Author - Ripper71

Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 Review (iOS)

2014/07/14

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Reviews

When it comes to strategy video games no other name holds as much weight as Sid Meier. I have played Sid Meier’s games on multiple platforms one of my all time favorite being Pirates both on the PC and PSP. I was honestly amazed they were able to get a full game on to such a small disc as the PSP UMD but the UMd was a very underestimated drive with quite a capacity. Going into reviewing Sid Meier’s Revolution 2 on the iOS I again had lower expectations and was again surprised because the simple fact is that if the put the Sid Meier name one something you are getting the full experience.

First off the graphics and sounds are great, just what you would expect on a PC but not quite what you are used to on an iOS platform. The controls were smooth, I actually preferred them greatly to the PC ones since everything was point, click or slide and designed specifically for iOS. The menus were very intuitive and if you couldn’t figure out what to do next you could always get a hint or replay the tutorial.

Controls are great, graphics are nice but if a title doesn’t have great gameplay it is worthless. Somehow they managed to fit a full, PC game-like experience into a little iOS title. You can choose scenarios, maps, famous leaders and empires, and you have several levels of difficulty. If you want a quick easily play you can randomize and choose a low level of difficulty. You will still get a decent amount of playtime you just won’t have to be at it all day. If you really want to challenge yourself to diety level in which case you had better save often and use all 9 of the save slots because you may find you have to go back two or three turns to keep the enemies from running you down.

In the games there are multiple aspects such as diplomacy, military, culture, economy, all the different things you have some to expect from Sid Meier. The higher the difficulty the deeper you need to dive into each of these and tweak minor nuances. Lower level it is mostly whether or not you are ready to take on another empire or whether you should be building walls instead of instead of libraries. One lesson I definitely was reminded of early, don’t pick too many fights, a little diplomacy might keep your empire on the map.

Last Call:
Sid Meier’s Civilization 2 on the iOS is a full PC experience on the go. You can play it on your iPad or iPhone and have an equally great time. It works with all levels of players and gives massive diversity so that you can play casual or a simple map that takes days to complete. It is hard to imagine how they will be able to improve on the strategy genre on a portable device, but I would be surprised if it says “Sid Meier’s” on it when they do.

[easyreview title=”Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

Screenshots

World of Tanks Blitz Review (iOS)

2014/07/04

Ripper71

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Reviews

We here at Gamingshogun.com understand that, economically-speaking, times can be tough. So, when there is a game that can be played for free – that is, truly free and not free-to-play, pay-to-win, we make sure to let our readers know. A great case in point is World of Tanks, which completely free for the PC and an absolute blast to play. You can pay a bit to enhance you experience or speed up your leveling but in the end the better player wins the match not the most expensive tank. They then translated this same idea to World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition with the same success. Fans of these games have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on World of Warships, the next title in the saga – but first comes a pleasant surprise, World of Tanks Blitz for the iOS platform.

The graphics haven’t suffered at all in the translation to the small screen, they are crisp and clear and extremely detailed which is important as players have come to expect historical vehicle accuracy from the series. Also, the tech trees are enormous which was surprising to me as tech trees are generally scaled back much more in mobile games. There are only three nations to start with but their are so many vehicles and upgrades that you probably won’t come even near to completing them all before another nation is added.

My next expectation was very small matches, I guessed probably just 4 vs. 4 so the systems could handle them. I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself in 7 vs. 7 matches so that the excitement of multiple players hunting and strategy was still maintained. 14 players do a nice job filling up a map. which is another great point about this platform, it has all kinds of maps, many being familiar, scaled down versions of the PC and 360 maps with some of the maps even feeling brand new. Part of this might be due to different priorities in a maps detail making it look different (sand gets less detail than a building or a stack of wood) and yet if you have a strategy on the rebuilt maps it might just still work to your advantage.

If you have spare funds to spend the premium account is worth it’s money in speeding up leveling and in game currency and there are vehicles and special ammo you can buy to give you a slight edge or at least a faster level to a new class. Hardcore players though tend to believe in earning your bones in this game so you will find both bought and earned tanks on a pretty even playing field.

