Monthly Archives: February 2010

Stupid Ezio! or My trip back to Florence.

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2010 No comments

There have been two bits of Down Loadable Content released for Assassin’s Creed 2 since I played and reviewed last month. Sequence 12: Battle of Forli and Sequence 13: Bonfire of the Vanities fill the gap in the story between Sequences 11 and 14. If you have played through the game you know about how apparently there is some degradation in the data stream that causes the two sequences to be corrupt and thus, un-obtainable by Desmond and the crew. Well Rebbecca, your tech lead, manages to “repair” the data and you can now access it.

Sequence 12 opens up back in Leonardo’s shop and you are inspecting the newly acquired Apple. It’s too dangerous to keep it hidden in some random spot (like is has been for the last few hundred years) so you clearly must put it in a fortress with lots of people around it. A visit to Forli and the Strong willed Caterina Sforza brings trouble in the way of a full on attack from a new target for Ezio. Without going too in depth, this story played out well, had good cut scenes, and overall good gameplay. My only complaint about it was that it felt very short (and no achievements).

Sequence 13, however, had me crying out expletives about every 2 minutes! The Apple was taken and ends up back in Florence under the control of the Mad Monk, Girolamo Savonarola, who is using the Apple to influence the people to do his bidding. In order to garnner discontent umong the people, Ezio needed to take out 9 of the Monks top people. Normally I would think this was fine but about 5 of these were “Oh by the way don’t alert the 80 bazzilion guards in the area when you do it”. I think I may have scared the dog a few times screaming at the TV. God Bless the invention of the Sniper Rifle. I think this one went on a tad long (maybe to make up for 12 being short) and could have done fine with maybe 5 Assassinations instead of 9. Also….Needs Achievements!

Overall I was very happy with the story except that it all should have been in the game to begin with. It’s not like a new story, or a special side mission. This was all info that was a part of the main story! So why not include it in the main game. I also found the DLC to be a tad glitchy. There were many times where the Dialogue was not heard at all and just the subtitles were what I had to follow along with. After one mission I was spawned inside a building and couldn’t get out without having to quit. That mixed with the standard frustration of alerting guards and failing out of a mission about 50 times really made this part of AC2 more of a Chore than enjoying the added story.

My Advice? Download the DLC THEN play the game so it’s all one coherent story. Where I gave the Main game an 8.8 out of 10 Florins, The DLC is getting only a 6.5.

This IS the Droid you’re looking for.

Posted by Steve on February 20, 2010 No comments

Well, I have been very remiss about my duties and haven’t written anything lately about things. A lot of that has been taken up by Star Trek Online. I am happy to announce that I have made it to Commander and have picked up my latest ship. I resisted the urge to name it the U.S.S. Tennis Ball due to the giant sphere that makes up the Saucer, but once I hit Captain I will get the Intrepid class and will feel much better about the ship. But enough about STO. I am hoping to get in some more Bioshock 2 and possibly the DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2 this weekend, but we’ll see. I did want to spend some time to discuss one of my latest acquisitions, the Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless. I know this is a bit of a departure from the Game reviews but I wanted to keep this open for various tech stuff as well. I am quite the Gadget guy.

So I picked up the Droid just before the new year and have used it extensively for the last 2 months. Before that I was using the Blackberry Storm. I didn’t have too many qualms about the Storm, and for a while I was seriously contemplating picking up the Storm2, but a number of friends talked me into the Droid and I am VERY happy with the switch. My requirements for a smart-phone were pretty simple. I wanted a full screen touch interface that would run many of the main stream popular apps and could be used for it’s GPS and mapping. Oh, and it had to be on Verizon. (Sorry iPhone) Those were the main points which both the Storm and the Droid did very well. The main difference was simply ease of use. Compared to each other, the Droids screen was easier to use, there was no more full screen pushing, the Camera was better, the apps were better and more plentiful, and the overall feel was just smoother than the Storm. So I switched.

