Race & Class

Human
Just to keep the slate as simple as possible, I went with a human Jedi. Apart from keeping it simple though is the upside that humans know an additional at-will power at first level; a representation of a Jedi’s vast knowledge of combat techniques.

However, in the Star Wars universe there are numerous races that are considered Force sensitive so the choice of which race to play shouldn’t be limited to what is the most simple.

Hybrid Psion/Swordmage
A Jedi is a master of both lightsaber and the Force and so must their D&D translation be a master of sword and spell. I first tried creating a Psion with feats to emphasize close quarters sword combat but the overall balance was too far off.

I had set aside the idea until I listened to Critical Hit #86 when Rodrigo said that the best representation of a D&D Darth Vader would be a Swordmage. I decided to take what worked from my original concept and blend it with Rodrigo’s theorized concept, thus creating our Hybrid Psion/Swordmage

General Characteristics

While different, both Knight and Master are similar in their knowledge of the Force and skills with their lightsaber. Any Jedi you create will have at least some skill with both of these facets, but they may favor one side over the other. This, of course, is represented in what type of Jedi you choose to play.

Precise and Direct
While their hearts and actions traverse the path of good, a Jedi Knight’s combat prowess and control of the Force make for a foe not to be underestimated in battle. They are less likely to completely think through situations, but is more likely to be an unstoppable force to their enemies.

Disciplined and Focused
In comparison to a Jedi Knight, a Jedi Master is far more patient and thoughtful of the Force due to his or her dedication to it’s knowledge. A Jedi Master may be more inclined to diplomatically end confrontations, keeping aggressive force as a solution only for when things get messy.

Powers & Feats

With our Jedi being a Hybrid Psion, we’re faced with a few interesting choices at certain levels due to Psions not having any encounter powers. The Psionic Augmentation feature teeters between extra power with the Force or a more honed skill with a blade depending on the choice you make. Either way, both options suit a Jedi character equally.

There are countless other powers that make a good fit for a Jedi character, but the best part is that many of them address many of the staples of what we all know and love about a Jedi.

Falcon’s Mark
What is a Jedi without throwing his lightsaber at a foe then drawing it back to him to continue hacking through more enemies? Well he’s not really a Jedi, I suppose. There are quite a few Swordmage powers that allow you to hurl your blade then call it back that mimic that sweet, glorious combination of Force and lightsaber power that us fans love to see, let alone do ourselves.

Skill Power (Diplomacy) – Haggle
Five words:  “Republic credits will do fine.”

Arcane Awareness
This power embodies a Jedi’s ability to sense his surroundings and know when attacks are coming. There are a few other powers like this, mostly found from skill powers, that have these types of effects as well.

Now I realize I haven’t gone too much into many Force powers, but truth be told most of the Psion powers are pretty much different ways of Force pushing things. There are a couple of telekinesis powers and some mind trick powers as well, but everything seems to fit so well without any special recognition.

Equipment

The good news is that a Jedi’s equipment is pretty standard; normal robes and a lightsaber. The bad news is that a Jedi’s equipment is pretty standard; normal robes and a lightsaber. But there are still some details that can help define our concept

Weapons
As we’ve seen from the movies, there are many types of lightsabers; regular, short, double-bladed, and probably more. What this means for your character is that not only can you give your character meaning, but you can give your blade meaning too. Maybe you chose to craft a pair of blades, a longsword and a short sword, for a Force Unleashed 2 style of fighting. Maybe you’re pulling a Darth Maul and using a double-bladed weapon.

Magic Items
Enchantments to your blade are definitely a good option to look for. It gives you a fantastic excuse to explain the colored glowyness of your blade and adds extra combat proficiency to boot. Magic armor should preferably increase resistances and accentuate your agility and avoidance.

Level 11 and Beyond…

Level 11 brings with it the opportunity to choose and develop a paragon path. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to see the available Paragon Paths or how they might fit my concept, but it’s probably better that way. Character concepts are merely a guide, not the ten commandments. You should be excited to mold the concept to how you want to play your character.

