Batman Origins, BF4

Batman Arkham Origins

I thought that I was going to have to wait until next week to play the game as the video card I wanted was going to include this plus Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed 4 for free and that deal started today.  On Friday I got an email from Green Man Gaming with my Batman key, I had ordered it back in August and forgot, it was a good deal though.  I still got the video card so I'm selling a steam copy of Batman and Splinter Cell so let me know if you are interested, I should get the keys by the end of the week.

I've put in about 6 hours so far and I like the game just as much as the other 2.  The Arkham games are awesome and they have the best melee combat of any game.  This game is a prequel to the others so the Joker is back even though I haven't seen him yet.  They didn't get the other games lead voices, Batman does sound like Kevin Conroy until he yells then you can tell it's someone different, since I haven't ran into Joker yet, but I did watch a video where the voice actor speaks as the Joker and it's very similar to Mark Hamill's version of the Joker.

The game set in the same city as the last game and they have tweaked the city and added some different lighting so it does feel different.  There are some new gadgets and moves as well.  The combat is a little faster which I like as it makes it feel a little more fluid, sometimes in the older games you'd have to wait a bit long for the counter attack.  The Riddler is back and there is quite a few Riddler puzzles to solve but not as many as the last game, that one had way too many. 

The graphics are awesome and some of the special effects using my Nvidia card look really cool. The Physx really adds some cool graphical effects to the game like the Depth of Field when it zooms in close as you make your final blow to an enemy.  The fog and fabric effects just make the world feel believable.  I haven't had any glitches or other problems with the game and it's running at max settings around 80fps.  If you like the other games then it's more of the same but to me that's a good thing.

Battlefield 4

This was released at 11 last night so I didn't get to play it that much, I tried a bit of single player and about 10 minutes of multiplayer.

I played on the PC connected to my TV because the sound is amazing using the War Tapes setting in 7.1 surround sound so I was also using a controller which is fine for sp.  The single player looks awesome and it's probably the best game I've seen running so far.  There was one scene where you come out of some houses into what looks like Dubai and the detail of the buildings in the distance and number of birds flying around just looked unbelievable.  This is a showcase game.  

I then hopped into a mp match and even though I used a controller I was 1 -2 so it wasn't that bad, if I'd had one more grenade I could have taken out 5 others.  You can tell they did have to tone down the graphics quite a bit but it still looks really nice and everything was smooth and I didn't see any lag.  It still uses the browser interface for everything which I guess is ok, it did take awhile for the game to load in both modes, maybe 20 seconds so I'm not sure about the load times on the consoles would be greater, I'll move this to an SSD and see if that speeds things up.  Hopefully tonight I'll get on with Chad and others and see how great the map layouts are. 

Stuff

Tiger Woods no longer associated with EA's golf game. 
Reports that Xbone is having some software issues. 

New Releases - It's close to November so a ton of games are here.

PC

Avadon 2: The Corruption
Battlefield 4 - Comments above.
Blood of the Werewolf (download)
Deadly Premonition (download - $25) - Want to pickup but locked at 720P?
Football Manager 2014
Lilly Looking Through (download)
Master Reboot (download)
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 (download - $15)
Soda Drinker Pro (download) - Awesome game, I suppose.

Xbox 360

Angry Birds Star Wars
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Waiting for the PC release next month.  Getting it free with new video card.
Battlefield 4
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
WWE 2K14


PlayStation 3

Angry Birds Star Wars
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Battlefield 4
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD (PSN)
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Proteus (PSN)
WWE 2K14

Wii U

Angry Birds Star Wars
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Monster High: 13 Wishes
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Sonic Lost World
Proteus and Sonic Lost World

Wii

Angry Birds Star Wars
Monster High: 13 Wishes

Vita

Angry Birds Star Wars
Crazy Market (PSN - free-to-play)
OMG HD Zombies (PSN)
Proteus (PSN)

Nintendo 3DS

Angry Birds Star Wars
Doodle Jump Adventures
Monster High: 13 Wishes
Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-bit Land
Sonic Lost World

Nintendo DS

Doodle Jump Journey
Monster High: 13 Wishes