Author - Ripper71

Tower Wars – Review (PC/Steam)

2012/09/18

I love tower defense games. There I said it. To some this is like a statement at AA but to others this is a “who doesn’t?” type comment. Basically there are people who really enjoy these kinds of strategy games and there are people who don’t enjoy them at all, there is seldom a middle ground when it comes to this genre. Some tower defense games are complicated enough that they are termed “real time strategy” or “turn based strategy” but they really come down to more involved tower defense games. There is somewhere you want to go and/or there is somewhere your enemy wants to go and you have towers and units to get there.

This simplification doesn’t mean that the games are any less interesting or worthwhile, tower defense games are quite often the most cerebral games out there as you try to figure out how to build the perfect defense or offense while your opponent does the same, always thinking several moves ahead. Reactionary tactics almost always fail you in the end with tower games so you have to think ahead if you want to survive a few minutes. Sometimes just surviving a while against a stellar opponent is worthy of patting yourself on the back because tower defense games often draw in the MENSA of the gaming world and you find yourself in the true situation of “the only way you get better is by playing a superior opponent.” So to help sharpen my mind and test my wits I was more than happy to try Tower Wars.

Storyline:

In tower defense games this can either be a driving force of the game or practically ignored. You are the one colored castle and your enemy has a different color which you hate because it is a different color. That’s pretty much it, so you have an idea of storyline importance in this one.

Graphics And Sound:

These are two really key elements in a tower defense game because it often makes the difference between a boring play on a good game base or loads of fun. Tower Wars goes with Medieval Cyberpunk cartoon graphics with upgraded towers and units showing distinct improvements and different animations. Combined with fun sound effects that don’t take themselves too seriously and this game becomes addictive just watching what happens when you line up a certain set of towers against a particular unit. You really don’t mind losing quite as much if you come up with particularly visually entertaining ways to beat up your enemy in the process.

Gameplay:

Tower Wars is set on a hex map with castles at each end of it and two territories, yours and the enemy’s. The point of the game is to get your units to the enemy castle and destroy it while protecting your castle by placing towers in your territory. You can’t place your towers on enemy soil, bridges or stairs and some towers require very specific locations so advance planning of the area is key. You only have so much territory so in some cases like on one particular map there are only a couple places on the entire map if you want to use a certain tower.

You do not choose your path to the enemy’s castle and they can’t choose to yours though once they are on your territory you can use towers to build mazes both prolonging the time to your castle and increasing the number of towers the unit has to pass before getting through. So the more elaborate maze you make the better your chance to win. You also need to manage upgrading your towers individually and your unit types to keep the battle escalating. Your funds for this are gotten from mining and you only have a limited number of miners you can have at each mine working at at time so you want to max that out quick so you have the income for the battles. Additional funding is done through Battle Points which are earned by sending your units out into the fight, the more ground they cover the more you get.

So as you can see there is a lot to managing the battle and it is all real time, almost entirely against another player. Your tutorial gives you an opportunity to play against an AI to learn the general ropes and there are three single player maps to test what you learned in the tutorial but they are survival wave maps and only help you perfect your towers not units. This would probably be my only real concern with this game, it is designed to be played against others almost exclusively so if you play during a quiet period you may not have many if any opponents to play against. Those that you do play against may have been playing to the point they have mastered the map and there is really no question of whether or not they will win but more how long it will take.

You will get better and faster this way but it actually hampers your development if you are still trying to learn the mechanics and you get obliterated too quick. Talking to other players most just keep playing the tutorial or other three maps over and over and over before attempting online play so that they have a pretty tight system down before playing a ranked match online. The game is fun enough that it takes a while before this gets tedious but it does eventually. Simply put, this game really would be twice as good if it had a campaign mode. There is a difference between having opponents that test your wit and skill and coming into a match noob and getting the floor wiped with you while they laugh at you and tell you to go back to the tutorial.

Last Call:

This is a fun, entertaining game with great graphics and is definitely designed to challenge your mind. The main thing is you have to go in knowing it will be quite a while before you are comfortable enough with the game mechanics to actually have the game be a test of brains rather than a checklist of what you have to do to survive. Until then you will probably have to suffer embarrassing losses, a slow learning curve and a plummeting rank all of which you can completely overcome with patience and thick skin. I can’t stress how much better this game would be if it had single player campaign, but if you take your time with it it can still be a very rewarding play.

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Tiny Troopers Review (PC/Steam)

2012/09/08

Ripper71

News, Reviews

When I was only a lad I used to have hundreds, actually thousands of the little toy army men. I got a set for my birthday once that had 6 different colors of army men all modeled after the real uniforms worn by soldiers around the world. I was the envy of all the kids in the neighborhood and they were always coming over to my house to play with them. Each color also had a military vehicle designed after one of theirs so there was plenty to go around. Then the Atari 2600 hit my house and the army men became an occasional play toy because what was better than interactive tv games? I still collected them, I even got the little tiny ones the size of a thumb nail which I just shoved a couple handfuls of in my pocket when going to visit relatives. I lost so many of them at my great grandma’s house in her sand backyard that we were finding them for nearly a decade later. The point is when you grew up with the little green army men they continue to hold a place in your heart long after your youthful imagination gave them voice and gunfire. I think that is the core reason that games like Command and Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft and so many other strategy games are so popular. We are given our little green army men, given a mission and we send them off to war, all the while listening to them talk from the screen. The game Tiny Troopers is one of those games, in this case looking more like the little plastic heroes than most with missions just like you would have made up as a kid.

