Tag Archives: iRogan

Gamenight, Twitch, and Today’s Updates

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Game nights are fun, and sometimes necessary. They help get friends together, to settle differences, and to remind us what gaming once was, and how it continues to keep us together, even if we’re miles, or countries away.

Game night is usually quite the event at my place. Usually involving 4 large flat screen TV’s, 4 Xbox’s (360 and now the One), and two handfuls of people. Quite the epic Friday night filled with Pepsi and drinks.

We typically dabble in Halo, as it’s the easiest game to organize a large group of people, over multiple boxes and TVs, into one online lobby. Alternatively we’ll play some arcade style games. This past Friday saw us playing in The Master Chief Collection, Riptide GP2, #IDARB, and Rayman Legends.

Lately I’ve also been playing around with my streaming capabilities, and Twitch.Tv. This started when I first got the Xbox One when it was released. Streaming through the Xbox is great, especially since it has the Kinect functionality with the camera and microphone. Less great is when you want to switch games, or stream from another console entirely. This problem was apparent to me around the time of the Extra Life charity marathon last October. I was going to be playing a full play-through of Half-Life 2 through the Xbox 360 Orange Box. I had my Xbox 360 plugged into the One, but Twitch only supports XBone games.

My fix was to pick up a capture card. The Elgato Game Capture HD, and a couple webcams. This allowed me to record and broadcast through my TV, game, audio, and the surrounding room, through the webcams.

Ready to Broadcast

Ready to Broadcast

I use Open Broadcast Software to record and stream. It supports multiple inputs, and allows for text overlays. So with my 24 Hour stream, I had the game, the name of the game, 2 webcams, a tinyURL to my charity page, my webpage, and a 24 hr countdown clock.

Lately I’ve been streaming my game nights, or just the random nightly session. I’m not pro yet, mind you. But one day I might start doing game-play videos. We’ll see.

Moving on to some newsworthy stuff….

GTA V – Online Heists

New info started coming out today about the GTA V Online Heists content patch, for those lucky few that started seeing it already, patch is reportedly sitting around 4.8GB in size, on the Xbox One. I have the re-mastered XOne version. However, as I’m writing this, none of my friends do, so I don’t have anyone local to test out these heists with. We’ll have to wait and see, or maybe try on the 360.

Halo Master Chief Xbox One Bundle

Microsoft is launching a Master Chief Collection XBox One bundle to help boost their numbers. The no-frills bundle is available without a Kinect, and a digital copy of the Master Chief Collection. No custom box, no custom controller, standard 500Gb HDD. Kind of a letdown.

Borderlands Aplenty

At Pax East this weekend, Gearbox announced both, the next installment to the Tales From The Borderlands, and the next DLC for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

Tales From the Borderlands, Telltale’s game, will have episode 2 released March 17th, 2015. I’ve been sitting on the TellTale Collection for the XOne for some time now, and I haven’t gotten the chance to start these games. But will soon.

Also announced was the next DLC to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – Claptastic Voyage. The DLC takes place inside Claptrap’s head, and is supposed to help bridge the gap between the Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2. Release March 24th, 2015.

Also released that week is the Handsome Jack Collection, which I’ll be picking up. I was uneasy about the idea of the Pre-Sequel being released on the Xbox 360 and figured that it might be re-released on the One, and lo, here we are. Combo of the Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2 re-mastered. The Pre-Sequel also includes the Season pass for DLC.

“”I wonder if i plant you in the ground, if you will grow taller?” -Psycho”

Destiny News

A new interesting tidbit from Destiny this week is the Inferno game-play mode in the Crucible:

From the Grimoire:

“A modified variant of multiple Crucible match types, Inferno tests your Light against the darkest of conditions.

Darkness prevails, leaving Guardians to rely on their weaponry and combat skills alone. The enemy can only be found by sight and sound alone. Rely on your teammates and keen tracking to stalk your enemies and shut them down without the trust in your most powerful abilities.

True skill put to the ultimate test. No trackers. No Supers. No bonuses. Only kills earn points.“

I’ve been meaning to do a follow-up to December’s review, as I did continue to play, and made it through the DLC, completed the Raid, and made it to level 30. I also quit cold turkey one day, and haven’t really looked back.

