Splinter Cell Blacklist (Steam)
Played through a couple of the opening missions and it felt like a refined Splinter Cell game. The graphics look amazing especially on an Nvidia card, Ubisoft and Nvidia partnered up to make the PC versions of their latest games look awesome. I did have some issues playing the game on the launch day, I had to modify an .ini file to make the game load in a window otherwise it would crash, that issue is fixed now.
I have a love/hate relationship with stealth games. In most stealth games once you are spotted it's reload time and for Splinter Cell, even though you can run away and hide, I want to try and make it through the level without alerting guards so I have to be in a mood to replay sections. There have been times that I've been spotted and didn't think I should have but it hasn't happened that often. The stealth is handled pretty well and you have a lot of gadgets to help you move through the levels. Each level has multiple paths so if you explore the area you can find some easy ways to eliminate targets.
They changed the voice actor for Sam, the new guy does a good job, but I do miss the voice of Michael Ironside. Your main base of operation is a plane and you have various crew mates in different sections where you go and talk to them and get information and some secondary missions. It feels a bit like Mass Effect. One of the secondary missions I went on was to eliminate 20 hostile targets and that was a lot of fun even though I restarted multiple times. The AI is very good in this game and they have varying routes so you have to sit, watch, and time your movements. I opened a door in one house and a bit later I had an enemy checking it out asking who left the door open. In another a passing guard was looking around for one of his buddies who he talked to earlier before I took him out.
Diablo 3 (360)
Having so much more fun playing the console version versus the PC. I've already found a couple of legendary items and that's just in Act 1, also vendors are selling quite a few of them. The loot is so much better in this game that it just adds to the I just need to play a bit more to see what cool thing I can find next. I started out playing a Witch Doctor and was enjoying the ranged attacks, it felt a bit like Pikman or an RTS because of all the minions I had fighting on my behalf. I could stand back and play general as I was hurling jars filled with spiders and sending in my 2 summoned zombie dogs to attack the enemy. I created a Monk and that class is really cool, I barely played with that class on the PC version. The sound design in the game is amazing as every melee attack just has a resounding thud when it lands that just makes the hit feel powerful.
iPad Mini
I bought my parents the original 3G iPad when it came out since they live in the country and don't have Internet access. My mom used it a bit to look at pictures but my Dad was never got interested in it until 2 months age, now he's hooked. He's never used a computer or a smart phone so there is quite a bit of a learning curve, the iPhone seems easy but in reality it's not very intuitive. The hardest thing is all the passwords you have to remember. He wanted to attach pictures to an email and when he went to the photo page he selected 10 pictures but the email option didn't show up he could only send the photos as a message. After doing some researching I found that In iOS 5 you could only send 5 photos in an email, the email option should have been grayed out to let you know this instead of just disappearing. I was impressed that he signed up for Paypal and eBay.
The original iPad is pretty old now and since it doesn't support iOS6 I upgraded him to an iPad mini this weekend. We got the Logitech keyboard/case and it works very well. I like the feel and the size of the mini. The speed increase is very noticeable and he's able to get 4G speeds where he lives so that will help as well. We got the 3GB plan for $30 so I'll see how long that lasts before he has to upgrade to the 5GB plan for $50, it also includes tethering at that price so it's not too bad. Last night I got a call about him having trouble connecting to email so I spent about 40 minutes on that. We eventually had to delete his email account and recreate it to fix the issue.
New Releases - Next week it GTA V.
PC
Aarklash: Legacy (download)
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (download - $20) - First game was probably one of the scariest games ever.
Arma 3 - Multiplayer only. Single player campaign to come later.
Huntsman: The Orphanage (download - $15)
Iron Soul (download)
Legend of Dungeon (download - $10) - Cool indie Rouge-Like
The King of Fighters XIII (download - $30)
Volgarr the Viking (download)
Xbox 360
DuckTales: Remastered (XBLA)
NHL 14
PlayStation 3
Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD (PSN)
Dragon Fantasy Book II (PSN)
Hunter's Trophy 2: Australia (PSN)
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix - A remake of a classic Disney and Square Enix calaboration.