The only real problem with the game is the inherent problem of the platform itself: Its controls. You have to use your right thumb to move the tank, your left thumb to move your view then whatever finger you want to hit the zoom and fire buttons. The controls are greatly simplified and adapted to touch screen technology but in the end you still find your left thumb slipping off the tank controls or bumping the wrong one. In some cases you might even find your thumb sliding up and prematurely hitting the fire button giving away your position. There are thumb attachment sticks that can be purchased and stuck to the screen but I have never found them to be particularly consistent and if you get used to one and it pops off mid match you might find yourself in a world of trouble.

Final Thoughts:
World of Tanks Blitz gives you the opportunity to play a great title on the go with most of the console or PC features intact. This is a great accomplishment that Wargaming.net should be proud of and sets a new standard for shooting games, particularly vehicle-based ones, on the iOS platform. I look forward to seeing what they add on or come up with next.

[easyreview title=”World Of Tanks Blitz Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con Gallery

2014/07/04

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos

As comic book and pop culture conventions go, the Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con is definitely still in its infancy at just a couple years old. The community support for it however makes it very likely to become one of the more popular cons in the Western United States. With Jim Lee as the guest of honor and a slew of the biggest names in comics, it was a fairly intimate atmosphere for the big guns and the indie writers to mix, mingle and show their wares.

One of my personal heroes, Len Wein, who has created over a hundred characters in is writing lifetime talked the future of Swamp Thing with me while a couple of artists Eric Mengel (of Ocho) and Denny Riccelli (Get That Chicken and Cousin Harold) talked about the con circuit and what it’s like when you are the “away team” comics compared to being the “home team” ones in Arizona. It was an opportunity to meet the author of one of my favorite current titles Chew, John Layman, and geek out with him about Mars Attacks and how he fulfilled a life dream by getting to write Mars Attacks On Ice! There were stories of boarding schools in hell, Bigfoot on distant planets and lots and lots and lots of talk about Guardians of the Galaxy. There were special editions covers and posters for all kinds of characters imaginable and in the middle of it all Maximum Comics had a Midway full of games.

You didn’t have to be a comic fan to be into the convention as there were tons of geek interests represented: Panels on how to write books by the Winner Girls and even makeup lessons from a whole slew of the casts of SyFy’s FaceOff. Not only was cosplay in full effect but the Heroes of Cosplay were present in the form of Holly And Jessica. There were costume contests and kids cosplay on parade and even cartoons on a big screen Saturday and Sunday.

This convention has taken off thanks to Maximum Comics support and I am already looking forward to next year.

Images

Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 Review (PC)

2014/05/31

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Memorial Day is celebrated in all kinds of ways. Traditionally, mine involves playing marathon sessions of war video games. I think of the sacrifices generations have made for our liberties while fighting historic battles or historic enemies. This time my main game of the weekend was Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 which is a real time strategy game set during World War II and going through famous battles from the point of view of most of the nations involved.

Description:
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 features new single player style skirmish modes that take players from extreme tank combat to deadly sniper stealth missions. Commanders can now faceoff against opponents on various new multiplayer 1v1 – 4v4 maps. To truly bring the battles to life though there is the new 8v8 game mode designed for huge battles on spectacular maps.

Features:
– Direct control every unit as if you were playing a 3rd person shooter
– Interface and AI improvements, including unit kill counts and squad icon information
– New multiplayer interface
– Camouflage depending on season
– Fully updated inventory items with new graphics and updated vehicles
– Sound improvements, including voice acting
– Steam features, including Steam multiplayer, matchmaking, achievements, cloud, player statistics, leaderboards, voice chat, Valve anti-cheat, friends invite and workshop
– Player level up and ranked system
– In-game video recording, and much more.
– 15 new single player skirmishes plus 25 reworked ones from the original Assault Squad
– Eight player co-op support and an all new multiplayer extreme game mode
– 65 multiplayer maps and five gamemodes
– More than 250 vehicles at your command
– More than 200 soldiers with unique equipment
– Five factions and various battlefields in Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Pacific
– Development tools such as 3d model exporter and map/mission editor, and much more.

