Josh Knowles

I wear many hats. Most importantly it's my job to keep Gaming Irresponsibly afloat. I've played games since I can remember and passed the love of gaming down to my kid as well. Working to make a name for ourselves out there in the industry.

Review – Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Xbox 360)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Nov 222012

“Another year, another Call of Duty title…”, that is is what the internet’s reaction is to the release of Black Ops 2. With that being said, let’s be objective here, something has to be pulling people into the same familiar franchise year after year. If you haven’t been following the news, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time, those are facts and numbers. There is a question that should be asked and that is “Is this game something I should be picking up?” and hopefully, that is why you are here, reading this.

I never played the campaign for Black Ops, I was too busy playing Halo or Battlefield: Bad Company 2, so I was very worried about if I would be able to keep up with the campaign storyline. Although the story is told like a Tarantino flick, it backtracked enough to tell me what was going on and who everyone was. The narrative is extremely competent and used efficiently to make sure that the player is on the same page. More or less, David Mason, the son of Black Ops’ Alex Mason , is in a whole shitstorm due to some interactions his dad and Frank Woods had with a man named Raul Menendez. When playing as David, there are tons of cool guns, gadgets and tech that can be used to accomplish your missions, I felt like James Bond during the 2025 storyline. The other part of the game has you playing again as Alex Mason and while the weapons are old, the story of why Raul Menendez wants you and the free world destroyed is cleverly made painfully clear.

Raul Menendez ends up being a diabolical villain. His goal is to force the protagonists’ hands to end his life.

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t expect a Call od Duty storyline to wow me, it had been something that single player enthusiasts have been able to enjoy for quite some time. With that being said, Treyarch did throw a few curveballs to get you off their well documented trail of plot twists. While there are moments within the campaign that are quite graphic or surprising, there isn’t really a “shocking” moment, which is actually nice for once. The storyline is influenced by decisions you make in the game and are not as absolutely clear as a fork in the road, these branches are mostly taken without even thinking. Rush through a facility without searching for intel, miss an opportunity to change the future. Don’t avoid a hazard while driving, horribly disfigure your partner. It’s the subtle things that really make this single player campaign stand out and thankfully, the campaign remains a 1 player affair.

Along with the typical run and gun levels that the world has become accustomed to, Black Ops 2 also features an intriguing side mission system called Strike Force. Stirke Force plays out partially like a RTS and also as a FPS, meaning you can position your force to achieve your goals or jump in and command them directly, like you have already been doing within the game. These missions break up the monotony that you’ll feel after grinding out a few missions and really offer a nice change of pace. Two things to note though, these missions are actually pretty difficult and are mandatory if you expect to receive the best overall ending in the game. Oh, I didn’t tell you? The game has at least five different ending you can get based off the choices you make, meaning this is likely the most robust Call of Duty campaign ever.

More than likely, if you really truly have interest in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you probably came here to hear a bit about Multiplayer. I spent some quality time in these modes and have a bit to report on. First off, in the the standard multiplayer mode, I liked the improvements that were made to the Skillstreak system. It felt like I had less Rambos on my teams and more people that seemed interested in actually helping us win. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t the odd 12 year old kid telling me how big his dick was while ridiculing my usage of the ability to shoot things while aiming with my gun, but with the new silence user option, he can talk his crap to dead air. Yes, Treyarch did go out of their way to try to improve quite a few toxic elements of their ultra-popular multiplayer and while not perfect, I think they made leaps and bounds in the right direction.

So, the traditional Multiplayer mode? All your favorites are back for more fun with a mix of objective games, deathmatch games and even league play, which is more of a competitive mode akin to League of Legends’ ranked system. They opportunity to build loadouts returns, having you buy ‘items’ for your loadout that can be anything from a gun or a grenade to a perk or a weapon add-on. When building a loadout, I found myself pondering what gear would be the best for certain situations and after finding the right gear, making a set of immediate ‘go-to’ loadouts. More or less, this is a further refined version of the same multiplayer you have been playing for the last couple of years, with even more unlockables. The wheel wasn’t reinvented here, just filled up with air and rebalanced.

Then we have zombies… Honestly, I couldn’t really get into the zombie killing rampage that is Call of Duty: Zombies. I got to play a little of Black Ops’ zombie mode and while minimal, there seemed to be a little bit more of a coherent story to go along with things. In the new zombie mode you will start in your respective starting zones and attempt to survive through wave after wave of undead onslaught. Now, I am well aware of the slight objectives in Tranzit, they just require some crazily silly stuff to be completed. Add that in with the simple issue that half of my teammates never realized that they have to get back on the bus and you have a recipe for about 6 or 7 rounds before game over. The other levels consist of mundane survival or team survival modes, after it was all said and done I found myself going back to ranked where I felt like I was actually being able to accomplish something.

Oddly, I saved the presentation of the game as the last thing to talk about. That is because this game’s presentation is about as hit and miss as a novice no-scoper. That is to say, I don’t really know what to think. Early on in the game, the visuals are very underwhelming. Characters look like they are plastic, tall grass is nothing more that paper-like cutouts and everything else just seems a tad recycled. However later in the game there are moments of brilliance, places where I was on the edge of my seat on presentation alone, somehow along the line, they decided they wanted to make the game look and play slightly better. The game also features a soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Jack Wall and holy hell, it is seriously great. Long story short, the graphical presentation is on par with Modern Warfare 3, if not worse in some parts, while the audio aspect of the game is dead on and just what the doctor ordered.

While it may be cool to hate on the Call of Duty franchise, it’s pretty hard to say that they are actually making a bad game. I would say that it is a pretty good game with a lot of great ideas that I hope to see in next year’s installment. If you are looking for a good FPS and Halo isn’t your cup of tea, check this one out. The variety of guns and superb soundtrack made the experience well worth it while the branching storylines really gave me something to actually revisit a single campaign for. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you ain’t bad at all.

Graphics 65		Audio 90		Gameplay 80
Creativity 80		Execution 75		Offset 80

7.8

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Awesome new weapons and tech
Improved multiplayer
The campaign is pretty freaking cool
Trent Reznor and Wall’s soundtrack

Cons:

Graphically underwhelming
Zombie mode just doesn’t live up to the hype
While the campaign story was great, it jumped around quite a bit. It could have been better just going from past to present.
Multiplayer Strike Force missions would have been worth an awesome addition.

Activision sent us a copy of Black Ops 2 – Hardened Edition to review for the Xbox 360

Review – Halo 4 (360)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Nov 112012

Confession time! I absolutely love the Halo series, which means that I have also been very critical of it as well. The last three installments of the series haven’t been the greatest, with Reach absolutely being the best of ODST, Reach and CE: Anniversary. There was something that the numbered Halo games had, there was a sense of wonder and excitement, it was something much larger than just a game. Halo 4 came out on November 6^th and while there was a fair amount of buzz behind it, I felt worried that a new creative team, sans Bungie, would drive the series into obscurity. 343 Industries promised that they could make Halo, well… Halo again. I was still a bit leery after CE: Anniversary, but start with the important part, Halo 4 does not include any Kinect features. Once I got my hands on Halo 4, I noticed some things right off the bat. The game had been streamlined and the graphics have been improved to the point that it may be the best looking Xbox 360 game ever. The technology they used on faces in the game was amazing. Getting right into it, 11 years after waking Master Chief up on The Pillar of Autumn, it felt like something was back.

PLOT

The Halo series has always chronicled Master Chief’s struggles against the Covenant and Flood with very little, if any, focus on the man behind the suit. It was said that this was due to the fact that they wanted to make you feel like you were Spartan 114. Halo 4 immediately begins fleshing Master Chief out as an individual. The man in the armor has been through a lot and has nearly sacrificed himself for the good of mankind on numerous occasions. He is tired and battle worn, yet still has fight left in him. To contrast that, Cortana, his trusty AI, has begun rampancy and is slowly burning herself out, like a dying candle. This is a major blow for the Chief, as Cortana has been his ally since he woke up on The Pillar of Dawn. After 4 years of floating in space, Chief is woken up and a whole new adventure starts.

Interestingly enough, there is no “war” going on, yes there are Covenant forces to fight and there ultimately are the Forerunners, yet the story goes more into a “1 vs 1,000,000” mindset. A new, ancient threat is awoken and Chief knows that there are some serious implications for humanity if he doesn’t get out there and do something about it. Throughout the journey, a completely new side of Master Chief is shown. He is emotional, he defies orders from officers and willfully offers to lie to cover up Cortana’s rampancy, in short, Chief is no longer a 2 dimensional character.

Without detailing too much or giving out any spoilers, the story of Halo 4 is right up with the best of the franchise. Another new mechanic that is introduced during the game is a few cutscenes and offer minimal input to advance the drama of the story. These have been seen in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, yet there really hasn’t been a place for it in Halo. I really felt like my actions were emotionally driven by the Chief’s struggle.

PRESENTATION

In the opening, I said that this may very well be the best looking Xbox 360 game ever created. I stand by this thought process, more importantly, the textures of surfaces in the game looked incredibly realistic. While Halo has always been a detailed game, Halo 4 steps it up with a massive overhaul to everything in the game. Chief’s armor looks less chunky, he looks like he could actually move around like a real soldier. The Covenant have all been given makeovers as well, retaining what made them iconic, yet giving them fresh new looks to match everything else. The same goes for the weapons, many favorites return in the game, but have all sorts of fancy bells and whistles to really polish everything else up.

The new locales that you are blasting your way through range from the interior and exterior of space crafts, to desert and jungle-like environments and even forerunner (see Halo-like) installations. Every location has its own unique features, most importantly is the way that trees and surfaces look though. Gone are the paper-like textures that look like a sore thumb up close. Halo has always had a focus on the gameplay, with pretty good graphics, Halo 4 still focus on the story and gameplay but brings the graphics along for the ride.

Allow me to beat the same drum for just a second; the game’s audio presentation is equally as impressive as its graphical counterpart. Every single gun has brand new sound effects, not only do these all sound fantastic but there are distinct acoustics for every single place you fire. This goes for every gun, and for a game series where weapon acoustics haven’t been a major deal… well, wow! Also, the game maintains the kick ass soundtrack that the series is well known for. Not one single complaint.

GAMEPLAY – SINGLE PLAYER

Halo 4 seems to showcase an improved AI, it borders the line between ruthless and straight out cheap at certain points in the game on Heroic and Legendary difficulties. I remember tearing through Halo 3 on Legendary in a single playthrough, yet Halo 4 was absolutely brutal at points. I ended up beating the game on Normal, just because I wanted to get through the story first before taking any more abuse. While most the game felt extremely classic Halo, there are points in the game where I really got to enjoy some out of character points. The flight and escape sequences were quite fun, I really do hope that we see more in future Halo games.

Even though single player is great, on easier difficulties, the mode itself is rather short. When playing on Heroic or Legendary, the game seemed about two or three times longer but Normal took only about six hours long. This was a little bit of a bummer, yet we all know that the real meat and potatoes of Halo is the multiplayer.

GAMEPLAY – MULTIPLAYER

The main attraction! This is what most people picked up the game for, let’s be honest. Halo 4 gives us a few different flavors of multiplayer, both online and split-screen. Halo 4’s entire campaign can be played multiplayer but there is a new mode, Spartan Ops, that is an entirely scripted multiplayer campaign that takes place after the end of the single player campaign. While Spartan Ops is more or less the classic firefight mode, it includes additional story that tells a bit more about the Spartan IV’s that are featured in the game. This content is episodic and I imagine this is where we will see a majority of the DLC. I had quite a bit of fun playing with friends in this game mode, but it did take a considerable amount of teamwork to get through everything. The meta achievements made it even more entertaining, as they weren’t as easy as I expected.

War Games is the new competitive multiplayer mode. While some of the classic game modes are missing, there are quite a few classic modes, like team slayer and free for all, that are available still. I was most excited about the Flood mode, which happens to be the old Infection game mode but actually has some pretty unique elements added in as a twist. The experience system is what we have come to expect in the series and the challenges within matches can help you grab some extra experience if you pay attention to them.

I found myself spending a bunch of time grinding in all the multiplayer modes so I could level up my Spartan IV and get some new gear and loadouts. As I level, I unlocked SP which can let me purchase things that allow me to customize the look and loadout for my character. Your Spartan is represented on a card, which features a customizable pose as well. It’s cheesy, I know, yet it’s undeniably bad ass to be that guy when you see the list of Spartans queued up for your next match. We love collecting stuff and you know Microsoft has a monopoly on that market.

Oddly, once everyone was able to get their hands on Halo 4, there seemed to be moments of server hiccups and bouts of lag. This made playing multiplayer for a few days a little difficult, and no one likes lag. However, after sitting on it and also experimenting with different times of the day, I notice that many online issues seemed to clear up. Hopefully this is just a reflection of Halo 4’s success.

CONCLUSION

I need to admit, my apprehension of 343 Industries taking over the reins for the Halo franchise was unfounded. While there were massive improvements to the stale concept of the Halo games of the past, they didn’t forget where they came from. All existing concepts have absolutely been improved upon, and the overhauls were breathtaking. Halo 4 has quite a few “bests” for the series.

