Author - Ripper71

The Talos Principle Review (PS4)

2015/11/09

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.

Mad Max Review (Xbox One)

2015/09/13

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the road warrior, the man we called Max. – Opening Narration, The Road Warrior

I’ve been a junkie for the Mad Max franchise since the first film came out, though it was the second one that really sank its rust-covered, blood-stained hooks into me. I managed to pick up an original Australian version of Mad Max on VHS (the American version had dubbed voices) back before eBay which was pretty tricky. I even wore a shirt with the Road Warrior opening narration and Max and Dog printed on it (trivia fact: the dog was really named “Dog” and was adopted by a crew member). In short I have been waiting for Mad Max: Fury Road for a very long time and I have been waiting for a good Mad Max game my whole life.

Description:
Become Mad Max, the lone warrior in a savage post-apocalyptic world where cars are the key to survival. In this action-packed, open world, third person action game, you must fight to stay alive in The Wasteland, using brutal on-ground and vehicular against vicious gangs of bandits. A reluctant hero with an instinct for survival, Max wants nothing more than to leave the madness behind and find solace in the storied “Plains of Silence.” Players are challenged with treacherous missions as they scavenge the dangerous landscape for supplies to build the ultimate combat vehicle.

Hands On The Wheel:
First off let me say this is not the first Mad Max game, one came out on the Nintendo at the height of The Road Warrior’s popularity and it had some similar aspects to this game in the sense you were constantly searching for ammo and gas while fighting on the road and in strongholds. That being said the game was ridiculously hard, crushing many kid’s dreams of being Max and so should be resigned to a footnote save for retrogamers who have a high level for self punishment or a Game Genie (Ed. Note: I loved my Game Genie!).

The only reason I mentioned the above game is that, as a Mad Max fan, I went in a little worried about this game. There were questions on how it tied into the films as none of the films’ stars were contracted to it. Rumor had it that the melee system was boring and you didn’t get the Interceptor! In the Mad Max franchise the black on black Interceptor was basically his co-star. Add to that the fact that the first Mad Max game was a disaster and you have a pretty decent list of worries leading me to hope it at least as good as what I consider to be its spiritual counterpart: id Software’s Rage.

Pretty much all my fears were for nothing as Mad Max is a well put together, solid addition to the canon. From a third-person perspective, you run around doing jobs in the dangerous Wasteland to upgrade Max’s car, gear, and even his spiritual essence. His sidekick, a hunchback named “Chumbucket”, is a master mechanic who believes building better cars is a religious experience and that every car has a soul. His masterpieces are called “Archangels” and his calls Max “The Saint”.

The storyline is pretty straight forward: Max is, as usual, trying to keep to himself when things go awry and he winds up doing good and helping a lot of people. His reactions to old photos of other people’s lives and his interactions with a strange spiritual guide let us in on how Max’s mind is working, maybe even more than he himself knows. The spirit guide also helps Max learn to make water and gas last longer, food be more filling, extra scrap bonuses appearing on occasion and other such survival techniques in the Wasteland.

Scrap. Scrap is the currency of the Wasteland and a constant source of scrounging. You use it to improve your car and gear, add new fighting abilities and improve your strongholds so that they have more abilities to help you when you check into them. Basically, Scrap makes the post-apocalyptic world keep moving in the Wasteland. As such, everybody wants it and it is somewhat scarce and can take a while to get enough of to do the projects you want. People who like to farm things in games will THRIVE in Mad Max while people who hate grinding will grumble and complain. Hopefully, they will still do it because the game is that much fun. There are ways to occasionally get a large jackpot of scrap that might help you fund a couple of the early projects with one find and later in the game they make getting a supply of scrap easier and picking up scrap a breeze but the projects also start requiring a lot more scrap too. It feels worth it though as your vehicle (I love the “Ripper” car, of course) becomes more powerful, your melee does more damage and the NPCs talk about what a legend you are becoming.

