Steam Contoller, Xbox Elite Controller, Halo 5, Halo Master Cheif Collection, Nathan Drake Collection

Steam Controller

 

• I have been using the controller for about 2 weeks and I love it. It does take some time to get used to it but there is so much functionality built in and enough stuff to tweak that I think this could be the best controller for gaming on the couch.
• The biggest change they made was in place of the right analog stick there is a giant track pad. Most people hear track pad and think awful but it feels really good and with the haptic feedback you can really feel where you are on the pad so you don't get lost. It's hard to explain but once you feel it you will understand.
• I mainly wanted to use it in FPS games where I always felt the analog controls were not great for aiming and the steam controller plays great with FPS games.
• I'm able to use the track pad to aim very easily and precisely. Once again it does take time to get used to it but now when I go back to analog sticks I can really tell the difference.
• Another great thing is that the triggers have dual stages so if I soft pull the right trigger I map that to aiming then if I pull a bit more it will shoot the gun, so I only need one button to do two functions. This feels great and then I can map the left trigger to whatever else I want.
• I just started using the controllers gyro feature for more precision aiming so when I do a soft pull I can very gently move the controller to get a more precise shot. It works amazingly well.
• The controller also has 2 buttons where you grip the controller on the back and those feel comfortable and you can map them to any key or controller button. I hate having to click in the left thumb stick to run in games so now I can map that to one of the triggers and it feels so much better.
• For non-FPS games it works about the same as other controllers, you can map the trackpad to emulate the right joystick and it works ok but I'll have to do some further tweaking to make it feel better.
• The only gripe I have with the controller is that the 4 buttons, ABXY, are much smaller than on other controllers so sometimes I find myself clicking the wrong one. Once again that will take time to adjust.
• You can map and adjust so many settings that it can be a bit overwhelming but people are creating control sets for steam games that are then uploaded so when you go into a game you can see all of those presets and find one that you like. The system works well and will only get better over time.
•  I do have one other issue that's not really the controllers fault but it's a big one. Ever since I started using controllers I've been using inverted controls on the right stick for camera movement when I use a mouse and keyboard though I don't invert the controls. Since using a mouse involves the whole arm I haven't had any trouble switching between the two, but now since I'm using my thumb on the trackpad as a mouse with non-inverted controls, when I go back to using a regular controller my brain gets confused. So I decided to not use inverted controls on regular controllers and it has been tough to retrain my brain. I played Destiny last night and did very well but it did feel extremely different, even just moving around felt strange because my hands were doing opposite movements than what I've been accustomed to.

Xbox Elite Controller

 

• I wrote my impressions on the Steam Controller last week before I had a chance to get the Elite controller and I was really impressed by that controller, it has great functionality but the elite controller is the best controller that I've ever used.
• The price is a little steep at $150 but this is one well made controller. It's solid and has a nice weight to it and it just feels perfect in my hands. The build quality is amazing.
• There are 4 different analog sticks that you can use and installing them is simple as a pull and a push.
• I'm using the slightly higher stick for the right analog which feels great and gives me more precision in FPS games, it's still not as good as the Steam controllers right trackpad but feels the best among regular controllers.
• Of course the biggest selling point to me is the 4 buttons on the back and it didn't take me but 5 minutes to get used to them and I hope all controllers have this feature from now on. Not having to move your right thumb off the right stick is amazing.
• I hate having to press in the left thumbstick to run in FPS games and mapping that to one of the back buttons is a game changer for me.
• Every button can be remapped and you can hold up to 2 profiles on the stick at one time. There is an app that you use on the Xbone to program the controller and it works fine. You can also change the brightness of the Xbox button in the middle although you can't completely turn it off. What's up with that?
• The controllers are sold out through November and if they go back on sale I may have to pick one up to dedicate to my PC. I really like this controller.

 

Halo 5

 

• I've read a lot of great impressions of the game but so far it's not really reeling me in.
• The game is one of the best looking games this year and plays at a constant 60 fps which is nice for a shooter.
• The story isn't making much sense though as I'm not sure who these new aliens are. You are also playing 2 different characters so the story is moving between the two groups so you don't get a cohesive story.
• The biggest issue I have is that I really don't like some of the alien weapons in the early part of the game. The ammo counts are so low that you have to constantly switch between weapons. Halo games have always been that way but it seems the ammo is really sparse in this one especially for human guns which I do like but can only use them for about a minute before running out of bullets.
• They have added some new movement abilities which I like and now you can double jump onto ledges so there is a lot of verticallity to the levels which means quite a bit of platforming.
• I only played one matche of multiplayer and it's Halo multi so you either like it or not.
• I've only played for a couple of hours and I've heard the later levels are really interesting so I will continue playing the campaign. It's a good game but there is just something missing. 

