Author: MoreLikeAndy

Contributing Writer at Geekscape.

Over 1 Million Pre-Orders for Pokemon Black & White 2 In Japan. Surprise?

by MoreLikeAndy

It really shouldn’t be a surprise as to the popularity of Pokemon anywhere in the world. The series has held up between generations of gamers ever since Pokemon video games were made.

Andriasang is reporting that as of June 17th, 1.16 million pre-orders for Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 were taken from clamoring fans and parents of those fans. The previous Black and White games had pre-order numbers over 1 million as well. Now please, please give us a Pokemon game using the Skylanders technology.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend – 6/22/2012

by MoreLikeAndy

I wasn’t satisfied with starting one new feature this week at Geekscape. So to keep myself busier than I should be, I created ‘Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend.’

Essentially, this will be a weekly feature that will contain games that I am going to play every weekend. What I want to try to do with this feature is to not only show you some games you might be missing out on, I also want to get our community (THAT’S YOU) involved. It would be nice to see what everyone is currently playing. Hopefully, this will spark conversation among us.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Demo

After last night’s Nintendo Direct announced that Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance demo was live on the eShop, I finally thought I would dip into the world since my initial try with the first Kingdom Hearts left me motion sick. I am not sure if I’m going to be lost in the story since I have no knowledge of the universe. Only one way to find out.

Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles

I mentioned this wonderful pinball add-on  earlier in the week for Pinball FX2 (Marvel Pinball on PSN) and I need to play more of this. Although I am not a trophy/achievement hunter, something about Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles makes me want to get them all. That, and I want to get the highest score possible so I pose a challenge to anyone on my PSN friends list.

Pocket Planes

Finally getting over my slight addiction to Tiny Tower last year, NimbleBit decide to introduce a new addiction. Everyone I follow on Twitter is buzzing about Pocket Planes and from what I gathered, this is Tiny Tower with planes. I wonder if I can buy John McClane in-game to be my airport security chief?

I might try to fit some GAMER and Diablo III time in just to see what kind of adjustments went into the OSX version of the game. That’s what I’m gaming for the weekend. What about you?

Anyone Still Have Their Annie’s Secret Circle Decoder Ring?

by MoreLikeAndy

A new image from the Spy vs Spy game Robot & Pencils is working on arrived in my inbox today.

It seems like there is some sort of code at the bottom of the image and since I don’t drink Ovaltine, I never got my secret decoder ring. Maybe someone in the Geekscape community can figure out the coded message?

UPDATE: Looks like Geekscape community member Shu solved the riddle. It reads:

WHITE AND BLACK SPIES RESURFACE -(STOP)- IPAD -(STOP)- IPHONE -(STOP)- IPOD TOUCH -(STOP)- ONLINE TWO PLAYERS -(STOP)- THIS SUMMER -(STOP)- THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN FIVE SECONDS -(STOP)

Thanks Shu!

Vita Sales Double With the Release of Persona 4: The Golden in Japan

by MoreLikeAndy

When will companies learn. You can’t have a great handheld gaming system without great games. When there are games to actually play at a regular interval on your portable system, people are happy. When people are happy, they spend money on your products.

Case in point, according to Andriasang.com, the PS Vita more than doubled its sales from 13,383 to 34,549 in one week. All this because Persona 4: The Golden was released. Of course, this is in Japan but you can see that if games come out regularly and are good, people will buy your products. Although Gravity Rush came out this month, it almost feels like the US has to wait too long in between releases to really feel like the PS Vita was worth buying at launch. Let’s hope the Fall gaming season has a lot more to offer for the poor PS Vita so I can stop using it mainly as my Twitter feed/Netflix machine.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek: ‘Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles’

by MoreLikeAndy

If you are a pinball junkie, chances are you own Pinball FX and Pinball FX2. Zen Studios has done an incredible job with both titles and continuously supports Pinball FX2 with new tables frequently. Since the nerdgasm that was The Avengers movie has been out for a month, Zen Studios decided to team up with Marvel once again to bring us more tables in Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles.

Avengers Chronicles is a 4-pack of tables for the previously released, Marvel Pinball–which is also an add-on for Pinball FX2. New tables consist of The Avengers, Infinity Gauntlet, Fear Itself and World War Hulk. Each table has dialogue from the comics and from the Avengers movie, without the voices from the actors of the movie of course.

From the time I have spent with all 4 tables, Infinity Gauntlet wins as my favorite table. Having the table flip upside down in the middle of play is part devious, part genius. One of the rare times I curse and praised something that happened in a game at the same time. The other tables are no slouch either with the crazy amount of animations, dialogue and minigames  going on. Just be prepared to get a little annoyed when all that animation on screen distracts you or gets in your way when multiball is active.

Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles is available now for 800 MS points on XBLA or $9.99 on PSN. No question if your money should be spent on this. If you have a PS3 or Xbox 360 and love pinball, you should get Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles.

 

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Resonance’

by MoreLikeAndy

With the success of Telltale Games has had with The Walking Dead game, a lot of people could point at the demise of the traditional way point and click adventure games are made. Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games would like to point out with their latest game, Resonance, there is still some life left in the traditional ways.

Point and click adventure games are all about the story. The better it is, the more you want to continue to the end to see the story through. Resonance does an amazing job with the sci-fi/conspiracy theory story in that if this was fleshed out more and put out as a book, it would have done very well for itself. Since I don’t want to ruin the story, thus the game itself, I will be as brief as possible. Resonance’s story revolves around a breakthrough a scientist and his research assistant on a project they are both working on. What follows is a series of events that eventually brings 4 people together to solve all the mystery behind “Resonance.”

The way Xii Games introduces you to the 4 main characters is stunning. After the opening scene, you get a grid of 4 different panels with different pictures that all have timepieces in them. All of the timepieces have different times on them. You have the option of choosing any 1 of the 3 panels since one of them is the opening scene. Once all the panels are completed, I was delighted to see why Xii Games put that grid panel in the beginning. Delaying the title screen for your game is always a pleasure to see if done right.

Of course with a good story and presentation, you need some good voice actors to make the words and the world around those words come alive. All of the voice work was pretty good. There were times when the audio seemed to spike yet it happens very little that some might not even notice it. Anyone who has played Bastion will immediately notice Detective Winston Bennet. He is voiced by the “Narrator” himself, Logan Cunningham. Thankfully, the lines in the story that the Detective has seem a perfect fit for Logan.

At first glance, you would think that you could treat Resonance like any other old-school point and click adventure game. You will find out very quickly how wrong you are. Putting a twist on the formula, Resonance has a Long Term Memory (LTM) and Short Term Memory (STM). LTM is a consistent summary of the story as the player makes it through the story. I look at it as a log file of what I have done already and to help me remember important things that may or may not help me solve puzzles. STM is more limited in you can only have up to 5 things in your STM. These things can be anything you can interact with from any location. Anything you add after the 5th thing to your STM, the last thing added before that will drop off.

So what does this all mean? It means these memories will be essential to solving a lot of the puzzles you will encounter in Resonance. Clicking on everything to brute force the solution to the puzzle will not serve you well this time around. Using LTM and STM along the traditional point and click adventure tropes was a little daunting at first. There were a couple of puzzles that took me 30 minutes to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. My conditioning to the old methods of point and click adventure games made me have a lapse in memory, thus forgetting that STM’s and LTM’s could be used as items and presented to other characters during the conversations trees. It will take a little to get used to so don’t worry too much at the beginning when you start learning the new mechanics Resonance throws your way.

