Author - Ripper71

Warface Review (PC)

2015/06/18

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I recently lost a couple of my favorite, long-running free-to-play games on the PC:, Battlefield Heroes, which was cartoonish but loaded with customization, and Battlefield Play-For-Free, which had the quality of a Battlefield game with F2P micro-transaction economy. Both were great in that they allowed players to be competitive without spending money – those titles became just a bit more fun if you did. This left a hole in my gaming life that I have been plugging F2P games into with varying success. The question I came across recently was would Warface be the perfect fit?

In co-op mode, play the part of a Rifleman, Sniper, Engineer or Medic, and master the unique skills of each class to help your team to victory. Daily new missions mean you’ll always have a fresh challenge to face and new rewards to unlock – regardless of whether you tackle Regular, Skilled or Hardcore campaigns. Versus matches see teams of up to eight players battling it out in stacks of competitive modes. Jump into “Team Deathmatch”, “Free for All”, “Plant the Bomb”, “Storm”, “Destruction” or “Capture”, and switch your soldier class at any moment to maximize your contribution to the cause.

Features:

Enjoy a constant flow of new weapons, maps and more!
Tackle new missions in diverse war zones every single day
Brace yourself for explosive Co-op and Versus action
Work as a team and master four unique soldier classes
Crytek’s CRYENGINE tech draws you deep into the heat of battle
Pick your side and fight as the forces of Blackwood or Warface
Play completely free of charge – never pay a penny
Expect the best – Crytek’s trademark quality meets free-to-play gaming

Hands On:

If you are like me, the above description and features sound spot-on for a solid F2P. If you haven’t really understood why people play free-to-play games in the first place – well, there are a bunch of different reasons, top of them for me is the fact that you get a constantly rotating player base that evolves with the game. No one is in there saying this game sucks and what a waste of money it is. Players are playing it because it is a fit for them or they just don’t play it at all. Since it didn’t cost them anything, they don’t feel an obligation to get their money’s worth out of it. For the most part, F2P games are also far less elitist because gamers understand these are all access games and the game didn’t cost them anything unless they chose to enhance their play. It’s about the fun of the game. One of the nice things about Warface is that at a certain level players are classified as “professionals” at the game so they have their own lobbies and games preventing the dreaded level 45 thumping level 1 noobs and chasing them off. Not that there would probably be a problem with that too much in the first place, there really generally is a sense of community play in F2P games and Warface fosters this in a few ways.

One way is that to get to certain locations on game maps requires teamwork, boosting up one player then getting pulled up yourself. Not only does this give the players high ground advantage but they also get a point bonus for working together. Another way Warface enhances comradery is in the simplest but sometimes most overlooked solution: medics and ammo packs. It’s amazing how few people will complain if the bottom player on their team hasn’t gotten a single kill but has revived or healed them several times in the fight. Side Note: I think Warface’s medic class could use some tweaking as it is a bit too time consuming to save a fallen teammate, but I can see erring on the side of caution with this as speeding it up too much could make a team invincible!

The final and most important deciding factor on whether or not a F2P game should be played is whether it can remain free to play. Some call themselves F2P because there is no initial buy-in but when it comes down to it you have to pay to win. Being a guru of the F2P genre, nothing makes me angrier than a free-to-play, pay-to-win game. I don’t mind investing money into a free-to-play, quite the contrary as I understand that this is the only way to keep up support for a game and make updates and play expansions viable. Plus, if they make the game more fun that’s terrific. Also, there are players with more money than time and if they want to pay to unlock things that other players will unlock over time or even just speed up the unlocks with boosts more power to them. As long another player can pay their dues with time and get as much out of the game as the deep-pocketed, great!

Warface is great with all this. I played a while as a rookie with no unlockables and only codes given away on Twitter and had a great time. Then, I played at the professional level with a bunch of unlockables, playing against other pros and watching some well oiled and beautifully brutal action. I probably went to the professional level a little too soon in play, which is a risk for pay to rank players but I still didn’t feel out of my element and I got kills through skills even if I hadn’t perfected the special moves like the slide and slaughter (that might not be its actual name but it sure should be!).

