Pawn Stars Is Pretty Sweet

At first, the show, Pawn Stars, on the History Channel seemed stupid to me. I didn't like the pun and I failed to see how a show about a pawn shop would have anything to do with World War II which is really the only reason people watch the History Channel. Anyway, after the strange, "somewhat-related-to-Louisiana-history" show, Swamp People, grew on me, I decided to give Pawn Stars a try. I ended up enjoying it.

The show is about four guys who run the "Gold & Silver Pawn Shop" in Las Vegas. This is a family business run from grandfather to grandson. Rick, the bald guy, runs the shop with his son, Corey, the first from the left of the picture above. Rick knows a lot about American History and is very passionate about it. His son is learning the business and sometimes gets up in his father's face.

Also in the shop is Rick's father called, "The Old Man". That's it. He is referred to as "The Old Man" throughout the show. He doesn't laugh or smile and is perpetually pissed off at the stupidity of everyone around him. Speaking of stupid, the last character in the show is "Chumlee", Corey's best friend and designated comedy relief. Chumlee is always the butt of jokes but is prone to moments of genius, at least, when the situation is convenient for him.

Anyway, the shows format is simple. Some shmoe walks into the shop with an unusual item like, let's say, keys to activate a Russian nuclear missile. You know, quaint little curios. Rick gives us the info about the item's unique history which, I guess, qualifies this show to be on the History Channel. You know, if things were that easy, maybe if the hosts of Wipeout would talk about the history of obstacle courses or something, they would qualify to be on the History Channel but I digress.

Anyway the History™ segments regarding the items are very interesting. As it turns out, the keys mentioned were not for missiles but for space shuttles which is about as cool. Some items like guns and swords are always a good listen. If Rick doesn't know much about the item, he calls an expert. After we had our fill of History™, the item is appraised and Rick asks the customer if he wants to sell it. Usually the customer is a dumbass who wants to sell it at its exact value thus, denying Rick profit. Anyway, they haggle a bit which is fun to watch then they strike a deal, do a handshake and "go do some paperwork".

Corey and Chumlee usually go on the road or do some work outside the shop. Corey and Chumlee are hilarious together. I'm not sure what the Old Man does but he's probably doing some managerial stuff in the back or something. Hey, nobody argues with the Old Man. Old Man is often annoyed with the antics of his dumbass sons but always with Chumlee. Occasionally the Old Man deals with the people who bring all the weird crap in.

What I enjoy most is the brutal honesty of Rick and Old Man. If your item is worth crap, they won't hesitate to tell you. If you offer a ridiculous price, they laugh it off and offer a more realistic one. They draw the line and if the deal just won't work then too bad, go sell it yourself then.

I never expected to enjoy this show. Its just fun to watch and the characters have really interesting personalities.

I still think IRT Deadliest Roads is still stupid though no matter how you look at it.

Bright Lights Bigger City

Summerslam 2011 was pretty sweet. The theme song kicked ass too. Cee Lo, man. Damn that's cool.

Witcher 2: Spoiler Free Review

Graphics

What can I say? The graphics are pretty top notch. I'm impressed with the textures in particular. Clothing and skin were rendered really good. At max settings, this game is really beautiful.

Sound

Music is epic enough. You don't need Hans Zimmer for this shit. The music is memorable in some parts. Its fitting and not too distracting. The voice acting is sadly adequate and forgettable. I can't put my finger on it but the dialogue seems a little off in some parts.

Gameplay

Who gives a shit about visuals and audio. That don't mean squat if the gameplay sucks so let's get down to it. I heard that this game is hard and, since I jumped in at hard difficulty right off the bat, I can say that yes, it can be pretty unforgiving.

Combat requires you to be mindful not to be overwhelmed or get flanked and attacked in the rear. For one, blocking uses up energy called vigor. Get outnumbered and the blows will rain down so fast, your vigor meter will drain to zero with your health quickly after. Even if you specialized in magic and used the magic barrier, that barrier won't last forever and it costs vigor to cast it. Worse still, you can't regenerate vigor while the shield is up so its the same slippery slope.

As the game progresses, it becomes much easier especially when you can take skills from the talent trees. There's the Witcher tree, which is basic stat bonuses. There's the swordsmanship tree which specializes in physical combat. The magic tree enhances your runic magic's effectiveness and lastly, there's the alchemy tree which increases the boons from potions, oils and other craftables. Significant investment in a tree allows slots for mutagens, which are permanent stat increases. Once you put in a mutagen, you can't remove it so you have to put in a "greater" mutagen and disregard the lesser ones. What's the point of lesser categories then?

Combat is to be taken seriously in Witcher 2. Sure, playing it as "hack and slash" is possible especially if you took swordsmanship but its not the most efficient. The game rewards thoughtful play with extensive use of potions before battle and the right rune spells. Proper preparation reduces the chances you'll fuck up and trust me, in hard difficulty, when you fuck up, it is not a pleasant sight to behold.

Other than combat, Witcher 2 is standard RPG stuff. You loot monsters, get gear, etc. Oh, there's some "quick time event" nonsense in this game too but I'll leave that for now.

Story

Since this is spoiler free, I won't go to the details but the story is hard to comprehend at first. I mean, this isn't some Bioware bullshit about saving the universe/world from an unspeakable evil with gay sex along the way. No. This game requires you to pay attention and READ the journals extensively to better understand the characters even though the journal is cleverly biased due to the in-game character writing it. The basic premise of the story is that you are Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, who is King Foltest's bodyguard. The king is assassinated, you are blamed and the rest is up to you.

Geralt himself is a weird character. He has amnesia which is the game's way of saying "fuck you" for not having a save file from the original Witcher to start with. Geralt's motivations are blank. I'm not kidding. The game let's you decide what Geralt's purpose in his adventure is. If you take it seriously, as you should, and get into the spirit of RPG, you'll find the story makes more sense if you act in a consistent manner and work towards a specific goal. Get into it. This game demands that you do.

A lot is said about the choices in the game. Yeah, the choices matter for the most part, particularly in the second act where choosing allies determines the starting location. More importantly, the choices determine the flow of the story. In case you haven't noticed, I'm really trying to deliver the point here that the story of Witcher 2 is good only if you get into it. Really, you won't enjoy this game if you don't.

The quests have multiple endings but sadly, the quests are not that interconnected or complex. The choices are not so

Cons

I hate the interface. It's just not intuitive. Drinking potions is a hassle but that's not even the worst of it. The inventory is just a mess sometimes with junk items being hard to find. The categories of items are a little strange. There's a category for alchemy and another for crafting but sometimes they interlap making you wonder what's the point. Having a merchant craft an item is cumbersome. Can't I arrange my own recipe screens for efficiency? Do I have to leave the crafting menu just to go to the buy menu to get the ores I need and then close it to open the crafting menu again? Why do ingredient lists take too long to scroll up? A little streamlining would be good.

The game is too short. The last act feels too short. Did they run out of money or something. To be fair, my game came with a manual so I guess I was spoiled for easy solutions. Technically its longer if you make different choices so I guess there's some replay value there.

Conclusion

Overall, Witcher 2 is a great game that requires a different state of mind than other games of its type and I don't mean that in a pretentious sort of way. You can really see the effort put into the game and that the creators really want you to get into the experience. Its a shame if you don't. If you can play along to the story, (care) then good for you. The gameplay is challenging but rewarding and the superb graphics and epic soundtrack is icing on the cake.

I don't use an arbitrary rating system.