The UI was one sticking point I had issues with Resonance. Having to click and hold while dragging items out of my inventory to use was very annoying. It made me feel like I had to work harder than anyone should using inventory items in point and click adventure game. Switching between characters also felt slow and cumbersome. The process during certain moments in the game was a lesson in patience for me. At the risk of being nit-picky, I wish there was more screen resolution sizes. Maxing out at 1280×920 made Resonance look a little hazy on my 24 inch monitor. Setting the game to run in window mode fixed the hazy problem but introduced new problems of me clicking off the screen and onto my desktop. Making these changes has to be done outside the game since that is the limitation of the engine Resonance is running on which is not that big of a deal for most people. So don’t be frightened when you don’t see an options choice in the main menu.

While other companies try to reinvent the point and click genre by making it more action oriented, some of the charm that makes a point and click game can be lost. With what Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games did with Resonance, it shows you that there is still innovation left in the traditional way of making point and click adventure games. With only a few minor issues, the story, writing and interesting new mechanics make Resonance worth playing for anyone looking for a great adventure game.

Geekscape Games Reviews Elgato’s ‘Game Capture HD’

by MoreLikeAndy

I am all about recording my gameplay. Since I review games, this helps to get screenshots as well as looking at a section of the game to help me describe something that sticks out while playing. For awhile now, I’ve been using a non-HD device and although it works for the price, the quality is not as sharp as it should be to use for my reviews. There aren’t many devices that do HD recording for consoles, especially using HDMI. Elgato kicks in the door with a $200 answer, the Game Capture HD.

With the vast array of consoles hooked up at my desk, one can imagine the snakes nest of wires going everywhere. Being the size of a portable hard drive and having only 4 ports, the Game Capture HD is easy for people with very little room for more devices in their gaming area. One of the things that I don’t like about other HD capture devices is all the wires coming out of them. It may seem trivial but when you actually have one of these devices with component cables coming out of both ends, it ends up being a mess of wires everywhere.

Simplicity seems to be the goal when Elgato came up with the design of the Game Capture HD. HDMI in, HDMI out and usb cable to the computer and you are done. There are extra cables included for the Game Capture HD since the PS3 cannot do anything over HDMI without HDCP (insert). What you might think is an s-video in port  is actually where you plug the special cable made for the PS3. There is also a component cable for that port to use for any other devices that don’t have HDMI, you know, just in case you want to record some of that awesome Wii gaming goodness.

Excited to test the Game Capture HD, I hooked up the Xbox 360 first.

 

 

Using the default settings of the software, that video of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks pretty good at 720p. I tried out 1080p for another video but I didn’t notice the quality being all the much better so sticking with the default settings should suit the majority of people. If you want to change the settings, the ease of use will make things quick for you to do so. Changing the quality of the recording is as simple as moving the slider. The only thing I notice with the quality slider is what bitrate the video is recorded in. Nothing changes the audio though. That stays at 224 kbps ACC. Video is also static to one format, h.264.

Since I am not familiar with editing video, I asked Geekscape’s Head Geek Jonathan London about h.264 (mp4, m4v) and editing that file type since he does this for a living. In his words:

On a Mac, you want to be editing an MOV file. Neither of those files you listed are ideal and would need to be converted to be cut in FCP or Avid and Premiere.

This is for the Mac users, of course. Yes, Game Capture HD actually works natively on Windows and OSX. Elgato lists that the software works only in Windows 7 and OSX 10.7 though I never got the chance to test to see if older OS’s would work so people with older OS’s should be wary. On the Windows side of things, the raw format saves in .TS where as on the OSX side it saves in either .mp4 or .m4v. Simplicity of design also carries over to the software for the Game Capture HD. Those looking to do some basic editing and effects will feel a little left out. The only things possible when editing is cutting clips out of your recorded video. I don’t really see this as an issue since iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are ok in a pinch, and free for that matter.

The Game Capture HD software makes it simple to upload and share your videos with the handy assortment of buttons in the bottom corner. Using either Facebook or Youtube to host your video, you can share with all your friends on Twitter, Facebook, email or just save the original file to your videos folder. Other options are OS specific. With OSX, you get the options of ProRes and iMovie. Windows 7 users get Movie Maker.

What I think is a big deal and separates the Game Capture HD from the competition is the ‘timeshift’ feature. In a nutshell, the Game Capture HD is a mini Tivo. From the moment you turn on the software and hook up the device, the counter starts. At first I thought the buffer for how long it will let you rewind was in the device itself. Turns out, it uses the hard drive the device is hooked into as the buffer. Essentially, the buffer can be as long as you want it to be, so long as you have the hard drive space.

Once you pick a spot to start your recording, the temporary buffer file on the hard drive stops and anything before the point of recording is gone. I went 2 hours before hitting record and the buffer file size got to 4.4GB’s in size. Very helpful to know that you can play until you want to record. Saves you time and hard drive space.

Not satisfied with just testing out the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, I tried using the Game Capture HD on my PC. My XFX 5770 video card has a full HDMI-out port on it so I figured it would work. I was right. For people that like to record their gameplay on PC but don’t want to use software like Fraps will enjoy using the Game Capture HD. Well, that is if you have another PC or laptop to record on. I did notice some frame rate issues on the PC that wasn’t recording but I imagine that was due to the resolution I had set on my 32 inch LCD TV that doubles for one of my PC monitors.

I am new to streaming video live from a console so I am not sure how most people do it these days. The Game Capture HD is not recognized by the streaming software I tried as a video device so I ended up using Xsplit (free version) to capture the live preview screen of the Game Capture HD software. Not the best way to do so but from the test I ran doing this, it was clear and stutter-free.

With how little of a footprint the Game Capture HD has with its size and usage of few cables, I can say that anyone willing to spend money on an HD capture device for pretty much anything that can use non-HDCP HDMI as an output will feel great about the purchase. I see some having issues with the barebones software that only lets you cut and clip your videos. Could be Elgato wants people to use their own video editor of choice. Still would be nice to do everything in one software suite instead of moving around 2 or 3 different ones. With the Game Capture HD, Elgato just threw down the mic to all competition. Time to step your game up, fellas.

Ubisoft Following the Footsteps of Naughty Dog With Use of Motion Capture, Voice Acting

by MoreLikeAndy

Naughty Dog nailed it on the head with their Uncharted series with how well the reactions to what the characters are doing on screen matched up. When making video games, the voice acting is done separate from the motion capture. This can create that disconnect from what the character on screen is doing and how the voice actor reacts to it. Having someone do the voice acting and motion capture at the same time is a huge undertaking and why most studios don’t do it.

With Far Cry 3, Ubisoft seems to get the definition of insanity and is doing things differently by using the same actors for both voice and motion capture. The folks over at CVG did an interview with the actor who plays Vaas, who seems to be the main villain in Far Cry 3. I was hoping for someone that was crazed out of their mind but Michael Mando seems like a genuinely sweet guy. I like that Ubisoft wanted Mando to go even further and over the top with the character Vaas. Everyone loves an on the edge psychotic bad guy. Can’t wait to get my hands on Far Cry 3 on September 4th, 2012.

2-D Stealth is Back! New Screenshots and Trailer for ‘Mark of the Ninja’

by MoreLikeAndy

Out of all the games shown during this years E3, I wanted to see coverage for Klei Entertainment’s new game, Mark of the Ninja. I wish more gaming press covered this instead of all the other titles EVERYONE covered ad nauseum.

I hope to get a closer look at Mark of the Ninja when it comes out on XBLA this summer. We will have to settle for some screenshots and a quick trailer for now.

 

E3 2012 – Skylanders: Giants Will Have Your Wallet Crying All Over Again

by MoreLikeAndy

Having all but 2 Skylanders figures left to collect, Activision and Toys for Bob decided that people like me need to have more things to collect. My poor wallet.

