Who wants to be an RPG player?

Let’s start off by figuring out just what an RPG is, then what it takes to play an RPG. RPG stands for Role-playing game, which is a game where the player assumes the role of a fictional character. RPGs are the games that used to be (or are still being) played in your mother’s basement with a group of friends, dice, pen and paper, and imagination. The gaming industry has taken all of that away and made it much easier for RPGs to be accessible. But still only a certain type of gamer dares to tread across the plains, hills, nuclear wastelands, pits of hell, and dungeons of RPGs. See if you are fit for the journey at hand. These are the skills and attributes that every RPG player must have.

Time

Every true RPG player must have a lot of time as they are very very long. Oblivion for example can easily have over 100 hours of game-play in it and will go on forever. Fallout also will the third DLC has a much added game-play time. RPGs are a huge investment with time so make sure have it to spend.

Patience

Their is no room for the trigger happy FPS people in the RPG sector. Although most shooters now are adding a RPG element to them the true RPGs need careful planning. Most RPGs allow you to stop time and plan out the actions of your party or character. Then watch them as they fulfill their command. Also most of the time spent in a RPG is not fighting but customizing, talking, or planning.

Math

You have to be able to know how to customize your character(s). Know about the skill trees and level up systems in the game you are playing as they are different in each one. Also have some common sense as your mage probably shouldn’t be wearing a heavy breastplate that increases his strength by three. Know what skills and spells you want, have a direction for your character. Know that when an item has an affect on attributes that you make sure it affects those attributes that will help your character.

Lore

You have to go into an RPG wanted a good story and lore. If you don’t you will spend mindless hours of dialogue clicking away then fighting something and you won’t even know why. Most RPGs offer great stories but some are less than perfect. You have to also feel connected to your character, make sure the choices you make are ones that satisfy you.

With these four skills RPGs will be more enjoyable and fun. Also without these then they will pretty much suck. Here are some RPGs that I highly recommend.

-Baulder’s gate I and II
-Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
-Fallout I, II, and III
-Neverwinter Nights I and II
-IcewindDale I and II
-Diablo II (and coming out soon III)
-Knights of the Old Republic I and II

Donkey Kong Freakout

Check out this kid that is obviously upset about his banana’s and clearly wants to treat them poorly. This .GIF was made as a spoof on the recent video of the kid that lost his World of Warcraft account. Check out that video here. And yes, he did try to shove it up his butt.

Grinds My Gears: Console Lag

You know what really grinds my gears? Lag on consoles. Lag is an inevitable part of video games, especially when playing over the Internet or perhaps on a sub-par computer. However, why do some games lag on consoles? I mean seriously, yeah they might have a lot of textures to load, but when developing a game for a console, there is only one hardware requirement to meet. There should be no reason for there to ever be any lag on consoles when it’s being played offline. Yeah games need to load, but when they interrupt crucial gameplay that’s when it hurts the worst. I recently noticed this while playing Skate 2; Skate features an open world, however, I never really noticed lag until recently and frequently in the same spots. This might seem like not too big of a deal as it lasts for under a second or so, but when it interrupts the flow of the game and causes the player to fail a trick then it really messes with the feel of the game. So developers need to make sure that games pushed out for consoles are able to really flow seamlessly if they are going to advertise it as such. And that is what really grinds my gears. What do you think? Do you ever run into lag while playing on consoles, and what do you think about it?

Speedtest.net

Ever wonder just how good your ISP is, and what your internet connection really is? Check out this really cool site called speedtest.net and test your connection with local servers, or see what your connection is to servers all across the earth. This site is really cool to check your ping and upload and download speeds, that way you can see if you need to make any alterations to how your getting your internet. Ping is very important to playing games, while playing online having a low ping is a big advantage. Check it out now and see where your internet connection stands, then brag to all your friends and show them your superiority because of your massive connection speeds.

Go to Speedtest.net to test your performance and compare it with others.