Halo Master Cheif Collection

• Been playing through the original Halo with Angel and it has been really fun, but brutal.
• We are playing on Heroic and some levels have been insane.  It's been a long time since I've played the original Halo but I think I would remember a game being this unfair. 
• There was one section where enemies just kept spawning in for about 5 full minutes there were probably 100 enemies in total, it was crazy.
• We got to the last level where you have to drive the car off the base and it was near impossible and there were no checkpoints so we eventually gave up.  The car is still very hard to drive and the layout of that base is just stupid.  Horrible horrible level. 
• Other than the "hard" parts I've enjoyed the game and look foward to playing the complete collection but maybe just play on Normal next time.....

 

The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)

 

• The Uncharted series is one of my favorite franchises and I really wanted to go back and play all of them again and now I can in 1080P 60fps and it's glorious.
• I finished the first game over the weekend and the game still looks great graphically. They really did a good job so you really can't tell that the game is 7 years old.
• They also made changes to the game play so the enemies aren't bullet sponges, if you get a head shot they go down immediately.
• I started out on the brutal difficulty but the game was way too cheap, there would be times I would get shot without having any time to react so I went down to hard and it was still tough but I was able to finish the game on that mode. The jet ski driving was horrible though and I almost threw my controller during that section.
• I started the second game which is probably the best action/adventure game made and it still holds up.

New Releases - Games, Games and more games. Call of Duty BO3 is the big release this week. Next week I'm taking off to play Fallout 4 and Tomb Raider hopefully those games will not be buggy on release.

 

 

PC

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (download - $60)

Anno 2205 (download - $60)

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut (download - $45)

Sonic Lost World (download - $30)

UmiharaKawase (download)

Brilliant Shadows - Part One (download)

Euro Fishing (download)

The Living Dungeon (download)

The Last NightMary - A Lenda do Cabeça de Cuia (download)

Poncho (download)

Dawn of the Plow (download)

Battle Battalions (download - free-to-play)

Getsuei Gakuen -kou-

Gladiators Online: Death Before Dishonor (download - free-to-play)

Car Washer: Summer of the Ninja (download)

Pink Heaven (download - free-to-play)

The Secret Order 2: Masked Intent (download)

Mushihimesama (download)

Spakoyno: Back to the USSR 2.0 (download)

Prominence (download)

Wicked Witches (download)

 

PlayStation 4

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Need for Speed

Lords of the Fallen: Complete Edition

Evolve - Ultimate Edition

Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers

Awesomenauts Assemble!

Snoopy's Grand Adventure

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops

Shovel Knight (retail)

The Jackbox Party Pack (retail)

World Poker Championship

Dragon Fin Soup (download)

 

Xbox One

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Need for Speed

Lords of the Fallen: Complete Edition

Evolve - Ultimate Edition

Snoopy's Grand Adventure

The Jackbox Party Pack (retail)

 

Xbox 360

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue

The Jackbox Party Pack (retail)

 

PlayStation 3

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue

Dragon Fin Soup (download)

 

Wii U

 

Shovel Knight (retail)

Snoopy's Grand Adventure

Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue

Electronic Super Joy (download)

 

Vita

 

Dragon Fin Soup (download)

 

Nintendo 3DS

 

Yo-Kai Watch

Shovel Knight (retail)

Snoopy's Grand Adventure

Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue

 

 

 

Destiny: The Taken King, Sony VPL-HW40ES

Destiny: The Taken King (XBONE)

• I bought the digital version of PS4 and never installed any of the DLC's that came with that version.  I got to lvl 15 and stopped playing because I didn't want to grind for equipment and light levels and there just wasn't that much content.
• With the new expansion getting rave reviews I thought I try again, but this time on Xbox since I only played it solo on PS4 and have some friends that also play on the Xbox that I can team up with. 
• I've put around 20 hours and am almost to the level cap of 40 and the game has been very entertaining.  I've just now started to get into the Taken King quests and right away there are more cut scenes and the quests feel more involved.  There is well over 8-10 hours of content just in this expansion.
• The shooting still feels perfect and now that they re-balanced the game I'm getting better gear at a faster rate which is always satisfying. 
• I still haven't tried a Raid yet which I hope to get to sometime next month.  It requires 5 other players that are on your friends list so it will take a while to plan out especially since the raids can take 4-8 hours.
• My only gripes are with the load times, they are extremely long and having to go back to the base to turn in quests and buy from vendors is annoying.  Can't they use the power of the cloud to speed that up? 

