2015 has come and is basically gone at this point. The holiday season is over and all of the major games are out. This holiday season I decided to embrace my old hobby and really try to get back into playing some video games. I'd like to think it was a successful endeavor. What follows is a short list of what I've picked up since September and a quick little snippet of what I thought of the games.
Halo 5: Guardians - Halo 5 was what started it for me. I picked this up after a long internal debate and I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed the campaign of the game, and the multiplayer has been a lot of fun. The 60fps speed is really snappy and helps make the experience feel a lot more sharp. I'd recommend Halo 5.
Star Wars: Battlefront - Here's a game I have some mixed opinions on. On the one hand, it's Star Wars: Battlefront! On the other, it's a very shallow (basically) multiplayer only shooter. The level design works for the game, however there just aren't enough environments to play in. Player progression is pretty limited also. There's only 11 main weapons, and a handful of gadgets to set yourself apart from your competitors. The other unlocks are only cosmetic for your character. The mechanics work very well though, and the game is absolutely beautiful. Star Wars: Battlefront is a lighter version of Battlefield with a Star Wars skin slapped on it. I'd say if you can get it on sale, go ahead. But don't expect a super deep and enthralling game.
Fallout 4 - Fallout 4 is an expanded Fallout 3 plus Skyrim. The world is great, the characters are wonderful. There's a host of new mechanics in the game that make it a lot of fun. Fallout does have a good number of technical issues, which are all standard Bethesda problems at this point. Civilization building is a blast though. The gunplay has been significantly improved as well. I would very much recommend Fallout 4.
Lego Dimensions - This is the one I have played the least out of my purchases. Lego Dimensions is your completely standard Lego game. Break stuff, get money and collectibles, and do this until everything is done. Lego Dimensions takes the Skylanders route though where you buy the mini figs and little vehicles separately from the main game and can use those characters in game. It's fun, looks great, sounds great, and has a lot of customization for being a Lego game. I would recommend this one if you like the Skylanders business model and enjoy the Lego games.
Still on my list to hopefully get this year is Just Cause 3. I've seen a handful of videos from the game and I really just want to see if it's as great as it looks. Rainbow Six: Siege looks like it could be fun, but I'm going to wait on that one for a while.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Fallout 4: 16 Hours In
I've now spent over 16 hours with Fallout 4 (Sorry, I've been on mandatory overtime at work...) and I can say that while it has a LOT more to offer than Fallout 3 did, I'm seeing a sad pattern in Bethesda games.
I have now made several settlements, completed a few story missions, and a good handful of sidequests. My favorite new feature of Fallout 4 is the crafting system. It allows for a very nice amount of customization between all of my weapons, though there are some drawbacks. I'm still using two weapons I got within the first couple hours of my playing, one of them being my original 10mm pistol. Bethesda's choice to forego weapon degradation is an interesting one, as I've now modded my original gun to be my go to weapon in many situations.
I've spent a large amount of my 16 hours building settlements. I'm not great, but the tools offered are both nice and sorta limited. Having to place buildings from a first person perspective is fine, but only being able to do it from standing/walking around is kinda difficult at times. Moving the piece can be a bit of a crap-shoot as well as they don't move forward or backwards well. That said, you can rotate and stack pieces for days.
The movement and shooting in Fallout 4 are so much better than in the previous two Fallout games. Shooting feels precise and accurate, while fast and frantic at times. I've only encountered a couple glitches in shooting where the hit detection wasn't quite working right. Movement has been made much nicer too with everything working relatively alright. I haven't had any issues getting stuck yet anyway. My biggest issue with combat comes from running into a very high number of legendary and extra difficult enemies while having a relatively low amount of ammo. This may just be me, but it seems that the ammo in the Commonwealth is hard to come by sometimes.
The quests aren't too bad, though I've found some of them to be a bit tedious. Following NPCs around is just a chore most of the time as they move slow, albeit faster than in Fallout 3. Overall I've enjoyed the quests I've done to this point. My personal follower hasn't really gotten in my way or caused me any issues on any missions or wandering I've done so far.
A bit of a complaint now. Fallout 4 suffers from many of the same ridiculous glitches that Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion, and Skyrim all had. Followers disappear sometimes, the game occasionally breaks, framerate stutters often, and a host of others. Many of these are things we've come to know and love about Bethesda games, others, are annoyances that I'm beginning to find unacceptable. But, that said, this is a pretty straightforward Bethesda open world RPG for better or worse.
So, that's where I stand after 16 hours with Fallout 4. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I'd say pick it up, especially if you enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, as Fallout 4 provides many improvements over those games while keeping the developer's signature problems in tact. Here's hoping the next few patches will fix the issues a bit and make the game even more fun than it already is.
I have now made several settlements, completed a few story missions, and a good handful of sidequests. My favorite new feature of Fallout 4 is the crafting system. It allows for a very nice amount of customization between all of my weapons, though there are some drawbacks. I'm still using two weapons I got within the first couple hours of my playing, one of them being my original 10mm pistol. Bethesda's choice to forego weapon degradation is an interesting one, as I've now modded my original gun to be my go to weapon in many situations.
I've spent a large amount of my 16 hours building settlements. I'm not great, but the tools offered are both nice and sorta limited. Having to place buildings from a first person perspective is fine, but only being able to do it from standing/walking around is kinda difficult at times. Moving the piece can be a bit of a crap-shoot as well as they don't move forward or backwards well. That said, you can rotate and stack pieces for days.
The movement and shooting in Fallout 4 are so much better than in the previous two Fallout games. Shooting feels precise and accurate, while fast and frantic at times. I've only encountered a couple glitches in shooting where the hit detection wasn't quite working right. Movement has been made much nicer too with everything working relatively alright. I haven't had any issues getting stuck yet anyway. My biggest issue with combat comes from running into a very high number of legendary and extra difficult enemies while having a relatively low amount of ammo. This may just be me, but it seems that the ammo in the Commonwealth is hard to come by sometimes.
The quests aren't too bad, though I've found some of them to be a bit tedious. Following NPCs around is just a chore most of the time as they move slow, albeit faster than in Fallout 3. Overall I've enjoyed the quests I've done to this point. My personal follower hasn't really gotten in my way or caused me any issues on any missions or wandering I've done so far.
A bit of a complaint now. Fallout 4 suffers from many of the same ridiculous glitches that Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion, and Skyrim all had. Followers disappear sometimes, the game occasionally breaks, framerate stutters often, and a host of others. Many of these are things we've come to know and love about Bethesda games, others, are annoyances that I'm beginning to find unacceptable. But, that said, this is a pretty straightforward Bethesda open world RPG for better or worse.
So, that's where I stand after 16 hours with Fallout 4. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I'd say pick it up, especially if you enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, as Fallout 4 provides many improvements over those games while keeping the developer's signature problems in tact. Here's hoping the next few patches will fix the issues a bit and make the game even more fun than it already is.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Fallout 4 Six Hours In
So, I got an Xbox One last year. I also got divorced, moved in with our sports writer, and we've dropped to a two man operation from the 4 we had. My personal life has been a rollercoaster over the last year, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. To that end, I'm hoping to be able to get back to doing this on the regular again. We've been playing a lot of board games as of late and while that's been fun, I've recently picked up my controller and began to play video games again.
Now for the reason you're all here. The title of the article. I've only spent around 6 hours with Fallout 4 so far, and I've got to say... holy crap. This game is wonderful. I've had a couple minor glitches with some enemies, random deaths, and some loot problems, but overall, I'm enjoying my time in the Commonwealth.
Fallout 4 is an improvement in every way over the previous generation's iterations of Fallout. The world is much more dense, which is fantastic. Combat is much more fluid, with the shooting feeling particularly nice. Customization has gone through the roof with both weapons and armor being customizable. Armor customization is a bit more limited in some ways, with several suits and outfits taking up all slots, where as others are very modular and allow swapping between any at any time. Weapons though, are completely customizable. Everything in the wasteland is made of components for customization or building. Weapons break down into several categories and each category has several upgrades for you to work towards. You can also store a limitless amount of crap in workbenches throughout the world, so you could in theory always have a stockpile of junk ready to go. I haven't spent much time with the settlement builder yet, but what I've done has been pretty great and allowed me to build some fun structures. I'll know more on that later I think.
The gameplay is basically the same as the last two games. V.A.T.S. is back and works wonderfully, the shooting and movement are spot on, and the game controls much better than the previous games. Dialogue is much better, with no clunky menus to navigate through, though you are limited (so far) to only 4 dialogue choices at a time. The looting has changed a bit and caused some issues for me as I'm still not used to it. Gone are the game pausing pop-up menus where your inventory and the container or corpse's inventory are side by side. Hover over something and a list pops up with what's there. You tap a button to take it, or another button to bring up your inventory to dump stuff. It's very nice. Visually it doesn't break any records, but the game looks great. I have found myself getting absorbed into the game quite a bit in my short time. Here's to more Fallout, but I probably won't get around to any more play time until Friday.