Wishing I was on the show floor at E3 2012, I have to settle for the press kit and Game Informer’s detailed preview. Coming in October, Skylanders: Giants will give the fans more to love. First thing, obviously, is more characters to collect.

   

 

There will be 8 Giant figures to collect that will have certain puzzles that only they can complete. Toys for Bob is also adding a new elemental power to the mix,  Light Core. Nothing is said yet as to what their powers will be like but hey, the figures will light up when put on the Portal of Power! Now I can have a desk lamp while playing Skylanders: Giants at night.

 

We will also see 8 new characters in the elemental power groups we are already use to be introduced. If that wasn’t enough, 24 Series 2 figures from all the loveable Skylanders you have collected already are coming. To make it worth picking up the same characters again, Toys for Bob made the Series 2 figures with new poses and all will have new upgrade paths to differ from their Series 1 counterparts.

Let’s not forget actual gameplay now. Toys for Bob is adding even more collectables and secret areas for the completionists. It won’t be easy this time around either, if you don’t want it to be, since the option for difficulty levels will be added as well.

So let’s count. 8 + 8 + 24 = 40 new Skylanders that we will all have to camp out at Toys R Us to wrestle out of some poor kids hands. At least we will still be able to use the original figures and level them up even further with the level cap being raised from 10 to 15. That should ease the pain of the insane prices you will see for the new Skylanders: Giants figures on eBay when the game comes out this October.

Bruce Wayne And Selina Kyle Get Their 30 Seconds Of Fame With New “The Dark Knight Rises” TV Spots

by MoreLikeAndy

First we had the movie poster released this week for The Dark Knight Rises. Everyone here at Geekscape was a little underwhelmed and tried to forget about it. Then, we got the character posters which made our nerd boners rise at attention.

In the onslaught of The Dark Knight Rises media blitz this week, two new TV spots where shown during the American Idol finale. If you didn’t sit and watch, captivated by who was going to win a recording contract, you are in luck.

Here are the two TV spots showcasing Bruce Wayne trying to get back into the game and Selina Kyle, well just being Selina Kyle.

Ys Origin Releases On Steam May 31st, First Time Available With English Translation

by MoreLikeAndy

XSEED announced today that the prequel to the popular Ys series, Ys Origin will be coming to Steam on May 31st. At the price point of $19.99, this is a perfect time to get acquainted with what everyone in Japan got to play back in 2006.

Besides having the game translated in English for the first time, being on Steam will have the usual achievements and cloud support. For those who prefer to use a controller instead of mouse and keyboard, you heathens, you will have that option as well.

If you are not familiar with anything Ys, check out http://www.worldofys.com/yso/ to get caught up.

 

Geekscape Games Reviews “Game of Thrones”

by MoreLikeAndy

As with most people, I have only experienced Game of Thrones through the HBO series and not the books. The political turmoil, crazy plot twists and yes, boobs, makes the show entertaining to watch. And of course, with every great series, we sooner or later get a video game (remember the Lost game?). The first try for Cyanide (Montreal) was with Game of Thrones: Genesis, a turn-based strategy game that was ill received. This time around, Cyanide (Paris) takes a stab at Game of Thrones with an Action RPG.

Instead of following the original story, Cyanide crafted a new one, a tale that takes place before and during the first season of the HBO series. The story revolves around 2 different characters. One is Mors Westford, a Night Watch ranger that has to go on a mission to find a woman that Jon Arryn, the hand of the king, wants protected. The other is Alester Sarwyck, a red priest who comes home after many years to pay his respects to his dead father as well as to rightfully claim the throne of his home, Riverspring.

With the help of George R.R. Martin, Cyanide has created a fantastic story that is a joy to experience. Just be prepared to sit through a lot of text and dialogue. Game of Thrones has so much exposition in the beginning that it almost wore me down. So much information passed before me through my 25 hour play-through that I was wishing that I had the Cliff Notes in front of me by the end (because without complication, it’s not Game of Thrones!)

Speaking of the end, Game of Thrones just doesn’t seem to want to end when you want it to. Multiple times I thought I was at the end of the game when it just kicks into another chapter. It’s kind of frustrating when you are up at 4am thinking that you are at the end and you end up with 3 more chapters to go. Choices that you make in the game are supposed to change the outcome as you progress yet I felt that the changes were minor and never had the impact Cyanide intended them to have. The only choices that seemed to matter where the ones near the end which decided which of the 4 endings I received.

Thankfully, the story is worth it due to some good voice actors. Only two, unfortunately, are the actual actors from the HBO series. James Cosmo (Lord Commander Jeor Mormont) and Conleth Hill (Lord Varys the Spider) had me seeing them as they are in the HBO series while talking to me in the game. Of course it helps that the characters were also modeled after their HBO counterparts. I had a hard time with Alester’s voice acting. There are times when he nailed it. Too bad there are many other times where the delivery of the lines were awful. Mors, on the other hand, was amazing throughout the game. With the low, gravelly voice, you knew that he was a man best left alone.

Combat ended up being quite boring at first. Having to queue up 3 actions at any given time was unsatisfying. It only got a little better when you had more than 1 person to control to switch between and manage their attacks. I appreciated how the action slows down when you bring up the radial skills wheel. I had a few close calls with drinking a potion to stave off death. Just like the story, the good combat takes some time to get to. Once you learn that enemies with different armor types are susceptible to certain weapon proficiencies, you try to set the weapons in your 2 separate load-outs to accommodate that. You can get by with just using weapons with the proficiencies of cutting and perforating. I rarely ran across enemies that blunt weapons had a bonus effect on.

The absolute, best thing about the combat is using Mors’ skinchanger ability. With this ability, you can control your mangy mutt of a bulldog. Doing so lets you run around in first-person view as the dog! I became more wrapped up in the sneaking around, stealthily killing soldiers by ripping their throats out. It reminded me that someone needs to make a Milo & Otis game. You can sniff around for hidden treasure too but thinning out the ranks by leaping at enemies throats is really, really fun.

I see where Cyanide was going with the customization for each of your characters. Having the option to pick between 3 different battle stances for Mors or Alester will have an effect on what skills you can learn and what weapons you will be more proficient using. Late in the game you can add a second stance to add more abilities to your arsenal. None of this seems to really make an impact since most will settle on the 2 or 3 skills that are the most useful and spam them over and over ad nauseum. One thing I did find surprising is being able to pick your strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I can pick leadership as a strength and to balance that out, I would have to pick something to offset that like a weakness to fire. I would like to see this implemented in more RPG’s. More customization is not a bad thing, as long as it’s done right.

With such a vast world to use, it’s a shame to not have anything really to do in it. There are side quests to be found albeit very few of them. I wanted more to do than just the main quest and lazily exploring the world and found myself disappointed when there wasn’t a reason to do anything but the main story quests.

Still, the Music in Game of Thrones is pure bliss and worth wandering around listening to. Again, having HBO on their side helps out with some licensing and Cyanide was able to use the theme song from the TV series. I spent the whole week humming the very infectious theme. The visuals of the world and characters could have been cleaned up a bit as they are not pretty to see at times and some clipping issues are bothersome but none of it should take you out of the game as you play.

With George R.R. Martin helping craft the story, fans of the books and TV series will find enjoyment in the intertwining stories between Mors and Alester. People that love a good story in their RPG but don’t follow the book or HBO series will still find Game of Thrones interesting enough to sit through the dull moments in combat as well as the world feeling a little empty. Everyone else coming to this game on the assumptions that it will be “Game of Boobs” will be sorely unsatisfied. After 25 hours with the game, my quest to find some boobs was still unfinished.

