Batman Arkham Prologue.

It's been a really long time since my last review. I apologize it's been difficult juggling 4 things at once. But, I have the next review!

Batman Arkham Origins but it feels less like an Origin story and one not even centered around the Bat. No the main star of this show is the Joker and more or less his origins interjected with trifiling details regarding the Bat's or Arkham's past for that matter.

 

I borrowed this video to showcase, I do not own it or have any rights to the material.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. The game actually has a lot of good points and a lot of great combat mechanics.  Gameplay is probably Origins greatest achievement. The older titles really had good combat Origins didn't mess with that and added a few new tools to the Bat's Arsenal. Story wise this probably isn't a great idea. It doesn't conceptually make sense when items appear in a prequel where they aren't in a chronological sequel. However, it does make for some very fun and very new ways to combat your opponents. There is one detracting factor from all of this. The only part I get to play as someone else is when I'm in the Joker's head and it was really fun, really fresh and that lasted all but five minutes. I wish they'd had something akin to Arkham City where they switch between Catwoman and the Bat. Some might see it another way. There's plenty to do around the city and the new skill tree is a definitive plus. Gameplay still gets an amazing 8/10.

Graphics compared to the first two you shouldn't be surprised that the graphics have improved. But, here's my spin Arkham Origins has much MUCH better optomization. I ran Origins and City with roughly the same settings and I got much better performance in frames when I was playing Origins. They added some nice new graphical features that made use of Nvidia's PhysX engine which really made me happy. It really immerses you into the game you almost sometimes lose yourself swinging around the city. Even during combat with 8+ baddies the frames drop very little leading to great usage of tools. Graphics 10/10, it both looks amazing and performs amazing well done WB.

Story is probably the weakest. I was engaged at some points but other points I was just like meh. The pacing is really poor In my opinion I was always doing something but never doing anything. Sure I got to meet the villains and connect the dots but the primary focus was on the Joker. Despite all the promotion of Black Mask and the Assassins I didn't feel any obligation to Sionis or any large role in the story other than the fact I had to chase him. It doesn't even do a good job at bridging the gaps and has to have a handheld console version Origins Blackgate flesh out the story between Catwoman and the Bats. Again like I said above it felt like a rehash of a lot of story points but nothing really brought it together. Story gets a 5/10, was sorely disappointing and I wish I got to play and understand more.

Sound is key to a lot of things after all its one of our fives senses, WB doesn't disappoint. With high fidelity headsets on I can hear the snow crunch beneath my bat boots and every nuance while swinging around. When I'm stepping on the metal grates in the Batcave I feel like if I were taken there walking around inside as I hear the metal clang and the faint sounds of the cave.This game is a real treat if u have a 7.1 Surround Headset such as the Razer Tiamat 7.1 or Plantatronics GameCom Commander. Absolute 10/10 here.

I definitely had a lot of fun with the game and when I have free time I'll definitely go back and finish some side missions. However, it feels like more of the same from the past. It's just more fleshing out of the story from is predecessors City/Asylum. It's not a particularly fresh take on the series but definitely a solid submission into the franchise. I'd recommend you'd play it if you love Batman or if you've played the other games. It's also a great entry title for those new to the series.

I haven't tried multiplayer I probably won't; I don't think its worth playing but perhaps I'm wrong and a reader would enlighten me at a later point.The game gets an overall score of 8.2/10.

Pokemon Y Review

I promised myself at the end of Pokemon Black 2 that I would stop playing the series. Months later Pokemon X and Y were announced. I still didn't want to get into it. After a while I caved I wanted to experience Mega Evolution for myself.

I'm now 2 badges in and my 6 man team is close to lvl 40. I'm pretty addicted to this game, in the healthiest of ways of course. It may just be novelty or it may be the actual game, but this pokemon game is probably the best. I say this having played since the first iteration Red and Blue. It's not because of this generations Pokemon, definitely not, in fact this generation is probably the weakest in my opinion in terms of design and creativity. However, the new generation game included a lot of what the franchise/series had been lacking for a good many years.

