Weekly Update 6-30-13

Current News:
So I just recently uploaded my first video of GameDev Tycoon on the PC. I will most likely redo it with a different program that will allow me to do 20-30min episodes also I shouldnt be hacking up so much snot. I have also decided to not do DC Universe as a video play through but to instead to Roller Coaster Tycoon 3+Expansions. I would do a Skyrim but I am playing that on the Xbox I do not want to get burned out by it.

Flea Market: 
I did not set up yesterday due to just not feeling good due to the lack of sleep. So I just slowly cleaned the house and got set up for my Halo 2 LAN. Which went off fairly well considering I have never hosted a true LAN before in the house I am currently living in. Today I went to the flea market rather late due to poor sales last week in the early morning so I got their around 10am and there was hardly anyone there shopping or set up. They have 1 row of sheltered booths and 2 rows of un-sheltered spots, the sheltered was full as normal but the first row of spots were not even filled. So I decided to walk around for a little bit until a storm popped up dropped a ton of rain on me then went away. So I decided to just cut my losses at $2 instead of risking paying $19 and getting rained out or just not enough foot traffic.

Future News: 
Tonight and later this week ill be posting more videos from GameDev Tycoon and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Hopefully this new screen recording software is better than FRAPS and youtube wont take 9hrs to download a 10min video.

So thanks for reading/following/sharing/commenting ill see ya next time.

Tablet blogging

So this is my first blog from the tablet. If I have lots of errors Im sorry.

Treasure Aisles Update: Saturday so were slow but made a profitt, possibly getting a connection into vintage star wars figures. No sales for Sunday, had a birthday party to go to.

Righ Now: I recently found a new guy on youtube to watch playthoughs of games. It started with SimCity and now I'm watching his GameDev Tycoon and Skyrim. You can check him out at yogacastsips. He also does live plays of games like Terraria. He is funny and canadian, he does css but is funny about it. He loves to roleplay and will do it for anything. Playing simcity he when turning off buildings he would say that it was pencil dick from ghostbusters.

This Week: I'll be starting playthroughs of DC Universe Online as well as GameDev Tycoon so be on the look out for them also.

E3 Game Recap

So this year's E3 had a ton of games that looked awesome!! Here will be my rundown on the games that caught my eye.

I will try and keep the lists short and the videos short so you are not sitting and watching videos all day.



XBOXONE

First Ill start off with the biggest reveal trailer of E3 of any game:

The game I wanted to play most: Project Spark

If the single player is more than 6hrs then this game will be good.

So there is 3 XboxOne Exclusive titles that made an impact on me at this years E3.




PLAYSTATION 4


I have never been able to play these games before but I am looking forward to it.

This game is suppose to place over a 15 year time span so hopefully they dont skip ahead too much and the single player is a good size.

So there was two Playstation 4 exclusives that I am looking forward to playing. Yes I know there is a few other games that are out their but I have no interest in playing them.

Now for the cross platforms games!!! Im going to limit them to the 4 best games I want to play. I created a list to help me narrow them down and its at 9 but im only going to do 4 games.


Love these games and cant wait to play them online.

Hopefully this game will finally get made. Also the funniest trailer from E3

The most anticipated game!!

This will most likely the only game Ill need for awhile.

Well there you have it, my choice of games from this years E3 that I am looking forward to. 

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XboxOne v. PS4 (On going updates)

Recently this years E3 has wrapped up and ive had time for it to all soak in and this what I think of it.

Got home from work and ignored the wife to watch the on demand of the Microsoft press conference and I was super excited and I was like YES!! Im so getting the new xbox. Woke up and watched the Sony press conference and was like yeaaaa not getting the Xbox now.

So instead of just raging into a massive rant I will just list my pros and cons and you can make your own opinion but my list will be my reasons. I also may not be right on everything so feel free to correct me.

Xbox One (Really? You already have an Xbox One it was big bulky and awesome!!)
Pros:
- Halo
- Ill finally get a Kinect (Force to not only use it but rearrange our living room so there is a enough room to play it)
- Sharing games with your friends through the cloud. Not sure how this will be effected with Microsoft's new policies. 

