Dead Island - The Pinnacle of your Zombie Adventures

So, zombie games are everywhere now and more on the way right?  It seems so.   Most of my zombie game time had been spent playing the left 4 dead series and that was some epicness everyone should have a try at.  Other than that, the other super popular zombie game (coop style) is the add on game type for the Call of Duty game series.  I did play this game mode for WAW, but it didn’t have the same appeal as L4D.  I did try out Dead Rising once, but it was after I had tried L4D games and it just had no appeal at that point.   I explain all this because I want to give a slight background on how I came into playing Dead Island and what my expectations were for this game.

After spending massive hours in left 4 dead, not only for the fun, but because I was also adamant on chasing down 100% achievement completion in both games, I figured I was done w/ zombie games.  What else can be made for us to play that generates that sense of appeal and coop?   I had seen the amazing trailer for Dead Island, and wow, that was a great way to me my attention focused on the game’s release.  Later I was able to see live gameplay at PAX in Seattle, but….it didn’t really impress me.  At first glance, the first person view of 2 hands showing on screen and then the rigid mechanical motion of swinging at zombies turned me off a bit.  This style was highly used in the Fallout games, and I think it even persists to Skryim.  I’m not a fan of it as I think we can build smoother more attractive animation motions in game now (ie: BF3 characters jumping over obstacles)  I hope all this makes sense to readers.   The game, Dead Island, also released to a slew of hate spam because of game glitches and issues.   That did not help the games reputation out of the gate. 

HOWEVER, I still had interest in the game itself and after hearing how a friend really enjoyed it, I decided to rent a copy from my local Redbox and see how it went.   I’ll just say it now, Wow, this game is great.  It does start off a bit slow as you play a character and they realize the circumstances they are in and what is going on around them, but once you’re familiar with all that and start your quests, this game just takes off.

I cannot relate this game to anything else I’ve played in the past except…possibly Dead Space.   The ambiance (visual and audio) really make this game have an amazingly creepy lonesome feel to it.  (I can't stress enough in my game play experience how well designed audio can make or break the experience of a game.) Yes, you can play the game in coop, but on your own, it’s a totally different experience to me.   You do not have a barrage of guns and unlimited ammo, it’s just your natural attack (kick or punch) and any possible weapon you can find and pick up, typically some blunt melee or sharp slicing object.   The motion mechanics are a bit clunky, but you get over that REAL fast once you come face to face with your first zombie.   Whether you get surprise attacked by a zombie or you see it coming, this is no cut and dry combat.  These zombies are built tough.  They take a few whacks and they will fight back.  Most zombies are typical peons and can be swatted around fairly easily on an individual basis, but when a group clusters up near you, it’s best to just run away or set up the fight to your advantage (use in game obstacles to bottleneck them).   The real fun to me is running into the “brute” zombies.  You can typically hear them roaring in the distance, so you know they are coming up soon.  When you find them,  their gait reminds me of a gorilla, tall lurking hulks that move deceptively slowly, but if you get close they will crush you with 1 swing of their arms.  They do not instantly kill you, but will really put you in pain to the point that you have to decide to continue the risk of dealing with them or moving on.  You get big XP bonuses for finishing them off though. 

As the game progresses you move into new areas of the island.  You can also build a sense of how this game relates to past gaming experiences.  My best summation is that Dead Island has the RPG elements of Fallout, you scavenge the hell out of everything you come across, it includes the open world that you can choose to explore any way you like, and also adds a small flare of GTA type stuff to it too.  You can drive vehicles you find; these help you get around faster but can also let you crash through zombies to take them out if they are in your way.   The addition to play in coop is awesome.  When you add up to 3 friends, or other random players in game, it quickly changes your experience but depends on how you perceive the game.  In coop, it’s a ton of fun to work as a pack and move through areas.  If you happen upon zombies, the coop bashing on them is hilariously fun.   However, the drawback I found to the game is that sometimes it seems like I do not receive credit for some quests, either because I’ve not unlocked them yet, I’m not leveled up enough, or I just don’t know how to indicate in game that I want to complete a task specifically in my menu.   This is likely an ignorance on my part and in no way takes away from the gameplay and fun. At worst it just means I may need to replay some quests to keep the XP and completion status.  Also, in coop, I lose the sense of immediate danger since the pace of the game changes with more people.  Sometimes it feels too rushed that we don't have the sense of fear anymore and we just try to plow through everything.

A few drawbacks to the game, in my personal opinion, are that the game goes for realism, however the design of pick up items is easily predictable.  When you explore you can find that an item you picked up earlier is replaced by a new item, or the same, in the exact same spot.  I do understand that this is to help players, but to be completely immersive, I would rather have this be more real such that if I really run out of stuff, then I have to deal with these consequences.  On this same note, there are a few places in game where vehicles always spawn brand new for you.  If I took that car earlier in game and ruined it and left it elsewhere, I can count on it respawning at its home location each time.   I would have preferred them be 1 time use only just for the realism. 

Some good pluses though are actually in combat.  As you melee enemies, or even shoot them,  it’s great seeing the blood fly, and hear the crack or slash of body parts.   If you’re using blunt weapons and hammering on a brute zombie, you’ll hear a bone break then notice that the arm is now dangling by its side and is no longer useful to it.   If you’ve got a cutting weapon you can aim your hacks and slice off appendages for fun or just go for the kill and take off the head.  It’s the small things that count and they do them well in this game.    The pro’s and experience overall for this game GREATLY outweigh any negative design elements or bugs for this game.

Zombies have been a bit played out these days.  The Walking Dead is in full swing of season 2 and even though this show has gone mainstream, I find it very enjoyable and watching an episodes gives me the urge to play Dead Island right after so I can wander around and use my imagination to vicariously live the adventure as my own fantasy.  

I’m only half way through the game and I look forward to it every time I put in the disc.  I’m spending a lot of my time on side missions mixing it up w/ random exploring and sometimes just being the mood to battle a posse of zombies wandering the streets.   I’m taking my immersive experience that Battlefield has done so well, and when I take that mindset into this game I get the same gratification.  

Overall, I picked up this game during a holiday sale and paid about $40 for it. DEFINITELY worth it for this price or less. It may even be worth full price if you love zombies and plan to replay the game with each of the 4 characters.  Each character brings their own special abilities, but the story won’t change in replay.   Maybe one day we can get a game just like this but is more dynamic in events and missions to keep the lasting appeal going.  

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 released a few weeks ago and boy am I in trouble.  This game has blown my socks off.  I knew it was coming, I hoped it was coming, and man o man did DICE deliver the best FPS multiplayer experience I have ever had.  This game is so amazing it really brings back the excitement I used to get as a child for a favorite new toy.  I've had things I looked forward to and really liked, but this game just influenced me to cancel the rest of my seasonal pre-orders as I know I will be playing this game almost solely for the next few months if not the year.    


I write this blog post on the day that MW3 has launched and so far that game has had solid reviews by critics and users alike.   The two games are of the same genre, but in terms of play they are VERY different.   I won't spend any time on that, but I will re-iterate what others have pointed out between the two games.  MW3 plays in an 'arcade' fashion.   You drop players into a small sized map and they create tons of fast action with multi killing streaks.   Battlefield games bring you into larger maps and you really have to be tactical in everything you do if you want to contribute to your team and your own gamer stats.


