Author - Ripper71

OnLive Gaming System Review (PC/Console)

2011/08/14

How E3 Made Me A (Near) Believer

I heard about Onlive Gaming before E3 2011 and honestly it sounded too good to be true. I read reviews, none very recent, thoroughly read the press releases and website and went to E3 with plans on checking it out. Well by sheer luck my editor assigned me them as my first visit of the day so while in the press room making last minute notes I saw they had a demo booth hooked up in there and so I figured I would double check a few facts and get some hands on before my interview. I had just played some Borderlands GOTY two days before so I decided that would be the game for me and instantly I was blown away. I thought there must be some kind of trick going on, the response time was better than my XBLA game, I had almost zero lag, and I was in a multiplayer environment. I blasted the poor booth techies with my facts to double check them all while tearing through the same game from a couple days before constantly comparing them in my mind. Amazed I went and joined the throngs of people crowding the entrance to the halls who were steamy, hot, and a few already on the ripe side. By the time I got to the main OnLive E3 booth I was dehydrated, wearing other people’s sweat and realized for the rest of the show I was going to need to always bring a towel (I had forgotten my Hitchhiker lore). I was greeted quickly and run upstairs to the VIP area where they promised to get me water and sat me down with Bruce Grove, Director of Strategic Relations. The interview and E3 experience can be found here so I won’t repeat the details except to say I drove our review team nuts with news of them, went back regularly to try it some more and get progress reports and basically when I wasn’t supposed to be somewhere else I could be found there. I had only one problem, I needed to know how it truly performed in a home environment. They surprised me by not only giving me a glimpse of the system at home, but giving me terrific access to both the PC and console versions so I could truly become a believer.

A Very Cloudy Future

“Cloud Gaming” is a fairly new term in the gaming industry but has actually been around in the online community for longer than most would realize. Those of you out there that stream Netflix might remember that when the streaming first started you had some pretty poor picture quality a lot of the time and even had buffering issues. I remember going to watch “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” back in those days and being unable to stomach getting through the opening cartoon without a ton of frustration and giving up. Then, at some point I wasn’t aware of, Netflix joined a few other companies on Amazon’s Cloud Service and Amazon’s stock rose while Netflix streaming went from barely watchable to incredible and soon a staple in many households. If Netflix is ever blamed for the fall of video stores it will be this one move that did it. There are articles on how some cloud computing is done and if you are very techie you might want to search for them. In the end there are different ways of doing it, but video games had the hardest path to overcome. Let’s face it if you go to start a movie on Netflix and then pause it and there is a bit of delay on how long it takes you really won’t care. If you are in a game with 31 other players and 16 of them want to kill you your reflexes and game response time is crucial in keeping you alive. Too much lag and you will eventually give up in frustration. Here’s a chart showing what a cloud video game system has to go through:

Now of course the “broadband internet” is a very simplified way to describe a proprietary multi-step system which had to be developed from scratch to make this possible but the general principal of cloud gaming is here. You make a move on your PC, Mac, console, iPad or soon the Android and that movement has to be sent to an Onlive Hub location, performed in the game playing at that location then the information transmitted back, all in fractions of a second. Ten years ago people were saying video streaming at such a capacity was impossible then Netflix and Amazon proved them wrong and while they were in that process Onlive started 9 years ago to develop this system. As recently as a year ago it was still suffering from some buggy issues and there was a question on whether or not it would make a successful leap to the iPad, tablet systems and smart phones. Then literally during E3 they made a huge breakthrough and the booth was full of palpable excitement and I got to chat with such wonderful folks as Jane Anderson and have a great time with Joe Bentley (VP of Engineering) as he told me some really cool stories leading up to that moment. They were solidly on tablets, and the walls of the booth were soon lined with all forms of them, as well as a dozen other demo stations all showing play from which in and of itself showed the technology off because it wasn’t being all run on site, it was being run in Santa Clara, California. I tried different systems and devices and while they were all amazing, home was where the excitement really took off for me.

OnLive On The PC

First I will start with the system requirements: your computer must be able to play video and have internet access. That’s all. You don’t need to meet a game’s minimum system requirements because you are not playing the game on your system. You are just hitting buttons to tell the server what move to make and then the server is sending back video of the game from the server. In essence you are playing the game by remote control and the only big limitation would be your internet speed. I have a decent internet speed so I have never had a problem in my house. I went somewhere where the internet was weak and tested it and got some tearing and the slightest lag but the games were still playable. Admittedly if you have a system that can display video nicer you are going to have a much more rich picture, but that would be the case with any game.

The game system starts you off with this home page which really is an excellent setup though there is another interface available with turning pages by hitting Escape. But this presentation nicely sets up a point and click path to checking out the system. If you are new it is a good idea to go to the profile and set it up the way you may want it. This is available for others to see unless you set it as private and is a solid way to make new friends and to check for common interests in gameplay. It lets you tell others and know if others are Hardcore or Occasional gamers, your Motto and how long you have been with OnLive. You can also cruise their friends to see if you have mutual ones or they are friends with people you don’t like and most importantly it allows the viewing of Brag Clips they have posted. Brag Clips are a 10 second clip of something they did in game which they thought was awesome or funny. You can also see what games they have in case you want to invite them into one you are playing. This is not stuff which is only available on this system but the fact that it is all nice and neat on one page is a big bonus.

Another way to check out what others are playing is the Arena. This also shows off OnLive’s amazing system time. You can watch dozens of games on little screens, mousing over them to see what games are being played and who the player is and that way you get an idea on what games are hot right now and how full games are. Sometimes you can see multiple players in the same game hunting each other which can be a lot of fun. You can also see if people have been saying they are playing good (cheers) or horrible (jeers) which gives you an idea, though possibly skewed, of how good the player is and how much of an aid they would be to your team. It also tells you if anyone else is watching the game in “Spectator Mode.”

This mode allows you to actually go in the game and follow the player’s action around as if you are actually the player. It is a great way to get an idea if a game is for you, how good the player is and what kind of player they are. This is really nice in case you are planning to buy and individual game instead of going through the PlayPack Bundle (I’ll get into that more later). If you like what you see you can click on the game and if you already own it it will launch you right in, if you still need to buy it it will open a Marketplace screen, that simple.