Best graphics
Best story
Best Halo

Seriously, this is a departure from classic Halo, yet I can’t help but feel that a brand new life was breathed into the series. As long as they avoid crappy side story games, I expect great and amazing things from the next two Halo games. Pick it up, enjoy it and I will see you out on Infinity!

Graphics 100		Audio 100		Gameplay 95
Creativity 100		Execution 95		Offset 100

9.8

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Graphics are quite impressive
The audio, have you heard the audio?
I really liked the new multiplayer setup. It works quite well!

Cons:

Campaign is a little short, it may be the shortest Halo campaign to date.
Servers are currently taking a beating, expect this to clear up soon though.
I really wanted more aircraft sequences :(

Hardware Review – SteelSeries Flux: Luxury Edition

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Nov 092012

We recently took a look at SteelSeries’ Flux headset and if you have read the review already, you know that we thought it was a great headset! Now we got our hands on the Luxury Edition of the headset, we promise we will make this review short and sweet. SteelSeries took the Flux, gave it a nice matte black recolor and threw 2 different face plates into the packaging. Along with this, SteelSeries also added a travel bag and “Luxuryfied” the headset with some upgraded pieces and a few new items too! Plus, let’s be honest here… The orange cables are pretty bad ass!

The Flux: Luxury Edition shares the same design as the original model, but with a few sexy perks that I imagine one would call luxury. For starters, the LE headset comes with 2 soft earpieces, instead of the fabric ones. While this feels a bit better and is absolutely cooler, it does slightly negate one of the interesting points of the original headset. You cannot simply and hastily was these earpieces, you can and should remove them and wipe them down but I would imagine that the leather would not be a fan of full submersion or accelerated drying. With that being said, they don’t seem to retain heat as much, and you can’t complain about that.

Another new addition to the LE headset is the new phone cable, which allows you to use the Flux as a cellphone headset, complete with call controls in-line for easy access. Phone calls sounded crisp and sharp, while the mic picked up just as clear as the handset’s microphone. This effectively turns the Flux into a hands-free headset, and actually a pretty good one at that. While this may not be the most efficient use of the headset, the feature is there and if you happen to be out and about, listening to music on the phone and a call comes in, at least you know that you have got that covered (and don’t have a rogue plug just hanging out as well).

Aside from these improvements, the Flux Luxury Edition sounds on par with the earlier headset. The mic still has an on and off setting for PC play and absolutely no volume controls in-line, which means you will still be finding yourself revisiting the master volume controls for anything related to your audio levels. With the extension cables to the headset, you can easily use the Flux for either home PC gaming or on laptops without having to physically move things around to not have to break your neck to use it comfortably on PC.

The funny thing about the LE headset is that, more or less, it is just a few items slapped onto the existing Flux model. The phone cable worked on the older Flux headset and of course the leather ear pads could be added to the original as well. I really would recommend the Flux: LE to anyone who is planning on purchasing the Flux but hasn’t yet, you just get more for your money!

We give the Flux: Luxury Edition Headset a 4.85/5. It improves on the original Flux concept, yet still has the drawbacks of the economy-class model.

Win a Game Weekend Goes Overboard With 1000 HAWKEN Beta Keys

Posted by Josh Knowles 9 Responses »

Nov 082012

HAWKEN’s Beta is in it’s second wave for it’s closed beta. It’s really too bad that it’s invite only, as the game is really good! Great news though, HAWKEN’s PR team hit us up with 1000 beta keys to make sure that any of you get a chance to check the game out! Pretty cool, right?

So, how do you get a beta key for HAWKEN? Simple, ask for one! Do it in the comment area below, on our Facebook page, or even Twitter! Let us know how bad you would like to get your hands on a weekend of HAWKEN!

The beta only goes from today (Thursday) until Tuesday (the 13th), so let’s get rocking! Just remember, we really like Facebook likes and Twitter follows!

Hardware Review: ASTRO A*Star Headset

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Nov 052012

Question: Do you think a company that prides itself on its full-sized, high quality headsets should dabble with small, portable, multipurpose headsets? If they did, do you think that it would be a quality piece? Have the features of other headsets in its field? Well, ASTRO created the A*Star headset, an in-ear portable headset for your typical everyday use. The question is: with the amazing quality of the typical full-size ASTRO headsets, does the A*Star hold its own or is it another face in the crowd?

Let’s start with the design, the A*Star headset utilizes a ribbon-like design for its cables. Meaning, less tangles and knotting from tucking the headset away when not in use. It also seemed to get snagged far less, possibly due to the width of the cable, or due to how much closer it seemed to sit to my body. The headset comes with a handy-dandy neoprene pouch that can hold the headset as well, I used it a few times but I am admittedly too lazy to constantly put them back in it after every use. As an in-ear headset, the A*Star headset comes with an assortment of ear pieces so you will have the optimal fit in your ear canals. In-line call, mic and volume controls are conveniently placed at the fork in the headset, allowing for easy access to all the controls and a optimally placed microphone.

I used the A*Star headset in a few different scenarios, the first was with my computer. With my laptop, I was able to plug the headset in with a Y-cable that was included with the headset. As a PC headset, the A*Star functioned decently, with a little popping during more intense moments of gaming. The mic worked well but didn’t sound as good as any of the other headsets I have used. Fortunately, the difference was still marginal. I decided to use them on my Nintendo 3DS next, honestly I don’t know if my 3DS ever sounded any better. The noise cancelling capabilities of the headset allowed me to enjoy all the audio from the entire 3DS catalog. Spoiler alert: 3DS games actually have really good audio! I used audio chat on the Heroes of Ruin and I certainly sounded better than anyone else I played with. With the PS Vita, pretty much everything that applied to the 3DS also applied to the Vita. Now, I contrasted these with a pair of Skullcandy earbuds that I had as well and the A*Stars made it through with flying colors. Finally, I used it on my phone/mp3 player to see if it worked as flexible as I hoped it would. It worked nicely and I was able to use the call controls to answer calls and hang up calls while at the gym or in the car.

My experience showed me that the A*Star headset wasn’t something you would really enjoy around the house as much as you would out in about. While obviously an option for in-home gaming, the A*Star headset really stood out in traditional mobile environments. I tried the headset out in numerous environments; in a car, a crowded area, on a plane and it seemed to keep the background noise down to a bare minimum. In fact, I was shocked at how well the worked on the plane, I even took a nap with them in my ears to kill some noise.

While I still had a few issues with popping and a few occasional issues with the mic needing to be slightly positioned, the A*Star Headset is easily one of the better in-ear headsets on the market currently, and a pretty solid deal for $79.99.

We give the ASTRO A*Star In-Ear Headset a 4/5. It’s functionality is impressive and easy to use for many mobile features. A great item for on-the-go gaming.

Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Posted by Josh Knowles 2 Responses »

Nov 032012

Normally, you wouldn’t find a movie review on Gaming Irresponsibly, our goal is to let the readers in on the hottest and best gaming reviews out there. With that being said, Wreck-It Ralph is a movie that is a movie about video game characters, that takes place completely in an arcade. Therefor I decree that this shall be our first movie review for the site and honestly, I hope it will be an enjoyable experience for you.

So, the premise behind the world of Wreck-It Ralph is that every arcade game is it’s own world. These worlds are tied together by the Game Central Station, which is in reality is a surge protector. When a game is removed, that world is cut off from Game Central Station and all the characters within the game are then left homeless. Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the antagonist from the imaginary game, Fix-It Felix Jr., in which he destroys the apartment building of the Nicelanders while the titular Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) fixes the damage and saves the tenants from Ralph. Ralph is tired of the way he is treated as a villain and decides to set out to win a medal so the characters in his game treat him with respect. Along the way, he crosses paths with characters from Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Q-Bert and many more.

There are so many nods to retro games that I wasn’t surprised to notice that many parents in the theater happened to be in the 27-35 year old golden demographic for video game companies. With all the cameos and jokes about current gen games, I found that the movie was quite enjoyable and something that not only my 4 year old son could enjoy but myself as well. The script was jam packed with tons of jokes that targeted adults yet enough humor that I heard all the kids laughing as well.

Th animation for Wreck-It Ralph is spectacular, coming from a video game journo. The Nicelanders move in a broken, low frame rate style that harkens back to the early days of video games. Each world has it’s own distinct style which is awesome, yet most of the movie is spent in the world of Sugar Rush (although the trailers would make you thing Hero’s Duty is the main location). I couldn’t get over how creative the movie makes the little things that are so common in video games, such as “The First Person Shooter”, which happens to be a robot that mimics the player’s movement but is only a big screen on Wall-E style treads and arms to hold guns. The game also tackles mini-games and even the fabled Konami code, and you know that anything with ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA START deserves critical acclaim.

The music in Wreck-It Ralph fit the movie excellently, with songs by Owl City, Rihanna, Kool & the Gang and even Skrillex (he has a cameo as well!). The sound effects from the movie are taken straight out of other games, giving a true to game experience for anyone who has spent time with games from the last 30 years. The voice acting was great and I can’t understand why Sarah Silverman doesn’t do more voice acting because her character was great, yet John C. Reilly and the rest of the cast were nothing to scoff at either. The least recognizable voice had to have been Alan Tudyc (Wash, for Firefly fans out there), whose voice stood out as one of the more memorable ones in the entire movie.

Even the slowest parts of Wreck-It Ralph proved to be entertaining enough to keep the watcher entertained. It’s great to see Disney break away from the norm and create a new animated franchise that doesn’t rely on sequels or old fairy tales. Wreck-It Ralph shows that Disney knows what it is doing and is very aware of the families going to their movies. If you love video games, good Disney movies, or just having a great time at the movie theater, I would highly recommend Wreck-It Ralph to you.

Also, Disney’s opening short, The Paperman is awesome as well. Seriously, get out there and see this movie.

We don’t currently have an official score for movies so our score is a YES/10

Review – Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation (VITA)

Posted by Josh Knowles 1 Response »

Nov 022012

The Assassin’s Creed franchise is easily one of the most inspired and exciting franchises introduced this console generation. The writing in the series has been phenomenal and the games themselves bleed over into a meta-mix of history and entertainment. When Ubisoft unveiled their standalone PS Vita game, Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation, I was immediately happy that I had purchased a launch day Vita. Initial gameplay and the story concept looked and sounded great, there just hasn’t been any commercially successful portable Assassin’s Creed games… yet. Will Liberation be the first game to really take off?

Aveline de Grandpré, an assassin from the mid 1700′s New Orleans, is the focus of this trip into the Animus. Unlike prior standalone Assassin’s Creed stories, her story is a “product” of Abstergo, meant to show the world the gray lines between Templar and Assassin. Anyone with deductive logic and a history with the series should automatically recognize that you can expect Aveline to walk that line. In doing so though, the writers have easily created one of the stalest personalities in the Assassin’s Creed universe. Altair had a sense of duty about him, he was proud to serve as an Assassin and was bound to his creed. Ezio was charming and endearing. He loses everything to the Templars several times throughout his lifetime, yet he punishes those responsible with a fury and conviction that that players are sympathetic to. Aveline, on the other hand, is a stranger. Her story picks up midway throughout her life and she is already an established Assassin. She seems to lack motivation, as her story seems to show that she wants to free the slaves; yet her sense of commitment to the creed itself is as deep as her character is. This could be the meta side of the game bleeding through, as Abstergo doesn’t want the populous to truly sympathize with an Assassin. If that was the plan, it would have been a bit more convenient to dictate this clearly within the story. The lack of a clear narrative really leaves the most important part of this franchise out: the story.

To be fair, the writing and the characters aren’t all bad, Aveline has some redeeming moments about her and some of the characters introduced throughout her storyline are interesting. While lacking the charm of Assassin’s Creed 2′s cast, they are decently written – but I also felt like a ton of unnecessary conflict happened in the game strictly because characters went out of their way to be as likable as their previous counterparts. Aveline becomes a much more intriguing character at the tail end of the story, which is around the same time the game starts to really feel like a true Assassin’s Creed title. Ultimately, by the end of the game, Aveline becomes the assassin I hoped she would be – but not until the last five minutes of the game.

Gameplay quality is quite inconsistent. I thought combat was quite fluid and Aveline’s tools and weapons made combat even more interesting. It did seem that every time something flashy was introduced, there was an opportunity for touch screen commands to ruin it. Targeting requires you to touch the target you wish to take down; which in most situations isn’t too bad, but in a few others, it is painfully frustrating. The only way to link killing blows together is by activating an instant-kill mode. Once activated, you touch your targets and sit back while you watch Aveline obliterate her enemies. There are a few creative puzzles that you encounter as well that are completely shit on by stupid movement controls. There is a ball-maze puzzle that became nearly impossible because it decided to zero-in the accelerometer at some funky angle, making me actually have to flip the Vita face-down to finish it. After dealing with these issues, the all-too-often slowdown and frame rate dropout that occurs while there’s a lot going on is a head-scratching situation. Ubisoft please.

