Techpedition

Episode 063 – Mute Your Whatever

Clarence Brown — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:55:16 +0000

Episode Cast

Sergio Lugo, James Allen Knotts, Carl Minor, and Clarence Brown

Episode Summary

This week we have a crap-ton of tech news, along with a good run-down of the summer blockbusters, topped-off by a slew of what we’ve been playing.

Episode Notes

New Dragon Ball Game Offers New Episode
New Tony Hawk: Shred Goes Tricky
Netflix on Ipad (AND Iphone and Ipod Touch)
Google Voice doing free phone calls. (US only) Low International Rates
Android Outsells Iphone (Again)
Cellular South Gets More Android
Team ICO HD collection for PS3?
Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Online
FPS Terminator Alpha demo by a homebrew company
Bioshock: Infinite – Announced
Ultimate Spiderman Joins Shattered Dimensions
5% of Steam Users are on Mac
Playboy can’t keep their hands off of Gaming, here, and here
Kick-Ass
Inception
Pirahna 3D
Scott Pilgrim Vs the World
Despicable Me
Naruto’s Mother
GhostBusters
Sergio’s Game Rundown
- Tomb Raider: Anniversary
- Bionic Commando
- Prototype
- Peggle
- Dark Void
- Civilization Revolution
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- De Blob
- Prince of Persia: The Fallen King
- Littlebigplanet (PSP)
- Singularity
Metroid Prime series, and Super Metroid
Tethering Win-Mobile 6.1 and 6.5
Win-mobile 6.1 & 6.5 WIFI access point
Blackberry or Iphone 4 or Android 2.2 or Win-Phone 7

Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series Review

Sergio Lugo II — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:01:52 +0000

Machinima – (pronounced /məˈʃiːnɨmə/ or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/) is the use of real-time graphics rendering engines (a game engine), mostly three-dimensional (3-D), to generate computer animation. That’s what Wikipedia defines as Machinima. A strange and foreign concept to most and a truely strange concept after watching Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series.

This is a short six episode story told before the events of Terminator Salvation. I was walking through Walmart and saw this DVD on the $3 rack. Being a huge Terminator fan, I could not pass on the intregue that hit me. I didn’t know what Machinima was, but thought “Hey, worst case scenario, its anime” and picked the disc up. Its an official Terminator release with Moon Bloodgood reprising her role as Blair Williams from last year’s Terminator Salvation.

At first glance, I see through the ruse and understand that its just a cheap tie-in to help promote the then new (when it originally came out) Terminator Salvation. The reason I opened this review with the definition of Machinima is because you need to know this information going in, otherwise, you WILL be disappointed. The facial animations and general look of the show is on par with a low budget Xbox 360 game running in-engine graphics. The voice over work doesn’t match the mouth animations and the majority of the six episode arc is spent with the characters hiding behind chest high walls. Ok, that last part may be a bit of an exaggeration, but a predominant portion of the show IS spent with characters shooting things or being shot at. Sticking true to Terminator fashion, there’s only about 5-10 minutes worth of actual story in the whole arc.

There’s simply not much to say about the story. If needed, it could be declared non-canon and the Terminator series wouldn’t lose anything of necessity or value, much like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but Blair doesn’t die and she doesn’t destroy all of the Machines. Status-quo maintained! The biggest issue with Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series, is its inexplicable application of the Machinima film style.

Machinima, as a style, is pure novelty. It’s a “Hey look what we did!” way of getting attention, kinda like the guy that made a mural of Conan O’Brien’s face out of different colored Cheetos. After finding out what Machinima is I immediately remembered watching Red Vs. Blue and the WOW episode of South Park. Then I realized that the creators of this project just don’t get it. You don’t watch Machinima to appreciate the art of the project or the dramatic feel of the setting, you watch it because its funny. It funny seeing characters you are familiar with having conversations with each other in a crappily animated video game setting.

This project does nothing funny and tries really hard to be taken seriously. Its hard enough for real CGI movies to be taken seriously. That really wasn’t achieved until Avatar. To expect that, out of an “art style” that prides it self on looking crappy is nearly impossible. Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Also, the real root of the Machinima craze was the idea that stories could be told using an in-game engine, by using the terrible first person angles created by placing you character in just the right spot on a map, and by working with extremely limited tools to make something special. Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series does none of these. The camera angles are extremely scripted, not pulled from a first person viewpoint and its very clear that while the graphics may have been created with a video game engine, the footage was not. If you don’t take hours upon days setting up a shot with 4 different consoles/computers LAN’d together and you are not making a Machinima film! You are making a shitty looking CGI pic, and that’s exactly what this is.

Finally, why is this at Wal-mart? This should only be sold at specialty retailers that cater directly to the audience that appreciates Machinima. Your average Terminator fan is an 18-35 year old male that likes to see cool explosions, guns and awesome graphics. That’s a large swatch of the population and most of them don’t know and don’t care to know what Machinima is. This explains the $3 price tag. I promise you this is how most purchases went. Dude buys DVD thinking “hells yeah, Terminator! and it has that hot chick in it too!” He gets the disc home and pops it into his player. He sees the absurdly animated CG and is immediately disappointed. He fast forwards through a few episodes to see if there’s any digital nudity, and upon not finding any, he takes it out and goes back to the most recent Jason Statham film. The DVD then ends up being sold for a quarter at his mom’s garage sale.

Verdict: The Very Definition of Fail!!!

PS3 Hacked!