Graphics/Sound:

The graphics in this game are simple but nice, the landscape has good detail to it and the figures look like Lego men marching off to war, they don’t bend their knees and their faces are simplistic. The gunshots and music are dramatic but the voices, trying to emphasis the tininess of the troopers, are small and squeaky while they yell out iconic lines from different movies such as “game over man! game over!” or “mommy!” making sure that this game is supposed to be fun and challenging but it is not designed to be anything realistic.

I will admit seeing one of the little Lego figures writhing and groaning in pain with his ribs showing and a growing bright red blood splatter under him is a little disturbing at first but it is done cartoonish enough to not have any real lasting effect except to remind you which area you have covered by checking out the blood spatters left behind.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is pretty straight forward, the challenge is in the strategy. Left mouse button moves you, right fires your weapon and clicking on a special weapon then ctrl-right click uses it. That’s all there is control wise, you can fire your gun while you are moving around but you must stop firing your gun to move. So if you know an enemy is about to shoot at you you click on a spot on the map and while your are heading there you shoot at the enemy. They don’t track your movements very well at the lower levels so usually a small bit of movement is all that is required for them to miss. Certain missions require you to survive waves of attacks in which case you want to keep moving otherwise the zero in on you and you get taken down.

That brings up an interesting point in the gameplay, if your character dies it is KIA and no longer available. If you are in mid mission you might be able to get reinforced with a fresh face but if you wipe out your whole team then you get a whole new team when you try to do the mission again. This can be a little frustrating because the more missions your troop survives the higher their rank and the tougher they are. When you see your highest ranking officer drop because you didn’t notice a landmine in the shadow of a vehicle or that a tank is actually still live it can be a bit frustrating. It can also be proper incentive to not let that happen in the first place.

In games where there are no real repercussions for losing a mission or losing a team member carelessness can be the result of impatience. In this game you move carefully, use any advantage such as range or intel that you can get not just to win but to have the best team you can for the next mission. Once you beat a mission in campaign mode you can go and play it again in single mission mode so that if you have a favorite map or think you could just have done one better you can go give it another try.

Last Call:

Tiny Troopers is addictive “one more mission” kind of fun. The controls are simple, they gameplay is pretty straight forward but takes planning and strategy if you want to get out of a mission with your team still intact. It is so much fun on the PC that I picked it up for my iPhone so that I can take this game on the road just like I used to take my little green army men.

Trailer:

Gallery:

Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron (Xbox 360)

2012/09/08

Ripper71

News, Reviews

There is almost always a dark time in a universe, it is how we define the heroes and villains of the story. The funny thing is that often, because we want the hero to shine, that dark period is alluded to rather than directly addressed as a verse is establishing itself. A great example would be in the Star Wars Universe the first movie speaks of a dark time when Luke’s father is killed by a villain by the name of Darth Vader who hunted down and destroyed the Jedi. We don’t see it but we imagine great battles with the Jedi dwindling in numbers. This movie has a great heroic end and once the heroes are established the verse can be put into dark times again. Very much the same thing can be said of the Star Trek movies, where the heroes of the enterprise are established and then the dark force of Khan descends upon it. This isn’t limited to movies, fans of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series wondered for quite a while all the detail in the battle of Jericho Hill before it was briefly delivered in the books and delved into in the comics (which I highly recommend). The point is that generally the most dramatic and beloved parts of a universe is when the hero is put to the greatest test and barely succeeds and this near defeat changes them. In the Transformers Universe this moment is The Fall Of Cybertron, so the pressure was definitely on with this installment of the story because it defines all stories that follow.

Storyline:

Optimus Prime is not an optimist as he walks the halls of one of the Autobot bases talking to Bumble Bee about the eminent loss of the war and that the only chance left for them is to run for it. All of the escape ships have either made it or been destroyed by this point except for one last great ship, the Ark. The problem is the planet’s Energon supplies have been depleted and there isn’t enough juice to use automated systems, defend the base AND launch the Ark so manual routing and re-routing as well as trying to find alternate sources of energy become the challenge of the day. That and the fact that the Decepticons want nothing more than the complete destruction of all Autobots.

You find all this out at the beginning of the game and you only need to glance at the control information in the game booklet to see you will play different Autobots and Decepticons throughout the game, the nice part being the wide variety. There are heroes great and small in most good stories and that is definitely the case here. This is one of the darkest times for the Transformers and this game doesn’t shy away from that. This is the Wrath Of Khan, Empire Strikes Back and Jericho Hill of the Transformers ‘verse and they make sure if feels like it. It even gives a great and dark origin for the Dinobots!

Atmosphere:

The graphics and sound are done really well and they test your video level at the beginning for a reason, they want to make sure the atmosphere is dark. The voice acting is well done and fits Transformers which is important since there is no organic life on the planet. Everywhere you look it is metal and yet they have to give that metal a balance between the realistic and the personalities we have grown to love. The graphics during transformations are terrific, I changed a few times just to watch the animation and the sounds all reinforce the point that these are living and very heavy machines. The atmosphere pulls you in immediately and the cutscenes are done both well and emotionally.

