I’m not an RPG guy. Overall most RPGs require too much effort and time micromanaging. Too many things to worry about…people to talk to, items to collect, weight limits, spells…all that type of stuff. It has it’s place, but I need a little more thought and linear-ness for my RPG games. I don’t mind the strategy involved or that certain characters have special abilities, but there it stops. The Legend of Zelda is my ideal type of RPG game. It has a basic inventory system with very basic items/weapons to use. It’s play is simple and rather linear. There’s plenty to explore but not so much that you just throw your hands up and go “ah heck with it!”

The one thing Zelda (obviously) doesn’t have is a lot of strategy involved. You’re a lone hero in that game. Having a group or team of characters to control and manage is a good challenge for me. Kind of like a mix between RTS games (like Age of Empires) and Zelda. That to me is a fun RPG. Final Fantasy…I dunno…I’ve honestly never played through any Final Fantasy game because RPGs generally just don’t blow my skirt up. I’m guessing Final Fantasy is way overkill.

I was reading in the latest EGM about a game called Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It’s series is the first self-proclaimed “tactical” RPG. Apparently tactical games are ones I enjoy. These games focus more on character placement and fighting strategy than it does questing and managing inventory. Conveniently enough, Fire Emblem is for the Wii, so my thought was to maybe rent it or see if it comes out cheap and give it a go. Thankfully enough, however, Jay is Games highlighted a game that follows in the exact same lines as Fire Emblem, that being tactical, but is entirely free (and open source). It’s called Battle for Wesnoth.

One quick (albeit big) download and install, I gave Battle of Wesnoth a try to see if it filled my RPG needs. After a good solid day of playing, I can safely say that it does fit the RPG bill. So tactical is where I like it.

Wesnoth is pretty easy to jump into and since it is an open source game, it has a ton of content (scenarios) to play through. It also has an online, multiplayer mode, although I have not yet tried that. The learning curve for Wesnoth wasn’t steep per se, but since I have no prior experience with tactical games it did take me a bit to get the hang of it – I’d choose beginner/easy if you’re new to the genre.

Every campaign is different and each has a different number of scenarios (missions) to complete before you complete the campaign. As of yet I haven’t completed any, even on easy. This isn’t a bad thing really, you don’t want it too easy, but on flaw of all RPG games (even RTS games) is that there is a lot of up front effort and time spent preparing for battles. Then those battles come and you lose a good chunk of your army, forcing you to kind of start all over again. I guess this is how it goes and is where the so-called strategy comes in…so maybe I’m just no good at strategy?

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based game, so every player (you and the computer) take turns moving your pieces around the board and fighting each other. The game has a very classic pen-and-paper RPG feel to it, although the graphics for this are not bad at all, especially considering they are all contributed graphics. Each turn consists of moving your men and then defending or attacking bad guys, all in an attempt to reach the goal which has been explained in sometimes tedious and lengthly dialog screens. There’s no voice acting here…all good old fashion talk balloons and cut scenes. You can actually skip through all the exposition if you want and get your goal easily from the menu.

The constraint and challenge in Wesnoth comes from managing your resources (gold), picking the right men for your army, and time. Since the game is turn-based, you are given only so many turns to complete each mission. If you don’t reach your goal by then, your game is over. There are also hero characters you have to keep alive or it’s game over as well. You are given gold automatically each turn (called income) and the amount you get is determined by how many villages you control, which are little house icons on the board. Good thing is, it is easy to control a village – just move any of your pieces on the house. The downside is every guy you control costs you money per turn, not just the cost of first purchase. I get burned by this a lot because I make a ton of guys up front and take my gold down to almost nothing. It can take time to reach villages to control so after only a couple moves you can actually have negative gold, making it extremely hard to get money to buy more guys. I would think just having zero gold would be punishment enough, but I guess not – how can you get negative gold? Did I get the gold on loan?

Fighting, however, is a shot in the dark. You can choose which bad guys you fight (sometimes), but the battle itself is all random. Each board is a hexagon grid so you can surround baddies and whoop up on them pretty good, but beware, the randomness of fighting can really get on your nerves. Your characters do gain experience and gain power as they fight and survive, but don’t be surprised if your level five knight totally whiffs when fighting a level zero thief. This happened quite a bit from what I’ve played, but I guess it’s just a dice roll at that point. It can be frustrating but I found the bigger challenge is moving forward while keep your heroes alive.

If you’re looking for a game that is more chess-like and less role-playing, then Battle of Wesnoth is a good place to start, especially considering the price. It seems like a very vast game and includes tools for making your own campaigns, maps, and even characters, so there is a bunch of user-created content available. I’ve only played two of the dozen or so campaigns that is included in the base download and it has enough challenge for quite some time thus far. If the almighty Fire Emblem is anything like Wesnoth then I’m sure I’d like it, but why pay $50 to play on my couch when I can play from an armchair for free?