Playing On The PC

The controls are standard for the game and most are pretty standard for most games with WASD and the three mouse buttons. There are often weapon trade outs for the FPS games at the number locations but otherwise playing the game is just like playing the game on your computer, just without taking up the hard drive space.

Playing On The Console

The console is tiny, a little bigger than a deck of cards and fairly lightweight. It comes with one controller which can be wireless through charger pack or battery pack or hardwired into one of two ports. The console is also compatible with Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows, Logitech Chill Stream, Logitech F510, Satie P3200 Rumble Pad, and Mad Cats Gamepad in case you want to go a different route for additional controllers, though this controller is not only set up for play but for recording and playing with brag clips so you probably want at least one of these in play. The console supports four controllers so you aren’t losing out on buddy playtime by using it. What at first is so remarkable is how simple the setup is and how small the box is but when you think about it this doesn’t have to hold a game or handle great graphics, it just needs to transmit your moves and receive video, though when it comes to receiving video it is capable of not just HD but 3D once the price of those TVs becomes affordable to you.

The image above gives you a pretty good idea of how big it is, look at a USB cable or plugin, this system is only about 4 of them across. This also makes it insanely portable. I recently took a trip and decided to travel with the whole thing in it’s original box and in box presentation. The box is smaller than a shoe box and stores easily in a carry-on with tons of room to spare. If you took the system out of it’s presentation case it would easily fit into a small makeup bag. The cables come down to power, internet and video out so there aren’t many and they almost take up as much room as a controller and they system. The cool thing is if you are going to a buddy’s house to play and they have one of the controllers and a hdmi cable you could literally fit this stuff in your pockets. The rechargeable controller charges in the USB port making the system even more self sufficient.

What probably worried me the most after playing the games so much on the PC was if the games would feel like a port when played on the console. It didn’t. Once you got used to the controls, which were very similiar to the XBox 360, you were away and flying forgetting you started playing it on a PC. I played a while on the PC then sat down in front of the television, picked up the same game at the last saved place and went right into the fight. This game is really designed to be playable anywhere with a good internet connection. I don’t own an iPad but it has definitely been put on my Christmas List so I have one more way to play.

Cost and Ownership

Cost gets knocked out of the park pretty quick simply because they have a pack right now called the PlayPack Bundle which allows you to play 70 different games and they are regularly adding more for $9.99 a month. You can pick up additional new titles, some that have additional add-ons, some which come with the $100 console for a competitive price (Saints Row: The Third comes with add-on items and the console at time of this publication for $49.99). It is when it comes to ownership that people get nervous. It has been brought up to me a few times that what if OnLive goes under, they will lose their games. That is a fair worry, since none of the games are on your equipment and they do have competition in the PC market with Steam. The best way I think of it is the company is expanding, they have an amazing business setup with big titles signed into contracts with them so that their future looks really bright, honestly I would love to get a job with them or even buy their stock. I would buy a game that comes with the console and start the $10 a month service. At that point you would be out about $60. You have no contract and can quit anytime you like. You can also do a free trial to make sure it and it’s games are for you. For that initial $60 you will be able to play the game you bought for as long as you want (or for worriers for as long as they are around) and have access to over 70 other games with no play limit. You can also rent new titles when they come up once you are a customer, especially if you are the kind of gamer that only plays through once and does it in a couple days. Spending $5 might be the better way to go and you never have to worry about it being in stock or available, it is ready to play at the time the game launches without any loading discs. I know I sound a bit like a salesman with this review but I am honestly trying to stay neutral in this, it is just that impressive of a system. It is like being one of the first who heard of Netflix streaming being handled by Amazon clouding, it is looking into the future of gaming, maybe to the point that the game stores go the way of the video ones.

Final Thoughts

Some may say I have looked into the future of gaming, others may say I “drank the punch,” but whatever you think you can give it a free trial, if you like that fork out $10 for a month of service. If you like that, buy one game that comes with a console for the same price you would pay competitively and try out the portability and space saving of the console. I think in the end this review will prove prophetic for the future of gaming. OnLive are the pioneers and they are heading into ever more amazing territory. I plan to go along for that ride, I will give reviews of games through them for a long time and I will be able to play console, PC, laptop, tablet, smart phone and who knows what next and review them all on the same account.

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Spy Net Video Watches and Snake Cam Review (Hardware)

2011/08/05

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Jakks Pacific has been a regular at E3 for a while now, though they are fairly quietly showing their products so that their name hasn’t quite spread as fast as the technology in their toys should have carried it. When I got a glimpse of some of their goods though I arranged with my editor to give their products a look like we had some in the past. It’s one of those little companies that has put out higher quality consumer products in a child’s design so that instead of pretending to have James Bond toys kids could have the real thing at a reasonable price. So I got the opportunity to have fun testing the Spy Net Secret Mission Video Watch, the Spy Net Multi-Media Night Vision Video Watch and Spy Net Flex Neck Snake Cam.

Spy Net Secret Mission Video Watch:

This watch would have been a dream come true growing up and even as a grown adult my mind dances with possibilities. The design looks a bit more like a kid’s design which is their primary market but they have made a band that is adjustable to all children’s sizes and large adult sizes as well. There have been plenty of quality adult watches I have purchased over the years that didn’t fit or the face looked small. As an adult it was around the right size for my wrist and the strap fit comfortably. Before I get to the video aspect which is the main feature most people would buy this watch for I want to go over the tons of different features this watch has. To start it has the time and date in a futuristic video screen but also can be changed to any time zone with the hit of a button. You can also change the sound level (important) and the video level between low medium and high. Once you have all this important but rather boring parts set it is time to have some fun. Hit the Games Mode selection in the menu and you find your choice of Spy Net Defense or Spy Net Combat, two mini games built into the watch. When you are done occupying your time with them you can move onto the amazing features which at first I thought might be a joke but upon testing turned out to be real: Spy Apps. First comes the Lie Detector, in which you ask a bunch of base line questions and once a pattern is established you ask questions you want true answers to. I found that it predicted my truth very accurately, when I lied it said there was a 90% chance I was lying and when I told the truth it gave me a 50%+ chance that I was telling the truth. Now I have to go on record that I am a terrible liar, hideous really, and even the watch seemed to mock my abilities. When I tested it on friends who were accomplished liars it was a little less predictable and explains while though this technology is fun, it isn’t perfect. But heck we can always hope that our friends or children aren’t good enough liars to beat it right?