The game’s map sizes, so far, are pretty small. While some have decent sniper roosts, they are mostly based on concealment rather than distance. There are maps with shipping containers where they enemy is always visible then there are some of the more advanced maps with actual concealment. Personally I would like to see more large maps in play but that is a personal taste, maps are voted on at the end of a round and it is very possible that I just never really got any large ones. The Co-Op maps are good size and a lot of fun, loaded with enough enemies for all to get some kills.

Lastly, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the graphics. Thanks to using the CryEngine as its game engine, it can give you the graphic quality you expect from a AAA game while still being F2P which is a pretty decent accomplishment in itself.

Last Shot:

Warface is one of the best F2P games I have seen in a while and is definitely worth a play in your valuable free time. It is truly free-to-play as they claim and, if you have the time, you can be just as competitive if not more so than someone with more money than time. It has a good community and game mechanics that promote continued goodwill among players. Warface is about playing first person shooter when you have the time and having a blast – isn’t that what all games should really be about?

[easyreview title=”Warface F2P Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

Zen Pinball 2 Portal Table Review (PSN)

2015/05/31

Ripper71

News, PlayStation 3 News, PlayStation 3 Review, PlayStation 4 News, PlayStation 4 Review, Reviews

I always get excited when there is a new Zen Studios pinball table up for review. I only own a handful of the dozens available on the consoles but they get regular play in our household and addictive “one more game” fever sweeps through quickly. So when the new Portal table got released and the review came along it was really a rhetorical question on whether I was up to reviewing it.

Hands On:
First off besides always doing an excellent job with theming, Zen Studios is the standard for video pinball for one major reason: physics. They have done the most spot on perfect reproduction of actual ball, flipper and bumper physics that can be found. I go to actual physical arcades to play pinball regularly and so you develop a feel and instinct of how everything should work so that you can feel a soft flipper or notice a weak bumper quickly, the nice thing about video pinball is no wear and tear on the machine, perfect play every time.

Another nice thing about video pinball is where you can cross into the fantasy realm of play by having characters from the game come out onto the table and perform actions and interact with each other in a way that wouldn’t be possible on a real world machine. In this case portals are made, laser beams are fired and general Portal fun and sarcasm is aplenty on the table. Most of it involves mini-games but you can always expect some love/hate when you lose your ball.

Now down to the actual play of the table since this is where people usually decide their favorites even more than theming. It’s a short table with a medium play speed. It has a fast short top tier and a short basement with a medium to slow play depending on control and luck. Skill shots are challenging but doable, multiball is really fun and the mini games are varied and entertaining. The table is good for a decent player, might be a bit hard for a beginner.

Last Call:
You don’t have to be a fan of Portal or even know much the game to enjoy this table – though, if you are a fan, there is a lot to love here. Once again, the Portal pinball table for Zen Pinball a very solid offering from Zen Studios packing a lot of variety and fun into it. My only complaint about this table is that I wish they had more than one table in the set – it is done so well that fans will be wishing for more.

[easyreview title=”Zen Pinball Portal Table Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Arcania: The Complete Tale Review (PS4)

2015/05/31

Ripper71

Geek News, News, PlayStation 4 News, PlayStation 4 Review, Reviews

When Arcania: Gothic 4 came out in November of 2010, it was a pretty busy time in my life. I felt I had to review the game, not to just play it but also immerse myself in it as both a stress relief and escape. Everything I had seen alluded to it being a great RPG game with a lot of sandbox play and, thankfully, it lived up to the hype. The only issues that really came up at the time were bugs that I reported would probably be fixed in a patch or two. Now, a little over 4 years later, I am back in that world with Arcania: The Complete Story which bundles the first game and its expansion, giving them some next-gen polish in one experience.

Story:
Without giving too much away, in the first game you are a sheep herder turned warrior when you go down a road of vengeance and discover your honor. There’s more to it than that but I like to keep things spoiler-free! In the sequel, you are older, wiser and trying to prevent the title Fall of Setarrif from happening. There is A LOT more to it than that – but finding out the rest on your own is the best part.

Hands On:
Even though I had played all the quests in the first game four years ago – with its new beauty and classic fun, I was once again immersed in the world, contently playing in no time. I remembered a few of the confusing quests that slowed me down the first time and I even remembered where most of the enemies would be and how best to kill them – a sign of how much of an impact the game made on me 4 1/2 years ago! The game looked amazing on my PlayStation 4 and the hours started to fly by.

