When I started CynicalSide.com it was as an extention of my other site (Darkfalz.com) where I could put down my thoughts on games, movies, T.V. and entertainment in general, all with a tech twist. The idea/concept sounded good to me at the time but I've come to realize that frankly it's all been done, repeatedly. There are a number of great podcasts and sites out there that cover these things and trying to be noticed in all that isn't really a battle I want to take on in my spare time. So, my question is... if the site was to focus more tightly on one specific "thing" what would you like to see? Even just coving "games" is a large bite, I'm thinking more specific. As things progress we can always look at expanding. My plea to you is to let me know what niche you think could really use a new "voice". Between myself and the others we have most of the major areas well covered and we're always interested in hearing what you think.

Things have finally settled after the holidays and work loads are letting up a little for a few people. We are shooting for a first release of the new podcast possibly as soon as this weekend. Since we don't have the equipment yet to integrate multiple Skype users in to the recording we may just have me and Johnny O for the first episode. Right now we are still looking for a few bits of input from those of you out there...

- Podcast Title: We/I realized that "The Married Gamers" is kinda taken already but that's the general theme/idea/principal of the new setup. It's not just gaming but technology and media/movies/music as well but all centered around those of us that are into these things as a hobby, not a profession.

- Music: I've got some snippets but if you are musician/mixer/dj/etc that is interested in being exposed just let me know. We could use a good 15-30 second title track and will be looking for some transition music for the different segments (anywhere from 5-30 seconds).

- Graphics: I'm not an artists but if you are and would like your work focused here we will be looking for a site logo (for CynicalSide.com) and even a podcast image to syndicate with the feed.

Now, please note....we can't pay for the above items. We will proudly display your information/link (if you would like) but that's all we can do. Also, you need to be the owner of the original content and willing to pass that to us. We can't find out that you used copyrighted material, if we do it will be pulled and you will be reported.

That said... keep an eye out on the site. We'll annouce the new feed and, hopefully, will have the newly themed site up as well.

I've now managed to stick in nearly 40 hours on the XBox 360 version of Dragon Age: Origins and thought I'd give my feedback. While the game is incredibly fun and has tons of great content there are a few (negative) things I feel the need to bring up. The first thing is that the balance in the game seems to be "off" depending on the character you've taken. I played as a mage and as such I expected to be a little "squishy" but wow, was I underestimating that. I spent the first 10 levels entering combat, dying and then letting the rest of the party save me by winning the battle. This repeated, nearly endlessly and became extremely aggravating. It got so bad that I nearly quit the game. Eventually I managed but not until after I dropped the difficulty down to Easy. Thankfully the game lets you change this on the fly, without that I don’t think I would have made it.

The next thing I feel the need to bring up is that I'm stumped. I mean I think I broke the story. I've done nearly all the story line and at a few points I have now managed to get quest lines that can't be completed. This is technically a spoiler but nothing major... At one point in the Dwarf city you find a quest line where you have to back one of 2 possible new rulers. In this quest line I initially followed one but thought he wasn't what I wanted so I switched and started to back the other. This somehow managed to break the game. I now have the quests from BOTH sides of the struggle but I can not complete either. I've gone through every open map point, every building and I think I've talked to every NPC in the game but I can't complete my missions. This is annoying..... A game should never get to a point where you can't progress. I'm stuck, completely.

The last thing I want to bring up is that it seems like there are too many "one chance" events in the game. For example, in my conversations with the female rogue character I had a conversation tree that came up with a few options, one of which is "[kiss]". This would unlock (I believe) an XBox achievement but one of the other options on the tree seemed more relative to the story line so I chose that option. Since then I've never been able to get that conversation tree option to show up. This REALLY annoys me. Another example of this is that if you chose a class/race that didn't initially get the Mambari (war-dog) as a pet there is one, and only one, opportunity to acquire him. If you don't choose this option at that moment it will be gone forever. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the concept of the permanency of the decisions but if you are going to do this make the whole game this way, not just a few items. This inconsistency is confusing and gives the player a false sense.

