What are you playing? or….The Risk of Cracking Down on your Limbo Skills
It’s that time again to run down what you are playing! I am slowly but surely working up a review of the XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) game Risk Factions, which I managed to finish the campaign on. The nice thing about it is that it’s such a great Family game that we find ourselves playing it as a group all the time. Also mixed in lately has been Crackdown 2. Initial impressions of CD 2 are not that great. I just get the feeling like it’s too much all at once and it’s REALLY hard to focus on the ga...oooo Agility orb!
The latest add in to the library has been the XBLA game Limbo. This came out for the Summer of Arcade promo that Xbox does every year. The game is a hell of a lot like Braid, and if you haven’t played Braid you need to go check it out. Both are side scrolling puzzle platformers that will twist your brain in loops. I love it! Review for Limbo will be after Risk and Crackdown 2 will probably be a while still. Don’t forget that the first DLC for Alan Wake is out now, The Signal. My copy of Alan Wake is out on loan right now so I will be getting to that as soon as it comes back.
Outside of that, the workouts are going great, I can already feel a difference and only 36 days left before DragonCon! I am hoping to maybe squeeze out an interview with one or two celeb’s to see their take on gaming. And with that I leave you with the amazing Music video from the Guild: GAME ON!
Red Dead Redemption
Yeah it's been a little while since the last update, mostly because I have been powering through Red Dead Redemption, the latest open world game from Rockstar Games. (There was also a little time spent down with friends in Fredericksburg, Aw Yeah GhettoCon!) So after much playing and venturing back and forth from New Austin to Mexico, I have finished the game. (and to those who know, you just lost the game)
One of the things I love about the open world games from Rockstar is that they know how to write a good story, and then they let you play it out as you like, when you like. This happened with Grand Theft Auto IV as well. The story was so engaging that I really felt for some of the characters and cared about what happened with them. When one of the characters wronged me, I felt no compunction when it came time to choose to kill them or let them live. I also became attached to certain characters and found myself wondering if there would be more missions with them or if I would even run into them again.
This happened in spades in RDR. From the very start of the story I began to meet characters that made me want to work on the story more than the side missions. I almost wish that there was some sort of random mission generator that would involve the storyline characters more instead of just standard NPC's, but I am getting ahead of myself.
The story starts out with John Marston getting escorted into a train to the middle of nowhere in New Austin to Confront one of his old Gang Member friends Bill Williams. John, not being all that smart, confronts Bill outside of a heavily guarded fort and gets himself shot. Thankfully, a local Rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, comes to your rescue and nurses you back to health. As it turns out these Shady government types have kidnapped your Wife and Son and are holding them until you turn in your former game members. The story has you venturing all through New Austin to hunt down these gang members. Along the way you learn how to ranch, hunt down other law breakers, fuel a Mexican Revolution, and explore a number of interesting characters. So as to not spoil anything, I will stop there with the story and move to game play.
Rockstar is very well known for their open world games and with RDR they took it to the next level. The setting was absolutely stunning. Everywhere I went I found myself stopping for a moment to admire the graphics and the environment. There is something about watching the sun set over the Mexican desert while sitting on the back of your horse who just saved you by outrunning the bandits that were chasing you down. As I have stated before, the story is awesome. It engages you, it pulls at your heart strings, and even enrages you at some points. (I found myself exclaiming as certain points "Damn I hope I get to kill that guy!)
I actually had only a few issues with the game. There is an aiming system that allows you to snap to a target, kind of like Modern Warfare of Bad Company, when zooming in. This is a blessing and a curse. I found myself accidentally snapping to the wrong target a few times and shooting Lawmen instead of Bandits, Stagecoach drivers instead of Bandits, etc. This resulted in some unwanted bounties and loss of honor. I didn't bother to reload thought because. well, accidents happen! Also, watch out for bears. There is a reason why they are the Number One Threat to America. My last complaint is a little bit of a spoiler so I will do my best to talk around it. After the ending, which is very touching and I loved it, being able to continue roaming the world is great, but I felt very disconnected from the character after that point. Through all the rest of the story you really start to identify with Marsten and his troubles, after the ending, Marsten just isn't the same and I felt awkward playing as him.
Overall the game is outstanding and well worth the many many many hours spent playing it. I only wish there were more story.
Also....Poor Bonnie.
Red Dead Redemption and Hard Labor
Just a quick post to let you know I haven't dropped off the face of the planet (again). The last few weeks have been spent diving into Rockstar's new Red Dead Redemption and doing a bit of hard time demolition work in my back yard. I hope to get a review of RDR up soon as I am probably about 50% through it now. Initial reaction: Amazing, go get it and expect to spend most of your free time wandering around New Austin. Speaking of free time, in the back yard, I am tearing down the above ground pool that has lingered in all it's ghettoness back there and it's time for it to go. So I bought a new saw (Dewalt 13 amp Reciprocating Saw) and I am carving it up like a turkey. Hopefully I can take in the scrap metal and get some good cash out of it.