But that will about do it for this guide. Look for more character concepts in the future; some resurrected like this one, some new. Also, feel free to leave your comments below.

A while ago, I was drawn in to the allure of the Dave Ramsey and his financial. Now a Dave Ramsey budget isn’t really that dissimilar to any other budget, but it got me thinking about how I could have a balanced budget, but still be able to play all the video games that I want to play. I’m happy to say that gaming on a budget, almost any budget, is possible and I’ve detailed the process for your learning pleasure.

Get rid of every game you own

Wait, what? Am I drunk? I must be because that didn’t make sense at all. Well this breathalyzer says I’m not drunk so that must be exactly what I meant to say. While it may seem counter intuitive to get rid of all of your games, this is actually a very easy first step as long as you have a method to your madness.

When looking at getting rid of your games, you must first develop your own type of system. The system should be completely your own and will by nature have extreme flexibility in case you change how your plan works. The best systematic approach to this will come from a centralized goal for your games; in the case of my system, which games still have achievements I want to obtain.

Once you’ve developed your system and you have a few games to get rid of, it’s time to trade them in for credit. Now in my personal experience, I have found two services that excel above the rest but compete very with with each other; Amazon and Gamestop.

With Amazon, the trade-in values are very frequently superior to Gamestop, a company notorious for their shady trade-in practices. Obviously this will allow you to have far more flexibility in terms of dollars, but there are some cons to this service as well. You see, Amazon is an online store and thus has no brick and mortar presence like Gamestop does. In this aspect, Gamestop is far superior to Amazon simply because you can walk into a physical store rather than rely on our country’s snail mail to deliver the goods at a much slower pace.

Either option you choose, it’s always important to consider current or future trade-in specials. Every once in a while, Amazon and Gamestop will provide extra incentives to trading in specific games or multiple games at a time; a deal that cannot and should not be overlooked.

Once you’ve started trading in your games, you’ll probably be wondering how you’re actually going to be playing games now. Well good, I’m glad you’re asking because you’re ready for step 2 which is to…

Start using one of the game renting services

Yay! You get to spend money now! This is the part where you save so much money that you finally get to buy that new 60” plasma screen you’ve been wanting for so long (as long as your spouse approves). According to ten minutes of Google research, a typical gamer will buy between six to ten games per year totaling from $360 to $600 per year on video games. The two services you’re going to read about cost $15 per month or one-fourth of a retail priced game totaling around $180 per year on games or half of the typical gaming budget.

But in all seriousness, the two services available, Blockbuster and Gamefly, are actually quite amazing and I really don’t think they get as much credit as they deserve. Redbox has also started renting games, but at $2 per night, I feel that the cost doesn’t make it a contender for your budget. Just like with the Amazon versus Gamestop decision, there are pros and cons to each company in the running for this decision as well.

Blockbuster has much of the same allure that Gamestop has, namely the brick and mortar presence that allows for a quick and easy experience when obtaining your games. This of course can be hindered by the chance that the Blockbuster store in your area may have closed due to its fairly recent financial troubles. But don’t let that discourage those of you lucky enough to live close to a Blockbuster as you have a much better chance of obtaining new games on or close to their release date than those with a Gamefly subscription. The downside is that if you’re looking for an older game, chances are you’ll be up sh*t creek without a paddle.

In comparison, Gamefly is also an incredible service although one that requires a bit more patience. Because Gamefly is a mail service, the time to get a game is dramatically increased over getting the same game at a physical store, however they are able to work that to their benefit. Because they don’t have to worry about filling up a brick and mortar, Gamefly can store a much larger selection of back titles and older games for you to choose from. But while back titles do tend to be available most often, new games are typically not in stock on or close to their release dates.

No matter which service you use, both will get  you the games you want for a good monthly price. There is, however, one last step to my plan which addresses what to do with all the store credit you’ve been accumulating with your traded-in games. Well, the answer to that is to…

Only pay for the extra content you want

Buy downloadable content! Yay for more money spending! But just like last step, you’ll actually be saving money over your old gaming budget.