Cons:
- Price of $499 ( I have to pay for my next system with my own money.)
- Daily check in: NO LONGER REQUIRED
- Used Games: NEW POLICY. They switched back to not having restrictions. 


Playstation 4 
Pros:
- Price of $399
- Playstation+ is required now but $10 cheaper than live and provides a lot of the same apps.
- MLB The Show (I finally get to play a good baseball game again)
- Free games like DC Universe Online

Cons:
- Halo (Can just go to a friends house if I really want to play it)
- Um....cant really think of anymore.


Best quote from E3 regarding the new systems is:
If you dont have internet we have a console, its called the 360. Well now its the XboxOne 1.5

Yea ill be getting my 2 free games from XBL, cancelling our subscription in December, move the xbox downstairs and the roku box upstairs until we get a PS4

Best Console Video of E3

So there is my system recap. Look for my gaming update later today or tonight, the wife left me a list of things to do before work today.

Getting my sorry butt back to work.

So I have been gone for sometime, not because I was busy but just because I have been super lazy. Starting Wednesday I will be bringing you all updates about everything gaming and entertainment going on in my life. E3 just came and went so a blog will be posted with trailers of all the things im looking forward to. I have started my own booth at my local flea market selling dvd's, games, toys, and anything else related to awesome things. I will be also getting back into doing Lets Play and trying to make them not suck this time around. I will start with DC Universe online first and possibly SimCity as well. I have decided not do as many game reviews but broaden my scope of entertainment coverage including my two cents on the new Superman movie "Man of Steel". I hope more and more people start to follow me and get helpful advice from the things I have to say. Thanks for reading and hope to see your comments on Wednesday night.

- Lavernius <----Get it? No? Watch Season 3 of RvB. If you have picked your nose while reading dont wipe it under the desk. Go share with the towns people.

Lets not blow up Osaka!!

So I have finally gotten around to doing a Lets Play and it is of XCOM: Enemy Unknown on the PC. I have started the video a few missions in past the boring tutorial missions so I hope you enjoy it.

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW FOR THIS GAME IN A PREVIOUS POST!!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Developer: Bethesda Studios
Platform: Xbox 360
Score: 3/5

Because this game is older and I own it I will not be in a hurry to run through it like I was with AC3 but I will give you the rundown so far on it and will do update posts later on in the future as new and exciting things happen. I will say that I have never been a huge Elder Scrolls fan but since it came with my Xbox I may as well play it. First this game is massive and not just on scope but the quests. I am still in the first major town and have been there for almost 6 hours working on side quests. I have been enjoying this game so far and plan to put a few days of my life into this game. This being a digital download I have had a few problems in load screens where it would completely lock up my system and I would have to physically remove the power cable to reset everything. While creating my first character (wood elf) it took forever to load the features on my character which could be due to the digital download.

Visuals: A
Its not the best texture ive seen for an open world game but its not awful either. I dont like the AI player templates, they seem too square for me like they were built in minecraft. The graphics may not be the best but that could be because of what is going on in the world around you so they keep that low to help with refresh rate. First thing I noticed was the clouds in the sky moving and not going too slow nor too fast. The water just doesnt seem to be realistic maybe due to lack of reflection but it just looks off. The lighting on the the characters are amazing and spot on with the light source of the area. When I looked up it took the game a second for my screen to adjust just like your eyes would in real life. The game to me in general seems really dark so I turned my display settings up all the way and it made a huge difference. The one major thing that I love is the slow-mo killing blows especially as an archer and seeing 2-3 arrows in your victim.

Controls: B-
The game play controls are pretty easy to figure out, but its getting a weapon (even when you favorite) is annoying, navigating for quests, and your map could be redone. It has taken me longer to get used to the controls than I would have liked to. 

Audio: B+
Title screen song is amazing, The gameplay music is really good and makes you feel apart of that world. Then when you get into combat the song changes and picks up the pace and it makes my heart beat a little faster. The SFX are pretty good nothing that caught my ear but I havent encountered any problems yet.