I understand that I may be sounding a bit too critical here, but hear me out: There are a ton of things that Liberation does great! New Orleans is a small, yet enjoyable port town with tons of charm that accurately reflects social issues in that time period. The Bayou is expansive and, let’s be honest, the parts where you are hunting enemies from the safety of the trees is just awesome. The few other areas you visit are small, yet enjoyable. The cave systems in Mexico reminded me a good bit of the Assassin tombs from previous Assassin’s Creed titles. Aveline’s ability to utilize different personas is certainly a different take on social interactions within the game, but I still found myself reaching for the Assassin persona as often as I could because it restricted the least amount of my abilities. There is a commerce-based minigame that has Aveline dispatching ships all throughout the Atlantic Ocean to buy, sell and trade goods to other ports. This requires some strategy as there are ships that just won’t make the journey successfully, yet you also need to manage supply and demand. Couple this with many different collectible items and a satisfying amount of side quests and you’ll find that there is plenty of game to go around.

But wait! There’s more! Well, sort of. Liberation also has a multiplayer mode, but I didn’t care for it very much. It boils down to a board/card game that isn’t what I initially expected when the phrase “Multiplayer mode specifically crafted for the Vita”. I envisioned a streamlined version of Assassin Creed 2: Revelations’ multiplayer but was instead delivered a Risk-like Facebook styled card game that is essentially a land grab. With a handful of engaging multiplayer options out there, Liberation’s multiplayer mode is easily forgotten.

Even after giving Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation a pretty definitive lashing, I do need to stress that the pros do certainly outweigh the cons on this title. There is about a quarter of this game that is a major disappointment, as in for every three cool things, there is one that makes me cringe. Aveline de Grandpré ends up showcasing the things that we love about Assassins and when the major villain rears their head, her desire to strike them down will be shared with you. The new items, like the blow gun and whip, make combat more enjoyable than the bomb system from Revelations. Unfortunately, there are technical issues and questionable design gimmicks that are haphazardly thrown in that take away from everything else. While still one of the best games in the Playstation Vita’s library, I feel like this game had potential to match its console companion, but falls short in comparison.

Graphics 90		Audio 95		Gameplay 60
Creativity 75		Execution 50		Offset 65

7.3

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Aveline ends up being a great character with her own personality, one that I suspect we will see more of.
There are so many collectibles, side quests and secrets that they could fill an entire game by themselves
Graphically and aurally, the game is absolutely on par with the best entries of the series
The end of the game and the cameo appearance are huge high points and quite fun.

Cons:

Multiplayer really isn’t enjoyable and is quite boring. It felt like a Facebook game.
The story starts out quite slow, gains momentum and then flounders until the later sequences.
The touch and motion assisted features in the game were pretty crappy, they certainly didn’t do Liberation any favors.
The slow down and frame rate issues take a lot away from the action.

League of Legends’ Offers a Sneak Peak at Their 107th Champion, Zed, the Master of Shadows

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 312012

Riot Games’ League of Legends is always up for throwing a few surprises out. While we were out trick or treating, they snuck a sneak peek out of their 107th champion, a ninja by the name of Zed. While obviously Ionian, Zed seems far more sinister than the trio of ninjas that are already in the League. His power seems to have something to do with utilizing shadows to attack, I am calling it now, this dude will have a secret passive with Lux, Leona and maybe even Diana… just saying.

Anyways, all we have right now for Zed, the Master of Shadows is a teaser image and a small tidbit of info about him. This is what Riot had to say about this mysterious champ:

Since early antiquity, shadows have long been a subject of fascination. If you’re a scientist, your shadow is probably a simple projection of light. If you’re more spiritual, your shadow might be a reflection of your more shady whims. And if you’re following a forbidden path filled with dark techniques and even darker motives, it’s possible that your shadow is a sinister companion ready to help you pull off a vicious assassination in some dark corner of the Fields of Justice.

While we’re delving into the forbidden ways, allow us to introduce Zed, a relentless ninja master who’ll leave your enemies scared of their own shadows.

Hardware Review – Roccat ISKU Keyboard

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 292012

A good keyboard is a great tool for the consummate PC gamer. While most keyboards may offer a few media controls, a gaming keyboard is actually so much more than that. While reviewing the Roccat KONE[+] mouse, they also sent us over the peripheral’s partner in crime, the Roccat Isku gaming keyboard. These two items are supposed to flawlessly work together, allowing for a gaming experience that can elevate the player’s gaming experience further.

The Isku is much larger than a traditional keyboard but it’s size should throw you off, each additional button and extra surface space seems to have it’s own intended use. One of the first things I did upon setting it up was accidentally hit the play button at the top of the keyboard. My Spotify player automatically started playing a song from the last album I had been listening to. The other buttons helped me control the other options as I saw fit. This was impressive since I hadn’t downloaded and software for the keyboard yet and it was only acting off of it’s initial programming. Even the macro buttons had some sort of pre-programmed options to them, yet I really didn’t have use for them… yet. Something that seemed a little odd was that the Roccat Isku has an integrated wrist guard, which may be welcomed in certain situations but is still slightly annoying as it cannot be removed, taking up unnecessary space.

When it comes to functionality, the Isku is quite good at what it does! The Isku keyboard has a total of 15 different macro buttons (three sets of five) and separate profiles for different games can be loaded accordingly. Macros are incredibly easy to program in, allowing for super-precise controls and an ease of use in the most tense moments of gameplay. The keys on the Isku keyboard are back-lit making sure all keys are easily identifiable at night. During the day, however, they are not as vibrant as I would have hoped. I usually type from home row but the inclusion of the macro buttons does tend to throw me off a little bit, so I do find myself looking at the keys on occasion to reposition myself. It doesn’t happen often, but a few times I’ve looked at the keyboard and wondered “What the hell am I doing?”. Another feature on this keyboard I have come to love is the internal record feature. At first, I had it set up to start and stop Fraps, which was pretty cool as I could pick and just my recording moments without having to leave the game I was playing. After a bit, I figured out how to operate my Twitch.tv stream from it and all bets were off! I set macros for ads, standby graphics and even my webcam. Yes, all that from my keyboard!

Roccat has this nifty feature called Roccat Talk, which is a fancy way of saying that my Roccat KONE[+] and Isku can operate together as one fine tuned peripheral. How’s that, you ask? Well, you can program both devices to recognize certain things. In Battlefield 3, the keyboard could change my mouse’s DPI when I entered a zoomed in mode. It could also hot swap my macros, just to make sure everything just worked awesomely. I didn’t have a ton of other games that were pre-programmed for Roccat Talk, yet I was able to set and manipulate settings in other games to make it work exactly as I would have liked.

So, what didn’t I like about the Isku keyboard? Well, it’s a traditionally membrane style keyboard, while it still works great, I personally would have preferred a mechanical keyboard over a membrane keyboard. I felt that the responsiveness of the keyboard would have been significantly improved with the mechanical style setup. As I noted already, the back-lit keys were kind of hard to identify in decently lighted conditions. I once had a Saitek keyboard that had back-lit keys but also had a high-contrast outline on the key characters as well, so they were easy to identify, this would be a simple solution to an otherwise annoying issue.

Ultimately, the Isku keyboard is a great overall keyboard and a really good introductory gaming peripheral. While good on it’s own, when paired with the KONE[+] mouse, the experience was exponentially better and went from good to excellent.

We give the Roccat Isku keyboard a 3.75/5. It’s solid functionality is great and when paired with Roccat KONE[+], it’s a beautiful thing!

Hardware Review – ASTRO A50 Headset

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 262012

Back at E3, I got a first-hand look at ASTRO’s newest headset – the A50s. While I only spent about 10 minutes actually using them, they were impressive. I knew I’d eventually get to spend more time with them once they were released, and I know that many of Gaming Irresponsibly’s readers have been waiting for our thoughts on them as well. Wait no longer!

With any ASTRO product, the first place to start is presentation. The A50s are ready to go right out of the box. All you’ll need to do is plug in your USB (for PC) or TOSLINK connection (for everything else) and you’re ready to get rocking with the headset. Everything you need is already included, and the mixamp actually sits perfectly on the base of the headphone stand. This headset is not cheap. At $299.99 it is more expensive than a console, so you’d better treat them with the respect they deserve by putting them on that stand. The headset looks amazing as well, utilizing a full black design with a few red accents. With its durable metal chassis, the A50s can take some considerable abuse.

Comfort? You’d like to know if this headset is comfortable? Personally, I’ve reviewed a plethora of headsets (each with their own varying levels of comfort) and the A50 headset takes those levels of comfort and obliterates them! The headset has a soft foam strip above the head, which rests gently across the top of your head while helping to support the weight of the headset evenly, to reduce strain on your neck and shoulders. The ear pieces did not put any pressure on my ears or head, while managing to rest snugly in place over my ears. This means that no matter how long I wore the A50s, I never experienced any discomfort while wearing them, even during marathon gaming sessions. To expand upon that, I actually used the headset consistently for over 10 hours. During that stretch, I never even had to take them off – not even for a few minutes. They were so comfortable that I was guilty of wearing them around the house while doing non-gaming tasks as well. I’m pretty sure that my wife now thinks I am crazier than ever before.

Some of you may be saying “But Josh, that headset is wireless! There is no way that it can complete with a wired headset!” Shut your face with that tired argument! Not only was I pleasantly surprised at how well the headset worked, I was also pleased by the strength and ability of the unit. As I pointed out earlier, the ASTRO A50 headset has three audio modes for however you’d like to use it. The first mode is the media mode, with a concentration on bass and mids. I used this when listening to music or watching a movie. Core mode is the second mode, which is balanced for gaming. I spent more time in this mode than anything else. Core mode works best for immersive audio when playing a game like Dishonored or League of Legends. Pro mode is useful for games where audio cues are more important. High-velocity, fast-paced, shooters like Modern Warfare 3 or Medal of Honor: Warfighter were vastly improved using this setting because I could hear my enemies before they ever got close; meanwhile games where sound is used to help flesh out the environment, like Dishonored, spring to life in ways you can’t even imagine until you hear them yourself.

Now, I know that sounds great and all, but does the wireless effect any of this at all? No, not really! I used the headset in many different environments and even walked away from the mixamp, into other rooms, the garage and even the end of the driveway with little to no effect on audio. Face it, this headset is badass.

Even though the headset is limited to one device at a time, it was amazingly simple to hook in into any other device. It’s about as plug and play as it gets, and even though I’ve already needed to perform a firmware update, I have no complaints at all with the performance of the headset. One of the best features that the A50 has definitely has to be the mute function. Need to get up and take care of something without letting everyone listen to what’s going on? Flip that boom mic up and the headset automatically cuts the audio input. No toggles, switches, buttons or anything else you might forget to activate! While I used the ASTRO A50 headset for use on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, I also used it for live streaming and also for recording podcasts. The audio quality sounded great, though obviously not as amazingly awesome as a studio microphone setup, it did the job better than the other headsets I’ve used in the past. This just goes to show that the A50s are as versatile as they are awesome. They may not fit every application, but their flexibility is what makes the A50s so great. That’s keeping it simple.

In the spirit of keeping things simple: The ASTRO A50 headset is very comfortable and can be used for long periods of time with little to no fatigue. The battery lasts 10-12 hours in between charges and only takes a fraction of that time to charge back to full. The audio options work amazingly well for all ranges of use. The A50s are easily capable of going from gaming to music, from recording to pwning. The A50 is an incredibly easy to set up system that’s not overcomplicated by incorporating a ton of buttons on the headset.

I have to say I like the ASTRO A50 headset. A lot. Although a little pricey at $299.99, in this case you get what you pay for. The headset is one of the best that I’ve used and one of the finest pieces of gaming hardware that I have had the opportunity of crossing paths with.

We give the ASTRO A50 headset a 5/5. This is a damn fine headset, and it’s an experience truly worth the price of admission

Win a Game Weekends: Walking Dead Episode 4 Giveaway

Posted by Josh Knowles 21 Responses »

Oct 262012

Zombie fans! The Walking Dead is back on TV, you are all shocked at Rick Grimes’ actions and you haven’t played the latest installment of it’s episodic video game extension, There are 2 problems here. Firstly, I take it you haven’t read the comics, because our favorite sheriff’s life is about to become permanently more complicated. Also, the game has been freaking great! Why haven’t you caught up on it yet?

Well, Gaming Irresponsibly is here to help you out… with at least one of those issues you have. We’d like to give one of you lucky readers a Steam code for Episode 4 of the Walking Dead game. Entering is so easy, even a walker could do it. Follow the directions below, tell your friends, keep entering and hopefully you will be continuing the story of Lee Everett. Just remember, in the zombie apocalypse, there are no happy endings… just merciful ones.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review – Hotline Miami (PC)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 252012

Hotline Miami has been catching the eye of many indie fanatics for the last few months, from what we have seen it looks like a marriage of Grand Theft Auto 2 and Smash TV. I think… The thing about Hotline Miami is that it has borrowed pieces of other games here of there, creating an amalgamation that really brings something quite different to the table.