Sony VPL-HW40ES

• Since I completed my room I've been moving my TV around in front when I wanted to play video games because of 2 things. One is the pop of the graphics that a backlit panel gives that a huge projection screen can't. The other is lag. On my Epson Projector the lag is extreme so trying to play a game is impossible. There is a fast mode option but that reduces the graphics quality way too much.  
• I finally decided that I wanted to try and game on my projector screen since it was so huge it felt like a waste seeing that behind my TV.  I would just have to accept the less pop of the graphics and hope that the larger screen would be a nice compromise.  The lag issue would mean that I'd need a new projector. 
• The Sony I chose has the best lag of any projector,  it's even less than my plasma TV. 
• After playing games on the projector screen it's hard to go back to anything smaller even with the better pop.  I actually feel that I'm in the levels now and not just looking in.
• The colors on the Sony Projector are perfect without any calibration so I'm happy about that so no more time spent on wondering if I need to change my settings. The picture is stunning.
• The Sony is also a bit brighter than my Epson, which I really haven't needed yet as I'm playing mostly in the ECO mode. When I tried the bright mode with my Epson the fan would get really loud so I never used that mode but with the Sony it's whisper quiet which is an added plus. 
• The only downside to the Sony is the 3D uses IR glasses so the glasses I bought for my Epson are RF, there is an adapter for $275 that I can buy to convert the 3D but that's pretty expensive.
• So far I'm really impressed with my Sony and playing games on that big screen is just awesome, so wish I had done this sooner. 

New Releases - Tons of great releases this week. Top of course being Rockband 4,  I'm upset that I can't use my drums yet on Xbone but PS4 users are free to pound away.  Nathan Drake collection is on the PS4 so I'll be replaying those 3 games again in 60 fps 1080P glory.  Transformers: Devastation looks like the 80's cartoons which is awesome. 

PC
 Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide

Transformers: Devastation (download - $50)

Skyhill (download - $15)

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut (download)

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (download)

Caffeine (download)

Read Only Memories (download)

Sayonara UmiharaKawase (download)

Devils & Demons (download)

March of Industry: Very Capitalist Factory Simulator Entertainments (download)

Hidden Objects Bundle 4 in 1 (download)

Ookibloks (download)

Sublevel Zero (download)

Kaiju Panic (download)

Normality (download)

WRC 5 FIA World Rally Championship (download)

This Book Is A Dungeon (download)

Slipstream 5000 (download)

Trap Them - Sniper Edition (download)

Nubs' Adventure (download)

PlayStation 4
 Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Rock Band 4

Transformers: Devastation

Dragon Age: Inquisition Game of the Year Edition

Ride

Super Meat Boy (download)

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (download)

Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Souls (download)

Xbox One
 Rock Band 4

Transformers: Devastation

Dragon Age: Inquisition Game of the Year Edition

Ride

Elite: Dangerous (download)

Teslapunk (download)

Afro Samurai (download)

Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition (download)

Xbox 360

Transformers: Devastation

PlayStation 3
 Transformers: Devastation

Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax

Ride (download)

Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Souls (download)

Shooter Starfighter Sanvein (download - PSOne Classic)

Street Racquetball (download - PSOne Classic)

Vita
 Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax

Farming Simulator 16

Super Meat Boy (download)

Nintendo 3DS
 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash

 

Until Dawn, Mad Max, Metal Gear Solid V, New PC

Until Dawn (PS4)