Mystic Heroes (PS2 Classics)
NHL 14
Puppeteer - Awesome looking platformer. Probably picking this up.
Sanctum 2 (PSN - $15)
Wii U
The Wonderful 101 - Finally another game for the WiiU probably pass though.
Vita
Killzone: Mercenary - A good FPS on a handheld?
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Rayman Legends, Diablo 3 Console
Rayman Legends (Steam)
Fun, Fun, Fun. Remember when you were a kid and games were just fun, they weren't trying to be super realistic or edgy, but just wanted you to have a good time? I really liked the last Rayman Origins game and thought it was a spectacular platformer, Legends is so much more so. The graphics in Origins looked great but they really went all out for Legends, it's probably the most colorful game I've ever played. The screen is filled with stuff, the backgrounds have a lot of detail that is easy to miss when you are running through a level. The platforming is varied and each location feels different so there is no chance of getting bored. The best levels are the music levels, the first one has you platforming to Black Betty and the jumps and attacks are all tied to the beats of the music, they are awesome.
My only gripe is the Murphy levels, the game was originally designed as a WiiU exclusive so those levels involved using the touchscreen gamepad. On PC using a controller you just press the Y button and Murphy moves automatically so it does slow the pace down during those levels luckily there have only been a few so far.
There are a ton of different ways to play from daily and weekly challenges to 4 player local couch co-op which seems like it could get real crazy. They included 40 remixed Origin levels, I played one of them and even though it looked familiar they did a good job of making everything new. If you have the money you definitely should pick this game up, it's awesome.
Diablo 3 (360)
Well I double dipped and got the 360 version yesterday and spent about an hour playing and I really like it. The graphics aren't as sharp as PC and there is some screen tearing but other than that the core Diablo game play is there and it works very well. One of the biggest issues of a PC game that only uses KB/M that moves to the consoles is how well the controls are translated. So far I haven't had any issues, I like having direct control of my character with the analog sticks as it makes me feel more connected to my onscreen persona. The powers are mapped to the face buttons and the right analog is used as a roll for every character so you can move away quickly if needed. I find the movement and use of powers to be a lot easier, it just feels more fluid using the controller than the KB/M. I haven't tried a ranged character yet so I'm not sure how easy/hard it is to target enemies out of a group but there were a lot of times on the PC where it would be tough to click on the correct one. The inventory system uses a radial menu that works very well so they did an excellent job in porting the controls.
There is no auction house so they had to redo the loot system and it's much much better than the PC version. I played around 50 hours on PC and hardly ever got anything worthwhile for my character, sometimes I would get something cool but it would be for another character class. The loot on the console version will drop more items based on your character class. There isn't as much loot either but there is a bigger percentage of getting better equipment. Some people are seeing 8-15 pieces of legendary loot playing on normal difficulty which I only think I got 1 piece.
The console version is based of the latest PC patch version which added the option to play on normal but with hard enemies, kind of like the maxplayers command in Diablo 2. I tried starting out on this level with a barbarian and died about 6 times in 10 minutes so I had to back it down.
Overall I'm really impressed and think that the console version is the best one. They are supposed to be releasing Loot 2.0 which fixes the issues on PC, I wish they would port the console controls over to the PC game, but I don't think that will happen. I need to try some online and see how that works and from what I've read it works very well. Blizzard does it again.
Something big is coming........
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Witcher 2, Dead Space 3
Witcher 2
Finally finished the game this weekend after starting it about 5 different times during the past year. The graphics and presentation are probably the best in any game, the detail is amazing. I played it on my triple monitor setup and it was awesome. My main gripe with the game is the combat, when the game first released there was some lag in the combat so it wasn't as fluid as it needed to be. They did release a mod that fixed this issue but even after that I still wasn't a fan of the combat.