WeGame Video Capture

Have you ever felt the desire to record when you play? Or have you ever had an amazing replay that you wanted to save and show all your friends? Or maybe you just wanted to watch clips of other people doing cool things in video games? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of the previous, or even if you didn’t, then you’ll want to check out what they are doing at WeGame.com. It is basically FRAPS and you can easily record videos and screenshots on the fly while you’re gaming. Simply download the client, create and setup an account, and begin recording.

The process is so simple, once you’ve created the account you will set your settings on video quality and hotkey mapping for recording. Once you are in game you push the assigned hotkey and a little green box appears in the top left corner indicating it is working, as well as a sound. After you stop the recording then the files are automatically saved to your computer. From the client you can even decide to post your videos for everyone else to see.

This service works amazing and has really good video quality. Unfortunately for me I have yet to get sound to work, but this is not WeGame’s fault and actually hardware issues. So download this recording service, you’ll have so much fun recording yourself, and it also has many practical applications as well. This is one download you will not regret and why would you? After all, this is a free download. Hurry up and check it out, then tell me what you think about it in the comments!

Download WeGame Client

System Requirements

Operating Systems

• Windows XP (32-bit) (Recommended)
• Windows Vista (32-bit)

Minimum Hardware

• 1GB RAM
• 15 MB hard drive space for installation
• 2GB free space for recorded videos

Recommended Hardware

• For best recording and gaming experience
• AMD or Intel Dual Core CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• 15 MB hard drive space for installation
• 5 GB free space for recorded videos

Game Booster

Performance is everything in PC gaming. You should want every bit of your resources to be fully utilized to help your gaming experience. While you may not know it, many times there are applications installed that run in the background. You can’t see them but they are still there, sucking away at precious RAM and CPU. These applications are no big deal when browsing the Internet or doing other basic activities; but when playing intense next-gen games, every bit of RAM counts, so you don’t want these applications taking up this valuable real estate. That’s why you should download this program called Game Booster. Game Booster is basically an intense version of your Task Manager. Simply open the Game Booster and select the unnecessary applications you would like to temporarily halt, then push ‘Switch to Game Mode’ and they will be stopped, leaving that extra computing power to be used by your game. Simply go back into Game Booster and turn everything back on with just the click of one button. This program is extremely basic and extremely easy to use. If you’re having performance issues, or are looking for a little better frame rate, then this is an awesome program to download, and the best part is that it is completely free.

Download Game Booster 1.1

Size: 821 KB
License: Freeware
Requires: Windows

[Found on MajorGeeks.com]

Angry German Kid Video

Now I know this video is just about as old as the internet, but this video is amazingly funny and is a fine example of game rage. This video was made as a response to some German politicians attempting to restrict access to violent video games. He was trying to show how they view gamers. Very amusing and intelligent. Too bad most people missed the point. Watch this video for a good laugh and see just what the extreme stereotype of a gamer is. Do you have game rage like this kid? What are your thoughts on this, let me know in the comments!

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

Oddball: Beautiful Katamari

This is going to be a new segment I like to call, Oddball. An article all about weird games, some fun, some perhaps not, but just something out of the ordinary and unexpected. Every once in a while there will be a game that just makes you wonder. These games are all very intriguing and hard to imagine that who ever created the game wasn’t actually hopped up on so many drugs that their eyes would fall out. Perhaps some of these games were created that way, I mean look at Mario for an example. He’s a plumber that travels inside of tubes to fight weird monsters and he gets power ups from mushrooms. No person with an unaltered state of mind could come up with that. So anyway, these will all be just some of the craziest and weirdest and most oddball games out there.

So for the first Oddball, there doesn’t seem like any game less deserving than Beautiful Katamari. The premise of the game is to roll around a little sticky ball that picks up everything it touches. The more you pick up the bigger the items you are able to pick up become. You might ask yourself, “well why should I pick these things up?’ and there is an excellent answer to that. It all started when the King was playing some tennis and he was so hardcore that he knocked the ball right into the sky and it created a big black hole. Yeah. A big black hole. It sucked up all the planets and now it is your job to help the King make new planets.

Royal Rainbow!