• Do you like horror movies?  Did you like the Butterfly Effect?  Do you like choices? Do you like QTE's? 
• The game is basically a horror game where your goal is to keep everyone alive. 
• It plays like Heavy Rain which I really liked, so it's a story driven game with some interactive elements.
• There are tons of player choices which will alter the story and the game has multiple endings.
• I think this game is the ultimate party game where it's best if you have a group of friends watching the game, making decisions, and scream because of those decisions.  There are times when it cuts to you being asked questions by a psychiatrist asking what you are scared of and other strange questions that I assume tailors the enemies and situations based on your answers. 
• There are a ton of jump scares and if you have the playstation camera it will take pictures while you are playing and capture the moments during the scares and impose that on the screen which is an awesome feature.  I am tempted to buy the camera just for this game.
• I've only played about 2 hours and have really enjoyed the game so far,  There have already been 4 or 5 jump scares that caught me off guard and I may have jump/screamed a little. 

Mad Max(Steam)

• The game isn't related to the movie which came out this year and the main character doesn't look like Mel or Tom but he does fit the Mad Max mold. 
• I was really impressed with the graphics so clean and crisp and the draw distances are amazing.  I have every setting maxed and I'm at 128 fps so it's a good port.  It was developed by Waner Brothers whose previous release, Batman,  was awful and still not fixed. 
• The combat is modeled after Batman and has some extra features like charge attacks and some of the take downs are pretty violent   You do have a gun but ammo is limited. 
• The main part of the game involves your car which you are building it up from scratch.  The first real mission has you getting a body for your car.  The car combat feels ok so far but I really haven't done much but ram people into rocks.
• From reviews that I've read it's says the secondary missions aren't very compelling but I'll have to judge myself.  The game seems large as well over 30 hours I think.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Steam)

• So many games so little time.
• I played through the prologue which as about an hour and a half and it was awesome.  The graphics are clean and sharp on PC it's one of the best looking titles of this generation. 
• The story starts out crazy and I never knew what to expect as it kept throwing more and more awesome things at me.
• Once that is complete the main game begins and it's been referred to as the Far Cry 4 stealth game as it's open world, huge open world, where you do what you want when you want.
• I just got to that part when I stopped but I did ride my horse for bout 5 minutes and it felt great.
• I looked at my completion stat after finishing the prologue and it said 1% so this is a huge game. one reviewer is only 10% through and he's played 18 hours so another long game.
• There aren't 30-40 minute cutscenes in this one like MG4 it's more like Peacewalker. 
• I am interested to see how the game plays out as it's the last true Metal Gear game. 

PC

• I did upgrade my PC last week and only had one issue.
• The night before I had taken apart my PC to get ready for the new components and I couldn't find the parts that held the CPU cooler to my motherboard.  I spent and hour or more searching and could never find it so I went and bought a new water cooler.  I did have some small issues with the placement of the fans and the cooler radiator, but overall it was very easy to install.
• I did some research on the best way to get good air flow through my case and that's a science that goes deep.  I ended up with 3 fans and I took out my top Hard drive cage.
• Once everything was installed I fired it up and it worked without issues.
• I reinstalled Windows 10 for the 3rd time and had to call to get my activation code which I said I had it on 2 computers which made me have to call again, luckily they don't save that info.
• I booted up some games and I did see about a 10-15 fps improvement in the Witcher 3, GTA V and Far Cry 4.  I'm not sure if it was the new components or if the airflow was my problem as the graphics card will throttle down if it gets too hot.  I was pleased.
• I really like my motherboard and the GUI setup is very easy to use and overclocking the board is done by turning a dial on the motherboard. I overclocked my CPU to 4.3Ghz and haven't had any issues.

New Releases - A couple of big releases this week.  Metal Gear Solid V will be the last one written and directed by Kojima.  The PC version was supposed to come out 2 weeks later but the developers didn't take a summer vacation so it's out at the same time.  Stasis looks interesting a horror game from an isometric view.  Dragonroppa and SteinsGate for vita are some other neat looking titles.