Gameplay:

The Transformers saga of the post-Saturday morning cartoons era has been plagued by issues, from storyline to effects in the movies and storyline to gameplay in the games. Actually as video games go the Transformers Universe’s gameplay options have immensely run the gambit and some are known as the most spectacular failures in recent years. It became known for being a miss more often than a hit with fans of the ‘verse lining up each time to pay their money knowing they were definitely taking their chances.

That is why I am so happy to say that while the gameplay on this title isn’t necessarily original, it is both solid and enjoyable, so much so that I think the gameplay lends itself to replay. In most ways it is very much a standard third person shooter with first person aimed shot. This is a run and gun game with limited cover and generally some strategy necessary to clear certain waves of enemies. The big difference is that as a Transformer you can run and gun as a robot or as your vehicle shape. The vehicle is very similar to the classic styles we are used to with the exception of the cars being hovercrafts and everything in the designs and weapons are made to have a vaguely alien feel.

Each form has it’s advantages and weapons stock so if you find yourself running out of ammunition in one form you can switch to the other and keep fighting. When in robot form you can pick up or purchase different weapons as well as upgrade them, while in vehicle form you only have your standard weapon but your speed is greatly increased, especially when you use boost. Also different enemies have different vulnerabilities so certain enemies which might be slow but tough will knock you around in robot form and take your lunch money (ok maybe not that last part) but once you change to vehicle form you can keep out of their attack range and they are weak against you vehicle weapon. After a while you get used to knowing which enemy to attack in which form.

As I mentioned before this is a dark time for the Transformers, particularly the Autobots, so one of my favorite features is the variety of characters you get to play, including Decepticons. I consider myself an Autobot fan but I had an incredible time playing Megatron and some of the most enjoyable missions are actually ones that mess up the chances for the Autobots to escape. Playing both sides also means more vehicle choices and ways to complete missions. Most missions don’t have an exact way they have to be completed, you are often given a Transformer, told to complete a task and it is up to you how you do it and in what form. If I go into this any deeper I would start to give away plot points so I will just say sometimes switching back and forth between vehicle and robot form make for the best mission success. The only complaint I feel I need to bring up is there is a great deal of difference in difficulty between Easy and Normal, they needed some level in between.

Multiplayer:

The multiplayer is pretty standard third person shooter stuff with team, capture the flag, co-op survival mode and such being the gameplay possibilities with the two main differences being that you can switch between robot and vehicle at any time you like and you have to earn money during the match to pick up more weapons, health, or ammo. There were a few times when I was too low on cash to get more ammo so I would go into a melee fest on the enemy to get more precious money. This definitely makes it so that no two multiplayer games play out exactly the same and really holds a players interest.

Last Call:

Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron is my favorite Transformer game and possibly my favorite Transformer storyline of all time. I like the darker storylines, I like when the good guys have to accept that this may well be their last stand, the dark days show character and when combined with straight forward third person gameplay I think this is a must play for any fan of the franchise.

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PAYDAY: The Heist, Wolf Pack DLC Review (PC/Steam)

2012/08/30

Ripper71

News, Reviews

When I sat down and played OVERKILL’s PAYDAY: The Heist at E3 2011 I fell in love, as many players did. Here was a first person shooter that had missions designed after famous movie heists! Dane Cook once said in one of his standups that we all want to be in a heist, slightly wounded in the leg, limping down the street saying “Where’s the van?” and in the heart of most first person shooter gamers that is what they are dreaming as they watch Heat then start tearing it up in their favorite FPS. Some players who prefer a Sci-Fi approach scoffed at this game while others, like me, treasured the plastic Heist mask and waited for the game to come out. It was short, but it was oh so sweet. I kept playing the missions over, doing different things, almost always getting shot up a bit but working my way through location after location just trying to get away clean. Then having satiated my desire and thoroughly assaulted the game’s content I moved on to other games with heists still dancing through my head.

Then OVERKILL did something stunning, especially to a zombie nut like myself, they collaborated with Valve and gave us Mercy Hospital… for free.

Here is a quick synopsis:

The Mercy Hospital Heist is finally here! We have collaborated with Valve to bring our beloved PAYDAY fans a completely new heist, free of charge! Set in the Mercy Hospital – made famous by Left 4 Dead – everyone’s favorite robbers are out for blood. We also have some extra candy hidden in there for those who just can’t help ending up in the hospital. If the regular difficulty levels won’t do it for you, don’t forget that you can play the Mercy Hospital Heist in the new OVERKILL +145 difficulty. We promise you that this one will leave you gasping for air…

But wait, the infection seems to be spreading: not only do our beloved players get a new heist for free, they also get new zombie masks AND a new zombie theme! Oh, the horror! New related challenges and Steam achievements will be released in an upcoming patch.

NEW HEIST: The Mercy Hospital Heist is available to everyone who owns PAYDAY on the PC.

NEW MASKS: Players that have “Left 4 Dead” or “Left 4 Dead 2” in their Steam library and have it installed on their computers, are awarded the new zombie masks. Wolf and the gang can now disguise themselves as the walking dead.
NEW THEME: Players are now able to choose a new theme inspired by our favorite undead.