Maybe I’ll do a quick play through of the first DLC and write up a follow up/2nd opinion piece. Title it “Change of Heart”, as its both applicable, and the name of an achievement from the game.

Change of Heart (Reverse a decision you made in the upgrade grid) – 20G.

So witty.

Out!

EA Access and the News!

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I have EA Access. I’ve had it since it’s inception. Personally, I think its a good deal. $30/ year gets you access to the EA games vault, which currently has 9 games, 10% off games and DLC, and some new releases you’ll get early access, or free game trials.

The vault currently includes: Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, MADDEN NFL 25, Peggle 2, NFS Rivals, Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare, EA UFC, and the 2 recent additions being NBA Live 15 and Madden NFL 15, which surprisingly added, only a few weeks apart. Typically a new game is added every 1-2 months. Sometimes they release little gifts too, like free DLC packs.

I guess it’s suitable for those who like sports games, or the First-Person Shooters by Dice. For me, its provided the ability to play games I wouldn’t typically pick up, unless they were cheap. Games like UFC, or Basketball or Football. I play Shooters, and NFS games generally already, and I pick up NHL annually.

I’ve pre-ordered Battlefield Hardline, which will grant me 1 week early access, so keep an eye out for first impressions of that, starting March 12th, 2015.

The Game Developer Conference is currently underway in San Fransisco, March 2-6, so on that note, lets move on to some news:

GDC

Phil Spencer and Halo Master Chief Collection:

Game Informer had the chance to speak to Xbox Head Phil Spencer at the GDC conference about the Halo Master Chief Collection launch, and continuing troubles, and what the teams have learned going forward with the Halo 5 release.

Spencer discussed, at length, the steps they’re taking to ensure that the Collection package is becoming more and more stable, and ensured that the teams are still hard at work to ensure that it happens as quickly as possible.

He also discussed how the Halo 5 team is handling the launch, with earlier, dedicated beta testing, not for promotion, but for stress and bugs.

I’m not a big online gamer, as I typically play games for the single player and co-op aspects. But in the case of Halo, even the co-op functionality was affected. Game crashes, controller latency on the client side. And it continued to plague the game for months.

I have yet to complete Halo 1 or 2 with my friend, and haven’t even started on 3 or 4. Now that the recent “big content patch” is out I will try again and give it a shot.

343 have apologized and gifted 1 month free Xbox Live Gold, and the Halo Reach campaign to those who suffered at launch. It’s a nice thought, and appreciated. I’m just hoping that Halo 5 works, as this collection’s launch was not a stumble, but more like accidentally walking off the cliff backwards.

Phil Harrison Leaving Microsoft?

At GDC, rumours have started to circulate that Corporate VP Phil Harrison is expected to leave Microsoft after only a few years. Microsoft and Xbox Head Phil Spencer have declined to comment at this time.

SimCity Developer, Maxis Emeryville, Closed By EA

Maxis’ headquarters in Emeryville, CA are closing up, as announced by a former employee on Twitter, and since confirmed by EA. Current development is being consolidated to the other Maxis offices.

Maxis was the creator and developer of the SimCity titles and The Sims. The original SimCity being 26 years old now, and 2013’s reboot of the series was poorly received and also suffered from a lot of launch issues.

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of the simulation type games, and had no qualms with the SimCity 2013 reboot. I would agree that some parts of the design were poorly conceived, as it required an online connection to play, for the “online market and resource module” to function. Also the area of creation and lack of land modification tools made it less fun.

I did appreciate the level of detail for the traffic and simulation aspects, but there were a lot of complaints that it wasn’t actually as deep or accurate as we were lead to believe.

Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year

This year at the Game Developer Conference Choice Awards, Monolith’s action title Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor picked up the Game of the Year award. Earlier in the year, at the DICE awards, Shadow of Mordor picked up eight awards, but not the coveted GOTY. Unfortunately this game is still on my shelf, waiting to be played :'(.

The full winners list is as follows:

Best Debut – Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga)
Innovation Award – Monument Valley (ustwo)
Best Technology – Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Best Audio – Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Ambassador Award – Brenda Romero
Best Visual Art – Monument Valley (ustwo)
Best Narrative – Kentucky Route Zero: Act III (Cardboard Computer)
Pioneer Award – David Braben
Best Design – Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
Best Handheld/Mobile Game – Monument Valley (ustwo)
Audience Award – Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)
Lifetime Achievement Award – Hironobu Sakaguchi
Game of the Year – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)

Wireless Adapter for Xbox One Controller on the PC

Exciting news for me, as this is really the only way I can play PC titles that require any sort of moving and looking at the same time.