​PC

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (download - $60)

Mad Max (download - $60)

Company of Heroes 2 - The British Forces (download - $13)

Act of Aggression (download - $45)

Rememoried (download)

Stasis (download)

Deliverance (download)

Steamalot: Epoch's Journey (download)

Close Your Eyes (download - free-to-play)

Immortal Defense

Trigonarium (download)

Nobunga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (download)

iZBOT (download)

Renowned Explorers: International Society (download)

Raiden IV: Overkill (download)

Gunman Clive 2 (download)

PlayStation 4

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Mad Max

Far Cry 4 Complete Edition

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Nobunga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence

Super Time Force Ultra (download - free for PlayStation Plus)

Grow Home (download - free for PlayStation Plus)

Xeodrifter (download - free for PlayStation Plus)

Armello (download)

Zombie Vikings (download)

Xbox One

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Mad Max

Far Cry 4 Complete Edition

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

The Deer God (download - free for Xbox Live Gold)

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse (download)

Nightmares From The Deep: The Cursed Heart (download)

Quest of Dungeons (download)

Super Toy Cars (download)

Xbox 360

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

PlayStation 3

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Steins;Gate

Nobunga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (download)

Wii U

Year Walk (download)

Gunman Clive HD Collection (download)

Vs. Excitebike (download - Wii U Virtual Console)

Vita

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Steins;Gate

Super Time Force Ultra (download)

Xeodrifter (download)​

Newegg, Rocket League, PC, WD Cloud EX2

Sorry my blog has been absent for the past several weeks not many games coming out and I've mostly been playing Rocket League but Madden releases this week which starts the fall release and it's going to get crazy around here.

Newegg

• Want to give them a thumbs up this week.
• When I bought my graphics card it came with a free copy of Batman Arkham Knight. The game is still broken.
• Luckily I was able to get a free copy of Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain just by using their Chat system and my order numbers. Kudos to them.

Rocket League

• I've put in around 60-70 hours with this game and still not close to being tired of it.
• I'm always playing a match and thinking it will be my last one for the night but just have to go one more.
• The DLC is okay just more cosmetics and a couple of cars.  All stadiums will be free which is a good thing. 
• I like the soundtrack as well and will probably purchase that soon. 

PC

• For the past week my PC has been acting strange and having problems booting and yesterday it would not boot at all.  It would just start and spin the fans then stop again in a repeated loop so I decided to upgrade to the new Skylake suite of products.
• I bought this board MSI Z170A GAMING M7, i5-6600k, and 16GB of DDR 4 ram which should be here today.

WD Cloud EX2

• I've been thinking about buying a NAS for awhile now.  I bought a Seagate 5TB external drive recently and have had some problems with it so I decided to try out the WD Home Nas.
• It connects to your network and I can access it through my PC or my tablet.
• It was easy to setup and I did forgo the RAID 1 option and am using RAID 0 and splitting the files across 2 drives.  I am basically using it as a media server. 
• It does have the Plex server app, but if you need to transcode any videos the NAS is just too slow so I'm still using my small desktop to run the server.  Streaming form the Plex server is fast with no hiccups while playing videos.
• So far I'm pretty impressed with how easy it is to setup and start sharing files. 

 

New Releases -  I am picking up Madden and will only pay $18 after trading in last years version and all the benefits of that from Best Buy.  The Best Buy Gamers Club is a really good deal.  Also Until Dawn comes out this week which looks really intersting and if you've never played Dishonoured then the definitive version is out this week and you really should pick it up.  Great game. Oh and if you have kids Disney Infinity 3.0 is out as well.  One more game is the Gears of War 1 remake.  I'd pick it up if was all 3 but just the first one I'll wait.

PC

 

Mega Man Legacy Collection (download - $15)

Capsule Force (download)

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (download - $50)

Evoland 2 (download)

Crookz - The Big Heist (download - $30)

Nova-111 (download)

Planet of the Eyes (download)

Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire (download)

Nyctophobia (download)

Party Hard (download)

Coated (download)

Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients (download)

Celestial Tear: Demon's Revenge (download)

Fish or Die (download)

Kult: Heretic Kingdoms (download)

Sound Shift (download)

Lamia Must Die (download - free-to-play)

Dead in Bermuda (download)

Fran Bow (download)

Country Tales (download)

Calvino Noir (download)

Iggy's Egg Adventure (download)

Caveman Craig (download)

Mountain Crime: Requital (download)

Xenocide (download)

Close Your Eyes (download - free-to-play)

Razenroth (download)

PlayStation 4
 Madden NFL 16

Disney Infinity 3.0

Until Dawn

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

Dishonored: Definitive Edition

Mega Man Legacy Collection (download - $15)

Capsule Force (download)

I Am Bread (download)

Calvino Noir (download)

Nova-111 (download)

Ascendant (download)

Back to Bed (download)