It was the perfect gift, if you had already invested in the game on Steam they rewarded your faith with free content and quality content at that. Now you got to experience a heist in the Left 4 Dead world! It was too much to ask for another free pack, OVERKILL needed to make some dough too and let’s face it, we didn’t just want more heists, we wanted more features. So along comes a clever way to bring on more content, one that will hopefully be done for the whole team and not just for one character whose name lent itself to poking fun at how every group of men now call themselves “The Wolf Pack.” We get a chance to follow the exploits of one of the team on other jobs: The Wolf.

Key Features:

PAYDAY The Heist Wolfpack lets players take on the role of hardened career criminals in constant pursuit of the next ‘big score’. Load out with an array of brand new weaponry including the new STRYK pistol, automatic AK rifle, or the GL40 grenade launcher which aims to please, as you execute two intense new heists and 48 new levels.

New Handgun: The STRYK Full Auto Pistol
New Primary Weapon: The AK Automatic Rifle
New Secondary Weapon: The GL40 Grenade Launcher
New Deployable Equipment: Sentry gun – based on internet blueprints
2 New Heists: Undercover (transfer money to your account from the IRS) and Counterfeit (secret operation in the Sunshine State)
New Skilltree: Become the Technician. Raise your level cap to 193
New Player Upgrade: The Tool Kit – so you can interact faster
Hosting Ability: Invite friends to play in the new DLC maps even if they do not own the DLC themselves
6 New Steam Achievements: Ready to be unlocked by the ones that got what it takes

Graphics And Sound (Atmosphere):

The graphics are excellent and the sound is hectic and crazy just like you would expect in such a situation. You have your intel guy in your ear giving you static burst updates on the police movements and when something goes SNAFU, while listening to your guys shout to each other and tons and tons of gunshots. It is all crisp and clean and the graphics are nice and neat pulling you right into the action. Listening to the sounds can be key to a quick reaction too, you can hear where the police are and when a drill gets unplugged.

Gameplay:

Game controls are standard keyboard FPS style with a few extra buttons thrown in for necessary additional actions. And the action is hot and heavy fast. The game lets you know at the beginning of the mission what percentage of players in the world have beat the mission on that particular difficulty level, which gives you a hint they made the missions nice and brutal for this addition. You might want to even start at the beginning and work your way up again, not just because it is fun but the tighter you get your skills wired the farther you will get into the mission. Plus you want to level so you can unlock as much as possible and have a hopefully better survival rate. The great thing about this game is you get addicted and want “one more try” on and on since each time you get the heist a little tighter wired and figure out a better plan of attack each try.

These missions fit right onto the game seamlessly so that it doesn’t feel like a sequel or DLC but rather just the next gig, though these new gigs also come with a whole bunch of fun new weapons that will have you working at it over and over just to get them unlocked. Let’s face it anytime you can set up a sentry gun in a game you dang well want to! I can’t remember an example of a game where I wasn’t excited to set up the turret and this is certainly no exception.

At the time of posting this review I haven’t beaten both the missions and I haven’t unlocked everything, if I waited until then you would have had to make the decision for yourself long ago or just planned to pick up a pack of DLCs because OVERKILL is making sure that they stay on top of releases so that right about the time you feel ready for some fresh maps and new weapons they arrive. I have played it enough to know if I should recommend it though.

Last Call:

Buy this. The Wolf Pack DLC is both affordable and fits seamlessly into the game so that you are simply expanding your experience, continuing your career. These maps are amped up tough and feel like a natural progression from the other map making me think that OVERKILL know what they are doing with this game and for every big heist in a movie we can eventually expect a map here to match it.

Trailer:

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Smite – Beta Preview (PC)

2012/08/30

Ripper71

News, Previews

I really have to give it to Smite, it is a strangely addictive blend of different games. At first I wasn’t too sure about it, it is far more complicated than it looks on the surface and even if you aren’t someone who thrives on PvP it can be an extremely fun play.

So first off to give this game a description: it is a real time strategy tower defense game with minions and character PvP. You play a god on a team of gods, each of which has it’s own specialty, and you have to fight other gods, their towers, their minions and the first team to take the final tower (in this case in the shape of a minotaur) at the back of enemy lines wins. As you battle your god levels quickly improving your skills and weapons as you do and when you die you have a wait period to get back in during which you are getting no experience while everyone else is. You do this a couple times and you’ll find yourself levels behind everyone else with no real way to catch up.

Each god not only has a specialty but also fills a special role. There are five man teams in which players pick a tank god, melee god, hunter god, range magic god and some that are a mix. Only one person on each team can play a particular god at a time so that you don’t wind up with a whole team of hunters, etc. The maps have three paths across them with little trails in between so though you have a party filling all the different roles they are split up over three paths. To allow for movement between the paths you spawn minions on a timed bases and they attack anything enemy in front of them.