I played most of the game on the easy mode because the story was interesting and I just wanted to be in the world. The best part of the game are the decisions that you have to make. Just about every decision in the Witcher games are tough because your choice will have it's consequences, there really isn't an easy, good vs bad choice. Even the smallest decisions could have long term impacts on the future, it's a really cool aspect that does make you want to play again or reload the last save to try something different. I reloaded my game several times to see the different outcomes.
Witcher 3 The Wild Hunt is coming out in 2014 and looks to be awesome. Hopefully they will get the combat right this time. The first game is still one of my favorite games of all times and even thought the second one falters a bit it's still an enjoyable game.
Dead Space 3
I fired that up last night and I'm not sure why I stopped playing it when it first came out. I loved the first 2 Dead Space games and so far the third game has been awesome. They did seem to speed up the game just a bit and they introduced more human enemies, but it still retains the eerie feeling of moving through tight levels and not knowing what might be around the corner. The enemies are as scary as ever and they do create tension when you see a couple running towards you. Some of the battles have been intense and I do catch myself breathing a little harder at the end of them. The opening sequence of the game has some great moments so I hope the rest of the game has more of them. I really liked the zero gravity missions of the second game and they seemed to have opened that up more in this game.
New Releases - Quite a few good games this week. Diablo 3 is now on consoles.
PC
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (download - $15) - Remember this fondly on the Genesis
Cosmic Predator (download - $4)
MirrorMoon EP (download - $10)
Outlast (download - $20) - FPS horror game. Looks very scary.
Rayman Legends - Pre-ordered and ready. Game has gotten some great reviews. The last game was one of the best platformers.
Total War: Rome II - Interested but probably too much learning curve.
Xbox 360
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (XBLA - $15)
Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate
Diablo III - Not sure how well this will translate to the consoles they did have to dumb down some of the UI.
Freefall Racers (XBLA)
Rayman Legends
PlayStation 3
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PSN - $15)
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (XBLA - $15)
Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate
Diablo III
KickBeat (PSN)
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 (PSN - $50)
Rayman Legends
Wii U
Rayman Legends
Vita
KickBeat (PSN)
Rayman Legends
Finally finished the game this weekend after starting it about 5 different times during the past year. The graphics and presentation are probably the best in any game, the detail is amazing. I played it on my triple monitor setup and it was awesome. My main gripe with the game is the combat, when the game first released there was some lag in the combat so it wasn't as fluid as it needed to be. They did release a mod that fixed this issue but even after that I still wasn't a fan of the combat.
I played most of the game on the easy mode because the story was interesting and I just wanted to be in the world. The best part of the game are the decisions that you have to make. Just about every decision in the Witcher games are tough because your choice will have it's consequences, there really isn't an easy, good vs bad choice. Even the smallest decisions could have long term impacts on the future, it's a really cool aspect that does make you want to play again or reload the last save to try something different. I reloaded my game several times to see the different outcomes.
Witcher 3 The Wild Hunt is coming out in 2014 and looks to be awesome. Hopefully they will get the combat right this time. The first game is still one of my favorite games of all times and even thought the second one falters a bit it's still an enjoyable game.
Dead Space 3
I fired that up last night and I'm not sure why I stopped playing it when it first came out. I loved the first 2 Dead Space games and so far the third game has been awesome. They did seem to speed up the game just a bit and they introduced more human enemies, but it still retains the eerie feeling of moving through tight levels and not knowing what might be around the corner. The enemies are as scary as ever and they do create tension when you see a couple running towards you. Some of the battles have been intense and I do catch myself breathing a little harder at the end of them. The opening sequence of the game has some great moments so I hope the rest of the game has more of them. I really liked the zero gravity missions of the second game and they seemed to have opened that up more in this game.
New Releases - Quite a few good games this week. Diablo 3 is now on consoles.
PC
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (download - $15) - Remember this fondly on the Genesis
Cosmic Predator (download - $4)
MirrorMoon EP (download - $10)
Outlast (download - $20) - FPS horror game. Looks very scary.