 

Note I do not claim ownership of this video and are using for demonstration only.

Mini-games are one of the biggest things for this game I loved playing the slot machines in the first game. Here they take mini-games and turn it into meaningful skill games. Gone are the days of RNG luck. In Pokemon-Amie the new way to interact with your Pokemon, you're given three games to play on varying difficulty with unlimited mode being quite crazy. However, it's not crazy enough that it'll make you want to quit and the tasks are simple enough that a kid can play it and still feel good even if he or she doesn't get the high score.

They also have a stat training program which I haven't quite figured out yet that promotes a bunch of skill based soccer related mini-games. Some of them are pretty difficult but they're super useful in increasing your Pokemon's base stats or so the instructions said. I still haven't seen any particular effect in actual battle but perhaps I haven't been paying attention enough.

The 6th generation of Pokemon, is however probably the weakest design wise some Pokemon are completely unimaginative like Klefki and Scatterbug. They are very cute and this might appeal towards female gamers more. However, the overall span of creativity seems to have died a lot. The only real Pokemon that I've been mildly impressed with Honedge and its evolutions.

The nice part of this genre is the update to the graphics and animations that was much needed after 5 generations of relative similarity. The new particle effects as well as individualized animations for almost all 700+ pokemon is quite an impressive feat. There are also some minor tweaks to the looks of old classics like Pikachu, females and males have different tails (for other Pokemon it might be other things). The new 3D while limiting the audience to buy a new 3DS does its job spectacularly while not placing too much strain where unneeded such as during travel, etc... the game look stunning both with 3D and 3D off so its your choice. I recommend 3D being off if you're in an area where your moving a lot as 3D tends to make you sick if you move around a lot.

Don't fix what's not broken, is what this franchise  follows 6 generations later and combat hasn't really changed all that much since the first generation. Yeah there have been many additions of Pokemon types and a plethora of new moves, but the core combat has not changed since my good old childhood. That's probably one of the best moves, people love nostalgia and while it may feel old the new title in the series makes it feel fresh and rewarding. I give Pokemon X and Y an outstanding score of 9/10.

If you haven't already picked up your copy of the game, then get one here at Amazon. I recommend a guide for quick reference as well as information to help build your team. I don't quite have one yet, but I've been playing since Gen 1 for those of your just starting I'd recommend getting the guide.

Beyond Two Souls- Review

Beyond Two Souls is the fourth in quanticdream's gaming library and like its predecessor Heavy Rain  is a venture out of the ordinary game realm, both literally and metaphorically speaking. The story puts you in the shoes of Jodie a strange girl who has weird circumstances surrounding her. She's not quite like your normal girls and there's nothing natural about who she is. We follow her through her recollection of life or at least what seems to be the most important parts of it. This is for the player to gauge whether its true or not.

I do not own this image and am merely borrowing it for demonstration purposes

.

Setting that preview aside lets get into the meat of this review.

Graphics: Lets start with this since this is perhaps the most impressive. The godly motion capture done by quantic is put to good use in this game emotions come alive and characters having an endless life to them because of this stunning and well put together process. Faces move much like they would in real life instead of mechanically. Cinematic quality graphical work as well as camera angles help add to the feel that you're not in a game but rather an interactive movie. This is both good and bad and I'll highlight that later on. The only gripe I have with the graphics is their crying it looked completely unnatural next to their character's movements. The tear droplets don't form naturally and don't fall naturally so I was really taken aback as it seemed it was plastered on last second. Environments as well as character models are well designed and thought out. Although one may argue that using the faces of Ellen Page and William DaFoe isn't exactly creativity at its finest. I argue that it fits the type of game they're making. Cinema should beget cinema. 8/10 on the graphics