Previous to BF3's release I had become a hardcore player in Bad Company 2 and put most of my time on the conquest maps.   Rush in BC2 to me had been whittled down to the veterans and it became a series of dead heat games.  Conquest always allowed me to change things up.  If something my team, my squad, or just me alone could not handle, you can usually just change focus and move on to something else.   With BF3 out, I've played both Rush and Conquest and I love them both.  Having new maps to play and an enormous uptick in player count has added a lot of variety to the game.  Its fresh in many aspects w/ this in mind.  I do still prefer conquest, but my reasons now are for more vehicles and you usually can get 2-3x higher scores in conquest due to all the activity going on.


Beta vs Retail release
Coming from the beta, this retail release is WAAAAY better.  It feels much more to my expectations as a BF vet and the other maps included in the game compared to operation metro are a gold mine to me.  Of course, some maps feel like they play better in rush mode vs conquest, but that is my personal opinion.   I’ve had maps go from hate to love though with extended gameplay, so opinions can, and will change.   First of all the conquest games are amazing.   These maps can be open intense vehicle storms or they can be CQB 'hallway' combat.   I do not think I can emphasize enough how intensely amazing the effects this game has through its sounds and visuals.   Operation metro on conquest is one of the craziest things I have ever played and it gives me chills at times when stand offs occur and persist through an entire match.  This map on conquest is a testament to DICE’s efforts.   The majority of the map is contained in the subway section and with the use of both open space and small access tunnels, two teams can stand off at a distance and take pot shots all day long.  This may sound basic, but in practice its mind blowing.   You have got to play this game w/ the best HD tv and audio system you can get, otherwise you’re missing out on a lot.  The reason I bring up conquest for this type of action is that w/o the "Rush" of Rush, teams can take their time to figure out how to push forward w/o the fear of losing the match quickly.  This helps the continuance of the standoff firefights


There are a few other infantry focused maps similar to operation metro and they also play well to the tight CQB fighting.  For players who really crave this game type, DICE has done well to offer up options on this front.  You can play all maps in “infantry” only mode.  This will just give 1 or 2 light vehicles, but otherwise the whole fight takes place on foot.  Team deathmatch, I’ve yet to play, but I assume can be just as exciting to play in this format, just add a bit more chaos.


Vehicles – Air focus
As for the real, and initial appeal, of BF3 to me, are the options of all the vehicles.  Rush maps will offer a variety of each type of vehicle, but there are less of them as they are not the focus in this game type.  Conquest is where you get the full gambit to achieve your flag captures anyway possible.    I think its safe to say w/ the new design of the choppers, there should not be any more circle strafing in game.   Yes, the controls are changed up so much they are quite difficult to use, and I’ve killed myself more than I’m happy to report, but wow, once you get into it…it’s such an awesome feeling to fly.   I do panic at times though and it seems the game is less forgiving in pilot mistakes no matter how small.  Sorry teammates!!  I burned everyone alive w/ a bad chopper time to time.  Jets are fantastic!    However, there is a small struggle that I’m sure people will find for any flying vehicle.   Noob pilots are given 0 help in the defense department against stronger foes or anti air.  You have to earn the ability to ward off homing rockets, and this can be a long painful process.  It took me two weeks to finally unlock my flares on the jet.  Prior to that, other jets had leveled up enough to earn heat seekers, of which I have no chance to outrun  and the same goes for engineers on the ground who easily unlock their anti air rockets.  Some players actually seem to sit at opposing spawn points and rocket pilots as they are prepping to take off.  Effective, yes, but not all that good sporting in behavior.  Of course if you stand there all day, yes, I will come find you and take your tags!  Don’t be a greedy noob.   The air vehicles are fun to fly though, for sure.  You will need practice so take your time and try not to hurt anyone else on your team.  Everyone is suspect of the new guy flying!!


Vehicles - Ground / Water
There is a nice variety for ground attack vehicles.  You have you standard light armor such as the humvee and Russian equivalent.  You have heavy and light tanks, and the there are some odds and ends such as the fast moving jeeps, mobile and stationary AA guns and then a pontoon boat and 1 or 2 amphibious type vehicles.   The variety of perks you can unlock to use on some of these are great and really encourage players to level up each vehicle type since the features are vehicle class specific.   I'm still new to the game, so not all expectations for what a vehicle can do have been met. Example, in the Russian armored car, equivalent to a humvee I drove over a 'hot' grenade, and when it blew, it killed me out of the driver seat, yet the car sat there, slightly damaged.  Heavy tanks as strong as they are will not go down w/ 1 or 2 AT mines or C4.  You gotta pile it up and hope for a massive kill at once, but you live and learn.  A nice surprise I found in my tank is that I can now have a variety of 2ndary guns to use when I'm the main driver.  This is great for when no one wants to be your gunner, which sadly is quite often.


Specializations (infantry and vehicle):
I love the new loadout scheme for your vehicles.  In BC2 we had 1 perk specialization.  Now you can load up to 3 at a time per vehicle.  This adds a lot and makes it a ton of fun.   While I have this in mind, I had also noticed that between vehicles and guns….DICE has removed the ability to upgrade your damage factor on enemies.   DICE found that BC2 players were loading up on the strongest features they could in order to kill faster and would often bypass useful but less powerful add ons.   BF3 has touched this up such that almost everything has equal strength and the add ons are for variety and preference but will not necessarily guarantee you the upper hand.


A few things I've noticed that are not great, but not terrible either are that...the maps for console are pretty much the same size as they are for PC.  They do not feel scaled down at all.  I can see from video play online that PC games w/ higher player counts have more checkpoints, but the maps are the same.  The only drawback for console players is that you have so much more open space to utilize that may not result in any enemy confrontations.   A fully loaded conquest map may end up having 80% of players in vehicles and in combat, leaving less than a full squad on foot to take and hold capture points.


I've really only played conquest and rush. They are my staples. I do have interest in the Team deathmatch since I've found some of infantry only modes on small maps can be a lot of fun.   It seems that all maps work in all modes, so that is good.   The trailer for the Back to Karkand pack has been released and has some good things to highlight. Besides these maps already being fan favorites, the addition of a game mode called Conquest assault, sounds interesting.  I'm looking forward to its release in December.


I'm really not going to comment on the single player campaign as I've only played half way through it.  It is really just like any other major FPS campaign but w/ the additional visual animations and sound quality you would expect.  It is fun and I'm enjoying it, but BF games are made for online play.  The coop missions are actually quite tough. I've tried them numerous times, and have only completed 3 of the 6 and those were on easy.  


In the end, if you like, or love FPS games, you must try this out.  If you're new and curious, oh boy, you're in for a treat.  This game is worth it's full priced retail value.  So pick up a copy!  For anyone reading who has concerns, or questions about the game, hit up the EA forums, or ask on here in the comments.   There is a lot to this game and it will own my free time for a LONG time.

BF3 beta impressions and hopes!

The Battlefield 3 beta has been available for players mostly worldwide (sorry Asia) on Xbox, PS3 and PC for just over a week now. It will come to a close some time on Monday 10/10/2011 I believe.  The game is amazing.  I will try to list out my thoughts and drop some impressions of this game in a 'storymode' here and there possibly.

First of all, I'll drop the bad stuff I ran into. Yes, bugs.  The beta was bugs galore.  As a headline this sounds devastating for a game like its unplayable, but in truth, if you actually try the game, it works great.  It's very nice and smooth.  There are graphical slips and odd screen flashes every so often, but I assume these are usually server errors and last only that flash of a second anyway.  The bugs I ran into were annoying, but not game stopping in any way. Some did lead to me being killed though. One bug is that if you drop ammo or a health kit, this new object in the game is given some "indestructible" characteristic.  If I'm under fire and suppressed behind a destructible object, when I drop health for myself, if I happen to be looking at the barrier I'm behind, my health box either completely destroys the cover, or else glitches into it so that myself and the enemy can now see through the barrier and even shoot, since...I died instantly when he saw me.  I was not a fan of the random floating kill cam. Being killed only to see the kill cam stuck underground often moving too so I can't tell anything from it.  Sometimes I could not zoom down sites, other times getting over a barrier would just repeat the animation but not let me over.  I'm confident in DICE that all these will be removed.  They release very polished games.  However, as I have experience in testing myself, I'm worried about the available timeline to release taking in to consideration that the software has to locked down and sent to the retail disc creation facilities to sell.  I would guess that point is actually NOW.  We may see a huge update download upon release, but it should fix an S-ton.  Btw, when I say cons, what I really mean in this blog, is that I had issues w/ these in game features and I hope they can be tweaked a bit or possibly just list possible design reasons.  One issue I had just this morning in play was the revive paddles.  In BC2 I had them down to an art.  I could rambo revive a full squad like an assembly line w/o a touch and go finesse.  I tried that in the beta and I missed every single body. Maybe the design has changed, but I need to get right up on the body now and hit em w/ the paddles.  However, I'm a bit suspect as though the revive has weak hit detection.  I've had quite a few complete misses when I was right over a guy.  Hit detection may be bad or I can't tell if the new gun recoil is messing me up.  I feel like I lay into people at times, usually at distance though w/ no scope or a weak one and I cannot bring people down.  You know, at that thought, it would be interesting if the kill cam could show if your killer was under suppression (if they were) and yet were still able to kill you.  A few thoughts I wanted to drop in this blog about the game that bugged me are actually just team gameplay issues.  Because the squads were not easy to set up and work with, and many new players were trying this game, it was hard to react to some of the 'gang up' sessions where experienced players would get behind us and just rip into players for high K/D and points.  That is typical of any FPS and a good BF veteran anyway.  For retail, we can create platoons and that should be some wild fun facing other large groups at once that are coordinated, hopefully.

What I love about this game is everything BC2 had plus some new intensity and features.  I have to have to rave about the tunnel segment of rush on the beta map Operation Metro.  The map is broken into 4 rush stages w/ 2 outside and 2 in the tunnels.  The subway boarding platform area is designed w/ a track on each side of the platform as you would find in any typical station.  Attackers can rush the middle (pretty viewable to defenders)can run down the outer sides walkways, or even within the train cars.  The game ambiance down here w/ the new cleaner and sharper audio with extremely dark parts of the map create a nightmarishingly fun experience.  I enjoy the first tunnel portion more as a defender because you have time to spawn, run ahead and set up waiting to ambush anyone coming in.  You can sit in silence waiting, and then through the darkness you can see gunfire light off to the distance along with its echoed or muffled report.  You'll hear burst fire, back and forth; and sometimes just the sound of a room lighting up when you know a group of players likely happened the stumble into a room of enemies with perk you up.  It's just so awesome to hear that exchange as distant muffled rumble.  The whole experience makes you grit your teeth and rush adrenaline b/c you know that  group may likely change direction if they can't push through your team and they will come STRAIGHT AT YOU.  I get excited playing as support class in this situation because you can lay prone and just dump lead into anything you don't like.  Of course you will make enough noise and light that anyone within sight of you will be on your ass.  Usually though, that can expose enemies who flanked your team, and if your squad is paying attention can flush those guys out.

Outdoor sections were interesting.  The opening stage of the map is in a park, and again, I love how it starts quietly, just the breeze and maybe some birds or trees rustling. Count to 10, maybe, and then it starts.  Crack, of the sniper rifle, BOOM, of a tossed grenade.  From there it's usually symphony of gunfire bouncing around the map.

There were no vehicles on this map  I had thought there was an LAV on it though from past trailers, but I really don't even see the need for it now.  It would be a create moving barrier that players could drive right up to the MCOM and park it to protect themselves while they light it.  We'll have to see how it goes in the retail, but I am eagerly looking forward to the vehicle and gameplay footage I've been checking out that PC players recorded when they had a chance.

This game will be everything you hoped and even more.  The metro map was a great introduction style map and game for people who were curious how it played vs COD.  I do look forward to the new players, and old, b/c it will keep the game fresh, also frustrating, but you have fun with it and you learn so much by seeing what other people do.  The gun load outs are awesome.  They are confusing to me, only b/c its so new to how BC2 loaded out, but I like the options and unlocks.  I look forward to the new surprises for each rank up w/ class or gun!  My launch worries were around server performance.  Both BF1943 and BC2 had unplayable lag issues and other server problems that just pissed me off.  My fear/hope is that with such a large marketing campaign, this game will launch with more players than it can expect and will fail due to turning off the players, especially new ones.  Thinking about it, even Medal of Honor that launched last year failed horribly in its online performance.  EA and DICE better invest in their server tech and resources to make this a seamless launch.  I have faith in DICE, I hope EA doesn't push too hard on this series to lower quality or burn the users out, but I definitely know this game will amaze people.

PAX Prime 2011 - Seattle, WA

I was fortunate to attend PAX this past weekend and had a great time in the short few hours I was on the floor.   There is so much to write about from what I experienced, I hope I can get it all done and w/ the enthusiasm I had when I was seeing things up close!

To start off, my overall impression of PAX this year was that is felt much much bigger.  The booths that were created were enormous and extremely impressive.   Compared to last year it was leaps and bounds bigger and more flashy.   It also felt like the more companies were represented this year as well.  Last year there were some empty booth spots from companies who did not show up, there was also more space allocated to card and table game companies, whereas this year, they were pushed together tightly in a small transition space between the main exhibition hall spaces.   Some people I spoke to on the floor said if PAX Prime gets any larger it may have to shift to another city like Vegas.  If that is the case the expo may end up rivaling another event such as E3.

There were so many people and lines form up quickly at events like this.  Knowing my patience and excitement, I needed to find a trade off.   I settled for over the shoulder observations of most live demo’s.   The lines were just too long for the most of the popular games I knew of.  What was awesome to see though, is that my little world of games is nothing compared to the rest of the content coming out, or available now.   There were so many other games w/ huge booths that I’d not ever heard of nor paid attention to, it was eye opening and exciting.

So, for time sake I will run through the impressions I had for games that have caught my eye lately.

1) Battlefield 3:  I snuck in to the show early Sunday and was able to skip the line for the PS3 coop demo.   Jumping into the game, it was a bit odd getting used to PS3 controls.  The sensitivity was up high, and I’m not sure if that is normal, but I coped fairly well with it.   I was playing with another single gentleman in line so we teamed up and tried our best.   We actually failed the mission fairly quickly after the 1st stage, but the booth workers were not policing us, so we started another round.   We played this one much further in, but…I’m not sure when the level ends as it seemed we cleaned up all the enemies, but the game did not progress.  Next thing we know I’m loaded in a Humvee and an RPG cleans the whole thing off the map.  Game over!   

The game felt as you would expect from past games.  One interesting thing though was that during the street fight sequences using the thermal scope I could see enemies and would line them up, fire and then not get kills.   I’m not sure what the difficulty setting was, but either my bullets were not on target or the enemies were very strong.   I assume the game design has the added variability in bullet direction and spray.  It was not an arcade style shooter where you’re guaranteed a kill just b/c you lined up the enemy down the sites.  I definitely need more time to give a good review of what I played in the coop.

I stuck around in the afternoon and waited in line to try the Team Death Match freeplay on PC later that day.   It was a painfully fun experience since I’m not experience in PC gaming for FPS.  I got worked every way from Tuesday and hobbled around the map as best I could.   This gameplay though was extremely exciting and EVERYTHING I could have expected in a BF game.  It did feel and play like TDM from COD, but totally perfected w/ DICE’s immersion features.   I can’t wait to play the real thing in my own element.  

2)  Skyrim:  I went to check out the demo play area for this game.  Besides the game, Bethesda LOVES to go all out in its expo booths. I love visiting their areas.   Skyrim looks amazing.  I do have this game on pre-order, BUT….to be honest it looks like it plays just like Fallout games.  The interactions, the animations and some other components just seem like a new skin on an old game engine.   I will play this and I hope I get some good satisfaction out of it.  

3)  Rage:  This game really surprised me.  I had not paid this game any attention until I walked over to check it out, since it’s also from Bethesda.   This game looks like a crossover between Fallout, Borderlands, and a couple of other post-apocalyptic game types.  The gameplay was very smooth and the animations were great to watch.  The graphics were far superior to Fallout games and Borderlands.  I’d even go as far to say that the game looked a bit more polished overall than Skyrim

4)  Blacklight Retribution: this game is a new Free 2 play coming out on PC only later this year.  If you know the previous release – Blacklight TangoDown, this is just like that, but souped up w/ more action and some cool new features.  The action was fast and intense, and w/ the HRV feature it is neat to see through walls temporarily to line up enemies from a distance.  The inclusion of the mechgamepad users!

5)  Super Monday Night Combat. This is another free 2 play game coming out on PC only this holiday season.  It will come to the consoles at some stage, but for now they are releasing it to the core audience who can jump right in, PC gamers.  This game will be just like its predecessor, Monday Night Combat, but will include new characters, new specialties, maps, and other game features.   The original MNC is/was awesome, I really loved the tower defense mode “Blitz”

6)  Batman Arkham City:  I did not preview any of this game b/c I already know it will be worth buying and playing.  Sorry, I didn’t want to spend time on waiting around on that one.

7)  Assassin’s Creed Revelations:  This is another game I will be playing at some point, but I skipped the demo..  I assume this is just built on top of Brotherhood, and that was excellent in itself.  The campaigns are always fun, and from the reports of the upcoming changes to the multiplayer this should rock.  

8)  Mass Effect 3:  This game had the biggest line of them all I think.  4 hours to get in for the demo?  No thanks.  I have other things to do.  I’ve played the first two, there is no reason not to try this game when it comes out.  I heard the action sequences are much smoother now, they play almost like Gears of War, in terms of shooting, aiming and taking cover.   Bioware had some serious booth stuff going on!

9)  Borderlands 2:  People were blowing up over this game, but alas another closed booth that I did not want to wait in line for.  Sadly, if you did wait and go through, it seems they were offering copies of the game for free at the end. You could even choose the platform you want it on. I played the first game, but I didn’t really get into it.  Maybe if I jump into this one early w/ friends I will find it more fun!

10)  COD: MW3:  These guys didn’t show up or have any marketing content to handout.  Boooooo!   Activision, what’s up?

11)  Firefall.  This is an free to play MMO on PC, I believe.  This game company may have had the biggest dedicated booth on the floor.  It was enormous.  The game looked great and felt like it would play well. However, b/c I’m mainly a console gamer I didn’t spend any time with it.    As the Free 2 play market grows, I think I will start to learn PC controls so I can at least be a functional member

12)  League of Legends:  What is there to say about this game.   This thing is already popular enough…and if you don’t know about it, you’re likely not in their target audience anyway.  This is another Free 2 play that is extremely popular.  I’ve played it…but…I played solo rather than online so I didn’t get into as much as everyone else.  I should give it another shot if I had friends to play with.

13)  Torchlight II: this was out for PC gaming demo.  I’m not sure if a console port was in the works.  The maps looked more open and fun than the original game always taking place in the dark dank dungeons.  I liked Torchlight, but…it was starting to get overly repetitive so I’ve not touched it in a while.  I’m hardly ½ way through it.

Sorry if that was not enough info for anyone.  Hit me up directly or ask questions in the comments if you like and I will see what I can get back to you with.   Honestly….if you’re a gamer how can you not have at least 1 game to look forward to this holiday season, if not 10 games.    The industry is taking off…but now that there are so many options it will dilute our time among games and I wonder how, or if gamers, will react.   I love summer, but all PAX did was make me want fall/winter here NOW!

Your Gamer Profile and it's Online Rating

This topic has been on my mind for a while.  I want to say I'm a bit sensitive to how people view me in online gaming, and personally, I don't try to be mean or pick to anyone.  I don't do it in real life, and I really try NOT to be that kind of gamer online.

My first real online gaming experience was Halo 3 back when it launched in 2007.  I had dabbled in online games on other people's PC or consoles, but Halo 3 was my first jump into online gaming under my own tag (Sincap).   Playing online was intimidating at the time, and still can be for anyone who plays Halo.  The game following is so deep, you can bet 20% of players in any match are likely experts, or pro, standings in terms of their gameplay effort, and knowledge of maps, objectives etc.   As I played in the early stages I would get frustrated and verbally vent.   I think after a month or so of this I happened to be navigating in the Xbox dashboard to update my profile and I saw the section about "view your rep."  Checking this information I was pleasantly surprised to see my rating was fairly high w/ a high acceptance record of players who prefer to play with me.   I did have some negative marks against me for unsporting conduct and other feedback, I assume likely tied to my online yelling and bitching. Yes, I admit I was harsh at times and called out specific players for it.

I'm conscious, or try to be, of my online behavior and besides verbal antics, I don't TRY to pick on players. I hardly boost where it affects others' gameplay, and I definitely do not cheat.   However, I noticed as I've been playing Bad Company 2 over the past year, when I go to check in on my rep, it has fallen, FAR, and continues to decline.   My current rep shows that 46% of players prefer me and 56% avoid me.

Part of me is unhappy my online personal is in this state.  My rep has no affect on my online experience and it's not like Microsoft has come knocking on my door to ask for a change in behavior. I would like to think anyone could play w/ me and like me.  On the other hand, some of my online friends say they would like a negative rating, b/c in their mind it means they are really good, and therefore the lower the rating, the better they are doing. People hate good players on the opposition? Sporting? Odd way to look at it, but it makes me assume that people act like jerks online just for this effect.

So, back to my original reason to bring this up.  My rating is low, and I'm sensitive to it.  I can't blame a game for my rating, but I do wonder what is going on that people down rate me like this.  I've reached max rank in BC2 and I've noticed the longer I've been at this rank and continued to play online, the faster my approval rating dropped.  People have messaged me accusing me of cheating, but I'm not sure why or how they thought I did so.   I've had hate messages from people accusing me of things I know I did not do...it was someone else in game (aka circle strafing), but I guess since I finished that match at top score and show as level 50, people assume it was me?

I only ever down rate players if they message me w/ harassing comments, or if they were cheating in game.  Cheating is very hard to do over Xbox Live, but if someone is exploiting game bugs, and doing it to create an unfair match, yes I will down vote a player on that. Cheating ruins the experience.   I've had to do this quite a few times and I encourage it for anyone else to hopefully help deter people from doing it in the future.

A good thing w/ online ratings is that they are anonymous.  This can lead to people just feeling bothered and then doing anything they can to destroy another person's online rating b/c they were upset.   However, if you consider that it's a small effort to rate someone, then only those who are serious about really putting in that feedback will be going through the effort.

As a gamer, have you checked your rep?  Do you care?   If it was high or low, would you change anything you do or just dismiss it and carry on business as usual?

Just as a side note, I read an excellent book called "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez.  For anyone who loves gaming, and is a tech enthusiast, this 2 book series is a great read.   One of the concepts in the story is around the creation of a 3 dimensional network that only people wearing special LCD glasses can view information and manipulate.  The interesting point to me was that wearers of the glasses are part of the network and carry a gamertag and player rating w/ them.  The individual wearing the glasses can ID other people in the network b/c they will show their gamertag and rating over their head, almost like you would see in an avatar world.   The neat part to me is that if this were applied in real life for everyone, then as you interact w/ your daily routine, you can see which people are 5 star nice, vs 1 star dickheads.  Imagine life like this.  It could be neat, and disastrous, many people in so many ways.

Playing Civ World on Facebook

If you're familiar w/ any of the past civilization games, I want to recommend Civ World (beta) on Facebook.  The games is really well done using the social aspects in current play 4 free games on Facebook.   I have even spent some money in this game, $5, total which gave me quite a few bonuses to use in game.    I've completed at least 3 games on it now and I find it very satisfying and  a great game to spend time on.

So, to try this on the right foot, I want to note that I went into Civ World expecting to play just like past civilization games.   This is not the case.  Yes, you get to build up a civilization, but the game parameters have changed.   You can try to take on the world by yourself, like the retail games, but I really do not think it's a possibility.   You and a few hundred people can join the same game.  If each of us just had our own civilization and fought for domination, it might just be chaos.   It would be fun to try once, but after that I'm sure people would get fed up.  The game is created such that you create your own civilization, tailor it any way you like w/ the tech, tools, and money you have or generate, but the social aspect comes into play where you are encouraged to join an organized civilization.    Civ World does not have global locations like it would in a retail game.  Here you have a virtual mini civ and you can join any available organized civilization to become an influential body in that group's world dominance.   

Once I joined a civilization I started to realize that you can earn ranks which lead to higher roles in the group.  People who make top  level  move into ministry positions where you gain increased influence and power to help others in your group.    The fun parts to me are the mini games.   These games exist whether you are joined up or not, but you will feel, or see the benefits of joining a group because your success in completing the games helps progress your civilization.  

The mini game I enjoy are related to your civ's progression in specific topics.  Each civilization can work to enhance and master its status in Technology, Culture, and wealth.    There is a puzzle game to grow your culture, you can complete mazes for technology and there is a mini road building obstacle course to generate gold.  Sounds simple enough, but the games only allow you to make moves in each mini game based on the resources available.   Your resources come from your workers in your mini civ.    If you have a population of 8 people and everyone is spread out in different roles, you will only realize small gains in each component, thus you won't have many moves to use in the mini games, unless you're a master of patience.   If you were to, for example, make your mini civ focused solely on technology development, then you would see tons of moves available in the mini games, but likely little to no moves in the other games.  

Battles are quite hands off in comparison to the retail versions of this game.  If you invade, or get invaded, the battle screen is like a game of Magic the Gathering or some table game w/ cards.  Your warriors have a listed battle strength, so you either want to get the most powerful ones you can, or collect a large number of warriors to hopefully outlast your opponent.   These wars are run like typical RPG games.  The stronger your attacker the more chance of laying waste before it is completely spent or beaten.    Some battles in the retail games can be stressful and seem to last forever.  In this game mode, you just set up your cards and then let them battle automatically.  You can watch, but there is not much satisfaction to it.  

When you join a group civ, you want to be aware of what the group needs as a whole.  You can visit anyone's mini civ to see how their town is growing and what their people are working on.  If you notice that the group is doing well in technology and wealth procurement, then maybe  its best if you focus on culture growth.   You can always check for requirements for what is needed to win an era or the game as a whole.

There is so much to this game, but its too much to blog about.  Like all past Civ games, there is a civilopedia to help players understand what is going on and how best to achieve success.  I can say, this Facebook game drove me to go and buy Civ V.    Luckily I got it on sale, but have been loving it.   If you enjoy "builder" games, as my friend calls them, then Civ World is a great intro or light game to peruse.   Otherwise, if you find this game fun but want a more expansive experience, check for a copy of any past civilization game.  They are incredibly addicting.

The Avenger Controller

I’m excited to write about my latest gaming purchase, the Avenger controller.   It finally arrived last week, and if you’re not familiar with this item, it’s not actually a controller at all.   The Avenger is a plastic/rubberized casing that you snap over your OEM Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller.     The features are the levers and trigger controls that augment the normal button functions of your controller.   Keep in mind, this is not a controller mod.  Modded controller’s typically involve new electronic features or changes such as rapid fire buttons.   This controller accessory allows you use the buttons on the controller through a different method of control.  At first glance, the Avenger has a funky spider like look to it.  Looks are deceiving, it is actually very functional and convenient.    The rest of this blog will follow my personal experience.

Front facing view with all showing X, Y, and B levers along with trigger assist

Bottom view showing trigger assist components

Out of the box, I snapped it on my controller and starting to configure it to my liking for all of its components.    I really felt it to be cumbersome and constricting at first, mainly around my right and left index finger movements.     With the quick trigger components, my LT and RT triggers now had a larger and longer space for which I could reach them.   The X and Y button levers are right in front of the trigger buttons, and since I had set them very tight and sensitive, almost every time I let off the trigger I would initiate the X or Y button function.   On top of that, the levers and trigger cards made it feel like I had a small space to reach up for my bumper buttons.   It became unnatural and uncomfortable for me to use it all and I was getting frustrated.    

After trying it on my own in some offline gaming, I partied up online with a friend who has the Avenger, and had him walk me through his experience.    He recommend I remove the trigger assists from the Avenger’s base set up.    A strong point for the avenger is that you can fully customize all the controls including removing them completely if you like.    For this I just undid some screws, pulled off the trigger components and voila!  I easily felt more finger space and didn’t have the trigger claustrophobia.   I also did not like the feel of the trigger assist, but it did allow for faster response times.   On top of that, I also watched a video of the Avenger on YouTube, and realized there were some extra items in the box that were not clearly obvious to me what they were for.    These are soft rubber surface stickers.   They are a mm in diameter and stick to the bumper buttons.   The tiny profile saves space, but the added padding is an easy target to reach for your fingers when shifting them from trigger to bumper.    Honestly, if this is confusing at all, search online for customization or usage videos and you will understand the features and how people set their controllers up.

Once I had most of that configuration I got into some heavy use with them.  I kept to offline gaming to avoid panic and frustration.    I played some Bad Company onslaught as practice, and then did some Medal of Honor campaign.    Once I was comfortable with how the avenger felt overall, I easily adapted to the new button lever layout.    The quick levers for X and Y are the biggest gain for me.    The B button is useful, but I do get mixed up w/ it at times.    The simplicity for which you can now access X and Y buttons on your controller w/o having to move your thumb off the right joystick, which is typically you aiming function, is unmatched.   So far, this only helps in FPS games as its all I’ve played, but you can imagine gaming situations where you are in a firefight directly w/ someone else and you both run out of ammo in the primary gun.  On a standard controller, you would move thumb from aiming to hit the Y button and switch to secondary, then have to regain your aim.   With the Quick lever, you never leave your aim, so you can flip to the next gun and continue firing and aiming almost non-stop.   I never lost any of these standoffs w/ the Avenger!!  The B button works, but may take further practice.  The button does feel a bit out of place for my hand, but you can shift to it and you can adjust the button lever down if you need.  The only drawback w/ this button so far for me is online play in Bad Company.   Sometimes you need to hold B other times tap it to get in/out of vehicles or to grab a new kit.   In the heat of battle I’ve tried to quick hit that button but sometimes I do too much and end up hitting the Y button and start myself into a panic where I just lose my reaction time overall and end up dying.   I hope this is fixed with further use and practice.

My last bit on the Avenger is the use of it with Kontrol Freeks.   Kontrol Freek makes a product called FPS Freek which are thumb stick add ons that raise up the height of the thumb joysticks.   At first I tried the avenger without them, but I’ve developed a serious need to play only w/ my FPS Freeks;it’s bad.  Playing without them feels uncomfortable now.  In any case though, I snapped them on to the controller w/ the avenger and started playing, it was great.   However, after a few minutes, I started to realize my joystick movements translated into slower actions on screen.   The joysticks seems fine and look fine, but when I got down to it, the clasp profile of the FPS Freeks was bumping into the Avenger casing.   You can get around this by pushing extra hard on the thumb stick to tilt it over the edge, but this gets tiring and doesn’t always work.     Writing directly to the folks at N-Control, makers of the avenger, they had an answer for me.  They said community feedback pointed to simply placing a dime between the FPS Freek and the thumb stick.    It’s a bit of rough engineering, but once I did that, everyone fell into place.   I’m running at 100% in my games plus the bonus of both add ons to the controller.    I’m now an unstoppable force online and likely won’t run into many immovable objects anytime soon.

My Avenger with FPS Freeks added and trigger assists removed

I give the Avenger 2 thumbs up and recommend it for anyone who is a hard core online gamer in the FPS or even the 3PS genres.   

Revisiting Old Games

I’ve been back to playing Red Dead Redemption online lately.  A friend prompted me to join them in free roam to work on some challenges and achievements.  It’s been months since I played this last and its always been a good time, so I decided to drop everything and check it out. 

It would be so easy if I could just dump my enthusiasm for a topic on you, it’s much harder to translate from thought/feeling to words.  The interesting perspective here is that I already played RDR, a lot, when it first came out.   With the DLC releases through the summer and fall I did revisit the game a number of times for the adventures and achievements.   What really gets me pumped though about RDR is the fact that I’ve spent so much more of my time playing other hard core FPS games and the like.    I’ve spent over 650 hours playing Bad Company 2.  This is nowhere near the fabled 10,000 hours required to reach expert level in life (according to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”) but at this point I believe I can say I know the nuances of the game and have a definite hold on the design aspects, mechanics and features of the game.  Taking this point of view and applying on top of the normal user experience with RDR, I actually start to pick out things in game that impress me with each return.

Each person has their own perception of a game and how they play it for best experience.   Compared to playing Halo Reach and Bad Company 2, which are excellent shooters, there are some amazingly awesome features and animations I noticed in RDR.  Jump into free roam and soak in the ambiance of the sandbox world Rockstar has created.   Hear the buzz of flies around your ears, feel that hot sun overhead on a cloudless sky just beating down on you.   Now imagine as you ride along the open terrain, the sun starts going down and darkness creeps in from the ground up.  In the distance you can hear gunfire so you look in that direction.  Within eyesight the first thing I notice is a tiny smoke wisp.  I'm seeing the smoke trails from the pistols being shot.  The awesome curl and swash of each one as it dissipates into the air..  Now I’ve identified the source, but as I venture closer to see what is going on.  Here I see one NPC firing at some wild coyotes.   One is shot in the back and I watch as it stumbles, flops down and twitches as it lays there.   Eventually it bleeds out, but I know anyone could have just finished him off more quickly.    These may seems small and petty, but it is the tiny things like this that "wow" gamers who really appreciate their games.  With the hours people put into games, it’s these tiny features that can really stand out.  

Halo Reach came out in the fall of 2010.  I played that game until I maxed out the achievements and moved on.   It wasn’t until one night in February when I came home from a work travel trip and need to relax, that I was invited by friends to play Firefight with them.   Having played strictly bad company and mostly in Vietnam, coming back to Halo Reach was new form of shock and awe to me.   The most significant feature that struck me was around the enemy AI.   In Firefight I was noticing what seemed like squad tactics against the human players.  We would focus on a set group only to realize another set had come up behind us or beside us.   The elites had amazing animations I had not noticed before such as round house kicks, flying jump kicks and other brutal bashing moves when the come into close quarters combat with you.   I also had my first experience being duped by an AI enemy faking me out with a hologram.    That in itself shocked me.  Bungie really put in some AI intelligence for the NPCs to react to us on the map in such ways as to draw us out or distract us while another crowd moves in.  Genius Bungie, I love it.

As you know, Bad Company 2 is my game.  It’s what I play 95% of my time.  DICE did amazing work in the animations and features of their game.   This blog is just to say that when you get into something so deep, and then pull back for a short change of pace, you come to these new games or activities with a different perspective and you can really learn to notice and appreciate the parts of games you love and know to look for in the future.

Playstation Network - Out of Service

Sony's PlayStation Network, its core service offering for PS3 and Sony portable devices has been down for over 2 weeks now.   The media outlets have been on fire with news around it all from topics on who, how, why, and what is next for Sony and gamers.  

Today is May 10th and I really had thought Sony made an announcement last week stating PSN would be online by the 8th or so.    They are in a sticky situation with the immediate demands from the user base while fending off the media, and working to research and protect the network in place.   I hope they are able to turn the network back on such that PSN user's don't experience anything different from what they had before due to upgraded security or other things.  The latest news on the outage came yesterday stating that Sony expects PSN to be down for the rest of the month.   I’m not sure this is nailed down, but the Internet rumors of a 5/31 re-launch.

Since PSN has been down I just shifted any online activity solely to Xbox Live.  I have the luxury of this convenience, but it has to be seriously painful for those PSN users who only have a PS3.   With the lack of a network not only are online games blocked, but other services such as Netflix, Hulu +, PlayStation Store and PlayStation Home are down.     For all Sony does to say PlayStation does everything, now it only does one thing, play discs locally.   I guess overall this is a setback that takes us back to PlayStation 2 days at worst.   

I did consider what life would be like if my online community and access were completely cut off.   Would I just react and shift my activities?   I can do a lot of online browsing of Netflix and Hulu through my PC, and it’s not completely inconvenient.  I can watch directly or plug into my stereo and TV for the full effect.   However, on a positive note for this, as it is Spring, in most of the country, we are still pulling and grabbing here in Seattle to reach 60 deg F on any given day and hopefully it comes w/ some direct sunshine, rather than cloud filtered.  In any case, it is fair that at least the weather should be good for most people so that they are not stuck indoors moping the whole time.

Life goes on, people gripe, but they tend to get their due also.   Sony has stated it will offer a compensation package for all affected users.   Reports suggest 77 million users lost personal information via this event, yet how many of those accounts are regular PSN users who care?   Nothing definite has been posted for the compensation package, but rumors mention item such as: 1 month Hulu + free, 1 free PSN game, membership for up to a year subscription service to protect your identity and information, and maybe a few others items that are region specific.    I guess Sony will post these options and see how bites.  It’s all voluntary, so of the 77 million accounts, those who aren’t regular users and don’t pay attention likely won’t receive anything.   I do wonder how much this has cost and will continue to cost Sony business.  Microsoft has already gone through its pain points (probably more to come) and it cost them Mizillions.   

A topic I’ve read upon, but won’t comment much about is around the speculation of what hacker, or hacker groups did this to Sony.  It’s quite an interesting collection of stories from both sides and media outlets working to decipher who did it, diagram how they did, and then figure out why and what they plan to do w/ the compromised user data.    If lawsuits come down on Sony and the supposed suspects of the network break in, I wonder how far and how long the lawsuits will go.

Cooperative Gaming

I'm in the need for a game type.  I want something that feels and works like the 4 player coop of left 4 dead. This game is an excellent FPS yet fosters extensive cooperation in close quarters.  FPS war games in general are great and when a well built coop game play is built in, it just makes the game replayability and value so much better.

COD games started coming out w/ the zombie gametype where up to 4 people work together to stay alive as long as possible.  This game types was a lot of fun, and many people enjoyed that almost more than the standard online versus mode.   GOW II, BC2 Onslaught, Halo Firefight and other similar 'stand off' games are excellent.  However, these games start to lose a bit of fun through repetitive game play.   Map packs that bring new content are usually snatched up by the hardcore fan base right away.   Red Dead Redemption had a fun 4 player coop add on pack that was free and well made for adding bonus value to the game.

A game I played a while ago called Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising had a great 4 player cooperative gameplay to it.  The game itself was not highly aesthetically appealing, but the concept and some of the gameplay were just awesome.  A new Operation Flashpoint: Red River will be coming out in April and I really look forward to hearing about its 4 player coop.   I believe the game is built like left 4 dead where its built around 4 players working together simultaneously.

I really really hope Battlefield 3 has a strong coop game play to it.  Whether its built into the campaign naturally or if they possibly build a side coop campaign like Splinter Cell Conviction did that would be sweet.   If they create an add on game type like MW2 Spec Ops, then that is acceptable as well and I hope it poses a great challenge.

Now that I think of it actually, I believe I can say I really prefer 4 player coop or any coop type that is more than 2 people.   There is some deeper satisfaction knowing you're working a group towards your objective or goals in game.   The best part of the 4 player split is that you can choose to only try the 2 man tactic and it should provide an almost new challenge for you to overcome in the same game.

It seems like most of the arcade games that are coming out for PSN and XBLA are built around 4 player coop functionality.   They can work 4 player local or online gaming and most of these are simple but really fun games.   Some of them like Zombie Apocalypse are cheesy, but quite satisfying when 4 people are mowing zombies down relentlessly.

Are there any coop games that are really popular I have not yet tried?  I'm sure I'm not even remember the names of other games I played in the past, but I can say I crave more and more.  I'm really only playing games at all these days that are online capable and I can join up with many friends at a time.  My motivation to play games just doesn't find any satisfaction playing single player campaigns anymore.   I've got a small backlog of games I'm just neglecting and hating it.   I can't bring myself to play them and I instantly will jump in to a game a friend is playing.

Well, I skipped on Homefront for now b/c its almost like another BC2, so I hope Operation Flashpoint: Red River is a strong game that is received well.  I hope the game is good and helps me suppress my itch for more quality coop.

Edit 3/26/2011:  Ha, awesome timing. I happened to find this article posted today as well!  Very good stuff.  http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/711264/the-future-of-co-op-why-gameplay-needs-to-evolve/

Mobile Gaming

I picked up my first Android phone a while ago and I've been extremely happy and surprised by what modern smartphones are capable of.  I had a smartphone previously, but it was well over 3 years old, so it would almost be considered a smart 'dummy' phone today.   In any case, getting this new phone has opened up a whole new world for me that I had never really given much thought about before.   I'm late to the game I, but phones running Android, IOS, or Windows mobile are just pocket computers.   And...beyond that marvel to me, computers run games, usually really good looking games and of all crazy varieties.   Firing up this phone the night I got it, I hit up the Android marketplace.  It's NEVER been so easy to just browse games instantly and try out so many free or pay.

I was checking out the marketplace, which had a UI that was much easier to use than I had expected.   I realized one of the top free games was "Angry Birds."  This is the fabled game that has stolen headlines for the last 6 months for how amazing and addictive it is.  I would guess the attention is more around the cost of development relative to the download and retention rate by consumers.   In the end, yes this game is a lot of fun, but for hardcore gamers it just a time filler when you're mobile and don't have much else to occupy you.  When I was on the road traveling for work, I would turn on the game and play while at dinner or waiting around at the airport.  I received quite a few comments by random strangers at how much they enjoy the game, or called it addicting.

GDC 2011 is coming up next week, and although the focus will be on game development specifically, I wonder if new news around mobile gaming and devices will pop up.   Microsoft has built their windows mobile 7 platform to integrate with Xbox Live, and I think this is excellent.  This helps them attack the market in the best possible way.  They can hit the casual gamers and yet still offer games or just game add ons to their hardcore market.   I personally would have loved to try a Windows phone 7 but they are not yet available for Sprint wireless.  It's Microsoft's loss, and its quite odd that they skipped the opportunity to attack cellular markets that still do not have the Iphone(Sprint and T-Mobile) .    Lets also look to Sony.   They have a huge grasp in the mobile gaming market.   The PSP has been an incredible advance in mobile gaming.  Sony is planning to release a newer version of the PSP and it looks to be quite the device.  However, a rumor to shadow all this though, is that Sony supposedly is working to release a  PSP phone.    There have been images shared over the net, but as far as I can tell, Sony has not come forward to acknowledge anything.

Finally we hit the mega mobile gaming winner, Nintendo!  I remember the original gameboy from the late 1980s.   Spinach green side scrolling love.   Nothing could beat it, back then.  Today however we have the Dual Screen, better known as the DS.   The device is simple and very fun and versatile, but Nintendo really showed it gaming poignancy through the great library of popular games developed for the DS.   The latest Nintendo version of the DS soon to be released is the 3DS.  This will be a 3D mobile gaming device.  You won't need glasses, the device will somehow be able to create 3D images through the default screens without add ons.  It seems interesting, but I'm still fine w/ my current DS version.

Just as in our console, PC, and other standard gaming, mobile gaming has a plethora of options.  My personal level of mobile gaming is purely casual.  I will hit a game for 5 minutes or less just to fill time when I'm in transition or just bored and away from a PC or book.   I'm not one to get an itch and just dive into Angry Birds while I'm sitting at home.  My guess is that the majority of gamers are in this space, so I have a guess that mobile gaming will turn less from dedicated devices and more towards the mobile phones we have in hand.  Major hardware and software makers in the world have already come forward and stated that mobile phones are the new PC and will be the future of personal computing in the world.   I'm excited to see how technology advances for both the HW and SW side beyond gaming.