James Knotts — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:29:47 +0000

According to Kotaku an Australian retailer has received a mod chip (in the form of a USB stick) for the Sony PS3. Allegedly this MOD chip will allow you to copy games to your PS3 from discs, place a Homebrew software on the console, and play burned games.

All of that for the low low price of about $120 U.S. A side effect of the mod is that you can no longer install official PS3 firmware much like when you mod a Wii console. The Wii, 360, and PSP have been hacked for years now, so the hacking of the PS3 was inevitable. Who knew it would take 4 years?

The question that remains is, would it be worth getting? Sure you could play your “back ups”, but would you want to have to make a new PSN account to play online? Surely accounts using hacked software would get banned like on the 360.

Here is the link to the full article on Kotaku with demo vids.

http://kotaku.com/5616952/australian-retailer-says-their-working-playstation-3-modchip-is-not-a-hoax?skyline=true&s=i

Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7

ceezsa — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:06:36 +0000

I a m lazy and the official the page linked to by this entire sentence has so much more information and looks better. But for those of you who like bullet points here is a cut and paste of the good stuff. I know Sergio is sold, you know with his addiction to his Virtual Non-value Xbox Live Gamerscore.

Be omnipotent: View, access, and launch your full game library from one easy-to-navigate hub.
Get mad props: Earn, view, and track achievements, view Xbox LIVE leaderboards and build your gamerscore every time you play an Xbox LIVE title.
Personalize your mobile experience: Connect to your Xbox LIVE profile and avatar, or easily create a new one right from the phone.
Get tricky: Access Spotlight feeds, including the latest game titles, breaking news from Xbox LIVE, game tips and tricks, and more.
Play before you pay: Easily find, try, and buy the games you want, either in the Marketplace or Games hub.
Flaunt your skills: Invite, connect, and play against friends on other Windows Phone 7 phones or PCs with turn-based (asynchronous) multiplayer gaming.

And here are the games:

3D Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
Armor Valley (Prot

Insomniac Announces New Ratchet and Resistance Installments

Sergio Lugo II — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:30:50 +0000

Today Insomniac announced two different projects. Despite them taking 2010 off (release wise) Insomniac is working to pump out a new installment of each of its popular PS3 exclusive franchises Ratchet and Clank and Resistance.

First up is the long rumored (I use the word rumored very loosely, since it was all but announced last year) Resistance 3. Obviously a follow up to Resistance 2, very few details are known about the game. A live action trailer was released (below) that indicates that the game will at least in part be set in the mid-west (I.E. St. Louis) while contradictory press releases have stated the game is set in NYC.

The trailer also has several people attempting to lay waste to Chimera during a train ride, Left 4 Dead style. Some of you may remember L4D-like sequences in Resistance 2 and this trailer hints that more of it may be on the way. I, however may be looking a bit too deep into this. What’s curious is that Protagonist of the first two games, Nathan Hale, is completely absent from the trailer. Maybe that has something to do with the unfortunate outcome of Resistance 2. We will find that out when Resistance 3 is released…no date was or time frame was given.

Insomniac also announced a new Ratchet game. This one had significantly more details. A gameplay trailer for Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One was released (below) that shows the principle change to the gameplay, 4 player co-op! Players can play as Ratchet, Clank, Dr. Nefarious and the fan favorite Capt. Qwark in a full 3D platforming adventure. Check out the video, it tells you all you need to know about the announcement. A few things should be noted though. The game does not carry the “Future” subtitle that the previous PS3 ratchet games had and Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One being released in the same calendar year (2011) as Heroes on the Move, another Co-op game starring Ratchet and Clank amongst others.

Move support was not announced for either game. Also, we still have zero news on what Insomniac maybe working on for their EA multi-platform agreement. I’m not expecting anything to be announced anytime soon, but I would expect something to leak by E3 of next year.

Tony Hawk will GO BIG with SHRED

Clarence Brown — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:44:58 +0000

The new Tony Hawk game has been officially confirmed by Activision, as announced at their e3 party, and they are specifically aiming at the younger audience. The game is touted as featuring more arcade style graphics, which Activision is calling GO BIG. Also it looks like Activision is continuing to embrace the skateboard peripheral, which in itself is not surprising.

Now what I would LOVE to see is Activision embracing the Kinect and Move platforms and making something truly creative. I strongly feel there is a need to alleviate more *mashed plastic, but maybe creating a unique combination of the Tony Hawk Ride board couped with the Move or Kinect technology could be interesting. My ambitions may be a bit too early, but I’m sure we’ll see plenty of interest in the new platforms in the coming year.

Pre-Order NBA2K11 at GameStop, Get (Virtual) Jersey

Clarence Brown — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:17:59 +0000

Ah, good ol’ pre-order incentives. It amazes my how many titles are now offering incentives for buying their games early. And while most of the pre-order incentives are laughable at best, there are some that are truly worth your while. That being said, this ain’t one of the latter.

According to a recent press release, GameStop will be offering an exclusive Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls #23 virtual jersey for both PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 owners avatars if you pre-order the game. While PlayStation users will receive the home (white) jersey, XBOX users will get the away (red) jersey.

Okay, I could see this being a good plus for someone who is buying the game anyway to shell out the sixty bucks early and reserve their copy, but come on guys, you’re killing me here. Why in the heck would anyone see this offer, and want to buy this game otherwise. Offer me a gift card, new in-game content, a mini-game where I can play as my avatar, or something other than a jersey that is pretty much useless. Here’s an idea, why not give the jersey to everyone who simply buys the game period. Wouldn’t that be cool. I mean, come ‘on, I get a copy of NBA Jam for simply buying NBA Elite. And this comes from a die-hard Michael Jordan fan.

