Injustice

I like games with superheroes, mostly because I'm a big comic book geek. Injustice: Gods Among Us is therefore my jam. You've got known DC Comics superheroes squaring off against DC Comics super-villains, or not.

The fact is, you can manipulate any character to fight any other character involved, even themselves. The story revolves around the concept of multiple parallel universes, a pretty common bugaboo in DC Comics. So you not only have the characters you know, but you also have evil, and sometimes good versions of those characters as well.

The characters at your disposal, at least at first, include heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkgirl, Shazam (sooo disappointed it's not Captain Marvel), Nightwing, Raven, and villains Lex Luthor, Catwoman, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Ares, Deathstroke, Killer Frost, Black Adam, Doomsday, Bane, Harley Quinn, and the Joker. Later characters were Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, Batgirl, Lobo, Zod, even Mortal Kombat's Scorpion. Additional skins were available for a number of concepts like Blackest Night, Red Son, Earth 2 and others.

The game is very similar to MK, mostly because it's designed by NetherRealm Studios, the folks who did Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, so there you go as far control techniques and the appearance of Scorpion. I found his presence charming, but also a bit distracting. Scorpion isn't a DC character, ya know?

Another bonus is the locations and the background characters. All the choice DCU places are here, Arkham, Gotham, Metropolis, Atlantis, Themyscira, and the Batcave, the Fortress of Solitude, and the Hall of Justice just to name a few. Easter eggs are many, look for characters and the like in the background. My favorite is watching Atom Smasher battle Giganta as you fight your own fight.

There's also some fabulous voicework by folks who have worked in DC Comics animation, videogames, and even in the case of Stephen Amell as Arrow, their live-action properties. Listen for Kevin Conroy as Batman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Phil LaMarr as John Stewart, and Tara Strong as Raven, among others. Great skins have been available as well, covering the New 52, Earth 2, Red Son, and Blackest Night, just to name a few. However, any new characters or skins have been halted in the same manner that Pain was stopped by Sony. They're just not supporting the game any longer…

The Death of Pain

Pain is one of my favorite games on the PS3. I've talked about it before, and it's always the fallback whenever I play on the PlayStation. No matter what game I'm playing I will always end up playing Pain at some point in the session. It's also a very good game to get your frustrations out on a bad day, after all, it's throwing stuff and destroying stuff - a fun, no pay later, tantrum of sorts.

For the longest time I never used the play online option. Not to sound sad or pitiful, but I really didn't know anyone else who had a PS3, and those that did, were (ahem) adults and didn't use it all that much, so the play online option wasn't much good for me. When the PS4 was announced, my buddy Ken (who visits infrequently and when he does, we have a blast playing Pain) smartly decided to buy a PS3, as he correctly assumed the price would drop with a new updated system on the market.

So we made long distance play-dates to hurl stuff at each other, only to find, much to our dismay that Sony has discontinued the play online option from Pain. Yeah, our favorite game, and we can't even play it together over long distance. What's the use of having high tech if the powers that be won't let us use it? I mean, come on, this isn't a big government secret, it's a ragdoll physics videogame where you get to fling cats, mimes, and other losers against walls at high speeds. Cut us a break, Sony.

You can't even buy characters any more. If you didn't get certain characters before they shut the door, you will never get them. I'm just happy I got Flavor Flav and The Hoff when I could, however, I wish I could have known before it was too late to get Andy Dick. I guess it's Sony that's the real Andy Dick in this one. I want to play Pain online again…

Taking Inventory

With the addition of the PlayStation 2, I felt it was time to take inventory of exactly how far down the rabbit hole The Non-Gamer has fallen since this started. The first problems were that Ray also gave me PS2 games with the PS2, then I bought a few myself. Damn you, GameStop, for liquidating your PS2 games at buy-two-get-one-free.

Of course I started this blog after the purchase of a PS3. So far we haven't purchased many PS3 games actually. I got one of the Ultimate Alliances because I really wanted to play it. I bought DC Universe Online as soon as I learned it was going to be free to play. The Bride bought Disney Universe and Sing It, and then there are all those games Ray lent us. There have been a few other games, but for the most part we have been downloading them.