Bug Detector is the next trick on this watches list and it is one that works on a simple principle but people often pay good money for and this watch seems to work as accurately as the other models I have seen. I would pass some rooms without any electronic transmitters and no bugs were detected. Considering the unique nature of my former day job I would then walk into a room with microphone transmitters and the bug detector went off right away with a warning alarm. Now admittedly the average person doesn’t have to worry about bugs but I do know that I have been in work places that were wired for video and audio surveillance so that private meeting locations to discuss sensitive issues could be hard to find and this watch could give some degree of comfort. It probably wouldn’t detect a hardwired listening device (such as itself) but it is a little peace of mind. As kids playing with it I imagine keying a toy walkie talkie and hiding it would work as a bug and become a game of hide and seek for the walkie in a yard or house.

Also under Spy Apps was Voice Manipulation which is a simple trick but a fun one, the SpyNet Voice Manipulator is even sold as a separate item by a couple different companies and can be a lot of fun. To test it out I did a standard count in from a commercial break at my day job and recorded it. I then ran it through the Voice Manipulator and then played it back for countdowns manipulated, the first time set to higher frequency. My count time remained the same but my voice changed dramatically enough to not be recognizable by the crew. After letting them know what I was up to my crew then listened to a deepened pitch of my voice, which is already deep and it sounded a bit like a slowed record playing of my voice but still difficult to recognize. That application was popular with the crew, especially the ladies who had their voice changed almost to a man’s by the pitch change and a bit of change in their voice cadence. How would kids use this? They could pre-record things and call their friends and repeat them back with the voice changer or record a bunch of things and use them as answers to each others questions or quote famous movie lines and see how they sound in grown up male and female voices.

Now from the fun features of the watch to the reason people buy it, recording audio, still picture and video. The Audio recording option is pretty straight forward and well done, the microphone is very sensitive and picks up both directional noise and environmental (omnidirectional). It is a bit sensitive to contact which can be a little rough since it is in watch form but once you get the hang of it the microphone works really well in most situations and you learn to not keep it too close to your mouth so it doesn’t sound like you are… umm having cause for heavy breathing off camera. So as audio goes the microphone is good and pretty standard.

Still Pictures is particularly good as well, even when the camera is in motion it has a very clean capture system that is quicker and more reliable than my cell phone which I found to be a bit of a surprise. It also has a great light sensor that keeps the pics just right and the time lapse works perfectly and can be programmed to take at different times. Examples will be included in the gallery at the bottom of the article.

Video quality can be decent and adjusted between low, medium and high quality for the balance between record time and video quality. The hard drive could be a bit bigger and eventually I wouldn’t be surprised if a version with a larger drive comes out or they make it so that it takes micro SD cards to give more options. For projects 20 minutes of recording can be kinda short but for kids that is pretty good, especially around the house where when the camera is full you can just plug it into a computer and download it and clean it off. This also works well for if you are doing one of the missions and just need to download them too and the number of pictures you can save is very decent, up to 20,000 on the lower quality which is an amazingly large amount and will get you through just about any night and gives you a nice long time for time lapse as well.

Spy Net Multi-Media Night Vision Video Watch:

This is the upgrade to the previous video watch so most of what was covered above I will just skip over and go over the new goodies. The games mode has the two games mentioned in the watch above plus 7 new ones as well as new missions that can be downloaded from SpyNetHQ.com. The Spy mode has also been added to so that now it includes a sound level meter like they used in “Mission Impossible,” a flashlight, spy detector which scans images for enemies and image overlay which allows you to put select captions on images such as “Wanted” or a target. There is also a section where you achieve awards and ranks for completing games and missions.

All this is a lot of fun but if you are upgrading to this watch odds are you are doing it for it’s key feature: night vision recording. This works remarkably well and the camera is equipped with night vision lights (in the human eye visible range) and they can be shut off to just use the low level light available (which makes it more discreet). The design is slightly less obvious as well that it has a camera and microphone than the previous watch and when you turn on the night vision lights they aren’t extremely obvious and seem to illuminate around 15′ in pure darkness. This was actually better than I would have expected from such a small source.

Spy Net Flex Neck Snake Cam:

This is definitely a James Bond or maybe even SWAT Team type of electronic! We have all seen in the movie the SWAT commander sticking the little camera under the door to see what is happening before they bust it in or they guy who is wired with a camera that goes through his shirt button hole. This is the camera for those moments, this is also a web cam, a great cam for peeking around corners or over the back of furniture, sticking out a window while driving, basically it is a little camera that can be used in any place that would be hard to get a normal sized camera into. This is great for kids playing hide and seek, spy games, heck I think this would be great for playing paint ball, you could peek around a corner and see your target and shoot them without them ever seeing you. It is a very affordable addition to the watches, it plugs right into the side of them to give you a visual display of what it sees and the imagination is the limits on what you can do with it. The lower half is standard cord and the upper half is bendable so you can bend it into whatever shape will work the best for you. It makes an fairly inconspicuous watch camera completely inconspicuous.

Drawbacks:

The watches are designed to fit a very decent size wrist but it does kind of look a bit like a kid’s watch. I wore it a couple of days without anybody commenting on it though until I went to check the time and the video screen came on. This really nice feature also draws attention to the watch though and it’s brightness can distract people and make them wonder why it is so bright and what other bells and whistles it might have, especially in low lighted areas. I kind of wish the video screen came with a cover that could be closed down on it to make it less noticeable during recording. Spy Record mode helps, it makes it so that you are recording without the image being on the watch face, just the time with the dots between the hour and the minutes blinking red periodically to let you know it is recording. But the screen is still really bright, wish there was a dimmer function.

The Snake Cam has both a drawback and a plus in the sense that the edges of it’s video screen are rounded visually so that it looks like you are looking through a hidden camera, which can be fun for playing spy but a little less fun for using the video as part of a source for a longer project.