Your store credit isn’t just sitting around, it’s ready to be used to purchase the DLC or other content that you really want for the games that you really like. That’s pretty much it as there’s not much more to explain about buying only what you want with the credit you’ve been saving. Once the credit well has dried up though, it will be important to decide how much you want your new budget to cover for DLC and gaming in general. Take into consideration what games are being released and when, what DLC has been announced and when, as well as your subscription service that you’ll need to obtain your games.

When you absolutely must own a game

While this plan is pretty fool-proof, I understand that for some people it may be difficult to completely give up buying games altogether. Many online multiplayer games like Modern Warfare and epic RPGs like Skyrim will have near endless replay ability, but in order to make sure that you’re still getting the most out of your budget, there are a couple ways to help stretch your funds.

First off, you can hold out just a couple of weeks for someone to beat the game so you can buy their used copy either from them or the store they sell it back to. Obviously the pricing of used games on newer titles is going to be very near that of new copies but an extra five dollars saved never hurt anybody.

If you wish to go the more patient route however, most games with planned DLC will typically release a “Game of the Year” or “Ultimate” edition around six to eight months after its initial release. The game keeps its usual $60 retail price but is typically packaged with all of the available extra content saving you a good chunk of change on your budget.

Tips for getting more for your dollar

Microsoft has set up a rewards program both for Xbox and for Bing, both of which reward you with Microsoft points for doing things you would normally do. With Xbox rewards, you get rewarded for renewing your Gold subscription or buying specific content on the Marketplace. You can also refer friends to sign up for Xbox Live Gold or take a short monthly survey for a few extra points.

Bing rewards you for simply searching with Bing. Twenty random, stupid searches per day for fifteen days will net you 100 Microsoft points for about 2 minutes of work each day. There’s other stuff you can do at the beginning of your membership that takes absolutely no effort that will get you a few extra rewards points too. Every once in a while, they have a special that lessens how many days you have to mindlessly search with Bing.

But that’s about it, folks. If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel welcome to leave them below as I’m eager to turn this into an ongoing discussion.

One of my most favorite changes in Skyrim was the new graphics engine that powers the game. With it, I was able to experience this game from a stunning third person perspective, a perspective that I feel best compliments this genre of game. In Oblivion, the third person view always felt clunky and thrown in at the last minute whereas in Skyrim it almost feels as though it is how the game is meant to be played. The lush, realistic environments blend seamlessly with the incredibly detailed weapons, armor, and spell effects you are able to see from this completely overhauled view. I felt as though it allowed me to take in more of the beautiful and interactive digital playground that the designers had been slaving over for the past few years. Now with all that being said, my preference of the third person perspective is strictly my opinion. I have no desire to fire up the trolls who will defend first person view to the death. I suppose this would have been a better disclaimer if I had put this at the beginning. Oh well.

In addition to the incredible visual aspect, I am happy to say that Skyrim addressed one of my greatest complaints about its predecessor. I had mentioned that in Oblivion, I was disappointed in the fact that there seemed to be no real incentive to improving your character’s skills or level. In Skyrim, the benefits of leveling are far better established and communicated to the player through the well implemented perk system. What makes this system most amazing is that the perks are not kept secret; you are able to see exactly what you’ll be working towards in any given skill. Interestingly, this new system often causes players to divert from their original character ideas into a character that better fits their preferred playing style. In the instance of my character, I quickly found that my skull crushing, lightning slinging thunder god wanna-be was giving way to a more sneaky ranger character with double axes and a bow.

But there is both an uphill and downhill to every mountain, and if you don’t understand that analogy I mean that Skyrim still has its faults. First and foremost, I completely disagree with whoever decided to not implement a way to reallocate and redistribute your spent perk points. Like I already said, it’s easy to completely change they way you play your character, but when I decided to change my play style I had no way to take my points from my Destruction skill and repurpose them into my Archery skill. I guess I wouldn’t be so bothered by this if I hadn’t heard Bethesda talk so much about how this game molds to your play style with the perk system only to find that it stops doing so if you decide to change your character.