Gameplay: This is where in my opinion Quantic dreams falls tragically short both in their previous title Heavy Rain and in this title Beyond Two Souls. The same sort of layout with quick time event button presses and interactive scenes returns but now they've added this clunky combat and movement system. This is something I really didn't like as compared to Heavy Rain, they took out all of the complexity that made Heavy Rain fun and replaced it with a far too simplistic system that is both difficult to use and displeasing to handle. Events happen at a nice pace however, there is no directional cue which leads to lots of events where you kinda wing it without any idea if you're hitting the correct buttons or not. I whiffed by a lot of events with barely any understanding of what I was doing, as well as not actually failing any events. I don't think I failed a single combat scenario even though in that brief combat scene I failed several quick time events. I'm not sure if there is a system in place that prevents failure but that takes away any challenge that was present in the game. Seriously disappointing as it makes the game seem like an interactive storybook which is fine if you're into that sort of game. Gameplay gets a 5.5/10. The challenge is not completing the events but guessing within a short 1 second time window what input you're supposed to use.

 

This is a nice demonstration and comparison between Heavy Rain and BTS. I do not own this clip and all rights go to the owner who made it. MrVG247

Sound: Music and voices are well done and I feel all the emotions I would in a movie. Everything from the rain that dripped on the roofs to the crying and panic in a characters voice. It was all deeply moving voice and sound. I did however, have a complaint regarding Jodie's crying which sounded synthetic at certain times. Like it was forced and that may have been due to how the actor decided to artistically take that approach. I didn't like it, you may. I give the sound a solid 8/10.

Story: This is perhaps on of the best areas of the game and probably needs the least explanation. Like with Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls takes you on the emotional roller coaster of a real life movie. Only you're much more involved as you're making the choices for your character. Each decision you make takes you down a different path to an ending that is different on many different levels. Small decisions impact specific details in the endings and the well written script draws you in like any A class movie would. I don't have any particular faulting of the story except that its jumps around a lot and it doesn't make sense why its jumping around a lot until the end of the game. This leave you rather confused at first, but each individual scenario/scene generates its own sort of story attachment as well as feeling. Story gets a 8.5/10

Overall I give the game a 7.5/10. It's a solid entry in the gaming market but the combat dragged the game down a lot. The lack of any real challenge also detracts from what makes a game fun in my opinion. However, the story and other individual categories really make up for what is lacking. If you haven't already purchased the game I definitely recommend at least one playthrough a used copy from Amazon or a rental copy from gamefly perhaps.

Leaping into Motion or Not?

The Leap Motion a relatively new gadget that offers up the chance to for you to interact with your computer like Tony Stark interacts with his Iron Man suit. Only problem is technology isn't that good yet and yeah we don't have an Iron Man suit. Jokes aside lets look at the device itself.

Its an infrared scanning platform that allows detection of all of your fingers nifty huh? yeah kinda so to speak it is pretty nifty problem being that its firmware isn't well polished enough for it to be nifty. The device alone has plenty of potential but poor firmware releases and functionality with a 2D surface surface don't particularly make sense. This would in my mind, work really well with a 3D monitor or TV given then fact that it digitizes your fingers into individual nodes of manipulation.

The problem is without haptic feedback its hard to tell whether or not you've exactly hit something or not; not to mention free float targeting of tiny icons is incredibly difficult to perform. Its like a juggling act with one hand.

Couple this with the fact that the Leap Motions only useful app is its interaction with animation software Maya and suddenly it becomes less than important. It's an innovative and a fun idea but execution is not that great. This results in a system that is difficult to use and defeating its original purpose of simplifying a field of interaction.

Without proper support and usefulness I have to give the Leap Motion a disappointing 5/10 I was hoping for a product that would upgrade my interaction with my computer but that most likely won't be happening for a long time.

https://www.leapmotion.com/

Not a review but probably far more entertaining

One of my favorite channels on youtube is KurtHugoSchneider in celebration of the release of the new pokemon X and Y soon Kurt and youtube crew made a dubstep remix featuring the original show's opening theme. Enjoy guys and if you would like to pre-order the game just scroll down to my unboxing post and you'll be able to pre-order on Amazon or if you'd like use Kurt's link either way enjoy this video.

