A long time ago in several galaxies far, far away.

NOTE: This isn’t about Warhammer Online. Well, not much.

I suppose it is time for another update on the state of the Graev. Several things have had my attention lately, such as Spore, Mercenaries 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Warhammer Online. I already discussed Mercs 2 and still enjoy the game immensely, so theres no need to talk about that again. I should have “drawn” another Goblannoyed by now, but I kind of forgot about it until now. I guess I’ll have to make time for it eventually.

SPORE

Most people have already gone into depth about this game already but I’ll share my take anyways. Don’t expectt much depth from me, however.

A lot of people seem really upset about the whole DRM issue. I don’t really feel all that bothered by it, to be honest. EA will probably include this in all of their future titles and I can’t imagine it going anywhere anytime soon, so I might as well just enjoy the games. I doubt I’ll need to install it three times anyways, so oh well.

The game itself is pretty decent. Apparently not what a lot of people were hoping for, but I like it. Most of it, anyways. The game is broken down into several stages which include: Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space – The one I’m currently on. I’m not sure if theres anything beyond that point, so someone feel free to add it in if there is.

Cell Stage – I really enjoyed this even if it was fairly short. It reminds me of games like Feeding Frenzy, which I enjoy a lot. Unfortunately theres not much to do and few parts to collect before you are pushed into the creature stage.

Creature Stage – This was also a lot of fun. I liked exploring the world as my creature and finding others to interact with. I went for a more peaceful approach and made friends where I could and only attacked in defense. I really liked the scale of this stage. One thing I really thought was cool was encountering an epic version of a Jabberwocky I made (In the image of the one featured in Care Bears in Wonderland of course). I also found it fascinating when a Spaceship arrived and started abducting creatures. Unfortunately after a while this stage can get a little stale and I found it hard to motivate myself to find all of the creature parts.

Tribal Stage – Interesting, but not exactly so stimulating. As a peaceful race I found it difficult to defend my village and make friends at the same time. Usually in order to convert others to my side I had to bring my entire tribe with a mix of instruments in order to play for and impress others, leaving my home open to attacks and theft. I got through this as quick as I could.

Civilization Stage – Definitely not my favorite. Other than designing my buildings I found it incredibly tedious to play as a religously based civilization. I couldn’t exit this fast enough.

Space Stage – Probably my favorite so far. It seems things really open up here and theres a lot you can do and many different badges you can unlock, which leads to new tech and such. It definately feels like the rest of the game was just a set up to get here and it feels worth it to get to this point. Terra forming planets, flying around in a spaceship that looks coincidentally like the Starship Enterprise, and running missions for people is just fun.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (360)

It’s interesting to see how “gamers” react when a highly anticipated game doesn’t get the scores they had hoped. This game hasn’t done TOO well around the circuit, getting a 7.3 from IGN and a 7.5 from gamespot among other various scores. I heard X-Play gave it a 2/5, but I wasn’t aware anyone took them seriously in the first place. To me it seems like the entire network is a disturbing collection of every negative “gamer” stereotype mixed with every other annoying pop culture reference. But that’s just my opinion. Anywho, I don’t see how scores like 7.3 are bad, but maybe it is when your review system only uses four of the numbers on a ten number scale. People still find a reason to complain, though, even to go as far as proclaiming they wont buy the game because of said scores. Fortunately for me, I tend to ignore reviews.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an above-average action that plays very well, looks good, has an interesting story on par with every other Star Wars narrative (A good or bad thing, depending upon who you ask), and is just plain fun. Throwing around Stormtroopers was never this entertaining. Especially when you can shock them with lightning first and throw a saber into their chest. There are a fair few things to find and unlock and several difficulty levels which should provide for a good amount of play time. Apparently you can also unlock a black lightsaber, which from what I remember hearing people debate about should be impossible. It’s still pretty sweet, though.

Of course the game isn’t without its problems. Most games have them nowadays, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise. Even though the graphics look fantastic there is still some screen tearing and slight hitching, on the 360 version anyways. Sometimes there is a little bit of awkward pop-in and weird camera angles, but really nothing to complain about much. Supposedly there are a slew of bugs in the game, but so far I really haven’t encountered much of anything like that. Nothing game breaking in the least. Could it be out there? Sure, but I haven’t seen it yet.

If you are a Star Wars fan or even just a fan of action games then I’d pick it up. It really is worth your time and money, despite what some people might say.

Warhammer Online

I don’t plan to go into much detail on the game right now. I will post my release impressions eventually, but right now Keen is pestering my to play. Lets just say that the fact that I haven’t lost interest yet is pretty unique.