Author - Ripper71

A Look at the Great American Comic Convention: Las Vegas

2015/12/11

Geek News, Misc Review, News, Reviews, Screenshots / Photos

It was the inaugral year for the Great American Comic Convention: Las Vegas and those first years are often a bit rough. Usually, there is a hard time getting talent, vendors are scarce, and the crowds and community support are nowhere to be found. This convention was a bit different though in most aspects and hopefully next year it will have the crowds to show for it.

I go to a lot of conventions, particularly comic book based ones. I’ve never made it into San Diego Comic-Con, the mecha of comic cons, but each year I feel a little better about this as there are too many people, too much going on all at once, and it is near impossible to do half the things you would like to. Give me a medium-sized comic convention, one that gets decent names, keeps me busy the whole weekend but at the same time doesn’t leave me full of regret for the things I couldn’t do. There will always be picking and choosing but let it be with the satisfaction that the choice was a good one.

The Great American Comic Convention: Las Vegas was in a small venue but a near perfect fit for a first year. Vendors are going to be a little bit more reluctant with a con’s first year – panels generally fewer then the number at more established shows. Guests will come and go, some will decide to be no-shows on a first year. Choosing your space so that things aren’t too spread out or looking too cavernous like attendees aren’t getting their money’s worth is important.

What made Great American Comic Convention: Las Vegas different from most small starting conventions was it’s guest list. With only a couple cancellations (feel better Len Wein!) there were some serious legends of the comic community in an arena size space: Billy Tucci, Terry Moore, Bob McLeod, Darwyn Cooke, Joe Rubinstein, Frank Tieri, Tony Harris, Mike Zeck, Howard Chaykin and so many more! You got to see Tim Bradstreet and Tommy Castillo walking the halls talking cover art, James Robinson joking with fans about sitcoms and THE Bernie Wrightson hanging out and talking Batman and Swamp Thing. It was more like a reunion than a convention with the fans being welcomed into the fold and conversations. The panels didn’t get the turnout they deserved but it was like hanging out in someone’s house with these legends in the comic world rather than being in a giant convention hall where you are just one in a sea of faces. It was intimate and warm, so much so that Tim Bradstreet would excuse himself from his booth to go give other artists and even fans hugs. I just wish I could met Simon Bisley and have seen Len Wein there with them so that I could have heard him and Wrightson talk about the early days of Swamp Thing and seen this fraternity even more complete.

And… listen to this comic fans and fanatics, they weren’t charging for autographs! Bradstreet was looking at comics in people’s hands and grabbing them and signing them while chatting, Castillo was a fountain of amazing stories and facts while signing away, Billy Tucci was nicely asking for donations of any amount for important military charities while signing his iconic work and doing sketches. To have such big names at a intimate rookie event was an amazing thing, having free autographs and reasonable prices on prints and books as well was just amazing.

There were some vendors but there will probably need to be more to keep it profitable and there was some community support by lots of local artists and important non-profit groups like Viva Wonder Woman, Very Awesome Girls, Amazing Las Vegas Cosplayers and Super May Day 2016. Special shout out to Viva Wonder Woman whose level of community work I have seen first hand at event after event and should be an inspiration to us all to be every day heroes.

Hopefully, word of mouth will get out about the event so that the turnout increases enough to make sure the event is profitable though if it maintains it’s intimacy I won’t complain much, next year it might feel like we fans are part of the reunion.

Gallery

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide Review (PC/Steam)

2015/12/03

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Rats! I mean like a tide of vermin! It’s the end of the world… of Warhammer and there are a lot of rat bastards to deal with in these final days. So grab three friends, or bots if you don’t have any friends, and take to fighting the good fight one last time in Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide!

Features:

Cooperative Survival For up to 4 Players – Band together with your friends or die alone. Vermintide will continuously test the teamwork and skill of you and your friends. Drop-in, drop-out Multiplayer and the addition of A.I. bots ensures a full team at any time, regardless of available players.
Play as Five Unique Heroes – Five distinct characters to choose from, each with their own personality, agenda and story to tell. Learning what it means to work together is key to the group’s survival.
Huge Hero Arsenal – Each hero has its own unique weapons arsenal to draw from, allowing players to adjust their combat style to fit their gameplay preference. There are hundreds of different weapons, includíng swords, daggers, axes, hammers, bows, guns, magical staves & more
Embark on an Epic Quest – Boasting 13 diverse levels – on the ground, in buildings, on walls and underground – ranging from the immense Magnus Tower to the treacherous Under Empire, Vermintide will take you on a journey you’ll never forget.
Experience the Skaven Like Never Before – A rising tide of malicious and cunning rat-men await you, hacking, clawing and eviscerating all that stand in their way. Face vicious packs of clan-rats and deadly specialized elites.
Gather Mountains of Shiny Loot – Rewarding teamwork above all else, players are given loot dice at the end of a mission that will reward them with a weapon, a hat or a trinket. Completing side objectives means that better loot dice can be added to the roll.
Battle Unpredictable Enemies – Vermintide features a dynamic spawn system providing a constant set of new challenges lurking behind every corner.
Experience an Immersive Story – Games Workshop veterans have banded together to write a fantastic new addition to the Warhammer lore, offering a new perspective on the cataclysmic events of The End Times.
Find a Path to Safety – The Skaven boast incredible mobility, able to climb and leap fantastic distances to make life a living hell for the Heroes. No matter where you go, they will be there, ready to pounce.

