So this is the start of E3 week and the big news so far is the new Kinect controller, or the Controller formerly known as Natal. We all knew it was coming and now it’s hear. The pictures so far look great. I am not too sure about the list of games though. According to USA Today the release list of games at launch will include:
•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.
•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.
•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.
•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.
•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, incorporates immersive, full-body dancing without the need for a controller.
•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.
In other E3 news, some new game trailers have been released for a few games I am really looking forward to seeing.
Yeah it’s been a little while since the last update, mostly because I have been powering through Red Dead Redemption, the latest open world game from Rockstar Games. (There was also a little time spent down with friends in Fredericksburg, Aw Yeah GhettoCon!) So after much playing and venturing back and forth from New Austin to Mexico, I have finished the game. (and to those who know, you just lost the game)
One of the things I love about the open world games from Rockstar is that they know how to write a good story, and then they let you play it out as you like, when you like. This happened with Grand Theft Auto IV as well. The story was so engaging that I really felt for some of the characters and cared about what happened with them. When one of the characters wronged me, I felt no compunction when it came time to choose to kill them or let them live. I also became attached to certain characters and found myself wondering if there would be more missions with them or if I would even run into them again.
This happened in spades in RDR. From the very start of the story I began to meet characters that made me want to work on the story more than the side missions. I almost wish that there was some sort of random mission generator that would involve the storyline characters more instead of just standard NPC’s, but I am getting ahead of myself.
The story starts out with John Marston getting escorted into a train to the middle of nowhere in New Austin to Confront one of his old Gang Member friends Bill Williams. John, not being all that smart, confronts Bill outside of a heavily guarded fort and gets himself shot. Thankfully, a local Rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, comes to your rescue and nurses you back to health. As it turns out these Shady government types have kidnapped your Wife and Son and are holding them until you turn in your former game members. The story has you venturing all through New Austin to hunt down these gang members. Along the way you learn how to ranch, hunt down other law breakers, fuel a Mexican Revolution, and explore a number of interesting characters. So as to not spoil anything, I will stop there with the story and move to game play.
Rockstar is very well known for their open world games and with RDR they took it to the next level. The setting was absolutely stunning. Everywhere I went I found myself stopping for a moment to admire the graphics and the environment. There is something about watching the sun set over the Mexican desert while sitting on the back of your horse who just saved you by outrunning the bandits that were chasing you down. As I have stated before, the story is awesome. It engages you, it pulls at your heart strings, and even enrages you at some points. (I found myself exclaiming as certain points “Damn I hope I get to kill that guy!)
I actually had only a few issues with the game. There is an aiming system that allows you to snap to a target, kind of like Modern Warfare of Bad Company, when zooming in. This is a blessing and a curse. I found myself accidentally snapping to the wrong target a few times and shooting Lawmen instead of Bandits, Stagecoach drivers instead of Bandits, etc. This resulted in some unwanted bounties and loss of honor. I didn’t bother to reload thought because. well, accidents happen! Also, watch out for bears. There is a reason why they are the Number One Threat to America. My last complaint is a little bit of a spoiler so I will do my best to talk around it. After the ending, which is very touching and I loved it, being able to continue roaming the world is great, but I felt very disconnected from the character after that point. Through all the rest of the story you really start to identify with Marsten and his troubles, after the ending, Marsten just isn’t the same and I felt awkward playing as him.
Just a quick post to let you know I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet (again). The last few weeks have been spent diving into Rockstar’s new Red Dead Redemption and doing a bit of hard time demolition work in my back yard. I hope to get a review of RDR up soon as I am probably about 50% through it now. Initial reaction: Amazing, go get it and expect to spend most of your free time wandering around New Austin. Speaking of free time, in the back yard, I am tearing down the above ground pool that has lingered in all it’s ghettoness back there and it’s time for it to go. So I bought a new saw (Dewalt 13 amp Reciprocating Saw) and I am carving it up like a turkey. Hopefully I can take in the scrap metal and get some good cash out of it.