Play Video

Madden NFL 11 Commercial Rant

Sergio Lugo II — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:14:50 +0000

I was watching Futurama tonight and noticed an interesting Madden 11 commercial. You may have seen it yourself, it starts with Drew Brees stepping off a bus. If you want a peek at it check the video below. The most interesting thing about the commercial is that besides a few heavily obscured shot in the background, the commercial contains no gameplay footage. It also contains literally no information about the game it self. What is new? What has changed? What’s the gimmick this year? But that’s just it, there is no gimmick. The gimmick is football.

This commercial embodies exactly what Madden has come to mean to its fan base. Madden is football, it happens to be a game, but at its core all Madden is, is the ultimate NFL fan service. Legions of console owners only own their console to play Madden, and maybe NCAA Football. For once a game is not about the game, its about the fans. With that said, the controversial EA/NFL exclusivity makes perfect sense. The NFL wants a singular product they can stand behind on the market that is synonymous with NFL football, and with this deal, they have it.

Gamers have a hard time swallowing the idea of Madden’s existence. It takes a lot of heat from the “serious” gaming community for being nothing more than a roster update for a game they already don’t want to play. What I say to them is, get the eff over it. You are not the target audience. Trust me, EA will find another way to separate your money from your wallet.

That will be all.

(Sorry for the green video quality, this is what happens when you use a camcorder to record a plasma display)

Know Your Basics Episode 001: Television AV Jacks

Sergio Lugo II — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:55:07 +0000

Technology can be confusing, and there are few people to make sense of it all. Here’s you chance to get in on the ground floor. Let Techpedition: Know Your Basics be your first steps to understanding how your increasingly complex hardware works.

Enjoy the first episode (Television Audio Video Jacks).

007 Classic Controller Adds 100% More Bling to Game

Sergio Lugo II — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:20:36 +0000

What surfaced on IGN the other day is actually cooler that you might imagine. The newly announced Golden Wii Classic Controller Pro will be bundled with a special edition version of the new 007 GoldenEye Wii game to be released later this year.

It will be appropriately priced at $70 (for the game and controller) and will be a limited run. The controller doesn’t really remind me of 007 or even GoldenEye, but does remind me of a different notoriously gold Nintendo Franchise, The Legend of Zelda.

I don’t really need a new Classic Controller, but I could really dig playing Virtual Console Zelda games on the much improved Pro model. Having the controller be gold would only add to the pimpage of the whole experience.

Activision’s 007 Goldeneye Wii will launch later this year exclusively on the Wii and from what I hear it plays like Call of Duty.

New Dragon Ball Game Offers New Episode

Clarence Brown — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:00:24 +0000

Yep, you read correctly. The soon to be released Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 will feature a never-before-seen episode of Dragon Ball goodness for fan-boys to devour. According to the press release, this will be “a completely reconstructed, re-scripted and re-edited version of the original Japanese episode, offering something unique and unmissable to fans”. While how great or lack-luster this episode will be is yet to be seen, I’m sure it will be incentive enough to push sales a bit further than they would have gone otherwise. See video below:

Play Video

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Announced

James Knotts — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:34:13 +0000

Announced today is the next installment of Ace Combat. Dubbed ASSAULT HORIZON.

Ace Combat fans rejoice for we will be flying the unfriendly skies once again. Coming out on PS3 and 360 sometime next year not much has been released on this title yet. Other than multi console release and the official trailer.

But what can be gleaned from the trailer is this. No longer set in a fictional world, we will be flying over real world cities. With QTE’s inserted for fun. With what looks like the chance to fly choppers and be gunners.

As a long time Ace Combat fan (since Air Combat on PS1. I still even have my PS1 and PS2 flight sticks) I am ecstatic to see this series come back to the PS3. No word yet on flight stick bundles. But this is NAMCO we’re talking about. So I’m sure we’ll hear something real expensive soon.

Here is the official debut trailer.

Play Video

GST: Civilization Revolution Review

Sergio Lugo II — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 07:05:30 +0000

When gamers are strapped for cash but still want to shoot and loot things, they turn to Gamer Savings Time (GST) to get the skinny on forgotten bargain bin titles. With the impending release of Civilization V, lets take a look at the last Civ game to hit the market, Civilization Revolution.

Revolution isn’t your typical Civilization game. For starters, it not on the PC…at all. A version of it is available for the iPad, but I would hesitate to even call the iPad a computer. Civ Rev, is only available on consoles, mainly Xbox 360 and Ps3. Its the first console Civ game since the port of Civ 2 to the original Playstation. Unlike the aforementioned port though Civ Rev was built from the ground up for consoles, and it shows.

The player takes the role of the leader of a Civilization and must build it nurture it, and if you’re good, it will prosper. Anyone that has played any game in the series knows this. Many of the features and micro-management layers from the PC games have been stripped and the game concepts are laid out very clearly throughout. Obviously Sid Meier and his team are reaching out to the non-PC and non-strategy crowd with Revolution.

All actions are controlled with the standard controller and menus are simple enough to be easily navigated. Managing unit movement, city status and production, foreign affairs and scientific research have literally never been easier. The entire interface is intuitive and the button functions are clearly laid out on screen. It is very clear that ease of use and playability was a main focus during development. Many of the mainstays of a past civ games are missing with the most obvious one being an overhead map view.