Last Call:

I already have plans for the whole year mapped out for use with the video part of this camera, I plan to particularly use it during October visits to haunted attractions where I can record without an obtrusive camera and time lapse in scare zones to get a feel for how they run over a longer period of time. I have even thought of getting new ones in case I need more record time in one evening. The Snake Cam can be purchased for under $20 which is a great price if it was only ever used as a webcam let alone all its other uses. Shopping around can get either of the watches in the neighborhood of $50 which when you consider all the features and fact that you have a video camera and webcam that is completely portable, tiny and fits in your pocket or on your wrist they are a great deal. Since they are both about the same price some people may ask why go with the watch with less features but if you have a kid the more features it has the more confusing it can be so they may want the simpler watch. I will try to post videos from haunts and such using the cameras so you can see just how effective they can be. I have a couple of examples below of picture time lapse and videos and look forward to making more!

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AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity Review (PC/OnLive)

2011/08/03

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Ok much like the title this game doesn’t take itself too seriously, in fact it thrives on being silly and yet at the same time it is surprisingly challenging and addictive. In 1982 Polystructures fall from space into the air over Boston and people take to populating them and building around them. By the year 2011 you can no longer look up from a city and see the stars, but you can look down from the top of the Polystructures and base jump off of them. Hence a new dimensional timeline and lifestyle is born. Base jumping is literally taken to new heights as you leap down hugging and kissing the sides of building and other structures until you get to the bottom where you deploy your parachute fin before become a “sack of calcium” or a bunch of other amusing but dead options and try and land inside a red circle.

So for each time you succeed at hugging building, shattering glass panels with score values and landing without becoming mush you earn a score which is then applied to a star system. The more stars you get for equaling or increasing your star rating on a map earns you teeth. Yep, the currency of this dimension is teeth and the more you earn the more map drop points or special goodies you can unlock. Now one person’s special goodies is anothers bizarre and just plain hilarious moment so make sure to spend your money wisely. One of the unlocks, for example, is a glowing glove that makes it so that as you plummet past onlookers you can encourage your supporters with a thumb up or your protestors with a nice red glowing middle finger. Another allows you to spray graffiti, remember you are doing all this while plummeting to the ground and dodging buildings and structures at an alarming rate. If it all gets to be to much though you can listen to relaxation sessions (there are no insects on you… not on your face getting ready to crawl in your nose, not at all) or learn how to debristle a pig or get grandma’s special recipe for cookies (the secret ingredient is a dead relative’s ashes).

The wackiness of the game, the fact that no two jumps are ever the same and that this is a game with real skill and practice necessary to do good at it makes it addictive to watch and to play. I was trying it out on the OnLive service and I was constantly getting spectators watching and would sometimes try (and sometimes fail) spectacular moves to entertain my audience. I got friends request on the service as well by people who just wanted to be able to know when I would be on and playing it again. This game is perfect for parties, it is so visually engaging and the difference between a high score and becoming a bunch of femur paste is the slightest of moves. Also it is on OnLive so you can play the game on any PC anywhere, play it on tablets or use the tiny OnLive console and all you need to do is get it an internet connection and plug it into your TV and suddenly you can be playing it on a huge screen at someone else’s party. The OnLive system lends itself to portability and versatility anyways but this game showcases it so nicely. This next weekend I am heading out of town to visit friends and the OnLive system is going with me and going to get some serious play and I really see this game shining.

Last Call:

At first glance this game looks easy and silly, but it actually can be very challenging and no two jumps are exactly the same. But it is also silly, and has as much fun with itself as possible. If you have ever been interested in the history of base jumping there are factoids tucked in as well but this is really about having the American version of Monty Python-esque fun and laughing while sweating your jumps. Dying doesn’t bother you, it makes you laugh. My wife was at her computer laughing at the sound effects (there are old school arcade sounds in it very similar to Sonic) and the different odd things said in the game. When she walked by she stopped and just started staring at my game like so many OnLive spectators drawn into the visuals as well as the sound. This is a great party game which you can try for free at OnLive and it is included in the over 70 games on it’s play anytime PlayBundle so it would be at your leaping leisure for $10 a month. I picked it because of it’s funny name to be honest and now it is in my regular play rotation. Heck even the companies website is fun to go to!

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Limbo Review (PC/Steam)

2011/08/03

Ripper71

News, Reviews

If you are a console player you have probably already given this game a run but if you are pure PC or you had a friend who said “that game sucked” and that was enough to keep you from trying it then you may have only heard of the game. Just about everyone has at least heard of Limbo due to it’s incredibly stylized presentation and haunting mistreatment of its little boy hero. Every game magazine tried to write it up at one time or another without giving too much away and that can be extremely difficult to first get the style and feeling across but then also make someone feel the need to play it. It honestly reminds me of foreign movies and animations that I have experienced over the years. Anyone who watched the short film “Deadsy” (the band and most of my game characters’ names have been based off it) and got the beauty and horror of it might have some understanding. So instead of trying to tell you why you should play it or shouldn’t I will try to tell you what I felt while I played it, why this side game turned into a marathon playing for me and much like a foreign film, you will have to decide if this is where your tastes lie. To start here is a screenshot.

I purposely chose one with no action, no traps or big challenges in sight, just an average moment in the game. This is one of the brighter moments, the shadowed areas increase, the screen flickers like you are watching an old silent movie and usually the brightest thing in the whole game are the eyes on the little silhouette of a boy that you are helping through the journey. When you discover a new trap or fail a test those little white eyes blink out for a moment and then come back at the last checkpoint. He never screams in pain or terror, never complains, he just moves along to the next task and horror at hand. Music is sparse and the notes tend to resound, most of the game relies on ambient noise of frogs or flies or water splashing. If he falls off a tall cliff you will see his eyes shining in the thickening darkness, hear a crunch and then the eyes go out as the scene fades to darkness and he is standing in front of one of his tests again.

The tests are plentiful and seem to come from the mind of a child, one with some learning but also who has seen enough action movies and played Cowboys and Indians to have an imagination ripe with its own torments. The Lord of The Flies, arachnophobia, saws slicing people up, all in a world where flipping a switch can make gravity reverse or magnets can hold giant metal block in mid air. If a child were to place tests of horror in front of itself it would play out a lot like this game.