Now for the reason you're all here. The title of the article. I've only spent around 6 hours with Fallout 4 so far, and I've got to say... holy crap. This game is wonderful. I've had a couple minor glitches with some enemies, random deaths, and some loot problems, but overall, I'm enjoying my time in the Commonwealth.
Fallout 4 is an improvement in every way over the previous generation's iterations of Fallout. The world is much more dense, which is fantastic. Combat is much more fluid, with the shooting feeling particularly nice. Customization has gone through the roof with both weapons and armor being customizable. Armor customization is a bit more limited in some ways, with several suits and outfits taking up all slots, where as others are very modular and allow swapping between any at any time. Weapons though, are completely customizable. Everything in the wasteland is made of components for customization or building. Weapons break down into several categories and each category has several upgrades for you to work towards. You can also store a limitless amount of crap in workbenches throughout the world, so you could in theory always have a stockpile of junk ready to go. I haven't spent much time with the settlement builder yet, but what I've done has been pretty great and allowed me to build some fun structures. I'll know more on that later I think.
The gameplay is basically the same as the last two games. V.A.T.S. is back and works wonderfully, the shooting and movement are spot on, and the game controls much better than the previous games. Dialogue is much better, with no clunky menus to navigate through, though you are limited (so far) to only 4 dialogue choices at a time. The looting has changed a bit and caused some issues for me as I'm still not used to it. Gone are the game pausing pop-up menus where your inventory and the container or corpse's inventory are side by side. Hover over something and a list pops up with what's there. You tap a button to take it, or another button to bring up your inventory to dump stuff. It's very nice. Visually it doesn't break any records, but the game looks great. I have found myself getting absorbed into the game quite a bit in my short time. Here's to more Fallout, but I probably won't get around to any more play time until Friday.
EA Sports UFC 2 Info!
Today, EA Sports officially announced what they were teasing at yesterday: EA Sports UFC 2 is coming soon. How soon? Spring 2016. If it lines up with the previous incarnation's date, look for a window between May 10th and June 21st. My guess would be June 14th, as that is almost two years to the day of the release of EA Sports UFC on June 17th, 2014. EA already stated that they expect this to be a biannual release. While not much information is available now, EA Sports did release a brief trailer for the upcoming game. They will have a full list of features this Friday, but until then, here is a list of the modes that we were able to screen grab from the trailer:
Continue
Customize
The Ultimate Fighter
Fight Now
Live Events
Custom Events
Ultimate Team
Knockout Mode
Quick Fight
Online Rivalries
Ranked Championships
Fighter Store
Career Mode
Skills Challenge
Practice Mode
At least one other mode that was unrecognizable at this moment.
Most of these modes seem pretty straight forward. The only ones that are open to interpretation are Ultimate Team, Knockout Mode, and The Ultimate Fighter. Ultimate Team appears to be similar to the card collecting game found in other EA Sports titles such as FIFA, NHL, and Madden. The Ultimate Fighter Mode could potentially be a branch off of the beginning of Career Mode in the previous EA Sports UFC, where your created fighter has to fight his way through the tournament/reality TV show in order to make it to the UFC. Knockout Mode could be more of an arcade fight, as opposed to a simulation style fight experience. Hopefully we will know more about all of the modes this Friday. Thanks for visiting and stay tuned!
Continue
Customize
The Ultimate Fighter
Fight Now
Live Events
Custom Events
Ultimate Team
Knockout Mode
Quick Fight
Online Rivalries
Ranked Championships
Fighter Store
Career Mode
Skills Challenge
Practice Mode
At least one other mode that was unrecognizable at this moment.
Most of these modes seem pretty straight forward. The only ones that are open to interpretation are Ultimate Team, Knockout Mode, and The Ultimate Fighter. Ultimate Team appears to be similar to the card collecting game found in other EA Sports titles such as FIFA, NHL, and Madden. The Ultimate Fighter Mode could potentially be a branch off of the beginning of Career Mode in the previous EA Sports UFC, where your created fighter has to fight his way through the tournament/reality TV show in order to make it to the UFC. Knockout Mode could be more of an arcade fight, as opposed to a simulation style fight experience. Hopefully we will know more about all of the modes this Friday. Thanks for visiting and stay tuned!
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
It's Been a While
Hello Internet! I figured I'd write up a post, seeing how I haven't talked to you guys in quite the long time. Life's been in a rough patch, both personally and professionally for me as of late and I haven't had much of a chance to do much gaming in the last year.
Some things to note that have happened/are happening:
I started a Dungeons and Dragons group with some friends. We meet (roughly) weekly in a world that was created by myself and one of the players. We're playing under a slightly modified 3.5 edition ruleset. If you're interested, I can post some summaries of how that goes. I'm actually thinking of doing that here anyway.
Next, my wife bought me an Xbox One back in May. I currently have Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, Dead Rising 3, Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition, Forza 5, and, Peggle 2. I'll give you brief impressions of all of them here:
Call of Duty: Ghosts - Standard COD fare here. Nothing overly special to write home about. Campaign is mind numbingly average, multiplayer is the same old moderately ok run and gun we've come to know and expect from COD. Graphics are kinda bad, and sound is fairly solid. I'd write more, but there really isn't anymore to write.
Watch Dogs - I really wanted to like this game. Sadly, I don't. There are some quirks with it that I can't get past. If you're driving, the cops are FREAKING RELENTLESS and I can not outrun them. However, I ducked into a train tunnel with a level three wanted level and waited for like 10 minutes and they were gone. Also, the cops CANNOT GO OVER WATER. I will repeat that. Cops cannot travel over water. Unless in a helicopter. Then, you shoot them out from your impenetrable island fortress, and they forget you exist. The graphics were kinda muddy for my liking, the driving was...something, also, you can't free fire. You have to aim down the sights to shoot. Unless you're aiming with the left trigger, pulling the right trigger to fire your weapon will cause you to sprint. However, I did enjoy the hacking mechanic, the world, and some of the minigames. Overall though, I was moderately disappointed with Watch Dogs.
Dead Rising 3 - I haven't played enough of this game to really know about it. Seems like it's going to be fun though.
Diablo 3: UEE - Similar situation to Dead Rising, except I've played a bit more Diablo. The wife and I are both having a good time with Diablo 3. I've got a Demon Hunter for my solo run, and I'm running a Wizard for our co-op run. She's running a Barbarian for both her solo and co-op. I'm at level 8ish on my solo, she's at 16 on her solo, and our co-op is like 5ish.
Forza 5 - Pretty great racing game. It's quite deep, and the real world cars are fantastic. Also, you can damage them a bit, which is fun for me. I don't get into the tuning and mechanical stuff in these types of games really. The racing is tight, responsive, and looks freaking beautiful. The Drivatar mechanic where it takes other drivers stats and ports them into your game based on difficulty choice is great. It allows you to race against friends and strangers without officially racing them online.
Peggle 2 - I am not happy with this purchase. You get the absolutely solid and fantastic gameplay of Peggle, with all of the bullcrap that comes with an EA game. This time around, instead of 10 masters and 110 levels, you get 5 masters, 50 levels, plus 10 challenge levels for each master. You can buy (at time of writing) 2 more masters, unlocking 20 more levels and challenge levels, but they cost $5 each. NOT COOL EA!
Enough about the games there. We've got to talk about the system! Xbox One is a system that's designed to take control of your living room and be the go-to device for everything you need. Ir might do that, I haven't figured out how yet. The interface is fairly frustrating to navigate through. Things are not easy to find, and it uses the Windows 8 and Windows Mobile setup. I don't like that, I never have, and I doubt I ever will. The system works great. I run my cable box through it. Netflix, Hulu, WWE Network, YouTube, Amazon Prime Instant Video, all work great through the system. I like what it does, just not quite how it does it. I can't seem to figure out how to actually turn off apps and such, other than cycling through a bunch of other apps until it has to close a previous one. I had an issue where YouTube had frozen, but I couldn't figure out how to reset it until I had left it off for a while and used several other things to cycle through.
Overall, I like mine, and would recommend a buy if you are looking for more of a multimedia box than a strictly gaming box. Otherwise, go with a PS4 or Wii-U.