There are 4 different ways to win your game. Economic (earn money), Cultural (make artsy crap), Scientific (the ever-popular space race), and Domination (Kill, Kill, Kill) victories are your options with Scientific being the easiest and Domination being the hardest. Your advisers keep you up to date as to where you stand on each goal regularly and nearly all things built in cities specifically target a certain types of victory. The easier the difficulty the more hand holding the advisers do.

With five different difficulty levels to play, the player can gradually increase the challenge brought upon them. The choice of Civilizations to command is deep and most of the technologies and units in the PC games, seamlessly make the transition to console. The visual characters themselves have always been extravagant, but characters like Napoleon, Catherine II, Cleopatra and Abraham Lincoln are almost too over the top. The foreign, economic military and science advisers, appear on screen too much. So much so that the characters are often seen pushing each other away to get screen time. The shenanigans of the visual cast are cute but get old pretty quickly. Luckily with a button press most of them can be skipped.

What can’t be skipped are the 5-15 sec long battle sequences. These are repetitive, and can slow the pace of a game down. Other than the mind numbing battle sequences, the game has a great pace and alot of character. It feels just like a Civ game and plays like 85% of a Civ game. I have to applaud Meier’s team for making a strong transition.

However there are a few things that could be improved. With a many different high resolution polygonal characters fighting for sometimes mere seconds of screen time, the frame-rate can get choppy, really choppy. Multiple times, I thought the game had stopped when a screen took 5 or more secs to load. A more robust options menu, would have been nice. I would have loved to turn off alot of the visual flare and focus on what was happening on the map. I really don’t need the Economic adviser to tell me to build the World Bank (to score an economic victory), every single turn. That too gets annoying, (especially when I am trying to get a scientific victory). Also, the basic game seems a bit too short to be a civ game.

As a kid, I remember my Civ 2 games literally taking months to complete. I would sink 60-80 hours into a game trying to kill the frenchys, or build a space ship, or successfully connect all of my cities via railroad, but I was able to knock out a full Civ Rev game in about 4-5 sittings of just a few hours. Sure, I expect this from scenarios that change aspects of the game, but the vanilla campaign should be epic in length. Who knows, maybe I’m just really good. What bothered me is that a few of my games ended without anyone winning. The games are only a set number of turns, with the game ending after the last one. Sure the game itself picked a winner, but I was given victories without meeting the criteria stated in the descriptions of the 4 types of victories. The game was done playing with me before I was done playing with it.

On the flip side, the scenarios are fun and a great way to knock out a quick and easy game of Civ in 30 minutes or less. If you are good enough, you can play and win the Lightning Round scenario in less than 10 minutes. Bite-size Civ is VERY intriguing.

If you have never played a Civ game and want to know what all the fuss is about, pick up Civilization Revolution, it will ease you into real time strategy nicely and prime you for the big boy PC/Mac versions of the game. If you are a huge Civ fan and have spent time with all of them in the series, you may want to wait for Civilization 5 as Revolution may not be deep enough for you.

Verdict: Dumbed Down, Yet Not Stupid

“LA South” Hollywood is My New Neighbor

James Knotts — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:59:46 +0000

Great article in the Mississippi Newspaper The Clarion Ledger. Seems like Hollywood is upping its presence in the deep south.

Recently there has been an increase in movies and TV series being filmed in Louisiana and Mississippi.

This year alone many soon to hit theaters movies were shot. Including The Expendables (Aug 13th 2010), Green Lantern (2011), The Last Exorcism, The Big Valley (2011). Breaking Dawn: Twilight Series 4th movie and many more movies.

HBO has also been a big player in Louisiana with True Blood and Treme TV series.

The Clarion Ledger also goes on to say there are currently 85+ current productions filming right now. Pretty sure all of this is good news for resident Techpedition pundent/Actor James Knotts. Bet his agent is working triple time.

Nintendo Is Back in the Hotel Business

ceezsa — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:41:03 +0000

Wow it has been a while since I have done this. Well I am sure many of you out there in video game land have seen these in the wild and probably did not think anything about them. Probably just assumed it was kid bait from the hotels to make it easier for unsupervised minors to order adult programming.

If you have not figured it out by now, that is a modified Nintendo Gamecube controller in the image. I first noticed this controller in a Hampton Inn in Louisiana. Then I saw another in a Town Place Suites in Michigan. Frequent Flier miles baby.

The interesting thing is, though it is a Gamecube controller, the system is running emulated Nintendo 64 games. I noticed titles such as San Francisco Rush and even Mario Kart 64. Reminds me of those kiosks in malls where they are selling the N64 controllers with built in NES emulation. However the Town Place Suites controller only acted as a television remote mimicking same controls making it easier to purchase pay per view.

If you find yourself traveling and see one of these controllers, I say give it a try. The games were free but be very careful, it is easy to mistakenly order pay-per-view with them.

I always felt that the Nintendo Gamecube controller was and maybe still is the best analog controller on the market. Guess Nintendo had to figure out something to do with all those extra Gamecube controllers before that law suit.

Another funny note is if you cross-reference Nintendo and Hotel you will find some pretty interesting tidbits into the company’s history and not just a crappy CD game. People did what they had to do to make money. Just don’t let the money make you.

Ultimate Spiderman Joins Shattered Dimensions

Sergio Lugo II — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:29:13 +0000

While not nearly as exciting as the previously announced Noir and 2099 Spider-men, hearing that Ultimate Spider-man rounds out the 4 different universes you explore in Spiderman Shattered Dimensions is good news. Ultimate Spiderman, the comic, is a reboot of the Spiderman universe that debuted in 2000, to both critical and commercial success. It is also a favorite of the staff here at Techpedition. The comic was so popular, that it spawned it’s own dedicated and might I say awesome video game for PS2, XBOX, and Gamecube.

