Watch_Dogs Post-Mortem

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***So I have not been posting here as often as I would have like to. All my time and effort has been going into my articles over at indiejuice.tv. The past 2 weeks have been crazy busy for me. I received a few review codes and have been making videos and really starting to ramp up my content production. I wanted to at least post something here so I decided to post my Watch_Dogs review. Its been out for a week and it was also my first major game in which I got a review copy. I want to thank Ubisoft for sending me over a copy and I hope you all enjoy the review***

So now that everyone has had some time with Watch_Dogs I figured it is the perfect time for me to get my thoughts out there. In the past I have been harsh on the Ubisoft title that, at the time, was not even released because of the way Ubisoft handled things. From the 6 month delay to the graphical downgrade I have been highly critical and the hype surrounding the title had subsided leading up to the release date due to their handling of the project. After having the game for a while now and sinking many hours into the game and analyzing many aspects of the game, I can safely say that Watch_Dogs did NOT live up to my expectations. BUT do not take that sentence as "I hate the game, don't buy it, its crap". The game reached a level of hype that was IMPOSSIBLE to live up to and I don't blame the game for that. I can say that I did have fun playing Watch_Dogs and I hope that Ubisoft will take the best elements from this to make Watch_Dogs 2 a better game (Ubisoft has stated that they will not develop new IP's unless they were confident they could turn them into a franchise, hence Watch_Dogs 2 should be coming).

Lets get right down to the details and see how I think this game stacks up and what it did great and what needs to be worked on.


Graphics

Where to even start with this... Ubisoft had everyone under the impression that Watch_Dogs was going to be THE game to really show the power of the new generation of consoles and also push the PC to its limits (HA!). While I did play the game on PC I should make a note that Watch_Dogs came no where near where it should have been on PS4 and XboxOne. 900p and 792p both at 30FPS is not "Next Gen" and the issues I had running on PC were due to poor optimization. I was running at 1080p 60FPS on Ultra but I did drop frames here and there and when I recorded my video, I had to knock everything down to High since the game crashed on Ultra when I tried to record. I am not sure why it did that but I am using an AMD video card and there was talk that the game was developed around Nvidia and AMD was basically cast aside which may have something to do with the performance issues I was seeing. The graphical fidelity is decent for what the game was hyped up to be. It has absolutely beautiful moments and the lighting effects are pretty great in some areas but then in some places you can just see where the developers cut corners. The textures aren't smooth, the character models aren't very good in places, the car damage/physics were laughable and the draw distance was atrocious (popping. lots and lots of popping). Overall, when I am not dropping frames I was totally immersed in the world. The streets may not have been as crowded as they are in real life but Chicago did feel alive in some places.

Gameplay/Mechanics

Many people have mentioned that the Watch_Dogs gameplay falls into the same trap that plagued the first Assassin's Creed game. Repetitive nonsense. I somewhat agree to an extant that the game does get a bit tedious after a while. The game was built up around the mechanic of hacking devices and using them to manipulate the world and while the gimmick was fun in the beginning, it fell flat in the end. Hacking devolved into just simply pressing a button... and that's it... a button. "hold X to hack" is what you see all around the world and then in some instances you get involved in a puzzle which resembles pipe dream where you have to press X to manipulate the pipes to hack the device. I do believe though that the hacking mechanic has the potential to grow and become something really cool so we will have to wait and see what happens to that in the future. As for controls they were okay... as long as you were using a controller. I started the game playing on keyboard and mouse and found the controls to be terribly stiff especially when driving. Maybe its me but the kb/m controls did not cut it for me which is surprising because I usually prefer kb/m to a controller no mater what type of game I am playing. But once I switched to my Dualshock 4 controller I had a much easier time navigating and the movement felt a lot smoother to me.


World

I touched on this in the graphics portion, I feel the world was well done, had a lot to do, a lot to see but could have been executed a little better. One thing a lot of people bring up is the amount of people on the streets which makes sense. Chicago is a metropolis and its streets are buzzing and crowded at all times but to pull that off in game would be difficult. I felt that Watch_Dogs had more crowded areas than most other open world games do so that is a plus for them. Like I said before, Chicago felt alive in areas and especially around the landmarks you could get immersed in the game very easily. The Digital Trips added a lot of fun to the game (Spider-Tank being the best) and really opened up the world as to give you a sense of future tech in a modern world. It seems like the developers put a lot of time into building the world and it shows.


Online

The diamond in the rough of the game. The Online has SO MUCH POTENTIAL! While I think it is a very strong aspect of the game right now, I can only imagine that it is only the framework and "test" for a much larger implementation for the next game in the series. The ability for players to hack or 'invade' your world really can lend to the atmosphere the game was trying to convey that you are constantly under watch. It makes you paranoid to stay in one area too long or go into certain places (garages, large areas of NPCs). The ground level is set and if Ubisoft could come up with new unique ways to invade other players and actually have a risk/reward type system, I think the online portion of Watch_Dogs could really expand on itself and make the next installment great.


Story

This is the worst aspect of the game in my opinion. Very generic, very bland, and the voice acting was HORRIBLE! I mention in my video that the voice acting in a lot of scenes really feels empty, like you are literally listening to someone sitting in a booth reading their lines. The emotion is not captured right and it breaks immersion. The forgettable story had the potential to be great but falls flat on every note. Hopefully Ubisoft can step up their writing for the next game and spend some of their millions to hire some good voice actors (whats Troy Baker up to these days?) but for this game, they missed the mark completely which is a shame because of all the great story driven games we have had recently (Metro: Last Light, Bioshock Infinite, The Last of US, etc...). I wanted the story to capture me but it didn't.

All in all, Watch_Dogs is a safe game from Ubisoft. Not great but not garbage either. Forgettable story with some fun quirks and a good framework for future games in the franchise. I do recommend giving it a try as it does have enjoyable moments and is building to something bigger. After the press releases by Ubisoft generated the hype before release, Watch_Dogs was doomed to fall under the mediocre group because nothing could have delivered on the hype that was attached to this game before release. I enjoyed the game but did not love it but I am excited to see where the franchise goes in the future because it does leave a lot on the table that has the potential to make a great game if expanded upon.


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Week in Review 5/16/2014

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****I want to preface this post by taking some time to announce that I have officially joined the team over at IndieJuice! My first post was published last night which you can read here about my thoughts on Ubisoft's handling of the upcoming game Watch_Dogs, and I was also a guest last night on the Indiejuice Podcast which was recorded live on twitch and will be available to listen to on the website sometime this weekend (I think Saturday) but I will post that here once it is up. I am extremely excited to be part of the great team over there and I hope to contribute quality posts and generate some good discussions.****

Another week gone as we get closer and closer to E3! Some exciting things coming out of the industry in the build up to the biggest gaming convention in the world. I personally am looking forward to seeing the press conference from Sony as they were (In My Opinion) the top dogs at last years convention while Microsoft has some making up to do which they sort have started to in the lead up to the event.

And with that, let's take a look at the week that was:

Microsoft to sell XboxOne without Kinect

AKA Microsoft admitting Kinect sucks. Hey, they had to do something to boost sales right? PS4 has been dominating the market since launch and Microsoft only "won" one month since which was March and that was because of Titanfall. Well the hype around Titanfall has died down and PS4 got right back on top in April so it seems that Microsoft needed to do something drastic and this seems to be it. By removing Kinect, you are basically telling developers that you don't believe in your own hardware to a certain extent. Sure the price point of an XboxOne has now dropped to a competitive $399 but is that what was really holding back sales? I don't think so. If you look at the XboxOne and PS4 releases you will see that Sony clearly has the edge when it comes to games and quality. I think removing Kinect was a step in the right direction, but ultimately Microsoft needs competitive titles to move the system and right now it does not have very many. This years E3 is HUGE for Microsoft. You did the damage control, now tell me why you won't screw up again and what's in it for me.

