Action to Sports and anything in between

Nick Reviews: ME3 EC

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:42:00 -0400

So it’s not a full game, but here’s my brief rundown:

I clearly had no issue with the original. However, Bioware really hushed the big whiners with this one. They took the BIG complaints (“OMG Joker wouldn’t run away like that GUYZ,” and that STUPID indoctrination theory) and incorporated them heavily into the DLC. They knew exactly their target audience and pretty much told them all to shut up. I fully support it.

My bitterness towards idiots aside, it really was a fresh experience. The new cutscenes didn’t feel forced, and even the little photo montage didn’t get old. I teared up a few times and felt very happy at the end of it all, and it felt like all my choices in the games, while not leading to DRASTICALLY different endings (because 20 different ending choices, like half these morons expected, is not possible given time and resource restraints), led to a genuinely satisfying final product. No matter how happy or unhappy you were with the original, download this.

FINALLY, people can shut up.

Edit: Oh, I lied. People are still complaining. What can you expect though?

Nick Reviews: Gaming Communities

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:51:00 -0400

I’ve realized something recently: Certain gaming communities are incredibly awful. I went back to playing Halo Reach last night and stopped after one game because I remembered why I stopped playing:

Halo players are consistently angry, bitter, hostile, trashtalking people who take a hatred to your existence as soon as you’re on the other team.

Sadly, this made me realize something about a community I’m a part of: The Mass Effect community.

I have never witnessed so much whining, moaning, and complaining over an ending of a videogame that, let’s face it, was just mediocre. There was nothing earth-shatteringly bad about the ending to Mass Effect 3, it was just mehhhhh.

I hear some people object, “but Nick, that’s what made it so inexcusable! It didn’t live up to the excellence of the series!” Well that’s fine, but with the way most of these jerks are treating it I’d have guessed the ending stole their car and ran over their dog.

So Bioware, being far too good for what these idiots deserve, are releasing the extended cut. Already there are people talking about how it will be disappointing. IT ISN’T COMING OUT FOR A WEEK AND YOU ALREADY HATE IT!

So, it’s unfortunate, but the Mass Effect community is now #2 on my list of worst gaming communities.

Edit: In a funny connection, the only ending I’ve ever been that mad about was Halo 2. At that point it wasn’t announced that it was a trilogy, so when Master Chief said “Sir, finishing this fight,” I expected the fight to be finished. But no, credits rolled, and rage ensued. The equivalent would be if the ending to ME3 was a cliff-hanger; THEN I’d understand the rage. But no, it’s just mehhhhh.

Nick Reviews: Professional Gaming

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:02:58 -0400

The universal acceptance of gaming as a sport will forever mark the end of gaming as fun. That’s where Bungie lost my respect, when they started making MLG-specific maps because their others were “too fun.”

Game to your hearts content, gamers, but if you’re one of those people who thinks it’s a huge competition to be the best in the world by using only ONE gun forever because it’s what you have perfectly mastered on every map, you’re ruining it for everyone else.

This looks so sick. Naval battles???

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:37:34 -0400

This looks so sick. Naval battles???

Veeeeeery interested to see how Ubisoft skirts the line in this...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:31:22 -0400

Veeeeeery interested to see how Ubisoft skirts the line in this game… I know they say that he will be killing both sides of the conflict, but my fellow Americans have a way of taking offense to that… I’m fully expecting a “ban AC3” movement, but I’m still incredibly psyched for this game.

The Last of Us gets my vote for PS3’s best in show, hands...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 02:41:16 -0400

The Last of Us gets my vote for PS3’s best in show, hands down. I’ve watched all the stuff and this takes the cake.

PS3 with some crazy showings now

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:26:00 -0400

Looking good. The Last of Us certainly looks like the PS3 exclusive winner, but I’m sure the God of War fans will quickly disagree. Wonderbook looks very interesting as well.

…is it possible to reboot a single game in a franchise?...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:47:33 -0400

…is it possible to reboot a single game in a franchise? That’s really weird.

ELLIE IS BACK, I can’t wait for this. I’m worried...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:44:32 -0400

ELLIE IS BACK, I can’t wait for this. I’m worried about the combat, which they seemed to take right out of ME3, or Future Soldier, or any other third person cover-based shooter. It doesn’t look like the same horrifying experience, but I’ll still definitely be checking this game out.

Wo-wah-wee-wow. Cinematic as anything, but will it be a good...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:05:46 -0400

Wo-wah-wee-wow.

Cinematic as anything, but will it be a good game? That’s still up for debate.