I won't go into much detail as I'm trying to avoid a political battle here, but I'd like to go on the record and say that we do NOT support the actions of Zoe Quinn or anything relating to that business. We are an independent gaming blog worked on by a husband, a wife, and their friend. We do not have any kind of Patreon accounts to games, we don't have any donations to Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. If anyone here does anything like that, they will not be allowed to post anything relating to that project. Plain as that. It's pretty sad that things like this mess have happened.
That's all for now. I'll try and be back more regularly! Thanks for reading, and as always, see you online!
Some things to note that have happened/are happening:
I started a Dungeons and Dragons group with some friends. We meet (roughly) weekly in a world that was created by myself and one of the players. We're playing under a slightly modified 3.5 edition ruleset. If you're interested, I can post some summaries of how that goes. I'm actually thinking of doing that here anyway.
Next, my wife bought me an Xbox One back in May. I currently have Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, Dead Rising 3, Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition, Forza 5, and, Peggle 2. I'll give you brief impressions of all of them here:
Call of Duty: Ghosts - Standard COD fare here. Nothing overly special to write home about. Campaign is mind numbingly average, multiplayer is the same old moderately ok run and gun we've come to know and expect from COD. Graphics are kinda bad, and sound is fairly solid. I'd write more, but there really isn't anymore to write.
Watch Dogs - I really wanted to like this game. Sadly, I don't. There are some quirks with it that I can't get past. If you're driving, the cops are FREAKING RELENTLESS and I can not outrun them. However, I ducked into a train tunnel with a level three wanted level and waited for like 10 minutes and they were gone. Also, the cops CANNOT GO OVER WATER. I will repeat that. Cops cannot travel over water. Unless in a helicopter. Then, you shoot them out from your impenetrable island fortress, and they forget you exist. The graphics were kinda muddy for my liking, the driving was...something, also, you can't free fire. You have to aim down the sights to shoot. Unless you're aiming with the left trigger, pulling the right trigger to fire your weapon will cause you to sprint. However, I did enjoy the hacking mechanic, the world, and some of the minigames. Overall though, I was moderately disappointed with Watch Dogs.
Dead Rising 3 - I haven't played enough of this game to really know about it. Seems like it's going to be fun though.
Diablo 3: UEE - Similar situation to Dead Rising, except I've played a bit more Diablo. The wife and I are both having a good time with Diablo 3. I've got a Demon Hunter for my solo run, and I'm running a Wizard for our co-op run. She's running a Barbarian for both her solo and co-op. I'm at level 8ish on my solo, she's at 16 on her solo, and our co-op is like 5ish.
Forza 5 - Pretty great racing game. It's quite deep, and the real world cars are fantastic. Also, you can damage them a bit, which is fun for me. I don't get into the tuning and mechanical stuff in these types of games really. The racing is tight, responsive, and looks freaking beautiful. The Drivatar mechanic where it takes other drivers stats and ports them into your game based on difficulty choice is great. It allows you to race against friends and strangers without officially racing them online.
Peggle 2 - I am not happy with this purchase. You get the absolutely solid and fantastic gameplay of Peggle, with all of the bullcrap that comes with an EA game. This time around, instead of 10 masters and 110 levels, you get 5 masters, 50 levels, plus 10 challenge levels for each master. You can buy (at time of writing) 2 more masters, unlocking 20 more levels and challenge levels, but they cost $5 each. NOT COOL EA!
Enough about the games there. We've got to talk about the system! Xbox One is a system that's designed to take control of your living room and be the go-to device for everything you need. Ir might do that, I haven't figured out how yet. The interface is fairly frustrating to navigate through. Things are not easy to find, and it uses the Windows 8 and Windows Mobile setup. I don't like that, I never have, and I doubt I ever will. The system works great. I run my cable box through it. Netflix, Hulu, WWE Network, YouTube, Amazon Prime Instant Video, all work great through the system. I like what it does, just not quite how it does it. I can't seem to figure out how to actually turn off apps and such, other than cycling through a bunch of other apps until it has to close a previous one. I had an issue where YouTube had frozen, but I couldn't figure out how to reset it until I had left it off for a while and used several other things to cycle through.
Overall, I like mine, and would recommend a buy if you are looking for more of a multimedia box than a strictly gaming box. Otherwise, go with a PS4 or Wii-U.
I won't go into much detail as I'm trying to avoid a political battle here, but I'd like to go on the record and say that we do NOT support the actions of Zoe Quinn or anything relating to that business. We are an independent gaming blog worked on by a husband, a wife, and their friend. We do not have any kind of Patreon accounts to games, we don't have any donations to Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. If anyone here does anything like that, they will not be allowed to post anything relating to that project. Plain as that. It's pretty sad that things like this mess have happened.
That's all for now. I'll try and be back more regularly! Thanks for reading, and as always, see you online!
Friday, December 20, 2013
Another Battlefield 4 Update
So here we stand, another update has hit Battlefield 4 on PC. This time, I was actually able to play through two rounds before I quit for the night. I was able to hit the exit button on my own, I wasn't booted due to a crash. That said, I'm only running about 20 frames a second while I play. Sometimes it jumps up to anywhere from 60 to 90, but as soon as I round a corner or something moves, my framerate drops down to the low 20's. So, we're getting better!
I'm looking to upgrade my old video card too. After I sell my laptop to pay bills, the remaining cash will be used to buy some much needed upgrades to my poor machine. I'm running an AMD Phenom II X4 955 processor that's overclocked to 3.5ghz. There's also an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1gb video card that' been mildly overclocked as well. Follow that with 4gb of 1600mhz DDR 3 RAM and you've got a system that's starting to show its age. For those interested I'm upgrading to 8gb of RAM and I'm going between an AMD R9 280X and an AMD R9 290X. There's a significant price difference and I've got to do some creative manuvering to get either card to fit into my case, which surprised me, but it should be fun. I'll update when I decide on what I'm going with and when I buy it.
Finally, the Steam Holiday Sale has begun, so, prepare your wallets. Nothing seemed to spectacular today, but that's just my opinion. I'm hoping to maybe pick up CoD: Ghosts(not on sale) or Assassin's Creed 4(also not on sale, maybe not even on Steam) if I manage to get that new video card, but we'll see. Also, there's a website - gog.com that's got some pretty nice deals for more indie and classic games. If you haven't heard of them, I say check 'em out. Their games are all DRM free and a lot of them work on both Windows and Mac.
Take it easy internet, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. Whatever your particular celebration of choice, Happy Whatever and play some games!
I'm looking to upgrade my old video card too. After I sell my laptop to pay bills, the remaining cash will be used to buy some much needed upgrades to my poor machine. I'm running an AMD Phenom II X4 955 processor that's overclocked to 3.5ghz. There's also an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1gb video card that' been mildly overclocked as well. Follow that with 4gb of 1600mhz DDR 3 RAM and you've got a system that's starting to show its age. For those interested I'm upgrading to 8gb of RAM and I'm going between an AMD R9 280X and an AMD R9 290X. There's a significant price difference and I've got to do some creative manuvering to get either card to fit into my case, which surprised me, but it should be fun. I'll update when I decide on what I'm going with and when I buy it.
Finally, the Steam Holiday Sale has begun, so, prepare your wallets. Nothing seemed to spectacular today, but that's just my opinion. I'm hoping to maybe pick up CoD: Ghosts(not on sale) or Assassin's Creed 4(also not on sale, maybe not even on Steam) if I manage to get that new video card, but we'll see. Also, there's a website - gog.com that's got some pretty nice deals for more indie and classic games. If you haven't heard of them, I say check 'em out. Their games are all DRM free and a lot of them work on both Windows and Mac.
Take it easy internet, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. Whatever your particular celebration of choice, Happy Whatever and play some games!
Monday, December 9, 2013
Battlefield 4 (PC) Update
After jumping through many hoops and with the help of digging through the Reddit Battlefield community I found a list of potential fixes. I tried about 90% of them and my game actually worked! However, I went from running fairly smoothly in the test range to getting 25-32 fps while playing. It's semi-playable at best, and at worst I can't hit anything. However, it did finally work and it worked for several rounds before I got too frustrated to keep playing. So, that's that. I'm going to try and upgrade my video card at some point in the nearish future. I'm looking at an AMD R9 280X. It seems like a nice little piece of hardware and should work with my current setup. *fingers crossed*
On another note, My wife bought us matching copies of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for our 3ds systems. I've gotta say, we both love the game. I've spent nearly 30 hours in my town and causing various levels of chaos in her town. I would recommend that anyone with a 3ds check this one out.
On another note, My wife bought us matching copies of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for our 3ds systems. I've gotta say, we both love the game. I've spent nearly 30 hours in my town and causing various levels of chaos in her town. I would recommend that anyone with a 3ds check this one out.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Battlefield 4 (PC) Major problems. Also, good sales.
