Over the weekend, I acquired the second half of the reason that I bought an Xbox, Jade Empire.

I managed to squeeze a few hours of play in, and at this point, I feel that the game seems pretty much like “Knights of the Old Republic, in Asia”. The main difference — besides the completely different setting, story, characters and so on — is that the combat is real-time, action combat. Once I’d gotten used to the control scheme and figured out the best way to defeat the evil minions of whoever-is-sending-them, I’ve found most of the battles aren’t too difficult. I have still ‘died’ a few times since but overall they’re not too taxing.

Unlike Fable, which I was a bit disappointed with, Jade Empire has been pretty good so far. BioWare has a history of releasing quality video games, and this game is no exception (their reputation isn’t quite as solid as Blizzard’s, who — in the eyes of many gamers — could release a game where you control a grain of dirt through the sea and it would still sell millions of copies).

As usual, I am finding that my character is a good-guy, but so far I fully intend to return to the game and be an evil character again — it depends on whether I feel it’s worth playing through again.

The next game I’m waiting for is Forza Motorsport, which is being developed by Microsoft and touted as a contender for more realistic driving ‘game’. BioWare should be releasing Neverwinter Nights 2 next year, which should also be a big release.

My initial cries of this being a banner gaming month are starting to fall apart.

First off was the disappointment of Juiced, shortly followed by the not-so-bad-ness of Second Sight (I should really play that a little bit more).

Soon after, Locomotion reared it’s head and showed that it had changed very little in the past ten years. Fun for a while, but there doesn’t seem to be enough variety.

I’ve had Sims 2 for the past week but was unable to get it working until Saturday; more on that in a bit. On to Fable, one of my most anticipated games, and one of the two reasons I have an Xbox (the other is BioWare’s Jade Empire, which comes out early next year). I played Fable Friday even and a reasonable amount of Saturday. Unfortunately, it’s no way near as good as I’d hoped (then again, I was hoping for a lot). Reminds me of a linear Legend of Zelda crossed with The Sims; though not quite as fun as either. The game’s “OK”, but I wouldn’t elevate it much more than that — though it is cool to see your character age, and be scarred from battles.

I managed to get Sims 2 working, and Justine and I played it much of Sunday. Since I only played The Sims and none of it’s expansions, there’s a lot of different stuff in there. I think if I’d played all the expansions, there probably wouldn’t be a whole lot of new stuff. I do like how you can have children who grow up. I created one male character who has married and had a girl, who is about to become a “child” (from “newborn” and then “toddler”). For me, the most interesting new change is the “wants” and “fears” section. They’re basically short-term goals/aspirations that make the sims happier (or unhappier, depending). I would like to see some set scenarios (like in Rollercoaster Tycoon, or Locomotion), where you could have a character who wants to become a General, or someone who wants to make $100,000. Some sort of interesting goals for people like me who like that. Ah well, it’s still quite fun.

Update: It seems that Penny Arcade’s Gabe has similar views to me as Fable, though they seem a bit stronger. I’d agree that Animal Crossing is another game Fable seems to have used as ‘inspiration’ (along with Zelda and Sims).

Here is another opinion which is also pretty spot-on. Just shows that everyone has their opinion. It should be noted that I am enjoying Fable for what it is (and wish it was what it could have been), and I partially agree with both opinions shown above.

After umming and ahhing for many a month, I’ve decided that I actually do want to get an X-Box.

There had been a number of reasons I didn’t want one; one of which is that it’s a Microsoft product, and I have an icky feeling whenever I give them money (y’know, because they need it more than I do).

The other is because I didn’t really want to have too many consoles floating around; especially since we’re nearing the end of this generation of consoles. Also, I’d usually been able to get any other games on PC, which was fine. Recently, however, many games are beginning to be console-only (or at least for a long length of time).

Games like Jade Empire from legendary developer BioWare (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic), Fable from even more legendary … guy Peter Molyneux and I’m sure there’s a bunch more than I can’t be bothered searching for. There are also a lot of exclusive games that are already out (Top Spin, Crimson Skies, Project Gotham Racing 2, and again, probably a lot more than those).

I’m loathe to say it, but the Gamecube seems to be in a steady-decline. There’s not really been anything exciting me for the console since Mario Kart, and I didn’t even buy that because of the negative reviews. That was released in August/September last year. Many publishers are leaving/abandoning my favourite console in droves; recent news has fantastic developer Silicon Knights seeking to break their exclusivity deal with Nintendo (which means they probably don’t think it’s a viable platform, though I’ve not seen anything other than they’re going separate ways). All these things lead to a bleak future for the Gamecube. Hopefully things will pick up next-generation; I bet Nintendo has already admitted defeat internally.

So back to the X-Box. Yup, I’m getting one. I’m planning to get it modded so I can do whatever foul experiments I feel like, but I’ll have to see what that costs. Because of the awesome WaveBird I’ve been spoiled. There doesn’t appear to be any good wireless controllers for the X-Box; the only one I can see that appears decent is a Logitech controller but it’s over a hundred bucks (the WaveBird costs about half that).

Apparently some lucky person Won the Internet. Good on them, I say. Don’t think it’s a prize I’d like, what with all the whiny kids and all. Maybe stuff accessible from the Internet, like all of Amazon’s stock would be nice. Our house doesn’t have much storage space though; I could try and fit it in the shed out the back.

Note: Ever wondered what would actually happen if some sort of asteroid collided with Earth? Now you don’t have to