This is probably a good point to address one of the contentions of some players: the melee combat system. While your car gets newer and ever-improving gadgets to survive in the Wasteland, when it comes to fighting, it is almost always with your fists. You get a shotgun and after a while a couple of shivs to use in finishing moves but the shotgun is a bit awkward and shells are always limited. This means mostly punching with the X button with occasional parrying, rolling dodges and finishing moves. Mostly you just hit X which a lot of folks felt wasn’t very satisfying. If an enemy comes at you with a weapon you can disarm them and if there is enough of a break in the fight you can pick the weapon up and use if for a couple seconds but they break fast and at the end of a fight if it isn’t broken you can’t take it in the car with you. I found myself several times saying to the television screen “come on, like he can’t toss that club onto the seat next to him!” as he drops the weapon to enter the vehicle. I don’t mind hitting X a lot while fighting, didn’t bother me at all, but not being able to take the weapon along was frustrating and sometimes the fist fights felt a little clumsy. Also you have a sniper gun in the car but you can’t take it out of the car and carry it on foot, to me that just didn’t make sense.

Because quite often the enemy swarms you at strongholds in superior numbers and attack all at once, I found myself getting really creative with my car – more specifically, with the grappling hook. The grappling hook is one of the most fun parts of the game, I purposely have gone out of my way on occasions just to use it. Chumbucket the hunchback mechanic rides in the back of your car and fires the harpoon while you drive so if you see an enemy running at your car you can shoot them with the harpoon, retract it and watch their bodies go sailing through the sky. I got so I would circle a camp or stronghold, tear down gates with the harpoon then just keep circling shooting everyone I can with the harpoon and launching them through the air while I giggle. When the grappling hook gets upgraded it can be used to tear parts off of cars as well so I had a car that is basically a suicide bomb on wheels barreling down on my Ripper, I ripped off the front wheel and watched it slide to a stop in the dirt feet from me. When the driver got out he took the grapple hook ride to Cloud City. So much fun! You get so that you look for anything and everything to hit with that hook. You get some other great weapons but the grappling hook has unlimited use which makes it your best friend in a limited resourced land.

The Wasteland may be short on resources, but it is definitely a beautiful, intricate landscape with actual times of day and dangerous weather patterns. There is a distinct nautical feel to the Wasteland for a storyline reason I’ll let you discover on your own but as a result rusting hulks litter the landscape and look amazing but sunset and eerie by moonlight. Their is so much detail to everything that I found myself taking screenshots on my Xbox One just so I could show people what it looked like when they come to visit. The detail in burning wrecks, maggoty corpses and even just the storms are so beautiful. Even when you are getting battered by debris from a dust storm of struck and set ablaze by a lightning storm it is a sight to see, hopefully from the cover of shelter. Even the different tribes of the Wasteland have different looks and outfits that distinguish themselves and show attention to detail.

The overall look and feel of the game is harder to place but in a good way. This is because it is not directly associated with any one of the franchise’s movies. It seems to take a little from the looks and feel of all the movies especially in the tribes and vehicle designs. A good example would be some cars look slightly altered like the first Mad Max movie, Some are a little more raggedy like The Road Warrior then there are some loaded with spikes like in Fury Road. Max himself starts off looking like the first movie but with unlockable head features he can look like the end of Road Warrior, or even all Raggedy Man like in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. He looks most like Mel Gibson and sounds a bit like him, but just different enough to be his own version.

Last Scraps:
Mad Max is a great game and a terrific addition to the canon. As a true fan I know I will do every mission, find every scrap at a camp and leave the Wasteland as deep into his character as possible. I still have a lot of road ahead but I have a full tank, a full canteen and enough scrap to see another dawn.

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

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2015 GameStop Expo and Conference

2015/09/10

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos

“It’s like a mini E3!” our photographer said as we entered the GameStop Expo Hall and took in our surroundings. The big boys of Sony, EA, Blizzard and many others had not just made an appearance at the event but had made a proper show of it.

Originally a conference to train GameStop managers, the event had expanded to interacting with the vendors that have products at the shop and demoing games so that the managers could accurately inform the GameStop shoppers as to what the games are like. They also have an onsite shop of older product for the managers to pick up at great discounted prices. A few years ago GameStop decided to open the last day of the event to the public and from there on it was a little known expo that quickly drew a crowd of gamers and geeks in the know.