VVVVVV (download)

Xbox One
 Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

Madden NFL 16

Disney Infinity 3.0

Dishonored: Definitive Edition

Mega Man Legacy Collection (download - $15)

Xbox 360
 Madden NFL 16

Disney Infinity 3.0

PlayStation 3
 Madden NFL 16

Disney Infinity 3.0

Steins;Gate (download)

Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax (download)

Back to Bed (download)

Wii U
 Disney Infinity 3.0

Runbow (download)

Vita
 Steins;Gate (download)

Amnesia: Memories (download)

Back to Bed (download)

VVVVVV (download)

 

Rocket League, Resident Evil 6, Kotor 2

This has been me the past week. Image thanks to Kotaku.

 

​ 

 

Rocket League

• I've put in about 15 hours this week, I just can't stop playing. I'm level 19 on Steam and 13 on PS4.
• I've started working on my aerial play which looks cool but is also very useful. The goals are just tall enough that a double jump is not enough to block the ball shot at the top of the goal so you must go aerial to block them. Also you can turn your car completely vertical which maximizes the hit radius of the car which makes shots and blocking a bit easier.
• I played a great 1v1 match that had the other guy cussing me after my second goal. What is wrong with people.
• I think I'm starting to favor 2v2 matches which ups the tension just enough and gives more opportunities to make some great saves and shots without feeling too crowded.
• The only bad thing about the game is that there is no punishment for quitting a match which happens far to often. The game will sub an AI character automatically so there is no stop in play but there should be some punishment for quitting after a score. It should be something like you can't start another match for 5 minutes but the game is using dedicated servers which would probably be hard to code.
• Another small gripe, again with people not the game, is that after the match there is a 60 second countdown where you ca n ready up to play again if everyone clicks ready it will instantly start the game, but for some reason there are a ton of jerks out there that will let the counter run down to around 5 seconds before hitting the button. I know they are jerks because almost 95% of the time they are on the team that lost.

Resident Evil 6​​

• I am playing one other game and that is RE6 co-op with Angel. ​
• I tried playing solo when it came out but never got very far. The game is much better when playing co-op which make sense since it was developed with that in mind.
• ​The game is interesting as you play 4 different episodes each with there own 2 characters. ​Each episode has 4 chapters and you will meet the other characters along the way. We are only playing the first 2 chapters of each episode which makes the game feel a bit like a soap opera, it's nice to see how all the stories are interacting with one another.
• ​The game is more of a 3rd person shooter than the classic survival horror of the first 3 games. As always there are some cool monsters to fight and some of the boss monsters are huge. The game is pretty tough as well I think in one chapter one of us died 7 times, notice I didn't mention names.
• ​Knights of the old Republic 2​ or KOTOR 2
• It has been 10 years since the release and it just got updated on steam with widescreen, controller, and steam workshop support. Now you can easily add the mod that enabled all of the content left out of the original game.
• Disney is doing the Star Wars properties right so far and hopefully they will release a new or updated version of Tie Fighter or X-wing. We can only hope.

New Releases​ - Not many to choose from this week except for the PS4. Journey is out on the PS4 and if you never played it on the PS3 you should rectify that soon. Also if you love pigeons you should check out ​Hatoful Boyfriend​. ​

 

PC

 

Game of Thrones Episode 5: A Nest of Vipers

The Talos Principle: Road To Gehenna

Tembo the Badass Elephant

Yasai Ninja

 

PS4

 

F1 2015

Game of Thrones Episode 5: A Nest of Vipers

Hatoful Boyfriend

Journey

Nutjitsu

Onechanbara Z2: Chaos

Phantom Breaker: Battlegrounds Overdrive

Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror

Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut

Tembo the Badass Elephant

Wolfenstein: the Old Blood - retail

Yasai Ninja

Zombie Army Trilogy - retail

 

XB1

 

F1 2015

Game of Thrones Episode 5: A Nest of Vipers

Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut

Tembo the Badass Elephant

Wolfenstein: the Old Blood - retail

Zombie Army Trilogy - retail

 

WiiU

 

Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria

The Quiet Collection

 

PS3

 

Game of Thrones Episode 5: A Nest of Vipers

Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut

 

360

 

Game of Thrones Episode 5: A Nest of Vipers

 

3DS

 

Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria

3D Streets of Rage 2

 

