates on my thoughts day by day. This my humble apology to you guys for not being around, and it might just end up with my family finding me hanging by the micro-usb cable I use to charge my ps3 controllers.