1) My Favorite MMO class is a Tank.

I love getting the shit beat out of me / being at ground zero of all the action... while I also strive to keep my dmg as high as possible at the cost of some HP as if I get that low it's probably inevitable anyway. Currently running SWTOR and will be running some Guild Wars 2 likely as well.

2) My favorite N'SYNC member was Joey Fatone

He was such a hoot. *UGH* Adorable.

3) My favorite genre of all time would have to be JRPGs however whatever the hell you classify Dark / Demon's Souls is quickly taking over.

I can sit down and play those games anytime for real... Favorite JRPG's would be Suikoden 1 & 2 though.

4) I've seen Neil Diamond live in concert.

I got blackout drunk and went online... bought tickets for 90 bucks a pop. Hell of a show.

5) I have no idea how many women I've had sex with

It's not that many mother f*&^er I just don't count.

6) People at Destructoid talk about cocks a lot but I've probably seen more penis in person than all of you.

Playing college football will do that... 4 years bringing in 50 new cocks a year. By my senior year the saying "Hi How are you?" was replaced with "Hey man nice dick"... and as Garth would say "Just say thank you".

7) I produced man tears at the end of Final Fantasy X

That shit was touching go f*^k yourself.

8) I f&*king hate Call of Duty.

Real men play Halo. It's pure Man Shit in action and was of course the first console shooter I got into... Prior I played Half Life and counter strike.

9) I feel like most "gamer girls" try too hard.

But F*ck it I got a boner.

10) Some days all I do is lift weights, play videos games, and eat.

And I ain't even mad. You mad? I ain't mad.

I work 12 hour shifts in IT Operations so when I get home late at night there is nothing more relaxing than a Gentlemen's night out in Boletaria. Gentleman in Boletaria you say? Why yes, I'm a very refined gentleman when it comes to playing Demon's Souls.



To achieve Gentleman status you must abide by the following rules:

1) No Back stabbing. Back Stabbings for jerks, not only that but Demon's Souls server connections aren't exactly lag free so you never know when it can happen even if they're not behind you. Shoulder sprinters with Rapiers be damned. (Jerk Tactic used to jerk back stab)

2) Always bow before a fight. It's only natural to give your opponent a bow, a true Gentleman never engages combat without paying respects if he/she can. Unless the invader's a jerk and rushes, Gentlemen don't bow to jerks.

3) Don't Grass spam healing items when dueling. If you're going to invade someone have the courtesy to not heal unless they do, it just adds arbitrary time to the duel. One use of the "Second chance" blessing is all that should be tolerated. (Upon death gives you half your life back and keeps you in the fight)

4) Don't use Firestorm... Firestorm's for pussies and should only be used as punishment for cheap tactics. IE Scraping spear (breaks all your armor) or Casting Plague. Only Jerks cast Plague, unless the invader is being Tri-Raped. Then Plague away. (Tri-Rape = Two Blue Souls & Host ganging up on the lone invader)

5) Don't Tri-Rape invaders. In no way is Tri-Rape ever tolerated by a Gentleman, if you have summoned the help of Blue Phantoms let them duke it out 1 on 1 before engaging the Invader. If your allies should be defeated allow the Invader to heal and rebuff... then bow. A true Gentlemen's battle!



Now I understand for most people they just want to win, sure winning is the ultimate goal. If you want to win at all costs fine I get it. I have used some interesting tactics in the past I called the "Soul on a Rope". It goes like this:

Upon invasion I get my magic set equipped and then walk up against a wall and stare at it not moving at all. The invader will then think I'm AFK or in this case AFC (Away from Controller) and sprints at my backside for the kill. Once he's close enough I'd rip off a firestorm and laugh as his toasted corpse goes flying into the air. It's hilarious, but hey that's not ladylike and also gets old... But it's good for a laugh at random. Try it sometime!

The only reason why I tend to impose these Gentlemen's rules upon myself is I think they make the game more challenging and sort of takes the chaos away from some of the engagements. Oddly this relaxes me. Not to mention I've Platinum'd all three versions and have put 100s of hours into them across all three regions. Eventually you develop rules.