I've been checking out the Star Trek Online (STO) MMORPG from Cryptic and thought I'd share my thoughts. I have to preface this with a couple points. 1) This is a preview, not a review. The game isn't officially out yet so it's subject to change. 2) I'm a fan of the Star Trek series but I am not a fanatic. I enjoy the series' and the movies but couldn't recite them, nor the timeline in detail to you. Lastly, I am a fan of MMO's and RPG's. I play Lord of the Rings Online as well as having played, WoW, Dark Age of Camelot, Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan.

My immediate impression when launching into the game (this was in the Closed Beta) was simply overwhelming...but in a good way. The first thing you need to do is create a character. Typically this is a little immersive in most RPGs but STO takes this to a whole new level. I spent probably 20 or more minutes in their character generator and realized that I could have easily doubled that if I wanted to. The limits of the customization are so far out there that I found myself tweaking the bridge of the nose and the length of the fingers. This was incredible. If any two characters come out the same it's simply from lack of caring. There are some pre-made races that you can choose from and I may actually check them out but I found that making your own race and customizing the uniform for your character to be incredibly fun. I was able to get myself attached to my character before I ever actually played a minute of the game, how often can you say that?

After you get your character created and jump into the game you start in on what can only be called a tutorial. This isn't what you've come to expect though from many of the games out there. This tutorial is actually useful and teaches you. The controls could easily be overwhelming when you start out and it wouldn't be tough to become lost in it all but if you follow the tutorial and actually read through it, the game flows smoothly and was great.

You really need to break the game into two basic concepts. The first is the standard user adventures where you and your bridge crew travel to a planet surface or station and do the type of things you've come to expect in an MMORPG. You battle, gather and rescue "people". This isn't really anything revolutionary but I do have to say it was great fun. The combat was pretty smooth and the computer controlled AI for your bridge crew was actually useful. The battles were frantic at times and it was great jumping behind cover and actually having this matter. You learn quickly that depending on your class (Engineer, Science or Tactical) you really have a different impact on the fighting and need to take into account how your team best benefits from your specialties.

The second concept that you need to discuss when it comes to adventuring and fighting is the Ship to Ship battles. This is where the game really shines. Flying your ship through space and battling enemies is completely engaging. Balancing your shields, targeting specific sides of the enemy, rolling your own ship around to "hide" your weak sides and then firing specific weapon types at just the right time all add to the experience. One on one battles are great, one on (n) battles are a challenge but when you start to get into large battles you find the chaos to be wild. There is something about being with 20, 30, 40 other federation starships taking on 50 Klingon ships and coming out alive that makes you sit back in your chair and let out a deep sigh of relief. It's intense and immersive and you can easily find yourself losing hours in these great battles. 

Lastly, and I guess this really says what my opinion about the game is, is that I'm going to be purchasing the Lifetime Membership. At $239 it's not a bad deal at all and if you sign up before launch day (Feb 2nd) you not only get the good price but you also get 2 additional character slots and a playable Borg character. How can you go wrong with that?

Just finished watching what is the official end of the David Tennant era for Doctor Who. I'll try to limit any direct spoilers here for you but if you are a huge fan and haven't watched it yet then GO DO THAT FIRST! It's a 2 part episode in true climatical format. It's got a lot, or at least one big old enemy and it was fun to see it play out. The intermingling of characters from throughout the last season or so was also a neat experience. They (or rather HE, being R.T. Davies) went out on a mission to try to pull in nearly everything that could be to really make this one hell of an ending. Overall I have to say that the story was quite well written and even I had a few times where my guesses were wrong (it's a fairly rare thing especially with these types of episodics).

I am a huge fan of the series, have been since the Tom Baker days so I am a little bias when it comes to my Doctor Who but even for someone who isn't a die-hard fan I think you would truly enjoy this one (ok, two parter but it's still one episode). In particular the **SPOILER WARNINGS** ending scenes where The Doctor goes around and says his subtle good-byes to his once companions was super touching. For some reason Martha, Mickey, Sarah Jane and even Rose didn't really tug at me but seeing Captain Jack, well that nearly got me. The transformation/regeneration seemed to be a little excessive this time as well, nearly destroying the inside of the TARDIS. It leaves me to wonder if they aren't going to spruce-up the old blue box to go with that, surprisingly young face they went with for the newest installment.