Valued internet, I have purchased and played* Battlefield 4. I have thoroughly not enjoyed my experience with the game thus far. I should note, that the "*" next to "Played" means that I have launched the game about a dozen times and failed to complete a match or level or anything. I played in the test range for a while, things went very smoothly and I even bumped the game up to Ultra just to see how amazing it looked. It was freaking beautiful. So, I bumped it back down to low/medium and tried to launch into campaign. Here's where the problems started. I played about a minute and a half and the game locked up and crashed to the desktop. There was some kind of message about bad arguments being sent to my video card. This problem persisted no matter what resolution or quality I put the game on. I managed no more than about eight minutes into the campaign. I gave up and tried to load into multiplayer thinking that maybe there was just some slight issues in the manor of Medal of Honor. Lo and behold, upon loading into a match of multiplayer I was met with the same issues. Plus several other major problems including but not limited to, major lag, framerate crashes, and occasional moments of total brokenness. All of these things happened during my play time before my game crashed and sent me back to the desktop with the "Bad arguments" error.
I've never encountered this error message before. I have no idea how to handle it. My system setup is as follows: AMD Phenom II X4 955 processor overclocked to 3.2 ghz, 4 gb DDR3 Ram at 1600 mhz, and an AMD Radeon HD 5770 1 gb Video Card, also overclocked. I've updated drivers and tried replacing and reinstalling the drivers. I've overclocked my CPU slightly, and I've overclocked my GPU a bit. My system meets the requirements for the game and a little bit more. I'm very disappointed in this game and unfortunately cannot review it at this time since I can't play the damn thing.
On an unrelated note, this week's Humble Bundle is pretty nice. As is the Indie Gala Codemasters Sale, so check those out. Humble Bundle is featuring Garry's Mod, Magicka + DLC, Orcs Must Die 2 complete collection, Natural Selection 2, Sanctum 2, and Serious Sam 3. It's promising to add more games on Tuesday so we'll see what else shows up. Indie Gala features Damnation, Clive Barker's Jericho, Overlord, Overlord 2, Overlord Raising Hell, Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, and Operation Flashpoint Red River. Both bundles can be currently purchased for less than $11 to get all the content.
So that's that. Have fun internet, We'll talk again soon.
I've never encountered this error message before. I have no idea how to handle it. My system setup is as follows: AMD Phenom II X4 955 processor overclocked to 3.2 ghz, 4 gb DDR3 Ram at 1600 mhz, and an AMD Radeon HD 5770 1 gb Video Card, also overclocked. I've updated drivers and tried replacing and reinstalling the drivers. I've overclocked my CPU slightly, and I've overclocked my GPU a bit. My system meets the requirements for the game and a little bit more. I'm very disappointed in this game and unfortunately cannot review it at this time since I can't play the damn thing.
On an unrelated note, this week's Humble Bundle is pretty nice. As is the Indie Gala Codemasters Sale, so check those out. Humble Bundle is featuring Garry's Mod, Magicka + DLC, Orcs Must Die 2 complete collection, Natural Selection 2, Sanctum 2, and Serious Sam 3. It's promising to add more games on Tuesday so we'll see what else shows up. Indie Gala features Damnation, Clive Barker's Jericho, Overlord, Overlord 2, Overlord Raising Hell, Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, and Operation Flashpoint Red River. Both bundles can be currently purchased for less than $11 to get all the content.
So that's that. Have fun internet, We'll talk again soon.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Silence. Also Broken Hardware.
Hello internet. We've been quiet as of late and that's due to our personal lives getting in the way of our love of gaming. I believe the last review we posted was back in August and it was for Saints Row 4 which was fairly disappointing. We're still here chugging along, and hoping to get things back up and running soon. Between the three of us that write reviews and articles here there is one PlayStation 4 and no Xbox One. Our sports writer picked up a PS4 on launch day and has loved every minute of playing FIFA 14 on it.
On a side note, there have been reports of hardware issues for both consoles at launch. I've heard mostly of HDMI port problems with the PS4 and some occasional update problems. I've heard that Xbox One has had problems with the disc drive, the day one update, and some overall system stability issues. All in all, I'm of a wait and see frame of mind with both systems and will probably be reverting to my PC and 3DS for a while. That said, the PS3 and 360 still have a bit of life left in them, but they're officially members of the previous generation now.
That's all for now, we'll have more as we have time to write. Keep an eye out for a holiday buying guide in the next few days!
On a side note, there have been reports of hardware issues for both consoles at launch. I've heard mostly of HDMI port problems with the PS4 and some occasional update problems. I've heard that Xbox One has had problems with the disc drive, the day one update, and some overall system stability issues. All in all, I'm of a wait and see frame of mind with both systems and will probably be reverting to my PC and 3DS for a while. That said, the PS3 and 360 still have a bit of life left in them, but they're officially members of the previous generation now.
That's all for now, we'll have more as we have time to write. Keep an eye out for a holiday buying guide in the next few days!
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Pokemon X and Y are out! Impressions (Part 1)
And wow are they awesome. I'm only about two hours into it at this point, but I've already encountered several changes that make the game fantastic. First off, the new 3D game engine is fantastic! Finally, fans have a (mostly) 3D world to explore and battle through. It's not completely 3D, there's some sections where the camera is still basically top down, but the battles are fully 3D and look great. Eight-way movement has been implemented! This seems like a small thing but it makes moving around so much easier. There are also new ways to train your Pokemon's base stats via Super Training and Core Training. Super Training has to be done in it's own event though it's launch-able at almost any time. Core Training is more of a background mini-game to be played while walking around and tapping on the touch screen.
One final note in this short post, the social features are vastly improved. When I fired up my game I received a notification in my PSS page that I had a couple friends nearby. The PSS system read my registered friends from my 3DS system and told me that they were playing nearby. I was able to offer them O-Powers and I received some in return for my gift. My wife and I then traded wirelessly to get some Pokedex data. All of this happened fairly smoothly other than my wife hitting the wrong connection buttons while we were trying to trade.
So far I'm impressed and I've only been at the game for a couple hours. I'm looking forward to what is still in store. Please stay with us as we'll be providing updates from time to time based on our gameplay experiences and will have a review ready as soon as we can.
One final note in this short post, the social features are vastly improved. When I fired up my game I received a notification in my PSS page that I had a couple friends nearby. The PSS system read my registered friends from my 3DS system and told me that they were playing nearby. I was able to offer them O-Powers and I received some in return for my gift. My wife and I then traded wirelessly to get some Pokedex data. All of this happened fairly smoothly other than my wife hitting the wrong connection buttons while we were trying to trade.
So far I'm impressed and I've only been at the game for a couple hours. I'm looking forward to what is still in store. Please stay with us as we'll be providing updates from time to time based on our gameplay experiences and will have a review ready as soon as we can.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Saints Row IV Review (PS3)
Saints Row IV is all about having as much fun as humanly possible. This is the final chapter in the story of the Third Street Saints as we've seen them develop over four three previous titles and this chapter delivers. Laughter, love, revenge, and closure are all present in Saints Row IV.
Graphically speaking, Saints Row IV looks dated to me. There is a brownish fog that covers the world, though draw distance is still pretty great, the fog is always present. Once I completed the main story the fog seemed to lift a bit and there was some sunlight and color to the world of Steelport. There is also a reddish-brown tint to the world and I never noticed a sunny or rainy day while spending my time in Steelport until I beat the main story. There was just an overcast brownish colored sky. Character models moved well, though also looked a tad on the dated side. One final note, the digitizing effect placed on the simulated version of Steelport can be incredibly distracting. This is very true when your character is just standing and admiring the scenery.
I did not have any issues with any of the sound design and was pleasantly surprised to see how many voice actors returned for the final chapter of the Saints story. The characters sounded great and there was some fun banter back and forth between the cast. There were numerous callbacks to past events and characters. Also scattered about Steelport are 39 audio logs from past and present characters to add more story to the Saints Row universe which was nice to listen to.
Saints Row IV played fairly well, though I did have a number of glitches. The super power mechanic replaces grenades and not being able to use your powers outside of the simulated world without having grenades to back myself up with was kind of a downer. That said, the super powers are a lot of fun to play around with. Combining them brought some pretty great outcomes and offered some creative ways to eliminate my enemies. Combat has been adjusted slightly as well. Health no longer regenerates quickly, it takes a while for it to start coming back. To offset this, there are now health drops that fall from dead enemies. This does make combat a bit more tough and I noticed myself dying a bit more than I did in Saints Row: The Third. Shooting feels relatively tight and control-wise the game is fairly responsive. I did have a few glitches pop up while playing. Framerate drops happened several times, usually while using the UFO or in heavy combat. I had several freezes during missions where I had to reboot my PS3 completely so I have two saves and usually save every 20ish minutes. I also ran into some issues while trying to jump and get in vehicles. Occasionally, and I'm not sure if this was by design or by glitch, character models in the environment would stretch out, or have some weird sort of ultra long legs or huge eyes. This happened a few times while I was wandering the streets not doing anything.