Chronicle Director Josh Trank Tasked To Bring Shadow of The Colossus To The Big Screen

by MoreLikeAndy

After Chronicle became a huge success, Sony Pictures has taken notice in the talents of director Josh Trank and signed him on to try to do the impossible, make a video game movie that doesn’t suck.

That is going to be a hard task since Shadow of the Colossus is a cult favorite among gamers and they will be sure to point out any little mistake Trank makes. Even being a fan of the game himself, Josh Trank has a daunting project on his hands.

At least he will get a new writer since the one that was hired back in 2009 didn’t do so well with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the failed Voltron movie, and Masters of the Universe.

Video Games and Real Life Collide in Freddie Wong’s New Web Series

by MoreLikeAndy

Finally! Someone gets me, or actually seems to understand the crazy things I think of when I am day dreaming. Moving on from short skits, Freddie Wong has now moved on to developing a web series with his Rocket Jump studios.

Called Video Game High School, it seems to take everything that is cheesy in teenage drama shows and surprisingly ends up being pretty decent with its production value. We could be biased here, though, since we love video games and lets face it, our podcast can get just as cheesy as CW’s late night line-up.

Episodes 1 and 2 are live right now and with the length of the episodes falling around 10 minutes, take a break from whatever you’re doing and give it shot.

 

Geekscape Games Reviews Max Payne 3

by MoreLikeAndy

With its dark and ever depressing undertones, the Max Payne series has always been able to deliver an amazing story set to some pretty outrageous John Woo style gunplay using the slow down effects of bullet time. Now, after 9 years since his last outing, we check in on Max in Max Payne 3 to see how life has been for the former NYPD cop. And from the look of things, it’s business as usual.

Still living in his past, Max Payne routinely drowns his sorrows in booze and pills. It’s amazing to me that Max still has a liver with all the drinking he does. The story for Max Payne 3 starts with an old police academy buddy, Raul Passos, finding Max in a dive bar doing what he does best. Raul’s offer, an easy job protecting rich people, at first sounds uninteresting to Max. But after certain events happen in the bar, Max is more than eager to get the hell out of New Jersey and off to Sao Paulo, Brazil. I’m not sure I would want an alcoholic, pill popping ex-cop to guard me but when things start to go wrong in this seemingly easy bodyguard detail, Max finds a way to shake the drug induced haze long enough to start trying to figure out just what the hell is going on.

Anyone would be hard pressed to not say that Max Payne 3’s story and presentation doesn’t resemble Tony Scott’s Man on Fire. I couldn’t help but also see Max Payne as Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days. The similarities are that both characters begin the story as drunks with a past that they can’t seem to let go of. The choice of the blurring effects mixed with the split screen scenes presents a believable state of mind that Max is in throughout the game. These provided some exciting and seamless transitions from the past to the present of the story, so when I say that we’re catching up with Max after 9 years, I mean it. The story in Max Payne 3 covers a lot of ground.

Even the way that the cut scenes flow right back into gameplay seem like magic to me. The characterization and writing is so good that, throughout my journey, I felt like I should have broken out the bottle of rum and had a drink with Max. Making me feel that sorry for a character in a game is an amazing feat, one that Rockstar knows how to do very well as of late (Red Dead Redemption anyone?). Still, the writing does have its brief moments of slipping into terrible and the pacing is erratic during the final acts. Though the ending may not satisfy me as much as Red Dead Redemption’s ending did, Rockstar still manages to pull a smile out of me before the closing credits rolled.

Of course, what really makes a Max Payne game is the combat. Endless streams of bullets while diving in slo-mo is a trademark thing for this series. With Max a little more broken down by age and a “healthy” diet of alcohol and pill cocktails, he has lost a step or two. Controls seem to be sluggish overall when moving Max around. I honestly don’t see how Max doesn’t break a hip diving in to the air and landing on the ground. Bullet-time is still here as well as shoot-dodging. Shoot-dodging is a gamble this time around due to how slow Max gets up afterwards. Diving into a group of gun-toting mercenaries only to land in the middle of them as they laugh at you is downright embarrassing.

Even with bullet-time and John Woo action diving, the combat didn’t feel like a Max Payne game. Essentially, bad memories of the terrible combat from Uncharted 3 rushed over me when I was in my first gun fight. Instead of the run-and-gun, bullet hell ballet that is a trademark for Max Payne, you are forced to play the game as a cover shooter. Between the enemies being sponges for damage, deadly accurate in aiming and the fragile nature of Max Payne’s  body, doing anything but hiding behind cover will put you on the fast track to the death animation of Max getting a baseball sized hole in his face. Some of the enemies were wearing flak jackets so I can understand that shooting them in the head is your best option. What I can’t understand is how a ratty button up shirt can take half a clip of an Uzi before the person wearing it dies. I was very tempted to lower the difficulty to easy just to see the story to its end. Even with the options for soft lock or hard lock aim assist, I couldn’t be more disappointed with the combat.

Not surprising, there is multiplayer in this installment of the Max Payne series.  With Rockstar really pushing the aspect of creating or joining crews in Max Payne 3 (will carry over to GTA V as well), it is a crying shame that they lock the Gang War mode behind what seems to me like arbitrary goals. I am not sure I want to complete 7 different goals to unlock new play modes. Infinity Ward and Treyarch did this with their latest Call of Duty games but things were locked behind what level you were, while leveling up was not very hard.

If Rockstar wanted to use these goals to get players acclimated to the controls and combat for multiplayer, they should have taken the route that Epic Games did with Gears of War 3. People can play in the casual playlist until they either feel comfortable enough to venture out to the regular playlists or reach a certain level, thus having the casual playlist locked out to them. What is baffling to me as well is that there are only 2 different modes besides Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. I would have liked to see the sniper level in the beginning of the story to be a mode for multiplayer. Have 2 players on a team , one covering the other with a sniper rifle while the other team of 4 or 6 tries to keep the player not using the sniper rifle from reaching some goal.

While the story of Max Payne is engrossing, it is not enough to wash out the horrid combat and some poor choices made in the design of multiplayer. Sort of like drinking a whole bottle of whiskey to chase the Oxycodone down with. It’s all fun and games until you vomit a liver and Max Payne 3 sounds like a good time but it leaves a hell of a painful hangover.

Geekscape Games Reviews Awesomenauts!

by MoreLikeAndy

With a name like Awesomenauts, you are setting a high bar of expectation that your game is going to be, well, awesome. Given that Ronimo Games developed Sword and Soldiers a few years back and that that game was really fun, I was willing to believe that the name accurately describes the game. After my time with Awesomenauts, looks like I was right!

Since this is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game, the story is not really needed, but in short, you are a group of mercenaries hired to mine for Solar while trying to destroy the other factions Solar drill. Honestly, if I didn’t have friends that were into these style of games, I would be confused on how to actually play Awesomenauts. I have watched plenty of matches of my friends in Heroes of Newerth that I understood the basic concepts of what to do and not do. Essentially, the goal of MOBA games are to destroy the opponents base by taking out their towers that stand in your way. A.I. characters affectionately known as “creeps” help you in your teams push to get to their base. The strategy of MOBA’s is to know when to retreat. Getting killed is a bad thing since you will feed the other team money and experience that will make them stronger. Teamwork is a must in order to win. Going commando will just end in disappointment from your teammates.

It seems that in all the matches I have played so far, only 3 of them felt like the players on both teams knew what to do. Most of the times, I ended up in games where the victories were so lopsided, I never got to get past level 4. I’m not sure how many games of this genre have been released on consoles except for Monday Night Combat so I can’t blame the players all that much. This is a new concept to them and most haven’t figured the nuances yet. Ronimo Games put in a practice mode as well as a tutorial when you first start Awesomenauts to get new players to the genre a basic understanding of the game’s mechanics. Hopefully in a month after release, players will become more comfortable with it all. Until that time, I am going to use that to my advantage before I get crushed by better players.