With all this set into place you attack towers, enemy minions and enemy players all while trying to work your way to the enemy minotaur and fall it. This can result in some very chaotic play as you run from path to path trying to defend towers, back other players, flank enemies, all with the plan to hit that final minotaur with enough of your team at the right time to fall it. Team work is essential, strategy if any is considered tends to win the battle and the better the player knows how to control their gods the better their chances of victory. This is all well and good then you have a player who is spending their whole time criticizing others instead of fighting, making homophobic and racist comments and running around wherever they feel like at the moment. It surprised me to run into this issue in beta, usually it is when the game opens up to the public that these issues arise, but players can send beta keys to friends now so the player base has dropped average IQ and players are far more concerned with winning than testing mechanics. This is one of the rare times I think the player base will improve when general population starts.

A very nice touch is that while you level if you go to your base either by heading back or by dying it upgrades your weapons and can be set to auto give you the best spells. This is really key because during the match you may get up to level 15 for example but when the match is over you are still level one or you get just enough points from the match to hit level 2. So there is your in game level and your actual level and they are completely independent of each other. This oddity also takes a bit of getting used to.

Last Call:

This is really more of a first call for the game, just a preview where everything still isn’t set in stone and by the time the general public get a hold of it it may have evolved further. It is a fun game right now, even if it seems to be a mash of different genres squished together and surprisingly working. This is a game to watch for.

Trailer:

NewerTech For The iPad (Products Review)

2012/08/30

Ripper71

News, Reviews

We recently reviewed a hard iPad case and stand from Newer Technology, or, NewerTech as they generally go by and how it helped one of our staff members who had an injury and was trying to work with the iPad one handed. Since then, we have had the opportunity to get our hands on a couple of items that serve not just function but fashion in the workplace.

NewerTech iFolio For The iPad:

This case features a high-end, designer look while having a practical design and price point. Easy to put the iPad in while also keeping it completely secure, this case has two spaces perfect for business cards (one slot for yours to hand out, the other to collect other people’s) plus a folder section that can hold quite a bit and still allow the case to close. During this review, I had a thick business envelope and a set of NuTouch gloves inside the case as well as a NuScribe Stylus in the pen holder and was able to easily close the case with room to spare. The case is hand-stitched leather from Brazil and feels as nice as it looks, maybe better. Though the case is reinforced for protection of the device it is also softly lined on the inside to keep the iPad from getting scraped.

The style, particularly with the strap, gives a very fashionable purse design to the look which is absolutely outstanding for any business woman trying to make an impression. The case will look good on a man too though he may want to got with a darker color. There are a lot of colors to choose from and examples of them are in the gallery at the bottom of the article, I went with red and with this certain design I might have wanted to go more with black. That being said I absolutely love the case and plan to put it into daily use.

NewerTech NuScribe:

This is an elegant solution to using your iPod or iPad when you have a hard time working on the smaller screens and keys. I have huge paws for hands with huge fingers. They are proportionate but just giant. So when I find myself texting and not relying on the well meaning but horribly grammatical Siri to say something it takes me twice as long as the average person. Worse yet try to make a correction in a text and getting my finger to hit the right line drives me way too crazy. Don’t even get me started on Draw Something, a terrific game that shows that most people are either great artists or absolutely hideous. I am not a good artist but I couldn’t even draw a stick figure without jacking it up because my fingers were so big. I couldn’t see my drawings on the screen under my fingers!

Deliver unto me my savior in art and texting, the NuScribe. It is a small fashionable pen modeled after some of the nicest expensive pens on the market. It looks like a normal pen and writes like one but if you turn it over it has a rounded rubber nub that is perfect for scribing. I can now draw better than stick figures, I could actually shade pictures! Too bad I was so horrible that even my closest friends gave up on playing Draw Something with me long ago (at least the Facebook posts mocking my abilities have finally died off). Simply put NuScribe makes a bad artist ok, a good artist great and cuts down on typos dramatically. I think everyone should get it who uses a touch screen of any sort. Also keeps you from smearing nacho cheese powder from your favorite snack treat across the screen.

NewerTech NuTouch Gloves:

It’s funny when you go to review an item, you get it in your head that you have to test it to the fullest, that you have to come up with a way to simulate conditions where the item would be ideal. Case in point would be the NuTouch Gloves that I was sent to review. I am located in Reno, NV where we have had measurable amounts of snow every month of the year except August and it even though it has snowed in August it didn’t stick. Quite often by this point in the year it is in the 80s, dipping much much lower in the evenings. So the fact that it happened to be unseasonably warm in the upper 90s when I unpacked the gloves had my mind running to fanciful tricks to try and test them out properly. I could put my hands in an ice chest full of ice until they were near freezing while someone stuck the iPad up to the AC for a while then I could try to enter stuff without the gloves and repeat the whole thing with the gloves going on. Worked like a beauty, as a matter of fact I realized after I did it that I was being an idiot.

The point of the NuTouch Glove isn’t so much to see if I can maintain touch sensitivity in the cold, it was to see if I maintained touch sensitivity in the gloves. I have plenty of winters been standing out in the cold, often below zero Fahrenheit, yanking my hands out of my gloves so I could do something on my phone then throw gloves back on or jam them in my pockets. Gloves suck for touch sensitive items. Well standard gloves do, these are a whole different game. Designed with special conductive fiber woven into the tips of the gloves you not only maintain touch sensitivity I think it actually improved it slightly. The gloves keep your hands warmer allowing for better circulation and heat increasing reliability. Long after I was done testing it I continued to wear the gloves because they were comfortable and my results were so solid. It was only after petting one of our cats that is shedding right now that I realized I had better take them off and put them away for now before they became a giant hairball.