Also, we picked up a new car! We traded in the Honda Fit and got a Ford Escape Hybrid model. 2010 with all the bells and whistles. For a gadget geek like me it’s even got the Microsoft Sync stuff for integration with my phone. I might even do a little bit about that later, but I wanted to keep this short. So keep your eyes out for a full review of RDR and next on deck is Alan Wake! (which is sitting in all it’s shrink wrapped glory taunting me)
When America needs a hero, when Freedom stands alone, Americas top agents will defend our liberty from those who wish us harm. Let is join Special Agent Bob and Secret Agent Steve, two of the finest official unofficial splinter cells.
That’s right, Splinter Cell is back and it’s awesome. (Sometimes I wonder if I use the word awesome too much…hmmm) Splinter Cell Conviction came out this month and I finally got around to focusing on it. (it’s been a rough few weeks with travel and such) I managed to finish the outstanding single player campaign last night and was very impressed with the story. The story for this episode of “Sam Fisher kills everyone” is that Sam discovers that his Daughter is still alive and vows to do anything it takes to get her back! Oh and something about saving the President and such too. For the first time in a SC story I felt genuinely involved in the story! There was an actual level of attachment where I cared about the characters that I haven’t gotten in other SC games. Most of them before just seemed like puzzle games where I can see how I can get from one side of the map to the other without killing anyone or annihilating everyone. So this was a nice change of pace. Finishing up the single player game meant that I unlocked all the weapons I would need for Multi-player.
Before I get into Multi-player, I feel I should mention the Bob and Steve thing. So a few years ago a couple of guys did a little machinima called “Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater” and the stars were Bob and Steve.
There are actually 11 total episodes and they are hilarious. So, when I heard that Splinter Cell Conviction would have Co-Op multi-player, I talked with my friend Lee and we decided that it was game on for Bob and Steve. Not so much with the making of Videos and such, but honestly, that’s how we play. If you watch these videos you will see EXACTLY how Lee and I play SC. Last night was a great example. We joined up to start working on the Co-Op campaign and ended nearly in tears as we tried to extract on the helicopter. (GET DOWN HERE AND REVIVE ME YOU BASTARD!! NO I Do NOT want to Jump over the RAIL!)
I will work on getting to more of the other side stuff like Deniable Ops and such, but in the meantime, Splinter Cell Conviction gets an 8 Donald Sutherland’s out of 10. (watch episode 11)
Marlow, Haggard, Sweetwater, and Sarge all return for the sequel to the Battlefield Bad Company line of games. I just finished the single play campaign for BC2, and am in the midst of the multi-player side. The multi-player will no doubt be occupying many many hours of my gaming time, especially since I have such good friends to play with. That’s what this game is really all about. The multi-player aspect of BC2 is designed around you and your friends, not you and 16 of those random people you meet up with in game. You and your friends start a squad and go to town! But more on that in a moment.
As I said I finished up with the mingle player “multi-player tutorial” campaign. Well, that’s what it felt like at least. With BC1 the game was build with both the single play and the multi-play worked in. The campaign was rich and well written, with some good funny bits and a solid story. BC2’s single play is just hollow. It felt like I was just being walked through and shown all the different things I would be able to use in the multi-player area….”Here is how to drive a tank”….”here is how to use the UAV”…etc. The writing and dialogue didn’t even pick up to a serious pace until the last chapter. Also, the collectibles were laughable. In the first game you were searching for certain guns and gold chests…because they tied into the story. The second one it’s like “You may run across these blinky chests and a few guns along the way, blow up the chests and take the guns…..if you want” I was very very very disappointed. Not even the constant Modern Warfare 2 bashing helped with that. (Ok, maybe it helped a little.)
Now, to switch gears, the Multi-player is amazing. Yeah, I said it, Amazing! I have one word for it….Destructible!! Everything is! I love that I can take down an entire building if I don’t like someone on the top of that tower…Boom, no more tower. Currently I believe I am level 4 (spent most of the time playing single player) and I have found that when you play as a medic, they just hand you points. You get points for dropping a med kit, reviving players, oh and for that whole killing people thing. I highly suggest if you are just starting out, run as a medic for the first few levels!
So here I am, torn, because I really feel that, as a multi-player game, this game is outstanding. But I bought it because I really loved the Single player game from the first one, and that fell short. Well, honest opinion….buy it. It’s damn fun to play online. If you are looking for a game that you and your friends will enjoy for hours on end, this is it. Sorry if I am not going in depth on any one aspect specifically, but I don’t want to spoil anything of the game, but seriously, you know what you need to about the game, go buy it, run through the single player campaign first so you know what to do in multi-player, and enjoy!