The PlayStation Network provides an amazing, ever-changing selection of demos and trial versions of games. At last count, we had over eighty games in our system, including at least a dozen we have purchased. Pain is one of my favorites to this day. Whenever I open the PlayStation Network, I will end up playing it for at least a little while, good for a bit of stress relief.

Now even though I call myself The Non-Gamer, and this blog started with the purchase of the PlayStation 3, I do own other game systems. As I've mentioned I bought an Atari 2600 back in the 1980s. We have almost two of the old Atari game shelves full of the little cartridges

Once we got married, one of the big deal buys we made was an old Nintendo Entertainment System along with all the bells and whistles, not to mention about thirty different games. While I love stuff like the Mario games, there is always the problem of "turn waiting."

We also have a Super Nintendo as well, but only two games for that, Justice League Task Force and Super Godzilla. Yeah, it was a Christmas gift, and was feeding two of my peculiar obsessions. It did not get much play as no instructions came with the game system, or either of the two games.

I haven't even thought of the dozens of games on iPhone if they count.

Wow, I guess I'm not much of a Non-Gamer after all. Now, can someone please tell me how to turn off the PlayStation 2?

The Other Side

It had been a while since I cracked open the PS3. That's actually a good thing as I've been getting some writing done. Life also sometimes gets in the way. I played the prerequisite hour or so of Pain, and then went looking for something else to play.

As our current tabletop DC Comics role-playing game has been stalled by folks' busy schedule I was jonesing for superhero action so I turned to DCU Online. As I said, it had been a while, so it took forever and a day for it to download updates. Does this happen to everyone, or is it just me because I haven't turned on the machine in a bit?

When it was done I flew around Metropolis as The Red Sun trying to figure out what's what when I got a brainstorm. You have options in the game to have more than one character so I thought, just for kicks and giggles, I'd make a super-villain, and see what different. Walking through the steps of creation was easier this time. I think I had a young woman with zombie skin, inspired by Live Wire and the Joker with electrical powers. As last time, the hardest part was the naming. After several misses, I hit on the name Deadshock, although I think it's spelled 'dedshok.'

Much like my problems as a hero, I had a hard time getting out of Brainiac's spaceship, which is apparently the default starting point. Being a villain, at least I didn't have to fight my way out like before. But I did still have to find a way out.

Once out I ended up in Metropolis, and instead going to the police station I went to the villain equivalent. Same steps, same rules, same old same old, just cooler powers this time. I did take quite a delight in blasting everything in sight. I have to go to a certain place for a mission, yet I can't find it. I guess I need to buy a GPS.

Is there some sort of guide as to how to play this game? Color me confused, as I'm a DC Comics fan who really wants to play and experience this world - and I'm hopefully just limited by my non-experience with games.

Pain and Addiction

You might ask where I've been. It has been some time since I've written this blog. Well, November had something to do with it. I'm a writer, and November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. You can read about it here, but that took up quite a bit of my extra time. I was also sick, and had a twisted ankle in there as well. I could easily make those excuses, but it wouldn't be entirely true. The truth is I've found a PS3 game I really like. It's called Pain.

I have the Dark Crystal to thank for this new addiction. Late one night she sent me this quick text: Go to the PlayStation Network and find the game called Pain. I'll give you ten bucks for the download. You will love it! I did eventually, at first I was skeptical, and I didn't quite trust the PlayStation Network after that wonderful hacking scandal. Once I had the game, and started playing I was sooo hooked.

Pain is kind of like Angry Birds, only instead of birds, you're flinging people from a slingshot into at first a cityscape and then other worlds trying to break stuff for points. Besides the obvious buildings, cars, billboards, signs and the like, there are also explosives, tunnels, even mimes and monkeys as obstacles. The whole time your people are screaming in agony, making snarky remarks and getting tossed about like crazed ragdolls.

Besides different backgrounds to be flung into, there are also a variety of people who can be flung. You can be a rapper, a gamer girl, a cheerleader, a wrestler, a cowboy or girl, a ninja, a pirate, a cat, an old lady, even characters from other games, or 'celebrities' like Santa, Flava Flav, Elvira, George Takai, Elvis, Andy Dick, or David Hasselhoff. Yeah, even The Hoff.

Thank you, Crystal, for hipping me to this terrific game. And just for the record, I've never felt the need to collect that ten bucks, especially not for the hours and hours of fun I've gotten from this game.