FarCry 4 Announced

Actually excited for this release. Ubisoft had hinted at the title and I believe had confirmed its existence a few months ago but that's as far as that went. Just yesterday though, they officially announced the game in which "players find themselves in Kyrat, a breathtaking, perilous and wild region of the Himalayas struggling under the regime of a despotic self-appointed king." So I expect another super insane villain (and snazzy dresser according to the box art) with a great story and an interesting new environment. The game launches on November 18 of this year for PS4, PS3, XboxOne, Xbox360, and PC (though the PS3 and Xbox360 version have me worried about the graphics on their successor systems, but we will see). Hopefully (Likely) we get a cool video at E3 this year and I can't wait to see where they take the franchise next. (Also I eagerly await Blood Dragon 2!)

Watch_Dogs to run at 900p on PS4 and 792p on XboxOne both 30FPS

This was the topic of my post over at indiejuice so go check out the full article here. I will keep this brief but basically Watch_Dogs has been handled very poorly by Ubisoft. A game that they were boasting about being a true next gen experience is just not going to hit that mark at 900 and 792p and 30FPS. Frankly, the whole ordeal has been embarrassing and even though I am going to play it (on PC of course) the hype is lost with me. I hope I enjoy it but I wouldn't be surprised if its a let down. We will all see in a couple of weeks.

Halo 5 coming Fall 2015

Ah Ha! So this is what Microsoft needs to get back in the game! Right.... but just one thing, its being released a year and a half from now! Sorry Microsoft but you'll have to do better than that. I am sure the game will sell well and will push a few more consoles out the door but its SO FAR AWAY! The one good thing to take from the announcement its that 343 is promising 60FPS (no word on resolution though) so at least it should look stunning on XboxOne. Overall, I am just over the hype for Halo. Ever since Bungie left, Halo has been just another shooter. Come on Microsoft! I may not have an XboxOne but that doesn't mean I don't want healthy competition! And right now, you are like a high school soccer team compared to Sony being F.C. Barcelona!

That's all I have for this week. Be sure to check out indiejuice tomorrow when my podcast episode is posted and go check out my gameplay videos for Blizzards Heroes of the Storm and Carbines Wildstar! I will leave you all with the launch trailer for Transistor, a game launching on Tuesday from the creators of Bastion. Enjoy!



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Week In Review 5/9/2014

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Back on track with the Week In Review! This has been a good week for me, I got a couple of posts up and a gameplay video of the Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha which you can check out here, plus I've been playing a few new games which I will have reviews written up soon (Child of Light, Infamous: Second Son) so be on the lookout for those next week. I really want to stick to the schedule this time and get at the absolute very least, the week in review done every Friday so be ready for some more content. Now, lets get right into the week that was:

Epic reveal FREE Unreal Tournament

One of, if not the GREATEST arena shooter franchises of all time is getting another, TOTALLY FREE, installment! The people over at Epic games have announced a new Unreal Tournament that is completely free, not free2play, just free meaning no microtransactions. Epic plans on generating revenue through community mods in which they will take a cut from those sales, but other than that they are giving us a free game and I am really looking forward to this. I am a big fan of arena shooters and it has been a very long time since we have had a good one. Hopefully the new Unreal will breathe new life into the arena shooters and bring them roaring back, but only time will tell. On top of just an Unreal Tournament, it is also a chance for epic to show off the new Unreal 4 Engine as they have used past Unreal Tournament games as basically tech demos of their new engines. The community aspect is very interesting and could lead to some great innovations in the genera. This is a 100% pick up for me and should be for everyone else as well just for the fact that it is free and the Unreal franchise has long been a celebrated brand.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire announced

If you have read my previous posts lately, I have been playing through Pokémon X. Pokémon X is the first Pokémon game I have played since Red/Blue and I am having an absolute blast! With this announcement of remakes for the generation 3 Pokémon games, I am a bit excited to go back and experience all that I have missed in the franchise. Looking forward to see what comes out of these and really excited to bury myself with Pokémon again.

Elder Scrolls Online delayed 6 months for consoles

Can Zenimax get any worse? The PC version of ESO has BOMBED big time between the tons of microtransactions and the GAME BREAKING BUGS to the destroying of the WHOLE in-game economy on day 12! The console version of ESO seems like it will be Dead On Arrival. With the poor reviews for the PC version, how anyone still wants to pick up the game on a console is beyond me. The ONLY thing that MAY save the game, is the 6 months being a development push to fix the bugs and re-balance the game but I really don't see that happening. It's probably more just optimization for the consoles with a few bug fixes to make it stable at launch which I still wouldn't pay for. Save your money people.

Wildstar enters Open Beta

Another World of Warcraft challenger appears! Enter Wildstar, a game with a very similar art style and from what I hear, gameplay to WoW. I will pick it up later this weekend and give a quick look, and from the screenshots and the trailer, I do like what I see on the surface. We will see how the game plays out though and I'll see if I can do a review (I don't know if there is an NDA for this Beta, I assume no considering it is Open Beta).


That's all I have for this week, keep checking back for some more videos and content next week (I will try my hardest I promise!).


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Heroes of the Storm Gameplay Video

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This past weekend I had some time to make a video of the technical alpha for Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm. Check it out below and read my thoughts on the game here.


In other news, I am currently trudging through a ton of different games so be on the lookout for some reviews shortly (Infamous: Second Son, Child of Light, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and Pokemon X to name a few). Hopefully I will also find the time to get some episodes of The Arena Run edited and posted as well as starting to do a weekly Starcraft II cast. So keep checking back for more content and also go check out indiejuice.tv for some great content from the folks over at Black Shell Games.

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Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha

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This past weekend I was privileged with Alpha access to Heroes of the Storm. I was able to sink some time into the game to get a general understanding of what the game is about and how the mechanics work. Before I go fully into this review I must state that I have very little experience with MOBAs. I never played League of Legends and I have MAYBE played 5 matches of DOTA2 so I went into HOTS with little experience in the genera. I will break down the review into sections of the game content so I can focus on different aspects.

Gameplay

First and foremost, the game is very streamlined compared to other MOBAs. I may not have experience playing LoL or DOTA2 but I have witnessed the game being played as an e-sport for some time (particularly DOTA2). Blizzard has optimized the game so that a standard match takes between 20-30 mins as far as I can tell (based on all the games I have played so far, the longest was almost 40 mins but the majority were about 25-30 mins). Each map has objective based themes that both side fight for to gain a slight advantage which adds depth and variety to the game that is not really found in other MOBAs. I hope there will be more maps upon full release (right now there are 3) because that would really set it apart from the pack. Blizzard has gotten rid of 'item shops' where you use gold earned by your team to buy upgrades and such and instead uses a 'skill tree' based model paired with shared team experience. This works out perfect I feel. You can never have one character that can stay behind and gain experience until they are 4/5 levels ahead of everyone else and you have to work with your team to level up together and make your pushes on towers/gates more powerful as you go. Sure, there are times where a team will totally snowball and demolish the opposing side but I believe that will be addressed through matchmaking once the game is released and there are more players.