This year had such great moments as Imperial Stormtroopers playing Star Wars Battlefront, a Rock Band 4 stage complete with surprise star players, and legends of the comic world signing autographs and joyfully talking products. Dean Ambrose walked along chatting with Robert Horry, Ryback proudly showed off his title belt while signing autographs, Anthony Daniels hung out answering questions. The biggest geek moment for us was standing next to Todd McFarlane when Stan Lee came up to his table to chat. Todd tried to look composed but even he had to geek out when Stan Lee stops by to chat.

The deals to be had in the GameStop/ThinkGeek store were amazing, a lot of people left with Batman Arkham Knight Special Editions with the statue for under $20, Gears Of War shirts for $5 and Funko figures for as little as $9.

If you didn’t come with cash in hand there were tons of prizes to be won from numerous booths. a personal favorite being the McFarlane The Walking Dead miniatures and play sets that have me playing “connect the walker body parts” at home.

The only way the Expo could be more fun is if it were open more days to the public or longer hours which after being open for the managers for days before might be a bit much for vendors. I’m already looking forward to next year and hoping it hops to a location I can visit again.

Photographs

Wars and Battles Review (iPad)

2015/08/23

Ripper71

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Reviews

It seems somewhat fitting that just after the fifth anniversary of writing my first article for GamingShogun.com, which was about a budget Risk like game on the iOS platform, that I am once again writing about a budget Risk style strategy game for the iPad this time titled Wars And Battles.

Description:
Wars and Battles is a platform of turn-based wargames that simulate historical battles and campaigns over several centuries and continents. Wars and Battles offers you rich and immersive graphics, intuitive yet sophisticated gameplay and hours and hours of game. Integrating the sophistication of traditional wargames into tablets is our commitment to players fond of strategy, history or the military.

By buying the Wars and Battles app you will be able to play the campaign in each of the 4 battles in the package. This represents more than 50 original scenarios, of which there are more than 30 for Normandy 1944 and October War 1973 alone. Advanced scenarios and full battles (including “what-if” scenarios) are available through in-app purchases, so the fun never ends!

The next battles we will release are: Kharkov 1943 and The Korean War 1950-1951.

Features:

Fight, turn-based battles in both 2D and 3D views in impressive visual quality;
Play quick and full battle scenarios;
Play in solo mode or in asynchronous multiplayer mode with any player in the world at any time;
Become a strategist with every turn you take and every scenario you complete. Enjoy a progressive experience by upgrading your rank;
Increase your knowledge of history thanks to extensive historical photos, commentaries and units’ fact sheets;
2 battles available, 2 additional battles to be released.

Game On:
Wars and Battles promises lots of wars and battles to come but starts you off with two side of two different campaigns: Normandy 1944 and October War 1973. At its core, the game is a hexagonal turn-based strategy title with nice visuals. Also, the game can be toggled between 2D or 3D viewpoints. The 2D mode has a classic feel while the 3D one has some animations. There are turn limits and each limit is dependent upon the scenario being played. For example, you might have just 7 turns to take three cities. Resources are distributed at the game’s discretion, so you can’t plan on reinforcements – only hope for them! The game starts you with Normandy 1944 on the Allies side, though you can play the Axis missions at anytime. The campaign missions for October War are also available from the start so you can play an unusual set for strategy games the Israelis or The Arab Coalition. This was kind of a nice touch because I’m an amateur war historian concentrating on WWII and more recent American-involved conflicts, so there is a bit to be learned about borders, battles, and terrain for those not familiar with them. Future maps such as Korea and Vietnam are a little more in my area of expertise.

You can play the game in both multiplayer mode or against the AI. The AI starts off a little easy and your units are somewhat plentiful but, by the end of the Allied campaign, you aren’t hoping so much for a resounding victory as much as a marginal one. The AI gets downright brutal and supplies dwindle to near nothing as the Axis seem to build tanks from the trees. The Axis campaigns are even harder giving any true strategy player a great challenge and any casual player a reason to go back and play the lower missions again. That is the nice thing about strategy games, missions usually have a high replay value and they never are the same match twice, especially ones like this where during each attack the game rolls virtual dice just like in Risk so you can see why a battle came out the way it did.