Hands On:
First off, all the features above that were listed on the Steam site were solidly in effect when I played. When it came to character building and armaments, there are tons of options and more arrive throughout play with teamwork being an integral role. If you don’t stick together and watch each others’ backs, then there is a good chance you can get dragged off like a raccoon by animal control – a loop around your neck while other rats take shots at you. At one point during an AI-partnered match I got ahead of my AI team and when they tried to catch up with me we wiped and it was mission over. It was all nicely accentuated by a “Defeated” screen to rub a little salt in our wounds. It wasn’t for a lacking in AI building either, the bots are solidly designed and, mostly, behave like real humans. The biggest weakness I saw in this was when to take healing potions. If a bot is at 60% health and comes across a healing flask they wouldn’t top off instead passing on healing and only using the flask at dire times. Though character AIs quip and fight differently they apparently all have a slight weakness when it comes to self preservation which is a weakness the group then suffers from. Part of this is because the behavior built into the enemy AIs is so well done. They run at you in packs but the stronger ones that benefit from distance will run off if it suits their purpose. Sometimes, the rats will stop attacking and retreat to gather forces. They then re-advance with strength in numbers. When you hear one of your team say “It’s a trap!” and you turn and see a flood or I guess you would say a tide of rat-men pouring over a wall at you, it can be a bit daunting.

I have talked a lot about the AI of both the rat-men and the fellow teammates because I am one of the folks above who don’t have any friends playing the game. As a result I have dropped into hosted games or tried to host my own with some rather rough results. The game requires a team, whether that consists of real players, AI or both seems to depend a bit on luck and timing. The success of that group seems even more in the balance. For example I entered a game and had my graphics cranked so it looked beautiful but the player hosting the game kicked me, my guess was for a lag issue. I lowered the graphics settings and got in another game where the host was complaining about players running off ahead to getting the loot dice and leaving others behind and then quitting. I entered another game where there were two real players and two bots and, since no one else joined, the host cancelled the mission. I then went and started a game myself hosting in hope that, with a stable host, the game would be more successful. It was in a sense, no one else joined and using the bots I was pretty successful and a lot less stressed about the mission possibly ending or someone shooting off ahead for the loot dice. At that point though I realized I could just start a private game and no one else would be able to join and I could just run with the bots who wouldn’t bring personal player issues to the game. This also made me realize it might as well be offline play then since I was a solo party with bots.

I wish I could say I had one stellar mission with other players but I’m not sure I ever completed one. Maybe if it had dedicated servers that the games were being hosted on like in Diablo it would be a more stable online experience and less dependent on the numbers of players and dispositions of them. The game is solidly built with tons of great features that lead to detailed customization and lots of Warhammer lore, the only problem is a lack of player base and possibly it’s quality.

Last Tide:
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is a solidly built game with great features and excellent AI. It is a visually beautiful game that deserves an equally terrific player base. Not just deserves it though, requires it for the game to continue on its hairy rat legs.

[easyreview title=”Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]

The Park Review (PC/Steam)

2015/11/22

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

The Park is a nice little jaunt into madness designed to remind former players of The Secret World what they are missing, and also give current players more lore and gear to add to their ever expanding experience in a place where nightmares are the norm. If you have nothing to do with TSW that’s okay, The Park is still a creepy cool ride.

Features:
– Explore Atlantic Island Park and step onto rides such as the Ferris Wheel, the Bumper Cars and the Rollercoaster; just beware, some of them have a life of their own
– Enter the mind of Lorraine, a woman facing every parent’s worst nightmare, and unravel her story as well as the dark and tragic history of the park
– Call out for Callum to respond, and interact with the environment around you while examining clues and listening to Lorraine’s own inner voice as the game progresses
– State of the art graphics and audio deliver a uniquely atmospheric setting rich in mood and mystery, developed by a team of award-winning AAA developers

Hands On:
The Park works as a stand alone game where you follow your narrator Lorraine down a path of madness or nightmare, or both. Exactly what happened is left up to some personal interpretation but it all falls nicely into the madness of The Secret World mythos in which the events of the game have been rumor among the townsfolk of Kingsmouth for some time. There are easter eggs to The Secret World and Stephen King’s writings which often nodded to in the SW universe so if you are familiar with either it is fun, if you are into both even more so.

It is a story played in the first person with a narrative that seems at times to have choices but is in reality very linear. In the very opening moments of the game you and your son are leaving Atlantic Island Park and your son Callum goes running back in and you follow. Only the moment you go through the turnstiles the world shifts and don’t expect it to shift back anytime soon. You search for Callum and find sometimes important but usually just interesting TSW lore by shouting for him which results in a wavering in the air that points you the direction to go. If a player only cared about completing the game they could ignore the pages of information and just charge through the game and be done in probably about an hour, said player would also have missed out on the whole importance of the game and it’s very purpose which is to expand on the Secret World lore. If you aren’t a SW player it entices you to become one through showing you the nightmarish world it creates and giving a costume and some talismans for the core game as well as a week of free premium play. The costume isn’t a boring one like some side games might give you either, it is downright awesomely creepy, It think even horror film worthy.