This news is kinda bittersweet in that while Ultimate is by far my favorite version of Spidey, it offers literally nothing new on the gameplay side of things. Ultimate Spider-man’s powers are identical to Amazing Spider-man’s and the story while supurbly written is simply an update on events that happened in the Amazing universe (with non-game affecting liberties taken of course.)

The game play that has been released of Ultimate Spidey is with him wearing the Black Spider-man suit, aka the Symbiote Venom suit. It is still unknown as to if the regular Ultimate Suit will be featured. In my opinion if they are going to keep the Black suit on him the whole time, there was really no need in calling him “Ultimate”. The Black suit was not created in Ultimate nor was it the main focus of Ultimate comic series. The Venom/Black Suit story line originated in the Amazing Spider-man story line.

I’ve always been a big fan of Spider-man games, and I am getting significantly excited for this one, but hearing that it is not open world, really has my panties in a bunch. We’ll see how it turns out when Shattered Dimensions is released on September, 7th 2010.

Street Fighter Vs Tekken Confirmed

ceezsa — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:12:23 +0000

Bomb drops this week with the announcement of Street Fighter Vs Tekken games to come. That’s right I said games plural not single.

Now how this will work will be the same as the Capcom Vs SNK/SNK Vs Capcom games. Each developer will make a version suited to their play style. With Capcom Vs Namco built upon the SSF4 engine and Namco Vs Capcom on the Tekken 6 engine. So let the fanboydom commence!!

I say that because with two different engines being built upon we are going to get two completely different games. From Capcom we will most likely get Namco characters with smaller moves lists, and get used to a 6 button layout instead of the 4 button which has been a Namco main stay. But from the Namco side we would get Ryu with a much larger moves list, 10 hit combo?, and possibly no fireball. Since most of Namco’s fighting games have only sparse characters with projectile type moves.

These titles have just been announced with a debut trailer and a quick gameplay vid of a Street Fighter Vs Tekken demo being shown. No release date has been announced. With Street Fighter 4 producer Yoshinori Ono and Tekken 6 producer Katsuhiro Harada stating that fighting fans will have MVC3 to tide them over. Street Fighter Vs Tekken debut trailer Ryu vs Kazuya

What do you think?

Achievement Unlocked! – The “Why” Behind Gamerscores

Sergio Lugo II — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:26:23 +0000

Anyone that knows my gaming habits knows that I place a lot of value on Achievements/Trophies (please note that when I say Achievements I mean both Trophies and Achievements). I play games twice, I play selected levels half a dozen times, I’ll google farming and grinding techniques, use exploits and even invite friends over to knock out multi-player achievements all in the name of points. A friend of mine recently asked me, what these achievements get me. He asked if I could cash them in for something or are they pointless (pun-intended). I obviously wasn’t prepared for the question because I had no answer…at all. I stumbled through a fabricated story about being OCD about things to change the subject. I don’t think he believed me, but more importantly, his question got me thinking. Why am I so obsessed with achieving stuff? I’ve come to find out, that my reasons for achievement hoarding are much deeper than I had initially thought. Let’s explore.

I have been very public about my achievement adventures. I have blogged about my 10,000th and 20,000th achievement points and even in reviews on this very site I’ve mentioned the ease of getting achievements in games, but never have I thought “why?”

I thought to myself, what do achievements do that regular gaming doesn’t? The most clear answer was experience. The higher the gamerscore, the gamier the gamer. So, in essence, if my score is higher than yours I am better than you. That’s obviously the most neanderthal-like way to look at them but it bears at least a mention. After further self exploration, I found that one of the main reasons I obsess over getting my self proclaimed 50% achievement target, is to give games artificial endings. Some games are too short and some never seem to end, but if I am playing a game and find that I only have 30-40% percent of the achievements I know I’M not done yet. I know its weird, but its a strategy that seems to working pretty well for me. Rarely do I feel that I didn’t get my moneys-worth out of a game.

The most fun thing I use achievements for is side by side comparison with friends. Achievements give a snapshot of not only my progress in a game but also my skill level. When I compare my numbers with those of my friends, I know that if they have earned the “Lord of the Strings” Achievement in Rock Band, they had to complete “Green Grass and High Tides” on expert guitar, a feat I have yet to and will probably never complete. I might want to avoid this player if I bump into them online. If they have the “Master Fortune Hunter” Trophy in Uncharted 2 they either have alot of time on their hands or they know how to find decent walk-throughs. Achievements are proof that you have completed something, almost like a receipt. On older game systems I would always keep my save files to show what games I had beaten. Now, my progress is not only tracked but broadcast on the inter-web for the world to see and judge.

That brings me to my final “why”. Probably the biggest reason Achievements mean so much to me is to hold up my reputation as a gaming enthusiast. My playthrough of any game has the potential to influence another individuals game purchases. As a reviewer my opinion matters but as a consumer my opinion is paramount and I can’t afford to put my reputation on the line giving opinions on games to which I haven’t given due diligence. If I write a review or even bring up a game in conversation and give my opinion, as a person known for playing lot of games, and then it is seen on my PSN account or Gamerscore that I didn’t get past the tutorial, my credibility is shot. With Achievements I can say definitively that a game is crap because I have the proof to show you that I played it to its blood curdling end.