Learning Curve

Compared to DOTA2 and LoL, HOTS feels a lot more casual. The elimination of item shops and the group leveling system means everyone is on the same level playing field and offers a more balanced approach to matches in that each game is based on the skill of players and not because of certain items that are boosting abilities. We wont know what the highest level of play will entail (read: e-sports) until the game is released and tournaments start to pop up so there is no way to really tell right now what the skill ceiling is of the game but I can see that there is a lot of emphasis on individual skill, so over time we should be seeing a gap in player competitiveness. The game is really easy to get into and the practice mode helps a lot in getting new players up to speed and familiar with the mechanics of the game. Even though Blizzard is late to the party with this MOBA, I feel their tactics at making the game more lax and easy to understand will propel the game to be competitive with DOTA2 and LoL. HOTS has already established heroes that have back stories and abilities that the fans are familiar with which I believe is a huge plus and a secret boost to the games popularity. But, as I said overall, the game is easy to learn and play while at the same time feels that the skill required to reach the professional level can be very high.

Heroes

Not a huge variety as of yet in the Alpha test but that is to be expected. Blizzard has said there will be more heroes as the game progresses so I am not worries about that. Heroes are divided into 4 types, Assassin, Warrior, Support, Specialist and each has at least one hero from either Starcraft, Warcraft or Diablo. You can use gold or real money to buy more heroes to use but there are always 6 heroes available to you that are on rotation. The balancing seems pretty good overall, but there are a few heroes that do feel very overpowered (Tassadar and Stitches) but keeping in mind this is an Alpha test and knowing Blizzard, these will more than likely be patched for balance later down the road. I have only played with a few of the heroes so I am still learning a ton about the mechanics of each hero but everything seems very easy to pick up on. I understand the abilities right away and and able to figure out the best use of them in certain scenarios.

Shop

Money Money Money. This part is something I feel Blizzard has very wrong right now. The real money prices for skins, mounts and heroes seems ridiculously high. Of course you can grind gold for free to unlock everything but the gold income you get for playing games and completing daily quests is very low right now. I hope Blizzard is just testing their options and upon the release of the game, the real money prices become more reasonable. I would gladly drop a few bucks here and there for certain heroes or skins but with it being at the time of this writing ~$9 per hero, I will pass for now and grind my gold to get them.

Community

Not really much to say yet about this since there aren't a ton of people in the Alpha. Right now I haven't really encountered much BM but that could all change. One of the main reasons I never got into LoL of DOTA2 is the toxic community so I will keep my eyes on this aspect as the game gains more and more players. Any game will always have its fair share of BM players and MOBAs are particularly notorious for that but as of right now, I feel because of the small player base and the more laid back and streamlined feel of the game, the community is fairly tame and friendly.

Overall

I have fallen in love with HOTS. The inviting nature of the game really got me into it. So far, I have never felt that I am not good enough for the game and I have never been berated by any players. The game was easy to understand and gives me a ton of resources to practice which will only improve by release. There are enough heroes right now to satisfy me and the rotation means I can try out new heroes regularly. I cannot wait for more players to join and to have more maps and gameplay variety.

I will try and make a video this weekend to show you all so be on the lookout for that!

*****EDIT****** GAMEPLAY VIDEO BELOW



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Far Too Long

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It has been way too long since I have gotten out an update. Real life hit pretty hard these past few weeks (nothing serious just a lot of work!) but now I have some time to get things going again. I hope to restart The Arena Run and get a few episodes of that loaded up, I want to make a video with my thoughts about the recent Facebook acquisition of Oculus Rift and what that means to me and other gamers, and I just want to PLAY! With a few great games coming out soon and some that are already out, I want to get some reviews done (Dark Souls 2 for PC, Daylight, Child of Light to name a few) and get some let's play videos out there (I'm thinking of Starbound, State of Decay and Path of Exile to get started). When I have had the time to play, most of it has been sunk into Titanfall which is absolutely amazing in my opinion. A real breath of fresh air in the stagnating FPS market. I just started Infamous: Second Son this past weekend and hope to finish that real soon and get out my thoughts. I got sucked into Pokemon X which is bringing back some strong memories for me (X is the first Pokemon game I have played since the original Red/Blue!). I picked up Octodad and it is a total blast! Such a fun/silly game that I am really enjoying. And finally (fingers crossed) I should be able to stream! I moved my computer a bit and am getting a decent upload speed so I will try that out soon and see if I can get a stable stream going.

One last thing to add is that I recently have been involved with the people over at Black Shell Games who just released their game Sanctuary. Go grab it here, its a free to play RPG and its really great. Also go check out their podcast, which I hope to be joining soon once I get some free time, here.


Just wanted to make a quick post letting you guys know I have not gone anywhere and I am working with some great people to put out more content. Hopefully tomorrow I will get a post about Blizzards new game Heroes of the Storm as I have been involved in the technical alpha, so come back and check that out!

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Update Time and the Week in Review

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I have been up to a lot this week! I got out 2 videos and I am working on a few more things. I started my episodic show called The Arena Run where I play Hearthstone AND I just posted my Beta impression video for the newly released Rengade X. On top of that, I have plenty more in the works and I hope to be posting a few more videos either this weekend or early next week so keep checking back. I will have a full write up on my thoughts and features run down of the Beta for Rengade X which I have had a lot of fun with so far as you can see in the video. Things are really starting to get going and the sooner I get more followers the sooner I can start doing contests to get rid of all these game keys I have hoarded over the past year or so. With all that said, lets get in to the week that was!


Dean "Rocket" Hall to leaeve Bohemia at the end of the year

OK... Don't Panic! I know it looks bad for DayZ and people are calling it another Early Access failure but Dean Hall has stated before that he was planning on leaving AFTER he hit certain goals with the team at Bohemia. If you follow DayZ's updates you will see that there is a very detailed roadmap in place that brings the development of the game right up to a tentative release to Beta near the end of this year. Assuming all goals are met, I see no problem with Dean leaving to start up another project. If the game is in Beta then that means there are no more core feautres that will be left to be added and the Beta will just be used to uncover and fix bugs before a proper release. I don't see this as Dean taking the money already made by DayZ and running, leaving the game unfinished just that he specifically won't be needed at the company any longer because his input was already taken into account and as I said, all that's left to do in the game is fix bugs. I may be in the minority right now, but I still have 100% faith that DayZ upon proper release will be better than any other zombie survival game on the market right now.

Burial at Sea Part 2 gets 1998 mode

The swansong for Irrational Games. The last part of Burial at Sea is coming and with that, a new game mode that ups the difficulty for the player. As we know, we will be playing Part 2 as Elizabeth and it has been stated that the game will take between 4-6 hours to complete. Hopefully this delivers and is another solid release in the Bioshock franchise. I have no reason to think this final entry into Bioshock by Irrational is a cash grab and I look forward to playing through Part 2. You can check out their blog post about the new mode here and I wish Ken Levine and the rest good luck on any future projects they work on.