Game play: A
Shooting fire with your left hand and bashing someone in with a mace in the right can do no wrong in my book. So going with how big this game is almost everything is interactive. Wanna steal that bread go for it, sit on a bench take a seat. When it comes to buying and selling things I must say it is poorly done. It should give you a character sheet to see what you got in each spot and be able to compare easily what you got and what you find. I havent messed much with the potions or alchemy but I did find myself eating random things to see there effects. My big gripe is finding the mats, I can not really tell whats part of the game and what is interactive in the open world. I killed a boss and was like oh there is a mining vein right in front of me. Since I have just played a little bit I do hope that the armor variety gets better. Everyone I kill has the same 3 sets of armor. At least they could have mixed it up a bit more in the opening area. So questing oh boy there is a lot of them. You do get some at the beginning you wont use for a while unless your just running through the game. I would like to see icons above everyone that has a job or a quest for you to do instead of talking to everyone and asking if they need help. If you do happen to fail a side mission it is failed and you move on unless you have a prior save point and you really want it.

Replay Value: B-
This game is so massive I just dont see a replay value you unless your going after achievements you can only get if you join a certain group and thats only if the game doesnt allow you to join a guild because you joined another first. I will play through and get as many achievements as I can with my archer then ill make a new character and play through most likely as a pickpocketing mage. 

Forza 4

Game: Forza MotorSport 4
Developer: Microsoft Studios
Platform: Xbox 360
Score: 3/5

So we finally upgraded our Xbox and Forza 4 came with it alone with Skyrim which will also have a review here soon. I will say that I am not a big racing fan but I have enjoyed Forza and my wife even laughed at me since it may have been the first time shes seen me play a racing game. It is the Xbox rival to Gran Tourismo. I will say that I am not a car guy, most important thing for a car to me is getting me from point A to point B. This game is not all about high end cars but just about any decent car out there. My wife and I just bought a 2010 Honda Fit well the night before I said you wanna test drive it? She did!! The cars range from Le Mans cars to a Gremlin. The car list is massive and some companies just have one car in the game like the delorean which if you purchase and hit 88mph you get an achievement which was so funny since I didn't look at the achievement list before hand and was doing it to just do it. The one major setback I did have was that the online community isn't that big since it is an older game and Forza Horizons is the newest one. If you buy the Xbox bundle that this and Skyrim comes in don't sell this game short it was very fun even for a non car guy like me.


Visuals: A+

Beautiful!!! Not only did the cars look great but the scenery when you got a chance to look around was amazing. I would recommend that out of all the driving views go with the first person inside the car for the best views. Not only is the car interior a match but you get to see the landscape also the rear view mirrors help as well. After you get to pick a car for gaining a new level you can pick a base color but don't worry you can go to your garage and paint it for free. They have just a basic paint, chromolugen, and metallic paint schemes. I did notice that on some cars I could just change the base paint and not accent paint. I could be just overlooking it but did not see it. You also have the ability to had decals and do custom designs which you can sell in your store front for some extra credits. While your racing if you like to use the other cars as a braking assistant while making a turn you will damage your car. I never did it enough to have my car effected other than the paint job being rubbed off and the amount of damage you take is reflected in credits after each race. They have a mode called auto vista which allows you to get into a few cars and get a more in depth look at them and get information about certain parts. If you are new to racing games don't worry the game lays down a race line with green, yellow, red arrows for you to learn how and when to brake.

Controls: A
Its a car game so the controls are pretty straight forward with a gas and a brake, you are able to rotate the view all around your car to see other cars in a blind spot. I did have issues with racing some of the high end cars with just flooring it and spinning it out so that was something I had to get used to was just easing down on the trigger. The braking seemed too sensitive and I was barely touch it and I was be all herky jerky. 

Audio: B
So there wasn't anything special about the soundtrack it sounded very arcade style to me. It wasn't bad but it wasn't spectacular. The cars on the other hand were amazing. Getting into a a Enzo and reveing it up made the hair on my arms stand up a bit. The announcer is a from the UK so if you can get over the accent he will be okay. Him doing it gives more of a world game feel to it not just an American. 

Game play: B+

Its not a NASCAR game so you turn right a lot also. I am doing season mode right now and it does get repetitive but they do mix the season up with a different challenge. The first season I drove around the Top Gear test track knocking down over sized bowling pins. The next challenge I was racing on a Japanese mountain side with traffic (only one direction) against just one car on who could get to the bottom. The difficulty is really easier and made for beginners. I had to move it up to the 2nd hardest difficulty before it was somewhat challenging. Don't worry if you don't win you still get plenty of xp and credits also.  Yes the AI does make mistakes so if you are trailing you can catch up. While in career mode you can choose between 3 different races per event and each gives a different reward. One issue I found was doing a Camaro V. Mustang race well I was the only mustang going up against 9 camaros, it should have been half and half depending on what you picked. I did notice that you do level pretty fast and can get overwhelmed with the amount of cars in your garage. I have tried to keep certain cars in certain class types and trying not to duplicate care manufactures. If you race with certain manufactures and do good you will receive Affinity points which can lead to getting discounts from that company on cars and parts. When it comes to parts I must say tuning your car is very detailed and since I know nothing about cars I just left it alone and did fine, I'm sure it matters online but I haven't messed with it much. One of my favorite feature is the race rewind. It allows you to rewind your race back to where you need it and it has helped me by winning a few races.

Replay Value: B-
As far as I can tell there is none. The game is really big to start with so it will take awhile to play through. Right now I am in season mode and there are 10 seasons. I am in season 3 and there is a total of 30 some races so far. They also have event list races. I didn't count but there is a lot and you can only race some with certain class of cars some I haven't played enough to get yet. You can only upgrade your cars to a certain point then race online. The online community isn't that great unless you race on a Friday or Saturday night.

Star Wars The Old Republic Rant

Ok so I paid for a month of it to try it out and see if there was a huge difference. Well I managed to get a sage to level 25 in that time span. I then moved to other characters and since I was no longer paying for it I did not feel the need to play all the time since it was consuming all my extra gaming time. I go to log back on today on my sage and it wont let me. I have found out that if you are Free 2 Play there is a lvl 15 cap on it. Also since I am no longer a subscribed member I can only create 2 characters per email. Well I dont want to give up on my lvl25 so I guess ill create a toon. Play to level 15 and be done with it. Time to move onto another game. Thats my rant for the week.

First Live Play Test

So I have gotten the recording software, a headset, now just waiting on a webcam. But I was able to set up a test for Star Wars the Old Republic. For a review of the game check out my previous posts. This post is to let people know that I will be doing live play for PC games and ill post them here and on my youtube account. I wanna make sure that the video will play using this first. You are also able to follow me on Twitter @GenofGames.

Sims 3 (Plus Expansions)

Game: Sims 3 including expansions
Developer: EA
Platform: PC
Score: 5/5

Ok So I got some time before I check out some friends doing a Live Stream of the game RaiderZ. I thought Id catch everyone up on what Ive started playing. So yes I know its a few years old but they keep making more expansions and I just got a new PC so its like playing a brand new game. I was able to play all of them up until Pets came out and as of right now I have the base game, pets and seasons installed. I must say Pets is a huge upgrade over the Sims 2 version and so is Seasons. There is just so much more to do with your pet and during the different times of the year. I may do another quick post once I get showtime and have played that for a little bit. The rest of the expansions that have came out over the past year are "stuff" expansions.

Visuals: A

Alright so updated computer makes a huge difference. My video card is still a few years old but 8GB's of RAM helps out a lot. I am playing with the settings turned all the way up on everthing and the game is amazing for the style of game this is. Its got everything from the football game (Madden) on the TV playing, the water reflections, the entire room showing up in the mirror, and my favorite is the shaddow moving as the day progress when you speed up time. Sadly with it not being an action game it does lack some visuals that the consoles are doing with sports and action games these days.

 

Controls: A+
Its 99% of the mouse so if yours is wireless get the batteries because your gonna need them. Its a simple click an object i.e. fridge, then what you want to eat. I only use my keyboard to speed up or slow down time with the number pad but you can do this by just clicking on the icons on the game panel. You rotate with a simple click and hold of the mouse and rotate away and zoom is all with the mouse wheel.

Audio: A+
If you havent played a Sims game before whoa are you missing out on the great language that is Simish. Its actually very funny sometimes the sounds that they make. The music is absolutely brilliant in the menue screens. With pets you can change the dogs bark and my dog was in the room and would keep cocking her head everytime I would try out a different dog. You are able to go into the files and add your own music to play in game under a custom station when you have the radio playing but if you dont want to deal with the hassel the music is still pretty good. It may not be playing a "real" song but the melody is pretty distinct in some and ill catch myself singing as my sim is dancing away.

 

Game play: A+

Its the Sims, ive never played a bad one yet. Yes there are some crappy expansions but the base game is awesome. You wanna be the president with a bunch of girlfriends? Thats fine you can. You wanna be a lonner rockstar that is a vampire? Go for it. Wanna be a bum? Sure. The game gives you an unlimited amount of possibilites.

Replay Value: A+
You can do what you want and then turn around and mix it up the next time around. You can play the same game for years because it doesnt suck and they keep coming out with new expansions to keep things interesting.

Winter Update

So since the holidays are over I will catch you all up on my gaming adventures as of late. I have recently gotten a new PC with updated RAM, vid Card, and proccessor. Nothing special but im able to play newer games. This review will be quick reviews of the games I have been playing on 360 and PC.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)

If you are a fan of WoW and Star Wars then this is the game for you. It is a Bioware game so the story is amazing. There is a small little interactive cutscene for almost every conversation wich is truly amazing for a MMORPG. I have played a little bit of every class but focusing on a Jedi Sage (WoW Priest) and I must say its better than WoW's because of the compainion. I can be speced for healing and have my compaionion do most of the work with me throwing objects from a distant. Only downside I have is each faction has 4 classes wich isnt bad except 2 of those 4 are on one planet and the other 2 are on the other so the beginning classes are repetitive to a point. A major plus is this game is free to download and free to play. I do recommend paying $15/month for a few months to test it out, it is well worth it. I did do f2p for a few weeks and it was just as fun and entertaining. So if you are a fan of MMORPG, Star Wars, or just cheap then I highly recommend this game.

Civilization V (PC)

What can I say its Civilization and it can do no wrong. Nothing much has changed they did remove unit stacking so that requires a bit more strategy for battles, added city states wich I do not like at all since you lose their alliance way too fast. Took out religion wich was a big part of diplomacy in Civ4 but they added it back with the new expansion that ill have to try out. Still very fun though, ive only made it about halfway through a game so far.

World of Tanks (PC)

If you like massive tank battles 16v16 then this is for you. I have played about 10 matches so far online and I must say I do like it. You start with the very early tanks and add upgrades as you earn money. The maps are very different when it comes to play style but a good combination of attacking or just sitting back around a corner of a building. Having a Frostbite game engine in it would make it one of the best games out there. If you want something new to try out then check it out, its free to play and about 5gb of hard drive space needed.

NBA2K13 (360)

Ok so I know I did a review for this game a few months ago but with Christmas money left over I was able to get it at no exspense to me. I have started to like it more since I figured out that there is about 3 buttons needed to be pushed before shooting to make a descent shot. I also have a friend that has it so we will be doing a league together here soon so that should be fun.

NCAA 2012 (360)

I rented this game 4 different times back before I did reviews and I love it. I recommend this over Madden and with the new uniform packs just released it makes the game even more realistic. Right now I have a QB still in high school and plan on going to Oregon just so I can take advantage of all the  uniforms. I am also the head coach of ULL Rajun Cajuns and im in my 2nd season after going undefeated winning the national championship. Very fun game so go get it if you are a football fan.

Other News:
I am still looking for others to write reviews on new release games so if you are interested then let me know. Also it has been planned for Rachel (My Wife) and I to go to PAX East next year in Boston for the convention. We would have went this year but forgot about it and we have already planned our vacation this year. So hopefully ill have a chance at the new XBox.