The game involves the classic RPG tropes of leveling, improving gear, and mastering skills based on your play style. This means you can put everything into strength type attributes if you are a warrior at heart, dexterity if you like to play a hunter, or magicks and mana if you like to play a mage. Personally, I liked being a warrior with a “Jack of All Trades” style putting time into both melee, range, and magic abilities. It makes it handy to soften up an enemy and slow them down at a distance before clashing weapons up close.

I did begin to notice something a bit strange that had me frowning: The bugs were still there – and I’m not talking about the poisonous flies! I would be fighting something, dodge an attack, put some distance between us and suddenly it would appear in the air behind me. I would go to loot a corpse by the shoreline and slide into the water and get stuck there. Or, even worse, I would be moving along a cliff line and suddenly I was floating along the rocks, then floating down over the edge and falling to my death. They were all-too-familiar bugs that had come with the game when I played it around its release date and all these years later they were all still there. It didn’t stop me from playing, mind you, but I found myself saving every couple of minutes in case I encountered a bug that would kill me and set me back 20 minutes to an hour (I had to take a break after the first hour setback – too frustrating). I’m left to wonder if they started from a buggy, earlier version of the game when updating graphics or if they were never fixed?

Jumping straight into playing the expansion pack Arcania: The Fall of Setarrif, the game starts you at level 28 and you choose a specialty of warrior, hunter or mage with most of the points pre-assigned in the important elements of that class, while leaving you a few to place where you choose. This system worked nicely into my “Jack of All Trades” playstyle again. The first game had a lot of dialogue to setup locations and the situation, the second game assumes you played the first and jumps right in with you as the champion and trouble brewing. It was nice since if you played the first, even if it had been years ago, it is easy to play. With the second game, the developers seemed to take into account that the players wanted a bit more variety, so they added more diverse areas than appeared in the first game. Fall of Setarrif also didn’t seem to suffer quite so much from repetition of enemies as the first game – however, that might just be because I didn’t notice it as much as I didn’t play through it for review twice like the other game. Most likely it is because it is an expansion so it has less time and locations to fill with content. The expansion definitely brings up a question of whether or not the first game would have been better, maybe less buggy even, if it hadn’t been so ambitious in size and time!

Arcania was a pretty long playthrough if you stuck just to the main story and didn’t wander off exploring, the expansion is probably at least 8 hours if you stick to just the story which in both cases I advise against. This game is an fairly open world to explore for a reason, it really adds to the experience to take it all in, do side quests, and find hidden treasures. Even with marathon playtimes you can get days if not weeks out of this game pack!

Last Call:
Aracnia: The Complete Tale is a fun game to play and a great world to explore. It has some great graphics, interesting stories, and rewarding gameplay. It also has its bugs and they are pretty decent ones – but, if you have patience for them and save often, the rewards seem to be worth the aggravations.

[easyreview title=”Arcania: The Complete Tale Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]

Magicka: Wizard Wars Review (PC)

2015/05/03

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

The hottest PVP Arena game out there right now is League Of Legends and I have to confess I don’t like it that much. It is not very friendly to new players. Everyone gets wound up playing it and there is a ton of aggression thrown towards new players just learning the ropes. I like PVP but I also like it to be fun! Enter Magicka: Wizard Wars, a solid PVP arena game that has the fun of the now defunct Battlefield Heroes.

Description:
Magicka: Wizard Wars is a Spellcasting Action PvP game with the humor and the dynamic realtime spell system of Magicka. Players form teams of four and blaze their way across the battlefield, combining magical elements on the fly to create hundreds of spell combinations with wildly varying effects.

Features:
– 3 Game modes: 4-on-4 team play, 1-on-1 Duel Mode, and the brand new Soul Harvest mode that allows 4-on-4 team play with base defense and NPC battles.
– Fight intense battles – Co-op spellcasting, wielding fire and dragons as your weapons.
– Show your skills in fast-paced action, dynamically choose your spells on the fly to counter your opponents’ attacks.
– Friendly fire is in full effect, staying true to the Magicka tradition of “accidentally” killing your friends.
– 100 Robes, Staves, Skins, Weapons and your Humor of choice, 100s more to come – Be the Wizard you want to be!