Anyway.... it's definitely a must watch in my book, so go....go watch it....now, really.....go

Downloaded the demo of Dante's Inferno off XBox Marketplace today. Was pretty stoked to check it out from all the hype I'd been hearing about it (Rebel FM in particular). Well, after the 1gb+ download I finally fired it up and here's my first impressions:

 - Wow, the graphics are really awesome. The opening story is detailed (talking graphics here) and really looked awesome.
- Tutorial (Teaching you) was progressive and really easy to follow
- Combat is where I felt it fell apart. It was just a button masher for 95% and then 5% of hitting just the right button(s).

Now, I have to say that I had no idea what to expect from the game. I purposely stayed away from hearing too much about the details, just absorbed the hype. It was a neat experience to jump into a game like that but you run the risk of finding a game that is just not a genre you are very into. Sadly this was just that type of game. Bayonetta was a similar experience for me....but that's another day.

Ok, the movies been reviewed backwards, forwards and everthing in between and the general pattern has been one of "wow, what a great experience". Well....hogwash. While I won't argue that there are some cool sci-fi moments and the general story line is one that's interesting I just don't see the spectacle that everyone was talking about. The character developments aren't that deep, the story line falls apart fast if you actually start to think about the logical aspects and even when I suspend reality and try to look at it as a simply escapism I don't find myself that satisfied. Was it worth the 2 hours, absolutely.... but it's no genre-changing experience. I never really found myself drawn in to any of the characters and sympathised with none of them. About the only really cool aspects of the movie were some of the gore effects. They really tried to make this more than it was and as for the reviewers.....Shame On You.... Stop trying to hype things, stop trying to be the critic who is first on the charts to guess the next huge breakthrough.

Quality of Cinematography:     4.0
Depth of Story:                      2.5
Compelling Characters:           3.0

Ok, so I've been playing a lot of video games lately, mostly on the console and I've come to realize that there are a number of common gaming mechanics that, when not done properly, really chafe me. I figured, what the hell....it's a good a place as any to start an entry.

First one... Autosaving. Either the game does it or it doesn't, none of this inbetween crap. Take for instance Dragon Age Origins (XBox 360). When you are "porting" around from map point to map point it sometimes autosaves, sometimes doesn't. Why? I mean why does it not always do it, or why does it sometimes do it? I found myself thinking that it autosaved when often it didnt'. Then when I did a manual save I found that 1/2 the time I took another step or two and it kicked in an Autosave. Games should either do an autosave on every instance that sometimes causes it or they should never do it.

Second point... Poor tutorials. Some games are great at getting you up to speed quickly and teaching you how to use the controls, some don't. Take for instance Assasins Creed II (XBox 360). There is no tutorial really. I mean there doesn't need to be a formal "training area" like some games, I rather like the "throw you in the mix" style but come on. Trying to learn those controls on the fly was not a fun experience. It shouldn't take 5+ retries just to figure out how to do what should be a basic manuever. I know what you may be thinking/saying....no I didn't play Assasins Creed I (seen point #3).

Third point... No, you should not have to play an earlier version of a game in order to play the current one. This is an idiotic concept when you think about it. This means that your user base is never going to do anything but decrease. Yeah, it makes the die-hard fans feel special but those aren't really the whole audience. It's a matter of keeping your fans AND expending your userbase all at the same time.

Last point (for now)... Maps without labels. Ok, this isn't a wide spread problem I know but man oh man, when it comes up it's sure a pain in the ass. Take for instance Borderlands (XBox 360). Why is it that I can't highlight a point on the map and get what it is? This can be uber annoying or you end up with hand written notes all over the place.

Bonus point... Ok, may sound like a no brainer but they (the makers) really should make sure you aren't allowed to go into an area that you aren't adequate (character level/skill) to survive in without a way out... and no, a previous save isn't valid in this case.

The site is up, well in as much as it's functional. In the days to come I'll be putting up the first real content for the site and will be putting up the first podcast.