Category: Computer

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Hey I Completed The Witcher 3 Main Quest!

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It has been a long road, but I figured I would give my final thoughts on the The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt now that I finally completed it.  It was pretty darn great!  It drags a little bit in the end of the second act to the beginning of the third, but it is a wild ride to the finish.  It really ties up all those loose story lines from not only this game but the second game as well.  It doesn’t lean on the events of The Witcher 2 too much, but if you have played that game it is nice that this one at least makes all that effort pay off.

Story wise I am not sure where they will go with The Witcher 4.  It seems like everything has been building to this game.  I am sure they will think of something, but we can’t go back to Geralt having amnesia and starting all over again like in the first Witcher game.  He also went toe to toe with the greatest mythical fighting force in the Witcher universe (it is in the title so it is not a spoiler) in the Witcher 3, so he can’t go back to being a weakling again.  They have kind of wrote themselves in to a corner (it is a really nice corner!).

My hope is that they go full Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age with the Witcher 4, and have Geralt start training his replacement.  That way you can be any type of witcher you want, and not be stuck being Rivia’s most famous monster hunter.  To be fair Geralt is pretty awesome, but it would be fun to be someone else in this beautiful world that CD Projekt Red has created (for video games anyway).  Whatever they do I am sure it will fun, and with all the enjoyment I got out of the Witcher 3, I will be there to put my money down.

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Hands On Shadowrun: Hong Kong!

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I am a pretty big fan of the Shadowrun IP (intellectual property), so when Hairbrained Schemes started making their Shadowrun turn based RPGs I was all in (in for $15 on Kickstarter anyway).  Well they are not done making them, and they have just released Shadowrun: Hong Kong.  This game was also Kickstarted, but just for the polish phase of the game, and the polish paid off, this is their best Shadowrun game yet.

If you have played Returns or Dragonfall, you will know what to expect here.  The game hasn’t changed that much.  You still have the same basic isometric turned based combat, and fun branching text based dialog system, but everything has been tweaked just a little to make it better: the interface is easier to understand, the story is more interesting, you can level up your crew, cooler hacking levels, and like Dragonfall you can save anywhere you want, even in combat!  These small changes all make for an even better game.

I am not sure that I would call Shadowrun: Hong Kong a true sequel, but more like another chapter, or better yet as we say in the table-top RPG world, “a new campaign”, and of the three campaigns they have made Hong Kong is the best.  That being said, now that they have three Shadowrun games under their belt using this system, once they finish the DLC for this game, I do hope they change things up a bit for their next run in the shadows.  It would be great to get a bigger and deeper Shadowrun experience.

For now we get to look forward to Hairbrained Scheme’s take on BattleTech, and their upcoming roguelike Necropolis (and I am looking forward to those games especially BattleTech).  It is nice to see a small indie developer keep proving themselves with good IP, and by good IP I mean stuff that I like.  As a matter of fact everyone should just make more stuff that I like!

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Post PAX Rainbow Six: Siege Beta Code Giveaway!

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UPDATE: I am all out of codes!

Well PAX Prime is over, but I have gift for 18 of ya’ll!  Rainbow Six: Siege beta keys!  All you have to do is look for the tweet linking to this post on Twitter, retweet it and follow @Shmee_Is_Me.  If you are already following me, just retweet the tweet!  This is a first come first served deal so click fast.  Also I understand that since I don’t have a lot of followers it may take some time to give them all away, so while this code giveaway is starting on #FreeCodeFriday 9/4/2015, it will end when all the codes are gone or the beta is over.

If you are one of the first 18, I will message you via Twitter with your key and how to redeem it.  The codes will work for the three major platforms Xbox One, PS4, and PC, so good luck!

Note: This giveaway is not sanctioned by UbiSoft.  I just got a lot of codes at PAX Prime this year, so I thought I would share the wealth!

Note 2: Since I am in the United States, I can only confirm these codes work in the USA, so if you are from another country I will give you the code, but I am not sure if it will work.

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PAX Prime 2015 Wrap-Up!

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Oh man another PAX Prime has come and gone, and I can barely keep my head straight.  Things just never stop at PAX, but it is a lot of fun.  Well if you find waiting in line and learning about upcoming games fun that is.  I know I do!  Let’s get this out of the way up front, I lost in the first round of the Omegathon.  Turns out I am terrible Monkey Ball.  Well I knew that going in, but I was worse than I remember.  It was a fun experience though, so I whole heartedly recommend it if you get the chance.

This was an odd PAX in that I didn’t really play that many games, I mostly went to panels, but of the ones I did play I think Gearbox’s Battleborn was my favorite.  My favorite one I can talk about anyway.  The game features a large cast of characters that must team up to save the last star in the universe from being destroyed.  It played very much like a refinement of Borderlands, but that is not a bad thing.

