Sunday, August 31, 2014

Heroes of the Storm Gamespot Pax 2014 Stage Demo

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell Gameplay Demo IGN Pax 2014

Evolve Gamespot Stage Demo Pax 2014

Sunset Overdrive Gamespot Stage Demo Pax 2014

Alone in the Dark: Illumination - Teaser Trailer

Toy Soldiers: War Chest - Teddy Bear and Unicorn Death Gameplay - PAX Prime

Mortal Kombat X PAX 2014 Stage Demo

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Salt and Sanctuary Announcement Trailer



    That Castlevania 2D episode you ordered came out a little different.  But hey, I'm sure you'll like it anyway.  Might be worth me finally buying a Vita for, Viva la Crossbuy!
 

Infamous First Light Review



                                                                                                                                  Infamous First Light
Sucker Punch
Sony Entertainment
August 26 2014
PS4
4/5 Stars
       

        Once I finished Infamous Last Light, I think I understood why everyone was so down on it.  The game is far from perfect but it is also a $15 game that takes around 6 hours to complete.  Which is far more than most $60 campaign focused games these days.  I didn’t mess around very much in the world.  I will probably do so now.  Once the player finishes the game they get access to a free roam of the world and they also unlock unlimited access to the game’s arena mode.  The arena mode, is kind of like it sounds; challenge based, combat focused tasks against A.I.  Nothing innovative there, but I don’t think that’s what Infamous First Light is about.
       Story wise the game is nothing to write home about.  If you played Infamous Second Son you know it already, sans the details, of course.  But none of the game will probably surprise you very much.  Having played Second Son recently, not to completion; I felt prepared enough for this game and I was prepared.  Most of the game is pretty easy, there are some minor challenges that seem a little unfair but you can continue in the middle of the challenge in most cases(except for one that I know of), and you can pretty much brute force your way through if you have to.  Which was fine, I didn’t come to this game looking for a really big challenge.  If you want that you can play the endless arena mode til you turn blue in the face and try to be the person topping the leaderboards.  Personally, I didn’t even look at the leaderboards; because as Fetch you don’t have all your powers.  Usually in arena modes this is a major factor.  So I might mess with them later on, once I unlock everything.
       One of the big things that comes over from Infamous Second Son are the stellar graphics!  I loved playing this game and while the cutscenes were pretty mind blowing; the regular game isn’t any slouch either.  The music and sound design were also first class.  I never felt the need to turn off the background music and it never annoyed me hearing some of the voice samples for a the third time.  All of it stayed in the background, not annoying; just adding flavor and color to the game.
      For a $60 product Infamous First Light is a little simple.  For a $15 one, it is AMAZING!  Truth be told it is probably a $15 demo for Infamous Second Son.  But heck, for me it was time well spent and I will certainly be playing a little more.  While this game certainly COULD have been better.  I think considering the price, it is an excellent game and I truly enjoyed playing it and FINISHING it!

Lords of the Fallen World Trailer

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Infamous First Light Hands On Impressions...(Around 2 hours in)


                                

       First and foremost, I would suggest that anyone interested in playing this game; not watch ANY of the MANY WALKTHROUGHS that many of the major outlets are doing.  The game has been out one day and all I see on Youtube are video walkthroughs.  I think that's a bit much...  Anyway...
     Just recently picked up Infamous Second Son and I am playing through that story.  Probably around half way through.  I decided since I knew who Fetch was and what her basic story was that it was cool to play this game.  It's a blast...
     You can fly through the city using your light dash without worrying about using your light bar.  Unlike Second Son you upgrade crazy fast.  You can do side activities, hunt down orbs(that are pretty hard to get in the beginning), and do missions to gain upgrade points.  And they fall like candy from a pinata.  But your going to need every point you can get when the bad guys in the challenge missions start shooting at you. For the most part the in world missions are relatively easy so far.  But the challenge missions are, wait for it... A challenge...
    This isn't a review and while I really do love the game, I'm only 31% of the way in and while I intend to finish both this and Second Son.  Perhaps someone who has recently played a lot of Second Son could be burnt out on not only this kind of game but this kind of gameplay.  But for $15 this is an awesome amount of game for your buck.  Review pending...  But so far so good.

Everything IGN Knows About Dragon Age Inquisition's Co-op Multiplayer

Lichdom: Battlemage Launch Trailer

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Thank You! Thank You ALL Very MUCH!