I implore you, next time some one dogs out a game or next time someone says they “mow people down in Halo”, do your homework and see if they are lying. You might be surprised at what you find.

Last night I got to level 10 with my PSN account. That doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “I got my 20,000th achievement point”, but its a feat none the less. I feel better knowing the reason for my obsession and I feel comfortable knowing that the majority of my achievement scores are respectable. I also hope that, as you read this, my friends are judging my skills. Here, I’ll make it easy on you.

liugeaux

Achievements are here to stay, hell, even Steam and WOW have them now. Whether or not you realize it, people are looking at your gamerscore, and judging your play history. You may not want your friends seeing the 20 points you accidentally got in Disney: Sing It last fall when your niece was visiting you, but you really don’t have much of a choice now. I say embrace the achievement, with it you will find dozens of ways to enjoy gaming all over again.

Holy Smokes, There’s Batman… Maybe Not

Clarence Brown — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:39:41 +0000

So apparently Russell Brand is at it again… as Batman? We can thank the 2011 remake of the 1981 comedy “Arthur” for this one, starring the aforementioned Russell Brand along with Jennifer Garner. And while I don’t think this movie will stray too much from Brands usual antics, or will have much Batman in it for that matter, I was more than happy to see the Batman Forever suit dawned once again in some leaked set photos… however weird it may be. Dark Night… oh how we’ve fallen…

According to the summary of the original “Arthur” on IMDB:

Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with.

Checkout the screens below by way of Starcasm and Zimbio, and let the degradation begin…

Singularity Review – Haven’t I Played This Game Already?

Sergio Lugo II — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:20:04 +0000

It’s very easy to look at Activision as the bad guy. They are the largest 3rd party publisher that’s known for pumping out annual installments of all their hits and actively trying to make game development no fun. However, you can’t over look the side work some of their teams are making. In the past 2 years Activision has published some decent new IPs that aren’t part of their annual re-release schedule. Prototype, Blur, Wolfenstein (I guess its technically not a new IP, but still a one off release) and now Singularity.
Much like the recently reviewed Dark Void, Singularity has a great concept that grabs your attention from the gate. American’s stumble upon old Cold-War era Russian Technology involving time travel and…boom, you’ve got me, now you must impress me. Singularity tries just about everything trying to do so. Singularity pulls elements from some of the greatest games of the past 10 years in both the single and multiplayer. So much so, that the experience almost seems borrowed. Half-Life 2, Bioshock, Team Fortress 2 and Left for Dead are all blatantly ripped off throughout the game.

Your character (Renko) is a soldier in the US Military sent in with a team to investigate an electromagnetic surge coming from a remote island off the coast of Russia. This island is Katorga 12 (that’s an excellent Russian name), a secret Cold-War research island, that has been out of use since 1955. It was shut-down after an accident involving a Singularity that caused mass destruction on the island. Renko, very quickly finds himself in a heap of time traveling trouble. The story, despite being complex, is very easy to follow and your goals relating to the story are competently laid out. By the end story turns out to be the highlight of the entire experience.

The story unfolds swiftly by throwing alot of information at you very quickly. At about the 25% mark, the game hits auto pilot and the story development ramps up again at the end. What helps the story be so compelling is the atmosphere built by Raven. Using everything from thick (probably offensive) Russian accents to Russian signage everywhere, the game makes it clear that you are in a foreign land and you are not welcome. Going back and forth between 1955 and 2010 is done craftily and the set pieces are designed to respond differently in both times. The scene where you are on a boat that is quickly aging around you is nothing short of mind-blowing.
The way you progress through the levels is very much akin to that of Half Life 2. There are no load screens and everything is laid out in a linear fashion. The protagonist is silent, like Gordon Freeman, and his TMD (Time Manipulation Device) can pick up objects and shoot them (Gravity Gun anyone?). This TMD is attached to your left hand and is accessible at anytime with the left trigger. It is used to age objects and/or enemies backwards and forwards. Enemies can be reduced to dust in seconds or a broken box of health kits can be restored to new immediately. Think of the TMD as a time manipulating plasmid (A la Bioshock). Also, from Bioshock are the dozens of audio logs strewn about the world.
Singularity isn’t a survival horror game, but it is scary. Many times I jumped and yelled “WTF was that?” The scares are very environment based, with some of the enemies blending in extremely well. The horror elements of the game don’t feel forced. They feel more like a bi-product of the setting.

Running on the Unreal Engine, Singularity looks just as good if not better than other games on that engine (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock, or Shadow Complex), but as we all know, this generation of games is not about visual clarity, it about gameplay and Singularity’s gameplay is solid. Gun aiming is familiar and the TMD is responsive enough to use on just about any enemy. Another area where the game shines is the variety of ways to waste your enemy. With more than half a dozen guns, the Gravity Gun, Time Bubble, and the myriad of TMD attacks, which include turning your enemies on each other, each room you enter brings a host of possible destruction options.
The variety also leads to one of the games faults; most of the game is too easy. Once you get the Time Bubble feature (The TMD creates a bubble in which enemies are frozen in time), you may never die again. This is in sharp contrast to the beginning of the game where ammo is scarce and health packs are few and far between. Multiple times I came to rooms with 8-10 bad guys, armed with only 7 bullets and a knife that doesn’t instant kill. Once you get past the 33% mark the rest of the game is free sailing.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of a final boss. Yeah, there is no final boss. Instead you are given a moral choice that leads to 1 of 3 different endings. All three endings are rad, but I didn’t really feel like I earned them, since there is no huge bad guy to strike down before the end. Also, as it stands, Singularity is pretty short, and with the huge variety of weapons and possible scenarios, I was left wanting more, a lot more. These things are all pretty minor and really don’t negatively affect the overall quality of the single player experience.
Despite my hatred for it I dabbled in the multiplayer portion of the game. One thing stood out immediately. This is a TF2 and L4D mash-up. Both multiplayer modes are class based like TF2 and have half the players playing as soldiers and the other half as monsters. There is a VS. mode, just like in L4D and there is a capture the flag-like mode as well. The multiplayer feels like a love-letter to Valve. On second thought, outside of the Bioshock influence, Singularity as a whole feels like a Valve Developed game.