The Droid runs Google’s Android 2.0.1, though I am currently awaiting the arrival of 2.1 to be in line with the Nexus 1. Personally, I love Google. I am an avid Google user for nigh on everything they put out. Honestly even my older blog was even running on Blogger, which is a Google service! I type out these posts using Google Docs, I pull much of my info from Google Reader, etc., etc.. So the Droid and I were a natural fit. One of the things I love about it is that the applications, as of now at least, are about 60% free and 40% paid. I haven’t yet needed to purchase a single app for it. At the end of the post I will give a list of my Most used apps but in the meantime, lets get to the real loves and hates.

Yahoo’s

How Many Fart apps are there?!?! The library of applications is seriously starting to rival the iPhone App store. Every time I load it it’s like a good 20 min of browsing and thinking “Oh, I could use that!” Some of them have even made it into the Most used!
I see everything! The screen is amazing! It’s plenty large that I can sit and watch a show it on comfortably and see everything clearly. I was concerned switching from the Storm’s screen because I wasn’t sure I would be able to manage the Just touch, vs. the Touch and press in of the Storm. Long story made short, it’s 150% better
The Power of the Sun in the palm of my Hand! Google handles everything. My G-mail, my voicemail, my news. it’s all at a touch and it runs amazing.
My Phone is Faster than my PC! Ok, maybe not, but this thing is damn fast. I have downloaded a few tech demos on it and even running 3D apps it’s fast. One of the big issues I had with the Storm was that if I needed to shut down for any reason and restart, it would take about 5-7 minutes! No, Not kidding there. The droid takes about 30 seconds.
I can see my house from here. Google Maps added the Navigation Suite to their app which makes it rival even the best of the Garmins and TomTom’s. (Not my TomTom though, because it’s already Retarded). Adding in the street view and Satilite view to a Navigation system is Genius!
Making it my own. One of my favorite things is the ability to pick the functions I want for the phone. If I don’t like the app that runs the SMS function, I can change it. Don’t like the home screens? Replace the Home program! It’s like someone made “Pimp My Phone”

AOL’s

So, Many, Keyboards! This may be a bit different for different people, but I hate the hardware keyboard! I have only used it on occasion and the feel of it just isn’t right. I find myself using the on screen keyboard much much more. I think the last time I used the HW keyboard was for writing out that iPad post last month.
What have you done to my Face….book! The app for facebook sucks. There I said it. The blackberry app and the iPhone app are both amazing, but the android app is trash. They had better fix it soon.
Wheres my App? The organization of the App Market is Really Really bad. Trying to find something through browsing will take hours of scanning, the rating system is good, but you can’t really sort based on it. The categories need to be a little more granular with a few more sub categories. Also, having something Web based or even just PC based that we could browse through would be awesome. The iPhone has iTunes and the App Store there, we need that!
Which Android do you have? This complaint is more with the Android system itself. It seems that every company wants to make their own flavor of Android. The nice thing about the iPhone is that it’s standard across the board. With Android you have the HTC version, the Motorola version, and even the various version of Motorola’s android! It would be nice to just standardize the OS and let the companies just alter with App’s. That way when an newer version of the OS comes out, everyone gets it!

Ok so here are some of my Favorite apps and why I like them:

G-mail, Maps, Voice, Goggles, Sky Map, Etc. Basically the Android version of Google Pack. I can’t just narrow down each one because you really just need all of them.

GDocs – Ties directly in to Google Docs for easy Document Management!

Bic Concert Lighter – Ok, while it’s not one of my most used apps I felt the need to mention….What the Hell man! the iPhone gets a Zippo and we get a MuthaF&%^$’n BIC?!?!

Where – Where is great for local gas prices, and Yowza is integrated for great deals! As far as a “what’s around me” app, there are a few others that are a bit less kludgey (and yes, that’s a technical term)

iHeartRadio – An easy way to listen to broadcast radio from anywhere!

Movies/Fandango – Ok so it’s two apps that do the same damn thing. Movie listing and ticket buying. This is because some theaters are picky when it comes to buying tickets. Movies gets a bump up though because of Netflix integration!