Hands On:
The first thing I want to stress is how massive this game is for a real-time strategy game. The maps are large with multiple points to take and try to hold which makes for a slow strategic push and then there are so many maps over each nation’s campaign. My biggest advice is save often because you never know when you will make a bad move and watch dozens of your men die in seconds.

Gameplay involves various size units and types that push through great variations of objectives and enemies. One of my personal favorites was Normandy on the American side where they have established a beachhead and have to push through the town taking locations over and unlocking Rangers and Airborne along the way. They throw a lot of enemies at you and if you aren’t careful they will flank you or hit you with superior firepower. The armored vehicles come out of the woodwork and if you lose a location flag you fail the objective.

It is true that many of the maps are revamps from the first Assault Squad but the revamp has been so heavily done that the premise remains the same but the maps feel fresh. Even if the map is the same from the previous game you can play through differently time after time since it is your strategy that decides what units are used how. Will you try to zerg with infantry or take your time and build a wall of forces slowly pushing forward? Will you try to drop your Airborne at a remote location and try to take an objective or use them as quick reinforcements to drop at challenged objectives? It’s all up to you and can be different every time.

Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 takes the multiplayer aspect of real-time strategy games up and notch with matches that are 4v4 and 8v8! Usually these games are 2v2 and can be challenging to co-ordinate well enough to win, when you have 16 players on the same strategic battlefield with 65 possible maps and there is no set style or strategy you have to adjust to your team’s moves and 8 enemies out to get you. The single player is large with lots of re-playability but the multiplayer promises to never be close to the same match twice.

Add to all this Steam support and achievements, map editing, 3D model exporter and five different game modes and you easily have weeks or months of playtime without ever playing things the same twice.

Last Call:
The Men Of War franchise has a very solid reputation and Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 not only lives up to it but raises the bar for all real-time strategy games. If this is the style of game for you than this is a must play for you.

[easyreview title=”Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Broforce Preview (PC)

2014/05/31

Ripper71

News, Previews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Preview

7 7 7 7 7

Listen up Bro! The most brotastic game has hit Steam Greenlight! If you are a Bro like me you probably already played the free Brototype from time to but now that Free Lives has a place to call Brome. Bro, can you believe back in the 80s we used to have whole conversations like this? Yeah sometimes it was dude instead of bro but the idea was the same. Bro had a bit more machismo heaped on the top of it like bacon on steak covered in nacho cheese. The games of the time reflected that with the side scrolling shooters such as Contra fulling coming into their own. Also coming into their own was the Action Hero, an against all odds warrior who fired more bullets than the population of small countries. So Free Live did the bromazing thing of combining the two into a hilarious yet addictive game.

Description:
Broforce is an action platformer for PC featuring 1980s action heroes making up the Broforce team, an under-funded vigilante paramilitary organization. The game features ridiculous violence, pixel art graphics and a fully destructible Vietnam setting. While masquerading as a run ‘n gun in the vein of Metal Slug, Broforce’s reactive environment encourages tactical play. Each bro out of the 13 the game currently features has distinctive overpowered attacks and special abilities, and mastering them all is one of Broforce’s core pleasures. Death is instant and can be surprising, but this is balanced by the incompetence of the enemy. Explosions are plentiful and very often result in chaotic chain reactions, but this shouldn’t discourage you from permanently holding down your trigger finger. Yelling “‘Murica!” while you do so is optional.

Broforce is best played co-operatively, two to four players (though single player is an option). It can be played both on keyboard and on XBox controllers.

Vehicular action sequences, dinosaurs, aliens and epic Contra-inspired boss fights, deathmatch arenas with leaderboards and rankings, a level editor, the ability to challenge friends and share custom levels, a customizable Brofort with unlockable rooms and much more to come in the full game. The only thing left to say is: brace your loins.