Despite sounding incredibly retarded, I actually found this game to be extremely fun and one that everyone has to play, no matter how retarded you think it sounds. The art and music are just as crazy as the plot, which makes the whole experience extremely fun. Each level advances to bigger and bigger objects and each requires you to pick up more of a certain type of object. This helps keep it interesting and there are so many items that it will be a new experience at each level. This game is a must play for anyone, and could be a great game for children as well. It is available for a very reasonable price of $20 at BestBuy.com.

That’s all for today’s Oddball game, if you have any suggestions for Oddball games or if you have any ideas for what you might like to see here on thriftygamers.com then send me an email at guncat@thriftygamers.com.

Rock Throne Drum Stool

Rock Band is not only for the casual player, it can become something very extreme and real; through the better the accessories and peripherals, the better and more realistic gameplay you will enjoy. So as all companies do, Icon, has created a drum stool just for Rock Band, and Guitar Hero. Any unsuspecting person would love to have this in their living room to help make their Rock Band experience even more real; and with a price of $30, how can you lose? The problem with this chair is just that, a drum stool for a price like that and with advertising like that just can’t be good. And it isn’t. You really get what you pay for on this one; it feels decent for the first few months and it is definitely worth the low price point. However, eventually after twisting and turning on the chair the bolt began sheering off the chair and cutting a large ring around the center pole. This proves problematic as after this the chair was far too wobbly to use and became more trouble than it was worth. Sure it might be tempting, just because it says it’s made for Rock Band, doesn’t mean it should be used with Rock Band. Save up your money, and go buy a $100 saddle seat at your local music shop. Don’t waste your money, your butt deserves more than this.

However, if you are on a tight budget and you still want to make your drumming feel more realistic then buy it on Amazon for $30.

Or if your looking to treat your butt and you are ready to make the jump for a real chair, then try this.

Remember to vote in our latest poll for which you prefer: digital downloads or the physical box. VOTE NOW!

SciFi MMOs

“Space the Final Frontier,” was the beginning to many Star Trek episodes, it started a new adventure in the chapter of the Star Trek Universe. Many games have tried to recreate this but none have quite come close to capturing the magic of Star Trek. Now, though, an MMO that will “boldly go where no man has gone before” is coming soon; along with other SciFi MMOs.
No other SciFi MMO has quite been a huge success. Tabula Rasa recently and sadly had its plug pulled. It was not a bad game at all, it was quite creative and new in lots of areas but there just wasn’t enough room on the market for it. EVE online is probably the biggest SciFi MMO out there right now. It does nothing different than other MMOs out there other than its player driven universe where players can get involved with politics and make decisions that will affect every single player. Three new MMO hope to become the SciFi MMO that will take off and challenge the setbacks other MMOs of its kind have faced.

Champions Online

Champions Online is much like the game City of Heroes, in fact made by many of the same people, only better. Every single character you could ever hope to create or think of you can with its unique and very detailed character creator. It has a skill tree that gives you direction but does not prohibit you from taking any power you want. The beautiful art direction looks like a wonderful comic book. This game has great expectations and is expected to release Q3 2009.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

The Old Republic made a huge appearance at E3 as it was announced as being the first MMO ever to be fully voiced. Set in the Knights of the Old Republic Universe, 100 years before Darth Vader is born. This MMO has a lot of room to move with its lore. Sith, Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Republic Trooper, Sith Scout, and a lot more are just some of the classes available. The way that I like to describe this MMO is full BioWare RPG only and MMO. They have set the standard high with this one, lets hope they can keep it. It is set to release sometime in 2010.

Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online, a game that many fans like myself have been waiting for. Now what would make a Star Trek game good? Well Cryptic Studios has felt that big is what would. This game is promised to be huge with plenty of space to explore, hundreds of planets to colonize and tons of ships to battle. You can play as part of the Federation or the Klingon Empire. You can be any of the races and even create your own race if you choose. Ships are fully customizable and a wide selection is available. Away missions where you beam down to planets will be there also and friends can join in on those too. The Design for this game looks good, lets hope that the mechanics and game play will work well also. This game is set to release in 2010.

Lets hope that these three MMOs can give a jump start to the SciFi brand that is lacking. They all have great promise and look good, we’ll see if they hold up to their potential.