This is completely shocking. I can’t believe a Halo game...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:53:17 -0400

This is completely shocking. I can’t believe a Halo game has me excited again. I wouldn’t buy Reach and the only reason I played it is because my friend bought it for me.

It’s GREAT that they’re introducing new… everything. You can’t have two entire trilogies based on the same mechanics that have been around for 10 years, and 343 looks like they’ll make sure there’s enough here to drive three more games. Looking forward to more glimpses of this.

“Hey out there, this is DJ Atomica here to announce THE...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:49:45 -0400

“Hey out there, this is DJ Atomica here to announce THE latest Forza game…”

In all seriousness though, this is very interesting. Not sure what it will end up playing like (Shift, Forza, Burnout?) but it’s nice to see unique things from a strictly sim franchise. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.

I dunno guys, I never got into Gears. For those of you...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:44:16 -0400

I dunno guys, I never got into Gears. For those of you who’ve been here since last year, you know I’m mostly about Xbox, but this is one Xbox exclusive I don’t really care for.

Graphically it still looks great, and the scope is massive as ever, but being someone who never felt the need to beat the first one, I can’t appreciate this to the fullest extent.

Well, it’s been a year since we first saw this, and...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:40:05 -0400

Well, it’s been a year since we first saw this, and I’m still not sure what to think about it. They seem to be sticking with the fact that Lara can jump about 4 times the height of a normal human, despite all the gritty realism. Looks like they could pull this off, but I’m not as impressed as I was with the debut trailer last year.

Well gang, it's Xbox day

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:29:57 -0400

So get ready for all those damn Kinect trainers, new Forza, Lost Planet 3 footage, and some Halo footage that actually looks fresh!!

Am I the only one who thinks Future Soldier replica sunglasses would be awesome?

Sun, 27 May 2012 05:02:18 -0400

Someone should get on that. Glasses with the blue HUD tint on the one eye would look sick.

Multiplayer: A closer look at GR: FS

Sat, 26 May 2012 18:01:00 -0400

So, in my review I didn’t want to go too deep into multiplayer, because that whole other beast would take away from a well-rounded review. Here it is though, adversarial multiplayer and all its ups and downs.

The first thing you’ll notice is the class system. Rather than give everyone access to every gun and equipment option like CoD does, it limits you by what type your character is. Riflemen can only use ARs and LMGs and have offensive equipment, while Scouts are limited to snipers and SMGs with defensive equipment. Engineers are the in-between, as they can use PDRs and have unique powers like faster objective hacking and a scope sensor that tells you when you’re being drawn in on. My favorite is the Rifleman because I turned my MK-14 into a beast, but all the classes have their merits.

Next thing you’ll see is the squad system. Off the initial spawn you won’t care much for it, because each team only has one place to spawn. As the match goes on though, you’re allowed to spawn on one of your two squadmates to provide reinforcement. This sounds like it could lead to a big bag objective-camping mess, but to compensate for it, the game doesn’t allow you to spawn on a teammate if he’s in combat or too close to the objective. This lends itself to interesting strategies of “stay close but not too close.” You’re also forbidden from spawning on a teammate whose area is compromised by enemy intel, so throwing a ton of sensor grenades on an important location can really screw up the enemies’ spawns.

The next important aspect is the bulk of the games, the objectives. In the most unique mode, Conflict, the screen blatantly states that you must capture more than the enemy before time. Each match is 15 minutes, and I’ve never had it go past 5 objectives, so I’m guessing that’s the intended amount. The objectives range from protecting an EMP blast for your team (or destroying it), holding control of an intel sensor, gaining a supply cache for the team, to protecting a high value target who must deliver data to an enemy computer. All of these provide interesting gameplay, because each must be handled differently. I’ve seen teams gather all 5 players around an intel point and wait until the timer is at 0 to take control of it, but there are also the ones that run around and kill all the enemies before even thinking about the goal. Ubisft made sure to account for all these objectives so none works better than any other, and everything revolves around teamwork.

My favorite team-based objective is protecting the high value target (when the team decides to work together, that is). In every game I’ve played except one, the enemy has killed our HVT right off the bat and we lost the objective. In my last game, however, I was the HVT and, even without headsets, my team found me on the map and cleared the way. It provides for incredibly intense gameplay when there’s only one person on the team who can complete the objective rather than 6. The satisfaction of reaching the goal and uploading the data while my team actually functioned like one made me appreciate how much thought the dev team put into the game. (No wonder it got delayed so much)

While the guns are limited at first—you don’t unlock your first new gun until level 20 in each class—it doesn’t feel like it because of all the attachment options. You can unlock whatever attachments you choose, and the way they’re set up allows you to turn each gun into about 5 unique machines. I’m not bothered by limited gun variety like I was in other games—Battlefield 2142 for example—because this game gives you enough to do in the meantime.