It’s also important to familiarize yourself with the strengths and weaknesses of your units. Most will match up to each other fairly one to one but then you have artillery that has ranged attack and certain vehicles that can cross map spaces with fewer restrictions. Don’t assume because you have 20 tank units against 20 infantry you are going to win, even a two to one ratio of attack if the enemy is defending better terrain could spell disaster. I had 42 tanks, 18 infantry, and a General bonus and still took triple the damage that I inflicted on the 18 tanks I was attacking in a city.

Multiplayer allows for you to create a game, join a game someone else has created and play a turn in your started games when you have a chance so you aren’t required to play through a whole game immediately almost making it more like a casual game of chess played long distance.

The game would be a near perfect example of a solid portable strategy game except for a pricing issue. The campaign scenarios for Normandy 1944 and October War 1973 are included in the $6.99 game price but if you want to play the advanced scenarios or the two battles for each of these maps it cost $9.99 each. That means to play the full levels of the game on the current two maps it winds up costing you $26.97. Hopefully basic scenarios will be free for the new maps that arrive making the $6.99 value even better but if the beginning is any example it is going to cost the player an extra $9.99 every time a new map pops up if they want the full experience… with five more maps planned (additional $49.95, total $76.92). That is getting into the collector’s edition pricing for a next-gen console game.

Last Shot:
Wars and Battles is a fun, affordable (in its base configuration) strategy game great for on-the-go play. The AI is solid, sometimes bordering on brutal, and the game’s maps and scenarios are well designed. I wish I could have tried out the advanced scenarios and battles but the pricing would be cost prohibitive. If I ever get a chance to try them I’ll let you know how they are, for now I see myself revisiting the maps and scenarios I can play and looking forward to new ones to come.

[easyreview title=”Wars And Battles Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]

The Official Star Trek 2015 Convention Las Vegas Round-Up

2015/08/14

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos

Star Trek has been around for almost 50 years. Take a moment to let that fact sink in, 50 years! If it wasn’t for the dedication of cast, crew, and fans of this show we would be talking about it as simply the anniversary of a show that had three seasons and then went into the annals of TV history. Instead, it is still alive and when the studios aren’t working on shows or movies, the fans and cast still are with fan made movies and video games that try to keep the spirit kicking. And then, there are the conventions… Like The Official Star Trek 2015 Convention Las Vegas, which I recently attended!

Some people might just see the conventions as a chance to milk the fans and there are plenty who try to do just that – but not at The Official Star Trek 2015 Convention Las Vegas. Creation Entertainment, the company producing the convention, does a great job at working towards making attendees happy and providing them a ton of quality entertainment. There are people, both involved with the convention or simply attending it, that are there for the comradery, the common geekdom of a show they love and even try to live their lives by the lofty goals of. For these people, the convention is a family reunion of sorts. People know each other by name and hugs a plenty are exchanged while donning various costumes from the Star Trek universe.

The fan meet and greet sessions with everyone from show regulars to guest stars who only appeared once draw in the fans looking for a quick, but meaningful, word and maybe a handshake or hug. The real life blood of the experience, though, is in the panels. That’s when cast members are brought together, sometimes for the first time in years, and fall into step as if no time has passed. There is a certain magic in that that flows out into the audience and reinforces their love for the shows and movies. Having Walter Koenig (Chekov TOS) up on stage telling his experiences over the years was special but seeing the reunion of Voyager on their 20th anniversary where they had not been on a stage together since the show ended and yet it was just like another day chatting for them. It was the same with the cast of Enterprise who you could tell had been a merry band of misfits driving their director nuts and yet grew a bit sad and quiet as they spoke of the unexpected ending of their series. As they put it, they gelled as a family just before the fourth season but by then it was already too late.

Many fans probably came to see William Shatner whose panel in the convention guide was described simply as “The Man” but those who missed the merry mayhem of Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner as they took the stage in a flurry of chaos that leaked out to the signing session of Patrick Stewart and drew him in briefly missed one of the best moments of the con. My photographer was not a Trekkie when this weekend began but, by the end, I think that might have changed.

