Tie Fighter Reorchestrated Mod Updated! (v1.1)

Aug 17, 2012

Sorry for those who were waiting for the updates, but I’ve been a little busy since I got married 4 months ago. But I’ve finally got around to posting some of the fixes that Dan has made to the Tie Fighter music. Head on over to here to grab v1.1 of the Tie Fighter Reorchestrated Music mod.

Nintendo E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction

Jun 05, 2012

Abdul’s Take:

I thought Nintendo would have had a stronger showing and shown a new major first party title other than New Super Mario Bros U (which was kind of already shown last year). There was no 3D Mario game nor Zelda, Metroid or Star Fox to be found. There were some third party games shown but most of them were already released on the 360/PS3 or will be released simultaneously with the Wii U version. It seems as though Nintendo had something missing.

Grade: C+

Ed’s Take:

I felt Nintendo had a decent showing.  They showed a Mario title for the Wii U and they showed off third party support, something they’ve been lacking in years.  Batman and Assassins Creed III will be must plays and the promo reel they had of other third party games came with a surprise Mass Effect 3 shot.  I am very curious how that game will play out with the gamepad.  They spent some time describing how the the Wii U will function and showed off a software that will help introduce users to the Wii U called Nintendo Land.  This is a mini game collection that will not sell the system like Wii Sports did but will do what it was set out to do, and that is to show people how the system is used.  They spent some time on the 3Ds but will reveal more at their 3DS specific press conference later.  What they did show was New Super Mario Bros 2, a new Paper Mario game, and the Luigi’s mansion sequel.  The big titles are on their way to the 3DS and giving 3DS owners a reason to feel satisfied with their purchase.  The Mario games alone should account for an increase in sales.  Overall the conference did feel like it was missing something, they just needed more demos of games being played or more in depth looks at new third party games, something.

Grade: B

Sony E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction

Jun 04, 2012

Abdul’s Take:

Sony started off extremely strong with Beyond (Quantic Dream’s follow up to Heavy Rain), Assassin’s Creed III Liberation, and a new gameplay demo of Assassin’s Creed III for PS3 which involved one of the best renditions of a naval battle I’ve ever seen in a video game (Pirates!, eat your heart out!). The press conference lost a ton of momentum in the middle when they started to talk about Move and PlayStation Suite, a couple of things that most people couldn’t care less about. However, they did finish strong with the first full gameplay demo of the Last of Us. I have to say, Sony is doing a good job of making the Vita attractive even in this post-smartphone world. I’m not sure if its enough to make the Vita relevant in the mainstream audience, but I’m sure its turning some heads in the hardcore community right now.

Grade: A-

Ed’s Take:

Starting off the show with Quantic Dreams Beyond was a good choice, the video was impressive.  We can safely assume that the visuals are the gameplay but what type of gameplay will follow is up in the air.  It looks more action oriented but we didn’t see any gameplay.  I knew going into Playstation Allstars Stars Battle Royal that it was inspired by Super Smash Bros but after watching that footage it was as if they copied the code and added Playstation characters.  It’s neat but really they don’t have the first party characters that Nintendo does and have to reach into the well of third party much sooner.  Which wasn’t long because they announced Bioshock’s Big Daddy at the end.  They mentioned that the game with be cross compatible with Vita so here’s hoping they don’t make you buy two copies of the same game just to play multiplayer in your home.  Assassin’s Creed III’s naval battles didn’t interest me at first but then once they got deep in the battle with the dynamic weather it was quite the sight to see. The God of War Acention footage was nice and looked “cleaner” than III did.  It really reminded me how I need to go back and finish III.  As Abdul said, once they hit the part about Playstation Mobile and the Move information is where everything just kind of died out.  I think I might have actually heard snoring when they started talking about Wonder Book.  I remember the comment the presenter made about how he was surprised this one was kept a secret and my comment was, “You’ve kept this a secret because no body cares” which is a sentiment shared by some other games industry people I’ve heard.  As with everything else we’ve seen with the last of us, it looks amazing was probably the best way they could have ended the show.  Overall a good showing but there just was too much time spent on Mobile, Move, and Wonderbook.