I played and reviewed The Secret World whey it first came out and I loved it even though it had a few buggy issues. It was a solid MMORPG. Since then it only got better and tells it’s stories as if the player is playing through issued of a comic book series even going as far as to break it up into individually titled Issues which are then on sale to play. There is a mix of mini-transactions and subscription play much like Star Trek Online even having a lifetime membership available to bypass the subscription and some mini-transactions just like STO. If someone is still looking for a Christmas gift for me the lifetimes subscription…

But I digress. If you want to soak in the atmosphere of the game and get all the lore you can it will probably run you closer to three hours, which when combined with the in-game gear it becomes a very reasonably priceed addition to anyone’s TSW experience. Wear headphones, turn off all the lights. Play in an empty house if you can and this game might just give you a creepfest. If the player is prone to being jumpy at startle scares in movies or creepy moments then this game will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you are a bit jaded and desensitized like yours truly then you will still appreciate how well crafted the mood is set and maintained and I will admit to jumping at one point just as strongly as the professional level haunt attractions I attended during October. One spot I was in a dark dead end hall, there is a dead body at my feet, the screen image is flickering and shifting which you come to learn quickly is not a good sign. The music is at a tension building level and I know from my experience with horror games and haunts that when I turn around there will be something there. But the game has worked to build up a subtle tension so when I turn and see what is there the music crescendos the screen does a slight flicker and something creepy is standing there in state-of-the-art graphics and I jumped high in my chair. As far as I am concerned getting me to jump at all is worth the game’s price.

My two minor issues were that one of the repeating creeps in the game just didn’t strike me as very creepy because it was a little too cartoonish. I think the quality of the graphics and the great design of the secondary creep might have added to this and for some people it might be just fine. I think I would have just preferred maybe a hyper realism to that character since it was definitely in the game’s abilities. The other issue was that the game had load screens which can really pull the player out of the tension. For some it is a moment to catch their breath and is probably for the best but I just found it distracting. Both are minor issues that plenty of players would probably disagree with.

I would also like to make a point, and there is a warning on the game to this effect, that the subject matter gets dark, maybe too dark for some players with certain traumas or sensitivity to deep, dark themes.

Last Jump:
The Park is a terrific little game that works beautifully as a stand alone game but is practically a must for anyone who has played The Secret World. It is loaded with lore, mind games and creepy atmosphere that would have Scooby Doo saying “Rew you, I’m raying in the ran.” There is a mystery to solve that is left to the mind of the player, the darker your thoughts the darker the ending. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself trying to put some time aside to dive into The Secret World after…

[easyreview title=”The Park Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition Review (PC)

2015/11/22

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

War! What is he good for? Absolutely nothing…. unless you also mean being a scapegoat for the great “powers that be”. When you are one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who can you count on to have your back? Why, Death of course, since he is one of the constants of the world (why isn’t Taxes the Fifth Horseman?) and a true blue brother indeed. So in Darksiders II Deathfinitive Edition you play big blue Death and you reap like a bad ass.

Features:
– Play Death: Become the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, able to destroy entire worlds and battle forces beyond Heaven and Hell.
– Epic Universe: Unlike anything the player has seen before, delivered in the unique style of Joe Mad.
– Player Choice & Customization: Customize your experience with varied armor sets, weapons, and Skill Trees allowing players to create their own Death.
– Replay-ability: Explore a vast open world, complete dozens of side quests and customize your Death with a full leveling system, Skill Trees and endless equipment combinations.
– Traversal: Death is a nimble and agile character capable of incredible acrobatic feats allowing the player to explore the world like never before.

Deathinitive Edition Features:
– Darksiders 2 with all DLC included and integrated into the game which offers a total playtime of more than 30 hours
– Reworked and tuned game balancing and loot distribution
– Improved Graphic Render Engine for higher visual quality especially in terms of lighting and shadows
– Improved and reworked level, character and environment graphics
– Running in native 1080p resolution
– Steam Trading Cards

Scythe On:
If you notice a degree of levity in this review it is because the game doesn’t take itself too seriously either. Yes, it has an earth shattering storyline but it plays as a hack n’ slash that borrowed lovingly from the aspects of other games to create a well polished beast of beauty.

The control system plays out much like in God of War, with lots of dodging followed by wicked double attacks. There are also epic bosses and splattering finishing moves for yard trash. The weapon system is similar to a couple different games and allows Death to wield two scythes as well as a secondary weapons of your choice. When it comes to weapons this game is practically in overkill mode with options. You might want to play through more than once just to keep trying out different ways to do Death’s reaping duties. The game already had plenty to start with, the Deathinitive Edition adds weapon DLCs to bolster it even further. Combine this with other customization such as skill trees and you wind up with a Death all your own.

Loot drop is similar to a few dungeon crawlers in design. reminding me of Krater and it’s better known bigger cousin Diablo. As it says above it is an open world much of which you can run around on a mount so you can enjoy the vast space without finding it tedious.