Features:
– More explosions, camera shake and action than anything else, ever.
– Fully destructible terrain.
– Local Bro-op play and online multiplayer bro-op.
– Deathmatch arenas with leaderboards and rankings.
– Unlockable “bros” – each with distinctive attacks and special brobilities.
– A level editor, the ability to challenge your friends and share your custom levels.
– Design your own Brofort – with unlockable rooms and additions to defend against terrorist onslaught, or just hang out.
– Vehicular action sequences, dinosaurs, aliens and epic Contra-inspired boss fights.
– Nuanced and strategic combat, explosive action and deadly stealth.
– For every terrorist killed in Broforce, a terrorist will die in real life.

Hands On:
To truly appreciate this game in its fullest you need to have lived through the 1980s and the gaming mentality at the time. Hanging out with friends in front of the TV drinking Mt. Dew, eating junk food, and playing video games until the sun came up or you beat them. Co-Op playing was best so you could help each other bust through levels though VS. games were fun too. Some games were up scrollers, usually those involved vehicles but Contra was ruling the day with it’s side-scrolling fight fest. If you were really doing it right you would have a TV with a VCR or cable nearby showing First Blood, Rambo, Terminator, or if you were into horror maybe that eternal classic Evil Dead 2.

Free Lives got this idea and nostalgia and managed to make it into a side-scrolling brofest. The Brominator, Rambro, Bro Dredd, and Brommando just names a few of the heroes you control while tearing up terrorists and the environment. Each has special abilities that will change your play style as the game randomly spawns one for you to fight with. A couple of my fave bros are Snake Broskin and Ash Brolliams (I think Williamsbro sound better but it kinda reminds me of a Civil War battleground) but all are amazing entertaining.

You can play with a keyboard but the controls felt REALLY clumsy to me on it. I tried the player one controls and the player two but felt a bit frustrated until I finally plugged in a controller. My controller is busted but luckily the buttons I needed only took up a small portion and I was blowing up the whole world and all the terrorists with it in no time. If you have been waiting to pick up a game controller go out and get two so you can have a friend play with you Co-Op and VS. and have a blast using about the same game controls you did when playing those consoles of yesteryear. You don’t have to have played the games at the time to love this one, but it definitely kicks up the bro factor.

Last Bros:
Broforce only takes itself serious when it comes to good gameplay. Playing the game is unbrolievably fun. Each character that unlocks is a new challenge and fun way to destroy everything. You will have favorites but more importantly you will just have a great time and maybe remember some nights spent in a room in front of a television making life bonds over video games and action flicks.

Wolfenstein: The New Order Review (PC/Steam)

2014/05/31

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

There was the very real possibility that Allied Forces might have lost World War II. The Axis made crucial mistakes and the Allies made great strategic moves and in the technological race of the time the Allies prevailed. What would have happened though if the German’s with Hitler’s obsession with technology had managed to get our secrets and beat us to the bomb? That is the dark and dramatic tale behind Wolfenstein: The New Order where the world lives under the flag of the Nazi Germany.

Description:
Europe, 1946. World War II rages across Europe. Where once the Allies pressed advantage, the Nazi forces have turned the tide in dramatic fashion behind the technologically advanced war machine of General Wilhelm Strasse — Deathshead. When a final Allied assault on Deathshead’s compound fails, the Allies’ greatest hope falls with it.

Europe, 1960. The war is over. And the Nazis are triumphant victors. Using unrelenting force and brutal intimidation, the Nazis have brought even the most powerful nations to their knees. The Nazi regime now rules the globe with an iron fist.

You are Captain B.J. Blazkowicz, the American War Hero. After emerging into this world of darkness, you must launch an impossible counter-offensive against the monstrous Nazi regime. Only you dare stand up against an unstoppable army of Nazi robots and hulking Super Soldiers. Only you can stop Deathshead. Only you can rewrite history.

Hands On:
I have always loved the Wolfenstein franchise right back to the early 1980s before it was even a FPS. Once it became a first person shooter I really became addicted and played Wolfenstein 3D and it’s sequels for hours and hours and hours on end. Whenever a new one came out I would clear my schedule and play away.