So I have been a little out of it this week due to some crazy injury to my back. Don’t ask, I am not sure how it happened either, I just know it hurts like all hell and I apparently did the worst thing I could do for it. You see, the Doc tells me that I strained the cartilage on my ribs. So when you strain a muscle you want to apply Ice to reduce swelling and heat to encourage blood flow. Yeah, when you strain cartilage, you apply ice, and that’s it. When you apply heat it only makes it worse. So the other night when my back was hurting to all high hell, (and I hadn’t been to the doc yet) I came down and slept with a electric blanket balled up on my back……alll night. Needless to say the next day was insanely painful. They gave me lots of good drugs and I am spending most of my time laying down on an Ice pack. So I have had lots of time to sit and play on the Xbox.
Enter Toy Soldiers. Toy Soldiers is a new Arcade title that was released about 2 weeks ago. The premise of the game is more tower defense style set with your old fashioned Toy Soldiers (Duh). Now, back in the 90’s there was a game called Army Men, which took your old green army men and animated them to a strategy game. This game is nothing like that. The soldiers in this one are the old old style, think the old metal soldiers your grand dad would have had. (for some of you, your great grand dad, damn I am getting old) In Toy Soldiers you have your toy box and an unlimited stream of soldiers at your disposal. You however only control the defensive aspect of the game. You can queue up your offensive force and hope they make it to the other side. You can take control of the various turrets and defenses to add more of a human element to the defense. But that is all just the basic game play. Some of the best parts of the game come from the overall design.
So lets charge into it, shall we?
The Hoo Rah’s!!
The overall look of the game is awesome. The setting of making the backgrounds look like a bedroom where you are really sitting and just playing with your soldiers is great. Add in the period music and it’s a great package. I could almost just set the menus and leave with the background playing and enjoy it.
Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades! Each unit has a series of upgrades which not only make the unit perform better, it changes the look! A machine gun turret changes to a cannon and it has a completely different look of the soldiers.
No Launch and leave. Most Tower Defense game you can build them up to a specific place and then just leave them alone to finish the job. Like it or not, you can’t do that here. You have to stay engaged.
The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tells”
It’s a race! When playing multi-player you pretty much are in a race to get your upgrades done the fastest. If I can get my howitzer up to level 3 it will have the range to destroy your guns. So first to get there usually wins.
The AI is smart, but not that smart. You need to be on top of almost every aspect of the defenses if you want to catch everything before it gets to your toy box. It can get a little “Micro (no pun intended) Management” like.,
No Specials for teams. Maybe I just haven’t found it yet but it looks to be just two Teams, the Brits and the Krauts (British and German troops) and they all seem to have the same equipment. It would have been nice to have the Germans get a special gun that the British don’t, and vice versa.
Now all that being said, I really do like the game. It’s a great way to spend some time while I am laid out on the couch. And I am sure I will find more good in it the more I play. (I could do without the creepy gas mask Avatar award though). If you enjoy the old timy aspect of classic Toy Soldiers, I Highly suggest you at least download the demo and check it out! If you buy it then feel free to send me a game invite!
Ok so I have been splitting a lot of my game time up for the last few weeks. Star Trek Online really has me stuck in the holodeck and has taken control of the ship. When I can get some escape from it I have been working my way through Bioshock 2. Since the time is split on both and finishing up neither it has left me with some wonder on what to post to keep things current out here on the site. So I will give you the thoughts so far on both of these. First up, a State of Rapture.
So I am quite a ways into B2 and it’s just, finally, starting to get to a near playable state. I say that because the first few levels were spent figuring out how to play and building up weapons so they can actually hurt someone wearing just a dress and a plastic mask. Where as the junkie with a pipe can kill me in my deep sea armor plated dive suit. Yeah, it’s a lot like that. It would also appear that the Xbox version has a few bugs. None of the vending machines give off the familiar “Welcome, to the Circus of Values!”. And I still miss the little sisters reacting to your rescue of them (“No No, No No!”). Now that I am past the build up phase and getting more into the game, it’s getting a little better. I may have to agree with the guys in the Joystiq Xbox fancast when they say that maybe using Bioshock 2 to follow Mass Effect 2 is a bad idea. When you go from a game that is very heavily story based and rich in it’s plot, and you go to something that is basically a re-hash of the first game, it’s bound to leave you a tad bitter. Fret not though, despite all this, I am still enjoying the game and it’s probably better that I take it slow so that I can enjoy the good parts and be away long enough to forget the bad.