Rayman Legends - Pre-ordered and ready. Game has gotten some great reviews. The last game was one of the best platformers.
Total War: Rome II - Interested but probably too much learning curve.
Xbox 360
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (XBLA - $15)
Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate
Diablo III - Not sure how well this will translate to the consoles they did have to dumb down some of the UI.
Freefall Racers (XBLA)
Rayman Legends
PlayStation 3
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PSN - $15)
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD (XBLA - $15)
Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate
Diablo III
KickBeat (PSN)
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 (PSN - $50)
Rayman Legends
Wii U
Rayman Legends
Vita
KickBeat (PSN)
Rayman Legends
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Saints Row IV DiveKick
Saints Row IV
Played co-op about 2 hours this weekend with Mark and had a blast. I've been playing Saints Row The Third recently and while that is an awesome game this new version is even crazier and funner.(spell check didn't mark this word.) One of my favorite games is Crackdown and they basically added the core game play concepts from that game into the Saints Row universe and it is awesome. You have super powers in the game, which is explained in the story, and the first two you get are super speed and super jump so you can run faster than cars and climb buildings easily. You use these skills to collect the 1125 clusters that are scattered around the world to upgrade and open new powers, we spent most of the time just collecting clusters.
DiveKick
An interesting fighting game that only uses two buttons, a jump and kick button, you move your character using those buttons as well, it's a game you can play with one hand. Most fighting games have too many complex button combinations that make it almost impossible to just pick up and play. Divekick strips away the complexity of the controls and makes actual fighting strategy the main focus. There are around 10 different characters who all jump and kick in different ways so there is a good variety which allows multiple strategies. Each round is only 30 seconds and one hit kills, if no one is hit within that time frame the character closest to the middle of the arena wins, it takes 6 kills to win the match.
New Releases - Some good games releasing this week.
PC:
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Getting great reviews. Picking this up.
Castlevania: Lord of the Shadows - Already pre-ordered. The game was fantastic on the 360 and should look great on the PC includes the DLC which I never played.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Hopefully this fares better than the last time it launched.
Lost Planet 3 - Absolutely no press on this one, I haven't seen any ads or trailers.
PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate
Shelter - Want to care for some baby badgers?
PS3:
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F
Killer is Dead - Grasshopper game so I'm going to buy. Hopefully it plays well.
Lost Planet 3
Madden NFL 25 - Really debating this. If you buy the $100 Collectors edition you get Sunday Ticket for free on mobile devices. A decent deal.
PSV:
Real Boxing
Spelunky - Should be great on the platform.
360:
Killer is Dead
Lost Planet 3
Madden NFL 25
Painkiller: Hell and Damnation
WiiU:
New Super Luigi U
Pokemon Rumble
Played co-op about 2 hours this weekend with Mark and had a blast. I've been playing Saints Row The Third recently and while that is an awesome game this new version is even crazier and funner.(spell check didn't mark this word.) One of my favorite games is Crackdown and they basically added the core game play concepts from that game into the Saints Row universe and it is awesome. You have super powers in the game, which is explained in the story, and the first two you get are super speed and super jump so you can run faster than cars and climb buildings easily. You use these skills to collect the 1125 clusters that are scattered around the world to upgrade and open new powers, we spent most of the time just collecting clusters.
DiveKick
An interesting fighting game that only uses two buttons, a jump and kick button, you move your character using those buttons as well, it's a game you can play with one hand. Most fighting games have too many complex button combinations that make it almost impossible to just pick up and play. Divekick strips away the complexity of the controls and makes actual fighting strategy the main focus. There are around 10 different characters who all jump and kick in different ways so there is a good variety which allows multiple strategies. Each round is only 30 seconds and one hit kills, if no one is hit within that time frame the character closest to the middle of the arena wins, it takes 6 kills to win the match.
New Releases - Some good games releasing this week.
PC:
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Getting great reviews. Picking this up.