[youtube]NpH21jH3jtE[/youtube]

I’ve been a gamer for what boils down to be my entire life. The system that I hold dearest to my heart is the (now classic) Nintendo, or the NES. It was the first system I owned and the one I spent most my childhood playing. To say I was not a TV child would be a lie, but hey, at this point in life I’m pretty happy how things have turned out. I’ve lived through most of major video games eras and have see nmore games come and go than I care to talk about, but the ones I always want to play are NES games.

I still have my original NES console and somehow along the way gained a second. They both work and I have a good collection of controllers and the standard issue zapper gun. My collection of original NES game carts is not the biggest but I like to think of it as maybe slightly impressive…it’s about 30 games or so. Some are classics, like “Punch-Out,” some are the exact opposite, like “Wolverine.” I’ve spent good amount of time and money buying original NES games when I happen to find them. I really don’t seek them out, but if I see them at the store I’ll usually pick them up.

I will no longer have to search for game carts…but more on that later.

For quite some time I’ve also been building a good collection of emulators and emulator games, called ROMs. These ROMs are files that contain the original NES games, which can then be played with a special emulator program on the computer. This is not a clone of the game; it is the game – taken straight from the original game cart. The graphics are the same, the sound…everything. For longest time it was the only way you could play NES games without scouring eBay and dingy video game stores looking for original carts. Playing on the computer is fun and all, but it obviously is not on your TV and you can’t exactly sit on the floor and play like you could when you were a kid.

When I first started think of a more elaborate emulator system, I came across RetroZone, a company (one guy) that makes gadgets for gaming, namely a USB adapter for original NES controllers. It would thus allow you to use original controllers on your computer as a normal joystick. I considered getting one of those, but realized that’s really not what I was after. It mattered more how I experienced the game than how the hardware felt in my hand. So I kept looking for a solution.

It just so happened that RetroZone not only makes the handy USB adapters, it makes the PowerPak. The PowerPak is an ingenious little device that has come about thanks to some modern technology, namely flash memory cards. The PowerPak comes in original cart form with one major difference, a slot in the front where a compact flash memory card goes…and this is a normal CF card that you would use with your digital camera, convenient, no?

What this allows you to do is put your game ROM files on the flash card, put the flash card in the PowerPak cart, put the cart into your original NES console and play it on your TV with all the original hardware just as you would if you had the original game cart. In short, you can play hundreds of games with one cart. The PowerPak has a directory system on it just as you would find on your computer. All you do is browse the folders for the game you want and start to play – as easy as that.

Is it worth the investment?

Most people would say “No,” but video games are one of my vices so I’ll say “Yes.” I’ll say yes because the cost of the PowerPak is far less than the cost actually buying each original game cart separately – even when using eBay. Trust me, I’ve looked. I’ll also vote for Yes because it’s convenient…all the games in one cartridge. The convenience is by far the biggest draw for the PowerPak. And since the PowerPak plays normal game ROM files, it means you can play import titles, homebrew titles, and other games you never got to play back in the day.

If you’re a classic gamer or more so, a classic NES gamer, you owe it to yourself to get the PowerPak and turn your collection into the NES collection you want and deserve. Now you can argue the whole original vs. emulation debate all you want, but when it comes down to it, it’s the games and the fun you have playing. As long as the game plays, looks, and sounds like you remember, then it’s all good.

But if you’re going to go this extra mile, or even just continue to play NES games with emulators, there’s a lot of tools you’ll need to make sure you get the best quality ROMs and even just the correct ROMs. I was surprised to find that over half of my own ROM collection was made up of half-assed ROMs or even just bad ROMs entirely. While computer-based emulators may forgive these things, the PowerPak does not. If the ROM is incomplete or has bad information written to it, it won’t play. Check out the forum for more on this topic.

So while most people are air guitaring and rock banding, I’ll be favoring my “new” NES collection for a little while, and I’ll be doing my best to (re)hook everyone else along the way. Game on.

At first it wasn’t my intention to buy Guitar Hero 3 right away. I had been reading about it and its counterpart, Rock Band, for quite some time. As a loyal Guitar Hero-ist for the previous three titles, I felt I had to make my next decision carefully. Guitar Hero 3 continues to the series made famous by playing famous rock songs with a plastic guitar controller. Rock Band, on the other hand, took things a bit further by adding drums and microphone to the game – in other words a complete band experience.

Rock Band looked to be the obvious choice, but after reading reviews and seeing some footage, plus hearing it wasn’t going to be out for the Nintendo Wii until next year, it quickly dropped off my choice list. So at that point Guitar Hero 3 was the pick. They were making GH3 for both current consoles but also for the Playstation 2, where the previous GH titles play. It seemed obvious to pick the current Wii version since the PS2 variety is on its way out as a whole. But even then, I wasn’t set on getting it when it came out.