Behind the wanton violence and visceral carnage that is Hotline Miami, there is actually some semblance of a story. I say it like that because I have beaten the whole game a few times and I don’t know what the hell is going on. You play as an atypical nameless and faceless protagonist that receives mysterious calls to run ‘errands’. 95% of these errands result in mass murder by using what items are lying around or dropped by dispatched guards. The story itself plays out like a Chuck Palahnuik novel, with nothing being as it seems and levels of madness slowly appearing to overtake you. There are some serious plot twists and even an ‘epilogue’ campaign at the end of the game. Even after beating the game and getting both endings, I am still scratching my head. In fact, there is a moment in the epilogue that just… well… is this even a thing?

Gameplay in Hotline Miami initially makes you think that the game should played as more of a stealth title, hiding and striking when the moment is right. The thing is, Hotline Miami doesn’t want you to play that way, it wants to see you become a whirling dervish of violent death that has no regard for it’s surroundings or subtlety. You actually get better scores at the end of levels for specifically playing with reckless abandon and once you grow used to it, you will actually start to enjoy it. While the control scheme works perfectly for all of this, I was a little surprised to discover that the game did not support anything but the mouse/keyboard combo. The whole concept fits the idea of using a controller, perhaps it will be something that we will see down the road. Enemy AI also came off as a little inconsistent. Some times I could fire a weapon and alert most of the floor, everyone would come running to meet their eventual doom. Other times I’d get some response from other enemies on the floor while the closest guy to me just continued to stand there. A interesting feature to the games are the masks you can wear. Each mask is like an old school cheat, augmenting gameplay in a way that can either make things easier, handicap your play or cause odd things to happen. You find a mask in almost every level, plus new ones are unlocked through getting high scores.

The retrofied graphics are interesting at best and distracting at worst. With the tacky 80′s color schemes and the generic look of every enemy you encounter, you will often times lose track of victims. This wouldn’t be a major issue if it wasn’t for the fact that you take a single hit before dying. The biggest issue I encountered was with enemies simply blending in with their surroundings or when standing among the dead bodies during an attempted massacre. The game’s distinct 80′s feel is reflected in everything, the crudely drawn character portraits and bright environments are almost satirical when you are able to sit back and survey the carnage you created. All in all, the graphics fit the game well but are actually one of the weakest features within the whole game.

In contrast, Hotline Miami’s strongest feature had to be it’s soundtrack. The predominantly electronic drums’n'bass soundtrack with a techno feel really make the game so much better. I’d go as far as saying that the soundtrack sets the mood even more than the game’s graphics and environments do. In the level ‘Assault’, I really felt like I was controlling a character who had a death wish and no longer cared who or what got in their way. The music always seemed to make sure I was on my toes yet ready to move from one room to the next and the sound effects were absolutely great. There is a part of the game where a bomb detonates and the explosion plus audio distortion really caught me off guard. All in all, there really wasn’t anything I could say bad about anything in the game as far as audio was concerned.

While a pretty solid and enjoyable title, Hotline Miami seemed to have a seedy underside as well. When I first started the game, I was notified of several errors. While looking up solutions, the game decided it wanted to start on it’s own. Even though I chose to enable Steam at the start, I was never notified of any achievements I had unlocked or anything within the Steam client. I had a few game-breaking glitches as well, one time I was bludgeoning some unfortunate pixel-guy’s head in when his buddy shotgunned me from across the room. Instead of the ‘You are dead’ prompt, the game continued as usual and my character disappeared, forcing me to leave the entire level and restart at the very beginning. Another was where melee weapons would lock up, keeping me stuck in a swinging stance. I also learned of a small glitch (or feature, you decide) where you can rush an enemy with a gun and stand so close that you actually avoid their gun shots, yet they are perfectly susceptible to blunt force trauma. That glitch made a few scenarios a little easier than they should have been and I actually felt like I exploited something each time it happened. Everything about the game isn’t bad though, the major glitches still happened few and far between and even though the campaign was short, I still had a ton of fun with it.

Hotline Miami may not be an exercise in perfection but it is a great example of a relatively fresh idea that is executed well enough to make a good game. You will find yourself revisiting levels to beat the game 100% and you’ll be happy to do so. Hotline Miami is a game that scratches that itch to just let lose and destroy everything, yet still allowing you to use your brain just enough to keep you engaged. Hotline is a brain-smashingly good time, one that I’d buy for a dollar.. or $9.99.

Graphics 65		Audio 100		Gameplay 65
Creativity 75		Execution 40		Offset 80

7.1

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Incredibly quick gameplay
Brutally graphic combat is incredibly satisfying
THE SOUNDTRACK IS AMAZING!

Cons:

There are quite a few glitches in bugs in the launch version
AI is inconsistent at best
Repetitive enemies and maps

A copy of this game was provided for review purposes.

Review – They Bleed Pixels (PC)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 212012

Ah, They Bleed Pixels… When I first heard about you and your 8-bit Lovecraftian platforming goodness, I was excited to say the least. It’s been ages since I’ve had an opportunity to play an old school style platformer and you looked like you were poised to fit the part. Plus an eerie H.P. Lovecraft-style story with dark and creepy enemies? As soon as the opportunity presented itself, we were all over Spooky Squid Games for a review copy.

Expect to die…often.

They Bleed Pixels is a platforming game straight out of they 8-bit era, which is reflected perfectly in the game’s graphical style. While quite unforgiving, They Bleed Pixels is a lesson in patience and repetition, as flying through a level unscathed is very unlikely. I could probably describe the platforming sequences as Super Meatboy-esque as you have to utilize all the skills in your repertoire to make it to the next level. There is quite a bit of combat as well, with many enemies having their own little tricks to tearing them to shreds. I know everything sounds like a match made in heaven, but does this game live up to expectations or fall a bit short?

The game’s presentation itself is great, in fact I am quite the fan of the old 8-bit graphics mixed with the awesome electronic soundtrack that was created by DJ FINISH HIM. I would go as far to say these to parts of the game are by far the best parts of the game altogether. The blend of everything made me want to try harder to explore that extra spot and knowledge of 8-bit era hiding spots helped me find quite a few secrets as well.

I initially started playing the game with a keyboard, even though it does recommend a controller at the start of the game. After getting threw a few levels, while absolutely fumbling with the controls as well, I decided it was time to make things a bit more manageable with a controller. Surprisingly, the combat aspects of They Bleed Pixels still came off as a little over complicated than they needed to be. For instance, holding forward and hitting A would cause you to attack normally. Hitting A while also hitting forward makes you dash forward and just hitting and holding A causes non-damaging kicks used for setups. With the platforming as precise as it is later, this makes combat incredibly frustrating at certain points of the game. Several times, I decided to play something else just so I didn’t get too angry at some of the damn enemies that love to show up and hit you in mid jump.

While a little overly complex, the combat in the game still had quite a few enjoyable moments as well. I can tell you right now that there wasn’t too many moments in the game as awesome as beating up a monster, only to send it flying into some deathtrap. The combo system allows you to build up a bar that lets you create a checkpoint when it is full. When I first read about this, I felt like it may actually simplify things a bit more than needed but it actually became one of my favorite gameplay features of the game. Once the bar is full, you have to stand still to create a checkpoint, which allows you to restart when you die and also recover your health. Enemies and traps will block you from placing things at any place you wish, so I found myself oftentimes just looking for safe places to set up a checkpoint. This is great to have as I found that sometimes I may need to take a leap of faith to reach my next goal, while other times nasty jagged spiked were just waiting to impale me. Upon death, you go back to your checkpoint where you get to either make the same mistake again or figure out exactly what you need to do to win.

The story is mostly a silent narrative that tells the story of a little girl, a mysterious book, a menacing shade and a demonic transformation. Really that is about it, but even this is ok as long as you aren’t looking for a game with a gripping story line. The retro-stylized cutscenes are enjoyable and did make me want to at least see what was going to happen next.

While not a perfect game, They Bleed Pixels is full of good intentions. Spooky Squid Games absolutely did a great job of breathing life into a old genre and gave gamers something new to experience. Something worth absolutely noting as well is that They Bleed Pixels also features a DLC system that has FREE DLC. At the time of my review there were levels based around Sissy’s Magical Ponicorn Adventure and Experimental Gameplay Projects: High Velocity. These levels chance the look of your character and also have a few little surprises in them as well. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

In conclusion, if you are looking for a challenging title that goes a little against the grain, They Bleed Pixels is absolutely the game you should be checking out. Even though it is a little hard to get the hang of the controls, I feel this is just the beginning of awesome things from the folks as Spooky Squid Games.

Graphics 90		Audio 95		Gameplay 60
Creativity 90		Execution 60		Offset 80

7.9

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Retro-noir 8-bit graphics are quite awesome
Music. This soundtrack is badass
Addictive gameplay

Cons:

The controls are tedious
Expect to get cheesed by enemies at the worst times

Hardware Review – SteelSeries CS:GO Siberia v2 Headset

Posted by Josh Knowles 1 Response »

Oct 162012

The time has come to revisit the SteelSeries v2 Headset, this time with the Counter Strike Global Offensive edition of the model. While not massively different from the Diablo 3 version we reviewed a while back, there were still a few major differences that made this worth revisiting.

The most major difference from my original review of the Diablo 3 Siberia v2 to the CS:GO version has to be the connectivity. Instead of the USB connection, the CS:GO version of the headset utilizes the audio-in and mic-in plugs that almost every PC utilizes. Does this take away from the headset at all? I personally think so, while the official word on the subject is no. That isn’t to say the audio quality is horrible or even bad, it’s more of the issue that I couldn’t seem to find that perfect setting. It could be that since the analog headphones do not support that SteelSeries engine, I just couldn’t replicate the quality I had from the USB version. A huge plus to the headset has that the 3.5mm audio jacks had a lengthy extension cable that allowed the headset to be used on other devices and computers. Most of the time I didn’t use the extension and used my laptop, it worked perfectly.

Since the headset has no USB connectivity, it does lack the literal flash that the USB Siberia models feature. Even though the headset does lack the lights and visual bells and whistles that some models have, it still features the legendary Siberia v2 design that we have already fallen in love with. Oddly, the Siberia v2 headset must have been the initial piece developed in the series (mouse review coming soon™) as it doesn’t feature the same winter camo design that both the mouse and mousepad use. Instead, the headset uses the traditional olive camo design, which doesn’t mesh all that great with the rest of the set, yet still looks great on it’s own… if camo is your type of thing. The branding for Counter Strike Global Offensive is quite apparent and done classy, I really liked the CS:GO logos in the earphones themselves, they look great.

Since the headset uses the 3.5mm jacks, I was also able to use it for a myriad of other items as well. I tried the headset on the Vita, 3DS, my phone, my son’s leap pad and my tablet PC as well. Each different item didn’t have any issue with quality and the in-line controls still worked as well. While I know that most of these are not the intended function of this headset, it’s still great to know that there are many other uses the headset can be applied to.

When it comes down to it, this is a headset that CS:GO fans will likely want to have if they are looking to rep their game. They are cheaper than the USB version of the headset and some of the analog style features more than make up for the fine tuning. The headset still sounds great and is absolutely worth the $99.99 that it costs to get your hands on them.

We give the SteelSeries Siberia v2 CS:GO Headset a 4/5

This headset was provided to us for review purposes by SteelSeries

Review – Dishonored (Xbox 360)

Posted by Josh Knowles 1 Response »

Oct 142012

-Error reading from ESRB datastream-
Please visit ESRB.org for rating information.

A few times a year, that game comes along. It’s a game that isn’t quite like anything we have ever played before, which can be a good or bad thing. Last year we had games like Bastion and Skyrim and this year games like Guild Wars 2 and Quantum Conundrum have lead the charge. However, Dishonored is that inconspicuous title that we just weren’t quite sure of upon first hearing about. I mean, first person stealth combat with super powers and multiple solutions to complete your assassinations? Sounds great! The question we all asked around the site though was “Would the game be as great as it sounds?”.

You play the role of Corvo, bodyguard of Dunwall’s Empress, whom upon returning from investigating the mysterious rat plague, is promptly framed for the murder of his charge and kidnapping of her daughter, Emily. Your conspirators, like most villains, reveal themselves to you since you are to be executed the next day and as fate would have it, you find a way to escape the prison. After breaking out of jail and joining up with the Loyalists, Corvo is visited by a mysterious entity known as The Outsider (who reminds me very much of a Daedric Prince) who gives Corvo the ability to use supernatural powers. With the help of an inventor and his new found abilities, Corvo exacts his vengeance upon those that killed his Empress and kidnapped Emily.

While not the most original story ever, it is very well written and there are enough twists and turns to keep you engaged throughout. Potentially the most upsetting thing about the story is that most major plot developments are predictable and easily guessed well before and twists happen. In fact, I figured out one of the biggest twists in the game that is revealed at the end within the first 5 minutes of gameplay. Literally, the very beginning of the game. The game also features 2 different endings, based of our your chaos rating. I felt that both endings lacked the heart that is in the rest of the game, although one ending was still worth the effort.

Combat is an option for the most part in Dishonored, I played my first playthrough without killing more than a few people. As a fair warning, typical to the Bethesda name, there is a bug that sometimes kills people you knock unconscious if you stack them on top of each other. It is up to you to decide if you want to create a path of destruction with corpses in your wake or strike from the shadows, potentially incapacitating your foes instead. The options of combat are deep, and there is plenty of customization available to you, allowing you to specialize in whatever playstyle you choose. When I played much more violently I took the abilities that literally turned me into death incarnate, brutally destroying my enemies and leaving no trail of my carnage. I really enjoyed this duality since your actions will change the way events that you encounter in the game and to some extent, the enemies and obstacles as well.

The combat itself is entertaining as well. Corvo is allowed to use his blade and a secondary weapon or ability at the same time. This allowed me to really experiment with his inventory to find the best combinations, although the blink/sword combo is still my favorite by far. Parrying attacks and using your blade to counter attack is fun but the carnage from grenades and razor wire traps is equally entertaining. Interestingly enough, unlike other games, alerting a courtyard of guards doesn’t necessarily mean that you are in for deadly combat. Corvo’s mystic abilities allow you to turn tail and elude enemies amazingly fast as well, I always used combat as a last ditch option.

I enjoyed the concept of Dishonored quite a bit. I didn’t tire of the game mechanics and there was enough to complicate things when I returned to certain areas I had already visited. There are collectibles almost everywhere and usually getting all of them seems to take a fair amount of brain exercise as well. Dishonored seems to give you so many options and alternatives that ultimately, some people may actually find this overwhelming. Many times, a nav point will be your only clue to your next goal. Visiting other places and poking around new areas may yield even more alternative options, so even though there are only two endings, there is plenty of game being played.

While I have been singing Dishonored’s praises, the game itself is far from perfect. Enemy dialogue is rather repetitive apparently I’ve “made someone a widow” quite a few times. Corvo better hit the market, I guess there are hordes of lonely ladies out there. Also, I really wish that the heart item had more use, I seriously tried to use it on almost everyone and was disappointed that the ‘secrets’ about certain characters was just a ton of reused info or other stupid crap. I also felt slightly limited when that urge to explore hit me. I mean, there were little things here or there, but there really wasn’t huge rewards for trying to quench wanderlust. With the awesome abilities at my disposal, I just wanted to be able to do even more. I guess that is a good and bad thing.

In a time when new IPs aren’t overly successful or met with critical acclaim, Dishonored stands firmly on it’s own. Arkane has a winner on it’s hands and hopefully with The Outsider doing his thing, we will revisit the world or Dishonored time and time again. Dishonored is an exceptional original title and well worth all the attention it receives.

Graphics 90		Audio 90		Gameplay 100
Creativity 90		Execution 75		Offset 100

9.1

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Holy crap! You can make your own choices in how you get things done!
The story will draw you in until the last moments
So much you can do with all your skills and weapons

Cons:

Overused voice clips
Left me wanting even more

We played Dishonored on both Xbox 360 and PC. There was little to no difference between the 2 titles, so we will be rewarding only one score. If at any time this changes, we will revisit and make any necessary corrections. A copy of this game was provided for review purposes.

Review – Plants Vs Zombies Pinball (Vita) (PS3)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 122012

Zen Pinball 2 has been a perfect example of how old concepts, such as pinball, can still be viable to gamers now. Well, we were lucky enough to get our hands on the PS3 verison of the Zen Pinball 2 table for Plants Vs Zombies and were quickly concerned at the viability of a ‘casual’ title making the jump to another genre. I mean, it’s Plants Vs Zombies… it can’t be that enjoyable of a concept, right?

Well, it turns out that not only am I incorrect, but I am also an idiot because not only is the table decently put together but it also a really fun table to play. What really made this table an interesting one, was just that how well the table compliments the lineup of existing Zen Pinball tables. With tons of minigames based on the game itself and entertaining on table effects, it should absolutely be worth checking out.

On the PS3, the game was very crisp and colorful. I enjoyed the layout of the table and a few features that I loved from real pinball games, like the crazy extra ball mode and the extra flippers and tracks. I was very impressed with the audio setup and everything honestly looked great on the table. One of the most surprising things about this table though had to be the fact that every time I went to try to beat my friendlist’s high scores, I discovered something new about the table. It could have been a new minigame or an event that you can trigger by hitting the right targets. Either way, it was entertaining to return to time and time again.

But wait! There’s more! The PS3 version of Plants Vs Zombies Pinball is portable to the Playstation Vita, which means this review is a two-fer! So, what is different about the Vita version? Well, have you ever played a Vita pinball game before? There are a few, realistically though, they just aren’t up to par with the real life physics and overall interactivity of the Zen tables. So, is the Vita version as good as the original? Well, I hope you like extras!

The Vita version of Plants Vs Zombies Pinball is absolutely worth the purchase in itself. In fact, the Vita version of the table feels like it was specifically made as an exclusive Vita table. It fully utilizes the rear touch panels, offers touch display controls and even some options to fine tune your gameplay. Personally, I really enjoyed the game’s portrait mode on the Vita and gave the game an even more lifelike experience.

If there were any gripe at all about both version of the tables, it would easily have to be the fact that there aren’t a ton of easily identifiable objectives in the game. What I mean by this is in older pinball games, there may be clear direction on what you need to do for the massive jackpot. On this table, there are a few ‘live’ objectives, but I hit some crazy jackpots a few times before even having a rough idea about what I even did. It’s a small complaint, but after spending hours playing the same table, I like to have an idea of how I can improve my play even better.

So here is the deal, this table is freaking great. It captures the cheekiness of the original game but also throws in everything you love already about Zen Pinball tables. With the ability to get this for both the Vita and the PS3 at the same time, this is a purchase worth making!

Graphics 80		Audio 75		Gameplay 90
Creativity 80		Execution 85		Offset 90

8.3

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Graphics 90		Audio 70		Gameplay 75
Creativity 70		Execution 85		Offset 90

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

A copy of this game was provided for review purposes

Win a Game Weekends Goes Old-School With Retro City Rampage

Posted by Josh Knowles 83 Responses »

Oct 122012

The long awaited GTA/8-bit nostalgia machine Retro City Rampage came out this Tuesday and as expected, we have a review for it as well! The game looks great and is absolutely something worth taking the time to get your hands on. Fortunately, GOG.com agrees with us on this and would like to help make sure 3 of you get a chance to play Retro City Rampage as well. So here is the deal, follow the directions in the giveaway box below, earn extra chances for sharing the post about the giveaway on our Facebook page and tell everyone you can about it. After all, what is better than an 8-bit fan service to some of the best titles ever made? A free one.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hardware Review – ROCCAT Kone[+] Mouse

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 112012

ROCCAT is a well known name within the eSports community and their hardware is even better known internationally as some of the most solid gaming peripherals on the market. They sent us their Kone[+] mouse and their ISKU keyboard(review coming soon) to review, and after some lengthy testing (and a bit of troubleshooting) this is what we thought of their well known mouse.

To start things off, the ROCCAT Kone[+] is considerably larger than the last 2 full size mice I have used. Fortunately it’s size does not interfere with it’s ability and the Kone[+] fully fits my hand quite nicely. While the size is a little surprising, the mouse is still incredibly light, which isn’t something I was expecting. However, there are 4 5g weights that can be added to the mouse, which allowed me to give it a weight that I found to be much more acceptable. Another cool little thing is the LED lights that are in the mouse, allowing for many different options on the mouse’s track lights.

With the ROCCAT’s Kone[+] driver, almost everything can be customized on the mouse, from button assignments to the colors of the LED lights. I was extremely excited to try to use these features when I first unboxed the mouse and plugged it in to get to the driver and get things rolling. Unfortunately, the mouse didn’t work initially. Apparently, the mouse wouldn’t function while other mouse drivers were active, which is irresponsible on my part but still kinda wonky. After some trial and error, I figured out the issue, deactivated my other peripheral drivers and was able to use the mouse and start messing with all the settings. Once I got in, I was absolutely impressed with the options available. I set a few keys to only a few of the Kone[+]‘s 12 customizable buttons, found a few comfortable DPI settings and then played with the colors and patterns of the lights on the mouse, then I was ready to go.

I found that the Kone[+]‘s hot-swappable DPI settings were actually pretty handy while playing a myriad of games. Now, I am sure you are thinking “Well, Josh, don’t most gaming mice have options to change their DPI?” and the answer is yes. Something a little extra the this mouse does, though, is announce the DPI setting you have your mouse set on when you make a change. Literally, I could hear “800 DPI” or “3200 DPI” every time I made a change, and these weren’t just presets that only worked for set DPI levels, they actually worked for any setting I could choose. The mouse felt great in my hands and all the buttons functioned as I hoped they would.

As far as tracking, the mouse worked well on most surfaces, with the exception of glass, which is ok since most mice aren’t glass friendly. As with many mice with awesome tracking features, dust and hair can still be a huge pain in the ass. After picking up a rogue dog hair, I found myself desperately trying to get it off the sensor while losing almost all ability to move my cursor around. While not a huge deal, I do feel that I have used other mice that may have been a little less susceptible to that. Outside of that, I found that the mouse functioned awesomely, button placement for the two thumb buttons were absolutely perfect and I didn’t have any other technical issues outside of those mentioned.

With all of this being said, I thought that the Kone[+] was a great gaming mouse that boasts a Swiss Army-like amount of features. There is also a ROCCAT TALK feature that we will revisit in the ISKU review.

The ROCCAT Kone[+] is a great mouse that we award a 4/5 to.

Review – Double Dragon Neon (Xbox 360)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 102012

-Error reading from ESRB datastream-
Please visit ESRB.org for rating information.

Double Dragon, one of the most beloved old school franchises which has long fallen from grace, has been subject to many remakes and attempted ports. It always seems that every time a new Double Dragon game comes out, there is something lost in translation. My last exposure to the franchise was a watered down, pitiful attempt and a shoddy brawler. A sad ending to a great franchise. However at E3 a newly announced title, Double Dragon Neon, was announced and I was able to get a preview of it. A few months later, we got our hands on a review code of the full game, would it be as good as the originals or just another crappy knockoff?

Double Dragon Neon is very quick to remind you that this is a spiritual remake of the original games, featuring remixes of classic Double Dragon songs and massive nods to some of the levels from the franchises best games. While this is enough to make me smile as an old school gamer, there is also a massive amount of 80′s pop culture and old school video game references. A great example of this is the main villain, Skullmageddon, who is an obvious parody of the He-Man villain Skeletor. I also saw an obvious Mega Man clone in the game as well, everything reference is it’s own love letter to the golden ages of gaming and pop culture. Now the thing I liked most about this is the fact that even though the nostalgia is over the top, it doesn’t take anything away from the game.

With gameplay, there are 2 major things to note with Double Dragon Neon. First off, I really don’t think that the game is ever really meant to be played as a single player game. There are so many features that are just not available to you when you play by yourself. Currently, co-op is only available while playing in a traditional same-screen format but there is an upcoming patch to allow online co-op as well. Now the second thing about playing the game is all the amazing co-op abilities that you can use. The new ‘High Five’ system allows you to share life, steal life and buff each other to supplement the combat experience. You can also juggle your opponents with well placed combos and revive a downed Bro when your health reaches zero. Playing single player removes these elements from the game altogether.

Combat is typical of a brawler, featuring waves of the same enemy time and time again with different skins but the same combat AI. While there is a plethora of different attacks that are available at your disposal, I found myself using the typical punch/kick combos to get the job done. There are a collection of special abilities that you can use as trump cards while brawling but I never really found myself absolutely relying on it either. These new combat features came off as great additions to the game, but really didn’t end up being anything that added to or revolutionized gameplay.

Ultimately, I had a great time playing Double Dragon Neon and was even able to sit down and play alongside my 4 year old son. With the Shadow Bro mode, he was able to autocopy my abilities and not have set his own skills as well. This was nice and allows a new player to play with another player with a pre-leveled character. I did still need to play through some of the more brutal platforming sequences but it was something that he could still play the majority of. I feel this is a huge benefit of this Double Dragon game, it appeals to not only the veteran fans but also to the inexperienced newcomers as well. This should be noted, as this is really the first decent Double Dragon entry in over 20 years. The first for many gamers out there now.

All in all, Double Dragon Neon may not be the best game ever, or have the most original mechanics, it is still absolutely rad!

Graphics 60		Audio 85		Gameplay 70
Creativity 85		Execution 75		Offset 70

7.4

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Hardware Review – SteelSeries Flux Headset

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 072012

Hey readers, I know that you are likely familiar with SteelSeries by now. When we were at E3, they showed us a really cool modular headset, that looked and sounded great. They were pretty awesome, but being that they were more or less prototypes, it was hard to really get a ton of info on them. Well, the Flux headset is out and it is time for us to get into the nitty gritty with it. SteelSeries sent them over to take for a spin, man did we do it.

For starters, the Flux Headset is an on-ear headset, which differs significantly from the super popular Siberia v2 headset, which is a over-ear headset. While this was initially a concern, I was elated to find that the headset still was able to function as efficiently, if not more, that the over-ear models. The ear pillows actually provide a very impressive amount of noise cancellation for a headset that doesn’t go over or in your ear. The headset is generally comfortable, yet fits rather snug on my massively large head.

The model I reviewed is the Guild Wars 2 branded headset, which features a red and white motif while rocking the Guild Wars 2 logo on the ear plates. This serves as an awesome example of the other great feature that the Flux features. The whole damn headset is modular, which allows me to change the audio cables, ear pads and ear plates to designs and colors of my choosing. This means, I can change the Guild Wars 2 ear plates to a solid white, black or something totally different… if I had additional plates to change them with. While not a make or break feature, I liked to see this since it really gives some flexibility for the aesthetic gamer. The other really awesome feature I thought was pretty original on the headset was the fact that an additional audio cable could be plugged into the earpiece that did not elect to plug the audio cable into and carry the audio over to that source as well, meaning it functioned great for use outside of gaming as well.

So, how was the Flux headset when I was able to use it? Truthfully, I think I liked them better than any of the Siberia v2 headsets that I have used so far… in moderation. The audio itself sounded great but for some odd reason lacked in line controls, which seemed kind of odd and was a bit of a pain to deal with when used on my PC. I’d guess that this was a cost saving technique, since cables with in line controls would likely cost more and eliminate that portion of modular customization. The mic itself is also built into the audio cable, which is features audio jacks instead of a USB connections and even though it lacks a boom extension, it still sounds great to those I played with.

To criticize the headset a bit, I did actually come across a few things I didn’t love about the headset either. The biggest culprit was that after extended use, I found that the headset would get slightly uncomfortable, making me feel a bit like my head was is a vice. This was likely due to the fact that the headset sits directly on top of my head, rather than ‘floating’ above it, as the Siberia models do. Fortunately, this only happened after 3 or 4 hours or constant use and even then, taking them off for a few minutes really helped. The other issue that I had was with the in line mic. Many times it got turned around and was facing my chest, which muffled my voice. This was something I found myself having to stay aware of, which provided a minor inconvenience. Finally, there was that slight issue with the volume. Most PC games were really loud, which meant that I had to go into my control panel to fix the levels. However, in other games it was kind of quiet, which meant I had to go back into the control panel to readjust the audio levels. Nothing was really a deal breaker, just small annoyances if anything at all.

Ultimately, if my experience with the Flux headset taught me anything, it was that a small mobile headset can deliver at an equal level with the full size models that many PC gamers use. The reduction of size comes at a price, as it isn’t as comfortable as a full size headset. With that knowledge though, it’s still easy to say that the Flux headset is still one of the best headsets I have had the pleasure of using.

4.75/5, would review again.

Win a Game Weekend Gets BETATASTIC With MechWarrior Online

Posted by Josh Knowles 3 Responses »

Oct 052012

We grew up with the MechWarrior franchise, when it came to jumping into a bipedal tank and shooting other unfortunate mech pilots, MW was the best. Truthfully, we all probably jut build mechs with too many guns and then couldn’t move due to weight or constantly overheated, but who is keeping track… Right? RIGHT?!

So, MechWarrior Online is currently in closed beta, which means that if you want to get in, you need an inside man! Well, us folk at Gaming Irresponsibly want to share the action with you and what better way than giving 7 of you a chance to get in on the beta? Sounds pretty awesome if I do say so myself… Amirite? Well, MWOMercs.com seem to think so!

So, follow the rules below, earn your chances and get ready to pilot some mechs… Online!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review -Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Oct 042012

-Error reading from ESRB datastream-
Please visit ESRB.org for rating information.

Every time the Final Fantasy franchise is brought up, I find it needlessly necessary to explain to you, the reader, that I have mostly loved the franchise that is almost as old as I am. I have played through the greatest entries and the absolutely horrible one-offs that tend to roam along on rare occasions. When I was at E3 and was offered a chance to play Theatrhythm Final Fantasy , I was excited yet also partially horrified. A rhythm based Final Fantasy game?! Not only was this something I was quite uncertain of, the idea around it is just so… odd.

After getting the full version of the game home, I threw the game in my 3DS, picked my party and immediately jumped into my favorite Final Fantasy game’s soundtrack. Now each level of Final Fantasy Theatrhythm is one of 4 different types:

Opening/Closing: This one is a freebie, you tap the screen as light hits the crystal. You can absolutely opt out of it if you choose to. It also gives you a chance to considerably boost you score.

Field Music: Remember those ‘Overworld’ themes you used to listen to while poking around a final fantasy world map? Well, you need tap, drag and flick your stylus to keep your character moving right to left on their adventure at a brisk pace. At a certain point, a bonus line will appear, if you hit all the notes you will ride a chocobo briefly to give you an additional boost. If you manage to reach the end of the ‘map’, you will meet a non-playable character that will reward you with an item, but you will only get those in ear perfect runs.

Battle Music: This is exactly why many Final Fantasy fans decided to pick this game up. A battle with your hand picked characters against notable characters from the game you selected your soundtrack from duke it out in a simulated battle. Hitting the correct notes will land attacks and the more precise your are, the more damage you will do. You will fight through waves of enemies and be given a chance to summon a monster into battle to do a special attack, ultimately leading up to a fight with the game’s main villain. There is so much nostalgia in this mode that longtime fans will find themselves coming back for more.

Event Music: During this mode, you have to follow a line around the screen and hit the targets dropped along the way. While you are going through this generally slower song, familiar scenes play out in the background to the corresponding game you selected. This is unfortunately the most boring mode, often times using amazing songs that were originally used for scenes in their original games that didn’t require much action from the player. This mentality really plays through, it just feels a bit tired.

While all these modes provide amazing music for you to get pulled into, the Battle Music section is always the best throughout. You level your characters as you progress and can equip them with spell and skills that they can utilize mid battle. It’s just so cool to see it play out along with songs that defined an entire genre of game. There is also a Chaos Mode which is more or less an unforgiving Ultra Hard mode that will pit you up against new songs that will actually be kind of hard to enjoy as the game mercilessly kicks your ass. You will be finding yourself continually returning to Chaos Mode after the challenge and nostalgia of the main game wear off, which happens in about 8 hours. You can buy an assortment of new songs from Nintendo’s online store but they are .99 a pop, which was a little too expensive to keep me involved in a full price game I had just purchased.

The gameplay itself was very straight forward, after playing through one cycle of a song set, I had a pretty solid idea of what to expect at almost all times. I liked the fact that during the battle sequences, I could actually impact the flow of combat by leveling characters through use and equipping items and skills to them as well. It brought along a faux-RPG element that ended up being relatively useful as well. As stated above, the Event Music parts of the game were oftentimes the worst. As the usually slower title tracks were chosen for this mode, the background video that plays was usually more entertaining overall.

The art for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is extremely light hearted, which seems like an attempt to appeal to the new player and not the grizzled Final Fantasy veteran. All the characters and enemies in the game appear to be straight out of a child’s playroom and even though it is an extreme deviation from the norm, it isn’t too bad. The game itself could be described as pretty, but also as a horrible use for the 3D technology. As I played this game, I spent most of the time with the 3D off, since it would sometimes make the game a bit more difficult as I was moving the 3DS while using the stylus. With that being said, it’s probably better to avoid the 3D altogether on this one.

The soundtracks used for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy are as awesome as they were the first time you heard them. If this is your first time, your eardrums are in for an aural buffet. While this in it’s self is an absolute buying point, there is something else that happens while you play through and reminisce with all these great songs. Nobuo Uematsu, the creator of many Final Fantasy songs in the game, played Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and and was quoted as saying “As I remembered various things from the past 20 years, I was reduced to tears. FF music fans should definitely play it. Won’t you cry with me?”. While it’s a beautiful sentiment, I too felt tears welling up while I played Theatrhythm. However, this wasn’t from my love of games that have long past, it was more for the direction of these recent Final Fantasy titles and the disregard of what made the series great to begin with.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a game that should most likely be in your 3DS library. While limited in content at the start with only 3 games, what the game does have available is entertaining and certainly worth the time spent on it.

Graphics 70		Audio 90		Gameplay 65
Creativity 70		Execution 70		Offset 60

7.1

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

You will take an amazing walk down memory lane
Most sequences are enjoyable
Almost everyone’s favorite songs are in the game

Cons:

Event Sequences are boring
There are a limited amount of songs and .99 per additional song just seems too expensive
Overall, I got S rankings in the normal game mode within 8 hours. After that, there really wasn’t much else to do.

Review – Driland (Android)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 302012

It’s quite rare that we take time out of our busy schedule to take a look at an Android game, but this is REVIEWMAGEDDON and all everything is on the table. Driland is part of a common group of usually micro-transaction supported card game genre that is becoming more and more common. It is based out of the GREE platform, which operates in a similar fashion as Steam, but for mobile devices. So is the game worth the time to download, is it something you will find yourself spending time on? Or is it just a waste of time and money (if micro-transactions are your type of thing)?

The concept of Driland is very simple, you adventure throughout dungeons, collecting hunter cards and items to improve your team, while also gaining small amounts of bells (the currency in the game). Now when I say that you adventure through jungles, I mean you press a button that says “Quest” while your stamina decreases at a set rate, depending on the dungeon you are in. Each time you quest, you are given a trash item, a helpful item, a hunter card or an enemy encounter. Fighting enemies involves taking your 3 “party cards” and making them “fight” the enemy. You usually lose a little bit of health upon fighting, which seems really inconsequential but after you get to a boss, it can be a pretty big deal. Bosses have you take your 3 characters and also chose 2 allied characters in a much larger and damaging showdown. If you win, you get experience and bells, if you lose, enjoy going all the back to the start, unless you want to use some items. The truth about Driland is that it really isn’t much of a game at all, it’s more like a web-based slot machine. Yet, even as a limited form of entertainment, it does just that. All in all, questing is really just a time killer. You don’t get too much from it (other than in rare event dungeons) and the biggest draw of the game makes this serve as a small distraction.

Where you really find action in the game is through the Dire Monster events. Every few weeks, an event occurs where you build teams of cards and slay powerful monsters for chances at getting pretty awesome cards. The monsters get progressively more difficult as you defeat them, forcing you to reach out for the aid of the allies that you have recruited. These allies are other players that have either requested you or vice versa. You have a limit, so making sure your allies are responsive is a big deal. During these events, you get a real feel of the sense of community that Driland has. Yes, a simple game has a pretty impressive community.

The norm for communication with your allies and other players are by using “kudos”, which happen to be small blurbs that award both you and that player a few points and let you leave messages. These points are used to earn chances for new cards, so daily kudos are pretty important. There is also a GREE forum that can be accessed from your phone. This forum is a great place to meet experienced players, make trades, suggestions or simply just find out more about the game. While getting into the initial phases of the game, I asked a few questions about which Rare Hunters were worth investing into enhancing. I got great advice from the other players on the forum, learned a few tricks on how to make a more effective deck and even traded a few cards for better ones. For such a simplistic and basic game, it’s shocking to see such a solid community supporting it. There is also PvP battle mode that has you simply fight against other players, it’s pretty expensive as far as force goes, so I only did it a few times.

Ultimately, Driland is quite fun. There is a lot that you can do, yet there really isn’t all that much game to go around. It’s something that is worth trying out, though, I’ve wasted small tidbits of free time questing and fighting monsters. If you have time to kill and want a quite game to play around with, Driland just may be the one for you.

Note: We are giving Driland a 5 for audio since it simply lacks it. Less would imply there was an issue with audio.

Graphics 70		Audio 50		Gameplay 80
Creativity 80		Execution 90		Offset 80

7.5

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

In it’s limited form, it still is enjoyable, Even without buying card packs.
Awesome community
Doesn’t require almost any commitment

Cons:

There is absolutely no sound
A few little bugs can get slightly irritating
Those microtransactions can certainly help you enjoy the game more

Review – Street Fighter x Tekken (PC)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 292012

-Error reading from ESRB datastream-
Please visit ESRB.org for rating information.

As a long time fan of fighting games, I had actually never played a fighting game on a computer before getting my hands on Street Fighter x Tekken. I’ve spent time being well versed in the storied histories of both of these fighting game franchises, so when Capcom sent us a copy to take for a spin, we jumped headlong into it.

Street Fighter x Tekken is 1/2 of the mashup series where the ‘visiting’ franchise borrows the flagship title’s engine. As the name states, characters from the Tekken series are thrust into the world of Street Fighter 4. Now, something to note here, Tekken characters have their moves altered so that they can fit the command types that Street Fighter is known for. They have balanced characters fairly in that aspect, yet decided to allow Street Fighter’s catalog of characters to keep their projectiles. While not a surefire way to vistory, I absolutely cheesed some fights by spamming Ken and Ryu hadoukens.

So, what is the premise behind this mashup? Well, an artifact with untold power was discovered and in the world of Street Fighter, the Shadowloo has decided that they will deploy their usual villians to retrieve this item. The Mishima Corporation has also decided to pursue this artifact and has sent out their trained assassins and mercenaries to also retrieve this box. Well, since the bad guys are making their move, all the heroes have also decided to stop their opposing forces before they acquire untold power. That is mostly what you will gather once you get the game started, yet you will miss out on MOST of the extended story if you don’t know how to pick your tag-team correctly. Basically, if you were to pick Ryu and Hworang, you would be treated to a mostly generic story with a bland ending after beating the final boss. Yet, if you pick Ken and Ryu, you get a nice little back story that fleshes out both fighters as the story progresses and even a neat little cinematic to wrap your Story Mode up. While the correct story mode is actually kind of cool, I feel like this setup would have been better suited if the game just chose your partner automatically.

The online facets of Street Fighter x Tekken appear to be plagued with lag spikes, glitches and leavers. Matchmaking also seemed to be quite flawed, the first times I played people online, I was matched with a guy that hundreds of wins (I had none) and then another game where I could barely control my fighters. Even in the few times I was able to have a normal match with, I was constantly living in fear that there would be another issue right about the corner. The other, non competitive modes were difficult to get anyone to stick around in, but also seemed to work decently. In short, the online multiplayer features of Street Fighter x Tekken are quite flawed.

The game concept itself isn’t a bad one and the collection of characters at your disposal is quite expansive for a Capcom based crossover. The additional mechanics added into the game do take a creative twist on boring mechanics. The two most noticeable things that I saw added in happened to be the Gem Mode and Pandora Mode. The Gem Mode takes gems that you earn while playing and plugs them into a character, that character then enjoys stat boosts. As a bit of a purist, I wasn’t incredible impressed by the inclusion of a mode that allows you to power your favorite character beyond conventional means, but it was fun to use with characters I wasn’t so good with. The second mechanic is Pandora Mode, which was a little cooler. In Marvel vs Capcom, there was a feature called X-Factor, which allowed you to boost the abilities of your fighters for a limited amount of time. In Street Fighter x Tekken, Pandora Mode sacrifices your tag team partner if they have less than 25% heath and initiates a timed “Super Mode” that allows your other fighter to be significantly boosted. This is still quite a gamble because if you fail to win the fight before your Pandora Mode runs out, you automatically lose. It’s actually a quite enjoyable risk/reward!

Although Street Fighter x Tekken is a ground breaking crossover when you consider that two extremely popular genres that oppose each other have come together, it isn’t as wowing as something like Marvel vs Capcom. What it is, though, is a decent fighting game that helps bridge the gap between the next installments of their respective franchises. There are moments of brilliance, where I find myself sitting back and saying “Wow, that is pretty cool”. Unfortunately, this is rather eclipsed with what I can simply describe as “Meh”.

Graphics 80		Audio 85		Gameplay 60
Creativity 75		Execution 55		Offset 65

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Hardware Review: Razer Orochi Black Chrome Gaming Mouse

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 262012

Almost everything I do PC related is on my Asus gaming laptop. As far as hardware reviews go, I have used many different peripherals but nothing really designed for mobile play. Razer caught wind of this and excitedlysent us the Orochi Gaming Mouse, which is designed primarily for portable systems. Now, we know that Razer is a big name in PC peripherals, but is a mouse for laptops more effective than a traditional gaming mouse?

The ‘Razer’ Edge

Let’s start with this, the mouse is actually one of the smallest mice I have had the opportunity to review. In fact, it is actually smaller than the Microsoft 3500 Mobile Mouse I used to use when I first purchased my computer. The Orochi is a hybrid mouse, allowing users to flip between bluetooth and USB modes simply by plugging in the cable at the front of the mouse (weird placement, right?). The front-facing USB port is actually quite interesting, considering the fact that when it is plugged in, there is no interference from the jack or the cable at all. In fact, I am pretty sure that most people wouldn’t even know that there was a wireless option based on how clean it looks.

Speaking of clean, the mouse is a very glossy black, which looks amazing. While the smooth texture of the mouse was not any issue, the ability for the mouse to stay completely clean was, in fact, a little bit of an inconvienence. While I absolutely recommend always playing games with clean hands, if you happen to be snacking at any time (as you know, many of us gamers are guilty of) expect to find dirt and grime all over the mouse and in all the nooks and crannies.

Some Assembly Required

The mouse is extremely functional when operating as a corded device, yet it also bills itself as a wireless one. I was excited to try this out, since the 3000 DPI that the wireless offered is perfect for my usage. Upon researching how to activate the wireless mode, I realized that this is, in fact, a wireless bluetooth mouse. Even though my gaming laptop is a freaking powerhouse that supports everything, including 3D gaming, it did not have built in bluetooth functionality. I wasn’t going to let you all down though, the review needed to be done… FOR SCIENCE! After running to my local electronics retailer, I came home with a bluetooth dongle and set this bad boy up.

After actually getting the chance to use the mouse in it’s intended wireless function, I have to admit, it’s really freaking functional. While the capability is cut in half when compaired to it’s wired functionality, it still offers more than enough to be considered absolutely awesome (for a wireless mouse).

Once I got everything up and running, I had to jump over to Razer’s website to download the newest drivers for the mouse. Since I currently lacked the Razer software to make to proper adjustments to the mouse, this is the first thing you should do. However, since this is an adventure, and things that are too easy are boring, the Orochi isn’t listed as compatible in Razer’s newest software (it is, it’s just not listed). After taking a leap of faith and installing driver software, I was greeted by the setup software for my mouse and quickly fine tuned the mouse to a few different games I regularly play.

A full size mouse, the Orochi and a typical notebook mouse. (For comparison)

Clever punchline about design

As noted earlier, the Orochi is considerable smaller than any gaming mouse I have ever used. Are there issues with the fact that the mouse is so small? Perhaps a little bit. Although the Orochi fits almost perfectly in the palm of my hand and my fingers fell right they were needed on the left and right mouse buttons, the additional buttons were not completely accessible. I can easily press the top button on the left side of the mouse but I had to pull my thumb back further than I was used to in order to use the bottom button, it wasn’t too far but still something I needed to be conscious of. The 2 additional buttons on the right side of the mouse were mappable, yet not comfortably accessable without taking my hand completely off the mouse. I decided that I would pretend that those buttons were for left handed users. Even with that small complaint, it was still one of the most comfortable mice that I have used and while playing everything from League of Legends to Diablo 3, there really wasn’t more than 2 or 3 times where I really missed the lack of accessiblity of the buttons. To elaborate on this, the mouse is slightly fatter that your typical mouse, which makes sense because it is much smaller.

I really liked the Orochi mouse, in fact it will be the mouse that I plan to go back to in between mouse reviews. If you are in the market for a small, wireless mouse and have a computer that supports bluetooth, I absolutely recommend you pick this one up. If you don’t have bluetooth, you will need to gauge your purchase a little more carefully, as it is still a bitchin’ wired mouse for laptops.

The Orochi mouse is a Ferrari in the mobile gaming world and operates with the precision and speed that you would expect from a work of art. As it’s primary function is wireless, we give it a 4.5/5.

REVIEWMAGEDDON GIVEAWAY #1, TORCHLIGHT 2 CODE

Posted by Josh Knowles 2 Responses »

Sep 252012

Ok, going to make you all work for this one! We are going to do a little scavenger hunt!

&$H

*$N&+

#^#^6

So, you need to figure out the hints to figure out this Steam code… Here they are: (Check old stories and posts on our FB page to figure out some of these answers…)

Allons-y!

*= The amount of gold on the ground in our Torchlight 2 review pic…

$= The first letter of League of Legends’ 100th champion’s name…

#= We have only ever done 1 review for this platform. Admittedly, we all own PCs now… (First letter of the type of platform)

&= Two weeks ago, we gave away a game to kick off Win a Game Weekend. Last letter of the first word in the title of that game.

+= First letter of the second lowest scoring game we have reviewed

^= Gamer slang for whining

IT’S OVER, THE GAME HAS BEEN REDEEMED AND THE WINNER IS ROLLING IN SWEET, SWEET LOOT.

Review – Torchlight 2 (PC)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 252012

Earlier this year, we kicked Diablo’s ass and enjoyed the hell out of doing it. Unfortunately, a few months later, many of us had lost interest in the game, it was good but just not as good as it’s predecessor. We turned our eyes towards the distant gaming horizon, Torchlight 2 was already in beta and it would be coming soon. Then we were sent some codes to get our hands on the game to review it. The big question that we kept asking ourselves though was “Can the game offer us something we haven’t already been playing for the last few years?“. Easy answer, that text below tells you.

Now, I loved Torchlight, it was the first ARPG that I felt really “got it” since playing Diablo 2. There was tons of loot and smashing of many thing but even though it was an awesome game, it still felt a little linear. Ultimately, the game felt like a mad dash to the bottom of the mines, and while the game wasn’t the biggest ever, I just wanted more. Runic Games, fortunately, employ some sort of dark magicks or mind reading gypsies though because that is the first thing you will really notice about Torchlight 2, a large map just waiting to be explored. You know what was on that map? Tons and tons of loot. You know who got it? This guy, right here!

Character creation in Torchlight 2 is limited, thankfully in this case, to simple cosmetic changes to your character. Do you want them to be male or female? What class do you want? Which hairstyle do you want? Head? Pet? (You’d better pick that papillon, every other answer is wrong!) After going through this process, you name your character and pet and then get thrusted right into the story. No adjusting the depth of your chin or the saturation of your hair color, just the basics and then off you go!

Once Torchlight 2 gets started, it hits the ground running and never looks back. It feels like loot is much more frequent than the previous title, and with the open world approach, you will always have something different to do. Now, I started the game with my first character on the normal difficulty but after tearing through the first 2 major dungeons and fighting a pair of major bosses, I decided I needed to play the game on a harder difficulty. I wanted to feel that I was actually in some sort of peril when I was fighting, although I may have been simply really effective with my character. After getting into progressively more difficult modes, I felt that the demand and focus on gear was even higher, which is completely cool since this is what these games are all about.

The game’s story is rather simplistic, yet told in such a way that it doesn’t overburden any of the gameplay as well. More or less, the heroes from the original Torchlight have had a few inconveniences arise and evil has returned to the world, so new heroes need to step up and kick some ass in their stead. Like I said earlier, this isn’t just a one dungeon campaign either, Torchlight 2 is a global affair that will take you all over the world and feature many different sights than before. Did I also mention that the campaign is significantly longer? Well, it is and it is awesome!

Combat isn’t overly complex, although after leveling extensively, I was very glad to be using a gaming mouse since I could map abilities to the extra buttons. Clicking on your targets and burning them down with skills and auto attacks is the name of the game here and while it may sound boring, the numerous types of weapons really keep you coming back for more. I had a ton of fun with the Outlander, as some of the guns that could be used were simply amazing. The feeling of fighting a cluster of enemies and then blowing them clear away from me with a cannon or shotgun brought a smile to my face. That isn’t to say that every other class doesn’t have it’s perks. In the multiplayer mode, this is even more entertaining, since positioning and combining attacks can have some interesting outcomes.

… Some harder to kill than others.

With that being said, let’s take a minute to talk about multiplayer. This was something that the original Torchlight lacked, and while it wasn’t absolutely necessary, it could have made the original even better. Well, no more bellyaching about not being able to play with friends now, because Torchlight 2 features an entire smorgasbord of online co-op awesomeness. Feel like playing with a couple of friends? Create an online game and up to 5 buddies can join you. As a fair warning, the more people in the game, the more hectic things can get. A few times, in smaller environments, it felt a bit cramped but even this wasn’t so bad since loot is dropped separately, so even if I am trying to figure out what the hell just happened, I can still get my precious loot. Torchlight 2 also features the ability to play via LAN, so no more logging into an external server if you want to quickly set up a game with a few friends in a more personal environment.

So what makes Torchlight 2 different from Diablo 3? Torchlight 2 is absolutely a better sequel! Everyone at Runic Games paid attention to what the players liked and disliked and painstakingly made the rare “better than the original” sequel that most games fail at. While Diablo 3 was indeed a good game, it pales in comparison of it’s predecessor. Torchlight 2 says “Remember all that bad ass stuff you loved about the first game? Well, we brought all that stuff to this party and we brought buckets of new stuff too!”. Yes, buckets. Also, a certain wheeled robot that is quite annoying.

Graphics 80		Audio 100		Gameplay 100
Creativity 95		Execution 90		Offset 100

9.4

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Flexible multiplayer
A great improvement upon the original game
Graphics that can run on almost any PC, yet look great
Beautiful soundtrack

Cons:

You may need to look for a challenge to get things started, yet will probably regret that decision later.

Review – Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 232012

-Error reading from ESRB datastream-
Please visit ESRB.org for rating information.

Hello community, I do not get involved in too many MMO games, I’ve played years of WoW and FFXI so my MMORPG budget has bet pretty much filled for my lifetime. Lately, the shift to the Free to Play concept has piqued my interest in a few titles but the quality of these is always so-so. So when I was given an opportunity by the awesome folks at ArenaNet to return to the series that made subscription free MMORPGs a thing, I was quite excited. I mean, really, who didn’t love Guild Wars?