Castlevania: Lord of the Shadows - Already pre-ordered. The game was fantastic on the 360 and should look great on the PC includes the DLC which I never played.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Hopefully this fares better than the last time it launched.
Lost Planet 3 - Absolutely no press on this one, I haven't seen any ads or trailers.
PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate
Shelter - Want to care for some baby badgers?
PS3:
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F
Killer is Dead - Grasshopper game so I'm going to buy. Hopefully it plays well.
Lost Planet 3
Madden NFL 25 - Really debating this. If you buy the $100 Collectors edition you get Sunday Ticket for free on mobile devices. A decent deal.
PSV:
Real Boxing
Spelunky - Should be great on the platform.
360:
Killer is Dead
Lost Planet 3
Madden NFL 25
Painkiller: Hell and Damnation
WiiU:
New Super Luigi U
Pokemon Rumble
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Planescape Torment and Some Rumors
PlaneScape Torment
I put in about 8 hours over the weekend and I'm not sure how much longer I have until I finish the game, it's not on Steam so I can't see my total playtime. I've had to use a walk through a couple of times because the game is pretty massive and there are a ton of people to talk to and if you miss talking to one of them you can have a quest seem impossible to finish. That is probably my only gripe with the game in that the journal and quest log are not detailed enough and it's not easily searchable so it makes finding specific people or places cumbersome.
Stuff
Candy Crush Saga makes 650K per day.
Madden demo is out today for 360 and PS3.
Rayman Legends Demo Aug 20.
PS4 Launching Oct 21?????
GTA V coming to PC's this fall????
New Releases - A lot of games but I'm not buying much.
PC
DuckTales: Remastered (download - $15) - I never played the original but it's supposedly fondly remembered from the NES days.
Europa Universalis IV - You can import your Civilization Kings 2 Saves.
Gone Home (download - $20)
Hammerwatch (download)
Payday 2 (download - $30) - Improved over the first PayDay $30 seems a tad much for only a multiplayer game.
Postmortem (download - free)
Space Hulk (download - $30) - Interested in this one and will probably purchase based on reviews. Another tactical Turn based combat game.
Unholy Heights (download - $4) - Never heard of it.
Worms Clan Wars (download - $25) - Another worms game.
Xbox 360
Charlie Murder (XBLA - $10) - Read some positive impressions.
Disney Infinity - Here it is the next Skylanders type game which could make a lot of money since it's using Disney Characters.
Payday 2
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
PlayStation 3
Disney Infinity
DuckTales: Remastered (PSN - $15)
Mars: War Logs (PSN)
Payday 2
Thunder Wolves (PSN)
Wii U
Angry Birds Trilogy - Thought this already came out.
Disney Infinity
DuckTales: Remastered (eShop - $15)
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
DuckTales: Remastered and Disney Infinity
Wii
Angry Birds Trilogy
Disney Infinity
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Nintendo 3DS
Disney Infinity
Donkey Kong (eShop - $5)
Heavy Fire: Black Arms 3D (eShop - $5)
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Nintendo DS
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
I put in about 8 hours over the weekend and I'm not sure how much longer I have until I finish the game, it's not on Steam so I can't see my total playtime. I've had to use a walk through a couple of times because the game is pretty massive and there are a ton of people to talk to and if you miss talking to one of them you can have a quest seem impossible to finish. That is probably my only gripe with the game in that the journal and quest log are not detailed enough and it's not easily searchable so it makes finding specific people or places cumbersome.
Stuff
Candy Crush Saga makes 650K per day.
Madden demo is out today for 360 and PS3.
Rayman Legends Demo Aug 20.
PS4 Launching Oct 21?????
GTA V coming to PC's this fall????
New Releases - A lot of games but I'm not buying much.
PC
DuckTales: Remastered (download - $15) - I never played the original but it's supposedly fondly remembered from the NES days.
Europa Universalis IV - You can import your Civilization Kings 2 Saves.