Hands On:
First thing that needs to be stressed right off the bat: Magicka: Wizard Wars is a true free-to-play game with money being spent only by the impatient player – or the one who wants a vanity look for fun! In many supposedly free-to-play titles, you have to invest some money to have a competitive weapon whereas in Magicka: Wizard Wars, you have to be patient enough and play enough to unlock the higher-end items. That being said if you want a robe that looks a lot like a certain Dr. Horrible’s lab, coat you can buy it. If you want a weapon that is an axe designed to look like a guitar and has a special ability to let you tweak out a riff that will beat up the enemy with sound waves, that’s an option too. Through playing you can earn in-game currency and over time purchase most things you would want or you can spend a little real world money and look like Enchanter Tim from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The idea is to look unique and fit your personal geekdom. The item descriptions alone get you buying them.

In the game you get an imp which is near useless unless you get really creative strategy wise. It really comes down to being a vanity pet for the most part that will try to help you but you can expect it to die a horrible and quick death. That being said unlocking the Razer one and purchasing the Guy Fawkes imp that did nothing better than your other ones but leave a more interesting corpse is really a lot of fun.

The gameplay clearly has an emphasis on fun factor as well a huge combinations of spells, wards, shields, and attacks at your disposal. All game modes have a PVP focus with standard game styles such as dueling and team versus team – though soul harvest goes for more of a League of Legends style of play. The soul harvest map is huge and full of NPCs so you can harvest their souls instead of the other player’s if you choose. Harvesting souls causes the shields and defenses of the enemy base to fail allowing base assault which is the only way to win. Fighting larger, tougher NPCs can result in multiple souls dropping so it can be advantageous to team up on a big baddie, just watch your backs for the enemy to come and PK you and take the souls for themselves. You can constantly switch up your attacks with more attacks unlocking as you go as well as more armor and weapons allowing your gameplay to constantly evolve. The replayability of the game is huge and addicting. Unlike in Ghostbusters, crossing the streams is a good thing, giving a more powerful attacks. However, watch out as if you accidentally start hitting your teammates they will die and curse your name, friendly fire is always on!

Last Call:
Magicka: Wizard Wars is a game for players who like PVP arena play but don’t like screaming, angry pre-teens griefing them the whole time. It lends itself to an ever-evolving play style filled with humor and general fun. There is a lot of “LOL” slang typed in the chats and just as many healing spells cast on fellow team members as there are attack spells on the other team. Magicka: Wizard Wars has comradery mixed with a sense of humor so lacking in most PVP arena games that it not only feels refreshing but welcoming. You can expect to see me playing regularly for a long time to come.

[easyreview title=”Magicka: Wizard Wars Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Wizard World Las Vegas 2015 Gallery #wizardworld

2015/04/29

Ripper71

Geek News, News

I’ve been to a lot, and I mean A LOT of conventions but none have had panels quite as fun as I got to sit through at first year of Wizard World Las Vegas. The weekend started with a celebrity meet and greet for the press at “The High Roller” observation wheel where the stars were a little subdued, even going as far as to step off on their own to start to get to know each other since some were fresh to the tour and others were veterans. Adrenaline junkie and former Green Power Ranger, Jason David Frank, and Boondock Saints star, Sean Patrick Flanery, were good examples as they said a few words then spent most of the greet time off to the side quietly talking about crazy jumps Frank had taken over the years. Frank really made up for it by being one of the last people to leave the mixer afterwards but it did leave a bit of wonder as to how much interaction there would be during the con.

The floor interactions were mixed, most of the celebrities were behind large outlines on the floor that were not to be crossed unless you had a voucher for an autograph. The great mix of comic and tattoo artists were a whole different story – inviting and engaging just about everyone who passed their booth. It really seemed like maybe this was really just a comic and tattoo convention with only a few exceptions such as Jason David Frank and cosplayers such as Jessica Merizan.

Then the panels kicked in. If you ever make it to Wizard World convention, you HAVE to hit the panels. Sometimes at conventions, the panels seem like a boring waste of time – time that could be better spent on the floor. This convention was the polar opposite. Great comic writers such as Michael Golden gave some of the best writing tips for any medium I have ever heard – his cures for writer’s block were simple yet terrific! James Marsters challenged the audience to try to shock or embarrass him while at the same time making sure not to offend parents with kids. His behind the scene stories were riveting. Subdued Sean Patrick Flanery became a madman as he and David Della Rocco hit their stage as living embodiments of Jay and Silent Bob with Rocco occasionally giving one word answers and just looking cool and comfortable while Flanery would get excited, engaging and ramble off terrific stories. Flanery even called out a girl sitting at the back of the room charging her phone in the wall and had her sit in the front while throwing her a tshirt.

