Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning: Worth Playing? Pt. 1

Faeblades are really awesome!

My first impression of Kingdoms of Amalur were based on about 90 minutes of gameplay. I've since played for 10 hours and I've realized that this is a game far too massive to do a single writeup for. Instead, the review will come in parts. In this first installment, I'll explain what Amalur is and is not as well as commenting on what works and doesn't at this point in the game.

Early Impressions: Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning

Don't let this picture fool you: Reckoning is full of color!

I've been anticipating this game since the day it was announced. Every piece of information they shared, every screen shot and video they released, make it look like my dream RPG. Action combat! Open world! Color! Now that I've finally gotten a chance to play it... well, it's not quite the perfection I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, I think it'll be a solid game and a great new IP but it's not the ultimate RPG I was hoping for based on what I played.

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but late last year a new Dragon Ball Project started headed by Bandai, V-Jump and Saikyo Jump. It's called Dragon Ball SSSS, for Saikyo Super Saiyan Secret. Anyway, this is relevant because it's resulting in new Dragon Ball media. The first piece to be released is "Episode of Bardock", an "alternate" take on Bardock's story. I put alternate in quotes because it could very easily be worked into cannon. And when I say Bardock's story, I mean after Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta. The three-chapter manga ran from June to August and flew completely under the radar. It was adapted into a 20 minute anime special released at the end of December under the DB SSSS banner. I just discovered this the other day and now I want to spred the news. It's pretty great. Much more satisfying than the last new piece of animation from 2008. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll just say that the villain in it was designed by Toriyama himself (though he looks slightly goofy in my opinion).

A Wealth of New Korra Footage!

The floodgates have opened! Watch as Korra battles thugs, metalbending police, firebenders, and has a heartfelt conversation with (HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOLIARZ!) Katara.

Halo: Helljumper is here!

Remember that fan-made Halo miniseries I mentioned earlier? The first episode was released today. It's pretty good! Not the best fan film I've ever seen, but definitely not the worst. Check it out:

Slightly New Things

As you can clearly see (unless you're bling... but then what are you doing on the internet?) I've created a well-deserved custom font for I04. Also changed the font for the post headers. Also, new stuff should be posted soon. I'm pretty busy, but I think it's lame when people say "YES, I WILL DO THIS THING" and then it never happens and you never find out why. While my mind's on it, The Daily Awesome... it turns out that's a bit more a hassle than I thought. I might just go back to the whole posting interesting tidbits to FB and G+ which you can find in the sidebar thing. That post I did a while ago about what I'm posting soon? Turns out that by soon I meant probably within the next six months. Of course as I go along, that might turn out to be an outline for most of 2012. You can scratch the 3DS review off that, obviously, as well as the Tower of Heaven thing. You can access "life in teh real world" (a secondary blog) from the menu up top now. I update that when I remember. Next on the agenda is a preview for Kingdoms of Amalur, followed by the BOOTYs. I promise to have that done before the month is over and it becomes irrelevant. I've got a pice on Gurren Lagann planned for soon, too, while it's still fresh in my mind. Other things will come when they come. I'm just letting everyone know because I believe in transparency.

The NEW new review policy

I've been doing some thinking, as often tend to do, and I have finally come to a conclusion: Installation 04 will no longer be reviewing games. Well, not in the traditional sense. I've decided to scrap our new review system completely, optioning instead for a new system that's not really a system at all. Our new "reviews" aim to answer one question: "Worth playing?" What will result is a review that focuses more on the important aspect of how the parts of the game work together as a whole. Is the game a fun and engaging experience? As I said before, readers often skip right to the end, so the answer to that all important question comes right at the start. Within the first paragraph, you will know if the game is worth playing, and you can read on for a more detailed look as to why if you wish. There are no sections. There are no colors. Just a straight discussion of how the game may or may not work. The idea actually came from what I was doing before with reviewing shows, a thing I called "worth watching".  We hope you find it... refreshing.

Tower of Heaven: Worth Playing?

The GameBoy graphics are simple, yet strangely effective.

How did I miss Tower of Heaven when it came out two years ago? How did I miss it again when it was ported to flash with extra content last year? I may be late to the party, but this party is so damn good that I don't care. A lot of us here missed this gem, so the logical conclusion is that it flew under many a radar. Well, I'm here to introduce you. This is Tower of Heaven, and he is a work of art.

Nintendo 3DS: Worth Buying?

The Nintendo 3DS: the point of a lot of discussion and controversy this last year. It had a rocky start and some thought it would never make it. The terrible launch lineup, no eShop, and $250 price made it a tough sell in early 2011. Then came word that this year would bring Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Star Fox and Kid Icarus along with the launch of the eShop. Unfortunately, two of those were remakes, two more wouldn't be out until the year's end, and Kid Icarus would be pushed to a release almost a year after the system's launch. The eShop didn't have much going for it early on either, with no original games and only Super Mario Land worth buying. No one expected what would happen next. The surprise $80 price cut was like cutting the weight off a balloon. Sales jumped 260% and by the end of the year and the system ended up selling over 4 million units in the US alone in 2011. Nintendo didn't stop there with the craziness. They threw in 20 free games for early adopters, and soon announced the circle pad pro which adds a second c-pad. It's been one crazy first year for the machine.

If you didn't pick one up at launch, after the price cut, or for the holidays, you may be asking yourself if it's worth getting considering the PSVita is right around the corner (though it's having similar launch troubles in Japan). Read on to (hopefully) reach a verdict.