Renegade X enters Open Beta

As I stated in the opening of this post, Renegade X has entered Open Beta. A sort of HD update to under-appreciated Command & Conquer Renegade that was put out by a small studio called Totem Arts. They acquired the IP from EA with the only stipulation that they make it free and not monetize it in any way. So far the game has been an absolute BLAST for me. It brings me back years to when I played the original Renegade religiously. It might not be the best shooter or the most polished but it hit me right in the nostalgia when I jumped into my first game. The Command & Conquer franchise is one of my top 3 franchises of all time. It was my first introduction into RTS games and I have loved everything they put out up until Generals (AKA all the games by Westwood). Check it out for yourself, ITS FREE! Get it here and check out my Let's Play below (Sorry for the quality dip halfway through, I will re-render the video and re-upload sometime soon so you get to see it in HD).


That's mainly it for this week. A few good games are coming our way in the month of March so be on the lookout for some more videos and impression posts. I will leave episode 1 of The Arena Run below for you all to watch and as stated above, I am working on tons more content and I can't wait to get it all out to you guys!



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The Arena Run - Episode 1

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I finally did it! I started an episodic gaming adventure! Granted it is only me playing Hearthstone, I hope it will provide tips and give you guys something fun to watch for ~30-45 mins a day. I will be releasing at the very least one episode per week but I hope to make it more (right now I have 3 recorded, I just need the time to edit and upload them) so that will get the ball rolling with content. Take a look if you have not already and let me know what you guys think (constructive criticism works for me. Let me know if my sound levels are right and what I need to do to make it a better viewing experience.) As for other news on my side, I have been playing tons of games lately which include finally getting down to finishing Tomb Raider. I spent a lot of time playing the Beta for Titanfall which will be out in March. I had so much fun playing it and I cannot wait until the official release. Alongside the release of Titanfall, I will be making a review post and video so be on the lookout for that. And as I have said multiple times before... CONTESTS! I have a few formats in mind and I might just do a few different ways of delivering things. As of right now, my internet upload speed is lacking so streaming is not really a strong possibility, but I hope to rectify that problem soon.


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Week in Review (Back on track!)

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Where to start? Well 2 weeks ago I actually had my whole week in review typed up and ready to go... and then never posted it! It has been a crazy couple of weeks where I was bogged down by tons of work so I was unable to do much of anything (except when I did have time, I FINALLY got around to beating Mass Effect 2 which was a masterpiece in storytelling). Anyway, I have the time now and I even recorded some Starbound footage last night that I will be posting shortly so be on the lookout for that and lets get right into the week that was:

Dungeon Keeper mobile embodies everything wrong with EA and F2P

Way to ruin another piece of my childhood EA! Dungeon Keeper was an amazing game when it came out in 1997. I had tons of fun and spent many hours building up my dungeon and destroying anyone who dared enter and try to steal from me! Fast forward to present day and this abomination has been unleashed on us. At first reports, I was intrigued of a port of an old classic, but the more and more information I read about Dungeon Keeper Mobile, the more and more I get angry. EA has put up pay-wall after pay-wall into the game which really sours the experience. Look, I get micro-transactions to an extent. The company is releasing the game for free so there should be some way for them to make a few bucks here and there. I understand micro-transactions that give a little boost to the experience or make the game a little bit easier (I probably won't play your game though, but I see why companies do it). The way EA has weaved micro-transactions into this game are truly despicable. The game is unplayable without paying more and more. Reviewers everywhere are wrecking EA and gamers are furious. If you want, give it a quick try but be warned, you will be basically forced to have to pay to actually get anything of substance out of the game. I feel after this I should make a video about my feelings towards the F2P model and what games get it right and what games, such as Dungeon Keeper Mobile, get it horribly, horribly wrong.

Titanfall requires Origin on PC. Beta details coming soon

No surprise here. Titanfall will be exclusive to Origin on PC. No Steam release which makes sense for EA considering they have done the same with Battlefield 3/4, Dead Space 3 and Mass Effect 3. EA wants to bolster Origin's lineup and get Origin on as many computers it can. I have my gripes about Origin but that won't keep me from getting Titanfall. The game is very high on my list of releases this year and I cannot wait to play. That being said, Respawn has announced that the details to get into the Beta will be coming soon, so I will patiently await that info and try to get in to get a head start.

Outlast releases on PS4 (Free for PS+ members)

Not a totally new release but it is another title to launch on the PS4. I already picked it up and installed the game so tonight or tomorrow night I will be live streaming it in my pitch black apartment with my girlfriend. Should be fun, and from what I have heard it is immensely scary so I can't wait to get into it.

Steam unveils Steam Music

Interesting addition to the Steam family. It was noted as coming late last year when Valve unveiled SteamOS and their concept for Steam Machines. Steam Music seems like just another app that gives more versatility to the SteamOS as a whole. A desktop and controller based app that can stream your own music while playing games or while just sitting around or throwing a party. Steam is moving into the living room and I hope it pays off in the end.


That's all for this week. Like I said, I will be trying to stream some Outlast either tonight or tomorrow so catch me on Twitch (twitch.tv/im_gonna_die) and watch me cry out with terror! I also will be uploading my Starbound video soon and I have a couple of videos I want to make concerning topics in the industry.

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Back from Hiatus and Week in Review

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So I know I talked a lot about posting more but I failed. Ultimately the holidays took up a lot of my time and then my job required a lot of my attention right after so I was unable to get some posts put together. Moving forward I there may be short spans of these "breaks" due to my schedule. I will try my best to get as much content as I can out there. I hope to set up a streaming schedule where I have dedicated times during the week that I will be able to at the very least stream some games for you all. I plan on getting that schedule going very soon and I want to kick off the stream with a huge 24-hour charity stream! I will officially announce the date and the charity shortly and I hope I can create a lot of buzz for a good cause and to get me off my feet.

Until that all gets sorted out, I still plan on trying to get out my Friday week in reviews and hopefully a few other opinion articles. I also plan on uploading some casts of Starcraft and Starbow and possibly a lets play or two in between (If you don't know what Starbow is look it up here).

Anyway lets get down to business and take a look at what went on this week


Sim City offline is coming

When Sim City was released last year it was no where near a smooth launch, in fact it was probably one of the worst launches in gaming history. Plagued with players unable to connect to servers and a whole mess of other bugs, it is about time that an offline mode is coming for Sim City. As far as I am concerned, it is too little too late for the game and I highly doubt this will skyrocket the title up the charts. I personally have not played a Sim City game since the good old days when Maxis was running things and from what I hear, its a good thing I stopped there. The latest title is a mess and will remain a mess and a black mark on this once beloved franchise. EA needs to get their shit together when it comes to their games. How about instead of milking the fans for every dime they have with micro transactions in crappy games, make a quality, stable game that fans will love and invest into on their own without being forced to. It works for other companies but EA seems to be too greedy and is only concerned about lining their already rich pockets.


Elder Scrolls Online price points announced

I've played the Beta, I've seen the reports, and this is the final nail in the coffin. The Elder Scrolls Online will be officially priced at $60 for purchase and $15 subscription fee per month. To be completely 100% honest, I fully believe this game will fail. I see no redeeming factors that will lift this game over competitors to keep it sustainable at these price points. I will gladly wait until Elder Scrolls VI to come out than play this abomination/cash grab. I'm sure some people will play it and really enjoy it, but this is not the game for me and the price points officially buried any chance that I was ever going to play this game once it's released.