I love the character class designs. Adding crazy names like Clunk, Voltar and Froggy G mixed with a cartoonish look brings those feelings of waking up early on Saturday morning to watch my favorite cartoons while eating a bowl of cereal rushing back. That put a big smile on my face. If only cartoons these days could still be that way. Depending on what class you pick, your style has to change with it. Obviously going with a healer class, you’re not going to be on the front lines. Usually grouping with one of your teammates and some creeps is the way to go. Picking the bruiser, you will be the front runner in taking out the towers and creeps. I went ahead into practice mode to get a better feel for the characters. This is a good idea since if the character you like is picked, you are familiar enough with another that is available to be a benefit to your team.

Starting off, only three characters are available to you with more unlocking as you level up. Leveling up is possible in practice mode which could both be a good thing and a bad thing. Good for unlocking some of the characters you want to play while learning the game, bad for unlocking more powerful upgrades before jumping into a real match. That could potentially turn people off from playing since they will feel like they can’t win. The truth is that as long as you have good teamwork and a good sense of when to attack and when to fall back, anyone can win.

I can see Awesomenauts being a great intro to MOBA games for the console crowd as well as a different and fun take on the genre for the veterans out there. Playing alone is fine but getting the game on a console your friends will play with you on is a way better experience. Just don’t blame Ronimo Games when you get the urge to watch all those old cartoons on Netflix after playing.

Editor’s Note: Ronimo Games developer Jasper Koning cheated Jonathan out of an Awesomenauts victory at E3 by using a Game Genie hack. He swears it to be true to this day! He WILL get his rematch! HE WILL!!!!

Geekscape Games Reviews Toy Soldiers: Cold War DLC “Evil Empire” and “Napalm”

by MoreLikeAndy

With little fanfare, the folks over at Signal Studios released some DLC for one of the rare few tower defense style games I enjoy: Toy Soldiers: Cold War. Between fighting for Mother Russia in the Evil Empire DLC or saying “good morning” to Vietnam in the Napalm DLC, I am happy to have a reason to jump back in to Toy Soldiers: Cold War.

“Evil Empire” has you playing three new campaign missions that are probably the best out of the two DLC packs that Signal Studios released. I really had to use strategy more so than brute force in the missions. One of the new vehicle on the Russian side, The Hormone,  is a beast against light armor and infantry. I would mainly use the chopper for air-to-air combat and stick with the tanks and turrets for ground forces. The Orbital Laser barrage is pointless to air targets so use it when a land heavy attack wave is coming. I had to laugh at myself for thinking the game was broken when the Orbital Laser went through the bombers i was trying to wipe out. It’s a minor annoyance and easily looked past. On the bad side, the final boss was a little easy to take down. The tanks somehow do a great deal of damage to the Super Tank and simply chasing behind it while shooting at it is all I did. Having the vehicles recharge faster than normal also made the boss fight child’s play.

“Napalm” places you in Vietnam for another three missions yet I couldn’t tell you what the 1st two missions were like. They were over in a flash for me. Either I got really good from playing Evil Empire or these missions were, for the lack of a better term, for babies. All I remember is that I used fully upgraded artillery turrets, aimed them at where the waves were coming out and let the A.I. take over. This gave me some time to eat my lunch so I guess I can be thankful for that.

Napalm did, however, find time to make me hate the new laser tanks in the final mission. No matter what I threw at them, the laser tanks would just keep on coming and in the process, destroy all of my level 3 upgraded turrets. Even when you get a laser tank of your very own to use it seems to take more shots than it should to bring them down. I was so focused on those abominations that the final boss was the least of my concerns. I experienced nothing but frustration with this mission and it brings the whole DLC pack down a notch.

The mini-games added to the DLC packs are just like the rest of them to me, play them once then never again. The whack-a-mole variant mini-game for the Evil Empire map has you controlling an artillery cannon and you have to shoot pigs instead of moles. The Hang Time mini-game is nothing more than seeing how many soldiers you can rescue before time runs out or if your chopper is destroyed. I can’t see how anyone had more than a minute of fun with any of the mini-games. I could be missing the point with them since that is probably why they were put in Toy Soldiers: Cold War.

On the online multiplayer side, I couldn’t get a game going that wasn’t riddled with lag so I can’t say for sure if the new multiplayer maps are any good. The new survival modes are very good indeed though. Instead of throwing new survival maps in the DLC, Signal Studios went ahead and added two new modes instead.  For the Evil Empire DLC, you get Trauma mode. If you have no blatant disregard for your turrets and figure “I will just replace it if it dies. I have money to do so”, be prepared to lose.

In Trauma mode, every turret you place ticks health off your toy box. Since 20 is your health limit, you can see the importance of not only placing strategic turrets but also keeping them alive. I liked how Trauma mode made me think on my feet a lot more and second guess myself a lot. If you don’t want a “thinking man’s game”, Commando mode is here for you. Depending on what survival map you select, you have nothing but your commando barrage to take on the waves of enemies. This mode is so much fun. It never got old as I ran up to a wave of infantry and mowed them all down as my commando shouted cheesy one-liners. I had to adopt a stick-and-move strategy for the helicopters since their rockets do a lot of damage.

There are some hits and misses with each of the two DLC and really, if you want more Toy Soldiers: Cold War you should buy both, no question about it. For 400 Microsoft points each, that is pretty cheap for what you get in each DLC pack. If you must only get one of them, however, I feel Evil Empire has more of what the style of the Toy Soldiers’ series is about between the strategic campaign missions as well as Trauma mode.

Machinima Announces “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” Web Series

by MoreLikeAndy

The good folks over at Variety have an exclusive interview with 343 Industries’ Matt McCloskey in which details of a new web series for the Halo franchise arise. Called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, this five episode series will be mostly geared towards new people not familiar with the Halo universe in order to catch them up to speed.

Machinima and Halo Waypoint will be the only places to find the web series in the weeks leading to November 6th, Halo 4’s release date. Check out the Variety interview for more info (warning, it might be behind a pay wall):

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118053273

Origin PC’s EON-11 S Is The Latest In The 11-Inch Gaming Laptop Arena

by MoreLikeAndy

Looks like my email spamming for a 11-inch gaming laptop to Kevin Wasielewski worked. Or it could be that since Alienware is out of the 11-inch market, ORIGIN PC gladly jumps into its place. Although it’s the same Clevo laptop that other companies are rebranding for their own, the EON-S 11 will have more colors available if you’re into that sort of thing. $1294.00 is what you’re looking at if you want the new Ivy Bridge goodness and yes, you will want it. Read on for the press release.

 

ORIGIN PC Announces the New Compact EON11-S High Performance Laptop and Intel 3rd Generation “Ivy Bridge” Processors11-inch Laptop Available Now starting at $999Miami , FL – April 29, 2012, 12:01AM Eastern ˜ ORIGIN PC announces the availability of their smallest laptop yet, the powerful, lightweight, new EON11-S and Intel’s new 3rd Generation “Ivy Bridge” Core Processors. The new compact high performance laptop debuts with ORIGIN PC’s exclusive new laptop design, Intel’s 3rd generation mobile processors, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M graphics, and NVIDIA Optimus Technology. Origin PC is also offering Intel’s 3rd generation “Ivy Bridge” processors to their full line of award winning desktops and laptops for gamers, artists, enthusiasts and professionals.

