Weapon Upgrades - Limitations or Amazing Modification

     As many gamers know by this point in just about any game we end up getting some rather unique ways to make our weapons in game more interesting. The upgrades tend to be simplistic but the aftermath is usually what makes up for it. Usually were given upgrades that fall into the following categories:

• Pyro - Weapons do fire damage
• Combustion - upon impact weapons do explosive damage
• Corrosive / Poison - These either work together or rarely seperately usually leads to mutation or disolving of the enemy
• Electric - tazer like stuns or immediate 5000 volt zap which drops enemies
• Necro / Undead - this happens not so often usually leads to either quick enemy death or zombification
• Ice - Freeze enemy then shatter

     Alot of games tend to hold to this listing which can make your adventure a bit unique but it feels limited granted if the game designer has done their job the weapon upgrades tend to work for what is in store for the player.

     Now there is a secondary listing of upgrades which are the more medial but alot of games are using these in combinations with the above list to give a more indepth playing field. The list is as follows:

• Increased Damage - simple sometimes makes the game easier but usually means your in for some more in depth fighting with stronger enemies
• Increased Range - usually this is with shooters or games using archery or melee weapons. Better for crowd control
• Increased Attack speed -  Aka the ammo guzzler or button masher

Alot of older games used this listing for their battles which helped the player get a bit more into the battle.

     Finally we have the upgrades that you really have to question the seriousness of the developer.

• Dance - Just as it says it makes the badguys dance uncontrolably
• Shirnk -  enemies are now shorter and usually easier to kill
• Magnet - In robot games this makes some sense but sometimes it's more of a draw the enemy close so you can knock them away faster
• Shift - This goes two ways either you get an enemy who becomes a useless furry creature or it makes the enemy a mutation that really makes the battle questionable

Now looking at the combination of these upgrades you can either get an enjoyable battle experience or you kinda giggle as you go into battle. My ultimate question to this though is do you feel limited in this battle structure?  I feel there could be some more either zany or unique ways to combine powers and effects to make the experience a bit more satisfactory. For example I suggest the following upgrades:

• Liquify - enemy becomes gelatenous and slowly melts into a liquid form.
• Rubberize - I know it sounds goofy but think like this your rubberize the enemy then attack he bounces around the battlefield damaging himself and possibly other enemies
• Hook and Chain - This has been done but not the way I'm thinking think Hellraiser victim hooked by chains coming out of the walls and torn asunder

I'm thinking that some of my thoughts here may be a bit drastic for the gaming experience but it leads to question - Can we go further with the upgrades or is the combinations of the above modifications the best of the best?

Games I'm looking foward to:

It's just about that time of year again where there is a game rush for the holidays now since most of the games I was waiting for for this holiday season have been pushed back to as far as the end of next year I figured I'd breakdown the listing of games I'm waiting to see.

• Borderlands 2 - With the promise of the "Gunzerker" I can't wait to see how the bounty hunting on Pandora heads foward
• Batman Arkham City - This one comes out 10/18/11 Arkham Asylum was the best Batman game ever, will they be able to continue the streak.
• Darksiders 2 - Death's tale will hopefully be as good as the wrath of war
• Twisted Metal PS3 - Dave Jaffe is back on the Twisted Metal Scene should we be going with Sweet Tooth or Doll Face?
• Lollipop Chainsaw - I saw this in Game Informer as a Preview, somehow the campy approach of a cheerleader saving humanity with a chainsaw seems to attract me.
• Rocksmith - Hooking a guitar that doesn't have buttons but strings to my playstation hmmmm

Now this is my current pending list of games I'm looking foward to, but with some of the Sequels lately there's been some disappointment. So here's looking foward to a hopeful future.

Ever get hassled for playing videogames..... check this out

Every mother, girlfriend and relative has at one point said gaming just doesn't help with world problems.
Here's the scoreboard folks
US 1 YOUR Argument 0

Read this article I saw upon loading msn this morning
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/18/7802623-gamers-solve-molecular-puzzle-that-baffled-scientists?GT1=43001

      Yes folks videogame players solved the molecular puzzle that is AIDS. This can lead the way into hopefully finding a way past this disease.

I've been on a resistance kick.... sorry

     I've been rereading some of my posts and I've noticed there is not a whole lot of focus as there had been. I'll be honest I've been focusing on playing Resistance 3 a bit more than putting my thoughts in order. So thus I'm going to try and clean out some of the details in my mind.