Cassandra Peters was her elegant self as she talked and joked about her career, making a fine point that she still loves Halloween and Knott’s Scary Farm (things also very dear to us at GamingShogun). Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose were a the perfect WWE panel as they told stories from behind the scenes as well as feeding the die-hard wrestling fans in the room great doses of the characters that have made them so famous.

The talk of the convention though had to be the panel by Michael Rooker. Holy crap – he had more energy and just almost electrifying presence than I think anyone had anywhere all weekend. He took no time jumping off the stage, running through the crowd having them as him questions or make requests then flying onto the next person. The cameramen couldn’t keep up with him, just trying to follow him with your eyes almost made you dizzy as he flew around giving hugs and fast quipping. Every joke or comment was perfectly timed and hilarious and the crowd ate it up from the moment he jumped off the stage to the second he rolled back onto it and to his feet leaving everyone reeling. I started the conventions heading to the mixer in an elevator with Rooker and he was fun and unabashedly joking then, it was just a preview of the amazing time he gave the audience at his panel and at home watching on ConTV.

I highly recommend Wizard World Las Vegas and can’t wait until it hits bright, shining city once again. Attendees would be best served by putting a little time aside for the floor, planning out ahead of time which artists you want to meet and concentrate on hitting as many panels as possible. They overlap so it isn’t a bad idea to make a schedule before hand so you don’t wind up missing any. My only true regrets of the weekend were not being able to catch more of the panels and hearing that Bruce Campbell canceled his appearance. At least I know he didn’t make it because he was working on Evil Dead goodness!

Photo Gallery

Mortal Kombat X Review (Xbox One)

2015/04/22

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

FINISH HIM! Few phrases are more recognizable in video game history than those two words. I remember when a video game came out in the arcades that all the players gathered around to see it. Weirdly, it was also the way kids might circle around and gawk at something that was taboo. They didn’t want their parents to know that their fighting games had just gone up a level – that if you learned the right combination of moves you could rip people’s heads off, pull hearts out or other gory things. They didn’t just fall over while you celebrated, they were destroyed in a beautiful gorefest usually reserved for slasher flicks. You didn’t just lose – you were punished. Everyone figured once the gore was discovered that the game would go away never to be seen again, and yet here we are so many years later with Mortal Kombat X, not only continuing the tradition of brutalities and fatalities but, also, adding depth to both the storyline and the gameplay.

Description:
Mortal Kombat X combines cinematic presentation with all-new gameplay to deliver the most brutal Kombat experience ever, offering a new fully-connected experience that launches players into a persistent online contest where every fight matters in a global battle for supremacy.

Mortal Kombat X gives players the ability to choose from multiple variations of each character, impacting both strategy and fighting style. Players step into an original story showcasing some of the game’s most prolific characters, including Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Hands On:
First things first and has to be said: Mortal Kombat X has a very detailed and good story in its single player campaign mode. The fights have purpose with fairly long cinematic lead-ins tying together the world and characters with real plot. You aren’t just fighting in a Mortal Kombat tournament. I was stunned and hanging on every moment of the storyline, shushing people who walked through the room chatting. I am pretty sure that they assumed since the controller wasn’t in my hand I wasn’t playing a game – quite the opposite. Sure, some of the dialogue can be a little corny, intentionally for the most part because who could imagine Johnny Cage not having bad one-liners? Every character serves a purpose and every fight has its place in the story which allows players to follow the next generation of Kombatents.

Of course, all that can be skipped at the push of a button if all you want to do is maim, kill, and destroy – and there is nothing wrong with that. Afterall that is pretty much where the game began and, for some people, that’s all they want. For those folks there is still plenty of mayhem to be had and lots of playtime even if they skip the cutscenes or the single player section entirely. It is at it’s heart a two player gorefest even if the game now has a story to accompany it. There is a single player AI play mode to help hone your skills as well as the single player campaign and training grounds. Then it is off to play two player local like the old days or use this newfangled thing called “the Internet” and play folks from all over the world in both ranked and un-ranked battles. Brutalities and Fatalities are unlocked through play and through the Krypt, a cemetery type locations where you bust headstones, open treasure chests or tear open cocooned bodies and egg sacs to unlock moves, art, music and, most importantly, characters for multiplayer mode.