This time the game happened to come out when I always play war games around Memorial Day Weekend AND told an alternate world history which as someone who is a History Channel junkie I can tell you kicks the game up a notch. The game is designed so that if you just care about the FPS aspect you can easily skip this alternate world tale which is primarily told through newspaper clippings found throughout the game. If you really want to get the full effect of the game and the story though you should really dive into every scrap it gives you for a chilling view of what could have been.

Gameplay is first person shooter which is what we have come to expect from the series with occasional cutscenes. The game feels like you are an Inglourious Basterd tearing through the Nazi ranks with glee until suddenly things aren’t going too well for you. That is when you find yourself having to replace your weapons (for the first time but not the last) and get a load of what the goose stepping buggers have been up to. It doesn’t take long before you are back to your old ways of killing stormtroopers and all the techno marvels they have come up with to take human lives.

The storyline plays out great, the gameplay is as hard as you want it from easy to downright crazy and even when you hit a hard spot you want to keep tackling it to see what the game will throw at you next. The graphics look great, the voice acting sounds like the characters are right out of a movie and the game is completely submersive. It is one of the best single player FPS campaigns I have played in recent years and with how many I play that is an extremely bold statement.

The only thing that I found a bummer was the lack of multiplayer action. It’s true that some games of late seem to make multiplayer modes simple add-ons or find that the players will sometimes skip the single player campaign completely. In some cases, games are developed so that there is no true single player – just themed multiplayer events (such as Titanfall). Over time, the multiplayer aspects of the Wolfenstein games have become some of my favorite multiplayer experiences. Let’s face it, you just can’t get enough Nazi killing and this series perfected it. There are always players willing to go to the darkside to give you some challenging Nazis and with this game’s two time periods you could have maps that are just real WWII weapons and maps with the alternate future ones. It’s always better to not have a multiplayer than to have bad multiplayer but in this game it really felt like a missed opportunity.

Last Call:
Wolfenstein: The New Order is a new order of fun for first person shooters. The gameplay is great, the storyline is highly imaginative, the graphics are next level and the weapons kick major ass. You want to push through and beat down the Nazi regime – if the game had multiplayer it would be darn near perfect.

[easyreview title=”Wolfenstein: The New Order Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

IK Multimedia iKlip 2 Review(iPad/iPad Air)

2014/05/20

Ripper71

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews

IK Multimedia came up with the iKlip holder to fill an increasing niche that the iPad could fill but there were no great solutions for: attaching to a microphone stand. Once on a microphone stand the iPad could be used for karaoke, sheet music display, set list, mixer, remixer, instrument instructor, tuning system, the possibilities are only limited by the imagination but had been mostly aimed at the music industry and as a teleprompter for public speaking.

I don’t do either of those much anymore, I can’t hold a beat or sing a note and my public speaking days are pretty far in the past. I could have seen applications for the iPad 2 in news directing but those days are past me now it seems too. I spend a good deal of my time now in bed due to genetically inherited medical conditions and a life rough on the body. As a result I have developed a new appreciation for things that make it easier to still play games, do reviews and keep in touch with the world. It was with these in mind that I approached the iKlip 2.

The iKlip 2’s construction breaks down to a sturdy iPad holder attached to a swivel ball which is attached to a C-clamp. This design serves perfectly and solidly to clamp it to a mic or camera stand and could totally be used to cover an event as a iPad camera stand or it’s intended purposes. I found when laid up in bed it attaches nicely to a camera stand to hold the iPad close at a good level for my eyes so that I can type on a bluetooth keyboard or use it for FaceTime or other video conferencing uses placing the camera at an optimal level.

The nice thing about the C-clamp and swivel ball is that you don’t have to limit yourself to a mic/camera stand. It attaches nicely to a night stand, to a bed tray, to a wheelchair, the visor of a car, the clamp makes it so that once again the uses are limited only to the imagination and the swivel ball makes sure that whatever you attach you will still have an excellent viewing angle of the screen.