Sweet Dreams – This one is a new app that I am using a lot. it allows me to set a time for the phone to be silent and when to wake up. I am always forgetting to put my phone on silent when I head to bed.

wpToGo/Wordpress – This ties into my WordPress site so I can post on the go. There’s two apps and I am still waffling on which I like.

Seesmic – Twitter app. I liked this one because it was simple!

LastFM/Pandora – Streaming radio. I am a big fan of Pandora because it gets the stations genres right, but LastFm has a good variety of stock stations.

FourSquare – Social check in app. Lets me announce where I am to friends.

Home++ – This is a Home screen replacement. It allows for 3-7 home screens, and a dock at the bottom for most used utilities. It’s a must.

Jewels – Bejeweled game. It’s a great time waster but Sarah is kicking my ass at it right now.

KeyRing – All those shopping discount cards in one place!

SMS Popup – SMS Augmenting program. Lets the SMS messages pop up so I can read instantly and reply instantly.

NewsRob – It’s a Google Reader app that syncs with Reader so I can back and forth from the PC and the Droid.

Qik – Streaming video program, but streaming out. I can capture video and stream it live to the web. Where was this all my life!

ShopSavvy – I love this app. You can scan a bar code on something and it will tell you where you can get the best deal. Searches online as well as local stores. Saved me like 20$ because Best Buy matched a price based on this!

WeatherBug – Weather app, pretty simple.

Wow, so this post ended up being huge! Hopefully this will help anyone who is looking at what phone they may want to check out. Now, back to gaming!

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Farpoint 2010 The Returning

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2010 No comments

For those of you who are unfamiliar with conventions like Farpoint, it’s a small fan run convention up in Timonium Maryland. I have been to Farpoint a number of times and it’s become kind of a “home base” con for me. It used to be held at the Hunt Vally Marriot hotel but from what I understand there was some Staff issues that caused them to change venues to the Crown Plaza. I really have mixed feelings about the new hotel. I really loved the Marriot because there was ample space for small gatherings of friends for hang outs. The Crown Plaza was like everything all lumped into one very large room so it was one super big party. Like its own little Nerd Prom. So on the one hand you were more involved in Con related stuff, but missed out on the smaller gatherings. My hotel verdict is still out.

So the main reason for attending Farpoint was that Felica Day would be there. Given that she is a LA Native and a frequenter of most of the West Cost cons, having her at something in the east, and a small con to boot, was awesome. Also at the con was the premire of Trenches, the web series produced by Shane Felux of Revelations and Pitching Lucas fame. Also known as the sole reason I have an IMDB Film credit! Trenches, which you know from the earlier post, Officially debuted today at Crackle.com, but con attendees were allowed a early viewing of the whole series on Saturday. After the showing, Shane’s wife Dawn presented the DVD copy to Felica Day for her library. (Felicia Day was unable to attend the viewing due to her signing schedule.)

Also on Saturday I got to attend the Q&A Panel that Felica was holding to see her speak on many different topics. Everyone knows that She is an avid gamer but I was curious to learn what else she was playing. Turns out that she has a large stack of games that are waiting for her furious writing schedule to allow, and in the drive is Mass Effect 2. She also will be doing the voice of the Upcoming Wii Game Rock of the Dead, where she will be the Female love interest to none other than Neil Patrick Harris. The questions she answered ranged from the standard “what would you like to work on” to the obscure “What are the best desert places in LA.” (Which was answered in the most serious tone. BTW, she is a sucker for the cupcake places!) I did get the brief chance to meet up with her and talk a little about gaming and conventions (very very brief). She also wouldn’t give out her Xbox Gamertag (kind of expected) but did mention that she will be doing an Xbox Game with Fame event.

The rest of the weekend was spent with my lovely wife (who tolerates me most of the time) and enjoying our 1 year anniversary, as well as Valentines day. I will spare you the mushy details but it involved awesome turtles and fishes. Also, there may or may not be pictures of me in BSG BDU’s doing possibly bad things to the statue in front of the hotel. I’ll go ahead and say, it wasn’t me! I swear, it was Alan Rickman who happened to be a surprise guest at the hotel and, and, man can that guy drink! (Honest!)