Grade: B+

Ubisoft E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction

Jun 04, 2012

Abdul’s Take:

I think Ubisoft just won E3. The final game they showed was a new IP called Watch Dogs. Its hard to explain, but its definitely what I imagined a futuristic take on Assassin’s Creed would be. The early speculation on Twitter is that it is a next-generation game. Whatever it was, it looked incredible. Assassin’s Creed 3, Rayman Legends and Far Cry 3 also all demoed well. Definitely the best lineup that Ubisoft has shown at a recent E3.

Grade: A+

Ed’s Take:

The Assasin’s Creed stuff and the Wii U stuff was good and makes me excited for this fall.  The hosting by Aisha Tyler was ok until that weird “nerd” dude showed up.  Man was his stuff hard to watch.  I think I fell asleep to the “e-Sports” event they had set up with Shootmania.  Its like they thought I knew or cared who those people were then tried to provide commentary for some yawn inducing gameplay.  Where Ubisoft hit it out of the park was with Watch Dogs.  That game looks so good that it just might be next gen but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were current consoles.  It was really amazing and I suggest you all go look at videos for this thing.  This so far IS the game of E3 and just about saved Ubisoft’s conference.

Grade: B

Electronic Arts E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction

Jun 04, 2012

Abdul’s Take:

EA showed all of their traditional titles (Madden, FIFA, Need for Speed) and didn’t have too much new or exciting to show. It seems as though Medal of Honor is to Battlefield what Treyarch’s Call of Duty is to Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty games, as well. The new physics engine in Madden did look interesting, but it usually takes a few years before physics engines are refined in sports games. Dana White showing up on stage to announce an EA deal with UFC was shocking, and Most Wanted looked fantastic, but other than that there wasn’t much to write home about.

Grade: C+

Ed’s Take:

Everything shown was expected except for that UFC surprise.  There was a lot of focus around Sports and and Battlefield/Medal of Honor which if you like that stuff would be great but honestly I’m feeling the modern military shooter genre getting tired.  Need for speed was refreshing, glad to see Criterion is following up Hot Pursuit with something that looks equally as good, if not better.

Grade: C-

Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction

Jun 04, 2012

Abdul’s Take:

Microsoft’s press conference had a solid lineup with impressive gameplay demos of Halo 4, Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Resident Evil 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Other than Splinter Cell, there weren’t any new blockbuster titles shown off. Smart Glass was the closest thing to a surprise, but even that news was leaked a few days ago. However, I am interested to see how good Smart Glass will be in practice. Its hard to fault MS for showing anything new however, as the next generation of systems is just around the corner.

Grade: B-

Ed’s Take:

Microsoft’s conference really spent it’s load very early.  Forza Horizon is looking very exciting and the Tomb Raider footage was incredible.  Both titles I can’t wait to get my hands on.  Things dropped when the Nike + stuff was revealed.  Although it isn’t something that is going to be of any interest to those in attendance or watching the live feeds but will probably heavily advertised by Nike and a hit for those in the fitness fields.  I thought the Gears information was underwhelming and short for something that will be out in a year. The Fable information was skimmed over and forgotten real quick and Microsoft is trying to push more sports related content on the console, they aren’t messing around when it comes to media content.  They introduced a music service that feels like it will replace the Zune marketplace and speaking of music, if Dance Central 3 can make me dance like Usher, I’ll buy 50 copies.  The most interesting bit of information was the Smart Glass.  Microsoft put Nintendo and Sony on notice with this feature.  Instead of buying a dedicated piece of hardware or a new console. Microsoft will have you download this app and interact with your Xbox for movies, games, and finally internet web surfing.  It’ll be interesting to see how well this app will work in comparison to Nintendo’s dedicated hardware.  Overall the conference could have used something more but was ok.

Grade: B

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection on Steam (and other PC services)

Feb 02, 2012

This week Mortal Kombat Kollection hit PC digital distribution services starting with GamersGate. As of today it has hit the #1 digital PC platform: Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/205350/ – $9.99 normally but on sale for $8.49 (15% off)

The site says it has Single-Player and Multi-Player, but doesn’t denote whether it has gamepad/controller support. You’d suspect it would, it just doesn’t say. Nor does it look like there is Steam Cloud or Achievements – so for certain it is not a Steamworks game.