And you want to help this little boy who is lost in this dark place facing more and more moments of possible death. Knowing that death is not the end, but only a step back into the journey that is so dark and that he faces alone except for a little help from you. All the other boys are out to torment, sabotage or just plain destroy him on his journey through this dark land so you feel compelled to keep helping him. It becomes difficult to take a break especially after night falls and you are in the same darkness he is. This may sound somewhat melodramatic but the game does pull you in if you let it and it can be very much like you are helping a character on it’s way through a movie, wanting to see how it ends and having the satisfaction of no matter who finally lies in store you helped the little lost boy get there.

The game is just haunting to put it simply, generally more like nightmares than dreams but it is a dreamscape nonetheless and one that had me with my face 8 inches away from my 23″ LED monitor, the speakers pulled close, the lights off, fully entranced. The standard game controls are the arrow keys and Ctrl which I usually find confining in computer play but seemed very much to fit the game’s confined environment you are trying to help escape.

The ending will be a matter of debate for a long time, I am not showing you it in any of the screenshots nor do I plan to show you any. If you want to go to YouTube and watch it you can but to me it is like reading the last page of a very deep and surreal book, you won’t really get it unless you take the journey through the game and then you may come up with a different theory than the many, many ones that are out there and discussed on endless threads. It is this ending with such an opening to interpretation that really throws some people for a loop and makes them sometimes hate the game. These are usually the same people who hate every minute of a foreign or strange film because it made them think, made them wonder and in some ways just gave them questions and left them to fill in the answers. I find a certain beauty in this, a certain maturity that can be very difficult for someone just out to have a fun play and escape reality for a while to accept. It is a foreign film in game form and leaves questions instead of giving a tidy, clean and happy Hollywood ending. I love it for that as much as the great puzzles and gameplay.

Last Call:

This game is different, it is for a certain taste, I could see people watching others playing to experience the story as much as the action. The action of the puzzle solving may appeal to gamers and they may enjoy it simply for that but this was a game that was designed to engage you like a movie. A movie where you have to commit yourself to helping the main character, in this case a lost little boy, find his way to the end, whatever ending it may be. Much like many Hollywood remakes of movies I could see how the temptation to have a spelled out, The End kind of ending to this game could have been tempting but I think this game will live on in the imaginations of those who played it more as a result of the simple fade to black.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Multiplayer Madness with the Frag Dolls (OnLive)

2011/07/29

Ripper71

News

So those of you who have succumb to my barrage of game news and reviews from OnLive Game Systems and those who just want to check out what the fuss is all about have a great opportunity this Friday night to take on or watch the general chaos, chewing bubble gum and kicking ass the Frag Dolls are famous for as they tear their way through OnLive players leaving a grin on their pwned faces. This reminds me of a time when I got a chance to become one of Stephen Segal’s “sparring” partners.

Me: Sensei, that means he will just kick my ass around right?

Sensei: Yes, pretty much… but if he likes you he kicks your ass in a movie!

Me: Pass. Thanks.

True story. So if you haven’t had a chance to check out OnLive or Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood or the Frag Dolls (get your ass kicked by a hot chick, just like back in school!) this is a great time to do it! Prizes for the ones who spill the least of their own blood! (actually I don’t know what the prizes are for I have to work… DANG YOU REAL WORLD!!!) And remember it is only a game, they won’t kick your ass in a movie or school, I don’t think, that’s something you have to work out with them. But to give you at least a sporting edge, here is Frag Doll Phoenix with some Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Multiplayer tips and a link to OnLive’s collection of the Frag Doll’s brutal stats (game stats guys!).

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Hope to sneak off at work and see you there! *looks around shifty eyed*

The I Am T-Pain Microphone Review

2011/07/26

Ripper71

News, Reviews

T-Pain has taken his name and made it synonymous with “auto-tune” over the years and there have been different ways to use this technique which he has marketed on various platforms such as the iPhone and the PC. It helps people, like myself, who have no musical talent whatsoever sound both bearable and amusing and has spawned a generation of auto-tune players. There are some, again like myself, who are so tone deaf that even these programs can only help so much and to help mask my painful tones T-Pain came out with the most user-friendly and party perfect version of the T-Pain effect out there: an all in one microphone.

The “Ellen” Effect:

Ellen had T-Pain on her show to discuss the microphone effect and Ellen showed just how easy it was to make a professional sound without professional training or even necessarily the best lyrics:

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After his appearance on the show (and the almost two million YouTube views that have followed) there became a huge demand for the iPhone app which went on to become one of the best selling apps of all time for them and is still a hot seller and well known today. But let’s face it though half the fun of this is the party environment that it can create and so T-Pain and CDi got together and created the most user-friendly and fun version of it, a microphone that takes you right into the energy of the Ellen show but with a simplicity that even a child (or highly intoxicated party going adult) could operate.

Using the T-Pain Microphone:

The buttons on the T-Pain microphone are pretty straight forward and self-explanatory. There is a blue button to give you some different background beats, none of which are from his songs though those are available for sale and can then be plugged into the mic via an input jack and an MP3 player. The red button starts the record and then you hit the effect button to turn on and off the auto-tuning. When done, you just hit the record button again and you can then hit the green playback button. The lower section of the mic doubles as a decent speaker system for the microphone though you can remove that and plug in a different speaker set or put the microphone into a USB adapter and download your song as an MP3. From there you can share it with the world! Or play it on your iPod friendly stereo system at your next party to show your friends how great, or in my case, how horrible you are (honestly I think I would probably violate some FCC regulation about sound pollution). I can’t describe the level of bad I am but the microphone performed like a hero trying to help me.

Never Time Enough:

The only issue I came across with the microphone was the short record time available. I guess the idea is that if you come up with a 3 minute song you really like you can plug it into a computer and save it down real quick and then go back to playing with it but in the middle of a party that doesn’t seem to practical. I came up with a pseudo solution by attaching a recorder to the headset output or speaker output but that kind of makes it awkward. My hopes for this mic in the future would either be a larger recording hard drive or make it micro disc compatible so you fill up a disc and load in another one so that the party never pauses and the recording can go all night.