Even now I am typing briefly on a desktop, my body already beginning to rebel against the sitting up position, but I have my iPad clamped to the side of the desk using the iKlip 2 so I can monitor Twitter and Facebook on it without having to switch to different windows on my desktop monitor and can concentrate on getting the story written.

Last Call:
The IK Multimedia iKlip 2 does a great job at what it is marketed for, teleprompter and music, but it’s uses far exceed these areas. The design is extremely effective at making the iPad available to limited mobility individuals and can make the iPad more user friendly during travel. It even makes it so that the iPad can work as a second computer screen. The iKlip 2 will be with me on the road as well as in bed to keep me connected to the world.

[easyreview title=”IK Multimedia iKlip 2 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within Review (Xbox 360)

2014/05/20

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Xbox 360 News, Xbox 360 Review

Just in time for May The Fourth Be With You and Revenge Of The Fifth Pinball Fx 2 has released a new set of Star Wars tables truly aimed at the franchise’s core fans with Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within.

Hands On:
Pinball Fx 2 has mastered the physics of pinball like no other video game title out there and will probably only be outdone by themselves. The only time a flipper feels weak is when it is supposed to, the only time a bumper is sloppy is when that is the table’s setting. Skill shots feel as much in your control as if you were pulling a real plunger, simply put the bigger surprise on one of these tables is if they didn’t work perfectly.

The graphics on older core tables from the first Pinball Fx game have had updates and new tables like these Star Wars ones set benchmarks for all future tables to follow just as the Marvel ones had before. The tables are rendered beautifully and realistic where they are supposed to be realistic and where the Star Wars characters or bonus games play beyond real world physics they are done so well as to compliment the tables rather than distract from them. You don’t mind seeing Han Solo at the Millennium Falcon controls on one side or Chewbacca in the engineering back on the other because they flow so well with the table.

So the graphics and the physics are spot on which brings it down to gameplay or in this case table design. There are three basic types of tables and this set of Star Wars ones run the full gambit. Short tables play faster with more frantic flipper action, long boards tend to involve more skills shots and bumper action. Middle is a mix bag and can be even designed to play more like a short or a long.

First is Han Solo, a nice medium bordering on large table that gives you some room to play. The bonuses are outstanding, especially ones involving the Millennium Falcon that sits waiting for battle at the top of the table. Han Solo spouts lines through the entire play, many of which are either directly lifted from the movie or inspired by them. The voice acting is pretty good, a couple lines definitely sound like an impersonator but it is still a lot of fun to hear him call you a “fuzzball”. This table definitely has a feel and theming of the original trilogy.

The Next table up is Droids which at first I thought might be inspired by the animated series as some of the other Star Wars table sets has one or two tables dedicated to it. Instead it feels more like a deleted scene lifted from A New Hope. The droids are onboard the Jawa Sandcrawler crossing the desert and are trying to get the aid of other droids to escape to freedom. Jawas are watching closely though, ready to zap them at a moment’s disobedience. It’s fun to be able to get so much of a storyline out of simply playing a pinball table and paying attention to what lights up and what the bonuses are. It also can be extremely addictive as you get the Droids closer and closer to a way out.

Next is A New Hope and this table tries to tell as much of the movie’s story as possible while knocking a metal ball around on bumpers using flippers. Visually the theming is spot on but also the animated graphics and bonuses all try to interpret part of the story. For a true and loyal fan of the original trilogy this is probably the best of all the 10 Star Wars pinball tables. The voice work is terrific, all the characters you want to see from the movie make an appearance and all on a pinball table! This is truly a work of art.

The final table is Masters Of The Force: Holocron. This is a table which bridges all the movies showing your favorite force wielding warriors of both the light and dark side which is going to appeal to every play of Star Wars The Old Republic who expected to be more when they started wielding their sword of light. The slightly odd take on the iconic characters is their relationship to holocrons. Unless you are a deeper fan of the universe than the average film fan you probably have no clue what a holocron is. Some of the books have entire storylines dedicated to these buggers and you know a true Star Wars geek when they build their own replica. To try to simplify the definition as much as possible they are mini organic computers with AI gatekeepers. In the Star Wars universe holocrons (short for holographic chronicles) were used by the Sith to store vital information about the dark arts of the Force since let’s face it if there is one master and one apprentice and the master gets killed there goes the knowledge of the Force. It was later adopted by the Jedi as well.