Trenches!

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2010 No comments

Just a quick post to pimp out an amazing Web Series called Trenches. I had the great opportunity to be a part of the creation of this series and working with it’s creators is always a delight! If you get the chance, check out Crackle.com and more specifically their Trenches site. They will be running the series over the next few weeks so come back often and tell your friends! (Rumor has it that even Felicia Day ended up with a Pre-release copy of Trenches while at Farpoint!)

Farpoint 2010

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2010 No comments

The snow is starting to melt and I only have a mildly high trench of a driveway to navigate. Most of the time at home was split between Star Trek Online and Bioshock 2. (Rescued my first Little Sister.) Believe it or not I actually reached a point in my cabin fever where I got up and could game no more. Instead I went and watched the Star Trek Reboot on Blu-Ray. Anyways, this is just a quick update to say that I won’t be posting anything this weekend, or even playing as I am off to Farpoint in Baltimore MD. Also it is Sarah and my one year Anniversary! So it’s a nice little get-away after a long internment at the house. Should be some costumes and a few guests to visit with. I’ll probably have an after action report on Monday-ish.

In the meantime, remember, Level up, and spend those skill points!!

Returning from the Alpha Quadrant, or, Shore leave on Hoth

Posted by Steve on February 8, 2010 2 comments

Well, the snowpocolypse 2.0 has taken it’s toll on us, and the house. We got about 20+ inches of snow and spent most of Saturday and Sunday clearing it off the driveway and everything else. Some of my neighbors have drifts in front of their houses (mostly because of the plows) that measured up to about 9 feet tall! This of course meant that most of the time, not spent shoveling snow, was spent inside playing games. Sarah was on the Internets, until she picked up Overlord 2. Andrew was on Mass Effect 2, after he finished with Uplink, and I was playing Star Trek Online, no after there, it was all STO.

Over the weekend I have managed to make it to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have 4 different ships to choose from, and I have 5 bridge officers. (Also, I have at least 3 tribbles.) The long arduous road to Lt. Commander was painful right at the end, mostly because of the lack of realization that I needed to spend skill points to earn the promotion instead of just earn them. Made it all the way to Lt rank 11 before I figured that out. Once I had earned the rank I ventured back to the Sol Sector and attended my promotion ceremony. It was very touching. After that it was off to claim my new ship. I had actually been saving up energy credits for my entire career so that I could buy an extra ship so one Cruiser and one Escort. Since I am still new to the heavier ships, I will hold off on the pluses and minus until later. Instead lets go over some of the things I loved and hated about my time as a young Lieutenant

Things I loved:

Who needs friends with an away team like this? – Every time I had to beam down to a planet I always had an away team with me. For starters it was just me and my Engineering officer along with a few security guys, (those poor red shirts) but after a while I had my science officer, my tactical officer, and my ferengi, ok so he is a engineering officer too but he’s my token. Each officer has a special ability that they use on their own or by my command. Even coming around and reviving me if I get knocked out. It’s very helpful!

Autogrouping with Others. Now I know this may be a plus or a minus depending on the type of person you are but I found it to be very helpful. If you and 3 other people are working on the same mission at the same time (as is the case in most missions), it will auto group you together and adjust the level accordingly. The amazing thing about it is that without even sending a hail, everyone just worked together! This avoids all of the Awkward conversations and ninja tagging.

Dead Klingon = New Mark II Engine – Everything that I needed for my LT Career was found in loot. I had no need to spend credits on anything because it was all available in loot. This allowed me sell anything excess that I had looted and didn’t need so I could have the money to buy the second ship.

Things I Hated:

Oh god more Patrol missions – To boldly go where everyone has gone before. The patrol missions are really more of a love hate thing. I love that there is a large variety of types of missions, but they start getting repetitive after a while. Clearly they are meant to be filler around the other larger missions, so my advice….don’t run them back to back. Run one system, go do a main mission, come back and do another system.