The same customization options that were available to your character and gang in Saints Row: The Third are available here. There are a few more options for clothing and outfits but it's largely the same character editor that we've seen and used before. The city of Steelport is pretty much unchanged from the last game as well. Minus removing any influences of the Saints gang from Saints Row: The Third. Many of the vehicles are the same from the previous game as well. There are still many customization options for your cars, but with the super sprint and flight super powers there really isn't a point in driving unless it's forced. Weapons are still fully upgradeable and now have customizable skins to add some fun touches to them. While outside of Steelport players can run around in the spaceship. There are no customization options for the ship. However there are options to talk to and romance every member of the crew, minus romancing Keith David because to quote him "I'm not into that sort of thing".
Going through the story of Saints Row IV is a decent experience. It was fairly predictable sci-fi story but it was a lot of fun and meshed with the game well. There were several times while playing that I was laughing to the point that it effected my playing ability. The story itself feels fairly short and including all side missions, finding a majority of the collectables, completing all of the activities, and a couple hours of random running around causing chaos I had the game beat in around 21 hours. I'm still hunting for a few collectables (There's close to 1300 total) and I'm considering a second playthrough with the "Nolan North" voice, but all in all, I was a little disappointed in the length of the game. There are some co-op only activities I have yet to play through, but 21 hours feels kinda short for an open world game like this.
Overall, I enjoyed Saints Row IV. I can overlook some of its flaws, and find the diamond shining beneath. The game is far from perfect, but if you'd prefer an alternative to Grand Theft Auto, and are looking for something that is just dumb fun, I suggest picking this one up. We're awarding Saints Row IV a 7/10.
Graphically speaking, Saints Row IV looks dated to me. There is a brownish fog that covers the world, though draw distance is still pretty great, the fog is always present. Once I completed the main story the fog seemed to lift a bit and there was some sunlight and color to the world of Steelport. There is also a reddish-brown tint to the world and I never noticed a sunny or rainy day while spending my time in Steelport until I beat the main story. There was just an overcast brownish colored sky. Character models moved well, though also looked a tad on the dated side. One final note, the digitizing effect placed on the simulated version of Steelport can be incredibly distracting. This is very true when your character is just standing and admiring the scenery.
I did not have any issues with any of the sound design and was pleasantly surprised to see how many voice actors returned for the final chapter of the Saints story. The characters sounded great and there was some fun banter back and forth between the cast. There were numerous callbacks to past events and characters. Also scattered about Steelport are 39 audio logs from past and present characters to add more story to the Saints Row universe which was nice to listen to.
Saints Row IV played fairly well, though I did have a number of glitches. The super power mechanic replaces grenades and not being able to use your powers outside of the simulated world without having grenades to back myself up with was kind of a downer. That said, the super powers are a lot of fun to play around with. Combining them brought some pretty great outcomes and offered some creative ways to eliminate my enemies. Combat has been adjusted slightly as well. Health no longer regenerates quickly, it takes a while for it to start coming back. To offset this, there are now health drops that fall from dead enemies. This does make combat a bit more tough and I noticed myself dying a bit more than I did in Saints Row: The Third. Shooting feels relatively tight and control-wise the game is fairly responsive. I did have a few glitches pop up while playing. Framerate drops happened several times, usually while using the UFO or in heavy combat. I had several freezes during missions where I had to reboot my PS3 completely so I have two saves and usually save every 20ish minutes. I also ran into some issues while trying to jump and get in vehicles. Occasionally, and I'm not sure if this was by design or by glitch, character models in the environment would stretch out, or have some weird sort of ultra long legs or huge eyes. This happened a few times while I was wandering the streets not doing anything.
The same customization options that were available to your character and gang in Saints Row: The Third are available here. There are a few more options for clothing and outfits but it's largely the same character editor that we've seen and used before. The city of Steelport is pretty much unchanged from the last game as well. Minus removing any influences of the Saints gang from Saints Row: The Third. Many of the vehicles are the same from the previous game as well. There are still many customization options for your cars, but with the super sprint and flight super powers there really isn't a point in driving unless it's forced. Weapons are still fully upgradeable and now have customizable skins to add some fun touches to them. While outside of Steelport players can run around in the spaceship. There are no customization options for the ship. However there are options to talk to and romance every member of the crew, minus romancing Keith David because to quote him "I'm not into that sort of thing".
Going through the story of Saints Row IV is a decent experience. It was fairly predictable sci-fi story but it was a lot of fun and meshed with the game well. There were several times while playing that I was laughing to the point that it effected my playing ability. The story itself feels fairly short and including all side missions, finding a majority of the collectables, completing all of the activities, and a couple hours of random running around causing chaos I had the game beat in around 21 hours. I'm still hunting for a few collectables (There's close to 1300 total) and I'm considering a second playthrough with the "Nolan North" voice, but all in all, I was a little disappointed in the length of the game. There are some co-op only activities I have yet to play through, but 21 hours feels kinda short for an open world game like this.
Overall, I enjoyed Saints Row IV. I can overlook some of its flaws, and find the diamond shining beneath. The game is far from perfect, but if you'd prefer an alternative to Grand Theft Auto, and are looking for something that is just dumb fun, I suggest picking this one up. We're awarding Saints Row IV a 7/10.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Xbox One and PS4 Release Dates!
So, at Gamescom Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 will be available in North America (minus Mexico) on November 15th. Europe, Central and South America, and Australia/New Zealand will get the PS4 on November 29th. Today Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will be available on November 22nd to it's thirteen territories that are being launched in including USA, Western Europe, and Australia. I've still not preordered an Xbox One, but I will watch it cautiously as most of the policies that I was against are now reversed. I have my PlayStation 4 preordered with Killzone Shadow Fall and an extra controller coming. I am also saving some cash back to upgrade my PC to handle more advanced graphics and games.
Also, we'll have a review up for Saints Row IV in the near future. I'm almost done with the game.
Also, we'll have a review up for Saints Row IV in the near future. I'm almost done with the game.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Xbox One Update
So yesterday Microsoft surprised everyone by reversing a majority of their restrictions on the Xbox One. Claiming that they listened to their consumers and decided to do what we wanted they committed what was one of the biggest flip-flops we've seen in the gaming industry.
The changes are as follows:
No 24 hour online check in
No Used Games restrictions
No Region Lock
Internet is required for console SETUP only, afterwards, it can stay offline for eternity unless playing a game that requires an internet connection.
The Kinect was mentioned, but only that they are still requiring it to be connected to make the device function. So, other than requiring the Kinect and the $100 difference in price, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are basically on the same ground now. It will be interesting to see the systems compete now that the field is leveled. If you've got thoughts on the matter, please share them with us in the comments below!
The changes are as follows:
No 24 hour online check in
No Used Games restrictions
No Region Lock
Internet is required for console SETUP only, afterwards, it can stay offline for eternity unless playing a game that requires an internet connection.
The Kinect was mentioned, but only that they are still requiring it to be connected to make the device function. So, other than requiring the Kinect and the $100 difference in price, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are basically on the same ground now. It will be interesting to see the systems compete now that the field is leveled. If you've got thoughts on the matter, please share them with us in the comments below!
Friday, June 14, 2013
Xbox One and PlayStation 4
After spending some time watching both conferences and thinking about the systems I feel that I've got enough information to weigh in on my take on the systems.
Sony definitely had the stronger press conference in terms of what gamers want. That said, Microsoft had some better games but the issues with the Xbox One are going to hinder people's like for the system.
Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 will support used games without restrictions placed by Sony. The publisher must decide if they want to allow a gamer to buy a used copy of their game. PlayStation also seems to be supporting the indie game developers much more, bringing several indie games to the console first, and allowing the developers to self publish over the PlayStation Network. There is also no online check in for the PS4, and players are allowed to swap games with their friends at will. Also, the system was revealed and I think that it looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. The PlayStation Eye is also not a requirement for the system to function.
Xbox showed some more of their exclusive titles, but seemed to be more focused on announcing that DLC for several games was coming to the Xbox first. Not that it was exclusive, but that it was coming first. There were several great looking exclusives, like Titanfall and Quantum Break. Xbox One has placed a one time use license code in their games, and only allows you to gift your games to one of your friends once, providing they have been on your friends list for at least thirty days. There is also a once every twenty-four hour check in online while playing games on your own console. If you are playing your content on another Xbox you have to check in online every hour or the games stop functioning. Xbox does also support a much more robust suite of entertainment features than the PS4, but that comes at the cost of freedom for playing your games.