I was trained on the d-pad with the Nintendo and S-NES, and then single thumb-stick on the N64. Since then, the dual thumb-stick has been permanently engrained. I can’t WASD and mouse with the same accuracy I can with the controller.

I currently use the Xbox One Controller on the PC within Steam, but wired, so this announcement, and guaranteed future purchase, will allow me to play PC games in bed. Good, or Bad? … Who knows?

That’ll be the news of today/ last night.
-iRogan

iReview – GREEN LANTERN – RISE OF THE MANHUNTERS

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We’re talking about the 2011 film tie-in here, the first video game based on DC Comics’ Green Lantern, so before I get into this, I need to lie down. Forever.

Not the typical fare you’d see on my game shelf, but I have a friend who buys a lot of games for his 7 year old, and at some point, they tend to find themselves on my shelf after game nights.

I was able to get a break from the other games I’m currently plugging away at (Assassins Creed III, Defiance, Remember Me) and was able to blast through this game in 4 hours, but suffice to say, the game wasn’t very memorable, so nor shall this review be.

The game follows the events of the movie Green Lantern, and finds the hero, Hal Jordan, back on the planet OA defending the Galaxy, and not Earth. Galaxy Guardians have bigger things to worry about it seems. The Green Lantern Corps has to face off against the previous enforcers of the Galaxy, the Manhunters, an android race created by the Guardians.

The androids felt over-worked and under-paid, and just over-all feelings of under-appreciativeness (not really), so they started focusing on administering punishment instead of serving justice. The Guardians were forced to dissolve the union and fire their workers, and then outsource their workforce to save on manufacturing costs. With no purpose now, the Manhunters strive for revenge. Enter Hal Jordan, brash, and out spoken, decides to shirk authority and do the Galaxy saving his way. I get the impression that the Guardians of the Galaxy don’t much like Hal and his attitude, but if they didn’t like him, they shouldn’t have put a ring on him.

The game is very generic. Enter a level, fight some bad guys, queue animation of progressing to the next portion of the level, fight some more bad guys, queue same animation of advancing, and fight a big bad guy. The level designs are decent in length, but there are some unsophisticated puzzles, and a few flying segments for variety. Why Hal Jordan doesn’t just fly or hover around all the time is beyond me.

The combat is regulation, with normal attacks being sword and cleavers, and the strong attacks being hammers, but the constructs are worth mentioning. There are a number of imaginative power attacks that you’ll unlock through progression, ranging from over-sized throwing stars to a full sized jet fighter to use at your disposal. Some are used as gameplay mechanics as well, like the sledge hammer and spiked mines. My question is: where are the non-lethal constructs? Machines have souls too.

Playing in co-op allowed me to breeze through the game, even on the harder difficulty, and it allows both participants to level up simultaneously. It also provided some of the game’s brief surprising moments. One in particular had my character grabbing an enemy with the hook and throwing it at my co-op partner and baseball bat in waiting; totally unintentional, but still fascinating.

The co-op player plays as Sinestro, which makes sense (Killawog would have been preferred). But Sinestro’s constructs are the same as Hal’s, which is baffling, from an authenticity perspective. Sinestro wouldn’t create Earth’s weapons from his imagination. Secondly, Sinestro is also Hal’s main contact through the levels, as Hal is chasing the Manhunters without the guidance of the Guardians. So it’s strange to have Sinestro provide the mission’s objectives and then show up anyways as the second player to assist.

Never mind that the co-op was a tacked on effort. Co-op is always appreciated.

Visually the game is common place. Being a movie tie in, expectations are already lowered; there’s not much more to say. Not a lot of budget, and not a lot of development time. They got Ryan Reynolds appearance down. But the game is limited in scope. You traverse through a couple worlds, with inside and outside environments, each unique to their own. The Manhunter’s planet itself reminding me a lot of Cybertron from the recent Transformer games: very alien, but yet very machine.