Last Call:

Newer Technology may not be a hot name on your lips yet, but if you keep an eye out for useful technology and great accessory designs then they will be on your radar soon enough. It is a pleasure to try out their products because they are quality as well as excellent function. I can’t wait until the next thing they ask me to try out, in the meantime expect to see me traveling with all of the items I reviewed here.

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Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Special Editions Announced

2012/08/28

Ripper71

News

Today Activision revealed the Call of Duty: Black Ops II exclusive “Care Package,” “Hardened Edition” and “Digital Deluxe Edition” for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC offer a variety of digital content and physical bonuses and are now available for pre-order in the U.S.

Here are the goodies:

CARE PACKAGE (Xbox 360/PS3) SRP $179.99:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Remote Controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone – Command cutting-edge technology, exclusively for this once-in-a-lifetime combat collection.
Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map – Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map – Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the “model home of the future.”
Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook – Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
(2) Challenge Coins – Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
Weapon Camo – Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
(2) Player Card Backgrounds – Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack – A digital copy of composer Jack Wall’s epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop – An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume – Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.

(PlayStation 3 versions include a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies)

HARDENED EDITION (Xbox 360/PS3) SRP $79.99:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map – Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map – Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the “model home of the future.”
Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook® – Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
(2) Challenge Coins – Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
Weapon Camo – Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
(2) Player Card Backgrounds – Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack – A digital copy of composer Jack Wall’s epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop – An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume – Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.

(PlayStation 3 versions include a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies)

DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION (PC) SRP $79.99:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map – Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map – Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the “model home of the future.”
Weapon Camo – Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
(2) Player Card Backgrounds – Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack – A digital copy of composer Jack Wall’s epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
Call of Duty®: World at War Game Download Token – A digital download of Treyarch’s classic title, traversing WWII storylines from the Pacific to European theaters of war.

Trailer:

Gallery:

Madden NFL 13 Hits The Stores

2012/08/28

Ripper71

News

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – August 28, 2012– Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that Madden NFL 13 is now available at retail stores throughout North America. Madden NFL 13 is available on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Powered by the all-new Infinity Engine, Madden NFL 13 delivers physics you can feel on every play. Core gameplay innovations such as total control passing, ball hawk and read and react defensive AI, combine to create the most realistic Madden NFL game ever.

Early critical reception for Madden NFL 13 has been outstanding, with PlayStation: The Official Magazine calling it a “generation-defining effort.” GamesRadar adds that “We can’t – and won’t – stop playing,” while Game Informer states that the brand-new Connected Careers is “a brilliant mode.” With accolades such as these it’s easy to see why Madden NFL 13 is so eagerly-anticipated by fans.

“Madden NFL 13 is the biggest game-changer in the history of the franchise,” said Cam Weber, GM of American Football at EA SPORTS. “Madden NFL 13 will deliver to our consumers the most realistic gameplay ever, and innovations like the Infinity Engine will completely redefine how fans will play Madden NFL. With deep new gameplay innovation, social integration, and an overhaul of the audio and visual presentation, Madden NFL 13 stands as a benchmark entry for the franchise.”

In addition to Infinity Engine, the new Connected Careers mode also debuts this year. Connected Careers allows fans to build their own legacy or relive a legend’s as a player or coach, in a fully connected universe of up to 32 friends per league. Weekly, seasonal and milestone goals set the benchmarks for progress, and fans can not only choose to make history as a created or real life player or coach, but also relive the legendary careers of all-time greats including Walter Payton, Michael Irvin, Steve Young and more. Combine all these elements with a dynamic story engine, a virtual Twitter feed, social integration and team management from PCs, tablets and smartphones and you have the first true sports RPG, encased in a fully connected universe that’s on 24/7.

Additional New Features and Modes include:

New Madden Ultimate Team Edition: Brand new trading cards and an overhauled card management system allows fans to curate the biggest collection ever, while new features like Solo Challenges make the mode more diverse and enjoyable than ever before. In addition, completing certain challenges and collections will allow fans to unlock special cards for legendary players and coaches that can not only be used in Madden Ultimate Team, but also carry over into Connected Careers.
Xbox 360 Kinect Integration: The new features don’t stop there, as Xbox 360 owners can also utilize the Kinect™ sensor for pre-play audibles and adjustments on both offense and defense. With a library of over 6,000 commands fans will be able to change plays, call receiver-specific hot routes, alter defensive assignments, call a blitz and more with the power of their voice. It’s yet another way that Madden NFL 13 presents the most authentic and feature-rich football experience ever.
3-D Broadcast Booth: The new commentary team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, combined with a fully-scored orchestral theme, set the table for game day, while authentic sound effects, QB cadences and player chatter bring the stadium environment to life.
Streamlined Live Updates: Experience extras like Madden Moments Live, roster updates and more all in one convenient location. Bonus content is also available for fans who have played previous Madden NFL titles, NFL Blitz and NFL Tour.