AGDQ raises over $1 million for charity

I was always aware of the speed running community but I never actually watched kids run games as fast as they could until this past week when Awesome Games Done Quick held their annual winter event to raise money to fight cancer. I first tuned in and watched their MegaMan block and as you all know, MegaMan is my favorite gaming character of all time so I was interested in seeing it. After watching a speedrun of MegaMan 2 I was hooked! For the next few days all I did was watch speedrun after speedrun of some great classic games. Speedrunning is a niche scene and may not be for everyone but these guys did a great job making everything run super smooth and some SOME! runners had entertaining personalities. In the end they raised over $1 million and I got to see a lot of great runs. I highly suggest going through their archives and watching a few. Here were my highlights:

MegaMan Block

Castlevania SOTN

Super Meatboy

Borderlands 2

Mario Block


Thats all for this week. I wanted to keep it short and just let everyone know I am back and I will try my best to pump out content on a regular basis. I hope to have a streaming schedule nailed down in the next few weeks so I actually have something to stick to so look out for that. As I stated above, I will also be setting up a 24 hour charity stream in the not too distant future where I will play tons of games for a good cause (I will also be giving out game codes I have!) Keep checking back and I will see you guys out in the Wasteland!


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Game of the Year

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2013 is nearing an end and what a year it has been. There have been some really amazing games released this year plus the launch of the Xbox One and PS4, the industry is booming. Now I did not play ANY console exclusive releases this year so that means my list may lack a few important titles but I do believe at the very least, I should give honorable mentions to the following:

The Last of Us (PS3)

Super Mario World 3D (WiiU)

Zelda: A link between worlds (3DS)

Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox 360, PS3)

Hopefully next year I will be able to play GTA V, The Last of Us and Zelda (I recently bought a PS4 which has plans to bring PS3 games over next year using their Gaikai system and I also got a 3DS) so I can comment further and experience some of the top games I missed. Anyway, back to business. The time has come to reveal my list for Game of the Year!

10. Hammerwatch

Insanely addicting game that brings me back to the days of the original Gauntlet for NES. I have gotten tons of enjoyment out of this simple hack/slash game released in August. The game is very straightforward and very easy to get into. I made my first Let's Play video to this game and finally got around to playing the game multiplayer last night which adds a whole new level of crazy fun to the game. Hammerwatch further proved to me that you don't need a AAA budget with state of the art graphical fidelity to create one of the best games of the year.

9. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

While not exactly a fully released game, Blood Dragon was an expandalone title following Far Cry 3 from last year. To me, Blood Dragon was what Duke Nukem Forever wanted to be. Incredibly fun and overall an enjoyable experience. The game itself is a bit on the short side but what do want from a $15 DLC that you don't even need the original game to run? Blood Dragon captured everything I love about 80's culture. The soundtrack, the futuristic setting, the voice acting, the story, all incredibly cheesy but in a fun, nostalgic way.

8. Monaco

Simply, one of the best Co-Op experiences ever. Monaco is a game in which up to 4 players work together to get through each level pulling off various heists. The more players, the more chaos, the more fun! The sound design is great and the visual elements in the game are beautiful. The gameplay is very very simple and really lets the player focus on the heist at hand instead of fumbling around the keys to perform specific actions to get to the next stage. The one flaw I have with the game is that the single player while good, is not great. It is a great way to learn the game but other than that it is rather boring alone so pick it up and bring friends!

7. ARMA III

Pushing graphics to the next level, ARMA III may melt your machine but its SO WORTH IT! A lot of people prefer Call of Duty or Battlefield because they are more accessible to the average gamer but ARMA III is hands down the best modern war experience of the year. The engine is truly the next step up and the immersion factor cannot be denied. And with the full release out now, next year I expect to see mods mods and more mods created by the community. ARMA III, while flying under the radar with major reviewers this year, is the best military experience in a game to date.

6. Don't Starve

This quirky rogue-like game brought me great enjoyment. I usually don't really like rogue-like games but this one stuck with me. The art direction and the oddly satisfying sounds were a nice touch to this game of survival. The crafting system is easy to use and the game has a very high replay factor. The Tim Burton-esque style of this game is what first caught my eye and after playing for a while I can firmly state that Don't Starve was one of the years best. If you are looking for a good challenge while still able to relax and enjoy a game on your own, go grab it.

5. Tomb Raider

I never played any Tomb Raider games prior to this installment and to say this was a delight was an understatement. This being my first introduction to the Tomb Raider franchise blew my mind. Great overall story, great graphics, great gameplay. Tomb Raider had it all for me. The survival aspects that were woven into the game really played well and the grim setting was perfect for the game. The overall level design really helped this game for me. There were no repetitive tombs and the combat was fluid and memorable for me. And how could I go on and on and not mention the VOICE ACTING! Everyone did such a great job on this and I am looking forward to the next installment and I am eager to get into the backlog of the franchise. Square Enix handled the game very well and they deserve all the praise in the world for reviving a stale franchise. (Oh and HAIR PHYSICS!!!)

4. Bioshock Infinite

I love the original Bioshock, it is one of my favorite games of all time and was one of the very few "life changing" games I have ever played. I must say that my expectations were not incredibly high for Infinite just because of how good the original was and then how underwhelming (Note* Not Bad!) Bioshock 2 was. Playing through Infinite brought back some of the nostalgia of the original for me in that the world was vibrant and full of interesting nuances so that was a plus. While the overall combat system was a bit flawed, the story 100% made up for that. In my opinion the story of Infinite is the second best of the year (first is coming up soon!) and the world of Colombia was everything I wanted it to be and more. Elizabeth, while a sort of handicap during combat, was an incredible character and really made the game a triumph. The voice acting in general was AMAZING (Troy Baker deserves all the praise in the world for the year he had) and really pushed the game over the edge in terms of making it a memorable game. Bioshock Infinite, while not as good as the original, was one of the most immersive and visually impressive games of the year.

3. Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

This is my biased choice. Sorry, I love Starcraft and Heart of the Swarm pushed the game further in terms of gameplay and competitiveness. While the campaign lacked a bit of charm, the game really shines in Multiplayer. I follow the Starcraft e-sports scene very closely and the innovations (haha get it?) that HOTS brought to the table really showed this year in tournaments. When Wings of Liberty was getting stale towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year, HOTS really stepped up and gave new life into the game. The balance patches continue to be churned out and Blizzard is really stepping up and listening to community feedback and it showed in HOTS. I cannot wait to see what Legacy of the Void brings to the table and how the scene will grow next year but right now, Starcraft is the most skillful e-sport out there. I said that correct. While I enjoy DOTA and respect the immensely popular League of Legends, when it comes to skill, Starcraft outshines any MOBA game. One on one, mind vs mind, Starcraft is our generations chess.

2. Path of Exile

What Diablo III should have been. That's the first line I always give when someone asks me about Path of Exile. At first glance, the Free to Play tag may scare some people away who might think that there are tons of micro-transactions within the game that make it more of a "Pay to Win" title. This is 100% not the case. The developer, Grinding Gear Games, implements what they call "ethical micro-transactions" meaning anything you can buy in game does not actually affect the gameplay (ex. all transactions are purely cosmetic). Grinding Gear Games developers put their all into creating this and it shows. The passion that the development team had made me as a player feel comfortable enough to trust them and they delivered on their product and then some. PoE was everything I wanted in Diablo III and more. The skill tree is MASSIVE and the gameplay brought me right back to the much loved Diablo II days. While I keep mentioning Diablo, don't confuse that with me trying to say this is a clone of the game, PoE is not a clone, it is its own entity that adds new elements to the Action RPG genre. Go pick it up on Steam if you don't have it yet and I guarantee you will fall in love with it if you are a fan of Action RPGs. Go get it now and I will see you out on Wraeclast.