Both systems have pros and cons, as is with all systems. The thing is, Xbox says that they are for the gamers, but are being extremely restrictive on how the players are allowed to play. Sony has placed it into the hands of the publishers to decide how restrictive they want to be. At this point, I think that is I were to buy an Xbox One it would be for the entertainment aspects, not the games. That said, I do have a preorder placed on the PlayStation 4, but not for the Xbox One. I want to see how things play out over the first year or so with Xbox before I decide to join in.
Sony definitely had the stronger press conference in terms of what gamers want. That said, Microsoft had some better games but the issues with the Xbox One are going to hinder people's like for the system.
Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 will support used games without restrictions placed by Sony. The publisher must decide if they want to allow a gamer to buy a used copy of their game. PlayStation also seems to be supporting the indie game developers much more, bringing several indie games to the console first, and allowing the developers to self publish over the PlayStation Network. There is also no online check in for the PS4, and players are allowed to swap games with their friends at will. Also, the system was revealed and I think that it looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. The PlayStation Eye is also not a requirement for the system to function.
Xbox showed some more of their exclusive titles, but seemed to be more focused on announcing that DLC for several games was coming to the Xbox first. Not that it was exclusive, but that it was coming first. There were several great looking exclusives, like Titanfall and Quantum Break. Xbox One has placed a one time use license code in their games, and only allows you to gift your games to one of your friends once, providing they have been on your friends list for at least thirty days. There is also a once every twenty-four hour check in online while playing games on your own console. If you are playing your content on another Xbox you have to check in online every hour or the games stop functioning. Xbox does also support a much more robust suite of entertainment features than the PS4, but that comes at the cost of freedom for playing your games.
Both systems have pros and cons, as is with all systems. The thing is, Xbox says that they are for the gamers, but are being extremely restrictive on how the players are allowed to play. Sony has placed it into the hands of the publishers to decide how restrictive they want to be. At this point, I think that is I were to buy an Xbox One it would be for the entertainment aspects, not the games. That said, I do have a preorder placed on the PlayStation 4, but not for the Xbox One. I want to see how things play out over the first year or so with Xbox before I decide to join in.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
We are still here.
I swear we haven't fallen off the side of the planet or anything. Just had a lot going on and haven't bought any new games lately. We all apologize sincerely for that, and I'm hoping I'm going to be getting "The Last of Us" when it comes out. We'll also be watching the news outlets to see what's going on at E3 and have that for you guys so bear with us a little longer. Brighter things are on the horizon!
Also, Scorpion is the next DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us... I don't like that very much. What is a Mortal Kombat fighter doing in a DC Universe game!? Oh well, at least they got Jim Lee to redesign his look and he does look pretty cool.
So to recap: Scorpion is in Injustice and we are not dead.
Thanks for reading our blog!
Also, Scorpion is the next DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us... I don't like that very much. What is a Mortal Kombat fighter doing in a DC Universe game!? Oh well, at least they got Jim Lee to redesign his look and he does look pretty cool.
So to recap: Scorpion is in Injustice and we are not dead.
Thanks for reading our blog!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Injustice: Gods Among Us Review (PS3)
Upon first booting Injustice I couldn't help but think that this is just going to be a reskinned Mortal Kombat. I could not have been more wrong. While the core fighting game remains the same, the rest of the game is changed up enough to make Injustice feel similar, but very different from Netherrealm's previous game.
Playing the game is a treat for anyone who is a fan of the DC comics. Injustice looks great during the fights, not so much during the cutscenes. Animations flow smoothly and transitioning between moves looks fantastic. Environments are nicely made and highly interactive on most levels. The only complaint I've got, and it's not even a major one, is just the way that some of the characters look. The art design at times seems a bit interesting, with most of the characters, including Superman, look like they are armor plated. There are also an incredible amount of unlockable and alternate skins for the characters.
The voice acting in the game is top notch. Netherrealm took the time to get some of the voice actors who work on the various DC Animated Universe projects to come in and do voices. Kevin Conroy is Batman, Adam Baldwin and Jennifer Hale also lend their voices to the game. The sounds around the arena are pretty well done also, most notably with the level transitions.
Injustice feels like a licensed game done right, and it largely is. There are 24 characters from the DC Universe to choose from, with at least four more on tap to be delivered through DLC. The cast consists of twelve heroes and twelve villains. They range from Superman and Batman to the lesser known Raven and Killer Frost. Each character has at least two costumes, but some have more than that, such as Solomon Grundy, who I currently have four costumes for. The story mode is crafted by Netherrealm and plays out very well. It kept me entertained for several hours before I moved on to the Battles mode. These modes are the standard ladder matches where you pick your character (most of the time) and duke it out with a bunch of enemies on a sliding scale for difficulty. There are a number of different options you can pick for the Battles mode, including Heroes only, Villains only, and Mirror Mode. These add a lot of extra replayability and challenge to the game. The next mode available for play is the S.T.A.R. Labs mode, which offers players 240 missions to play. You get ranked between one and three stars depending on how well you do on these missions with a trophy to get three stars on all of them adding a good bit of challenge.
Playing through the fights of Injustice is a lot of fun. Combos are easy to pull off and flow very well. There are numerous interactive elements in each level that help add a bit of strategy to your playstyle. There are also level transitions that can be initiated which look really cool, though when done by someone like Catwoman seems a bit over the top. The characters all play similarly, but differently enough that each one feels fairly unique. The game allows you to tag certain moves you want to try and will display them on the side of the screen as a kind of on the fly tutorial for players who are having trouble remembering combos or special moves. Another change from Mortal Kombat is the removal of Fatalities. This game is only rated "T" so they had to tone the violence down a bit. So Fatalities were replaced with Super Moves which have a similar impact to the X-Ray moves from Mortal Kombat. You can pull them off as soon as your super meter is full and have potential to do more than one per match. One more small complaint I've noticed during my time with Injustice is that there isn't a traditional round over. You fight until one of the two combatants runs out of thier first health bar, then they start onto their second bar without a new round warning. The winning player of that round also does not get a restored health bar, they fight with what was left of their first one until they win or lose it and start into their second. This was an interesting choice that took a lot of getting used to, but I sort of like it now that I'm used to it.
All in all, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a great fighting game. There are some solid mechanics that help better the genre, but there are a few issues too. Graphically, the game isn't groundbreaking, the fighting is solid, but the between round break thing is a lot awkward. The story is interesting and is worth checking out. Overall, we are awarding Injustice: Gods Among Us an 8/10.
Playing the game is a treat for anyone who is a fan of the DC comics. Injustice looks great during the fights, not so much during the cutscenes. Animations flow smoothly and transitioning between moves looks fantastic. Environments are nicely made and highly interactive on most levels. The only complaint I've got, and it's not even a major one, is just the way that some of the characters look. The art design at times seems a bit interesting, with most of the characters, including Superman, look like they are armor plated. There are also an incredible amount of unlockable and alternate skins for the characters.
The voice acting in the game is top notch. Netherrealm took the time to get some of the voice actors who work on the various DC Animated Universe projects to come in and do voices. Kevin Conroy is Batman, Adam Baldwin and Jennifer Hale also lend their voices to the game. The sounds around the arena are pretty well done also, most notably with the level transitions.
Injustice feels like a licensed game done right, and it largely is. There are 24 characters from the DC Universe to choose from, with at least four more on tap to be delivered through DLC. The cast consists of twelve heroes and twelve villains. They range from Superman and Batman to the lesser known Raven and Killer Frost. Each character has at least two costumes, but some have more than that, such as Solomon Grundy, who I currently have four costumes for. The story mode is crafted by Netherrealm and plays out very well. It kept me entertained for several hours before I moved on to the Battles mode. These modes are the standard ladder matches where you pick your character (most of the time) and duke it out with a bunch of enemies on a sliding scale for difficulty. There are a number of different options you can pick for the Battles mode, including Heroes only, Villains only, and Mirror Mode. These add a lot of extra replayability and challenge to the game. The next mode available for play is the S.T.A.R. Labs mode, which offers players 240 missions to play. You get ranked between one and three stars depending on how well you do on these missions with a trophy to get three stars on all of them adding a good bit of challenge.