Also, we picked up a new car! We traded in the Honda Fit and got a Ford Escape Hybrid model. 2010 with all the bells and whistles. For a gadget geek like me it's even got the Microsoft Sync stuff for integration with my phone. I might even do a little bit about that later, but I wanted to keep this short. So keep your eyes out for a full review of RDR and next on deck is Alan Wake! (which is sitting in all it's shrink wrapped glory taunting me)
Picard never Hit me!
Some new Star Trek news real quick for today. I am, of course, still playing Star Trek Online which has been going good with one small exception that I will go into in a moment, but I want to discuss a few other Trek related things first. DragonCon is coming and quite a few new guests have been announced and many of them are Trek related. I don't know if Shatner and Nimoy got back and passed the word about how much fun they had but there is a HUGE guest list of Trek people:
- Rene Auberjonois - Odo from DS9
- Avery Brooks - Sisko from DS9
- Denise Crosby - Tasha Yar from Next Gen
- John de Lancie - Q
- Jonathan Frakes - Riker from Next Gen
- Robert Duncan McNeill - Paris from Voyager
- Armin Shimerman - Quark from DS9
- Marina Sirtis - Troi from Next Gen
- Brent Spiner - Data from Next Gen
- Garrett Wang - Ensign Kim from Voyager
I am eagerly awaiting the chance to find and get signed a picture of Q and Sisko in their boxing gear from DS9. This list, no doubt, will be growing as we get closer to the time of the Con, which is Sept. 3-6 of this year. I will in attendance and, if I can manage it (without ending up with a restraining order), I will get as many interviews as I can with some of these folks. I would love to hear what they think about some of the more modern versions of Trek either in Game or other new media.
Also on the radar is a new project that some friends and I are working on....the creation of the "Maroon Monster" costume, which I understand is the nickname for the Wrath of Khan style uniform from Star Trek. The patterns have been ordered and work will start soon. I will be more than happy to post progress pics and eventually a full production blog on the process.
Ok, lastly, my progress in STO has slowed only slightly because of a problem I am having. I made it to Deep Space 9 in the game and noticed that you can purchase a Danube class Runabout from one of the vendors. This is a small Shuttle that you can fly and outfit with weapons. It's purely a luxury item and fun to fly. The problem lies in that when you buy it, all of your stats on your equipment get cut in half, or at least they display that way. No one has determined exactly what happens. I put in a ticket about the issue and was brushed off with a "Yeah we know about it, we'll fix it soon". Normally I would be ok with that except that, from what I have read about this bug from others, No one is sure if it's a display issue or a real game effecting issue and no GM has stated one way or the other. Players also claim if you decommishion the shuttle, your stats get resolved, and that's great but I paid 149k credits for the shuttle and I would hate to waste that.
So I mentioned all this to the GM's in the ticket I submitted hoping to get an answer on if it was a display issue or real issue, and if they would take the item from me and refund the amount. Neither of which happened. I was told again "Yeah we know about it and the devs will get to it" with a side glancing "we don't give refunds". So as of now, you can still purchase the Danube class ship from DS9, it WILL break your stats, and there is NO WAY to get a refund even if you put in multiple tickets. How hard is it to get a ticket, remove the item, refund the credits? it has no effect on the economy because the goods are removed. It would remove the headaches of dealing with players afflicted with this bug, and if you remove the item from sale and implement it when it's fixed, all the better! My ticket is still open and there is a thread open on the STO forums.
Sigh.
Still Plugging Away, Captain in sight!
Ok so I have been splitting a lot of my game time up for the last few weeks. Star Trek Online really has me stuck in the holodeck and has taken control of the ship. When I can get some escape from it I have been working my way through Bioshock 2. Since the time is split on both and finishing up neither it has left me with some wonder on what to post to keep things current out here on the site. So I will give you the thoughts so far on both of these. First up, a State of Rapture.
So I am quite a ways into B2 and it's just, finally, starting to get to a near playable state. I say that because the first few levels were spent figuring out how to play and building up weapons so they can actually hurt someone wearing just a dress and a plastic mask. Where as the junkie with a pipe can kill me in my deep sea armor plated dive suit. Yeah, it's a lot like that. It would also appear that the Xbox version has a few bugs. None of the vending machines give off the familiar "Welcome, to the Circus of Values!". And I still miss the little sisters reacting to your rescue of them ("No No, No No!"). Now that I am past the build up phase and getting more into the game, it's getting a little better. I may have to agree with the guys in the Joystiq Xbox fancast when they say that maybe using Bioshock 2 to follow Mass Effect 2 is a bad idea. When you go from a game that is very heavily story based and rich in it's plot, and you go to something that is basically a re-hash of the first game, it's bound to leave you a tad bitter. Fret not though, despite all this, I am still enjoying the game and it's probably better that I take it slow so that I can enjoy the good parts and be away long enough to forget the bad.