When you first go online, you are asked to join a faction and, once you do, your every battle can help or hurt your faction in its struggle for world dominance. There are a handful of factions to choose from, each with special moves and there are even daily faction challenges. If you don’t like the one you join, you can change your mind at a later date.

Besides factions, there are tower matches that are traditional style matches and team matches where you can get together with your buddies and more. If all this sounds like a bit of a pain and more than you really want to keep track of, just pick online play and click through until you get a game. Then you get to pick between three fighting styles for your character. While they have really tried to enrich the gameplay – in both single and multiplayer, at its heart it is still the fun gorefest you have come to love.

On the Xbox One the gore is particularly beautiful and graphic as are the environments behind the battles. Seeing through the skin as you shatter bones and pummel organs is quite satisfying and the backgrounds with corpses floating on giant waves and large bloody temples can be as stunning as well as wide open mountains and dense forests. I could definitely see this game being a leader in 3D gaming eventually, the terrific action and separation of foreground and background already almost give it a 3D effect.

Also, don’t worry if you are a button masher because you aren’t very good at remember fatalities, you can earn fight skip and easy fatality tokens in the Krypt to keep you progressing in the game and enjoying it even if you aren’t a combo savant.

FINISH IT!:
I could go on and on about Mortal Kombat X but really it comes down to this: Mortal Kombat X is the best game in the series and hopefully starts a new legacy of Mortal Kombat game depth that will continue on. When it comes to scoring a game I try to figure out what I could think of that could possibly improve the game… the only thing that even crosses my mind would be adding popular culture iconic characters to the mix, which is on the way when Jason and Predator join the mix in the Mortal Kombat Pass soon. I can’t wait to FIGHT!

[easyreview title=”Mortal Kombat X Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

National Association Of Broadcasters Convention Photo Gallery

2015/04/21

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos

The National Association of Broadcasters, or “NAB” as it is more commonly known, put on a convention every year the brings out the tech savvy and journalists from all mediums to see what will be next in professional grade electronics. Where CES may show the latest toy drones or consumer grade headsets such as Beats, Wicked, or Turtle Beach, NAB brings out the drones that can carry full size broadcast cameras, studio lighting and audio and video boards that have hundreds of buttons, sliders and switches. All this isn’t to say a person not in the professional broadcasting can’t find technological gold mines, this is just where for the most part gimmick and style are replaced by functionality and durability, it may not look sexy but it will get the job done dependably over and over again. Podcasters taking their game to the next level, web television stations and amateur photographers and videographers stand side by side with the CEO of CNN or celebrities like Wayne Newton (a regular to the show) as they see where technology is going and how it can serve them. And that is the key to this show: service rather than consumption, this show isn’t as much about being entertained as how to entertain others. If this has ever been a plan for you, if you ever want to be in a business where electronics play a factor or if you ever thought that you need a super insane gaming rig or ANYTHING to do with drones (it had it’s own pavillon) then this is a show to catch.

This year included the teaming up of the New Media Expo (NMX) with NAB which furthered it’s interest to bloggers, podcasters and anyone with online audio and video content with seminars, speakers and awards dedicated to these pursuits. Attending the Podcast Awards hosted by Chris Jericho and Emily Morse was a highlight of the show and the red carpet for the IAWTV Awards was a who’s who of internet celebrities.

A special thank you goes to Warner-Chappell for the invitation to Peter Frampton’s release party for “Hummingbird In A Box, Music For A Ballet” it was a special night that was as my mom-in-law put it “the most fun I have had in as long as I can remember.”

Images

Neverwinter on Xbox One Review

2015/04/19

Ripper71

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

If you read our first review of Neverwinter on the PC you read as I droned on about how Neverwinter Nights was the closest I have ever experienced to tabletop RPG in a video game. I also mentioned that Neverwinter is a great game even if it didn’t live up to the legacy of its predecessor and is built on Perfect World Entertainment’s free-to-play game model which involves quite a bit of spamming. So the real question to be asked about Neverwinter on the Xbox One is if it comes across as just a port or a fully-developed game of its own? Should Monty Python’s “Spam” still be its theme song? And, most importantly, if you are going to put money into Neverwinter should you do it on the PC or the Xbox One? Let’s find out!