Vita

Hatoful Boyfriend

Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror

Squares

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Rocket League, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

Rocket League

• If you have PS Plus then download this game now for free.  If you don't or have an Xbone/PC then buy and download this game now.
• The game is soccer with RC cars and it's a blast.  I've spent about 5 hours with the game the past 2 nights and it's only getting better.
• The controls are pretty basic: gas, reverse, slide, jump, double jump, and boost which you acquire and store by running over boost spots around the course. 
• The game reminds me a bit of NFL Blitz which was just fast paced visceral action arcade game. 
• Each game is only 5 minutes long so it's easy to jump in for a couple of rounds when you have some time to kill. 
• The game has a full single player mode but the multiplayer is where it's at.
• The matches are 1v1 up to 4v4 which gets pretty chaotic.  I've mostly played 3v3 which has the best balance. 
• At the start and after every goal the cars are placed randomly on the field and a countdown begins with the ball in the middle.  You start revving your engines and map out the best route to the ball with the most boost pads along the way and then launch yourself as the timer reaches 0. You and a couple of teammates will usually meet one or 2 of your opponents at the ball and then you all hit it at the same time and then who knows what will happen.  It's kind of like playing pool with about 4 people trying to break. 
• When a goal is scored it creates a blast explosion so that any cars around the goal will be blown back which is awesome and then the instant replay starts which hardly anyone skips.  The presentation is really nice. 
• There are a variety of cars which you can customize, I think there were 500 million different variants, but you do have to level up and earn them. 
•  I liked the game so much that I bought it on Steam even though I got the PS4 version free because I wanted to support the developers.

​Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (PS4)​

• ​I have mixed emotions about this game. At first I thought the game was pretty good but after playing again last night...
• ​They had 2 years to work on the game so I'm not sure why it lacks so much content from the previous versions. ​
• There are only 8 real courses with 4 fantasy courses, they say the game is a platform and they will be releasing courses throughout the year and next which is fine depending on how much they cost.
• Gameface is gone and the player builder is really weak.  I think there is only one face you can modify.
• ​The full course is rendered in the game which means you are now able to hit into another holes fairway like in real life. The best benefit is that there ​are no load times between holes​ which is awesome. ​
• I'm playing on the Tour difficulty mode so you can't zoom into the location of where your ball will land so instead you hit a button which shows an overhead map of the hole.  There are various distance markers around the course like the pin placement or bunker positions so you do have to think about where you want to aim and I really like that feature as it feels more realistic. 
• ​There are 3 swing types that you can choose from.  Standard and Tour analog stick swings, and the 3​-Click method. 
• ​I've never felt that the EA golf games had a great analog stick feel to them.  Links 2004 was perfect.
• ​The driving feels okay but chipping and putting feels off.  ​I think the issue is that you can set the distance of your club using the cursor and then just do a full swing and it will go that set distance so you don't have to gauge how far back you need to swing to get the correct amount of power.  I think there is a button that will reset this but you have to hit that before every swing and there is no option to change that so its cumbersome and doesn't make sense.  If you don't reset then chipping is very easy. 
• Putting is a bit different this year.  You still set your putting distance by moving a cursor but there isn't a traditional power meter.  I think they are trying to make putting more tempo based so it does take some time to get used to. 
• I really don't like setting distances by moving a cursor I want it to be tied to the analog stick movement. 
• ​I did try the 3-Click method for a couple of holes and I did like it, I just wish the analog method felt better.  ​
• ​There is a career mode which is a bit strange.  You play tournaments but don't play every hole.  You may play 3-4 holes on the first round then based on how you do it will simulate the rest.  The second round is about the same and the 3rd and 4th you play more.  I guess this it to prevent burnout but you never feel vested in any tournament.  ​
• ​Also the worst you can score on any hole is double the par even in multiplayer which ​is a bit strange that's not a changeable option.
• ​After writing all of this up I really can't find much to say good about the game.  I kind of want to get my Xbox out and play some Links 2004, that's an 11 year old game that I feel is still better. ​What is wrong with EA?