In the meantime I have been enjoying the Trek experience in Star Trek Online. I have a grand total of 3 characters (BTW, the max is 3), My Main, Boothby, is a Trill Science Commander (Commander 9, soooooo close to Captain) flying the U.S.S. Amazonia which looks like it’s ready to be hatched. I hate the look of the Commander Science ships. They have that horrible sphere instead of a saucer section. I also have my Klingon Character which you are able to start playing after you reach LT 6 with your Federation character. The nice thing is that you start at LT 6 with the Klingon as well so Lt Lock, Tactical Officer of the I.K.S VeS Qab (WarCrimes), is bringing hell to the Federation. Finally I have my Alt, Lt Commander Wi’Zzer, Vulcan Engineering officer of the U.S.S. Fairfax. This character I am running with my friend Doc so we are keeping the characters in line with each other. When he isn’t on, I play Booth.
So the State of the Galaxy is that Boothby just managed to reach Deep Space 9 out towards Cardassian space. I like that there are a specific set of missions for each area and a specific enemy that you are working against. Something I would love to see, though, is a different set of missions based on what you are. I’m a Doctor not a Tactical officer! Where are my Science specific missions? Why does my Engineer character get missions where he needs to scan Nebula’s and gathering Data? My Science officer is running off on missions to take out 5 squadrons of ships that should be better suited for a Tactical officer. Now it’s usually better if you are running in a team of course so you have 1 of each type, but that is rare. Another big complaint would be in the stats and skills. So I have my ship that I can outfit with a billion different bits and parts. I loot a science console that gives me +10 to Astrometrics. I have found no where to tell me what exactly that does for me! Some of the skills are good in that they give you examples of the skills they benefit, but it’s really hard to keep the granularity straight.
On the plus side, the missions I have run lately have been great for the story. Learning about the Hobus Star and what happened to Romulus was very intriguing. Playing as my Engineer and being the tank while Doc tears through with his Escort ship, and even playing through as my Klingon even though it’s just PVP for him. (Need more Klingon Quests!!!) I can see that I will be very entertained for quite a while still. Is it bad that I have had the urge to watch more of the TV show and movies as of late? Not much else on the radar right now so I will be cooking up some non-review articles in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!
There have been two bits of Down Loadable Content released for Assassin’s Creed 2 since I played and reviewed last month. Sequence 12: Battle of Forli and Sequence 13: Bonfire of the Vanities fill the gap in the story between Sequences 11 and 14. If you have played through the game you know about how apparently there is some degradation in the data stream that causes the two sequences to be corrupt and thus, un-obtainable by Desmond and the crew. Well Rebbecca, your tech lead, manages to “repair” the data and you can now access it.
Sequence 12 opens up back in Leonardo’s shop and you are inspecting the newly acquired Apple. It’s too dangerous to keep it hidden in some random spot (like is has been for the last few hundred years) so you clearly must put it in a fortress with lots of people around it. A visit to Forli and the Strong willed Caterina Sforza brings trouble in the way of a full on attack from a new target for Ezio. Without going too in depth, this story played out well, had good cut scenes, and overall good gameplay. My only complaint about it was that it felt very short (and no achievements).
Sequence 13, however, had me crying out expletives about every 2 minutes! The Apple was taken and ends up back in Florence under the control of the Mad Monk, Girolamo Savonarola, who is using the Apple to influence the people to do his bidding. In order to garnner discontent umong the people, Ezio needed to take out 9 of the Monks top people. Normally I would think this was fine but about 5 of these were “Oh by the way don’t alert the 80 bazzilion guards in the area when you do it”. I think I may have scared the dog a few times screaming at the TV. God Bless the invention of the Sniper Rifle. I think this one went on a tad long (maybe to make up for 12 being short) and could have done fine with maybe 5 Assassinations instead of 9. Also….Needs Achievements!