ORIGIN PC’s EON11-S features:

  • Exclusive ORIGIN PC Laptop Design: Available as a free upgrade in matte black, matte red, glossy silver, or your choice of custom paint. Traditional style also optional
  • Intel’s 3rd Generation Mobile Processors: The highly anticipated mobile processors offer significant performance and improved onboard graphics with DirectX 11 support
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Graphics: NVIDIA’s powerful mobile graphics come with 2GB of DDR5 memory and can play all of the latest PC games smoothly in stunning high detail
  • NVIDIA Optimus Technology: Enables over 6.5 hours of battery life on the EON11-S by automatically switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed
  • Lightweight Design: Weighing less than 4lbs, the EON11-S is the perfect compact powerhouse that’s easy to carry and easy to travel with
  • THX TruStudio Pro: THX TruStudio Pro gives you the ability to tweak your audio to perfection and enjoy games and movies in crisp, clear quality
  • Full Connectivity: The EON11-S has everything for mobile power users including Bluetooth 4.0, Wireless networking, USB 3.0 and HDMI out to connect to your favorite HD TV or display
  • Free Lifetime 24/7 Support: Every ORIGIN PC comes with industry leading Lifetime 24/7 Support based in the United States

The EON11-S is Fully Customizable starting at $999.00

Intel 3rd Generation Core˙ Processors Features:

  • Amazing new 22 nm manufacturing process with Tri-Gate Transistors
  • Improved memory controller for faster memory and improved stability
  • ORIGIN PC Professional Overclocking capability on the Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor

“ORIGIN PC continues to lead the industry by unveiling our powerful, compact, lightweight EON 11-S and adding Intel’s highly anticipated 3rd generation processors to our award winning lineup of desktops and laptops.” said Kevin Wasielewski ORIGIN PC CEO and co-founder. “Everyone dreams of a laptop that is smaller, lighter, has a longer battery life and has the ability to play all of the latest PC games well. The EON11-S makes that dream a reality and without making any “ultra-sacrifices”.”

About ORIGIN PC
All ORIGIN PC systems come with free lifetime 24/7 phone and online service based in the United States. Each customer has a dedicated support team and free lifetime labor for upgrade needs. ORIGIN PC’s Evolve Upgrade Program allows customers to purchase a custom PC now, and trade in their parts whenever they want to upgrade. Every ORIGIN PC features a 1 to 3 year free part replacement warranty combined with the best in class integration, quality testing and support.

Follow ORIGIN PC:
www.twitter.com/originpc
www.facebook.com/originpc
www.youtube.com/originpc
www.raptr.com/topic/originpc/wall

 

Geekscape Games Reviews “Prototype 2”

by MoreLikeAndy

Between the fast paced arcade action and the plethora of abilities to rain down destruction that would make The Hulk proud, Prototype had its charming moments. Saddled with uneven difficulty spikes and some infuriating boss battles, I still managed to have some fun with Alex Mercer. Now, with new protagonist James Heller in the pilot seat, we end up with a more grounded, yet sadly monotonous romp through New York City in Prototype 2.

Let’s get right to it. The story’s twists and turns are easy to see coming and at times seem to drag out longer than they are welcomed. Even with the starky colored cut scenes that is reminiscent of The Saboteur, I wanted to do nothing more than get back into the action. You can easily ignore the story for the most part and just focus on pure destruction like in the previous title… once you get most of your powers and abilities that is. It’s still a pain to acquire powers as you progress through the story yet I understand why it has to be done. At least you are not teased with being fully powered up at the very beginning only to have it stripped away afterwards (I’m looking at you Prototype 1).

I wasn’t too keen on the open world setting and having the 3 sections of the city separated to stretch the story out more felt a little too reminiscent of GTA.  You cannot enter these new areas until the story is ready to take you there. Even then, you can’t just use your super jumps, gliding or speed to get to the next area. You have to hijack a pilot and commandeer a specific helicopter to travel to it. What’s the point of having all of these wonderful powers if I can’t traverse a destroyed bridge to get to the new area? All I could come up with is that Radical Entertainment are using this delay to load the maps of the area.

Getting upgrades are a matter of doing repetitive side missions that I found strangely fun. Getting all of the upgrades just meant that I would be able to cause more destruction when roaming the streets or rooftops of NYC. For instance, getting the Bulletproof mutation upgrade and dropping into the middle of a bunch of soldiers never gets old. I wish there was a laugh command for Heller as I sit there with bullets ricocheting off of him.

I was a little happy to see that Prototype 2  felt slower in terms of the speed of which Heller moves around. The thing that I hated the most in Prototype was how wildly out of control Alex Mercer felt. He would go all over the place and that would impede boss fights to the point of controller tossing anger. You still get the occasional mistake of Heller picking up a barrel instead of stealth absorbing the base commander like you wanted to. Still, I would shrug that little blunder off and just use it as an excuse to do a mass cleansing of the base personnel.

Ultimately, the ending left me feeling like Radical didn’t have the time to do something on a more grander scale. I can’t further explain this without ruining the game’s ending but I can say that the confinement of the ending had me wishing for a more grandiose setting. At least giving the players the option of a New Game+ and some challenges from RADNET would keep them invested in the game a little longer. RADNET has some decent challenges and events with unlocks to developer diaries, in-game outtakes and new skins to use in-game.

Prototype 2 is easily accessible to anyone who is new to the series with an inclusion of a brief recap video of Prototype in the main menus. Even so, don’t worry about the story so much. Just do what I did, run to the top of the highest building you can find, jump off and see how many people you can wipe out when you hit the ground. Or if you want to keep it simple, jump kick a military helicopter. In this series, the action is definitely the focus over the rail thin plot.

New Playsets Coming April 25th To XBLA For Toy Soldiers: Cold War

by MoreLikeAndy

I still cry when I remember that I use to own so many G.I. Joe’s and neglected them to the point of losing them all. Man, I was such a irresponsible kid. At least Signal Studios can help me forget about all that by releasing DLC for Toy Soldiers: Cold War tomorrow. Two, in fact.

In “Evil Empire”, you take control of the Russians in an effort to crush the capitalist pigs while “Napalm” has you in Vietnam re-enacting scenes from Platoon with Charlie Sheen (Not really). Each DLC will have three new campaign missions with a new multiplayer map. New mini-games, weapons, and vehicles are also at your disposal.

400 Microsoft points for each DLC is what you’re looking at if you want to reach back into your toy box to play some more Toy Soldiers: Cold War. I will be reviewing both DLC packs later this week so until then, have a look at the launch trailers.

Geekscape Games Interviews Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski

by MoreLikeAndy

I love my Macbook Pro. It serves me well when I want to get work done on the go or just to keep in touch with all my news feeds to stay in the loop. What it can’t do for me is jump into some Super Street Fighter 4 AE sessions with my friends while away from my gaming PC. With so many choices out there, I was able to bend the ear of Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski to get some quick answers to some questions I had.

With all the competition out there in the custom PC market, what makes Origin PC stand out?

ORIGIN PC strives to offer the most customization options, the highest performance, and the best support in the industry.  ORIGIN prides itself by delivering the best gaming experiences and productivity by offering only the highest quality parts the industry has to offer.  We offer world class overclocking and performance and we have been building award winning desktops and laptops for over a decade.  . We do this by having a team of people who understand exactly what it takes to build a state of the art, bleeding edge machine that will always support you anytime you need it. Combine all that with our FREE Lifetime 24/7 Technical Support and you pretty much have all the bases covered.

Any company can build a PC, but a real high performance PC must be focused on Customization, Service, Performance, and Technology. This is ORIGIN PC’s specialty.

Did working at EB/Gamestop give you good insight on just how ORIGIN PC would take care of the customers who purchase an ORIGIN PC product?