But that all changed when they had them in-stock at Best Buy just before my birthday. Happy birthday, me! Also at Best Buy was a setup demo of Rock Band, complete with guitar and drum kit. I gave the drums a go and I wasn’t all that impressed. Maybe it was because I had made my decision by then and didn’t want to have second thoughts, but the drumming just felt clumsy. I’m sure if you play with three other people that changes things, but I have my theories about Rock Band anyway. It’s a novel idea but I’m not sure it will take off like Guitar Hero has.

Guitar Hero 3 is a good step in the series. While most of it is more of the same, there are some tweaks that make it better in some ways, but also worse in others. This game is by far the easiest of the series, but then also at some points, the hardest. They’ve made things easier my being a bit more forgiving in your playing and also by highlighting optional strum notes (which I don’t like). But they’ve made it harder by adding some crazy hard songs (read Slayer) and forcing you to learn the double strum technique. The latter isn’t so bad as I like songs that require you play that way, but it generally gets more demanding at that point.

[youtube]9Wuc6KtWrBw[/youtube]

I know I’ve had my issues with on-line gaming before and have barked about how games only need to provide simple leaderboards and complete experiences aren’t necessary. Well, GH3 for the Wii has bridged that anger just a bit. The Wii supports on-line play with friends and strangers. Playing with friends requires you to get their “Friend code,” which is a pain but not so much depending on how many friends you have. Thankfully, a “strangers” mode lets you easily search for any game and start playing with anyone. I finally got to play a few on-line battles the other night and the gameplay was surprisingly fast, (I still don’t have much faith in console on-lineness). Overall it was just like playing a normal 2-player game, but it does sometimes take a bit to find a waiting game.

The nice part about on-line play is that it tracks your score, standings, and also what you do in the regular single-player game. It then posts that on-line at the GH web site for you to track and all to see. To start I was playing on-line but didn’t see any of my scores displaying. It took me a bit to realize that you have to register at the Guitar Hero web site, then enter the player code your Wii offers and include that with your web site account. Again, another pain in the arse but once you know the flow it’s not that bad. Actually, it was kind of neat because I had played on-line and unlocked a lot songs prior to me signing up at the site, so when I finally did all my stats up to that point were saved and I started out of the gate with a good score and rank. No bad.

The GH web site also offers some nifty features like creating a tour group that people can join where scores are combined as a group or something like that. You can also see how many rockers are near you with a little map (you enter your zip code at sign up). In the end I think the on-line play will keep GH3 at the front of my play list longer than the previous games because there’s now comparable scores. You know I like my high scores.

The unfortunate and sad part about seeing scores on-line is knowing that you’ll never be the best. Why? Because someone out there is apparently playing GH3 all day long without stopping and has a bionic wrist. The game came out on 10/28 and the web site publicly shows when you signed up. So the top leader right now is someone that signed up day of release and already has unlocked everything, has seemingly beaten everyone in the world and keeps going higher. I guess I should just be happy that I have a life beyond the game and my lower ranking is proof of that.

The set list of songs for the game is a pretty good mix for classic rock and alt tracks, a lot from original masters too. Shy of a few crappy heavy metal songs (read again, Slayer) it is a solid set that you can enjoy over and over. From The Who to Weezer to Santana to Kaiser Chiefs, there’s a little something for everyone. It may not be as metal/rock as you might have hoped, but I see GH3 as a re-starting point for the series. Sure, GH2 was popular but it was the title that got the buzz going. Now that the buzz is hot and heavy, many will be getting GH3 as their first entry into the land of plastic guitars and wrist cramps.

The guitar controller itself is a big improvement as well. Instead of modeling after the Gibson SG, GH3 uses the classic Les Paul model. Not only does it look better, it feels better. There is a lot more weight to the new controller that makes it feel a bit more reliable and sturdy. It doesn’t help it feel any more “real,” but it never will, despite what some people might think. One down side for me is that the Wii version requires you put the Wii Remote in the guitar. This requires a hole be cut out of the face plate and for me, this gets in the way of my “strumming” while playing. The consoles don’t require it. The new model also has the option for removable faceplates. This will be a huge merchandising point that will probably get myself and everyone else to shell out $15 for a logo’ed faceplate by other bands…oh, like KISS! Unfortunately, as of this writing there were no Wii faceplates available, only PS3 and 360 models. Eh…but really, the Les Paul design actually gives you more space for your custom stickers, and it’s white so I think it’s a little more flexible to use any type of sticker.

If you have played a previous Guitar Hero title, then GH3 will feel natural with no learning curve whatsoever. If you’re new to the series with this title, it is still a good game to play, fun to play, and easy to learn from this point on. You’re not at any disadvantage starting with this fourth game. And with the on-line play now viable (except on PS2) this is a whole new ball of wax. And if these “touring groups” act like I think they do, then it’s all the better for starters and veterans. Safe to say I’ll be hooked on this one for a while, at least until Puzzle Quest comes out next month, then we’ll just have to see who wins out.

I’ve started a post in the Forum about GH3, their web site, and about what I’ve done thus far. Feel free to add me as a friend and join the Morning Toast tour group. I’m not sure exactly what it does yet, but hey, it can’t hurt.