GOTY. Metro: Last Light

One of the most immersive experiences I have ever had in a game to date. Metro: Last Light is a hauntingly beautiful game that is hands down the best of the year. In a year filled with tons of heavy hitting titles, Metro comes out on top for me because I felt like I was part of the world throughout the entire game. The gameplay feels perfect and the graphics are (in my opinion) the years best. I had such a great time playing through and I do expect I will be returning soon to play through again. The original Metro 2033 was a good game when I played it but that's it, just a good game. Last Light expanded on the world of Metro and the developers over at 4A Games really stepped up and put their all to deliver. With all that said I must give all the praise in the world to 4A Games. What they had to endure during the development cycle and then put out a game as amazing as this really shows their passion for the game. It was stated by former THQ president Jason Rubin that the development team faced extremely difficult working conditions, "From unreasonable budget demands, to literally freezing office working conditions due to frequent power failures, to having to smuggle computer equipment into the offices to avoid corrupt customs officials. Rubin goes on to say, “If you care about the art of making games then you have to care about more than the final product,” and “The struggle and the journey becomes part of the story. Like sport, you cheer when the underdog comes from behind, and triumphs in the face of incredible odds."" And boy, did 4A Games triumph with this masterpiece. I suggest you all go out and experience the beauty that is Metro: Last Light and you will see why it is my pick for Game of the Year and why it deserves that title.


Wow! So many amazing games this year and I only could choose 10 to include on the list! I cannot wait to see what next year holds in store for us with the next gen console releases, that means more quality games are coming our way. Right now I can say the big titles on my list for next year are: Titanfall, Destiny, Metal Gear Solid, Watch_Dogs, Dark Souls II, Infamous: Second Son, and The Division. Here's to next year and I hope to see everyone out in the wasteland!


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Let's Play! Hammerwatch

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Over this past weekend while I was waiting out the snow storm that hit CT, I put together my first Let's Play video! I choose the game Hammerwatch from my long list of games frankly because it is relaxing and nostalgic for me and the day called for a very laid back, lazy playthrough that I could mindlessly drone through. That in no way means that I think Hammerwatch is a bad game, in fact, it is up there with one of the best games of the year for me! Sure its not story driven and it doesn't have "OMG NEXT GEN GRAPHICS!", like i said, it is a nostalgic trip back to when I was growing up and playing NES games. Hammerwatch is a throwback to the old hack n slash games such as Gauntlet which I spent hours playing as a child. The boss fights are very enjoyable and the game itself is extremely enjoyable with friends. Go grab it on Steam and check out my Let's Play below.

Overall the gameplay is straight forward and the classes are pretty self explainitory. Playing the game singleplayer is sort of dull but I enjoyed it and playing with friends is a blast. Grab Hammerwatch here.

7/10

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Back on Track with the Week in Review!

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In case you missed it, here is my video from last week detailing my return and what has been going on in the past few weeks:

Basically, I finally moved and now have plenty of time to stream and record gameplay! Contests will be coming soon and I am thinking next week I will make a video for my top 10 games from this year. For now, its time to get back to business as usual with the week in review


Steam OS released along with the 300 beta Steam Machines

Today Valve is releasing their first version of the Steam OS to the general public. Gamers around the world rejoice! But, Valve has issues a statement that "unless you’re an intrepid Linux hacker already, we’re going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out." So I am still on the fence on whether I should get this right away. I know a little bit of Linux but not enough to be a master so I think at the very least I will wait until the more experienced users write up some reviews and work out the initial kinks in the system before I boot up. A little while longer is not a big deal to me. I have plenty of other things that need to be done. With all that said though, I am starting to count down the days I have left using Windows and I will be happy to convert over once the time is right. Valve also has shipped out its 300 beta Steam Machines to those lucky enough to have been selected. I will be trying to stay as up to date as I can with all the information about the machines and if any of you readers were one of the 300, I would be thrilled if I could score an interview with you detailing your experiences with the device so contact me if you would like.


Multiple sources reporting Fallout 4 does exist and is on the way

So while I took some time off to move I missed a ton of stuff in that month. One of the big stories of the month was thesurvivor2299.com. It was a countdown page with the fallout vault logo and morse code in the backround that had people scrambling to decode every bit of information and lead people on the believe that a Fallout 4 announcement was days away. In the end Bethesda confirmed it was all a very elaborate (and fun) hoax which really felt like a punch in the gut to the whole Fallout community. Earlier this week however, Kotaku released an article stating they have received leak documents confirming the existence of much anticipated title. Whether you want to believe it or not is up to you. I know I was truly heartbroken when thesurvivor2299.com turned out to be a fake and I really really want to believe that Fallout 4 is coming but only time will tell and we can all hope there will be something, anything at all, coming from Bethesda shortly to confirm. Tunnel Snakes Rule!


VGX wrap-up

Last Sunday, Spike hosted the VGX awards. While the event itself was not great, some cool announcements did come out of it. Telltale seemed like the big hitter of the night announcing a new Game of Thrones game as well as a team up with Gearbox to deliver a new game set in the Borderlands world titled Tales from the Borderlands. A dark horse appeared in a game called No Man's Sky which is being developed by 4 guys and seems to be quite an ambitious task. The trailer looks amazing and I cannot wait to hear more about that one. Bungie announced a release date for the much anticipated Destiny for September 9, 2014 and CD Projekt Red released yet another trailer for The Witcher 3. Last but not least, Tomb Raider is getting an upgrade. The latest title in the franchise is getting a face lift for the PS4 and Xbox One and should be out early next year. Overall, as I said before, the show was very dull but the announcements kept my interest.

Elder Scrolls Online gets a release date

After many closed beta tests and much posturing in the community, a release date of April 4, 2014 was announced this week. I was involved with some of the beta testing for the game and while I can't say much due to the NDA, it does look impressive. Just follow along with all the gameplay and preview trailers that Bethesda has released and you can see how its shaping up. I'm sure an open beta is right around the corner and more information will become available shortly. The only big question left is will this really be the mythical WoW killer? Only time will tell.


That's all I have for this week. I will be making a video highlighting these points again and talking about other stories in the industry (Youtube copyright is HUGE right now) so be sure to check that out this weekend. I plan on recording some gameplay tonight of probably Hammerwatch or Don't Starve so that should be fun. And as I stated in the beginning, I am getting together my game of the year list and will be doing a huge post about that next week! Stay tuned and spread the word so I can get some contests running!


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Week in Review - 10/25/2013

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Another week gone by. I am still behind on getting content out (My girlfriend and I are apartment hunting so I really have no time for gaming but once we are settled in I will be stepping it up BIG TIME) but I hope to stay on track with the weekly reviews. This week we see a few new releases, some drama with devs and I got lucky and was able to pre-order a PS4 launch bundle through Amazon. Lets get right to it:


TotalBiscuit's "WTF is Day One: Garry's Incident" drama with the devs

If you don't know who TotalBiscuit is, he is one of the largest game critics on Youtube and he has a first look series called WTF is... This week, his series took a look at a game called Day One: Garry's Incident. Now TotalBiscuit is brutally honest in all his reviews and is well respected (I weigh his opinion more than most other reviewers) in the community by most. He has given negative reviews before and he will in the future. Where the drama comes in with the WTF is Day One: Garry's Incident is that after the negative review and the popularity of his channel making it the highest viewed review of the game, the head of WildGamesStudio had the video marked for copyright infringement and removed. The TL/DR was posted by TotalBiscuit on his Twitter account. A few days after the incident and the video made by TotalBiscuit explaining the story and slamming Youtubes copyright policy, the devs over at WildGamesStudio had the video put back up and issued a hasty appology and short explanation. Even if it really was a sincere appology from WildGamesStudio, they come out of this looking extremely bad. People do criticize TotalBiscuit all the time but I think it is safe to say that everyone can agree on his points he made about this drama. I will be writing a full article soon detailing my thoughts on the matter and the subject of Youtubes copyright policy so be on the look out for that. Also if you don't now, go follow TotalBiscuit on Twitter and watch his videos, he is a great community figure and puts out quality stuff.


