Dungeon Siege 3 Review

First and foremost, let me say that I rate this game 8/10.

That's just for the people who want to get my idea out of the way quickly. Dungeon Siege 3 is actually by far my top game of the year. You'd ask: "What about Halo: Reach and Halo 3?" Well, that can be put to rest quickly. Halo: Reach came out last year. So that's my top 2010 game. Halo 3 I bought for the campaign and multiplayer, not to compete in my top lists (But it is there...)

Overview:
The game itself is VERY different to Dungeon Siege One and Two, that's something that everyone should know when they play the game. Apparently there are problems with the PC version but... yea, I have it on Xbox.
According to the storyline, DS3 takes place about one hundred and fifty to three hundred years in the future after DS1 and DS2. (Which makes sense to me). The 10th Legion has been blamed for the death of the King of Ehb (Awesome country, I'm gonna have my holidays there) and have been destroyed. A civil war now rages between Jeyne Kassynder, leader of this big almighty revolution, and the royalty who have been forced to retreat into Glitterdelve. As a last surviving Legion soldier, it's your job to fix everything. Makes sense, really.

Positives:
KILL KILL KILL! That's what the Dungeon Siege series has always been good at. You see an enemy and then you see alot. Mob hunting has been improved a heck-of-alot in Dungeon Siege 3 in comparison to DS1 and DS2. Your powers are alot more useful in battle and you can now duck and roll around to avoid the oncoming blows of your oversized opponent.

To be honest, I was actually expecting the game to suck on this level after hearing what some people thought about it at the E3 demo but I was actually quite amused at how I could constantly stun an opponent and then hack him, stun 'em, hack 'em, etc, which made it hilarious and quite fun.
Compared to Dungeon Siege 1 and 2, DS3 has far better graphics in the game and when added to the powers you use, can create some incredibly stunning effects.

The game also makes a heavy number of references to Dungeon Siege 1. This actually makes me very happy because I enjoy seeing them make jokes.

Negatives:
Oh, where to begin. While I love this game to bits, there are a large number of negatives which, at times, make me want to throw my controller at the screen and shout: "WHY!!!!!". Firstly, party size = 2. It seems to be a major problem for the game developers of Dungeon Siege to understand that large parties were a popular aspect of the Dungeon Siege franchise. The reducing of a maximum party size in Dungeon Siege 2 was very unpopular, so why did they implement it here? I miss the old days of DS1 where you had everyone gang up on a boss and you just watched the numbers reduce until it died. Dungeon Siege 3 insists that you have one partner in the game (Unless you go to Xbox Live multiplayer) who helps you do everything. You can switch that partner for any of the other two at any time (Assuming they have joined you). What I really want to see it Anjali set an enemy on fire while Katarina fires gunpowder into their chest while Lucas cuts them up all the while the mage guy (Can't remember his name, silly me) does... well, whatever the mage guy does anyway. (Honestly, he actually looks REALLY useless).

Probably the biggest fail this game ever had was the subsequent extinction of the Krug. They were so awesome and so hilarious that I just really wished that I would have had the opportunity to go and slaughter them again. One of the game trailers has two guys slaughtering Krug, so why can't the game have it? I DEMAND KRUG SLAUGHTERING!
The entire loot system for the game has changed completely. All gear is specific for four different playable characters and in most cases, it all looks the same. A reason that Dungeon Siege 1 and 2 was so popular was because of the level of customization. Infact, the game won't let you customize your appearance whatsoever. I find this so bad that it lost one point off of the final score (Which is actually quite major if you think about it).

Final Judgement:
The game is good. Worthy of my top game of the year lists. So I'll keep playing. Seriously, I actually haven't won yet. But I will.

Continuity Errors:
I figured that I might as well put this in.

Dwarfs: Dungeon Siege 3 clearly takes place after Dungeon Siege 1 and Dungeon Siege 2. In DS3, they state multiple times that dwarves are extinct. Yet in DS2, dwarves are considerably numerous and the game heavily references the "Glory" of Glitterdelve Mine. It seems incredibly unlikely that all dwarves are dead. The Utraean Peninsula should still have Dwarves, as well as the Glorydeep mine in Eastern Aranna.
The game states that the "Farmgirl" was acompanied by fourteen companions. DS1 only allows a maximum of eight characters in any given party AND DS3 makes no reference to packmules in the party.



Connections:
This will ONLY make sense if you have played right through Dungeon Siege One and read the backstory.
Sikra and Boryev are both Lescanzi. The whole travellers thing is just another name.
The mage who joins your party, he is a decendent of Grandmage Marik, a party member in DS1.
Lucas is the descendant of your main character in DS1. He is ALSO blood related to Katarina.
Ulora is an Azunite, very much like your character in DS2. She is also DISTANTLY related to the hero in DS2. You can't really figure this out unless you do deep digging in DS1, 2 and 3. START READING YOU LAZY PERSON.

Holiday Plan.

I have plans. Serious plans.

And that's all I am going to say.

Pirates of the Carribbean 4: On Incredibly Strange Tides with stranger crews

So last night, I went to go see Pirates of the Carribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. I have to fully admit, it was certainly an interesting movie.

Of course, this is Pirates of the Carribbean. Of course it has to be good. It's got pirates killing different pirates killing spaniards and British people (British People are funny)
Oh, and before I you continue reading, I suggest you adhere to the following statement:

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SERIOUS SPOILERS!!!

The film starts off with Jack Spar-... Wait... "Captain" Jack Sparrow in England posing as the judge for a trial where Mr Gibbs has been arrested on the crimes of piracy, etc. Sparrow saves him, they go running away and a hilarious battle scene begins. But, this is Pirates of the Carribbean. Hilarious fight scenes are everywhere.

While I do admit that alot of IDEAS were mostly original. Remember how Davy Jones had cannons on the front of his ship? Well, Captain Blackbeard has flamethrowers. I know, right? FLAMETHROWERS! WOOHOO! A big highlight of the movie is alot of the ideas behind things. I certainly must admit that I was not expecting mermaids to suddenly grow fangs and become carnivourous. That... was quite unexpected. Of course, there's always one silly girl who thinks "I'm different! Please don't hurt me!" And what happens? She gets caught. Sucks to be the cleric chap who gets caught in the crossfire, causing her to have a slightly less level of respect for him. Oh, and of course, they HAVE to fall in love, just like any other movie.

I think the most dissappointing thing about this movie was... Well, actually, there's quite a bit. Remember all those awesome side characters from the original trilogy? The short guy, the guy with a wooden eye and his friend... Ah, good times... Yea, they aren't here. Seriously. It's almost as if the director said: "Hey, let's make a new POTC movie and just keep the main characters. We'll introduce new characters with a very poor backstory which won't be explained very well". But that dratted monkey is still around. Only thing is that he has been minaturized and stuck in a wine bottle... With the rest of the Black Pearl (Whaaaaaat?) Apparently Blackbeard captured it... How he stuffed it in there I will never know.

The final topper is that apparently, Blackbeard likes to raise the dead in his spare time, as evident by the two zombies who seem to manage the crew on board. The final fight scene is extremely unrealistic. They go to all that trouble finding the fountain of youth, travelling through a very NARROW passage, only to have the Spanish come LATER and surround them ON ALL SIDES. How did they get in there? This sense makes not.

I have to say that my final verdict is a 6/10. It's quite simply, not like the original three and it probably would have been better to leave it at the end of the third one because the finale few scenes actually rounded it up VERY well in my opinion.