The balance of enemies, particularly the boss battles is nicely done so that you feel a ton of satisfaction dispatching peons but not outmatched when taking on bosses. It may be slight tweaks from the original game, mainly of which aren’t really noticeable to someone who hasn’t played it in three years but they do add up to quite a difference.

This does bring up the question: how is the Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition much different from it’s older gen predecessor? The keys are in content and graphic quality. The old gen game was good and if you got all the DLCs you are getting pretty close to what the Deathinitive Edition is. But with all the addition content in one bundle combined with a reworked engine and native 1080p you’ve got the old game with a beauty of a polish that makes it not just tolerable but a deeper pleasure to replay. If you never played it before you are in for even more of a treat since you won’t have the slightly dodgy memory of having to piece together DLCs to get all your content. If you met certain requirements upon launch the Deathinitive Edition it was even free to those who purchased the original version three years ago, the requirements being certain of the above mentioned DLCs.

Last Reaping:
Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition hasn’t reinvented the game that came out three years ago but it put the content together in a beautiful native 1080p resolution package that makes it worth replaying or finally discovering. There has always been thousands of ways to die, now there are thousands of ways to Death.

[easyreview title=”Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Euro Fishing 2015 Review (Steam/PC)

2015/11/22

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

For the cubical dwellers and desk jockeys who can’t get out into nature enough, Dovetail Games has come out with another installment of Euro Fishing!

Hands On:
This is a game genre that not everybody understands and a lot of that has to do with the environment you live in. The United States has fishing areas in city parks, sometimes with competitions in little ponds as well as lakes. Then there are those who live in rural areas where nature is just very accessible and so don’t know what it is like to live in a busy city where the only fish you might see on a regular basis are Koi. With this in mind, fishing games like Euro Fishing 2015 wind up being hugely successful and heavily scrutinized for quality, mechanics and realism.

When it comes to styles of play Euro Fishing 2015 gives you a vast variety with different lakes, fish, rods, reels, bait, tackle, and even boss fish. You can have more than one pole in play and can even “chum” the water by casting a rocket which dumps bait in the area. You can play on your own in a casual manner or you can compete with people around the world in multiplayer tournaments. When it comes to mechanics you actually pull back on the mouse then push it forward releasing a button to cast your line and you have to watch line tension to keep from losing the fish through slack or tension. I used to fish for steelhead in rivers and trout in lakes most of my life and without having a controller shaped like a fishing pole this is about as realistic as you can get. The game supports a regular video game controller but to me that actually gets further from the feel of fishing rather than closer.

So there is a nice variety of gameplay and the mechanics are about as good as you can hope for on a keyboard and properly complicated. That brings us to visual and audio quality. Audio wise the game really does sound like you are out in nature and the sound of line going out and being reeled in is spot on. The graphics could be a little better, the fish are well rendered but the people look like 3D models, particularly when it comes to the eyes. They are solid where it really counts though on the rod, tackle, reel and fish so the slightly creepy models can be overlooked, especially with such great audio.

Multiplayer play can be hit and miss when it comes to population, though a pretty decent crowd tends to show up for tournaments because few people can resist competition, even if it is landing carp. This is something else to keep in mind, if you are used to playing deep sea big game fish games don’t expect to be landing marlins. These are freshwater lake fish and though they have fight in them it is an entirely different kind of experience. If you forget that, you are likely to lose your lure in some reeds or weeds.

Last Cast:
Euro Fishing 2015 is a solid title in the lake sports fishing field and liable to keep pulling in players to their multiplayer tournaments right up until Euro Fishing 2016 comes out. So take a break from the paper shuffle, pull up a reel or two, put on your headsets and enjoy some nature and fishing for a while. (Editor’s Note: I would love to see a VR fishing title)

[easyreview title=”Euro Fishing 2015 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

The Talos Principle Review (PS4)

2015/11/09

Ripper71

News, PlayStation 4 News, PlayStation 4 Review, Reviews

I think therefore I am.
-Descrates

“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”
― Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Normally here at GamingShogun.com we don’t try to hit you with a philosophical idioms when starting off a review but The Talos Principle brings out the amateur philosopher in me. Up front it needs to be said, besides having studied the above works and authors, I have repeatedly watched I, Robot and one of my top five films of all time is Blade Runner. Surprisingly, both versions of BR I feel hold their own values and truths and I feel are superior to the work they are based off of “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” (a sophomoric position but one I stand by). By these quotes and these admissions you may have guessed I couldn’t wait to dive into The Talos Principle.

Hands On:
I’m skipping the Features and Description and diving right into the review because the quotes above work as the description and the features are fairly straight forward. The puzzles are spatial style for the most part, similar to a cross between Portal and Myst’s stunning visual landscapes that showcase the graphic abilities of the PS4. There are other puzzles that are “Tetris” style block / shape puzzles. The further you get into the game the more complex the puzzles and there are divergent paths of play which lead to different endings. If you want just a fun puzzling game the gameplay doesn’t require anything deeper than that to beat it. At it’s simplest The Talos Principle is a challenging puzzle game that has hours of entertainment and brain exercise.