Absolutely.  Working retail taught me a few valuable lessons including that great service leads to positive word of mouth and that leads to more business!  Interfacing everyday with real hardcore gamers was always fun for me, because I was just like my customers.  At ORIGIN PC we always treat every call/email/live chat/forum post/social media post/etc like a friend because we want every experience with ORIGIN PC to be positive.  Even if you are just calling us to kick the tires and ask a ton of questions, we are happy to help out.  Try doing that with an OEM and your experience will be much different!

I have always built my own gaming rigs and never bought a pre-made PC. For those of us who would rather build our own, how would you try to convince them to give ORIGIN PC a shot?

If you have the time, expertise, resources, and patience to build your own PC then that is a great option.  If you decide you would rather have an experienced team of hardware guru’s build your system and provide free technical support for life then ORIGIN PC is your best choice.  We will do all the work for you including finding and testing all of the best components from around the world, and our expert overclockers will get the most out of your CPU and GPU, and then just how valuable is it that you can call us for technical support 24 hours a day for life!

Some of the custom PC makers seems to make it a point to make their systems stand out with crazy case designs and a plethora of LED’s. What made ORIGIN PC choose a more sleek and stylish design for the custom PC’s and laptops?

 We design our systems based off of what we would like in our own homes and offices.  We also offer an endless amount of customization options so technically we can make your ORIGIN PC look any way you want.

I have to know, who came up with the concept for The Big O? How was this idea first received by everyone at the office?

We were invited to participate in an annual dream PC competition by CPU magazine and they told us to build the ultimate gaming system with price not being considered.  We huddled up and came up with the Big O, a liquid cooled gaming PC and liquid cooled Xbox in one!  Everyone loved the idea from day one and that first time you play a PC game while someone else is playing Xbox is just unreal!   Oh, and if you were wondering how we did in the competition we won almost every single benchmark and took home the crown as winner of the dream PC competition.

With everyone lugging around ultra portable laptops and using handheld gaming devices for their gaming needs, is there still a place for a powerful, yet bulky, gaming laptop in this day and age?

We don’t see consoles, tablets, and ultra-portable laptops as competition, we see them as part of the gaming ecosystem.  We are gamers here at ORIGIN PC, and we play games on all different devices.  There is no doubt though, that PC gaming is the best gaming experience and when console and tablet gamers want to upgrade their experience, they will end up getting an ORIGIN PC.  Play Skyrim or Battlefield 3 on an ultra-portable and then play it on an EON15-S and you will see how much better the graphics are and how much smoother the gameplay is.  Nothing beats playing the latest game at 2560 x 1600 with all graphics and special effects maxed out.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go home and play on my GENESIS!

I am still weighing the decision of getting a gaming laptop after my talk with Kevin Wasielewski. I still hate the fact that gaming laptops are bulky and now that Alienware has killed off their M11x 11 inch gaming laptop, It seems I would have no choice but to go bulky. Maybe I can convince Kevin to make a 13 inch EON laptop?

Batman: Arkham City GOTY + New Story DLC Announced With Horrible Box Art to Boot

by MoreLikeAndy

Someone in the marketing department should be sacrificed to the gods and thrown into a volcano for letting this box art for the recently announced Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition.

It’s worse than this one:

At least we get some info that the rumors were true about some new DLC featuring Harley Quinn. The “Harley Quinn’s Revenge” DLC will be available separately, as a download, from the GOTY version on May 29th for PSN and May 30th for Xbox Live. Having this DLC be the final chapter might leave some of you with a bad taste in your mouth. Being sold what could be considered a “true ending” never comes off as a good thing. Well, I guess we can always just look forward to the next game in the Arkham saga…!

Till May though, check out this sweet trailer:

Geekscape Games Reviews Trials Evolution

by MoreLikeAndy

Another week has passed in April and we have another puzzle game, SURPRISE! Trials Evolution also starts off Microsoft’s Arcade Next event this week and what a strong opening it is. Be prepared to get aggravated and frustrated, in a good way.

Trials Evolution does what it did previously in Trials HD, dirt bike riding, physics-based platforming over tracks that present obstacles in your path. At first glance, you may say Trials Evolution is just a minor update to Trials HD. Once you start the game, however, you will see just how minor those changes are really bigger than you think. Taking to the outdoors, Trials Evolution has brought a more traditional feel to the dirt bike atmosphere. At times, I caught myself starting too much at all the action in the background of some levels that I would crash repeatedly in the same spot. Just wait until the Limbo inspired level, You will smile at how amazing it looks.

Everything is still broken down to difficulty levels of tracks and the license tests, which serve as a tutorial on how to deal with the upcoming obstacles in the next set of tracks. I didn’t face that much hardship until I reached the B class license tracks. The one thing you cannot have that will doom me until I know better is a lead foot. Sure, early on you can go full throttle non-stop. Later on you will need to develop a skill of knowing when to throttle and when not to. I found the controls for leaning and balancing on the dirt bike a little too loose at times causing me to over correct my angle and crash on my head, which is bad in case you were wondering. Spending a little time in the early tracks learning the nuances of the controls will help you in the later tracks, trust me.

Besides being outdoors, multiplayer has been added, much to my joy. The chaotic jumble of four players racing is something I thought would never work in Trials Evolution. I was very wrong. Getting the best out of multiplayer would be getting four friends together for some local play so you can do all sorts of devious things to ruin their run while you try to come in first. Online play is still fun if you can’t pull four people together at your domicile. It is a little tricky to see what lane you are in at the beginning of each race so I found it easier to customize my rider in a way that stands out to me. Matches were found pretty fast for me so I don’t see anyone really having an issue with load times.

RedLynx really outdid themselves with their track editor. Now, I am terrible at design so I will never have a track made and uploaded ever. Not that I need to make one since there are already a decent amount of amazing user created tracks out. There’s even an FPS shooter track! Pretty insane what you can do with the editor. There are two editors for making tracks, Lite and Pro, with the main difference between the two being Pro gets more options such as parts and small items, example groups and trigger events. Sharing your creations is easier since everyone can see them instead of only being able to send them to people on your friends list like Trials HD did.

Trials Evolution may be the best XBLA title to come out this year and might end up on a lot of top 10 lists come December. Grab your helmet, gas up the bike and come hangout with me and break a couple track records, along with some bones. Maybe we can get this guy to rap about our broken bones in the hospital.

http://youtu.be/2NnKjSAUpNc

Geekscape Games Reviews XBLA Puzzler “The Splatters”!

by MoreLikeAndy

The Splatters sounds like the name of a performance act on America’s Got Talent. Instead, it’s a physics-based puzzle game by SpikySnail Games. It seems as though April is the month of XBLA puzzle games this year. With the choices we have this month, The Splatters should be one of them on your list.

Take the simplicity of Angry Birds, add color coding, subsets of special moves that you can pull off and you have yourself The Splatters. Controlling the blob-like creatures and propelling them into the environment to explode and have their remains cover the bombs in the level is the main goal in The Splatters. Starting out, I wasn’t that excited for how the game was presenting the puzzles to me. It was a little too easy. I know, you have to ease people into your mechanics of the game, usually having the first couple of levels being the tutorial. Then I found myself at the end of the main puzzles after only a couple of hours! Where did my time go? Was I having that much fun with the puzzles that I never noticed that I was way past the tutorial phase?

What made the time go by so fast in the main puzzles is my only gripe with The Splatters. About every five puzzles or so, another ability was introduced. It never felt like I was given the freedom to just try out all the crazy abilities I was given without another tutorial explaining the next ability I unlocked. Once you get the final ability, the main puzzles just sort of end. It would have been better to have a lot more puzzles at the end instead of letting the player go back to earlier levels to use the new abilities to get a higher score and three star that puzzle.