Of course the great Leonard Nimoy was felt through the whole weekend and all of the panels, no ill word spoken for a man who took the power he gained in Hollywood to help his fellow man live long and prosper in any way he could.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s 50th Anniversary Star Trek Las Vegas Convention and excited to see what new great moments are just over the horizon. Will William Shatner and George Takei finally bury the hatchet and appear on stage together? Will schedules be cleared so that Voyager’s FULL cast can finally appear together? Will we be in wonderment of all the full surviving casts of each series appearing on stages together? I don’t suppose it matters because there will still be that magic in the air and fans from all over the world meet up with out of this world casts. Until then, Live Long and Prosper!

Image Gallery

World of Tanks Xbox One Review

2015/08/09

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

I fell in love with World of Tanks when it was just a wee fledgling of a game. Four years later and with three games running under the Wargaming.net flag the title that steams ahead the most is still the first one they let the public taste: World of Tanks. World Of Tanks has now launched live on Xbox One and, if you you liked it on the Xbox 360 or the PC platforms, then you are in for a grand treat when you get your controller in-hand and start slinging rounds downrange.

Hands On:
Please note that, while I usually list a game’s official features prior to diving into a hands-on, the list is HUGE! Simply way too much to put in front of the hands-on section. An abbreviated version of the list will appear at the end of this review.

The first thing you notice when you get onto the Xbox One version of World of Tanks is just how crisp the visual details are. Looking at the tanks in the garage, the details are exceptional. You can tell that they went through archival photos of the actual tanks and crafted every little detail – even down to the placement of an enemy helmet and defensive logs on the “Fury” tank. This is a recurring theme in this incarnation of the game, everything is HD and rebuilt from the ground up and the hardware of the Xbox One is pushed hard enough that the game had crashing issue when it would launche – it just froze up with all the detail once you entered a match. A reasonable amount of this detail will be later implemented in the PC and Xbox 360 version but the Xbox One is where this game will shine, even in the menus.

If you come straight from the PC version of the game, the menu system is a little daunting at first. If you came from the Xbox 360 version, then there are just a few things to get used to such as the Proving Grounds menu. The nice thing is that the Xbox One version of World of Tanks isn’t just a simple port – actually it is more the opposite as they made a bunch of changes and improvements from the ground up that they plan to implement on the 360 and PC. Once you get past the initial menu navigation you get the pleasure of seeing the tanks you had already collected sitting there in your garage in all their new HD glory. I purposely didn’t check the details of this new version so every update was a surprise. I had expected to see three starter tanks but was jazzed to see my work on the Xbox 360 version reflected in my Xbox One garage selections. I love World of Tanks and had taken quite a while to really appreciate it on the 360 so it was nice to see I didn’t have to start that process all over from scratch.

Another way Wargaming.net helped me to appreciate the detail was by giving me loaner access to a fully stocked garage account so that I could go through and notice all the details added to every single tank. In the past the premium tanks were all about performance and little about how they looked. I can say that I found tanks which I really, really want now that are not necessarily because of beefy performance but just the beautiful, historically-accurate detail of the vehicle. I want the “Ripper” tank so bad I can’t even express it enough. It performs nicely but the tank that has the same nickname as I do also has one of the most amazing paint jobs that reflect the actual vehicle’s paint designs that left me stunned and wanting it.

If you have not played the game on the Xbox 360 I highly recommend the Training and Proving Grounds. These not only provide a bit of starter capitol but they also help you get used to using the controller which is extremely different from the mouse and keyboard, especially when it comes to manual aiming and zoomed shots. A helpful hint on this is to do a lock on target then hit the zoom button so that your turret is oriented and you can make fine calculations. If you have spent some time playing it on the 360 you should be able to jump right in, though the Proving Grounds is a nice warm-up if it has been a while. Playing against the AI also gives you a chance to take in all the new details in the map.