Demon's Souls is a barren cold wasteland of hollow air, zombies, Demons, and Dragons with a chilling aura of death. Yet I feel completely at home here. If you've ever lured a red eye night to his death or spent hours upon hours grinding out Pure bladestone you probably feel the same way. There is no "half way" in Demon's Souls, it's an all in or nothing game that will rip you out of reality and take you down a peg or two in the process. The escape is Euphoric... Umbassa!

So with Dark Souls upon us I say lets give Demon's Souls one last dance. In fact I'll probably be playing it all this week. Feel free to message me for Demon's Souls parties. I've hosted them in the past ironically with Xbox Live. Skype is also another option. I'm even up for setting up some FNF's in Demon's Souls should we get enough participants.

But guys and gals alike if you do decide to partake remember... let's act like Ladies/Gentlemen :D

If anyone has the right to charge more than 59.99 for a game it's probably Bethesda with it's Fallout & Elder Scrolls series being so robust and complex. As base single player games by themselves you get 100's of hours of play time depending on paths you choose and the arcs you replay with various choices. Having said that I can't seem to stomach this 149.99 CE being so lacking in actual content.



Off the bat you can take away the Map as it's a pre order bonus, not CE content. What you have left is a cardboard sleeve with soundtrack, making of DVD, and nice art book... A 79.99 to 89.99 value at best. Leaving the Dragon statue costing you about 70 to 60 bucks, no thanks Bethesda. Take a nod from Gears of War 3, you get everything Bethesda's offering and more with a flippin flag, diaries, exclusive DLC, actual COG necklace etc. along with more Robust packaging.



Even Catherine's CE package at 79.99 is better than Skyrim's CE in my opinion. Sure it's not nearly as good of a game but it comes with lots of in game fluff that i'll enjoy staring at for years to come on my nerd shelves. Regardless if you're going to offer a 149.99 CE at least give us a non statue esc option for 79.99; sure you can say if you don't want it don't buy it... i'm a huge huge Elder Scrolls fan and I really want all they have to offer when it comes to retail products. But you can't really deny this product isn't worth 149.99 in its current state.

Right now I have the regular edition of Skyrim pre-ordered on amazon for 54.99 so until we get more content i'll likely stick with that and just nab up a CE when it goes cheap a month or two down the road *Looks at Mortal Combat CE*

Three things off the top of my head that would make me reconsider my stance on Purchasing a console CE version at least:

1) Include a Digital Copy of the PC version (I know it'll never happen for various reasons but it'd help) or a code for the first DLC release free to CE buyers.

2) Dragon Shout Dictionary, yep I want to teach myself fuckin Dragon shouts.

3) Exclusive CE Skyrim Horse Armor



That's right, give me Exclusive CE Horse Armor! If anything had me feeling okay about being ripped off this generation it was the oddly worthless and expensive but also hilarious in game Horse Armor Oblivion added. Keep the joke running and i'll be okay with paying a premium :D

Make it happen Bethesda.

For this C-Blog segment I'm going to focus on RPG's since I think it's unfair to compare todays markets major pull (military shooters) because the East just doesn't produce them outside the average showing of Vanquish and also because RPG's are considered the Easts bread & butter... So I'll concentrate on this genre on the Console platforms to outline how the West has surpassed the East in almost every way.



I believe the Wests dominance in this Genre started last generation on the PC. Western RPG's on PC tend to give the gamer absolute freedom from a design and customization stand point. They don't restrict when you can save, they don't put time limits on exploration (*Looks at Monster Hunter*), and almost all of them allow you to customize your character to fit your style of play and appearance. This then translated into an evolution in Console RPGs this generation on the western front. Leading this charge on the Western end has been Bioware with it's Mass Effect & Dragon Age series along with Bethesda bringing The Elder Scrolls & Fall Out titles out year after year. On the Eastern end you've really got a handful of mediocre titles in comparison with Star Ocean 4, Jim's favorite Final Fantasy XIII, White Knight Chronicles, and the rare but excellent Demon's Souls to name a few.