Storyline:
Once a bustling location, Neverwinter has faced a great many disasters in the past hundred years. Rule of the city remains unclear following the unfortunate demise of the last Lord of Neverwinter and factions still battle for dominance after the all-consuming Spellplague took a high toll on the population. Even Neverwinter’s dead are beginning to rise from their graves and march upon the city they once called home.

Hands On:
Neverwinter is a MMORPG very much in the vein of Lord of the Rings Online or The Secret World in the sense that it is a free-to-play game with micro-transactions for everything from mounts and companions – even experience point boosts. Based in the fantasy world of official Dungeons & Dragons, players can find lore and characters like from the tabletop game but in an online experience.

The game is pleasantly-loaded with nostalgia for anyone who grew up playing D&D and the voice acting, graphics, and sounds are terrific – especially on the Xbox One since, unlike the PC version, the quality of your visual and audio gameplay experience isn’t based on the performance of your graphics or sound cards. Your internet connection plays a huge factor in your experience, but that is always the case with MMORPGs.

You get to play a good variety of character classes as well as implement an immense variety of customization of the character – though I think there should have been more beard options. Everyone loves a good beard – especially on a female dwarf! Your starting armor looks the same but through finding new armor and the use of armor dyes you can quickly have a look all your own. You can even get some armor dyes just by leveling up your character. Other customization options can come in the form of your choice of NPC companions and mounts.

With a few exceptions, most of the NPC companions, mounts, and really spiffy armor will cost you real life money. This is a pretty standard thing to do nowadays, it is actually the business model for most games that either fail to maintain a subscription base (like LOTRO) or realize that, fiscally, this in-game purchase system ensures continued income to help maintain updates and expanding gameplay. As a player though it requires quite a bit of consideration because you can easily outspend the price of a standalone game and expansions through these micro-transactions. Then players must ask themselves just how much the micro-transactions add to the experience of the game and, in this case, which platform to purchase them on. If you own the game on the PC platform, your characters and purchases don’t transfer over to the Xbox One version of the game. Once you select a platform, you will probably have to stick with it unless you want to start all over again from the beginning.

PC Vs. Xbox One:
The PC versus console argument is decades old now. With next-generation consoles and the use of internet connectivity in game titles, this argument is slowly becoming moot and the lines of “which is better” blurred almost to the point of non-existence. For the most part, it depends on game choices and control scheme choices with each having pros and cons. But, what about when it is the same game?

I played Neverwinter A LOT when it came out on the PC – but, often, found I was splitting my time with other MMORPGs that I was already paying for or had invested RL money in. Also, I found that the game population didn’t do much in the way of roleplaying even though the option was very available. When playing a PC game, it is easy to type emotes and in-character dialogue. There are also a whole set of keys as well as mouse options on which to build the game controls.

In contrast, there is no roleplaying with other players that is possible on the Xbox One and you are very limited on what buttons you have, causing combo actions being necessary just to access menus. Even if you did want to roleplay as your character using your headset… well let’s just say the community would probably shun you a bit. Roleplaying is simply considered more of a PC thing than a console thing.

What I found interesting is that I think I enjoyed game battles more with the Xbox One – even if it is a little more difficult and definitely requires a learning curve. Consoles have a long and popular tradition of third-person action/shooter games and once you strip out the roleplaying layer of the game and make the menus functional, Neverwinter boils down to an open world third-person actioner.

One downside is the spam announcements of who got a special item from a purchased lock box opening seems more severe the larger the screen you play on. When you play on a big screen, the letters look as big as your head and are several feet wide. You kinda get used to it but World of Warcraft players will still startle just about every time one is displayed because they are used to that being a battle warning rather than an advertisement for what could be yours!