There are two other modes to satisfy your puzzle solving appetite in the form of Master Shots and Combo Nation. No leaderboards are in Master Shots mode which makes it hard to want to do well if there is no incentive to climb to the top of your friends list. Combo Nation is like the name implies, try to get your combo multiplier as high as possible using all your abilities to get the highest score on that puzzle. Good luck with that too since after seeing some of the videos you can watch from others in Splatter TV, I wondered if these top players on the leaderboards ever go outside instead of playing this game all day to figure out the best way to get the highest combo score. I am just happy to upload my video if I get all the bombs in one run.

I know most people are looking towards Fez and Trials Evolution this month in lieu of The Splatters but I implore you to give it a shot since it is an interesting take on the physics-based puzzle genre and represents a decent amount of fun to be had.

Geekscape Games Reviews Fez

by MoreLikeAndy

Fez, the latest indie games darling, has been cooking for quite some time. 5 years to be exact. With all that developer Phil Fish went through to in the process of releasing Fez, the hype is in full effect. How does this hype hold up when I sit down to play Fez? One word: “almost”.

Fez puts you in control of Gomez, a lovable, marshmallow-like individual who is tasked with donning the all mighty Fez to save your people and the world from collapsing into time. The Fez grants you powers to rotate and shift the world in order to solve puzzles as well as traverse the environment.

I love how well the game looks and feels like a 2-D game yet is actually a 3-D game. There’s very smart design in how you must think in 3-D while staring at 2-D. My first couple of hours with Fez had me wearing a smile on my face with feelings of the perfect amount of nostalgia I got from the retro-style atmosphere. Cave Story fans will be in love instantly. Even the music was soothing to hear during the areas you explore. The music really brought out the feelings of what it was like to play Echo The Dolphin. I know, it’s not an 8-bit game but damned if I didn’t have flashbacks to Echo The Dolphin when the music first hit my ears.

A couple more hours in and frustration and a sense of hopelessness settled in. For the most part, the puzzles are laid out for you as easy as a Sunday morning. The real challenges comes in the form of trying to make sense of just what Fez wants you to do in the later puzzles. Tasked with collecting gold bits, in later levels when these become a gold cube, they just become more scarce and you become worried that you are not smart enough to solve these more intricate puzzles. Simplicity is a good thing when used correctly but on later stages Fez seems to have overdone it. I was literally left in a world of unintuitive puzzles with little hint or direction, and after hours of playing the game, just exploring the world isn’t enough. Having some sort of feedback or indication system would have saved me a lot of self-doubt and aimless depression.

If some of this hassle was left to the pure completionists that wanted to purue the anti-cubes that are locked behind these advanced mind crushers, I could easily overlook it. But having these puzzles be a required hindrance to actually completing the game is plain terrible. You get a useless map of sorts but that’s not doing Fez any favors in the confusion department. I hated the backtracking that was mostly caused by the poor layout of the map. Not knowing where each door takes me until Gomez is hovering over the entrance is annoying. When looking for the last golden cube needed to get to the end of the game, I was lost for what seemed like an hour trying to find it. By pure luck, I managed to stumble on the last area where the elusive golden cube resided.

The ending had so many crazy shapes flying at me I felt as though I was watching someone’s art project turned screensaver. Afterwards, a nice nod to old school arcades happens. Most should get the reference but if not, it’s very easily figured out if you peruse the achievements. Fez does an amazing thing with the mechanics of shifting the 2-D world to traverse the world and solve puzzles. The music is subtle enough yet soothing at times making it a blast to engage with the environment. I just feel as though Fez was not satisfying enough in the accomplishments I did versus the anger-inducing frustration that I experienced; obtuse puzzles and the lag spikes causing the music to sound garbled and the gameplay skipped just enough to ruin precision jumps that I was in the middle of. Playing Fez just to see its concept and design is not a bad idea, just don’t believe all of the hype (almost).

Last 3 Skylanders Characters Revealed, Still Can’t Find Any in Stores

by MoreLikeAndy

Since I am like most out there trying to still find Skylanders figures in stock at your local stores, having the last 3 in the 32 set come out now is just plain mean. I might as well just camp out at Toys R Us to acquire the Skylanders I am still missing as well as the new ones, Camo, Warnado and Wham-Shell.

Check out the character vignettes to see what will make you check eBay again and cry at how ridiculous the prices are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGxlTpu6wP4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQsLUEC59Cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJY7AaSNCXg

Geekscape Games Reviews Anomaly: Warzone Earth

by MoreLikeAndy

Normally, tower defense games are boring to me. There never seems to be enough challenge other than trying to not get bored and screw up something that calls for your untimely loss. Many have tried to change up the genre as best they could, mostly to no avail. 11 Bit Studios, however, did so in a great way with Anomaly: Warzone Earth. What if you were the aggressor instead of the defender?

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With the game on pretty much every device out there, Anomaly: Warzone Earth makes a stop to Xbox Live Arcade this time. You still get the great voice acting of Jason Statham (not really him), controls that translate very well to a console controller and graphics that look better than they should for a small game such as this.

The story is paper thin but doesn’t need to be more than that. As the commander of the 14th Platoon in the near future, you and your squad are sent to investigate the crash sites of an alien spacecraft and end up finding trouble conveniently in the form of towers.

Since Anomaly: Warzone Earth is all about strategy, picking your units at the beginning of a mission is crucial. With some units only available in certain missions, I ended up sticking with tanks, shield generators and missile launchers. Being a tower defense game, you have limited funds to purchase units at the beginning and during the missions. More funds can be snagged up by destroying towers and finding ‘ore’ laid out in certain areas of the map. Also, if a unit is not working for you the way you thought it would, sell it off and use that money to get a different unit.

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Playing as the commander, you have free reign to go anywhere on the map. I use this to my advantage with the power-ups at your disposal. While the smoke screen, repair kit and decoy are used to protect your platoon as you follow them into battle, sneaking around ahead and using your bomb power-up on the annoying towers is sometimes a smart move. Controls between pulling up the map to set a path for your platoon to traverse, purchasing upgrades or new units then switching back to battle to use power-ups to support the platoon was very snappy. Sometimes, it was a little too snappy and I would end up using more power-ups than I intend to. To me, that is a testament to how responsive the controls can be.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth has a great difficulty curve as you get into the later missions. Towers that hit a unit and spreads that hit to everything it’s near, regenerating towers that use the energy from your power-ups to bring back towers you destroyed in the immediate area and my least favorite, the tower that shoots a blast that creates an small bubble that when the commander is inside it with a friendly unit, the friendly units turn on you and target you instead of the towers. Makes using power-ups on your platoon a gamble until that tower is dealt with.

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Bringing something new to the Xbox Live Arcade version of Anomaly: Warzone Earth, 11 Bit Studios added six “Tactical Trials” levels. Carried out in a virtual reality simulator, you have to find the most optimal way to complete the objectives. I really got the Metal Gear VR mission vibe upon first loading up the tactical trials. There will be some trial and error here so use that to figure out what units work in each trial. having the trials unlock only after you beat the game is a shame since I felt you could learn some strategies or at least get used to the different units to see which ones you find useful. At least it gives the player some replay value after the campaign is finished.

11 Bit Studios did what I thought was neigh impossible, to like a tower defense game. For those who already played Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the tactical trials is not enough to warrant another purchase to play them. If this is the first time you have even heard or seen of this game, be prepared to spend some quality time having  Jason Statham’s (again, not really him) voice carry you into a surprisingly fun twist on the tower defense genre.