The only other big issue with the game is the lack of voice acting. Just like in Oblivion, I could tell which NPCs were voiced by the same actors simply because they had the exact same voice, tone, and inflection. The few unique voices were quite amazing with Max von Sydow taking home the first ever Epic Geekery Award for video game voicing, but the fact that almost every other actor has “additional voices” listed in the game’s voice credits speaks greatly to the idea that Bethesda isn’t trying to improve their series in any other way than graphically.

I guess my thoughts on Skyrim can be summed up by saying that it feels like a prettier Oblivion with a better leveling system. Many of the original artifacts, themes, and core gameplay mechanics from Oblivion make a comeback (most notably a few daedric weapons and guild questlines) while only a few of my concerns about the first game seemed to be addressed for this sequel. Obviously the developers weren’t looking for my insight specifically, but I would think with the incredible number of Oblivion players that I’m not the only person who had those concerns. But whether you were a fan of Oblivion or not, Skyrim is definitely a fantastic game that deserves your attention. Or else it’ll send a dragon to eat you.

I must admit, I was going to try to keep my views on this subject far from the public as I know that political views on the Internet are a giant target for jerks of all types, but something I read this morning drove me to speak out lest I get physically sick from continuing to hold it back.

The event I’m speaking of is Apple providing many of its executives one million shares of stock. I’m sorry, let me correct that previous statement; one million shares of stock as a year end bonus. Seven different high ranking employees were given one million shares valued at just over $400 per share (at the time of this posting) for a total of over 400 million dollars of value. This happens while the starting wages of a typical Apple Retail Store employee have sunk lower and lower within the past three years. Three years ago the starting salary for a Mac Genius was around around $18 to $22 per hour; however, a mere three months ago the starting wage for a Mac Genius was around $12 to $15 per hour, or as little as half of what similar technicians make at other repair facilities.

I am not about to tell any company, certainly not Apple, what they should do with their money but the fact remains that when you give $400 million to seven employees as a bonus and pay one retail employee about .0001% of that total per year, there is no way for that to sound fair.

While I only used recent news as my prominent example, this behavior is widespread through the corporate world. As one more example, this past year BP awarded many of their executives with a £100,000 bonus while people everywhere were begging for anything that could be done to lower oil prices. The bonuses were reportedly lower than what was given than in 2009 but with both the public outcry and the recent disaster, one would think that no bonus, if not a substantially lower one, would be awarded.

If this is the kind of behavior that the Occupy Wall Street movement is trying to change, then I guess you could say I’m in the 99%, but I don’t necessarily want to be in it. I still believe that people should be willing to forge their own path in life by working hard and not expecting anything to just fall in their lap, but at the same time I do agree that change needs to happen and general fairness needs to have a place in this world again.

I believe there is an issue when a person is making over $100,000 per year and they still need or choose to use a credit card. I believe there is an issue when thousands of retail employees are asked to work harder than ever and receive no extra compensation while a few, select of employees receive a bonus higher than those retail peons will make in a thousand years. I believe there is an issue when people have been crying out for lower gas prices yet oil companies give out large corporate bonuses rather than lower their prices. I believe there is an issue when our government has such an imbalanced checkbook that it brings us into an unimaginable amount of debt yet the people who are most able to help choose to do nothing.

These are actual issues, not me whining about “working three jobs since high school and still not being able to pay bills”. This is not me claiming that I am put out by corporate greed and “deserve to have more because I’ve worked hard”. This is not me saying that I want rich people taxed until they have nothing left.

No, what I am saying is that I know the world isn’t fair, but I would think that they least we could do as a people is to strive for it to be.