If you want to go deeper into the game, it delves into ancient philosophy and how it effects the present and the future of what we define as “life.” Ahead are some spoilers but they are given more as points of interest on a journey than to damage a player’s experience and reference for those who wish to understand a little better what the creation is going on in this game.

In the beginning, of the game and for purposes of the protagonist The Beginning, Elohim (ancient Hebrew for God) created His Garden for Man (or in this case Robot) then placed His Child into The Garden to test his worthiness to ascension. During these tests, Elohim has bestowed His Child with never-ending life so he may learn but should he fail the tests The Child and all of his descendants will know only Death.

It is hinted in the game through ancient scripture and parables that children of metal and fluid have been built and tested throughout all time and that to this point all have failed. Once being made of brass and quicksilver the metal children now look just like Sonny from I, Robot. If you haven’t seen I, Robot you will have a bit of a harder time grasping the story than someone who has seen it a few times. If you have seen and actually engaged in Blade Runner or read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” you will be ahead of the game. If you ever studied the heavyweights of philosophy such as Descartes, Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato this will seem old hat. What you really need to think about is at what point does decision making become life and identity. The game presents you with different takes on the arguments from different time periods, many of which are also the beautifully rendered background sections for the game. For example it might look like Egyptian ruins when the parables are about the Sphinx. There is no need to build a great rendering of the collapsing Roman aqueducts to discuss Roman philosophers or build spacial puzzles but it is a great addition.

At the center of The Gardens is a forbidden tower which Stephen King fans may immediately associate with The Dark Tower and you can tell that King had drawn upon some of the same ancient beliefs when he build his. To me it reminds me a bit more of maybe the Tower Of Babel… but I may be saying too much.

There is a solid backstory, where a robot needs to be tested for being actual life rather than simply programming and it is a puzzle in itself, the pieces scattered throughout the game for those who want a philosophical puzzle as well as brain teasers. The Philip K. Dick quote above is remarkably accurate toward one of the several possible solutions of the puzzle and seems to almost play out word for word on the screen but there is more than one possible ending just as there is no right answer to the philosophical debate, it wouldn’t be ancient if it had one answer. There is one ending at least with the kitten from the title art too in case you get an ending without it and think it was a bait and switch (it may be the only non robotic creature in the game). The one problem I have is the backstory has a catalyst which seemed a bit far fetched with so many possible, tangible and terrifying close reasons for why we may want to have humans of metal, philosophy and possibly faith.

Final Thoughts:
The Talos Principle will have me thinking about it long after I put the final thoughts to this review. The Talos Principle works on many levels, being a fun and challenging puzzle game at its simplest and being an ancient and complex philosophical debate just below the surface that goes as deep as your mind decides to take it. It may even encourage players to look up and study the philosophies the game brings up, making them less machines and more active creatures in the exploration of life, identity and creation. In short more human.

Tablift Stand Review (iPad/Tech)

2015/11/06

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews

I don’t talk about it much in person. Actually, I discuss it more here on GamingShogun.com than anywhere in the real world as it holds some stigma. Mostly, it is just something I try to overcome on a daily basis. I am physically disabled person in a few ways, the most prominent being degenerative disc disease in my lower, mid, and upper back as well as my neck – not to mention moderate nerve damage from my elbow to my hands. The back problems make it so that I might have to go days at a time unable to sit, stand or even sit up in bed and the nerve problems make it difficult to hold devices for long periods of time without losing feeling in half of each hand or increasing pain from elbow to fingertips and eventual hand spasms. My family never complains when I go to pick up a drink from the table and my hand spasms and it flies to the floor or something slips from my grip and I can’t pick it up. GamingShogun Editor-in-Chief Jerry Paxton is always understanding if I miss a deadline because I can’t sit up and is quick to request a product he thinks might help me overcome any issues, more a friend than a boss. Honestly it is hard to even write all this, I keep it to myself and just accept each day as it comes.

It is with this mentality that I try and search out reviews that will help people who find themselves with a physical limitation, it is great if a product works and helps folks without any body performance issues but I feel even better if I can find one that makes folks with issues hopefully forget them for a while. It is with all this in mind that we requested the Tablift.

Hands On:
The design behind the Tablift is pretty straight forward, which is usually a good sign as the more complicated a design is, the more ways it can fail. Originally a Kickstarter campaign, the creators raised $82,300 from 605 backers to get the project rolling which is also a good sign. I came upon the product in an email, long after it was funded, built, and initial products shipped. Due to my constraints, I was reading email lying on my back, taking a break from watching a streaming service on my phone, my tablet off to the side attached to a stand I had picked up that hadn’t panned out. It had a great attachment system to my iPad 2 and was supposed to bridge the gap between a ground-based stand and a swivel crane by wrapping like a snake around your leg or under the mattress. However, it would lose its grip and, within minutes, the tablet would twist around to an un-viewable angle. So, I read about the Tablift, shot the email to Jerry who responded with his usual helpful enthusiasm to anything that might make things more manageable and away went the request. When I got back to town a week later, it was waiting.

I mentioned its design is simple, maybe a little deceptively so. My wife had no idea what it was or how it could help but sincerely hoped it would help. Folded up it looked like a couple of plastic bars attached at the middle by a plastic section. When I unfolded it and the legs looked like a decent length and were bendable metal which are very durable. My wife then looked at my beer belly (luckily food and drink I can still enjoy) and looked cautious between Tablift legs and my gut.