Playing through the fights of Injustice is a lot of fun. Combos are easy to pull off and flow very well. There are numerous interactive elements in each level that help add a bit of strategy to your playstyle. There are also level transitions that can be initiated which look really cool, though when done by someone like Catwoman seems a bit over the top. The characters all play similarly, but differently enough that each one feels fairly unique. The game allows you to tag certain moves you want to try and will display them on the side of the screen as a kind of on the fly tutorial for players who are having trouble remembering combos or special moves. Another change from Mortal Kombat is the removal of Fatalities. This game is only rated "T" so they had to tone the violence down a bit. So Fatalities were replaced with Super Moves which have a similar impact to the X-Ray moves from Mortal Kombat. You can pull them off as soon as your super meter is full and have potential to do more than one per match. One more small complaint I've noticed during my time with Injustice is that there isn't a traditional round over. You fight until one of the two combatants runs out of thier first health bar, then they start onto their second bar without a new round warning. The winning player of that round also does not get a restored health bar, they fight with what was left of their first one until they win or lose it and start into their second. This was an interesting choice that took a lot of getting used to, but I sort of like it now that I'm used to it.
All in all, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a great fighting game. There are some solid mechanics that help better the genre, but there are a few issues too. Graphically, the game isn't groundbreaking, the fighting is solid, but the between round break thing is a lot awkward. The story is interesting and is worth checking out. Overall, we are awarding Injustice: Gods Among Us an 8/10.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Bioshock Infinite Review (PS3)
Bioshock Infinite gets a whole lot of things right in making a game. Not just from a video game standpoint, from an artistic standpoint. The game has a masterful story, amazing graphics and sound, a beautiful and fantastic setting, and phenomenal gameplay. The game hits quite a few right notes, but does make me wonder about some of the choices that the developer made while making the game.
The first thing that you'll notice when playing Bioshock Infinite is how similar the opening is to the original Bioshock. This didn't detract from the overall look of the game, but it's still an interesting point to think about. The second thing that you'll notice is how absolutely gorgeous the game is. Upon my first look at Columbia I actually stopped moving and just stared at what was around me. The world is incredibly detailed, with some terrific lighting work done. While I was walking through the city of Columbia, I truly felt that I was wandering through a fully developed city. It looked and felt like the utopia that it was supposed to be. The characters looked incredibly lifelike and moved very fluidly. I only noticed some slight graphical issues, such as some framerate hiccups and an occasional very odd pause to load while a lot was happening on screen towards the end of the game. The engine handles the combat and scores of action fairly well otherwise.
In the sound department, Bioshock is perfect. Character voices are incredible, with high praise to the twin characters. The back and forth between Booker and Elizabeth throughout the campaign is great and by the end I actually felt attached to Elizabeth. The voxophone recordings that you listen to during the campaign are remarkably clear, but take a backseat when more important story based dialogue starts up. Weapons sound respectably like their real world counter-parts. Even the background characters and enemies have some great voice work to them.
While not going too heavily into the story of the game, I will say that Irrational crafted an amazing narrative. I was kept guessing up to the end. The original objective takes on a whole new meaning by the time you view the ending. The middle section of the game does falter a touch, placing you at the heart of a civil war between the Founders and the Vox Populi. Some interesting themes from the early 1900's are explored, such as national pride, religion, racism, and segregation. These all come together to help move the story along, but also help the player get a glimpse into life in Columbia.
Playing through Infinite is where things got fairly interesting. First off, the powers are called vigors now, not plasmids. There are two sets of weapons to use, the Founder weapons and the Vox weapons. The mechanics work just fine; moving and shooting are very tight and the other controls are extremely responsive. You gain a shield ability, and a vigor that also acts as a shield, and you can only carry two weapons at a time. While these are standard conventions for most shooters now, they just felt a little wrong in Infinite. The weapon and vigor upgrade systems were fairly basic and while I never had enough money to fully upgrade everything (lets face it, there are way too many guns for that to happen) I did have enough to fully upgrade my favorite weapons and vigors.
Another complaint I had was the length and pacing of the game itself. The beginning and ending sections are awesome, but the middle just seems to drag on a bit. There are a lot of backtracking quest lines in the middle portion of the story, which feel like Irrational was trying to artificially inflate the length of the campaign. I managed to get the game beat in around thirteen hours or so, but I spent a lot of time exploring and backtracking to make sure I got everything I could before continuing.
Games like this shine in their replayability though, and Bioshock Infinite offers a very great replay value. Upping the difficulty will add a lot of time to your game depending on your overall skill. I played on medium and there were several sections I don't want to play on a harder difficulty because I barely made it through. There are also a number of weapons and vigors to experiment with, so if nothing else play the game again but use different equipment. Another great thing about replaying the game is that you know where the story is going. Looking at the experience a second time adds a lot of additional perspective and helps to bring some things together that were confusing the first time. Additionally, the game is entirely single player. There is no unnecessary, tacked on multiplayer suite to artificially extend the life of the game. Thank you Irrational Games!
Several new additions have been made to the combat of Bioshock Infinite. A new item called gear has been added. Gear comes in four classes (Hat, Shirt, Pants, Shoes) and each piece has a different ability. Combining these with the various upgrades you get to your abilities makes for some great combat ideas. Sky lines are another new mechanic that allow you to fly around the area at breakneck speeds and drop down on enemies, or you can choose to shoot them while moving around. There are also freight hooks to grapple onto, and inter-dimensional tears that Elizabeth can open up to call in anything from health kits to automated turrets. All of these add some very interesting dynamics to combat, but to compensate, there are a lot more enemies to fight. There were several times while playing that I actually had to pause for a second to get my bearings as to what was going on. This was especially true when Handymen were involved in the fights.
Bioshock Infinite is a fantastic, story driven game. Gameplay is great, and the story is top notch. If not for some strange design choices, I think this could have seriously been a perfect game. I definitely think that anyone who considers themselves a gamer should pick this game up and experience it. Bioshock Infinite earns a 9/10.
The first thing that you'll notice when playing Bioshock Infinite is how similar the opening is to the original Bioshock. This didn't detract from the overall look of the game, but it's still an interesting point to think about. The second thing that you'll notice is how absolutely gorgeous the game is. Upon my first look at Columbia I actually stopped moving and just stared at what was around me. The world is incredibly detailed, with some terrific lighting work done. While I was walking through the city of Columbia, I truly felt that I was wandering through a fully developed city. It looked and felt like the utopia that it was supposed to be. The characters looked incredibly lifelike and moved very fluidly. I only noticed some slight graphical issues, such as some framerate hiccups and an occasional very odd pause to load while a lot was happening on screen towards the end of the game. The engine handles the combat and scores of action fairly well otherwise.
In the sound department, Bioshock is perfect. Character voices are incredible, with high praise to the twin characters. The back and forth between Booker and Elizabeth throughout the campaign is great and by the end I actually felt attached to Elizabeth. The voxophone recordings that you listen to during the campaign are remarkably clear, but take a backseat when more important story based dialogue starts up. Weapons sound respectably like their real world counter-parts. Even the background characters and enemies have some great voice work to them.
While not going too heavily into the story of the game, I will say that Irrational crafted an amazing narrative. I was kept guessing up to the end. The original objective takes on a whole new meaning by the time you view the ending. The middle section of the game does falter a touch, placing you at the heart of a civil war between the Founders and the Vox Populi. Some interesting themes from the early 1900's are explored, such as national pride, religion, racism, and segregation. These all come together to help move the story along, but also help the player get a glimpse into life in Columbia.
Playing through Infinite is where things got fairly interesting. First off, the powers are called vigors now, not plasmids. There are two sets of weapons to use, the Founder weapons and the Vox weapons. The mechanics work just fine; moving and shooting are very tight and the other controls are extremely responsive. You gain a shield ability, and a vigor that also acts as a shield, and you can only carry two weapons at a time. While these are standard conventions for most shooters now, they just felt a little wrong in Infinite. The weapon and vigor upgrade systems were fairly basic and while I never had enough money to fully upgrade everything (lets face it, there are way too many guns for that to happen) I did have enough to fully upgrade my favorite weapons and vigors.
Another complaint I had was the length and pacing of the game itself. The beginning and ending sections are awesome, but the middle just seems to drag on a bit. There are a lot of backtracking quest lines in the middle portion of the story, which feel like Irrational was trying to artificially inflate the length of the campaign. I managed to get the game beat in around thirteen hours or so, but I spent a lot of time exploring and backtracking to make sure I got everything I could before continuing.
Games like this shine in their replayability though, and Bioshock Infinite offers a very great replay value. Upping the difficulty will add a lot of time to your game depending on your overall skill. I played on medium and there were several sections I don't want to play on a harder difficulty because I barely made it through. There are also a number of weapons and vigors to experiment with, so if nothing else play the game again but use different equipment. Another great thing about replaying the game is that you know where the story is going. Looking at the experience a second time adds a lot of additional perspective and helps to bring some things together that were confusing the first time. Additionally, the game is entirely single player. There is no unnecessary, tacked on multiplayer suite to artificially extend the life of the game. Thank you Irrational Games!