        So first and foremost I would like to thank everyone who has been visiting this site since I dropped off the face of the earth to pursue all of my other interests which include the Among the Wreckage Book Review Blog. 
       Not limited to it though.  I've been working on writing a few books of my own with varying degrees of success.  Yes, I've discovered that creating things is hard.  Which is probably why I think most people are too hard on video games.  They are incredibly hard to make and many people devote a large portion of their lives to them.  So when people dismiss some of them out of hand.  It is pretty hard to be anything but disgusted.
       That is not to say that there aren't a lot of bad games out there.  In the age of the Indies and Steam Greenlight there seem to be a never ending pile of garbage covering over the descent games.  I don't know what the system for sorting through all these games should be; but currently it just seems like, with a few exceptions, there is FAR MORE bad than good games.
        The funny part of this is that books are going through the exact same thing as video games.  Except in books, it seems to be more a matter of what people are willing to pay than a problem that financing a book from a major author is expensive.  Readers have gotten a taste of the free to $3.99 market and don't care how crappy a book is just that it's cheap.  More like the mobile games market has been on and off.
         What I find so interesting and so hard to just completely ignore are the deluge, and yes, it's a deluge.  Of completely uninformed and seemingly uninterested game journalists.  They work for the big outlets, mostly as second stringers or perhaps folks who cover an event and nothing else.  I'm sorry but if I'm getting paid to cover a game on a live show I MIGHT actually google that game ahead of time and at least know SOMETHING about it.  But that doesn't seem to be their concern.  What I also find strange, is that the people who DO KNOW about games are being systematically fired from the industry for, get this...  Making too much money!  Yes folks, most of these people live in San Fransico or L.A.  where gas can be over $5 a gallon.  But these folks can't be making $30-$50 grand a year!  Oh no, why would they want to start a family or actually live in a descent part of town.  No, that's just TOO MUCH!
         Meanwhile, the executives at these companies are making upwards of six figures and see nothing wrong with it; even though they are just cookie cutter positions that can be filled with a Pizza Hut Exec.  just as easy as the Exec from Ebay.  There IS NO DIFFERENCE!  They are just glorified paper pushers who learn how to be executives, not the head of a particular company.  This is made more obvious every time the folks running at IGN or Gamespot make a decision.
         Currently, I feel like Polygon is supporting the entire game journalism industry with excellent news and some descent, if not over harsh reviews.  Giant Bomb is #2 down, from #1.  While the move for half the staff to Chicago and then New York; has resulted in some good video and some even better straight up journalism.  The overall production of the site seems to be just reaching the status quo and while Dan Rykert has been less of an improvement that probably the other dozen people they could have chosen.  He hasn't derailed the site as much as having so few people there doing the actual video production work or the in office journalism.
          What do I have against Dan?  He is never prepared.  He doesn't have much of the information that most the viewers have.  I have heard him answer some questions in the negative from a place of pure ignorance rather than actual opinion.  He has also, managed to do nothing for the opinion of the site as a bunch of guys just messing around.  As it seems that he is more interested in Wrestling than in video games. 
        This was not supposed to be a tirade about Dan Rykert, I loved his work at Gameinformer and his video show, Replay.  I'm not entirely sure what happened but I don't like it.
         Anyway, I think that with SO FEW positions available in video game journalism, companies should try to find the best people for the jobs not just the easiest people to train.  I also think that considering Twitch is on shaky ground as a streaming service for games in the future.  The heavy reliance that many companies have put on it should be reexamined.  How long with it be before Youtube falls into the same trap.  The idea of having millions of people streaming video content is an awesome one.  But our society seems to go for the quick buck rather than what is right for world every time and this will happen with these services just as it did with the proliferation of internet service.  It's 2014, people, we should ALL HAVE FREE HIGH SPEED GIGABIT ETHERNET!  This would not only change how our society functions but the job opportunities and educational opportunities would be limitless.  But it's SO MUCH better to have one or two companies stranglehold internet service and thus begin creating a state where in order to use the internet or say something on the internet you must deal with them.
       Our parents allowed the cable and satellite companies to control our televisions and we are still trying to pry them away.  Are we going to let this happen with our internet as well?  Probably, because the people in control, are too rich to care.  They just want their big money now and they don't care what happens down the road.  Well, that kind of thinking is basically what will not only be the end of the US but of other country in the world.  People need to start thinking about the future and less about onyl the next five years.
        My advice for fixing all of this?  Well, first and foremost pay attention.  Don't be the most uninformed person in the room.  Try to be the most informed.  If there is a game that you love, talk about it on Twitter.  Tell your friends, you know the people you know in real life.  Make sure to call the journalists on their mistakes.  Not in a mean way, just let them know in the comments, politely what their mistakes were and where they could look for the information.  On Youtube, make sure to LIKE the videos you like.  I knwo this sounds stupid.  But the more LIKEs a video gets the better in does with marketing types.  Companies want to know that their dollars are going to something that is doing well.  Make sure to subscribe to Giant Bomb if you love the content over there.  About the other problems I talked about?  Write emails to your congressman or congresswoman and let them know that you are concerned about these issues.  And vote, those government types really respond to that.
       That's my advice and if any of this made you mad, or upset.  Sorry.....

           And if that made you mad?  You have no soul and I cannot help you... :)