Resistance 3 Breakdown

• Story - It's gritty, but feels to much like theres an attempt at drama when really the Hale story was a bit more clear and direct. The tale of going back to destroy the chimera when Capelli left SRPA after killing Hale just seems bland.
• Weaponry - Well this is where insomniac games never seems to fail they modified and allowed upgrades to the weapons. Plus allowed this upgrade to arsenal to multiplayer which is a huge bonus as it keeps you playing just to see what you can upgrade next.
• Enemies - The enemy AI has been upped enough that the chimera appear smarter, but not overpowering. It's like they got more tactical and either try to run you down with brute force or trap you with a series of snipers.
• Mulitplayer - This hasn't changed much it's still a war that seems unbalanced but reasonable. It's a bit glitchy currently, but that's progress you start out glitchy and work towards a clear direct battle.
• What's missing? - The online Co op of Resistance 2 was actually innovative the race for graytech and working as a team to take down a tricky AI was fun..... this currently has not returned, although it seems like people are rallying for it's return in the Resistance 3 forums at www.myresistance.net
• Global Resistance - This hasn't fully gone active to connect to the psn id yet but this online game which allows unlocks to be earned for the game is actually addictive. It's like a huge game of risk where troop placement and battles allow you to maintain control over parts of the world.

    Overall it's worthy of the Resistance title once some of the minor details iron out I'll still be playing as it seems there is really no limit to what the game offers.

Overused plot devices in videogames

     Anyone else sick of hearing the same story just with different characters? I mean with some tales it just detracts from the game. Now I know the gaming industry seems to have escaped some of this recently, but looking back it seems like there are alot of plots that seem like the same thing over and over. Here's a listing of what I've noticed

• Returning Hero but with no power: Main character returns but all of the things that made him the hero originally are gone. Look I understand the whole the weapons or abilities don't make the hero but when it's part of your story c'mon.
• You are the chosen: Main character is a hero chosen by destiny to face impossible odds against creatures they know nothing about
• You are a god but don't know it: similar to the chosen one but until the final chapter you seem to die alot
• Seek the sword: A magical sword is the answer to save the day.

Some of these are parts of great tales, but sometimes writers have made these points the whole epicenter of the universe. I mean c'mon it's like lets rewrite the legend of zelda but this time we make the hero a runt who gets picked on. He finds a sword that seems useless in battle, but against a giant monster it works all too well.

     I love lore, God of War's Kratos made me want to play further to know more about the hero. This is one of the major reasons to play a game the story. Now sometimes the story sucks and the game is good but this is kinda rare or the game is not based on a story but an event. Take Brink for example your character is not the Hero nor the villain but the story is centered around a faction a reason for the battle and either you try to work with your team to save or destroy.

     Now there are some incessant things that replay in games like weapons and various magical items. These are not your main story but they accentuate a hero.

R3: have mistakes been made

     Global Resistance is an online game which is supposed to unlock items for Resistance 3. Sony and Insomniac have not at time of posting given players the ability to use the items they have unlocked. Is this due to Sony's recent security upgrade? or is this a developer whom is having compatability issues and will players lose interest before they are made available ?

     Personally I can wait but those hardcore game junkies will only wait so long

Gamer Cards

In browsing forums it's nice to see when people show off, so I'm adding another site to my list. For those of you whom like to show off your ps3 trophies I reccoment Your Gamer Cards.

Resistance 3:

      The third instalment of Insomniacs Resistance series is out now. Gameplay is as usual but the arsenal itself catches the eye of the player. As the previous instalments dictated you got to play with guns that had awesome effects in the human - chimeran war but the latest allows upgrades to some classic weapons and a few new effects as well as a new set of weapons to bring to the battlefield. The war is on.

     Playstation fans may have heard Kevin Butlers battlecry in bringing another use to the playstation "sharpshooter" attachement for the move controller. I've yet to get my hands on this piece of equipment myself, but if it's as direct as the ps move itself I'm skeptical. I'll get further to giving a review of the game as I play further. I'm liking so far Insomniacs improvements, but have a few starting questions like what happened to online co op? has echo team been eliminated? will this feature ever return? I understand the story is on Capelli and his story as Nathan Hale is dead. Things are a bit shaky on start but appear they will improve. Competitive is still it's nasty kill em all and live for as long as you can, but the modifications here are a big improvement. You can now set up your own layout and bring the battle to the masses.

VGW Arsenal:

I've decided to expand a bit and start a blog on videogame weapons as well so feel free to check it out. (listed in the links to the right).