So the gauntlet was thrown down, the first challenge, clearing my gut when laying down in bed. 6’5″ and 300 pounds and it still comfortably reached around me. That is what I call a good start. Next came the adjustments – there are three positions which would work great sitting up and typing, reclining, and watching or laying flat on my back. The way the three positions are achieved is a notch the device slides into then two bungie bands attach to a clip that slips snuggly over the top. Simple, but effective.

The iPad 2 is probably on the larger side than the Tablift was designed to use but it fit in and had no wiggly or sliding even when the Tablift was moved onto its side. This would be handy getting out from underneath it when I had to get out of bed for various reasons and would maintain its shape when I returned. It even kind of looks cool, like they took the legs from the War of the Worlds tripods and put a tablet head on it. When video conferencing or watching streams this effect was particularly engaging so it passed the watching from all these positions without causing strain to my damaged nerves test with flying colors and made it so that I could one again watch my tablet when I had to lay flat in bed to protect my neck discs.

Next came the stability while typing test. One of the reasons I still used my iPad 2, besides poverty, is if I am forced to try to type on it I have a larger screen. Even with a larger screen though it tends to shift when being typed on. My solutions so far have been accompany keyboards but then generally the screen is in an awkward or shifting position from the keys. This is partly my own klutziness but also partly due to the nerve damage causing me to lose feeling on where my hands are on a keyboard. What I really need to do is get used to writing on the iPad2’s screen and Tablift is gonna be my best chance at that with how it will hold the tablet very sturdy.

So once it passed all my iPad 2 needs I started testing it in other ways. It folds up nicely into a very compact space for travel. If you wrap the bungie through the hole in the bottom designed to plug your device in through then you can tighten it enough to hold an iPhone 6 Plus upright on it so it can be used to test and navigate. If you drop it most of the time the legs help break the fall (learned this the harder way, dang hands). I’m looking forward to taking it on my next flight, the design of the legs should allow it to wrap around the edges of the airplane snack tray for use and wrapped around handles in a car to hold tablets while driving. I plan to take it on future trips where I might be wheelchair bound or at press events where there is an empty chair or railing in front of me so that I can wrap the legs around it and use it as a flexible tripod for streaming.

Last Words:
The Tablift was designed with a particular set of ideas in mind and not only does it accomplish those functions well it also has the potential to help individuals who are not as mobile, not as dexterous and impaired in other ways the average person isn’t. I see the Tablift improving my quality of life in the present and the future which is as much as I could ever hope for.

Boss Monster Review (PC)

2015/10/11

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I started playing Magic The Gathering when it was first getting started. I attended Humboldt State University which was close enough to their operations that we got cards much cheaper than they were anywhere else in the country – part of their plan to garner a ground level movement to make the game popular. The hard part with these card games is finding digital versions that give you the same feel – it’s just difficult to replicate. I didn’t really find it in the Magic The Gathering video games. Blizzard’s Hearthstone has done an excellent job and tied in characters we have come to love from the Warcraft franchise. So why go for any other ones? Boss Monster tries to tie the old school, NES-style graphics together with cards from the popular Boss Monster tabletop card games for just a $5 price tag. I have played the actual card game and it’s a blast – so how does the video game stack up?

Description:
The best-selling indie card game has arrived to Steam! Boss Monster is a dungeon-building card game that challenges players to become the ultimate villains: video game bosses.
Thousands of players around the world have enjoyed the paper version of the game, but now Brotherwise Games has partnered with video game developer Plain Concepts, creators of Wave Engine, to bring Boss Monster from the tabletop to the digital world!

Features:
– Play against up to three AI opponents in solo play.
– Challenge other human opponents online.
– Play with ALL of the bosses, rooms, and spells available in the base game …including rare out-of-print cards!
– Explore new “digitally-enhanced” cards: four rooms, three new Bosses, and a new spell that all take advantage of the digital platform, allowing stats and treasure values to change as you play (coming in future expansions).

Hands On Deck:
Boss Monster hides a fairly complicated card game beneath its retro, NES graphics and MIDI chiptune music. At first it seems like a tower defense game where you play a monster boss who builds his dungeon to keep adventurers from slaughtering you. You get 5 rooms and start with simple monsters and build up elaborate traps, each room damaging the hero in a certain way so that hopefully by the last room he/she dies. If they get through you get wounds, five wounds and you die, if you kill them you get souls, collect 10 souls and you win. Then there is the opponent aspect – the other monster bosses you are competing with. You get to play against one to three opponents, whichever one of you lives longer or get the 10 souls first wins. Adventurers won’t just wander into your dungeon of their own choice though, you have to trick them in by having your room cards provide lures as well such as treasure, weapons, books and relics which can lure thieves, fighters, mages and clerics. They will be drawn in by the dungeon with the most lures for their class. So you may wind up with a beautifully built dungeon but with not enough lures all the adventurers will still go to your opponent.