The game is befitting as a movie tie-in (with it’s easy achievements in-tow), and has some nice ideas with the constructs and combat, however it does suffer from some repetition in its enemy types (quantity over quality I suppose), linear level design, and reliance on QTE gameplay for its boss fights. The game is technically and graphically sound when it comes to the art and design, but I lack the will power or imagination to say much else positive about this game.

Oh dear, I wish I hadn’t cried so much….

“In brightest day, in blackest night,
achievement shall escape my sight.
Let those who’d rather sleep every night,
Beware my dedication…
Rogan’s Plight”               

Notable Achievements:

Shut Your Mouth (Performed a 99 hit combo) – 60G
Get Dizzy Y’all! (Made Green Lantern dizzy 10 times) – 20G

iReview – THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

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What’s another word for amazing, that’s not quite that…? “Expected?”

amazing-spider-man-game

The Amazing Spider-Man game from 2012 was about what I expected; however, there were some pleasant surprises. Spider-Man games in the past have had their qualities and their charm. I guess that’s why they keep getting made, year after year. But how many Spider-Man games can you play before the formula gets old?

A couple years ago Beenox came out with Shattered Dimensions which introduced a new view, incorporating 4 different Spider-Man universes into one game: Amazing Spider-Man, Noir, 2099 and Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bringing with it unique gameplay for each section. They followed it up with a sequel, Edge of Time, keeping the same gameplay, but only keeping the Amazing and 2099 universes. Positive-to-mixed responses…

Scrapping it all, Beenox came out with the movie tie-in: The Amazing Spider-Man. They kept the same design aspects of the previous games for the mission based levels, with a heavier focus on stealth based attacks, but breaking up the story with a full free-roaming, free swinging city, with its own side quests and collection aspects.

The web-swinging is a welcome addition, watching Spider-Man majestically swing through the air, and slingshot himself up buildings, all with the amazing acrobatic animations we’ve seen in previous TV shows, movies and games. The downside is all you need to do is hold one button, and the game does everything for you. You just angle the direction, and the game does the rest. Not that I ever wanted to know what it was like to be Spider-Man, I’ll happily just watch him do his thing…Sigh.

The combat is pretty straight-forward, if not a little spastic. Just mash the “attack” button until prompted for the “dodge” button to avoid attacks. And if you’re running into trouble, just press the “oh shit, get me out of here” button to escape everyone’s attacks and focus entirely. Like all Spider-Man games, the combat and camera movements always seem very chaotic, and a little disorientating at times. Maybe spiders see things differently.

The story continues where the Summer blockbuster left off. With the Lizard in jail, Alistair Smythe takes over Oscorp and starts making robots to help with the cross-species outbreak currently plaguing Manhattan. Everything gets neatly and predictably tied up in the end so as to not ruin the movie sequel’s continuity, the “Peter Parker and Gwen Story” continues and Spider-Man has to enlist the help of Doc Connors, breaking him out of jail, to assist with the outbreak.

Visually the game is standard affair, and just reeks Activision. The city’s transformation through the story is a nice touch, as the outbreak becomes worse. There is a day and night cycle, however it’s not real time, just strictly story based. And some of the boss fight’s action sequences are presented well. The developers took a cue from Rocksteady’s Batman games, and had suit wear-and-tear during the missions for the Spidey suit, but it was mission dependent and does not carry over from section to section. I guess Spidey just needs to continually repair his suit at every intermission, or maybe he has a lot of back-up suits stored as his apartment. However, being a broke super-hero, I highly doubt it.

The game is a step up from the previous two Spider-Man games, but, more limited in scope. A pleasant surprise for a movie tie-in, and I do praise some of the enemy boss choices (Scorpion, Rhino, and Felicia Hardy). That, and the game does have a nice shiny coat of production value, but a tired gameplay formula, repetitive enemy types, QTE Boss Fights, and a disorientating camera shows some cracks in the webbing.