Several new additions have been made to the combat of Bioshock Infinite. A new item called gear has been added. Gear comes in four classes (Hat, Shirt, Pants, Shoes) and each piece has a different ability. Combining these with the various upgrades you get to your abilities makes for some great combat ideas. Sky lines are another new mechanic that allow you to fly around the area at breakneck speeds and drop down on enemies, or you can choose to shoot them while moving around. There are also freight hooks to grapple onto, and inter-dimensional tears that Elizabeth can open up to call in anything from health kits to automated turrets. All of these add some very interesting dynamics to combat, but to compensate, there are a lot more enemies to fight. There were several times while playing that I actually had to pause for a second to get my bearings as to what was going on. This was especially true when Handymen were involved in the fights.
Bioshock Infinite is a fantastic, story driven game. Gameplay is great, and the story is top notch. If not for some strange design choices, I think this could have seriously been a perfect game. I definitely think that anyone who considers themselves a gamer should pick this game up and experience it. Bioshock Infinite earns a 9/10.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Gears of War: Judgment Review (360)
Gears of War: Judgment is a game that up until a couple
weeks ago I didn’t even think I was going to get. Then, I went to my local
GameStop and placed several pre-orders and one of those games was Gears of War:
Judgment. Here’s the good news about this, the game is great!
Graphically speaking, Gears of War: Judgment does some
things a little differently than previous Gears games. Generally, with some
exception to Gears 3, the Gears of War franchise has been based in a color
scheme of grays. Destruction has always been at the heart of this series.
Judgment changes this up a bit and shows a bit of what some areas of Sera
looked like before the Locust and COG destroyed everything. There are a lot of
brighter areas to look at while fighting through the war. Though, towards the
end, things do turn bleak and dark and the game goes back to feeling like its
set in the Gears of War universe we’ve all come to know and love. The
characters move very fluidly with the animations going off without a hitch 99%
of the time. Character models look great, though the age of the hardware and
engine are starting to show, this is still the best looking gears game yet. There were some hiccups with the chainsaw
animation for the lancer, occasionally not lining up correctly when done on the
stairs, or two people hitting the same enemy at the same time can look a little
wonky. There were also a couple times when I went for the execution and the
camera angle cut way back from everything instead of zooming into the kill.
These were all very rare occurrences but they were there from time to time.
Gears of War: Judgment sounds exactly like any other Gears
of War game. The characters sound great, with the original actors returning for
their respective characters. The banter between the squads that was standard
for the first three games seems a little lacking at times in this entry. There
were times that I thought Paduk was literally just there because there had to
be four people in the squad. There was a lot of underdevelopment for several of
the characters in the game which left me feeling a little uncaring about what
happened to them as the game went on.
Gears of War: Judgment plays like any other Gears game. It’s
a cover-based third person shooter. The controls are tight and responsive, I
had no issue aiming or moving my character around the map. This game does move
a little quicker than previous entries, which is an absolute treat. There is an
added measure of verticality to the levels that previously was not present in
Gears of War. These maps have been designed to give the player some options
when going into combat.
The game is broken up into six chapters; each played in
short sections that never took me more than about twenty minutes to complete.
Overall, the game took me around ten to twelve hours to complete the campaign.
The narrative is set up as being told through flashbacks from each member of
Kilo Squad. Each section of the chapters has an extra option of doing what is
called a “declassified” mission. These side missions add an extra level of
difficulty to the missions, but add a little bit of extra story to the game
that was otherwise left out of the testimony. I had a couple complaints from
within the campaign, chiefly that the main villain is completely pointless. The
sole reason he’s even included is so that there is something enormous to kill
for the final mission. I was also hoping that since this was a prequel there
would be a lot more back story given to Cole and Baird, but they didn’t really
develop the characters as fully as I’d like to have seen. Finally, while the
declassified missions added a little story, sometimes it would have been nice
to have them add new objectives or make the player take a different route through
the level. There were a couple of the declassified missions that were just
frustrating to play through.
Multiplayer for the series is largely unchanged. The
strategy is still dive towards your enemy with a shotgun and hope you hit them
for an instant kill. Though, I did notice more players not using this strategy
than I have before, this was the predominant strategy online. Deathmatch and
King of the Hill make their return nestled with two other modes that are class
based. Survival has the player outlast ten waves of AI controlled Locust while
defending a point. If you lose the first time, there are two more chances to
win the game. Overrun is similar to survival except that players play as both
the Locust and the COG. In Overrun COG must defend three points throughout the
map, and the Locust must attack and destroy them. These modes replace Horde and
Beast mode and do an adequate job of that.
Overall, Gears of War: Judgment is a great game with a
couple of missed opportunities within it. Characters are hollow, the villain is
completely worthless as a villain, and the declassified objectives feel like an
artificial way to try and extend the campaign without actually expanding it. We’re
giving a score of 8 out of 10 on this one. See you online.
MLB 13: The Show Review (PS3)
Sorry this one's a little late guys. We've been a little busy personally as of late. However as they say, better late than never!
MLB 13: THE SHOW
San Diego Studios hit another home run
with this year’s release of MLB 13: The
Show. Year after year this franchise
continues to impress by taking an already astounding baseball simulation and
somehow improving upon it. It is like
going to the movies for the release of (Insert
Movie Title Here) 2 and having high expectations that are not met… except The Show meets them every time.
MLB
13: The Show appears to take an old adage and modify it slightly: “If it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it… just add more of it.” Gameplay in The Show 13 is relatively the same as in years past, the controls
are identical with multiple configurations to chose from. The major addition is a Beginner Mode which
is, you guessed it, for beginners in The
Show franchise. The AI starts off by
feeding you pitches that even an American League closer could hit until you get
the hang of it. Slowly the difficulty
picks up as you advance through Beginner Mode.
It is a nice new addition to the franchise. A new throwing meter is also introduced for
those who have familiarized themselves with The
Show over the years. This meter has
a sweet spot in the center and accuracy gets increasingly wilder as it fades
from a green center, to yellow, and red at the ends. It takes some getting used to, but adds a
degree of difficulty to throwing. This
can always be switched to the old style by accessing the controls menu.
The Road To The Show Mode returns
and is as good as ever. This year, San
Diego Studios takes you onto the field with the presentation. You still get the preshow experience of the
television broadcast as well as occasional “Prospect Spotlights” on your major
league hopeful. The telecast experience
pops up after your player has completed an at bat, batter faced, or fielding
opportunity. But for the most part, you
hear what your player hears. There is no
commentary during your game events, just the sound of umpires, coaches,
players, and fans. Hitting and base
running has been improved upon as well.
When you hit the ball, the camera drops to your hitter’s shoulder so you
can more accurately track the hit from the player’s prospective. You can also lock on to the ball or third
base coach with the simple push of a button to see exactly what is going
on. Fielding opportunities now have a
more personal feel as well by allowing the player the option of catching the
ball by pressing a button when the virtual player should close his glove. This adds a nice little timing factor and a
little more realism, if the player so chooses.
Two major game modes have been added
this year as well. The Show Live allows
the player to jump right into a game scheduled for today’s date, similar to the
NBA 2K franchise. The other game mode addition is Postseason
Mode which allows you to skip the regular season and jump right into the
playoffs. The atmosphere of Postseason
Mode games is intensified to give you the impression that this game means
more. San Diego Studios recorded crowds
from actual playoff games to accurately get a feel for the noise level. The presence of rally towels also adds to the
excitement. Having been to three postseason
games in the last two years, I can vouch that the atmosphere is pretty accurate
to the way the postseason feels as a fan.
Presentation received many new
additions this year. Steve Lyons returns
to the series, replacing Dave Campbell in the commentary. When creating a player, you now have the
option for “warrior” style Bryce Harper eye black. Batting animations have been broken down into
stance, follow through, missed swings, etc.
Various scenes have been added to games as well. For example, after your first virtual home
run in RTTS, you just might receive the silent treatment from your teammates
before being congratulated with high fives and back slaps.
Overall, MLB 13: The Show took an already astounding franchise and made it
better. They did not tinker with things
that work well, but did make some slick additions for new and old gamers
alike. San Diego Studios continues to
impress year after year with easily the best baseball simulation available.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Delay on a Couple Reviews
We will have the review for MLB '13 The Show very soon. Having some slight delays. On another note, due to the sudden death of my PS3, the review for God of War: Ascension is on hold until I get my system replaced.
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