Batman Arkham Knight, Home Theater, Move Reviews

Batman Arkham Knight

• I caved and bought the PS4 version. After GCU and reward points it was $14 so not too bad.
• The game runs smoothly and looks better than the PC version, wow really stinks to say that.  
• The biggest complaint about the game is the inclusion of the batmobile, so far I've enjoyed using it although it is hard to control until you get used to it.  I was crashing all over town and doing more damage than the bad guys. 
• The story has been real interesting and they did an awesome thing with a character that you thought was dead that brought a smile to my face when it happened. 
• In the past games you were overwhelmed with Riddler trophies scattered throughout the city, but so far I"ve only come across 3 of them in the world, I think I'm still in the tutorial levels. 
• The combat seems a bit slower and more deliberate than in Origins, it feels like you have more time to counter attacks and I'm on the hardest difficulty.  
• As for the PC version they stopped selling it digitally which is a good thing.  They released a patch that supposedly fixed the missing textures and AO effects but it still doesn't look as good as the PS4 and the big patch that fixes stuttering doesn't have a release date.

 

Home Theater Update

• A month ago I sat on my couch to hear how different my setup sounded from where I usually sit and I was very disappointed. The sound was awful, I didn't feel enveloped in the sound and the bass was severely lacking.
• I always wanted a second sub and this confirmed that I needed one.  So I ordered the exact same model and now needed to find the best placement of both subs, which was not in the locations that I had ran wires.
• I had to get out my special microphone and run the REW software. The software measures the loudness of the different frequencies of your speakers so you can see where you have peaks and lulls.   I first tried placing the subs where I had ran my wires and when I measured each sub individually the charts looked good but as soon as I tried both of them together there was a huge 30db lull at the 50hz range so they were cancelling one another out.
• After 4 hours I finally found the best spot which was in the middle of the room along the wall on opposite sides. The bass sounds awesome now and the sound is bit smoother at the couch than where I usually sit.
• I can really tell a difference now with the two subs, listening to music is a joy as the sound stage and the bass are mixed perfectly together.
• I also went ahead and got a new receiver, Denon 4520CI, since my old one was hit by lightening.  This one is their last generation flagship model which I got a great deal on. 
• With this receiver I can run a full 9.2 setup so I went ahead and hooked up my 2 front height speakers. I'm using some older speakers until the ones that I want go on sale so I'm not sure that I'm getting the full benefit from these extra speakers. I hope to spend some more time testing them this weekend. 
• If any of you have a sound system that you want me to help tune just let me know and I'll bring over my mic and laptop. Speaker placement can make a huge difference in the sound of your room.

Movie Reviews

Unbroken - A great movie about an amazing human being. 

The Wedding Ringer - I was really surprised by this movie.  It was actually funny and not too vulgar.

The Judge - Maybe a bit slow but I enjoyed the movie and thought the acting was really good. 

Seventh Son - Had some decent special effects and Jeff Bridges was great.

WIld Card - Another Jason Statham movie that was just ok. 

The Kingsmen - Decent movie with some cool action sequences but not as good as the previews.

Birdman -  Strange, strange movie that I really didn't enjoy. 

Focus - Ehh. Predictable and skippable, at least there was a pretty girl to stare at the whole movie.

Last Knights - Not worth your time.

​
New Releases - A couple of cool games coming out this week.  Card Hunter on Steam, God of War 3 Remaster on PS4 (I really liked that game so I'm debating picking that one up.  EA Golf is back with Rory on the cover and it only includes 8 real courses and 4 fantasy so not many to choose from compared to the last game. 

Guild of Dungeoneering is my pick of the week, it's a rogue like where you build your own dungeon and enemy placement using cards that you collect. 

PC

No Time To Explain Remastered (download)

Card Hunter (download - free-to-play)

Guild of Dungeoneering (download - $15)

Fighties (download)

Drift 84 (download)

AR-K: The Great Escape (download)

Anti-Opoly (download)

SEEP Universe (download)

Axis Football 2015 (download)

DGU (download)

A Mass of Dead (download)

AntharioN (download)

Odallus: The Dark Call (download)

Luckslinger (download)

Legions of Steel (download)

Biodrone Battle (download)

Niko: Through the Dream (download)

Interstellaria (download)

Cast of the Seven Godsends (download - $7)

Aberoth (download - free-to-play)

PlayStation 4

EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

Godzilla

God of War III Remastered

Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (download)

The Fall (download)

Xbox One

EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

No Time to Explain (download)

The Fall (download)

PlayStation 3

Godzilla (download)

Monster Jam Battlegrounds (download)