Notable Achievements:

On The Fly (Collect all 700 Spider-Man comic books pages) – 25G
Keep It Together (Immobilize 6 enemies simultaneously with web) – 15G

iReview – FAR CRY 3

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Far Cry 2 had its problems. It’s many, many problems. But it had its qualities. It gave us an open-world sandbox first-person shooter set in the African safari. It gave us wildlife that liked running in front of vehicles. It gave us a fire mechanic that allowed open fields and trees to be set ablaze, where some times it felt like that fire would never go out. It also gave a real immersive feeling, like we were actually the character we were supposedly controlling, had stakes in their survival, and first-person camera moments when getting knocked down or getting in and out of vehicles, or just driving in general. Also included is an excruciating healing mechanics that’ll make you cringe.

It also gave us a story with no real direction, no characters, just a lot of bad guys and people doing stuff. And I mean a lot of bad guys. Everyone you come across, or within a 5km radius already doesn’t like you. The game’s enemy AI was so brutal and unforgiving in fact, that the developers couldn’t program animal predators into the game as all they would do was attack the other wildlife.

Far-Cry-3

Far Cry 3 kept the good, and did away with the bad. And takes us away from the bleak African war zone and transplants us into the gorgeous jungle island with a rich Japanese heritage. And with it comes the supernatural element. Sigh, I’m not touching that subject.

Far Cry 3 introduces us to our main protagonist Jason Brody, as we find our story’s participants living the good life, globetrotting, partying it up, and doing what rich tourists do, without consequences. Then we wake up in a bamboo jail cell, abducted by a homicidal pirate, Vaas, one of the island inhabitants, and all-around evildoer.

And this is where the Ubisoft team took a big cue from the issues with Far Cry 2, and that’s the overall character development and story. Brody has been captured but escapes and loses his brother in the process. His friends have also been captured in the process and are to be sold into the slave trade. Jason Brody will spend his time on the island trying his hardest to save his friends, but in doing so, begins to realize the evils he himself is capable of, and the lengths he will go to save his family and friends, at the risk of losing himself.

And Brody changes, he starts to lose himself to the island’s ways as his journey plays out, where he’s not the same spoiled rich kid in the end, however, where he inevitably ends up is the player’s choice.

Vaas is probably one of the more unconventional villains in recent memory. He’s just an all-around sociopath that tries fruitlessly time and again to kill Jason, who refuses to go away. Vaas he has no plan. Brody causes him a major headache by just remaining alive. It’s a shame that Vaas doesn’t make more appearances in the game, but his brief appearances are memorable, and he alone would be the highlight of the game. He did make the cover art after all.

The game is a stealth focused first-person shooter, but doesn’t necessarily have to be played that way. The game lets you take on each situation how you see fit, and gives you a vast array of tools to do just that. Fancy stealth, just spy on an outpost through the sniper scope and pick off the baddies one at a time, or come up-close with the bow and arrow. Play Rambo, and come in a little louder with some explosives. Be forewarned, noisy entrances lead to the troops calling in backup.

Far Cry 3 also provides some RPG elements to its gameplay. The gorgeous island jungle lends itself to a slew of creatures, large and small. Hunting these animals allows you to upgrade your equipment, allowing you to carry more weapons and more ammo. Experience is gained throughout, allowing you to unlock new abilities, health upgrades and stealth take downs. Basically turning you into a badass about halfway through the story, allowing you to really experience the latter half the way you see fit. Or participate in some free roam past-times, like flame-thrower bear hunting, jet-ski shark dueling, or burning drug fields (one of the story highlights).

All around, Far Cry 3 is a great, lengthy game with lots of collection and side quest events to keep you well occupied into the 30+ hour range. The game mechanics all work well, and the lush island setting is one of the more beautiful, realistic open-world settings to date. I even found myself running for shelter when the thunder and rain came, wearily checking my six for lurking predators.

I felt the game to be a little bloated, needs more appearances by Vaas, and some of the gameplay collections tasks like unlocking the many radio towers to reveal the map can be a little tiresome. The random animal attacks, and the occasional unfortunate timing of random enemy AI scouting parties are annoying. The bears are just mean, and the vast depths of the ocean are claustrophobic (to me). But otherwise the game has very few faults, and is well worth your consideration, especially if, like me, you were a little turned off from Far Cry 2’s grim, Malaria centered setting and story.

Notable Achievements:

Improper Use (Killing an enemy with the repair tool) – 5G
Say Hi to the Internet (Find the Lost Hollywood star *Christopher Mintz-Plasse a.k.a. McLovin’*) – 10G