Now the East seems to believe these freedom's named above the West gives players will lessen the challenge. Obviously I disagree though that may not be 100% accurate. But whenever I've discussed these design choices with friends or Tak Fujii on Twitter (Yes Really) that's the answer I've been given. Which I think is utter bullshit, the East seems to find challenge in seeing whom has enough OCD to complete mundane tasks over & over and call it challenging (aka grinding). FFXIII did this for its Platinum trophy, it was utterly painful to attain, not hard. Star Ocean 4 also did a mix of the hard difficulty and grinding in its post end game hidden dungeons, it was also way too tedious.

Personally I think it's the JRPG formula or Modus Operandi the East clings to when it comes to game development is what's killing them. If FFXIII did anything I think it shows this to be true from a narrative stand point as well. They refuse to think outside the box, they only attempt to emulate (poorly I might add) standard formula's for success like Tecmo's attempt at Gears of War with Quantum Theory. Otherwise they flat out just out source to western developers which also hasn't really panned out.

So we've either seen poor western emulation or not straying from established 20 year old gaming formulas that were proven successes in the East which isn't limited to JRPGs. I'd like to see more Eastern Devs take chances like Grasshopper Manufacture as that is what core gamers want. Those guys Friggin rock and continue to throw curve balls, eventually I think they'll knock it out of the park...

Until then the Easts last great hope this fall? Dark souls from... errr FROM Software.




Over time Western gaming has grown in its designs and evolved which I think is where the East falters. And it's a damn shame to because those guys are super quirky & creative but likely being restricted by executives up top. But when Demon's Souls hit the scene and defied all odds I think some in the East actually started paying attention as you see Capcom releasing a suspiciously similar title in Dragon's Dogma. Demon's Souls had the perfect storm of challenge Eastern gamers love + the freedom and customization Western gamers love mixed with a hidden aspect of convenience. You wouldn't know it right away but if you really analyze it Demon's Souls caters to the player in the right ways by allowing them to quit anytime on the server and keep their place along with tackling any obstacle at any time when they're ready.

I think this reflects FROM Software's advance in design of today's RPGs. We want less restriction and more convenience. That's not to say we want things done easy, but we don't want to sharpen our weapons every 15 minutes (Monster Hunter) and we don't want to lose an hour of progress if we die. Western RPGs do a good job of avoiding this stuff by allowing you to save at anytime and also auto saving at intervals. One new positive design choice FFXIII added is the "Try Again" if you lose a certain fight. I mean why punish the player by making him lose 45 minutes of progress since the last save point if he dies? There is nothing fun about that and as gamers like myself get older we just don't have the time for this. It happened to me in Persona 3 when I took the wrong crew to a boss fight resulting in me having no chance... Trust me it sucked. I could go on and on about this for games like Dead Rising. (Which I loved) But its flaws? They stem from being radically inconvenient.

I believe the West in their own way has mastered challenging the gamer on competitive levels but also giving them the tools of customization that might break barriers the East liked to constrict. And at the same time making certain challenging tasks "Convenient" for gamers in turn streamlining "the fun". In short you have more control. Sure Demon's Souls might have a hard boss fight, but if you die you have a short cut already opened to easily try again.... you did lose your souls but you get a chance to win them back along with keeping progress and gear attained during your last attempt. It's Convenient!!! So in Dark Souls I trust FROM Software to give the East direction and show them their games can sell in the West. They just have to stop being afraid of change and embrace modern day designs while still putting up a challenge for gamers.

So when I see that Game Over screen I shouldn't want to throw my controller through my TV. I should just shrug my shoulders and say okay let's try this again / change tactics. Demon's Souls perfected this as have Western RPGs by making "trying again" convenient. I believe this is the Easts fast route to regaining it's former glory and by that I mean overhauling their basic design philosophy. Until then the West will rule.

Your move East, stop remaking games and throwing out handheld RPGs and bring the Next Gen noise!

Title says it all, per Rod Fergusson:



Hit me up on Xbox Live, Event last till monday and I plan on working on getting my wings... I think i'm level 79 atm.

Gamer Tag is: Phil Collins117