Last Call:

So many party toys and games require setup or other systems such as consoles or computers to play. The iPhone app, which I have used much to my wife’s pained ears, is a lot of fun but really can only be used by one person at a time and is designed to be listened to by one person at a time. The I Am T-Pain microphone takes all these drawbacks and fixes them by putting them into the format all those people watching The Ellen Show that day wanted, a cordless microphone with built-in effects and beats that turns a little black stick into a party. And if you want, or dare, you can share it with the world.

SteelSeries Spectrum 7XB Gaming Headset Review (XBox)

2011/07/26

Ripper71

News, Reviews

1 Comment

SteelSeries has been known for years as one of the leaders in premium gaming equipment. Quite often it may cost a little more than other brands but for good reason, you know that you can expect great quality and versatility. So when I had the opportunity to review their latest Spectrum 7XB Gaming Headset I was more than just excited, I was downright thrilled. My XBox headset was Microsoft licensed and worked fairly well in it’s one earpiece but my mic was finicky at best. There had been plenty of night’s gaming where I just passed on the headset which caused me to lose some valuable intel but improved my comfort and placated my frustration with the poor microphone. So to get my hands on a SteelSeries was a very exciting moment indeed.

I had checked out and compared many brands of headsets at trade shows, conventions and testing for sites and I had a couple brand names that began to stand apart and SteelSeries was one of them. What surprised me was that the 7XB was actually outperformed most of the SteelSeries I had checked out over the years. They had obviously taken even minor customer concerns into consideration and had worked them into the latest release.

Setup:

The setup of the headset is not timely but it is a bit technical and definitely involves reading the directions mainly because of what it can do and the options available. It takes only a moment but you definitely need to read the instructions.

Comfort:

For long gaming sessions comfort can be almost as important as performance because no matter how good it sounds and communicates if it causes you headaches from weight or smashing your glasses then it will not get it’s proper use. Not only are the 7XB extremely lightweight but they are designed to rest the cups comfortably on the ears while at the same time allowing space for glasses. Even if part of the cup does press on the glasses they are so amazingly lightweight that they don’t compress the arms of the glasses into your temple so they wind up being some of the most comfortable ones on the market. One side is slightly heavier due to the AAA batteries required but it is a fairly unnoticeable difference that would practically require you to weigh to even know. The microphone section actually curls back into the headset to be out of the way if you are not talking on it which adds to the comfort of the headset by having it out of the way but also when it is slid out of storage it is very lightweight and adjustable. Comfort wise the only slightest improvement I could even imagine would be if they didn’t have to plug into the XBox controller at all and were completely wireless but since the cord is of a comfortable length and adds a very conveniently located mic button at the controller even this issue borders on a feature rather than an issue.

Sound Quality:

Powered by 50mm drivers the sound is encased in nice, comfortable ear cuffs that are an immersive audio experience that doesn’t rattle the house’s windows. Sounds seem to come from the direction they were intended which though obvious in plenty of games stood out pretty well in Blur, where cars are striking from the sides, your weapons are firing at things in front and you are getting attacked from behind. So much sound going on and yet determining their direction in a few seconds is really important to survival. At the same time there is chatter from other players in Blur and other games and this is another interesting place where these headsets shine. If another player speaks and you have your headset set on the LiveMix setting then when they speak the game volume drops so you can hear team chat then when they finish speaking the game volume came back up. This made it nice so that you could still enjoy the game volume at higher levels while not having to worry about missing important instructions or tactics. And if this doesn’t quite give you the mix you want there are separate locations to lower or increase each of the channels to set them just right.

As well as individually adjusting track levels you can also choose equalization to add even greater depth to the game sound. The equalizer has four setttings: Normal, Performance, Immersion and Entertainment. Normal is equalization off and normal game sound, Performance amplifies high tones and is perfect for those FPS where you are listening for every gun reload and step on a path at an ambush spot. Immersion kicks the bass up and you feel the gunshots and explosions rattling through your head (this one takes a little volume fine tuning to keep from causing ear damage) and Entertainment is just what the name implies, if you are using the headset to watch a movie, listen to music or play a game without a high importance on the sound or any team chatter. When doing the last the feature of tucking to microphone into the ear cup makes it easy to enjoy a streaming movie on console or PC without having to twist the mic out of the way while eating or drinking.

Compatibility:

As just a headset for listening the Spectrum 7XB is compatible with Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Wii and PS3. There is no team chat with them on the other systems with the PC in particular you may want a separate microphone set up for audio recording or transmission anyways. The Spectrum 7XB is great because it has such a crisp sound transmission it can just be used as headphones for so many different things but it can be hard to bring yourself from unplugging them from your XBox since they are such a solid addition to it’s gaming system.

Durability:

The headset is reinforced at key points to help with durability since there are certain sections of a headset that tend to take more stress than others. The cord that travels down to the XBox controller is wrapped in nylon parachute cord to prevent knotting and kinking, additional joints have been placed at areas of stress to allow extra movement and the whole headset is designed to break down into four parts to prevent damage during travel. Add to this that the microphone tucks safely into the headset and is wrapped in flexible metal and durable plastic casing when it is extracted and this is definitely a headset that if you treat it right will last you a long time. Besides if you are someone who can’t keep your temper and throws your headset against walls you don’t need to invest in quality headphones, you need to invest in foam and duct tape, maybe some spackle as well.

Style:

Gaming headsets can sometimes have a bit of a lack of style, often looking like they are designed for survivability rather than style. This headset is designed to look like high end very stylish headphones that happen to have a high quality very stylish microphone slide out of it. These things are enviable if they were just a wireless headset being used in your living room to listen to music or watch a movie without waking up the roommates (or wife). Then when you reach down and plug it into your controller and slide out the amazing looking microphone there will be that moment when your buddies look at you and just say “Damn.” Then when you let them try it they will either be buying them or saving up for them.