No, mister Klingon, I do not want to enter an chance enemy encounter. – Flying around in sector space I found myself automagicly sucked into enemy encounters, which under normal circumstances would be fine, but these are on a timer, and the timer is ALWAYS ticking down from like 5 min to start. So I won’t be sitting around for 5 min for my “chance” encounter.

Still a tad clunky – Ok so this is an overall grievance. Unfortunately the game is still a little rough around the edges. There are minor glitches in the graphics, in the performance, in the interface. BUT… It’s a brand new MMO and it’s still finding it’s place and growing into some very large combat boots. After wittnessing the launch of SWG, EQ2, AOC, LOTRO, WoW, COH, and who could forget The Matrix Online! (Wow, I have tried a lot of MMO’s, and many of them from launch!) I can easily see how things will get ironed out and the issues are really minor. I have seen nothing that is a show stopper.

Final verdict: For a starter MMO, I give Star Trek online a good 7.5 out of 10 Tribbles. But I reserve the right to change this score after 1: I play more since it doesn’t really end and, 2: Time mends all glitches.

Just in time too as tomorrow I will be venturing back to Rapture for Bioshock 2!

Snowpocolypse 2.0 or What do you do with a drunken Yeoman?

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2010 No comments

So it’s supposed to snow for the next, like, 48 hours solid bringing around 24 inches of cold insanity with it. I have finished Mass Effect 2 and have no Bioshock 2 to take it’s place. (Yeah, I think I should have slowed down on that one.) So what am I to do with all this time on my hands and locked indoors. I guess I could spend time with my family…….yeah well We know I do that enough and Snow time is Game time! Yesterday we had gone to the mall to take care of some appointments and I just happened to walk into the Gamestop, you know, by accident. There I see it, the Star Trek Online box, just calling to me. The following is the conversation that took place:

Me: Ooooo STO! And Look at all the stuff you get!

Sarah: So if you want it, get it!

Me: But… But… Wait a sec, why aren’t you fighting me on this?

Sarah: Am I supposed to tell you not to get it? If you buy it, then I will get to play it too!

Me: I Love You!

So safe and warm did STO come with me home and get installed. I managed to Create Captain Boothby of the U.S.S Wizzer last night and began my exploration of the galaxy (the other galaxy, not the one I just finished saving from the Reaper/Collector attacks, you know, so we can keep this straight.) I am not sure I am ready for a good enough review at this point, so here are a few key points that I have found so far.

Upon loading into the game I noticed that the first Intro mission was Glitchy as all hell. At first I thought my system wasn’t good enough to handle it, but when I got to the rest of the game it ran just fine. The only thing I could think of is that That certain battle had WAY too much going on it it and it over taxed the system. But I guess that’s a good way to weed out people eh?
Flying your ship looks Amazing. The graphics are outstanding. I would put this about half way between EVE Online and the Space side of Star Wars Galaxies. Your control over the ship is a bit more hands on and granular than Eve, but not as twitchy at SWG.
The ground game is not bad. It probably could use a little more polish, but it’s new so I will give it a chance. Nothing has stood out as “bad”, but nothing amazed me either (unlike the space side)
I have had the chance to do a variety of missions and it plays out like “Episodes” of the show. You can do Diplomatic missions, combat stuff, and exploring and sciency type things. So there is something for everyone!

I think that will do for now. Feel free to message me in game if you would like and remember to stay warm!

To Boldly Have Gone. or Mission Accomplished

Posted by Steve on February 3, 2010 No comments

Here I am, only minutes after finishing Mass Effect 2, and I am still processing all that happened. I may end up actually replaying from my last major save point because I am not completely happy with some of my choices. For now I am going to let them bake in my head and deal with the consequences. (And mourn the loss of Jack, Grunt, Thane, and the Colonists. In the words of Joker: “Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit, What the Shit!?”