Madden NFL 13 is part of the EA SPORTS Season Ticket program. Season Ticket subscribers were provided full digital access to Madden NFL 13 three days before retail launch, and will have the opportunity to download 24 Pro Packs and one Legendary Pack in Madden Ultimate Team, a value of over $30. Subscribers are also entitled to 20% off any additional paid downloadable content purchased for Madden NFL 13.

Trailer:

Damage Inc. Pacific Squadron WWII (Collector’s Edition-XBox 360)

2012/08/28

Ripper71

News, Reviews

I’m not the simulator guru of GamingShogun.com, I’m more like our Jack of All Trades, and when it comes to my games my favorite ones tend to fall into that line too. I love running around as infantry with a rifle, but if I can jump in a jeep I will. If I can go from that jeep to a APC or a tank count me in the heavier metal. The fighter jocks get all the glory so I try my hand at them because my favorite war games have always had aerial units.

My flight stick however has always been terrible so after a great deal of pain trying to fly with a keyboard and mouse or a controller I give up, gun up and charge a beach. Or shoot at planes with a tank (known as duck hunting) or in some other way either try to avoid the pilot’s seat and take down the enemy’s air support. So when our simulator guru got an injury and had to go to the rear with the gear, I stepped forward and boldy stated “I’ll give her a shot.” Since nobody else stepped forward they let me! Hence my journey to fighter ace of Damage Inc. began.

Storyline:

WWII. Americans. Our most historically important battles where air superiority on one side or the other won the day. So of course we start in a little harbor in Hawaii known as Pearl and a date that would live in infamy. We follow Reaper Leader, a fresh arrival to Pearl who is going through flight training and waiting for his brother to arrive when the Japanese attack. We then fly 20 missions over 10 historical locations with one thing deep in our heart, vengeance for our brother and the others lost on Pearl. Not all you actions are offensive, much like in the real war we were knocked back on our heels and playing defense to save our lives but as we know history and historically accurate information from the game tells use the day will eventually be ours. I’m not doing a plot spoiler here, this is middle school/junior high history stuff here folks!

Graphics and Sound:

The game graphics are very nicely detailed, particularly the aircraft and I can’t help but play every minute I can in the cockpit mode because the detail is so solid as to make you feel like you are there. The sound adds to this as you listen to the squawk on the radio, the sound of bullets tracing past you and the rev of your engine as you push or pull back on the throttle. All the visual and audio accuracy definitely lend themselves to the immersion into the game. The only problem I saw was some of the shadows were saw-blading, probably a sacrifice made for the benefit of the other graphics which is well worth it.

Gameplay:

This set came with the Saitek Pacific AV8r stick and the game was designed to work with it though playing with a controller is an option. Let me state this upfront: once you play it with the flightstick the controller is no longer an option anymore because it handles AMAZING. I am not one to throw all caps around all willy nilly. Quite the opposite, I hate all caps most of the time and get angered when it is used for more than one word at a time so my use of it should drive the point home. The AV8r is designed with the throttle in front of the stick which I thought at first I would find extremely awkward. However the stick comes with curved base legs designed to go around the thigh so that the flightstick comfortably rests in you lap.

So as one hand takes the stick the other takes the throttle and with this build it is an ambidextrous stick that is completely comfortable and pretty much as close to where the stick would really be in a cockpit short of putting it on a long pole to the ground between your legs. I would give riding on your leg a higher comfort level that counters location accuracy. After that pretty much all the controls are intuitive which is amazing considering all the controls are just the controller buttons put in the right place for triggers, buttons and switches.

Even the thumb button at the top of the stick designed to simulate looking out you side and upper windows is so intuitive and well programmed to the game that I would push the thumb controller down and to the right, look out my “window” on the television screen in the lower right hand corner, see my target at two o’clock low, release my thumb from the stick, pull back on the throttle and swing my nose sights down toward the enemy before giving it a second’s thought. It was intuitive and performed just as smooth as I did with the stick. If I got too excited and over compensated for it’s location I would miss and have to swing back to correct, if I had time.

If I had time. That became a running theme in my gameplay because the odds were often stacked against Reaper Leader and if you made a big enough mistake the mission would be a scrub. On some missions I would think I was Top Gun material all the way only to have one lowly bomber slip through my net of flying bullets to drop their load in the pickle barrel. I curse, roll my plane firing, maybe kamikaze into the back of the enemy bomber then reset at checkpoint and start again. You can’t argue with letting a single bomber slip by, because that is what happened at Hiroshima.

You just have to be grateful for a checkpoint, swing your plane around, throttle up and start racing the onslaught. The gameplay is addictive enough that you are willing to try “just one more time” until that one more time amounts to over an hour. Comfortable seating arrangements in a chair approximately 6 feet from your television at the most (about the length of the controller cord) is ideal because time will fly past and if you sit just the right distance away you really feel like you are in a cockpit, I used a reclining arm chair reclined just enough so that my legs were slightly forward but the back was up, with the controller in my lap and I was stunned when someone would talk to me from the other room, how the hell did they get all the way up here?!?

I would get that immersed, seriously forget about the outside world and worry about the mission at hand, protecting the hospital from the bombers, protecting our bombers from bandits, dog fighting my way through whole squadrons. At the end of the mission you are rewarded with a historically accurate reaccount of how the battle took place and resulted using archive historical footage narrated by one of the voices from the game.