I got my first taste of Guild Wars 2 in the early betas, so I already had a sense of purpose when jumping into the game. For those that are new though, getting started can be a considerably daunting journey. You will first choose your race among the 5 different choices, each will bring a little of their own flair and story to your game, so choose wisely. Each race has their own cultural storyline which will be followed regardless of the class or background you choose. Very early, you will come to understand that things in Tyria have gotten quite scary in the 250 years since the end of Guild Wars. While this will give you a generalized motivation for your character to be the hero that Tyria needs, the background info you select for you character really shapes your character even further.

The first thing players tend to notice when they get started in Guild Wars 2 happens to be the different approach the game takes to the nature of your character. In many MMORPG games, your character is more or less along for the ride, assisting the Hero NPC’s as the game and story progress. In Guild Wars 2, the game tells the story of your character, who will climb through their nations rank and notoriety until they help all the nations unite against a common enemy. Before all of this happens though, it’s up to you to discover their story and work to progress it while assisting characters and completing quests. The game is extremely hands off in this approach and some players may find themselves getting a bit overwhelmed with the sheer volume of options and quests that are available to them. The plus side of this is that your next story related mission is always marked on your map and a path do it is usually readily available. The biggest issue with this concept is that some players seem to need to go through a few storyline quests and events before they feel like their character actually matters in the world. Unfortunately, this lack of immediate direction can turn a few people away prematurely as well.

So, how is the game itself? Freaking amazing. The best place to start, though, is the game’s presentation. Every single major dialogue scene in the game is done in full voiceover, which is really awesome. This isn’t to take away from the fact that the game as a whole is completely voiced, however these little dialogue scenes where the story is progressing are really nice. It really adds to the RPG feel of the game and doesn’t inconvenience the player with walls of text that highlight important information. You really feel like your character is responsible for events that are playing out. The voiceovers themselves are top notch, in fact I haven’t heard this good of voice acting in a MMO yet.

Combat

Guild Wars 2′s basic combat system is simple, yet also quite complex. Basically, every main weapon type has 3 or 5 different skills that it will allow your character to use. When an offhand weapon is equipped, the other 2 slots change accordingly. These abilities allow you to mix and match skills to find the right fit for the right battle. When I played as a rogue, I could use a pistol that allowed me to shoot my target and teleport to them; I could use the secondary weapon to then unleash massive damage to my target. This really allowed me to experiment with different combos and find what worked for me. Skills level relatively quickly, so be sure to mix and match weapons to find what works the best for you. Every class has its own way of involving its strengths into these weapon based abilities as well. Combat flows so smooth that a simple press of a button (the number 1 in most cases) will easily initiate combat for you.

The advanced features of combat are slightly more complex, utilizing many abilities that pertain to the job class or race you have chosen. The engineer can do things like use hidden attacks built into their gear, rogues can initiate stealth attacks, hunters can order their pets to use special abilities, etc. While you use a majority of these abilities in large team fights, there is also a secret set of abilities that come into play once you are defeated. These skills allow you to “fight for survival”, if you defeat an enemy in this phase, you are immediately returned to combat. Cool stuff!

Adventure

One thing I always look for in a GOOD MMORPG is the ability to truly explore your environment without feeling directed or caged in. Guild Wars 2 handles this topic masterfully, implementing many different features that actually reward players for finding out exactly what is over that mountain top in the distance. Discovering new areas will net you worthwhile experience and finding teleport points and vistas can get you even more. Vistas are points that reward you with small cinematics that show you the area you are traveling in and are usually somewhat difficult to reach. I was overjoyed when I discovered that deaths from falling do not result in penalties, since throwing yourself from vistas is extremely satisfying and entertaining. While adventuring, you can explore almost every single area, although enemies will quickly dismantle you if you are not attentive, which adds a little fun into the mix. As you travel across the world, there are numerous teleport points that you can easily jump to, for a small fee. This allows super fast travel between points of interest and will allow you to essentially always have a shortcut up your sleeve.

PvP & WvW

While the game (currently) lacks the ability to duel another player, there is an incredibly robust WvW system that is in place. An interesting feature is that every single player that enters the WvW instance is instantly leveled to 80. This is realistically a double edged sword, you do more damage and are more or less at the same level as everyone else, however you still earn large amounts of experience from NPC kills that makes WvW grinding slightly cheesy. The concept of this combat mode is that everyone is pretty much thrown into a super huge king of the hill game that has a magnitude of different points of contention. What makes this so cool is the true feeling of warfare that is taking place.

Major battles erupt at key strongholds, where players can deploy siege weapons to assist in taking these points of contention. Meanwhile, small bands of players may break off from the group and create small infiltration teams that will pick off the camps and outposts that are away from the bulk of combat. I had an opportunity to participate in both of these tactics and while the major battles were fun to chip away at, the infiltration groups were way more cool (and impactful). With my rogue, I joined a hunter, warrior and a mesmer as we snuck across the lake at the center of the map and proceeded to capture small villages and supply camps that peppered the other side of the map. Our efforts eventually caused enough of a distraction that our main army took several key points during battle. That is the beauty of this type of PvP mode is that, just like the main game itself, no one and nothing is really railroading you into doing 1 thing, unlike the old PvP modes of games like WoW.

The PvP (5 on 5) mode boast some seriously unlimited potential as well. In the games that I played, there was a definite feel of eSports about it. The way that each member of the team actually contributed to the fight was quite interesting. Cooperation was extremely important but also having the right weapons for the job was just as much. I played through some matches with my hunter, during which I learned that in order to maximize my effectiveness, I had to play as clever as I possibly could. All in all, it was quite fun and very worthwhile!

Odd and Ends

Crafting in Guild Wars 2 is affordable and fair, while also making it worthwhile to start leveling your skills earlier as well. There are a few different ways to get your crafting materials, the two most common being salvaging items and using your tools to collect materials from resource points. Something I liked is that any of the points you can collect materials from are universally available, yet they will only be exhausted after you have used them. This is nice since there is no need to camp points, which was something that irritated me in other games. Did I also mentioned that you receive experience for crafting? No? Well, level your skill and character up by creating increasingly complex recipes and items and watch that experience roll in!

As of the time of the review, the Trading Post was still a rather new introduction to the game. While functioning as the game’s auction house, it allows you to buy and sell items with other players on your server. When things first got going, I made a little bit off of selling rare equipment dyes I had found while leveling my 4 characters. There was already a collection of super awesome items that were being put up for sale, although my pitiful amount of gold barely scratched the surface of some of those price tags. One feature I hope to see soon in the Trading Post would be the ability to preview items on your character, which is something I hope that ArenaNet adds soon. A little heads up here, AreneNet has confirmed that this feature is something that they plan on adding into the game ASAP.

Another notable thing about Guild Wars 2 is the amazing support that ArenaNet offers. They are monitoring issues and areas of opportunity within the game and doing their best to try to provide new features and fix existing ones to the best of their ability. Now, developer support isn’t necessarily something new, the channels that they are seeking feedback in are more cutting edge than most.

What Do We Think?

Guild Wars 2 is hands down the best PC game I have had the joy of playing all year (so far). The greatest thing about this game is that even though it is a MMORPG at heart, it is a game that can be played by yourself or with friends, while still giving you the rewarding feeling of accomplishment. With stellar graphics and a beautiful soundtrack, you would have to be out of your mind to miss out on this game. It’s hard to find too much negative about Guild Wars 2, simply it is just everything we all expected it to be and even more. Kudos to you ArenaNet!

Graphics 100		Audio 80		Gameplay 90
Creativity 90		Execution 85		Offset 95

How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!

Pros:

Something for everyone!
Amazing developer support
Worth the one time $59.99 price for unlimited play
Interesting story and awesome combat

Cons:

Still a few bugs and exploits floating around.

Win a Game Weekend Gives You a Chance to Take Home Legend of Grimrock

Posted by Josh Knowles 81 Responses »

Sep 212012

REVIEWMAGEDDON is only a few days away, and as promised, we are working diligently to make sure we have some of the coolest prizes available to you, the reader. To whet everyone’s appetite, we have 3 copies of Legends of Grimrock available during this contest, all thanks to the awesome people at GOG.com.

So, what the hell is Legend of Grimrock? If you have been playing games as long as I have (27 years +), you will remember the old school RPG. The dungeon crawler paved the way for ARPGs to come into fruition, as gear and items were more valuable than anything else while avoiding traps and being smarter than your enemies could be better than almost any weapon. Grimrock is just that type of game but there is a twist, the game features beautiful graphics and a decent story that will keep you coming back for more and more punishment. As a throwback to the days of old, Legend of Grimrock also features an ‘Old School Mode’ that makes the game more difficult and removes modern era conveniences, like the minimap. As Grimrock draws inspiration from classics like Eye of the Beholder, Ultima, and Dungeon Master, it pumps new life into an old genre. Expect Legend of Grimrock to one day be a classic as well.

So, what do you say? Would you like to get your hands on a copy of the game? Just follow the giveaway options below, if we get enough entries, something awesome may happen… Also, we’ll award an ADDITIONAL 3 entries to anyone that ‘Shares’ the contest post on our Facebook page.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Riot Games Reveals Nearly All The Details of League of Legends’ Kha’Zix: The Voidreaver

Posted by Josh Knowles No Responses »

Sep 192012

A few days ago, we informed you of the League’s 105th champion, Kha’Zix: The Voidreaver. As of today, Riot dropped a massive about of info about Kha’Zix, including his skillset. Let’s take a look at Riot’s info, our thoughts will be in italics:

Unseen Threat (Passive): When Kha’Zix is not visible to the enemy team, he gains Unseen Threat, causing his next basic attack against an enemy champion to deal bonus magic damage and slow. (This sounds a lot like Evelyn, I don’t know if this means that he goes stealth here, but it seems like an interesting passive)

Taste Their Fear: Deal physical damage to a single target. Damage against isolated targets is significantly increased. Kha’Zix passively marks enemies that are isolated from nearby allies. (This scares the crap out of me, not only does this look like it is a “How To” for initiation but at a person that mains roaming supports, I can see how this will impact me)

Evolving claws increases damage to isolated targets even further. Kha’Zix also gains increased range on both Taste Their Fear and his basic attack.

Void Spike: Kha’Zix fires spikes that explode on contact, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies. Kha’Zix is healed if he is within the explosion radius. (The concept behind this is intriguing, it sounds like an insane exploding Cho’gath ability that gives lifesteal. The ult upgrade? Riot pls…)

Evolving spike racks causes Void Spike to fire three projectiles in a cone. Spikes will also apply Unseen Threat to all enemies caught within the area of effect.

Leap: Kha’Zix leaps to an area, dealing physical damage to enemies in the area he lands. (Congrats Pantheon, you are now even more worthless. This refresh-on-kill means this bugger could easily be mandropping on you at a moment’s notice.)

Evolving wings increases Leap’s range dramatically and causes a kill or assists to refresh the cooldown of Leap.

Void Assault: Each rank of Void Assault allows Kha’Zix to evolve one of his active abilities, granting it an additional effect. Upon activation, Kha’Zix enters stealth and gains Unseen Threat, increasing Movement Speed. Kha’zix can cast Void Assault again for a short time after activation. (So… Rengar?)

Evolving active camouflage allows Kha’Zix to cast Void Assault three times over the course of its duration and reduces any damage he sustains while in stealth.

Kha’Zix is going to be a natural jungler with his skills and with his ability to evolve his abilities at his own accord, he also appears to be a viable top lane appointment as well. He will be an initiator in team fights as well as a terror for the split push as well. We will keep you updated with more info on Kha’Zix as soon as he is available.

Older Entries Newer Entries

PLOT

PRESENTATION

GAMEPLAY – SINGLE PLAYER

GAMEPLAY – MULTIPLAYER

CONCLUSION

We give the Flux: Luxury Edition Headset a 4.85/5. It improves on the original Flux concept, yet still has the drawbacks of the economy-class model.

We give the ASTRO A*Star In-Ear Headset a 4/5. It’s functionality is impressive and easy to use for many mobile features. A great item for on-the-go gaming.

We don’t currently have an official score for movies so our score is a YES/10

We give the Roccat Isku keyboard a 3.75/5. It’s solid functionality is great and when paired with Roccat KONE[+], it’s a beautiful thing!

We give the ASTRO A50 headset a 5/5. This is a damn fine headset, and it’s an experience truly worth the price of admission

We give the SteelSeries Siberia v2 CS:GO Headset a 4/5

The ROCCAT Kone[+] is a great mouse that we award a 4/5 to.

4.75/5, would review again.

The Orochi mouse is a Ferrari in the mobile gaming world and operates with the precision and speed that you would expect from a work of art. As it’s primary function is wireless, we give it a 4.5/5.

*&*$H

*$N&+

#^#^6

IT’S OVER, THE GAME HAS BEEN REDEEMED AND THE WINNER IS ROLLING IN SWEET, SWEET LOOT.

Combat

Adventure

PvP & WvW

Odd and Ends

What Do We Think?

&$H