Last Call:

SteelSeries is known for their quality products as well as their style and the Spectrum 7XB gaming headset is absolutely no exception. I took the headset off of my Xbox 360 controller to test it out but it is going right back onto the controller as soon as the review is over and it may never come off there again. Ok, maybe when I am injured in bed and want to play one of my gaming systems in the bedroom without waking my wife. Ok and when playing games in the computer room that don’t bother with team speak. Ok and maybe, well you get the point.

F.E.A.R. 3 Review (PC/ OnLive Console)

2011/07/24

Ripper71

News, Reviews

OnLive has a whole bunch of trailers for just about all of their games and since they don’t have to buffer down and are playing straight off their server I can randomly click on different ones when I have a free moment and feel like picking my next game to plsy. So I clicked on F.E.A.R. 3 and saw the video featuring Marlyn Manson’s “Four Rusted Horses” and I had to play it. Part of me had no choice, I just knew that was the next game I was going to play and I played it well into the next couple nights.

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Those who played the first couple games have some idea of the storyline unfolding in the F.E.A.R. series, though probably not that much because it has always been a bit odd. Those who haven’t I can tell you in a nutshell what you would need to know to play the game. Point Man, the main character, never talks but is far more brutal than any mime in all of France. A one man killing machine he has the ability to slow time and in the process do amazing damage to all in his path. The one who does all the talking for him is his dead brother, who only he can see, that has a nice bullet hole in his forehead courtesy of Point Man. So the two of them go on a mission together. I won’t say what but it is kind of unique on its own and I am still not really sure the reasoning on the mission. But honestly you really don’t need to know what the reason for the mission only that it brings about amazing gameplay.

It isn’t quite the horror fest the preview promised. Horrible and gory things happen and Paxton Fettel, Point Man’s partner and dead brother, definitely does his share of supernatural and creepy things just as you would expect but it really for the most part is a twisted mess that you walk in on and spend a lot of time cleaning up. At first the less than living things are disturbing and killing them is almost as much reflex as actual thinking. Dead should stay dead and if this rule is broken it is reinforced with lots and lots of weapons. At some point though the battle shifts and becomes more about the evil living than the brain emaciated unliving. It becomes your job to just kill everything that moves and as they get tougher the weapons get tougher and the carnage and explosions get fun rather than creepy. I would at times forget that there even is a threat other than enemy soldiers, then after a big pack of undead would show up and I would forget the soldiers for a little while. Sometimes they will fight each other and you can stand back and watch a moment, even possibly wound one side to help the other only to destroy any that remain. How you kill and when you kill really becomes your choice for the most part with the exception of bosses which seem insanely hard after a buffet of bloodshed, all you can eat, leading right up to them. I would fly through a level then hit the boss and get stuck for quite a while, having to figure out strategies and approaches when I was used to just going forward and shooting all that moved. I’m not complaining about either aspect of the gameplay, they both have merits I like a lot, but I think it might be easier if the enemies ramp up to the bosses a bit rather than slaughter this, slaughter that, what just tore me in half?

You get to use some other vehicles here and there that are a welcome change and, if you are careful with their usage, can last you a while and do massive amounts of destruction to pretty much everything in sight. They will put things out there that can be the equal to your vehicle so you need to pay attention but I still loved every minute in them. A part of me didn’t want to give up the vehicle when I had to but after a few uses of the different weapons and attacks I had with Point Man I was back to having fun with interesting combos.

Single player is excellent but multiplayer has some very solid points too. You are able to attack soldiers in Fettel form where you throw globs of what I guess would be painful protoplasm at them or, more fun, take of their bodies and start tearing through them on the way to the other players. This is a deathmatch but with a twist because if you are good and quick enough the bodies you occupy may die but you will live on in another. This dynamic actually reminded me of [The 3rd Birthday] where you were an agent sent back in time to possess soldiers at major moments of battle and the key was always to jump right before death. Same goes with this multiplayer version. The co-op multiplayer is actually pretty similar to Uncharted 3’s multiplayer that you can revive other players in your group if you are close enough to them to make the save but whereas Uncharted had a pool of lives to work with if your whole team wipes it’s game over. Both are a blast to play but I really liked the Fettel form deathmatch which is funny because co-op usually wins out with me.

Last Call:

F.E.A.R. 3 is a great game with good atmosphere which slips a little but excellent gameplay all the way whether you are playing by yourself, co-op or multiplayer. The single player campaign has a good length and the co-op and multiplayer can go time and time again. I heard it was a bit choppy at times on some systems, especially the voice chat, but on OnLive on both the PC and the console it was extremely smooth. If I haven’t convince you to purchase it you can rent it from OnLive for $5.99 for 3 days or $8.99 for 5 days and you never have to return a game since you are playing on their server. If you are unsure about OnLive that is a good way to check it out anyways, you just sign up, pick your rental and you are playing F.E.A.R. 3 without the fear of late fees.

Homefront Large-Scale Warfare Multiplayer Review (PC/Onlive Game System)

2011/07/24

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Anger is an energy and I think the anger in the air about four hours after the release of Homefront is still out there across America, just waiting for someone to tap into it. Twitter and Facebook took a heavy blow as if millions of voices cried out at once and were suddenly silenced. Ok that is a total exaggeration but for those who lived through those hours they were left with an emptiness, in their game play time and their wallet. WTF do you mean it is over? I don’t mean to open old wounds but when mentioning the name Homefront to a gamer there is a very distinct wince associated with it. Everyone wanted to be out there reliving Red Dawn or at least be a part of this generation’s “Defenders of The Homeland” saga and it was just over too fast. So when I started talking about the experience of the multiplayer being one of the best out there right now I tend to get skeptical looks. So here I go explaining why.

First off you get to experience the setting that got you so excited about Homefront in the first place, you get to stand in the shadow of Randy’s Donuts’ iconic giant pastry and blow the enemy right out of boots that shouldn’t be on American soil. Or you get to move across a ruined neighborhood seeing the damage you have done to these capitalist scum and set up an ambush point inside the local Hooters. The maps are great in both their realistic settings and their destructive remains of iconic Americana and give a much more engrossing play platform. The burning debris and fluttering paper which catches your eye as movement and causes you to look one way may cause you to take a hit from another.