Multiplayer:

I expect this to probably be the most popular game mode once people get accustomed to the game offline on their standard missions. Dog fighting is the cornerstone of aerial combat and though it doesn’t play into effect near as much today as it did when the British Royal Air Force was started and whoever ruled the air won the battle, during WWII it was still pretty true and the better pilot could often win out against a superior aircraft opponent.

So I expect that there will be pilots who get the best plane they can the quickest they can (the equivalent to a noob tuber in a FPS) and there will be those who take the crankiest most unyielding planes built for war and try to get their D/K through sheer skill. GameStop pre-orders got a Black Widow added to their arsenal and players who pick up the collector’s edition get a Corsair ready to tear the enemy to shreds. All I say is give me a Hellcat, my AV8R and turn me loose. I will need a napkin to clean the foam from the corners of my mouth. Actually my favorite modes will probably be the co-operative or larger team matches, I tend to be a team player and would go down fighting if it saved my wingman.

Squadron Leader’s Edition:

If you are able to score this over the Collector’s Edition you won’t gain an in-game advantage but you will have one of the nicest 1:48 scale die cast metal Hellcats ever made that comes with two stands, adjustable weapons and landing gear and an opening canopy. This doesn’t improve your gameplay but it does improve your desk and if you have a kid or are just a kid at heart, this is one nifty durable toy as well as a model and improves your imagination play as you use it to gun down your least favorite people on TV.

Last Call:

This isn’t anywhere near a last call on the game for me, but nuts you have to write it up sometime. Damage Inc. Pacific Squadron WWII is excellent, great graphics and sound, terrific control, intuitive layout and when you match it with the Saitek stick your enemy is in a world of hurt and you finally understand why all your friends like flight sims. When you are swinging your nose around and angling your enemy into your sights, start firing your guns and watch pieces start tearing off your enemy’s aircraft, your body in-tune with your ride through the sweet action of the flightstick, you just want to keep playing. So you had better set alarms on your phone for when you want to stop or you just won’t. Don’t think I am done with the flightstick either, I see many mad experiments in it’s future…

Trailers:

Gallery:

Lights, Camera, Party! – Review

2012/08/28

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Ok anyone who know me knows I love me some monkeys. I love them at the zoo, I love them with fezzes, I love people dressed as monkeys wearing fezzes. So if you want my instant love in a game have monkeys that behave festively. If you have a game that is supposed to be a television game show with monkeys as the audience, crew, and unfortunate participants in the competitions then you truly have my attention. There is really no doubt at that point that I will at least like the game, possibly love it. With that knowledge in mind it is time to review Lights, Camera, Party! for the PS3 which is loaded with more monkeys than, well just about anywhere else.

Storyline:

When one of APE TV’s satellites crashes on the Funzini family’s house, the studio owner, Gus Pacho, invites them to live on his studio lot. But there’s a catch: as long as they’re living there, they have to star in a wide swath of crazy TV shows and compete for the grand prize: the home of their dreams! The challenges are even more ridiculous than Japanese game shows, which is a bold statement. You bowl a rolled up cat through pins of monkeys, throw pizzas over volcanoes to dinosaurs, fill toads until they blow up, feed peppers to monkeys, actually even the games that don’t involve monkeys directly often have them somewhere. As I mentioned above the audience and production crew are monkeys too, which in my experience is actually spot on to real television since I have been both. So the story is pretty straight forward, it’s the vision that is twisted.

Graphics And Sounds:

Pretty much everything you would come to expect in a game about a game show. If I didn’t know better some of these sounds could have even come from the golden age of game shows when they were EVERYWHERE on TV, and the graphics look like Saturday morning cartoons, newer ones with 3D graphics rather than the old school ones. The cartoonish fun lends to the silliness of the game and all the games within so that you giggle rather than get upset when you hear the cat let out a meow before being bowled through picketing monkeys. The graphic quality is also good enough to lend emotions to the characters like a feature length cartoon.

Gameplay:

First off this really isn’t a single player game. You can play it single player but the fun is in the controller passing around which is why the game has “party” in the title, it is totally a party game. In story mode there are five themed rounds based off of tv shows (such as cooking, sports, sci-fi, etc.) and have up to 24 mini games. There are other modes that can take up to 8 players, absolutely a perfect party setup and puts the 50 different mini-games to use. It is all played, and here is the key to the craziness, everyone plays with one controller. Yep it winds up being a bit of a hot potato passing off to each person so they can try to complete their timed challenge before passing it on to the next.

I think maybe the only way this could be a better party game is if it really did register you through a camera (say Kinect maybe?) so everyone can look back on how silly they were and maybe even upload it to the internet via Facebook? This is just a little brainstorming because I have friends who play beer pong and get absolutely nutty crazy and I could see them in the family room at our next get together stumbling over each other trying to pass the remote and bowl over more monkeys with a cat. Just writing that sentence makes me want to play it with them badly.

Last Call:

There are a few games out there like this, most capitalizing on popular characters from franchises so to me it is refreshing to have a game that uses all new characters, has a VERY creative take on the mini-game genre and believes that the only thing more fun than a barrel of monkeys is a whole game full of them.

Trailer:

Gallery: