Xbox One: Gowi's Pre-E3 Verdict

I’m going to be honest here and I’m still trying to figure out where I stand since May 21^st, when Microsoft decided to reveal their all-in-one gaming system and successor to the Xbox 360, the Xbox One. Now, I won’t be bumbling about “oh that’s a stupid name, it’s a flop machine, etcetera” but I do think Microsoft did some ultimately risky things with their current market push and if more clarification does not come up at E3 favorably I regrettably will be ridding myself of console focus towards Microsoft. What really made me so certain about where I stand does not owe to Microsoft’s stance on backwards compatibility, used games policy, or DRM; and while I’d like different choices to all of those three they are not game changer’s for me—they might be for others, sure, but what concerns me is the mandatory internet and the always aware Kinect that would be in my living room. I’ll start with what bugs me about mandatory internet and that is how it disregards a user base around the world with bandwidth issues and not to mention those rural communities that cannot even have internet needed. How can a company isolate non-internet gamers? Is this their plan to stop piracy? To be hyper aware of what is going on their system? This seems both a good offense but the thing is that it is attacking pirates and regular law-abiding consumers if that theory bears any relevance and I don’t care for that. I don’t know but I hope Microsoft tells us more throughout E3 about this mandatory connection, maybe I understand it wrong.

Moving on to the second problem and the core issue I have with an Xbox One, the Kinect. The Kinect is “always aware” and I feel that has applications that are problematic to security and personal liberty. While this throws me in the “tin-foil hat” camp by some, does that mean nations like Germany and Australia being concerned about the same thing are wearing such hats as well? Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury warned us of these kinds of scenarios and I do fear it with a legitimate worry. How can you trust a corporation to not do what is in their best interests over your own? I simply can’t trust Microsoft to do the right thing and not decide to use information they receive in alerting anti-privacy ways and while I do understand they promise that privacy is one of their major concerns with the Kinect I still can’t stomach it as it sits on top of my television. This will alienate me from exclusives and Microsoft’s one billion dollar investment in gaming of which I’m sad for that, but I can’t support an always aware camera in my residence no matter the confidence Microsoft thinks they have. If they dropped the Kinect being always aware I would reconsider abandoning Microsoft and I understand it is throwing a lot of money down the drain.

That is all I have to say at this point in time about the Xbox One. 

Dead Space 3 (Demo thoughts!)

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you all had a great New Years. I've been undergoing some career change related stuff, and I apologize for no new updates throughout December. But, it's a new year, and my resolution is to bring you the best possible reviews and opinions my tiny brain can muster.

With that said, I just played the Dead Space 3 Demo! 

YAAAAAY!

Let me tell you a story that you have to read through (or scroll though) before I give my impressions. Because apparently you think highly enough of a guy who has claimed to actually enjoy Resident Evil 6 (review coming soon, just as soon as me and my fellow writers find the time to finish up the last campaign missions) and the fact that he thinks he's smart enough to give a concise and well thought out impression of a demo. And he (I mean, I) just spent a paragraph explaining absolutely nothing. 

How I imagine everyone looking at their computer screen right now

In October 2008, I was in the middle of my first semester of college. I was trying to finally get my act together so that I could pass my ECON101 class, because I was too lazy to do the homework...you know, before class. (And because I didn't study. Because i'm an idiot.) I was trying to cut back on the video games and focus on a social life in college, because everyone said "Drew, these will be the best times in your life!" 

Pictured: Best Times

Then I started to see them. The creepy commercials that dotted my Comedy Central advertisements. Late night, trying to watch the Daily Show, and after every commercial break, another weird rendition of Twinkle Little Star, rife with alien-zombie-monster things. And at the end of the commercial, the name: DEAD SPACE. 

I had to play this game. 

2008 was the magical time in my life where I had a part time job which had incredible, flexible hours, I was friends with the manager at the movie rental store, and my parents actually didn't care if I stayed up until 4 AM. They thought I was cramming for school! 

Yuuuup. Cramming. 

I called my friend and had him swear to me that there would be a copy waiting for me to pick up on release day. I told my bosses that I had to study for a big test, and they were cool with it. I picked up the game, made my way home and did not stop playing until 4 AM. 

And I didn't sleep until 7 AM. 

The rental period for video games back when there were such things as rental stores was 5 days in my area. I beat the game in 3. And I wanted more. 

When Dead Space 2 came out, I begged my girlfriend for a loaner so I could purchase it. She said under one condition: she got to watch me play it. (There's a reason why she's my fiance now.) 

Another great game, and I loved it. I'm a big fan of Issac's characterization as it grows from silent hero to a man who has been tortured for two years. And from what i'm seeing from trailers for 3, it looks like Issac will get more and more chances to shine as a character. 

Player 2-aka the Red Guy? Maybe not as much. 

And yes, there's a big worry about the Co-Op on the game. However I played through the single player level, and had no problems feeling terrified and claustrophobic. Also I jumped a lot because now Necromorphs can just...burst from the goddamn ice. 

AAAH! AAAAH! AAAAAH!

In the demo, I came across several enemy types: 

-The first were humanoids wielding ice picks. After softening them up a little, their chests exploded and three gross tentacles came out, like the baby necromorphs of old. They seemed to be more bullet sponges than anything. 

-The second monster I met was an old favorite, The Slasher (aka the guys with the scary arm danglies that kept killing you in Dead Space 1). But now they burst out of the  snowy ground! UNEXPECTEDLY! So I found that not sprinting was my best bet in areas.

-The third kind of enemy I met was an honest first: Human enemies, with guns, who wanted to shoot you dead. While in Dead Space 2, you saw laser rifles pointed at you at times, you never went toe to toe with a human. The issue is after you kill them; they can come back. As Necromorphs. Shit. 

-The fourth kind was a weird little squid head, like Head-Spider Norris in The Thing. 

AAAH!! AAHH!! STOMP ON IT! BURN IT GODDAMN IT

I freaked out when those guys came around. Oh, and they can possess headless bodies and make them shoot at you. It sucks.

-And there was a miniboss like spider monster that everyone has seen in the trailers. I shot at him and he ran away. 

The gameplay is pretty much the same. Keymappings are the same (which is nice) but the big change is in the combat system. Now, you can mix and match weapons to create your own shooty-shooty-gun gun (or...blasty blasty cutting tool). Like the plasma cutter and the force gun? Create a plasma cutter with a shotgun undercarriage! Like the pulse rifle and shooting electricity! You can have that too! 

Workbenches are now stations where you can mix and match weapons, equip and build upgrades, or create weapons from blueprints, in case you don't have a certain combo you enjoyed from the first game. 

Oh, and ammo is now interchangeable.

This is where you say, WHAT?

Yes, Ammo is the same with every weapon. This is a little confusing and annoying when it comes to trying to conserve ammo. In the previous games, you could safe your pulse ammo by sticking with the plasma cutter until you were in a tight situation. Now overusing your plasma cutter can take away your assault rifle ammo. 

However it does solve the clutter issue of previous games. 72 plasma ammo? 275 Pulse rounds? 3 line racks and room for one med pack? Now with the ammo being the same, there's less clutter messing up your inventory space. 

Just don't freak out and waste all your ammo on a dead corpse. 

The ammo situation does ramp up the difficulty; and makes your weapons more "situation" dependent  Before I could just unload my pulse rifle and be happy knowing I had ample plasma energy or line racks to fall back on. Now?  The punch and stomp buttons are looking very sweet. 

The game is scary, and the environment is creepy. But if you're wanting to play the demo to get some new scenes or level stuff? It's the same fare we've seen since last year. But now you're in the driver's seat, and you will probably either be more jumpy than the testers, or less so, if you have nerves of steel.

The demo has whetted my appetite, and I cannot wait to play some more! Dead Space 3 launches in America on February 5, 2013.(Ladies, Valentines Day present idea!) The game will be on the Xbox360, the PS3 and the PC. (Sorry WiiU)

That's it for Dead Space 3 until the game comes out! Until next time chums...

AAAHHHGGHHUUGGBBLUGGHHHH!!!!!

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I can’t even recall the last time where I was really entertained by a strategy game, not really. But if my memory is a credit to anything, I think it was maybe two years before this 2012 and the game was a little thing called RUSE, which was of course developed by EUGEN SYSTEMS. Much like RUSE, I stood or rather sat in one of my early morning marathons and was stuck looking at the marketplace for which Microsoft has utilized on their console. I came to XCOM, which I had heard of but knew absolutely nothing about other than my memory reminding me of a first person shooter.

This was not a first person shooter. The demo that XCOM ENEMY UNKNOWN gave me got me immediately interested, hooked, and dying to play it; so with what little change I had on hand I decided in favor of wasting it on this game and I will tell you right now I have no critical regrets about the decision, though I imagine my stomach will soon disagree. XCOM is a turn-based strategy that smells of the golden era of strategy gaming, which was in my opinion between the age of 12 and 16 for my experience. That said, XCOM is atypical of alien invasion science fiction and pulls out quite a few tropes.

XCOM is separated into two main sections; management and combat. The management section is divided between manufacturing items and upgrades through engineering, researching viable technologies and mission essential equipment, maintaining your infantry in the most basic way, responding to council requests for items or aid, and intercepting UFO’s. I may say that responding to aid from council nations can be the most taxing as do you really want that paycheck from China or those engineers from Russia? The catch though is if you ignore one or the other their stress rating goes up and if it hits the maximum there goes your funding for the project. It’s fun, but sometimes I feel the stress levels go up way too high, way too quick.

In the combat section, you have your squad in a turn-based scenario where you try to complete the objective of your mission. This usually ends up pretty vanilla; I do have to say as it’s usually one of four situations in my personal experience. Defeat all enemies, escort a vital civilian, rescue civilians before the aliens annihilate them, or my personal least favorite… disable the bomb. On the 360, the controls stick where they probably shouldn't as well, which is honestly the biggest complaint I have about XCOM. As I try to move an individual into cover, the analog likes to decide that person should die and be sent to an open area with no cover and just standing around like an idiot.

As for story, from what I've felt from owning it for like three or four days is pretty much simple and coasting. Alien invasions and abductions start happening and you are designating with finding out why and how to stop it. This ends up leading you out of the tutorial and into the bulk. I do like story in my strategy, but for some reason this doesn’t bother me.  The graphics are also simple but up to spunk as far as my tastes go and the voiceover work by the cast is just as well.


The game doesn't ask much out of you, except maybe to not die. Actually that is probably the polar opposite of what this game wants out of you as when you play this game you will die. Especially if you are not a veteran strategy gamer and coming from me who played difficult matches on games like Age of Empires II, Stronghold, and the Hearts of Iron series, I would say even the easy difficulty provides enough challenge at times for me. I love this game though, despite the tiny things like sabotaging my squad on the rare mission and having really no easy mode (easy is disguised, disguised as normal!), not to mention it has the most imitating score of “awesome”; to put it bluntly, the soundtrack pretty much sounds to me like Mass Effect, which is good. In the end, this is a good… maybe great strategy game and if you like alien invasion science fiction or turn-based strategy this is a must have in your collection.

Borderlands 2: Gunzerking Boogaloo

I have a confession to make: I don't really like co-op loot games. The reason why, is that even when I play with my friends, every chest found becomes a mad dash to get the best equipment; and if I didn't make that ridiculous sprint-jump, I get left with whatever dross the others didn't want. You know, the stuff that isn't even worth the $20 sell price.

Thanks guys, i'll just stick with the level 1 gun I started with

It's a story of self-preservation, of course. But it's also the story of why I played Borderlands 1 solo for my first two characters. So when all of my friends bought Borderlands 2 and called to me to join them on their shooty-shooty blow up stuff rampage, I decided i'd give the sequel a chance.

Provided with less dub-step than the commercials

So the story of Borderlands 2 is pretty much this: Four (or Five, depending on your DLC) Vault Hunters head to Pandora in search of answers, money, adventure and all that good stuff. And as always, each as special abilities that give them an edge in combat, so that they can get revenge on the asshole that tried to blow them up. 

Pictured: Asshole

So our four (or five) amigos all head out to get better guns and get stronger so they can shoot lightning, acid and flame rounds at him and his minions to get what they want. Which is...revenge...or to save the world or something. 

Honestly, the characters do fall into the classic RPG world of silent heroes. Apart from audio logs that give backstory and their shouts and grunts on critical hits or death screams, you'll be emoting your character's emotions in your mic more than they will with their voices. 

Picture: The Commando, The Girl, The Robot/Alien? and the Guy with an Accent

That doesn't mean there's a lacking story. Honestly, the characters in Borderlands 2 are silent to allow the previous protagonists a chance to talk and interact with one another. So the previous bland "Vault Hunters 1-4" now actually have fuller, dynamic personalities and how they react with one another.

Hey...remember us?

So far here's how Borderlands 2 can be subscribed, with regards to my friend and co-author on the blog Greg: "Borderlands 2 is just Borderlands 1 with a plot and more whacked-out guns."

And the answer is yes, it is. But there's more! Customization, new vehicles, a much more prominent villain! 

I love to hate you, Jack.

The real protagonist of Borderlands 2 is Handsome Jack. Wait...what? Okay, so he might not be the protagonist (since that's the player's job) but he is the impetus for all of the events of Borderlands 2. It's his story; it's his game. He's the one who has brought everyone to Pandora, he's the one behind the curtain; honestly, he's the best part of the game; and Gearbox understood that, and made him the voice in your ear throughout most of the campaign. 

You will love Jack when he talks about his awful pretzels or his diamond horse named Butt Stallion. And you will hate Jack when he does things to you; things I cannot say because they are HEAVY in the spoiler alert section. He kills, maims, destroys because he's a sociopath and he's convinced himself that he IS the hero of the story. 

Borderlands 2 is fun, it never takes itself too seriously, but when the drama does come down it hits you square in the gun and kicks you while you're writhing in pain. New characters add flavor and humor to the story; while getting to see old NPCs and protagonists reappear along your journey make the story worth experiencing. 

Oh, and there's this: 

That'sssssssssss a very nice Borderlandssss you have there.

It's that kind of game.

Halo 4: The Forerunner's Revenge of the Precursor's Plans of the Reckoning...Trilogy?

Well, we know it's got Master Chief in it.

Halo 4 is the newest Halo game out from Microsoft's internal studio, 343 studios, making this game a departure from the Bungie Halo games. Oh no, cried purists who grew distrustful any time a favorite game was doled out to a secondary studio.

I can say without a doubt, 343 studios has taken what everyone loves about Halo, and they've kept it sacred. There's something dangerous about putting a popular game on a pedestal, and refusing to change anything due to reverence of the past (or do to easy copy/paste jobs in games to keep a franchise milking money for years to come).

I'm looking at you Call of Duty Modern Warfare Black Ops Combat 25.

One great thing about Bungie's development of Halo is that they weren't afraid to change the schema of the game, adding dual-wielding, armor abilities, new playable characters, etc; as the series went on. 

The number one cause of me screaming BULLSHIT!!! in 2004. 

Bungie allowed the game to change and evolve, and each game has a sort of niche factor to it. Halo 1 had that classic deathmatch feel to it, Halo 2 was definitely an arms race on weapon load-outs, Halo 3 added ridiculous weapons like the gravity hammer; Reach added armor abilities. Minor tweaks of course, but each one changed how we played the game. While some of my friends really focused on certain weapons, like the Sniper Rifle/Battle rifle, each game I found myself experimenting with different weapons, different combinations, to really change my play style.

Of course I was brutally killed and tea bagged constantly. 

DAMNIT DUDE JUST STOP

Halo 4 does have changes in it. Gone is dual wielding (just like in Reach) and weapons have been changed here and there. Armor abilities are still in play, and weapons have been tweaked adding more power or "nerfing" of weapon types to get everyone out there experimenting to find their best fit. Wait. Armor abilities, no dual wielding, change in tone of the story, more Spartans than just the Chief...isn't this just Halo Reach with better graphics?

Now with more Master Chief! 

There are some changes! Hold on! It's just not a radical jump. Each of the changes have been, like I've said, tweaks and minor changes. Halo as a series has been the same throughout. There as super space soldiers, and they are fighting in space, or on earth, or on a colonized planet, or on a giant magical space gravity field planet...it's not War and Peace!

Still, have Nikolai battle some aliens and it'd be a much easier read.

   The biggest change is the story. The tone, I mean. Halo 4 is less of a race against time against an evil alien menace (I mean, there IS that, but it's more background) instead in the foreground is the relationship between Spartan John 117 and his AI companion Cortana. 

She keeps getting sexier and I keep getting weirder. 

Cortana, who has evolved from nagging voice in our heads, telling us to go to objective after objective is more prominent than any of the Halo games before. She's losing her mind, going into a state of rampancy (basically AI alzheimers mixed with a bit of a god complex) of which there is no known cure. So Chief does what he does best: He says he'll fix her, and off we go, guns blazing killing more aliens in the process. But even more so for the human element of Cortana, we get a heck of a lot more Master Chief in this game! 

And more of Steve Downes' smooth sultry voice.

For the first few missions, the dynamic is strictly Master Chief/Cortana. Back and forth quips as you blast your way through covenant and a new enemy that can be described as the villains of Tron with skull faces.

Wow. Commander Sark got scary all of a sudden. 

Of course the story takes a turn for the crazy when a ship full of fresh, meat shield ready space marines finds their way into Halo 4's crazy inside-out planet, and The Chief, Cortana and their new friends have to save the galaxy before bedtime. 

That's it for the story portion of the review. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't want to tell all the nitty gritty details, because then there's no point to play the campaign mode. So, next stop is the portion of the game I fear the most: Multiplayer! 

DAMNIT

There are 3 ways to play multiplayer in Halo 4. Co-Op campaign, WarGames (the standard team based/deathmatch/crazy rules multiplayer mode) and the Co-Op Spartan Ops: a new mission a week multiplayer game that tells the story of a Spartan IV team.

WarGames is the basic "multiplayer" mode. It has all the bells and whistles leading to 16 player deathmatches, capture the flags, king of the kills; all the good fancy game modes. Plus Flood Mode (infecting other players) and an improved Grifball mode.

Spartan Ops is pretty much mission based levels, where you're sent to eliminate X amount of enemies, destroy X amount of targets and head to extraction. For Co-op lovers like myself, it adds more fun (due to my terrible aim in games like CTF and Slayer) by allowing me to brutally murder the computer, who doesn't glitch to the top of the screen and doesn't tell me what horrible things he's done to my mother with the voice of a 10 year old. 

QUIT CALLING ME A NOOB!

The big difference in the online play is the new "load-out" system. You start out with your basic Assault Rifle and Pistol, and you kill your way to more experience points to unlock new weapons, new armor abilities and such. This "carrot-on-a-stick" leveling system is seen in other FPS games and in my opinion, has become something of a dead horse beaten on by every publisher now. Still, it does give a goal-system to unlock better abilities to be able to hold your own against other players. Just, keep your head down while those guys with the sniper rifles are lining your head into a shot.

The Verdict

Halo 4 is not going to change the face of the First Person Shooter forever. It still holds true to the form and function of Halo: Combat Evolved, ten years after its launch. And to be honest, that's not a bad thing. It adds new things with each new game, Master Chief and friends boldly travel to new worlds, spilling blue and purple blood to protect humanity, and it's still fun. 

Nothing beats split screen slayer, elbowing your friends and shouting to quit screen watching. Halo 4 can still deliver that, though now you'll need another tv, system, game and a LAN chord for the other two guys (thanks 2 person split screen). You can make parties with friends and spend hours killing, camping, sniping and tea bagging, or you can play with random people and risk getting called sexist and racial terms by kids. 

Hey, it's Halo. It's still fun. And it's good to see the Chief back in action. 

An Introduction and a Review

Hello, come one and come all to Half-Wit Reviews, my new blog in which I take games that I have played and review them. Pretty simple, right?

I'll start off introductions, my name is Drew Mears, and I've been around games since I was born. It didn't hurt that my two older sisters enjoyed playing games, and somewhere between 1989 and 1991, my parents purchased a Nintendo Game Console with around thirty games to choose. You had your standard:

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Zelda, Zelda II, Mega Man, and  Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! Hell, we even had Snake Rattle 'n' Roll.

Damn you confusing Q*Bert-esque world!

Needless to say, I had a good start at gaming as a life-long hobby. Sure, my background doesn't hold as much weight as to those guys who grew up with the Atari 2600 or those blessed (cursed?) with an Intellevision.

What is this? I don't even...

I've grown up with the NES, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, Playstation, N64, Xbox, Gamecube, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii....and don't get me started on the damn handhelds!

Behold, the battery devourer! 

So here's the thing: I've been playing games as long as I can remember. I love 'em. I feel that games can be great to waste time with, or to tell someone's story beyond the scope of the novel or the movie; since video games are the marriage of story and control. At the same time, I won't act as if i'm the end all idea of game reviewers. I'm not going to assign a score to a game and declaim it as gold or shit. Instead, i'm going to examine games I've played and do my best to give my opinion on the game. And that opinion  dear reader, is something you can take as you will. 

So, i'll start tonight off with a review of a game that has just released, and I have not 100% beaten. So, take it as a "spoiler-lite" review. Oh yeah, the game is Halo 4. 

Insert ambient music here.

Proceed to the review!