Lets look at a game that I think serves as the most extreme examples of how expensive video games are becoming, Dragon Age: Origins. The first Dragon Age game hit shelves in November of 2009 for the normal $60 price tag. New copies of the game included the Stone Prisoner DLC, a $15 value and not a bad bonus perk for purchasing a sixty dollar game; however, right at launch, there was a second content package available for purchase that would cost you $7 to play. I ended up purchasing this content partly because I had been enjoying the game, partly because I wanted to have more game to play, and partly because I felt that $7 wasn’t too much more to pay for the sixty dollar game I just bought. For used copies of the game, an extra $22 was needed to play through all of the content, but having bought the game new I was content with the amount of money I spent on the game.

It wasn’t long after I had finished playing that more content was announced. Over the next ten months, five more extra content packs and one full expansion were released totaling $76 for the available extra content and $136 to play through everything the game had to offer (plus around $15 if you didn’t buy the game new).

But while the ever climbing prices of video games continues to plague the industry, there is still hope. Those who are patient, unlike me, can wait for a “game of the year” or ultimate edition to be released which usually come prepackaged with most, if not all, of the (normally separately purchased) additional content. The game tends to keep its $60 price point, but does not bear the burden of an additional $20-30 to play through all of the game.

The folks who are like me and don’t want to wait an additional six to eight months for a more full release can try to wait for the extremely rare sales on the extra content that maybe happen once every year or two. It is not uncommon for a one to two year old game to keep the prices of its additional content at the same price point without any sort of special pricing or sale ever happening. Most games will put their content on sale maybe once (not once in a year, but once) with no future plans of lowering prices again.

My last point about this is probably one of the most OCD issues I can have with DLC but it must be mentioned otherwise my wife will have to listen to me rant about it again, achievements. I play my games on an Xbox which means I have access to all of the Xbox Live achievements for every available game. Those who know me and my gaming habit would call me an “achievement whore”, someone who pretty much does whatever is needed to accomplish every achievement in the game. When DLC is released, it is typically added to the list of needed achievements to obtain to 100% the game even if you do not own the DLC. Let me explain this using my favorite (note my sarcasm) example, Batman: Arkham City. While I loved the game, I quickly found that unless I had pre-ordered the game at Best Buy to receive the promotional code for the extra downloadable Robin content (which is still unavailable for a separate purchase), I could NOT accomplish all obtainable achievements. Imagine my OCD nerdrage.

I hope that the video game industry will soon stop catering to the wealthier people of the world but for now we broke, poor, and cheap gamers are stuck missing out on a large chunk of what we love to do. Until then, I’ll keep playing the same copy of Minecraft that hasn’t released any expensive additional content.

The main storyline and guild tasks are definitely enough to keep me occupied, but at the heart of the game there just isn’t much that you need to do. The game’s main story can be finished within a few hours if you choose to avoid any distracting side quests; I’m currently sitting at level six with eleven hours played having completed two guild storylines and more than half of the main story.

What makes this most intolerable for me is that even though the game can finished at an unimaginably low level, there’s no incentive to attaining a higher level while playing. The few times that I have leveled up there isn’t anything that awaits me other than a few ability gains. Speaking of my few level ups, the experience system in this game is one that I’m glad they did away with by the time Fallout 3 came out. To level up I needed to raise my major skills’ scores up by some set amount then find a bed to sleep in, The problem with this system is that I really only found myself using two or three skills, mainly the ones to swing my giant hammer and take a beating, with my other skills falling farther and farther behind in their score.

Good Jebus biscuts I’ve done a lot of complaining, although it feels necessary in order to fully relieve my frustrations about this game. If I had to venture a guess as to what really made my nerdrage -o-meter hit the boiling point, it’d be that I made the mistake of playing Bethesda’s next big game first. After spending more than 120 hours playing Fallout 3 over the past two years I guess I expected that everything good about Fallout 3 was taken almost directly from Oblivion, but alas I was mostly mistaken. I guess you could say that I got my hopes up way too much for a game that is now more than five years old, a game that was pushing the current limits of RPG gameplay during its prime.

I will say that this game has made me even more excited for Skyrim only because I can now understand why some of the big changes of the upcoming game are so groundbreaking for the series. Hopefully I can make the game last another eleven days so I can be fully prepared for Skyrim.