The details in the map are so well done and so dramatic that I went into one map that I had played well over 100 times on the other systems and I didn’t recognize it at all. I thought at first it was an entirely new map since I hadn’t looked at which one was loading. Then I noticed building locations and attack points and realized which map it was. Birds could be heard singing off to one side causing my cats to look that way, fires looked realistic, building had natural looking aging and when damaged natural looking destruction. I was marveling at it all as I drove through a field of high grass at the detail as all of a sudden a murder of crows took flight in front of me and past the screen. I thought I was safe behind a building when all of a sudden a mortar shell struck nearby causing a crater and ground damage that my tank actually bumped on and persisted through the battle. When it rained there was the rain drops on the camera view which shows up in games a lot now but the shine on the armor and the way the water ran off it was spots on physics. I began to hope for rain missions just to see the detailed slosh of puddles and the way the rain ran off of everything. Night battles look like they are truly lit by moonlight or taking place at twilight. Even though all the mechanics were the same from the Xbox 360, the new details and physics improvements on the Xbox One left me stunned.

Probably one of the most shocking things is that World of Tanks is still a free-to-play game that can still be completely free-to-win – though with their HD beauty I think the value of the premium tanks have gone up. When I had access to whichever tanks I wanted to test out on the press account I found myself going toward the ones I thought looked cool as much as the ones that were highest regard for performance. Taking the Ripper out or the Freedom and doing some damage running around in a very detailed or special painted tank was so much fun I didn’t want it to end. As I am writing this I’m itching to get back to the game.

Last Shot:
I was already a fan of the game, but World of Tanks on the Xbox One is superior to other systems and most tank games on the market now. If you wonder whether or not I am right, log on and give it a try. It doesn’t cost anything until you get addicted enough to start investing in it which I have been for some time. Then you can just think of how much money you have spent on other games that have come and gone over the last four years while this one is still going strong. I can’t wait until World of Warplanes and World of Warships make their console debuts, until then I need to get back to the Ripper while I still have access.

[easyreview title=”World of Tanks Xbox One Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Features:
All Platforms:
Welcome to the first title with cross-platform play between Xbox 360 and Xbox One!
-One account sign in: Freedom to play on any platform – no progress will be lost if you go back and forth between platforms
-All existing Xbox Live accounts will seamlessly work on Xbox 360 and Xbox One
-Voice chat between platforms via Vivox integration
-Achievements transfer between platforms
-Tank Tree Progression Indicator
-Marks of Excellence Medals (no tank art, yet!). Similar to Mastery badges: use player damage + assist damage instead of experience earned
-The Proving Grounds game mode is here! Use any class or tier in your Garage and take on appropriately tiered AI opponents.
-New Main Menu as the first screen before the garage (Multiplayer, Platoon, Team Training, Proving Grounds
-New Achievements

Xbox One:
-All assets from tanks to buildings have been recreated from the ground up to be in High Definition (That’s 350 vehicles and over 1,000 map assets!)
-Exclusive Xbox One Garage: The Garage camera on Xbox One lets you get really close to the tanks for added detail on HD tanks
-You can now view your Service Records from the Post Battle Results Screen
-Twitch Streaming available from your Options Menu
-Access and view the Leaderboards from the Xbox One Dashboard
-View your Achievements and Challenges from Options Menu
-New Game Help system from Options Menu
-Web portal stats available in Snap View
-New timed Challenges that award concept art
-8X the texture resolution of Xbox 360 tanks
-Up to 50,000 polygons per tank
-Maps: Volumetric lighting and fog FX
-HBAO – Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion for more detailed lighting and shadowing
-Physically Based Rendering
-3D vistas for every environment that really ground you in the world
-Higher resolution trees and vastly improved culturals at a far draw distance
-Flow maps for cloud, wind, and cultural movements.
-Improved effects – the Xbox One can handle a higher particle count with greater resolution
-Enhanced explosion effects
-Enhanced battle damage effects to tanks
-Volumetric smoke and explosions
-The sound for World of Tanks on Xbox One has been fully revamped
-Tank engine sounds have been recorded live at a tank yard in the Midwest, cannon fire and explosions amplified to further immerse the player in the battle
-These audio enhancements are not exclusive and will also be added to the Xbox 360 version
-Tutorial missions and tutorial videos now found in “Proving Grounds” mode (by selecting the “Training” option / icon in the carousel)
-Fire FX have been updated
-Tread in water FX have been updated