In the meantime I have been enjoying the Trek experience in Star Trek Online. I have a grand total of 3 characters (BTW, the max is 3), My Main, Boothby, is a Trill Science Commander (Commander 9, soooooo close to Captain) flying the U.S.S. Amazonia which looks like it's ready to be hatched. I hate the look of the Commander Science ships. They have that horrible sphere instead of a saucer section. I also have my Klingon Character which you are able to start playing after you reach LT 6 with your Federation character. The nice thing is that you start at LT 6 with the Klingon as well so Lt Lock, Tactical Officer of the I.K.S VeS Qab (WarCrimes), is bringing hell to the Federation. Finally I have my Alt, Lt Commander Wi'Zzer, Vulcan Engineering officer of the U.S.S. Fairfax. This character I am running with my friend Doc so we are keeping the characters in line with each other. When he isn't on, I play Booth.
So the State of the Galaxy is that Boothby just managed to reach Deep Space 9 out towards Cardassian space. I like that there are a specific set of missions for each area and a specific enemy that you are working against. Something I would love to see, though, is a different set of missions based on what you are. I'm a Doctor not a Tactical officer! Where are my Science specific missions? Why does my Engineer character get missions where he needs to scan Nebula's and gathering Data? My Science officer is running off on missions to take out 5 squadrons of ships that should be better suited for a Tactical officer. Now it's usually better if you are running in a team of course so you have 1 of each type, but that is rare. Another big complaint would be in the stats and skills. So I have my ship that I can outfit with a billion different bits and parts. I loot a science console that gives me +10 to Astrometrics. I have found no where to tell me what exactly that does for me! Some of the skills are good in that they give you examples of the skills they benefit, but it's really hard to keep the granularity straight.
On the plus side, the missions I have run lately have been great for the story. Learning about the Hobus Star and what happened to Romulus was very intriguing. Playing as my Engineer and being the tank while Doc tears through with his Escort ship, and even playing through as my Klingon even though it's just PVP for him. (Need more Klingon Quests!!!) I can see that I will be very entertained for quite a while still. Is it bad that I have had the urge to watch more of the TV show and movies as of late? Not much else on the radar right now so I will be cooking up some non-review articles in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!
Stupid Ezio! or My trip back to Florence.
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.
Farpoint 2010 The Returning
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!)
To Boldly Have Gone. or Mission Accomplished
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
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!
iPad, or iPod-Maxi, take your pick.
It should surprise no one that I am not a huge Apple fan. Heck I am taking a week long class on Windows Server now, but I am not completely against them either. Without Apple we would not have the competitive market that is leading us into the 21st century. No iPhone means we would all still be using flip phones because of how they remind us of Star Trek. (or maybe that's just me.) I certainly would not be writing this post on my fancy touch screen phone while zipping along on the train. Apple has done some amazing things for tech, but now it seems like it's their turn to try and play catch up.
The tablet PC has been around for a long time. I understand that most tablets are bulky, or the interface is a bit weird, but they keep changing and have progressively gotten better. I have used a few tablets that feel great to use and do everything I need them to do and more. Unfortunately I don't see this iPad doing even 1/2 of them. Yay, it can read books, but my Kindle and any number of cheaper ebook readers can do that. It plays games, but so does my Droid and my Xbox and any of the tablet. (one may argue that it plays iPod/iPhone games that my stuff can't, we have an iPod in the house so I'm good.) Honestly the only things the iPad has going for it is 1: a rabid Apple fan-base that will buy anything the almighty Steve Jobs produces, and 2: its size. I will say that they seemed to have gotten that part right. It appears to be sleek, slim, and fit right in the hand, but I would expect that from Apple.
So what would it take to make me like this? Easy.
1: Flash Player. (Adobe has 10.1 working now...port it!)
2: Front facing web-cam. (it would be the perfect video conference tool)
3: USB (why does it NOT have this? oh right because then you could choose your wireless provider)
4: Hit below the $300 price mark. (seriously with everything that's available that does the same thing, it's just not competitive)
So there you go. I am sure that many of you have other ideas about what it should have as well but there are r simple things that would make me more interested. Until I see that, I give the iPad a preview score of 6 oranges out of 10 apples.
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- What are you playing? or….The Risk of Cracking Down on your Limbo Skills
- What are you playing?
- Heavy Rain … Or… Press –> to read this post.
- Naughty Bear…or….20 minutes of game play I’ll never get back
- Alan Wake