This can actually work to your advantage if your opponent doesn’t have enough damage in their dungeon to kill the adventurers or if you have a spell that can neutralize an opponent’s room damage, steal a kill or send the adventurer back to town. Did I say spell? I did indeed as besides being able to setup monster rooms and attach traps to them there are also spell cards that can be played at specific times that can turn the tide of the game as well. It looks so simple at first glance, five rooms, one to three opponents but this simple looking field that appears like a tower defense built with rooms instead of towers and it gets really complicated fast. I played the tutorial provided a few times before settling in for an actual game against the AI and still felt a little unsure going in. I went on a winning streak but never a resounding victory, it always seemed a close call.

There is a multiplayer mode but the community hasn’t built up quite yet, given a bit of time it probably will. The game has in-app purchases available, and the base price of the game is $4.99. The in-app purchases consist of additional card packs to add to the base game so that it doesn’t get stale. Just make sure you don’t wind up spending more in mirco-transactions than you feel the game is worth.

Last Draw:
Boss Monster is a fun game with a throwback style and deceptively complicated play much like Magic The Gathering if it had been made on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s a nice game to play to fill time here or there or when you want a solid distraction. Also, it is a small file on your computer, has great nostalgic feel and a hidden depth which is nice to keep the mind sharp, and the price can hardly be beat either.

Boss Monster on Steam

[easyreview title=”Boss Monster Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

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Deathgasm Movie Review

2015/09/29

Ripper71

Film Review, Geek News, Halloween, Movie News, News, Reviews

One thing I learned from movies over the years is that music can unite the world. This, of course, was courtesy of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I learned from the Evil Dead saga and Cabin In The Woods that if you don’t understand what the strange words mean, whatever you do, do not read them aloud. From the movie Deathgasm I learned that music can tear the world apart, especially if it is based off words you shouldn’t be reading out loud with a heavy metal riff.

Premise:
Two teenage boys unwittingly summon an ancient evil entity known as The Blind One by delving into black magic while trying to escape their mundane lives.

Review:
That premise is basically the whole movie in a nutshell without any spoilers – thankfully. I type thankfully because, let’s face it, it is hard to review a movie without giving away spoilers. The movie is about two teenage boys who are bored in their own separate lives and bond over heavy metal records. Brodie (Power Rangers RPM’s Milo Cawthorne) by is considered a loser who hangs out with guys who play D&D during lunch and try to make music videos in KISS style makeup. Zakk (played by newcomer James Blake) is a lone wolf that everyone is afraid might be a Satan-worshiping psycho. When the two realize they have the same taste in metal it is time to start a band.

Without giving too much away, they wind up singing the wrong thing and all hell breaks loose, literally, in the form of a figure called the Blind One. There is much, much more to the movie than this, mixing in some solid camp-factor reminiscent of Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead), directing that at times seems homage to Evil Dead, and a love story that is just enough there to be entertaining without becoming annoying and taking away from the overall plot.

While on the subject of the film’s love story, we have to give special mention to the character of Medina (Kimberley Crossman of Power Rangers Samurai), the school princess turned ass kicking metal head who threatens to steal the movie from the guys on more than one occasion. We absolutely loved her character and think her moments of show-stealing were terrific. It’s always good to see a female character in a horror movie that stands and fights instead of screams in flight. The helpless characters are reserved for the side stories and comic and gore relief, the main cast all have a bad ass streak even if it is hidden a bit far down inside.

The key to whether or not you will like this movie boils down to whether or not you like campy horror and can at least tolerate heavy metal music. I like heavy metal, so it took a while for me to notice just how much it was used in the film’s score. It’s actually not that overpowering and it worked very well in weaving the film together along its musical canvas.

What’s even more impressive is that Deathgasm is writer/director Jason Lei Howden’s first feature film in these capacities! Before this project, he worked at WETA for six year’s as a VFX compositor. Howden shows a masterful handling of balancing the various aspects of this film where any misstep would have thrown the entire thing out of whack. As it stands now, Deathgasm looks like the film of a tenured director. The film is a campy concert of metal and gore that shows you can never judge a person’s “metal” by their cover.

Deathgasm will be available on October 2, 2015 on VoD from Dark Sky Films.

World of Warships Review (PC)

2015/09/29

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

The free-to-play ecosystem I have been most impressed with is the one created by Wargaming.net. They move their flagship game World of Tanks onto different platforms with continuous success, in no small part due to the fact that you can truly have a good free-to-play experience without having to spend money. If you do decide to spend money on the game, you can get outstanding tanks that feel worth the money but don’t grant too unfair of an advantage. I personally got to play the “Ripper” tank for the first time recently and fell in love with it. As this review is going to print they are even expanding WoT to the PlayStation 4 increasing the way players can enjoy it by one more platform. Their second game, World of Warplanes is a little more difficult to master and so has been a bit slower at growing as a result but I expect it to soon be available in more locations, maybe simplified a bit. It may however wind up being surpassed quickly by World of Warships which has just recently hit the market but is already showing a popularity comparable to World of Tanks.