What troubles me is the lack of attention Activision is giving the game. I have seen minimal advertising, and it has not been prominently featured in any Activision press gathering since its announcement. I don’t know if they have little faith in it, or if they have already decided not to promote it because they don’t have sequels planned, but it definitely feels like Singularity is getting the shaft.
Raven makes lot of good games (Hexen, X-men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Heretic) and usually Activision uses them for licensed titles. There last 4 titles have been Quake 4, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Xmen Origins: Wolverine, and Wolfenstein. I see Singularity as a side project that the Raven team has been pouring their hearts into for years in their down time. The probably pitched it to Activision and they bit, but offered them the minimum PR budget so the game could be made on the cheap. Of course all of that is simply speculation, but I say, buy Singularity immediately. Sixty dollars may be a lot for a light weight game like this, but it will send a message to Activision telling them that we want good games and not a new Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk each year.

Verdict – Even if you think you’ve played it already, play it again.

TechByte 005: iTunes Library Folder Monitoring [PC]

Clarence Brown — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:01:02 +0000

If you’re part of the Apple iPhone/iPod owner base, then you have undoubtedly been forced into the world of iTunes, Mac user or not. And while this in itself is not a total loss, there are certainly some frustrating things about iTunes on Windows which have cause for improvement. Putting buggy video playback and the seemingly slow performance aside, iTunes lacks something which I would consider core functionality, folder monitoring.

Unlike Windows Media Player, or the Zune software, iTunes does not have built in folder monitoring. What is folder monitoring? Folder monitoring is when the player library searches (monitors) one or more folders and check for any changes. If a new item is added to the folders, then it is also added to the library. If a file is removed from the folder, then it is removed from the library. Why is this important? Simple. Most people have one core folder that they keep their music in. And instead of having to manually add new content to your iTunes library every time something is added to that folder, folder monitoring could automatically do this for you. Yes, making music management a heck of a lot easier.

Fortunate for us, there is a handy third-party tool that can help alleviate the pain, iTunes Folder Watch. A product of klarita.net, iTunes Folder Watch is offered as free-to-try-ware, which continues to work in manual mode, even after the trial period is over. Aside from the nag screen on startup and shutdown, this software is worth more than its weight in gold.

After installing the software and booting it up for the first time, you will be presented with the following screenshot (a). This part is pretty self-explanatory. Here, under the ‘Watch Folder’ tab, you can select the folders you wish to monitor for iTunes import. Next go the ‘Configuration’ tab. Here you can fine tune your iTunes import experience, such as scanning for dead track on startup, adding your imported tracks to a playlist, allowing it to start on windows boot up, and allowing your tracks to be monitored automatically without intervention.

(a) Add Folder To Monitor

(b) Configuration

Run a quick scan to find new tracks to be imported, click the ‘New Tracks’ tab (c), then hit the add checked tracks to iTunes and viola, your tracks are imported. Like I said before, if you ante up the dough to buy the full version, this program can run in the background and this will be done without intervention.

(d) Dead Tracks

Apple should really consider scooping up this software or adding this functionality in their self. It is a much needed edition to iTunes that will keep your library happy!

Garfield is the New Spider-man

Sergio Lugo II — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:28:30 +0000

No not the cat or the President. Actor Andrew Garfield has been selected to play Peter Parker/Spider-man in the upcoming web-slinger’s re-boot. Garfield landed the coveted part after nearly every young actor in the industry was rumored to be up for the role.

So, where would we know Mr. Garfield from? Well, as of right now his biggest role was in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, but he can be seen later this year in David Fincher’s The Social Network. Other than that, he’s been in a handful of small roles here and there. Seen below in what I have to assume is a photo from some movie where he plays a meth addict, its obvious that he’s not even close to age appropriate for a high school Peter Parker, but hey, neither was Tobey McGuire.

Here’s his stats in a nutshell, he’s 26, was born in LA, yet is British, Jewish and apparently he is a real bonafide actor. We will see if he off the role in the Summer of 2012. Until then, we’ll just have to be content watching the McGuire movies.

GST: Dark Void – A Not So Live Review

Sergio Lugo II — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:28:27 +0000

When gamers are strapped for cash but still want to shoot and loot things they turn to Gamer Savings Time (GST) to get the skinny on forgotten bargin bin titles. This time we look at Dark Void. As one of the most anticipated games of early 2010 Dark Void, developed by Airtight Games, was positioned to be the next huge Capcom franchise. Well, we know how that went. Less than half a year later Dark Void can be purchased on any platform for under $10. I say ANY platform, but it’s still retails on Games for Windows Live – Games On Demand for $30, which ironically is the platform on which I played it. We will get to that details on that in a moment.