Gone Home (download - $20)
Hammerwatch (download)
Payday 2 (download - $30) - Improved over the first PayDay $30 seems a tad much for only a multiplayer game.
Postmortem (download - free)
Space Hulk (download - $30) - Interested in this one and will probably purchase based on reviews. Another tactical Turn based combat game.
Unholy Heights (download - $4) - Never heard of it.
Worms Clan Wars (download - $25) - Another worms game.
Xbox 360
Charlie Murder (XBLA - $10) - Read some positive impressions.
Disney Infinity - Here it is the next Skylanders type game which could make a lot of money since it's using Disney Characters.
Payday 2
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
PlayStation 3
Disney Infinity
DuckTales: Remastered (PSN - $15)
Mars: War Logs (PSN)
Payday 2
Thunder Wolves (PSN)
Wii U
Angry Birds Trilogy - Thought this already came out.
Disney Infinity
DuckTales: Remastered (eShop - $15)
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
DuckTales: Remastered and Disney Infinity
Wii
Angry Birds Trilogy
Disney Infinity
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Nintendo 3DS
Disney Infinity
Donkey Kong (eShop - $5)
Heavy Fire: Black Arms 3D (eShop - $5)
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Nintendo DS
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Friday, August 9, 2013
Papers, Please
Papers Please (Steam)
Here I sit in this small confined well guarded room, people are standing in a massive line waiting to pass through so they can conduct their business. It's almost 8 am and I just walked to work from my small apartment that I share with my wife, her mother, and our son. I only have $5 to my name and my son is sick because we can't afford to heat the house. I calculated last night that I need to process 20 people today so I can afford medicine. I quickly read over the new instructions that I receive each day from the head office, since we had a terrorist attack yesterday that resulted in one guard being killed, new arrivals will need to have an entry ticket as well as their passport. Two minutes till 8 so I get out my guidebook and turn to my bookmark so I can quickly assess each person. I click on the switch and the cold iron gate slides up slowly revealing behind it the dull gray brick wall that is my backdrop each long day. I press another button that turns on the microphone and I speak the words everyone is waiting to hear.......Next.
It's 9 pm now and I've had a long day, I sit cuddled next to my wife under many covers, the house is freezing. I was able to earn enough money to buy medicine but turning on the heat will have to wait for another day, I sure hope nothing else unexpected happens.
A new day, new instructions, they've upgraded the entry tickets to an entry pass, just one more document I need to check, this is starting to get complicated. The first group of people had all the proper documents, but then I one person had an entry ticket so I had to turn him away, I could hear him curse me under his breath and mentioned he paid a lot of money for that ticket. The next one had Female listed as his sex but I knew it was a man, I questioned him about it and they had no response so I sent them away, man I hate my job. After lunch I see Istiv, he's crazy, I wonder what he has for me this time. He steps into the booth and just stands there I smile then ask for paperwork, he apologizes and then slides me a passport that he clearly made himself, it's drawn in crayon and at the top it says pre-approved, the face does look like him though. I press the decline stamp and tell him to try again another day, I wonder how long he waited in line. It's getting close to 4 so my eyes are getting weary so I quickly glance at the paperwork and stamp approve and let them go, almost immediately there is a knock on my door and I receive a paper stating that I just let someone in with an expired passport and that my pay will be deducted at the end of the day. Man I hate my job..........
This game just showed up on Steam yesterday and I glanced and passed on it and purchased Spelunky and Guacamelee. I then visited a couple of websites and saw the Giantbomb quicklook and immediately returned to Steam and bought the game. The game is about a mundane job but it's suprisingly fun and stressful at the same time. There is a story mode which is what I wrote about above and an endless mode that opens up after you've completed the single player game. The story mode has something like 20 different endings so I'm curious as to what they are. I highly recommend this game, it's only $10 so give it a shot.