Hands On:
Two reasons I think World of Tanks has done so much better than World of Warplanes is due to its simple horizontal playing field and a variety of choices in play style available to players. In World of Tanks, players drive around and shoot at each other, they don’t have to worry about tanks coming out of the sun or crashing into a cliff and exploding. They have to worry about driving in and out of cover and shooting the other guy. No worries of their engine stalling out in a climb, no concerns on whether or not they are going to go into the deck while trying to loop behind an enemy. World of Warships is very similar to World of Tanks with regards to cover and shooting. You can jump in and as long as you don’t go crazy torpedoing your own team you can fight as you get used to the controls which are similar to World of Tanks.

In World Of Tanks you have the option of playing artillery which gives you an entirely different view of the playing field as you look down on the map and try to adjust fire to hit your enemies. This is nice if you want to mix it up from the standard play style from the game and almost gives more of a strategy game feel to battle. In World Of Warships the same idea applies when you play the carrier, you decide where to move your ship and set autopilot then you launch your planes and decide where to send scouts, fighters and bombers to be most effective, when to send them back to the ship and when to move your ship. Just like World Of Tanks artillery you can find yourself in face to face combat but only if things have gone particularly wrong. Otherwise it is entirely from the map down view.

Of course, if it were identical to World of Tanks there would be no reason for World of Warships to exist, so it is in the differences that this game can be most interesting. Players used to WoT will start their vehicle at full speed, stop exactly where they want then go back and forth behind cover. In World of Warships the ships move like real ships, they take time to stop, they are more sluggish in changing directions and if you aren’t playing attention and you are going full speed at some cliffs it’s going to hurt your ship and take some time to recover. Each type of ship also has aspects they make its play style different from the other ships classes, far more dramatically than in World of Tanks. In WoT a light tank is fast but less armored, medium is a mix between the two and heavy is slow with heavy armor. As mentioned before, artillery has a completely different play style.

In World of Warships the lightest ship is much like the light tank, more agile, less armor but that is where the similarities end. Once you get past the starter ships, the lightly armored Destroyer class has smoke screens to obscure visibility, the ability to boost engine speed, and torpedoes which are extremely powerful but fire and forget. This means that friendly fire becomes a huge concern. I honestly have been sunk more often by teammate torpedoes than enemy ones simply because you want to make sure none of your allies are anywhere near the direction you decide to send “fish in the water”. Torpedoes are the great equalizer of the game, like putting a huge rocket on a light tank but they cross the map so if you miss your enemy they keep going past it until they hit something. Like your teammate maybe.

Next comes the Cruiser class, probably the most versatile of the classes it can have anti-aircraft guns like the Battleship, torpedoes like the Destroyers, and even an aircraft launcher like the Carrier. It lives up to its name though as it cruises right along, not very fast, not very armored. A good Cruiser with a good player behind it can truly be a game changer but in unexperienced hands it can be a quickly sunk ship or in worse case a teammate torpedo hazard. With practice they can work in great tandem with the Destroyer and Battleship, especially if there are no Carriers in the fight.

The Battleship class is a popular one, especially with players of sea battle games. They are a great deal like an old war galleon in the sense that they make a smaller target from straight on but they can do a broadside volley that can sink a smaller class ship in one shot. Much like those old time ships they are heavily armored but broadside shots to them can do massive damage, a couple of torpedoes can end it’s run. The Battleship is handy to have in a fight against a carrier since they tend to have a lot of AA guns and the larger the target the more cannons they can bring to bear on it but like the Carrier Class it doesn’t maneuver great or go very fast. One of it’s strongest points is that battleships can repair a little a few times during battle and anyone who has had a spare repair left to use in World Of Tanks when the hit points get low knows how that can be a match winner.

That leaves the Carrier which I touched on a bit before in the sense that it is a different map view style and a much more strategy feel to the game. You move your ship and planes around the map trying to keep your ship from being approached or detected while using your fighters to protect your bombers and destroy their bombers and using your bombers to try to sink the enemy’s ships. With a little bit of practice and map awareness a Carrier can effectively control where battles take place and where damage is most effected. For example I will send my fighters out to fly over an island in the area I think the carrier is most likely located so I can intercept any launches then I will decide which ships in which locations are best torpedo targets so that I’m unlikely to hit my fellow teammates but most likely going to sink a ship or lower it’s hit points enough for teammates to take care of it. You only get a certain number of planes and though you can decide how many of each class you want to take I tend to leave it to standard stock and concentrate on strategy rather than throwing them at the enemy without thought. Once you are out of planes the carrier can fight back a bit but for the most part it is toast so conservation is key.

Last thing before the wrap up is that the graphics in this game are absolutely amazing. For a free-to-play battle game with large numbers of players and different ship classes and designs this game has AAA quality visuals and sounds. The ocean looks and behaves like a real ocean, from the waves to the splash downs. The ships show visual damage with fire, structural breakdown and general scarring that looks as real as you could hope for. The cliffs look real and though individual trees look a little cartoon-like the forests look lush and real.

Last Volley:
World of Warships is like World of Tanks in all the right ways while being very much its own game and feeling like an evolution of the Wargaming.net family. I expect World of Warships to be as popular if not more so than World of Tanks and I would not be surprised to see it on other platforms such as consoles in the very near future. You will probably see me playing in the Carrier a lot because I have truly fallen in love with that class but if I am in a smaller boat firing torpedoes I will do my best not to hit you with one of my fish, unless of course you are the enemy.