The other game of note that I got to play was Ubisoft’s The Division.  It is a team based third person shooter.  It is all online, so it is sort of an MMO.  I think they are going for something like Destiny, but with more story, and a completely different control scheme.  We will see how it turns out.  What I played of it was pretty good.  I could see this becoming quite the addiction for a certain type of player.

I did get to try out HTC and Valve’s VIVE at the Asus both.  I played a VR version of Fruit Ninja.  It did look cool, but it wasn’t the greatest game to sell me on the need to spend a ton of money on VR equipment.  The experience has gotten much better than what I tried last year.  The high resolution makes a world of difference.  Now I can vomit looking at great visuals!

I played a couple of new (to me) board games, but the only one that I would consider buying is Samurai.  It plays like a streamlined version of Settlers of Catan.  Where you place tiles around resources to control them.  You need to collect as many as you can of one resource while stopping others from doing the same, so you can be the top Samurai in feudal Japan.

As far as the panels go, Gearbox and Telltale Games know what they are all about: free stuff.  Gearbox gave away the HD version of Homeworld and Telltale gave away all their games, yes you read that right.  All their games.  Plus they both put on fun shows.  Gearbox had a wedding and a magic show, while Telltale did a group play of Tales from the Borderlands episode four.  Both were tons of fun.  Other developers need to find some people with more charisma.  Though kudos to IO Interactive (a Square Enix company) on the free red Hitman ties and at least a gameplay video with developer commentary.

Non-PAX developer events continued to be the places to play games without lines and get free food.  Warner Brothers, Boss Key’s LawBreakers, Gamespot, and Square Enix/IGN all held events.  Warner Brothers scored in the food department,; LawBreakers, well I can’t say anything due to a NDA though here is my best kill from that event, but you should keep your eyes on that game; Gamespot had a very nice venue, and IGN tried to kill us with a giant never ending food line.  I am sure there were more, but either I didn’t know about them, or I just didn’t have time to go.

All in All it was another great year.  Every year after the show I am not sure I can handle going again, but I am sure by around May 2016 I will be chomping at the bit to get tickets for next year.  Maybe I will see you there!  Also keep a look out on this Friday, I will be doing a PAX based Free Code Friday on twitter!  I have quite a few Rainbow Six Beta Keys to give out so follow @Shmee_Is_Me and wait for the announcement!

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CD Projekt RED Doesn’t Owe You Better Mod Tools!

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Gamers are an odd bunch.  CD Projekt RED made one of the most massive RPGs of all time in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, released 16 free downloadable content packs, and are hard at work on two expansions they say will add over thirty hours of play time to the game, but a group of PC gamers are saying they are going to boycott the company.  Did CD Projekt RED encrypt their game with some sort of virus like DRM scheme (I still remember Sony!)?  Nope.  Actually there is no DRM, the problem is that some gamers feel that the free mod tools that were released aren’t good enough.

That’s right the free tools you can use to change and add to the game are not all encompassing.  I mean how dare CD Projekt RED even release their game.  It is like some sort of travesty.  Sure since the game is DRM free you could simply decompile it and use or make your own tools, but that is besides the point!  Or this could be some sort of major overreaction on a massive scale.  Yeah I am definitely thinking this is an overreaction.  I mean I am not even sure how gamers think they have the right to be so upset.  Sure there is nothing wrong with asking if CD Projekt RED is ever going to update the tools with a few more features, but to be mad about a developer bending over backwards to make gamers happy is baffling.

I would love to say that this is the first time gamers have been so upset by so little, but I can’t.  Heck they had already blown-up about The Witcher 3 because they thought the graphics were “downgraded” from the promos they saw earlier.  Gamers did have a couple of instances were the promos did look better then the game that shipped, but overall The Witcher 3 is one of the best looking games ever made, so to be so angry about amazing visuals is so mind bogglingly off-base I can’t even begin to understand where they are coming from.

All of this to say game developers owe us nothing.  They make a game, and if we like it we buy it.  That is the relationship, and I have to say The Witcher 3 is a game that pretty much everyone should play (if you are an adult).  It is that good.  Now if the lack of complete mod tools and slightly less than perfect visuals mean that you are uninterested in the game, fine don’t buy it.  That is your choice, but if you bought the game before the mod tools were out, and now you are angry they are not up to snuff, that was the gamble you took.  It is shame that “all” you got for your money is “only” one of the greatest modern RPGs of all time, and you can only mod it a little (or a lot if you wait for people to make their own tools).  I hope you will be able to deal with those poor amazing graphics too.