Here I sit in this small confined well guarded room, people are standing in a massive line waiting to pass through so they can conduct their business. It's almost 8 am and I just walked to work from my small apartment that I share with my wife, her mother, and our son. I only have $5 to my name and my son is sick because we can't afford to heat the house. I calculated last night that I need to process 20 people today so I can afford medicine. I quickly read over the new instructions that I receive each day from the head office, since we had a terrorist attack yesterday that resulted in one guard being killed, new arrivals will need to have an entry ticket as well as their passport. Two minutes till 8 so I get out my guidebook and turn to my bookmark so I can quickly assess each person. I click on the switch and the cold iron gate slides up slowly revealing behind it the dull gray brick wall that is my backdrop each long day. I press another button that turns on the microphone and I speak the words everyone is waiting to hear.......Next.
It's 9 pm now and I've had a long day, I sit cuddled next to my wife under many covers, the house is freezing. I was able to earn enough money to buy medicine but turning on the heat will have to wait for another day, I sure hope nothing else unexpected happens.
A new day, new instructions, they've upgraded the entry tickets to an entry pass, just one more document I need to check, this is starting to get complicated. The first group of people had all the proper documents, but then I one person had an entry ticket so I had to turn him away, I could hear him curse me under his breath and mentioned he paid a lot of money for that ticket. The next one had Female listed as his sex but I knew it was a man, I questioned him about it and they had no response so I sent them away, man I hate my job. After lunch I see Istiv, he's crazy, I wonder what he has for me this time. He steps into the booth and just stands there I smile then ask for paperwork, he apologizes and then slides me a passport that he clearly made himself, it's drawn in crayon and at the top it says pre-approved, the face does look like him though. I press the decline stamp and tell him to try again another day, I wonder how long he waited in line. It's getting close to 4 so my eyes are getting weary so I quickly glance at the paperwork and stamp approve and let them go, almost immediately there is a knock on my door and I receive a paper stating that I just let someone in with an expired passport and that my pay will be deducted at the end of the day. Man I hate my job..........
This game just showed up on Steam yesterday and I glanced and passed on it and purchased Spelunky and Guacamelee. I then visited a couple of websites and saw the Giantbomb quicklook and immediately returned to Steam and bought the game. The game is about a mundane job but it's suprisingly fun and stressful at the same time. There is a story mode which is what I wrote about above and an endless mode that opens up after you've completed the single player game. The story mode has something like 20 different endings so I'm curious as to what they are. I highly recommend this game, it's only $10 so give it a shot.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Cardhunter, Dragons Crown, Rise of the Triad
Cardhunter Beta
I've been in the beta for awhile and I've put in about 3 hours and I've had a great time. It is a CCG, but it's focus is more on the single player campaign than multiplayer. The card game uses a grid board where you place your characters and battles feel similar to the combat in Heroes of Might and Magic.
I have some beta keys if anyone is interested.
LWHF-NTCC-ZPHK
DQSC-WNHN-MJZL
Dragon's Crown (PS3)
Put in roughly two and a half hours last night and would have played more but I was exhausted. The game was developed by Vanillaware who are known for their beautiful 2D hand animated games and this one is no exception. It plays like Castle Crashers where you have up to 3 AI players fighting enemies with you. There are different character classes with different weapons and abilities plus loot drops so there are some RPG elements. The artwork is extremely detailed, the animations are very fluid, and the backgrounds look amazing, it's one of the best looking 2D games I've played. The combat can get hectic when there are 4 characters plus enemies on the screen so it can be tough to find your character sometimes. You can choose to just play by yourself and not have any AI companions if that does bother you. Once you play to a certain point in the game multiplayer opens up which has you going though similar dungeons from the single player but added pathways and extra enemies as well as bosses. From most of the reviews I've read the multiplayer is the best part of the game. I haven't reached that level yet, which I think is around 8-10 hours, so hopefully I'll get to try it soon. The game does support couch co-op so if you are looking for that type of game. There is also a Vita version that I almost got instead but I felt the graphics would look better on a bigger screen, the game does support cloud saves so you can share saves between platforms.