I thoroughly enjoy every match I play, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the three locked classes are, even though I won’t reach those for a while. I’ll let you all know when I do, but until then, if any of you play, you should add me on Live for a good bunch of games. Just send me a message if you want.

Nick Reviews: Ghost Recon Future Soldier

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:32:00 -0400

There’s a troubling trend in gaming lately, and I’m not talking about the androgynous protagonists or the horrendous voice acting. In a way, I’d prefer those over what I have in mind: the complete elimination of a single-player experience. One of the earliest examples was Lost Planet 2, which was completely useless until I bought the game for my friend to play with me. Lately, the most extreme example was Armored Core V, which might as well mandate an internet connection at time of purchase. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier falls somewhere in the middle; it’s a solid single-player experience that just feels like something’s missing.

First, I want to point out the deceit on the box. It states that there is local co-op for 2 players, which I assumed meant co-op campaign. Unfortunately, Ubisoft actually meant campaign Guerilla mode, which is simply a Spec Ops/Horde sort of wave combat mode. So if you want to play this game with a friend who’s come over, you have one option and it’s not particularly enthralling.

So now your friend has left because he’s bored with that one mode you’re allowed to play on one screen. You might as well boot up story mode, which, in the way of many modern games, has you as part of a 4-man squad in which tactics and communication are vital to success. I commend Ubisoft for managing the AI so well; they respond immediately to the sync-shot command, they suppress the targets I want them to, and they always arrive to help quickly when you get downed in combat. There are very few glitches (although I had one squadmate disappear into a wall, making it impossible to continue past a breach point), but the chatter occasionally is deceiving. Sometimes two teammates will call out one enemy or one teammate will call out the same enemy twice because it moved unexpectedly, and it can give you a very misleading image of the battlefield in a scenario where premeditated tactics are necessary. The missions are fun and feel rewarding, and unlike LP2, there was no sacrifice of story to integrate the cooperative aspect.

Now for the multiplayer, the part I was most skeptical about. I’m the kind of guy who only ever plays deathmatch in multiplayer games, unless I’m roped into something else by my friends. I just think it’s more fun to not have objectives blocking all the reflex-driven gameplay. Naturally, I was distraught when I found this game has no deathmatch mode at all. The four or five multiplayer gametypes are all objective driven, and I’ve found I don’t mind it. My favorite is the unique “Conflict” mode, which essentially gives players 15 minutes to complete as many mini objective games as possible. Sometimes your team will be tasked with defending an EMP, sometimes you’ll have to defend a high value target who needs to extract intel from the enemy, and sometimes you’ll have to gain and hold control of a sensor point that displays your enemies’ locations on your HUD. All the objectives have unique perks, and the scoring almost always leads to intense, down-to-the-wire matches that can be won or lost in matters of seconds. This part was definitely the most pleasant surprise in the game.

I didn’t focus much on graphics because let’s face it, they’re great. We all knew they would be. The effects, both visual and auditory, are stunning and provide great immersion, whether it’s the shaking camera caused by LMG fire or the way the active camo slowly fades over your soldier. The levels look great, especially the sandstorm ones, and the environments are very convincing, particularly the refugee camps. I have no complaints about the presentation whatsoever.

While I feel like I’m being ripped off from the full experience because I don’t have three friends who own this game, it’s not nearly to the extent that LP 2 was. The story drives itself and doesn’t make the player feel left out, and the features like Gunsmith provide a level of replayability that wouldn’t be there otherwise. You’ll be replaying story missions for a perfect score many times, but it won’t feel like a chore. Combine this with multiplayer that seems limited on the surface but provides far more than it seems, and you have a game with unexpectedly high replay value. I thought I would play the story then ditch it to keep up with the N7 Weekends, but I was pleasantly surprised with the latest Tom Clancy showing. I give it an enthusiastic 4 out of 5.

Oh hey, I'm alive

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:09:05 -0400

Hey guys, I’m sure all 18 of you were missing my ranting opinions, and since E3 is coming up I figured I’d boot this up again!

Before the previews though, my first review back will be Ghost Recon Future Solider.

Also, my opinion on the ME3 ending will be somewhere coming up. Yay! Nice to be back.

Not that many of you are interested

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:42:21 -0400

Sorry my blog came to a screeching halt, my life’s gone crazy in the past month. Deaths, renovations, ER visits, it’s been crazy. I haven’t gotten to play many games, so I apologize for that.