Gamer Rage

I want to write about this topic for a number of reasons, but I've struggled to get this topic onto paper properly, and even now this still hardly feels complete.  When it comes to quitting a game due to rage, I sometimes wonder.  Is it just the gamer?  As in, is it in their own fault for how they played the game that they ended up so upset?  Was it just coincidence and circumstance through their experience (typically through online) Or is it possible the game design brought out an unfavorable experience for the gamer?

I had a bout of gamer rage this morning.    As I was up early this morning to pack for travel and to get ready for Superbowl XLV, I found a few friends playing Bad Company 2 online and decided to join them to see how things would fare.   30 minutes later, red faced, I barked up some curse words, gave a bitter farewell and shut off the game.     I was actually really enjoying the gameplay but felt I was performing so terribly that I felt I was of no use and just got upset to the point that quitting the game was all I could do.    In this match up in particular I had 2 major issues.  1) I was dying exponentially more than I was killing and unable complete objectives, and 2) it seemed as though the same 1 or 2 guys were always killing me.  

Sometimes, it just seems all you can do is quit.    I've quit games (prior to rage) because I can just feel the struggle of playing on a bad team isn't worthwhile, and then there is quitting because you're getting absolutely destroyed and nothing is going your way.   The experiences inferred here are from online play which can vary on many aspects.  Besides shooter and FPS games, I wonder how many other online games and even single player games burn players to the point of rage quitting.   I often find the excuse of just online action through coincidence, but at some point gamers may feel the game played is just poorly designed.   

I can say however, I've definitely had more gamer rage in regards to campaign play than online play.  It's also a totally different feeling.   Playing a game this is difficult and makes you replay portions over and over just make you feel cheated as though nothing you do can overcome the AI's superiority or other game parameters.  For instance, anyone who played COD World at War campaign on veteran must have run into the grenade spamming AI soldiers.   I mean, it was ridiculous, you could hardly duck, hide or move w/o being directly shot at, and if you sat still for anything longer than 3 seconds you would constantly be hearing the 'chink chink" of grenades landing and rolling around by.   You were meant to fail, and not just fail, but suffer along the way.   That is how that game felt after I finally finished it up.   I've run through quite a few other games that have similar play circumstances that just feel impossible.  It's really, really, not fun.    Truth be told though, most of these struggles are when playing games on their most difficult setting.  For any game that is this hard on normal play though, the designers were either insane or purposely wanted to create a difficult game to frustrate their user base.  Who knew?

Gamer rage is likely inevitable.   I'm conscious of it in mostly in my play online w/ friends, since its instant feedback.  It just seems to come w/ the territory.  I do wonder if there is a way to curb it, but I can only guess that would require me changing my play style preference or changing the game altogether.     At least in gaming when things seem to be going terribly, you can just shut it off and try again later.  In life its not so simple and if you're the kind to rage quit, you're also likely to end up YouTube.  Speaking of...my flight's just been delayed 2 hours.   I'm stuck w/ this and no quitting now.   

Dead Space - Get the s#%^ scared out of you.

Alright, we are coming up on something big this year.  January 25th is the planned date for Dead Space 2 to be released to us gamers and I think this will be an experience not to be missed if you love sci fi, shooters, and maddening horror.   

If you're reading this, then I assume you've played or heard of Dead Space the original game.  By God, if you've not played,  go find a copy and dive in.   However, as a requirement, you MUST play w/ either headphones or a nice surround system.   Dead Space is still the scariest and most intense game I ever played.   Visceral created such a great space horror game with the addition of amazing sound and effects just walking around in the game is enough to wear you out from anxiety.

So, back to Dead Space 2.   This game has been hyped up a lot in the past few weeks and months and has likely been on many gaming fan's radars for the past year.   There have been multiple demo's shown, play test opportunities, developer interviews and game trailers.   Personally, I've skipped them all.  For me, playing the original game was such an incredible experience I kind of just want to grab the 2nd game and play it w/o any forehand knowledge of what is to come.   I hope in doing this I can go into the game blindly and recreate that sense of fear and anxiety I had through all 12+ hours of the original campaign.    I literally would play Dead Space in my 2nd bedroom, w/ the lights out, headphones on and have to bundle up in the warmest gear I could b/c I would be shaking from anxiety, which tends to make me cold for some reason.   If there was ever a time that I would scream like a girl, this game brought it out of me.

Dead Space 2 will continue w/ our protagonist Isaac Clarke as he continues his adventure from the first game.  This time, it seems he is on a space station, or another ship, and ends up running into the same necromorph infestation and Unitology religion fanatics from the first game.    I'm sure the added features and enhancements will make this nothing less than a stellar game.  Dead Space 2 will also feature multiplayer this year.    As skeptical as I was of Assassin's Creed adding mutliplayer that turned out well, so I'm hoping for the same w/ this new add on ability.

For those of you who are, or may soon be, Dead Space fans, there are some great supplemental movies, games, and comics out there to feed your need for more.   A prequel movie called Dead Space "Downfall" is available on Netflix Demand as an anime movie that shows you how the ship USG Ishimura became infested and over run before Isaac's arrival.   There is news that another film or movie will be released around the time when Dead Space 2 arrives on 1/25, so I'm definitely keeping my eyes peeled for that.    Two other Dead Space games exist currently as well, Dead Space Extraction and Dead Space Ignition.   Extraction was a game made specifically for the Nintendo Wii and is played as a prequel to Dead Space.   Dead Space Ignition is a simple arcade style direct download game that has a prequel story leading into Dead Space 2.  From reviews this is not a shooter type game but more like a moving pictures storyboard where the gamer can make decisions which progress the story.

I'm very interested in this gaming storyline and would love to consume all the media available, but this is where a question comes in that I've still not answered.    Currently, anyone who pre-orders Dead Space 2 will receive a free copy of Dead Space Ignition, so that is a nice bonus.    However, EA signed a deal exclusively w/ Sony such that anyone who buys Dead Space 2 for the PS3 will have the added benefit of receiving a free copy of Dead Space Extraction to play on the PS3 as well.  The game has received and HD upgrade and is Move compatible.    This is where my main dilemma falls.    Which system would I want to buy this game for?   

Sony definitely wins out for Hardware specs.  They have a superior graphics and sound engine which will make the game insane.    However, I do not have a Move system, so I wonder how Extraction would play w/o a motion controller.    Extraction is a "game on rails" type play meaning that your progress is out of your control as long as you complete required objectives presented to you. ( As an example imagine a ride at a theme park that has you sit in a car or cart that is attached to rails and slowly carries you through the ride.  You have no control, but can view the ride from all directions and angles. )    So, while the sound and game visuals may be superior on PS3, next comes my achievement addiction and multiplayer.   Xbox is my core gaming system for its achievements, and the online network I've established.    Those two points trump sound and visuals to me as I'm sure once I play on Xbox, I won't really notice a drastic difference.   In the end if I go Xbox, I just lose access to Dead Space Extraction.   Who knows though, maybe Extraction is a limited time exclusivity and will one day be released on Xbox and may even be Kinect compatible.

   I'm also on the fence about pre-ordering as I may just wait for release to pass and then read the players feedback over media criticisms.   If anyone reading this is a fan and has advice to point, please drop it on me.