Rise of the Triad (Steam)
I remember playing this game years and years ago, it was different than the dooms and quakes as it had platforms that would send you soaring into the air and rocket launchers that would reduce enemies to a thousand pieces, I think it coined the phrase ludicrous Gibs. I'm not sure it reached the sales of Doom so I was surprised to see a remake. This game is probably the fastest FPS that I've every played. The camera movement speed is insane on the default level, I had to turn it almost all the way down to be able to hit what I was aiming at. The graphics looks pretty good but I've had instances of slowdown. They did include all the elements of the original even the coins that you collect make the same sound and of course there are ludicrous Gibs. I'm not sure that even at the $15 price point that it's worth it. The AI is very simple and the game has checkpoint saving so you will be replaying some long sections.
Stuff
Xbox One - Will include a headset. Game recording and sharing does require Gold membership. They did increase the clock speed of the graphics chip. There is a video of the launch version unboxing so the release should be soon.
PS4 - Game recording and sharing does not require PSN+.
John Carmack founder of ID and creator of Doom and Quake is new CTO for company creating the Occulus rift headset.
Rockstar did have an add for a PC programmer so maybe more of their games will come to PC, I'm hoping for Read Dead Redemption.
I've been in the beta for awhile and I've put in about 3 hours and I've had a great time. It is a CCG, but it's focus is more on the single player campaign than multiplayer. The card game uses a grid board where you place your characters and battles feel similar to the combat in Heroes of Might and Magic.
I have some beta keys if anyone is interested.
LWHF-NTCC-ZPHK
DQSC-WNHN-MJZL
Dragon's Crown (PS3)
Put in roughly two and a half hours last night and would have played more but I was exhausted. The game was developed by Vanillaware who are known for their beautiful 2D hand animated games and this one is no exception. It plays like Castle Crashers where you have up to 3 AI players fighting enemies with you. There are different character classes with different weapons and abilities plus loot drops so there are some RPG elements. The artwork is extremely detailed, the animations are very fluid, and the backgrounds look amazing, it's one of the best looking 2D games I've played. The combat can get hectic when there are 4 characters plus enemies on the screen so it can be tough to find your character sometimes. You can choose to just play by yourself and not have any AI companions if that does bother you. Once you play to a certain point in the game multiplayer opens up which has you going though similar dungeons from the single player but added pathways and extra enemies as well as bosses. From most of the reviews I've read the multiplayer is the best part of the game. I haven't reached that level yet, which I think is around 8-10 hours, so hopefully I'll get to try it soon. The game does support couch co-op so if you are looking for that type of game. There is also a Vita version that I almost got instead but I felt the graphics would look better on a bigger screen, the game does support cloud saves so you can share saves between platforms.
Rise of the Triad (Steam)
I remember playing this game years and years ago, it was different than the dooms and quakes as it had platforms that would send you soaring into the air and rocket launchers that would reduce enemies to a thousand pieces, I think it coined the phrase ludicrous Gibs. I'm not sure it reached the sales of Doom so I was surprised to see a remake. This game is probably the fastest FPS that I've every played. The camera movement speed is insane on the default level, I had to turn it almost all the way down to be able to hit what I was aiming at. The graphics looks pretty good but I've had instances of slowdown. They did include all the elements of the original even the coins that you collect make the same sound and of course there are ludicrous Gibs. I'm not sure that even at the $15 price point that it's worth it. The AI is very simple and the game has checkpoint saving so you will be replaying some long sections.
Stuff
Xbox One - Will include a headset. Game recording and sharing does require Gold membership. They did increase the clock speed of the graphics chip. There is a video of the launch version unboxing so the release should be soon.
PS4 - Game recording and sharing does not require PSN+.
John Carmack founder of ID and creator of Doom and Quake is new CTO for company creating the Occulus rift headset.
Rockstar did have an add for a PC programmer so maybe more of their games will come to PC, I'm hoping for Read Dead Redemption.
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