Overall I was very happy with the story except that it all should have been in the game to begin with. It’s not like a new story, or a special side mission. This was all info that was a part of the main story! So why not include it in the main game. I also found the DLC to be a tad glitchy. There were many times where the Dialogue was not heard at all and just the subtitles were what I had to follow along with. After one mission I was spawned inside a building and couldn’t get out without having to quit. That mixed with the standard frustration of alerting guards and failing out of a mission about 50 times really made this part of AC2 more of a Chore than enjoying the added story.
My Advice? Download the DLC THEN play the game so it’s all one coherent story. Where I gave the Main game an 8.8 out of 10 Florins, The DLC is getting only a 6.5.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with conventions like Farpoint, it’s a small fan run convention up in Timonium Maryland. I have been to Farpoint a number of times and it’s become kind of a “home base” con for me. It used to be held at the Hunt Vally Marriot hotel but from what I understand there was some Staff issues that caused them to change venues to the Crown Plaza. I really have mixed feelings about the new hotel. I really loved the Marriot because there was ample space for small gatherings of friends for hang outs. The Crown Plaza was like everything all lumped into one very large room so it was one super big party. Like its own little Nerd Prom. So on the one hand you were more involved in Con related stuff, but missed out on the smaller gatherings. My hotel verdict is still out.
So the main reason for attending Farpoint was that Felica Day would be there. Given that she is a LA Native and a frequenter of most of the West Cost cons, having her at something in the east, and a small con to boot, was awesome. Also at the con was the premire of Trenches, the web series produced by Shane Felux of Revelations and Pitching Lucas fame. Also known as the sole reason I have an IMDB Film credit! Trenches, which you know from the earlier post, Officially debuted today at Crackle.com, but con attendees were allowed a early viewing of the whole series on Saturday. After the showing, Shane’s wife Dawn presented the DVD copy to Felica Day for her library. (Felicia Day was unable to attend the viewing due to her signing schedule.)
Also on Saturday I got to attend the Q&A Panel that Felica was holding to see her speak on many different topics. Everyone knows that She is an avid gamer but I was curious to learn what else she was playing. Turns out that she has a large stack of games that are waiting for her furious writing schedule to allow, and in the drive is Mass Effect 2. She also will be doing the voice of the Upcoming Wii Game Rock of the Dead, where she will be the Female love interest to none other than Neil Patrick Harris. The questions she answered ranged from the standard “what would you like to work on” to the obscure “What are the best desert places in LA.” (Which was answered in the most serious tone. BTW, she is a sucker for the cupcake places!) I did get the brief chance to meet up with her and talk a little about gaming and conventions (very very brief). She also wouldn’t give out her Xbox Gamertag (kind of expected) but did mention that she will be doing an Xbox Game with Fame event.
The rest of the weekend was spent with my lovely wife (who tolerates me most of the time) and enjoying our 1 year anniversary, as well as Valentines day. I will spare you the mushy details but it involved awesome turtles and fishes. Also, there may or may not be pictures of me in BSG BDU’s doing possibly bad things to the statue in front of the hotel. I’ll go ahead and say, it wasn’t me! I swear, it was Alan Rickman who happened to be a surprise guest at the hotel and, and, man can that guy drink! (Honest!)
Here I am, only minutes after finishing Mass Effect 2, and I am still processing all that happened. I may end up actually replaying from my last major save point because I am not completely happy with some of my choices. For now I am going to let them bake in my head and deal with the consequences. (And mourn the loss of Jack, Grunt, Thane, and the Colonists. In the words of Joker: “Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit, What the Shit!?”
This also means that I am now un-distracted until next Tuesday! A fact that I am sure Sarah and Andrew will be happy about. (Or not.) In the mean time I have to say that I have become increasingly tempted by Star Trek Online based on what I have seen about it online and the few friends who have tried it. I am probably only slightly less of a Star Trek fan than I am a Star Wars fan. (Which is to say, pretty damn rabid.) Although I do not own any Star Trek costumes, and I am not sure I will any time soon, I have always enjoyed the shows and the inspiration they provide. I loved many of the other trek games, even though they were widely un-popular. I even have a copy of the Star Ship creator lying around here somewhere. I am curious to the designs of the ships and to see the variants. Ok damn, this is really not helping.
Maybe if I go read the Next Gen Tech Manual I can get my mind off it.
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