The Shrine

So I download the Crystal Chronicles game on the basis that I enjoyed the previous two games. However, what we've got here is less a dungeon crawler and more of a town building simulator. You commission adventurers to go to the dungeons for you and it's your job to just keep them well rested and build shops and the like. Is this awesome? Well, it's certainly not what I expected, but we'll see. I've only invested about an hour into it and it's interesting, but nothing really groundbreaking here.

There's a video for LostWinds over on Kotaku that looks a little more inspired. Anyone else download anything? I thought Dr.Mario was going to come out, the girlfriend was all excited and everything.

*EDIT* because I always forget to finish my posts.

There's a lot of extra DLC for Crystal Chronicles that comes in the form of the dreaded "microtransaction". Want a new costume? 100 points! Want to have the other three races? 300 points per race! I'll probably get the three races because I am weak, but this is highway robbery!

If they're gonna do the microtransaction thing, it should either:

a) provide substantial additional content for the additional coin; or
b) be with a cheaper "full" version of the game since you're getting only a part of it to begin with

At least Mass Effect provide an extra hour and a half sub-story for what, $5? That's what I'd expect out of microtransactions, to enhance/expand the game substantially. The Mass Effect one was, to me, minimum requirement for the money. Rock Band or GH songs, if they were priced at $1, would be fine, they're a little expensive now. Basically you'd be able to download and pay the song for the same price as you would to listen to it.

This bullshit where you pay $1 for a new costume or $2 for fucking horse armour or anything for content already on the disc (starting at you, Need For Speed) is what gives microtransactions a bad name. There's a lot of good that can come out of them if the companies see them as a way to enhance the experience rather than fleece the consumer

well, right after my little post up there I decided to go and play a little more of the crystal chronicles and let me tell you. My impressions of the game remain unchanged, but I can't stop playing it. It's really nothing particularly special, but I enjoy sending my little guys off to do some adventuring and then yelling at them when they die or fail to properly explore the area I sent them to. It's fun, but again nothing special.

The extras don't really interest me, but I eat up town simulators =)

Apparently, Lost Winds is the game to get. 10 bucks.