It should be noted that, at the time of this review, I can’t compare the worth of which system the purchased items are more effective or enjoyable. I just can’t afford it right now. I plan to update this aspect at a future, more fiscally-sound time – but, I digress…

Last Call:
It really depends on what you want out of Neverwinter as to which version of the game you will like more. If you like the MMORPG style, then you should stick to the PC platform. If you like a third-person shooter/actioner experience, then the console is definitely the one for you. What is interesting is that the Xbox One version of Neverwinter doesn’t feel at all like a port, it feels like two separate games with the same storylines and quests. Personally, I will probably play the console version more because when I am at the computer I have a lot of MMORPG games for it to compete with. In contrast, I don’t have a lot of titles like Neverwinter on the XBox One. Maybe things will shift when real world money comes into play… I guess you will have to stay tuned and see!

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

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer #2

2015/04/16

Ripper71

Geek News, Movie News, News, Trailers / Videos

A gift from the Star Wars Celebration! Oh by the way… the BB-8 droid came out on stage so it is not CGI!

We Review Etherium (PC)

2015/04/06

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I’ve been a player of real-time strategy games since the golden days of the genre. By golden era, I mean those titans like Warcraft, Command and Conquer, and the first StarCraft. For a while, there were tons of them – each with expansions and mods and the playtime seemed eternal. Those golden days have passed so that now you have to keep your eyes open for games that will keep you coming back for more. I was lucky when I got Etherium.

Description:
Etherium is a real-time strategy game set in a science-fiction universe, where three factions battle it out for a mysterious and rare resource known as ‘Etherium’.

Manage your resources, develop your base, and take command of infantry, tanks, aircraft, and gigantic colossi of war to battle not only your foes, but weather anomalies and mysterious secondary factions in richly strategic and original RTS gameplay. In the single player Conquest mode, develop your technological capabilities and expand your colonies over the furthest sectors of space, assembling a formidable armada.

Each of the three factions have their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as different tactical command skills such as map exposure, climate control, or planetary bombardment. Define your own strategy, deciding to either fell your enemy by striking their mother-ship from the planet’s surface, or rapidly crushing their colonies. In multiplayer, team up or wage battle in all-out deathmatches with up to 4 players!

Features:

3 empires with distinct characteristics, units, and special skills
A dynamic weather control system that directly impacts your strategy
A challenging multiplayer mode where up to 4 players can compete in intense matches
A dynamic campaign where each decision counts

Hands On:
It doesn’t take an RTS expert, or even a big fan of the genre, to see that there are some similarities to a powerhouse RTS game already on the market. This may bother some people but as someone who has only seen that powerhouse add updates to StarCraft 2’s multiplayer maps recently (to be fair that is the game’s bread and butter via tournament play), I am quite happy to get my hands on some fresh sci-fi RTS fun in the same vein. Etherium’s three empires are quite a bit different both from each other and from those found in StarCraft 2, so each campaign feels completely fresh while only requiring the slightest adjustments to get used to the control set up.

Each side gets one main base and destroying the other team’s base is one of the main ways of winning the game. Destroying the enemy’s fleet above the surface is another method for winning. You take regions by capping a pillar with a colony or outpost and then, if it has an Etherium bubble on it, you can start mining it for money. There is a build time on structures but unit builds are almost immediate. They are considered fleet drops so they can only be dropped at locations with spaceports. Building those spaceports at colonies or outposts throughout the map can mean the difference between wining and losing the planet at hand. Turret placement can only be done within a controlled territory and the number of turrets are limited in each one so be careful positioning. There are a lot of things to consider for each faction and each map, figuring out the strengths and weaknesses is all part of the fun.

The game could definitely use more single player missions. Most folks will probably be playing the online maps and not be too concerned with this aspect but when I get frustrated with “zerging” or bad sportsmanship, I like to go back and do some single player stuff. This game has the potential for expansions or even just new single player maps for skirmishes that could really make this game have legs. Also, with new multiplayer maps, it could make Etherium a contender for ESL tournament use. The model is in place and the formula has already been proven – it just needs proper support and community.

The other drawback is a small aspect to this game that is turn-based space fighting that allows you to engage enemy fleets in space before planetary landing. It plays kind of like a mini game and does add a bit of variety to the game but didn’t really feel necessary or very engaging. If it winds up being your favorite part of the game I would recommend playing turn-based strategy rather than real time.

Last Call:
Etherium is a solid real time strategy game with engaging game mechanics. It has massive potential for becoming a hit, especially with the right support and nurturing over time. This is the game to watch and play with hopes that one day you can say you were playing it before anybody knew what it was.

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