On this table you are running around collecting holocrons much to approval of Yoda when you pick up a Jedi one and much to the delight of the Emperor when you get a Sith one. This table represents a struggle for the Force laden soul of the player as they bump and flip their way to their destiny. It is a neat concept and one that players of recent games such as the Force Unleashed are familiar with but might leave some casual players a bit in the dark, hopefully much like in our household someone with Star Wars books and games (and a few plastic lightsabers) is around to clue the player in.

Last Call:
If you like pinball at all this game is worth playing, if you are a fan of the original trilogy then Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within is a must play. It made me wish I could afford to buy all the Pinball Fx 2 titles, particularly the other six Star Wars tables. I hear one is dedicated just to old school Darth Vader… mmm dark side, they have cookies.

[easyreview title=”Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

HauntX Haunter’s Retreat And Trade Show (Halloween/Review)

2014/05/12

Ripper71

Geek News, Halloween, News, Special Interest News

Being a person who could devour as many “haunt” events as you can throw at me, I have become accustom to having travel great distances often by car to get my fix of the creepy crawlies throughout the year. So imagine my great surprise when I heard that the HauntX Haunter’s Retreat and Trade Show was coming to the town I currently haunt – good old Reno, NV! HauntX is not a new name to those in the business but it recently came under new management and they decided to spend this year in one of the West’s most haunted territories, especially since Reno is just a crow’s flight from Virginia City and its very dark history.

First thing folks need to realize is a haunter’s trade show is different from a haunt convention. There aren’t rooms filled with the cast of Planet of The Apes waiting to sign autographs or panels with the cast of The Monster Squad – this is an event where home haunters, experts on makeup and electronics, and professional grade special effects companies get together and talk serious shop all day and unwind all night. You get to learn tips on Disney grade animatronics or watch a winner from Faceoff (Nicole Chilelli) perform makeup work using the highest quality makeup all in an effort to up your haunting game.

The weekend started on Thursday with some heavily advanced classes followed by a haunt tour of Virginia City. A limited number of people were bused up and guided to the creepiest places in an already creepy town where EMPS were recorded and the night was full of spirited fun with spirits flowing when everyone returned to the host hotel Circus Circus.

Friday morning started off a bit quiet with weather issues slowing arrivals down and attendees recovering from the night before (hey it is a retreat after all!). As winds died down and everyone started rising from bed things started to get going with sessions during the day on how to take purchased plain skeletons and make them look freshly dug up, how to program animatronics, even sliding stunts and safety from GamingShogun.com friend, Ron “Wilson” Rivera. I took my first lesson in soldering and want to send a special thanks to Mike Warren of Indstructables and Haunt Hackers for their amazing patience with me. All the classes were taught by legends in their field, many of which have multiple decades of experience. These are the folks that can make your haunt an event that receives hundreds of guests a night.

Speaking of night time fun, each evening featured a different activity. Friday night, the organizers of Reno’s annual vampire crawl worked with HauntX to throw the event on this weekend so that Reno could show some ghoulish hospitality. Luckily most of the vampires didn’t sparkle (just a few). Saturday was the HauntX Masquerade Ball where costumes were encouraged but not required and the DJ mixed tunes with greatest hits of creepy flicks. Personally I was delighted to see a Dr. Horrible cosplayer and a couple of Pirates Of Emerson folks decked out in their seafaring garb. When the weekend was all said and done and the props, makeup and electronics were all stored away there was a pizza party and viewing of Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

As a haunt reviewer I have a greater appreciation of some of the techniques employed and how haunts can better utilize them. Now I can not only review whether or not scares or illusions are effective I can tell if a fog machine would benefit from a chiller or whether or not a haunt is due for a new or higher quality spray system. It was a fun and exhausting weekend and I am already looking forward to next year. I promise to practice my soldering before it rolls around again!