Path of Exile officially launches on Steam

Did Diablo III dissapoint you? Did you like Torchlight but still left wanting the gritty feeling of Diablo II? If you answered yes to these, go on Steam right now and add Path of Exile. The game came out of beta this week and released as a Free2Play game on Steam. Now I usually do not like the F2P model as most of the time is is Pay2Win rather than Free2Play but Path of Exile is truly a F2P game. All the in game purchases are meerly cosmetic and do not have any affect on the gameplay. Path of Exile is a really awesome dungeon crawler and in my opinion it is truly what Diablo III should have been. Go grab it and tell me what you think! I will probably make a quick gameplay video sometime soon to show it off so keep checking for that.


Titanfall release date is March 11, 2014

One of the most anticipated next-gen games got its release date! I am very excited to play this game on release on PC and the more content that comes out, the more excited I get. Respawn seems to be right on the ball when it comes to Titanfall. The gameplay looks fluid and interesting (I love fast shooters) and it seems like the game is gearing up to try and overtake the Call of Duty/Battlefield market of competitive shooters. Only time will tell on how it will play out but early playable demos at cons and the tons of content Respawn is releasing look extremely promising. The real question is do I want to dish out eh $250 for the collectors edition????


Bioshock Infinite DLC coming on November 12

Announced earlier this morning, players can get excited about returning to Rapture on November 12 when Burial at Sea: Part 1 is released. I love this series, I love Infinite, and this DLC comes out 4 days before the PS4 is released in the US which gives players a few days with it before the heavy hitters come out. Smart move by 2K and Irrational considering this DLC would probably get buried (no pun intended) if it was released after the consoles release. 4 days should be plenty to complete what is said to be between 4-6 hours of gameplay back in Rapture. I will see you all back where there are no gods or kings, only man.

Thats all for today guys. Like I said above, there was a small release of more PS4 launch bundles from Amazon and I was lucky enough to pick one up. This weekend is the WCS Season 3 finals for Starcraft II which I will be watching closely and Batman: Arkham Origins was released today but I will be waiting a little bit to pick that up and review.


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Week in Review - 10/19/2013

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Back on track this week after last weekends Comic Con in New York! Some big news came out during the week and it is inching closer and closer to the holiday season (we are just about a month away from the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One!) So without dragging this on lets get right to it:


Watch Dogs delayed until Spring 2014

In what came as a shock to most, Ubisoft announced that they will be delaying the release of Watch Dogs until Spring of 2014. Ubisoft stated they want to make sure they release the best possible game and at this time they still need to work more on the development. I actually applaud Ubisoft for this move, I mean sure, I hate that its delayed and I was really really looking forward to playing it in November but I can wait a little longer if it means a more polished and stable product.


Valve shows off Steam Controller

Valve released a 5 min video this week showing off their Steam Controller being used. They showed how the controller worked with games like Portal 2, Civilization V, Counterstrike GO and Papers Please. While the video was short, it did answer some questions and gave a brief look at the controller in action. While I felt like it worked well with Portal, I didn’t like the trackpad feel for Civilization V though everything is configurable so it might just be due to the configuration they choose to use for that game. Counterstrike didn’t look fluid at all compared to a keyboard and mouse combo but that could be due to having to get used to the controller over time. For FPS games you need to be fast and the precision showed off was there just not the speed but like I said, that could be due to the user not being 100% comfortable yet with the controller. The setup they used for Papers Please did look fluid for that game. All in all, I left the video feeling that the controller has great potential but its just not quite there yet. Maybe in time and with some small tweaks here and there it will become better.

GFWL removed from Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City

First Bioshock now Batman! The death of Games for Windows Live is getting closer and many are rejoicing. As I have said many times before, I HATE GFWL!!! I love both the Arkham games but the problem for me was once I beat the games I had no desire to go back and play all the side missions and a main reason for that was because of GFWL. Now with it removed you can be damn sure I will be diving back into both games and getting all the rest of the stuff that I missed done.


Blizzard presents: Heroes of the Storm

That’s right, another HotS! Formerly known as Blizzard All-Stars, Heroes of the Storm is Blizzards entry back into the MOBA scene. Do they have what it takes to take on the likes of League of Legends and DOTA 2? Only time will tell but I would keep my eye close on this considering who it is. I mean when Blizzard release the first Starcraft they re-defined the RTS genre and then later when World of Warcraft came out, they re-invented the MMO so it is very exciting to see them try a MOBA and possible re-shape the industry once again.

That’s all for this week guys. Like I said, sorry for the delays in getting this out, and for missing last week because of New York Comic Con but I am back on track now and I have plenty in the works especially with the holiday season almost here and the end of the year awards.

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New York Comic Con

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Hey all! Now that I have had a few days to recover I figured it was way past due for me to share my experiences with you about New York Comic Con last weekend. What an amazing event! My girlfriend and I had a blast for 3 days and got to experience tons of amazing things there. I'll go day by day through this so bare with me, there is A LOT!