When you start the multiplayer you get a beginning set of weapons and skills to work from and, much like other multiplayer games, you are able to unlock customization of standard classes and weapons and get special items to help you with your mission. There are some particularly fun remote drones available that can really keep the game interesting and snoop out campers though the remotes have a limited battery life. These special items such as bazookas, drones, enemy sweeps ectc are earned by building up battle points during a match and the battle points are earned by identifying an enemy location, destroying an enemy or destroying an enemy vehicle. A very fun and interesting aspect of the multiplayer is the Battle Commander who identifies threats and assigns them as objectives to part of your team, increasing the number of players assigned by how many points they are earning. So let’s say you got a high level hotshot player who is tearing through your team like single-ply toilet paper, The Battle Commander will put a skull over them, mark their general location on the map to a few players and add skulls and information to more of the team until they hit the maximum of five skulls then your whole team knows where they are, they all want to take him out for an extra bounty on his head and to save your team the headache of his destructive path. At the same time the more skulls that player earns the more bonuses they get to help defend themselves against the growing threat. Suddenly your whole team is after one Rambo and drones are covering the ground and sky as well as vehicles like tanks and Humvees. The whole battlefield is hopping.

The game is available across platforms on the PC, Steam, XBLA, and PSN as well as my current system of choice, OnLive. If you have read some of my recent reviews you may have read how impressed I am with the system and it’s incredible versatility. Homefront Large-Scale Warfare Multiplayer is available as part of their Playpack Bundle which is designed a lot like Netflix streaming. You get over 60 games to choose from to play as much as you want for $10 a month on the PC, their mobile console, tablets and some smart phones. Just like with Netflix you can pause a game and pick it back up on another platform. So with Onlive I had the unique opportunity to see how it plays on a console as well as a PC. On both it performed flawlessly even with the full 32 players. Yep you read right, two 16 player teams shooting up maps and one another which is usually pretty rough for a console to handle without tearing or lag spikes but this game handles it great without any loss of detail. Out of dozens of multiplayer games at my disposal right now (most of which are on the Onlive Playpack) this is the one that keeps drawing me back in.

Last Call:

I have been playing multiplayer since, well since there was multiplayer. There are some that in their hay day were amazing and I still feel nostalgic for even though compared to today’s they wouldn’t hold a candle to them graphically (BF1942 and all it’s mods). It was because of their gameplay, the epic scope of the maps and play possibilities. For now I think I have found a home base of multiplayer operation in Homefront LSW and it will take one heck of a good system to knock it out. Especially since it is just one part of a $9.99 a month package.

A Brief Taste of Uncharted 3 Multiplayer (PSN/Beta Test)

2011/07/23

Ripper71

News, Previews

I logged on to play a little DC Universe Online before heading to bed and… what’s this? Would I like to play Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta? Yes please! I sat and stared at the download screen afraid it might stop if I walked away. Almost there, almost there, bam! In I dove having never played an Uncharted game. I have to state that because the initial headset chatter had a lot of “what the hell is Ripper doing?” or “So… you are just spraying and not aiming?” in it and I felt they deserve an explanation. After I figured out the controls though I was hooked and hooked solidly. This was a beautiful co-op! I usually like bigger teams for multiplayer but the four or less team intimacy worked great toward reviving each other and really forced players to either work as a team or lose. If someone always seem to rack up the kills, get all the loot and never do a revive they found themselves fresh out of help when they got surrounded or went down. Lives are pooled as well so it is in the team’s best interest to get a fallen comrade back on their feet (though they do get points for that too). There were two basic styles of play, PvP and PvE, so either two teams of four or less or your team versus the world. PvP was pretty straight forward stuff that we are used to, a scramble across the map to take out enemies. The maps are very graphically nice and detailed and the weapons are plentiful. It was the PvE that I fell in love with though, each map had a variance on how it played out dependent on map topography but in the end it came down to one thing: work as a unit or lose.

There were three basic setups for each wave of the PvE battles: transport, defend, or protect. Transport was a loot transport from a drop location to a chest and the team worked with one or two players trading off as carriers while the rest of the team defended (this was also part of the PvP battle maps, fighting over the loot, but the team closer to drop tended to have a huge advantage). This was a lot of fun since there were multiple ways to transport and each way had a choke point or sniper spot that you had to be really careful for because even if a player might miss that spot you can bet the game didn’t and there is someone waiting for you. The game populated with plenty of enemies too so even the smaller map had plenty of baddies as obstacles, maybe even worse from the crossfire possibilities. The defend is the most free flowing of the waves, basically a certain number of enemies are coming for you and you have to kill them all. This is where a lesser team player might split off and try to get their own head count but it is also where is shows the teammates you want to friend because you will all huddle in a room together, each on an exit and watching for one of you to fall or start to get choked from an enemy that flanked. Remember your lives are pooled so it is in your best interest to watch your teammate’s back but it’s when you get teammates who risk themselves getting you back on your feet in a hot spot that shows the players you hope to go into another game with. This is also shown in the last setup protect too, but to a lesser degree. In that one your whole team is assigned to stay in a square and if you step out of the square the kills no longer count. So your team needs to stand in a square, sometimes with very limited cover, as the enemy progresses from all directions. The square is in a different location each time this wave comes up so once again the team that stays together will get the kills to start counting sooner and increase the chances of clearing the wave faster. A certain amount of time is awarded for clearing a wave but the time reward is lower each time so teamwork really made the difference between winning and losing. To win you had to complete a certain number of waves in the allotted time with the waves being all three mixed together. This kind of play took much longer than the quick PvP rounds, that is if you had a good team that watched each others backs. If you had a lone wolf then the whole pack would go down fast. When a team was good you might find yourself playing with them for a few rounds and before you know it hours have past. Remember how I said I started playing right before I was supposed to go to bed? Yay for energy drinks the next day!

Last Call:

I mostly just talked about PvE here because there was plenty of that to fill my time and keep me thoroughly entertained. From what I hear the PvP players were kept just as busy if not more so in those games making me really excited when this ships later this year. I only got a brief taste of this multiplayer but I was immediately sucked in and would be playing it tonight if it hadn’t already gone dark again. It may still be in beta but is is already very polished and a must play when it comes out or anytime you see the opportunity to dive in on more testing. Trust me I will be checking for it later tonight.