Nintendo X+Y 3DS Bundle Unbox

Sorry guys I completely forgot about writing the un-boxing for this bundle even though I took the photos the day of release. This Bundle is not really a bundle but a really nice custom Nintendo 3DS XL in a box. It's incredibly misleading since most Bundles often include a game this one sadly does not. In my opinion this was highly disappointing.

However, it's a really beautiful Pokemon themed 3DS XL its got all the standard layouts as well as gadgets that come with the normal 3DS XL's however the Pokemon themed art on the 3DS itself as well as the high polish gloss finish are both really nice editions. If you haven't gotten a 3DS yet I really recommend this one as it fits the purpose you'll need it for in a nice convenient package. Both the X or the Y Bundle are good depending on your color preferences. I do however have to note that the build quality especially around the SD port is of low quality trying; to open the SD port I sometimes ended up almost peeling back the exterior casing. I give the Bundle a 7/10 stars the price is good as well as the nice custom graphics. However, Nintendo loses points for not including the game and sub-par build quality.

If you haven't yet puchased a copy of the game you can click below to buy from Amazon. I also recommend getting a guide for parents wanting to play the game with their children.

 

BF4 Beta Review a dissapointing sequel

If you've been through enough betas to know what a beta looks like and feels like then you're in my boat. If not listen closely, while anything beta represents unpolished work this is essentially the final product, you know minus a few tweaks, patches, and balances changes. That being said having spent nearly an entire day with the beta I'm sorely disappointed with it, what made the battlefield series great is gone. EA has taken what hardcore battlefield fans loved and turned it into something I wouldn't even wipe my ass with. As with the last beta the product feels highly unpolished.

There are problems with spawning, bugs that cause you to glitch through buildings, and graphical errors when certain sequences of actions are strung together. This was to be expected. I felt it fair to give you guys who want to demo the game a heads up.

The biggest issues driver and graphics optimization. It runs great for me but this is one of the largest problems whether its with Nvidia or with the game itself lots of people have been having graphical infidelity and lag. The graphics look really spectacular on Ultra, but I think that's the only improvement from BF3->BF4.

Shooting mechanics have been dumb down from 3 going into 4. Bullet drop has been reduced and sniper shots from nearly 2 football fields away barely drop. The recoil mechanic familiarized heavily by gameplay in BFBC2 and earlier games is almost completely gone. Recoil is so easily manageable that its laughable. The destruction mechanic that made BFBC2 a success has been watered down to the point of no return. Granted my entire day was spent only a single stage (Siege of Shanghai) but the amount of destructibility has been drastically reduced even from 3 going into 4. (The sides of many skyscrapers are indestructible; I even rammed a helo into one of the buildings, not even a scratch.

I think the highlight of my stage exploration was riding an elevator which I do admit was a rather fun new mechanic. Setting that aside the combat has turned more into CoD style play and I often find myself running and gunning instead of planning any sort of offensive or defensive. (It gets the job done and its a lot less strain on the brain. Sadly its because of this that Battlefield is dying.) The return to non-linear game play in multiplayer was too little too late. The ability to fire back at other from the water is also a nice edition, but barely noticeable and very conditional (to the presence of deep water).

I do not own this image or the game. I am merely borrowing this for demonstrative purposes.

I think this is going to be the last time I spend money on a Battlefield game. I'm sorry guys but EA put the nail in the coffin with this one. Their recent history with games signals a time to move on and look to other developers for games that are truly entertaining. I will still do a full review of the single-player as well as the multiplayer upon release, However, do not hold your breath guys, this is not looking like a keeper.

BF4 Beta

The Beta phase for BF4 has started ladies and gents I will be on playing as KentaTakashi and I hope you all will join me. In other news I have no forgotten about the sight or my reviews and expect to see a review of the leap motion controller by tomorrow. I'm trying to stretch out the reviews I do as much as possible until the next wave of games arrives. Sorry for the lack of posts I hope you guys will continue reading