Friday

Our first day we arrived relatively early (doors opened at 10 we got there around 11) and once there immediately jumped in line for the Game of Thrones panel with Jerome Flynn (Bronn). Now before I go any further into the story I will say that this is my first MAJOR con. I have been to smaller ones in CT (ComicConn) and other small ones here and there. NYCC is HUGE! If you have ever been to the Javits Center you know how big it really is. Tons of people everywhere and I must say I would be lying if I told you I wasn't a bit overwhelmed and intimidated. This was the first ever con for my girlfriend and she had no idea what she was walking into. Anyway, while waiting in line we got to take in the site of all the cosplayers (we stood right behind a kid dressed as Jon Snow and his father who was Clark Kent) and we tried to settle into the crowd. Finally we got into the panel room and waited a bit for Jerome to get there. Once there he was awesome! Such a nice guy and very entertaining to listen to. He discussed some of the happenings that we are to expect on the next season of Game of Thrones (Which is currently mine and my girlfriends favorite show on TV).
After that panel we grabbed a quick lunch and then rushed all the way across the convention center to the Empire stage (second biggest stage) and planted ourselves in the front of the line for The Walking Dead 10 Year Anniversary panel. I love The Walking Dead, it is my favorite running book right now and to get to see Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard talk about it was the highlight of the con for me hands down! It was a pleasure to sit down and hear Rob and Charlie talk about their craft and really appreciate their fans the way they did, they were Awesome!
At this point it was about 4 and we still had yet to see the show floor!!!!! (Yeah this con is HUGE!) We finally made our way up the escalators to the show floor and at that moment I thought "so this is what it felt like when Niel Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon!" No but really it was amazing to see everything (Sensory overload!). But there was no time to waltz around, I had to get to a signing! We made our way over to the middle section of the show floor where Claudio Sanchez (writer of The Amory Wars, singer/guitarist of Coheed and Cambria) was signing and meeting with fans. So while we were rushing over there we were passing the Image! comics booth and right in front of me was ROBERT FUCKING KIRKMAN! He was finishing up an interview and I watched him as he completed it then started to an impromptu signing. I quickly grabbed what I could from my backpack and got him to sign my Thief of Thieves #1!!!!!! I was ecstatic (My girlfriend said I had the look of a kid in a candy store when he signed my book). Rob didn't stay very long so that was the only book I got signed from him which is more than fine with me!
Anyway, we finally got in line for Claudio and waited and waited and waited some more while talking with people in line and just taking in the atmosphere of the con. It was a good time although some people got a bit annoying (no offense but I don't care about you seeing Daft Punk or the Green Power Ranger, whatever his name is, earlier). I got to Claudio and had him sign my Amory Wars book and talked to him briefly. He was there with his wife Chondra and they both couldn't have been any nicer. He was amazing and so friendly, it just made me love Coheed even more.
After that we walked around the show floor for a bit more and I got to see a game over at the Intel Extreme Masters area where they had Starcraft II (I saw FLASH!!!!@#!@#@!#@) which was awesome. I love e-sports events (I had gone to MLG a couple of years ago in Providence, RI and it was amazing). We then when back downstairs to the conference rooms to grab dinner and then wait for the final panel of the day for us, Bob's Burgers.
We got back the Empire stage a bit early and were able to get right in while the panel for Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was going on. That was pretty cool and unexpected, they showed the whole season premier to the audience and did some Q and A with the fans. Finally we moved up to the front section and had a blast with the cast from Bob's Burgers (currently our favorite animated show, it really is wonderful and we love it so much we went a couple of weeks ago to the premier in Brooklyn with the cast, if you have not seen it GO WATCH IT! It's on Netflix).
And with that, we went back to Grand Central and took the train home and passed out so we would be ready to go for day 2...

Saturday

When we woke up on Saturday, to say we were exhausted is an understatement. Friday took soooooo much out of us that we ended up leaving later. It wasn't a big deal, we decided to take it easy that day and we ended up back at the con around noon. Although I missed the Stan Lee signing that day it didn't bother me. Saturday was to be a day of relaxing and taking in what the show floor had to offer. We stopped by everything! Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse just to name a few. It was nice to not have to be rushing to anything early on so we got to enjoy the floor. That was when my girlfriend and I decided that we will 100% be coming back next year!
Anyway at around 4:00 Charlie Adlard (artist for The Walking Dead) had a signing and I got right at the front for him. He ended up doing 5 sketches before signing which sucked but was awesome at the same time. It sucked because it took an hour and a half but it was awesome because I got to see him work and he is amazing! Anyway, once again when I got to him he was as nice as anyone could be and really a great great guy in general.
After that we headed downstairs to try to get into The Walking Dead show panel which ended up being overly full already (damn) so we went back up to the show floor and bought a few things and checked out some more IEM before heading back home. Overall the day was awesome again but I do wish we did a few more panels but oh well, there is next year. Saturday wasn't as action packed as Friday but that is also due to us being so drained and not being prepared. We made it home early and made sure to get right to bed so Sunday would be a blast.

Sunday

We woke up early and felt a lot better than we did on Saturday so we were 100% prepared to take on anything! We got there at around 10:30 and immediately went to Artist Alley which we had not been the past 2 days. There were tons of comic artists and writers. I got to see a few of my favorites like Jim Zub and Jonathan Hickman which was pretty cool then we went downstairs and got in line for R.L. Stine.
Mr Stine was an amazing presenter, for 70 years old, he is still as sharp as a tack and his talk was inspiring. Goosebumps was a favorite of mine growing up and to see the man who created it all was incredible. He was surprisingly very funny and so grateful for all his fans. He is a legend in my book and I was honored to be in his presence.
After R.L. Stine we headed over the Empire stage once again to see The Following panel. That was pretty cool to see Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy up on stage talking about the upcoming season, I have to admit, I was a bit starstruck once Kevin Bacon took the stage. Finally, we made one last round on the show floor and picked up a few things before leaving.

All in all, this was an AMAZING weekend and my girlfriend and I had tons of fun. There were a few things that I thought the organizers could have done better (BETTER INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHUTTLES!!!!!!) but in the end it was negligible. You can be damn sure that we will be coming back next year and now that this one is over we have the knowledge to better prepare. As for some games on display, there were playable demos for Assassin's Creed IV, Dark Souls II and an Alpha version of Dungeon Defenders II just to name a few. Now its back to business for me, tomorrow I will have the week in review and I have been working on some more posts for the next coming weeks. That holiday season is only a few weeks away now and I have been gathering my thoughts on how I should go about making a Game of the Year post so be sure to check back around early/mid December for that (maybe by that time I will set up a contest to go along with it for some game codes).


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First Impressions: Battlefield 4

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Battlefield 4 is set to launch on October 29 but, starting last Friday, the game has gone into open beta and I had the chance to try it out for myself last night. As far as my involvement with the Battlefield series goes, I have drifted away. I loved Battlefield: 1942, I even remember getting it on release day in 2002 and my friends and I spent hours upon hours playing Battlefield 2 later down the road. I'll be honest, I did not get into Battlefield 3 when it was released and only recently played it for a bit. I never saw the hype with that one and I guess I felt more like between the Battlefield series and the Call of Duty games, military FPS's were becoming stale and repetitive. No game was bringing anything new to the table besides updated graphics and a few minor tweaks here and there.

So last night I downloaded the beta for Battlefield 4 because why not? It's free and is essentially a demo to try out until the launch of the proper title. I joined a game and while it was loading I thought to myself that its just going to be more of the same and boring and after the beta expires I will just crawl my way back to ARMA III to get my military fix. So the game loaded and I was on the deploy screen and took a few minutes to go through my settings and max out everything to really try and get the most out of the experience. When I deployed and entered the game I was immediately BLOWN AWAY by how amazing everything looked. Just because of the sheer size of the map I thought the graphical increases would be minor at best over Battlefield 3 but with all the action and destruction going on around me on a 64 player map, I was totally not expecting the game to look THAT good (don't get me wrong, it is in no way THE BEST graphics ever, but they are really amazing, this is of course on a PC running everything at max).

I have read a few peoples first reactions to the beta and what surprised me was a lot of people complaining about performance issues such as FPS drops and stutters, to having to lower graphics because of how taxing it is on their system. This was not the case for me though. I had a smooth 60 FPS throughout the majority of my playtime and I believe the lowest it ever dropped to was 45 FPS and that was only when I jumped off the skyscraper and was parachuting down to the ground. I did hit a rather nasty bug towards the end of my play which was a VRAM leak which crashed the game but as of right now I have no problem with that, it is beta after all and I was not expecting a totally bug free experience, but hopefully DICE is aware of the issue and will patch that bug before the retail release.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable experience and just by having the risk free hands on experience with the game made me really consider grabbing it at release. The map was wonderful and interesting, the frostbite engine is really impressive and the gameplay was more refined than Battlefield 3. I truly believe that from what I experienced, 4 will be the installment in the series that really takes that next step to distance itself from other FPS franchises, namely Call of Duty. Now I can't say much for the Call of Duty release basically because I am tired of that franchise but if CoD doesn't step it up majorly with Ghosts then Battlefield will reign supreme and I believe it will only get stronger from here.


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