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review (PC)

2014/05/11

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has been around in movies, television and video games for decades and he always has his young, sarcastic wit and super-human abilities. Still, when it comes to video game titles based off movies there is a stupendous fail rate. The recent exhumation of all the buried E.T. Atari cartridges in the desert is the supreme example of this. If you tell someone you are about to play a super hero game they smile, then when you tell them it is the tie-in to the latest movie they cringe! That brings up the question, can the world’s favorite web-slinger survive the curse?

Hands On:
Fret not, true believer, the makers of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 approached the game as one part comic, one part movie tie-in, and one part super hero game. To start with there are cutscenes and witty comments that feel like a comic book. The voices are mostly cartoony as is the dialogue to make sure this game played to the true fans of Peter Parker and his alter-ego. It is done so well I wouldn’t be surprised if the comic decided to add the storyline to its hallowed pages.

The game is setup in a sandbox style so you have missions which directly relate and tie to the movie’s plot but at the same time there are tons of side missions and challenges to do. These side missions fit in with all the best sandbox games these days. Playing the main storyline will feel like playing out the movie as film tie-ins should but the sandbox freedom makes it so that it doesn’t seem like just a retelling of the movie on rails which is where a lot of film games go wrong.

Spider-Man gets to use his most recent film suit but he can also use his originals such as his coat with a red ski mask and the one that was his first actual Spider-Man costume that got shredded up. He can also unlock new suits, each with strong points and weaknesses, as well as the ability to be leveled up. So, for example, one of his suits add a lot to stealth ability for when he has to sneak past an enemy. Another suit is all about power and critical hits. Doing side missions, challenges, and objectives will increase the suit’s level and unlock your abilities, giving you a better chance at completing the main quest line.

Spider-Man has the spider sense, part of which will let him know if an enemy has sighted him and plans to attack and another part that shows you where enemies are nearby. It also shows you which way they are facing and how aware they are of you being there. At this point for gamers who like to run the gambit of super hero games things should really have begun to sound familiar. These are all things that the Batman: Arkham game series have perfected and implemented a while ago. The Dark Knight has even developed a way of using the bat claw that makes you feel like you are swinging from a web and the exact same technique is used in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This “enemy sense” and radar have been used in other games like Assassin’s Creed and Dark. It really brings up the concept that if it works well and fits the play model, why not use it? So what if it is the same technique in all the games as long as it is successful. Plus, it makes the game’s learning curve a lot faster which helps make your gameplay smoother.

Spider-Man has some of his own unique moves, and web-swinging throughout the city has to be one of the most fun. It takes a little getting used to, especially if you want to get a particular place the temptation can be to use the webshot (bat claw) technique and shoot from perch to perch or scale building after building (a technique perfected in Saint’s Row The Fourth). It is really easy to overshoot your turns or miss a web when trying to make one. Once you get the hang of it though you will find the thrill that Spidey always exhibits when he is doing it.

Your web-shooter soon becomes your best friend in fighting since you come to a gun fight in your tights. There are a lot of different techniques you unlock and some are fun to do just for the heck of it and some are the only way to beat mini-bosses. I won’t give too much of this away, discovering these powers and their best uses is one of the greatest parts of the game and had me walking around pretending to shoot fake webs between game times. As a kid my best friend had web-shooters that shot silly string… I was jealous of it then and I am even more jealous of it now.

I have to mention that I love Stan Lee cameos in all things Marvel and this is probably one of the best ones of all time. Excelsior!

Last Call:
I’ve learned we no longer have to fear the movie tie-in games because developers have gotten the point that they can create their own games with all their favorite gameplay styles and techniques and still work in the story. It has been said that “Life is what happens between the panels” and that is so true in a well done video game based on a comic or a movie. Tell the story but make the character breath by his action outside the storyline. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a great game, a blast to play, and worthy of the franchise’s name.

[easyreview title=”The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]