This also means that I am now un-distracted until next Tuesday! A fact that I am sure Sarah and Andrew will be happy about. (Or not.) In the mean time I have to say that I have become increasingly tempted by Star Trek Online based on what I have seen about it online and the few friends who have tried it. I am probably only slightly less of a Star Trek fan than I am a Star Wars fan. (Which is to say, pretty damn rabid.) Although I do not own any Star Trek costumes, and I am not sure I will any time soon, I have always enjoyed the shows and the inspiration they provide. I loved many of the other trek games, even though they were widely un-popular. I even have a copy of the Star Ship creator lying around here somewhere. I am curious to the designs of the ships and to see the variants. Ok damn, this is really not helping.

Maybe if I go read the Next Gen Tech Manual I can get my mind off it.

And yes, I have it.

And the Original series one.

The DS9 one too.

Oh God I need help.

Saving the Galaxy, aka, Wintereenmas

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2010 1 comment

Wow so this weekend flew by at FTL through a Mass Effect Relay. Sarah had to head down to Richmond for an appointment so that left me and Andrew at home for Wintereenmas! Add on to that the snow all day Saturday and that sets up the perfect conditions to sit on the couch with Food and drink close by and focus attentions on what needed to be done to save the Galaxy. Andrew was armed with Bioshock 1 on the upstairs and I with Mass Effect 2 Downstairs, I believe we saw each other once or twice through the day. I think the only real break we took was alternating taking the dog out, Shuffling off to Dinner at Hard Times Cafe (Through the snow), and then of course getting the dog to throw up because he got into the chocolate (Not my Fault! He is just really Nosey!)

So Micro Review time! I have spent a lot of time in ME2 so far and have no collected all but 1 of my crew and done their loyalty quests. I have scanned probably about 1/3 of the systems to 100%, and am trying to finish up every side quest on my way out to the Omega 4 Relay. I would like to speculate that I am maybe about 1/2 through the whole game. So lets just run down the list of loves and hates:

Loves:
This is only a small small selection of things I love about this game

The whole galaxy is yours to explore, and it’s Beautiful. I could spend hours just flying around and checking out all of the different Nebula’s.
The Seamless Conversation trees. This was a great part of ME1 and continues to be awesome in 2
Moral Choices out the Yin Yang! So many times I was faced with the choice of “Do I do what is Morally right, or Do what I need to keep my teem member happy so he performs well.
In Depth Story. Any time a story makes you want to sit on the couch ALL DAY LONG means they did everything right. Big time Movie directors and writers need to take a serious look at how games like ME do things. The writing for a 20+ hour game ends up be 100 times better than your standard movie.
Fun Mini Games. In Assassin’s Creed 2, there were Subject 16 mini games that got a little frustrating. Their length and complexity detracted from the rest of the game. Thankfully ME2 didn’t follow in that. the Hacking and Bypass mini games are just right. I can see that in the future they may start getting more complex but none of them seem like they would detract.

Hates (or maybe just Dislikes)

I wish I could say that there was no dislikes but there is always something.

Too Much Choice. I know this seems like a silly thing to dislike but I ran into it in Assassin’s Creed too. When there is too much to do, you can easily loose focus on what needs to get done. I know they are also trying to build the game so that there is some re-playability but with So many different team members, and only be able to take 2 of them at a time, I am missing out on interactions and dialogue that would be nice to see.
Mining Mini game. Mining sucks. Pretty much any game I have played that had mining in it, it’s sucked. It’s a way to get the player to sit and waste time to get the resources they need to continue. Very rarely do I see mining integrated into a fun system. Mining in ME2 takes forever (even with the upgrade) and I ended up with Way too much of one Mineral and not enough of another.
Glitches. No game is without them unfortunately. There was one point where I found myself walking through the geometry and out into a blank space. Had to reload. Also the “Skip Conversation” button should never be tied to the “Select Conversation Tree” Far too many times I went to skip a line of Dialogue because The Character speaks too slowly and I had read the subtitles faster and it selected the next default conversation piece. Very annoying.

This is all very early speculation as I have not finished the game yet but it’s all based on what I have seen so far. There will be much more playing. Of course I only have about 1 week left until Bioshock 2 comes out. I think that will be another Upstairs game so Sarah can watch along. This will also give Andrew the chance to play ME2 downstairs with the DLC on the downstairs system. In the mean time, I need to get back and play!