On paper, Dark Void is amazing. Conceptually its an amalgamation of numerous beloved gaming and sci-fi ideas. It is simultaneously set in an alternate history and an alternate dimension. It has alien-like flying saucers, robots, a Jet Pack and friggin’ science legend Nikola Tesla. Part action adventure, part shooter, part Steam Punk, Dark Void looks like a delightful romp in nerd-land, and in some aspects it succeeds.

What’s good about Dark Void…the setting, story, characters and art-style. Airtight obviously spent alot of time fleshing out the back end of the Dark Void universe and created a story that fits the unique setting like a glove. The sad part is that outside of that, most of Dark Void falls flat on its ass…er rocket pack.

You play as Nathan Drake Will, a generic white dude, voiced by the most prolific voice actor in gaming Nolan North (Nathan Drake, The Prince of Persia, Desmond Miles). Nothing is too special about Will, but he does end up in a Jesus/Neo-like position towards the end, which makes his character a bit more interesting. Will and his former love interest are conveniently flying through the Bermuda Triangle when their plane crashes on an Uncharted Undiscovered island in the Atlantic ocean. It quickly becomes apparent that they are no longer on earth and in fact have been transported to another plane of existence called the “The Void”. I hear its dark there… I don’t want to spoil the story because there is so much wrong with this game that needs to be talked about.

For a game that prides itself on Jetpack gameplay, there is very little variety to the jetpack levels. The flight control feels good, but outside of a few mission specific tasks, the Jetpack is only used for dogfight-like battles with UFOs. You can hijack the UFOs, but that quickly turns into a monotonous quick-time event that is in no way necessary. Also, Will gets full access to the pack way too late in the game, but that is more of a comment on the length of the game and the volume and placement of enemies.

Nearly every enemy encounter, goes on for just a tad bit too long. Rather than feeling like an accomplishment, most of the battles on foot are laden with the thought of “Geez, I gotta kill more of these dudes?” On a quick run through the game can probably be finished in about 5-6 hours with most of that being Gears-style 3rd person shooting. The shooting mechanics aren’t bad, but the enemies take way too many rounds, especially if you haven’t upgraded the gun you are using. I found myself emptying multiple machine guns clips into certain enemies to take them out and with many of the robots being the shape of famished Calista Flockhart and bounce around like a ping-pong balls, landing clean headshots is terribly frustrating.

I quickly realized that the best way to take out the baddies is to just Rambo up to them with guns blazing and meleeing every single one of them. This worked well in almost all situations. Crowds of 7 or more enemies had to be whittled down first, but the remaining few were best taken down hand to hand.

A novel part of the game that got alot of attention before release was Dark Void’s vertical combat. Trust me, its not as compelling as it sounds. Basically, instead of standing behind chest high walls, Will shoots enemies from platforms above and below him, using the platform he is standing on as his “chest high wall”. It actually makes the idea of a cover-based shooter easier since you don’t have to worry about the moving around part as much. Luckily its not tedious and is a welcome break in the action.

I can’t help but think that the developer Airtight is simply stuck in the past. Airtight is made up of a core team of people who worked on the Xbox game Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. I haven’t played it but apparently it was great. Had Dark Void been released on the original Xbox in 2003 it would have been ground breaking and possibly amazing, but games just aren’t made like Dark Void anymore. The game design is too simple and nothing is terribly deep. My suggestion is that Airtight Games spend some money and send a large team to the game developers conference next year. They are obviously a talented team that seems to have lost their footing. While they are there they can learn how to properly implement achievements.

Games For Windows is Microsoft’s platform for PC release standardization. Games for Windows Live is a Live (a la Xbox Live) enabled version of this format. GFWL games have Achievement support that feeds directly into your existing Xbox Live account. Dark Void didn’t ship with GFWL support. All disc based copies of the game still don’t have Live support, but a few months ago Dark Void popped up on the GFWL download store with Live support effectively giving the game achievements. The problem is that they simply don’t work right.

As I played through the game I earned all of the story related achievements, but many of them never unlocked on my actual Live profile. So, according to my gamer score I finished select levels through the entire campaign and as evident on the Giant Bomb achievement tracker for the game that has happened to numerous other players. A google search for the achievement glitch brings up a pretty extensive thread on the Games For Windows Live forum. The game obviously needs a patch, but nothing has been announced, and players are very doubtful that it will ever happen.

Dark Void had alot of potential, but despite multiple development delays it still feels miles from finished. I reasonably enjoyed my play-through and if you are looking for a quick 700 achievement points on the 360 or a nice chunk of trophies on the PS3, its worth the 6 bucks plus shipping. However, if you are expecting something close to the level of quality typically found is Capcom games, you need to look elsewhere.

Verdict: A Plane Wreck

Zombie-Cow Invades Your “Privates”

Sergio Lugo II — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:50:56 +0000

Zombie Cow recently announced that they are developing a games set in the most private of places…the vagina. You heard me right. “Privates” will boldly go where no game has gone before…to where the sun don’t shine…into the naughty-bits…they will explore the great divide…you get my point. The first available gameplay footage can been seen below. Apparently they are trying to release it on XBLA. There’s little chance of that happening, but no-one can stop them from releasing the controversial side-scroller to PC. Don’t expect a retail copy, but like Zombie-Cow’s last games “Privates” will probably make it on to Steam. Boy, I can’t wait.

Oh Snap! E3 2010 Impressions

Sergio Lugo II — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:25:39 +0000

Techpedition may not have as prominent of a presence at E3 this year, but what we do have is the internet. What that means is that we can critique the happenings of the country