Shmee.Me

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014

Titanfall Lands Upright!

It wasn’t that long ago that I was talking about how excellent the beta for Titanfall was, well now the real thing is out, and I am glad to report that the game has delivered on its promise. Titanfall by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA exclusively for Microsoft platforms, has made me love playing multiplayer first person shooters again.

Not much has really changed since the beta except that they have loaded the game up with more stuff: more maps, more guns, more customization options, more gameplay modes, and last, but definitely not least, more Titans. Sure there are only twelve people per match, but the craziness that can happen with those twelve people over tenish minutes is amazing.

Not everything is perfect in the game however, I am not a big fan of the Titan versus Titan mode, and the main gameplay mode that was not available in the beta is what is known as “Campaign Mode”. For most games this would be the single player, but in Titanfall they just use it to add story to the maps during multiplayer, and give you background in to the world that Titanfall takes place in. This is a cool idea, but since the story progresses whether you win or lose the match, it makes you seem inconsequential, and then they are talking and stuff is happening in a small window in the corner of the screen, but you are way to busy fighting in a war to be paying attention to it. I would like to see this idea fleshed out more for the next game, but this time around it was mostly something to do to unlock the customizable Titan chassis.

That may sound like I hated a major component of the game, but since I was playing Titanfall the whole time, it was still a lot of fun. It was just the story didn’t integrate well. It is a minor negative awash in a sea of positives. There is nothing better then wall running on a building, shooting a sniper, and then landing on the back of a Titan and taking it down, sure that has only happened once for me, but it was exhilarating.

Xbox One finally has their system seller, yeah it was a few months too late, and then when they launched people couldn’t sign in to their new Xboxes, but this is a game to buy a console for. I don’t know how much Microsoft paid EA for the exclusive rights to this game, but they got a bargain. All I want to do right now is to go play Titanfall some more, and it has been a long time since I have said that about a First Person Shooter.

February 18, 2014

The Trouble With The Elder Scrolls Online!

I have played in The Elder Scrolls Online beta quite a bit, and I can say it is one of the best Massively Multiplayer Online games I have ever played. That being the case, I will not be playing it when it comes out. My friends know that MMOs are my least favorite genre of games, and TESO does nothing to change that. It is the same as just about every other MMO out there, except it is extremely polished, and full of content.

If you like MMOs that last paragraph should be very exciting for you. TESO is the best World of Warcraft clone I have ever seen. It has a deep story, they have added first person combat, and a good blocking and dodging system, but for me The Elder Scrolls has always been about my hero’s journey. It is hard to buy that I am the chosen one if I cannot affect the world I am playing in, and everyone is lining up to hear the same plot points I just heard. Plus when you are sent to some dark cave to find something and there are twenty other people in there it kind of ruins the exploration, and I don’t want to wait around to party up so I can go and complete my quests.

These are the same problems every other MMO has, so if you don’t mind these things, than The Elder Scrolls Online should be high on your list of games to play. If you are like me, and you have never liked the MMO genre, than The Elder Scrolls Online will not change your mind. It is simply the best of an existing genre, it doesn’t push it forward and become something new. I am sure that TESO will have an open beta soon, and I do think you should give it a try when it does, but this game is just not for me. I hope they come out with The Elder Scrolls 6 soon!

January 17, 2014January 17, 2014

Exploring The Broken Age! (Part 1)

Broken Age will always be remembered as the game that made Kickstarter a reasonable way to fund video game development. Other games had done it before, but none of them had garnered as much attention or earned so much money. Broken Age, then known as Double Fine Adventure, raised $3.45 Million dollars with over 87 Thousand backers. Now developers raising money on Kickstarter is a daily occurrence, and since then, there have been several multimillion dollar projects backed. Was all the attention and money worth the end product? Yes it was! Well at least the first half of the game that they released was.

The game follows a teenage girl named Vella as she tries to defeat a monster that is threatening her village, and a teenage boy named Shay who is trying to break from the confines of his over protective ship. They both must solve a series of puzzles and riddles to achieve their goals.

As with any point and click adventure game, it lives or dies based on the story, and I am happy to say that the writing in this game is superb. It is funny and charming, and it really makes you care about the two leads. There have been very few games that have made me love the main characters as much as Broken Age has, and it pains me that I have to wait for the next part to come out to finish their story.

The puzzles are not as random as adventure games from the 80’s and 90’s, so there isn’t any throwing cheese in a well to stop green lightning. Plus this is more a Lucas Arts style adventure, so you cannot get stuck or die. No Sierra dying the dessert here. This might make it a little too easy for hardened point and click gamers, but for someone who is just nostalgic for those days, it is perfect.

The artwork is wonderful. They tried to make the game look like a living painting, and I think for the most part they have succeeded. Everything looks wonderful. This is one of those games that show good graphics does not equal more polygons.

Considering this is the first adventure game from Tim Schafer since the release of Grim Fandango, it is a real winner. Double Fine has continued its trend of making the most charming games on the market, and I cannot wait for the second half of this game to come out. I think this game is a must play, even if point and click adventure games are not your thing; maybe especially if they are not your thing, so you can see why we remember their hay-day so fondly.

January 6, 2014January 6, 2014

Why Can’t We All Get Along?!

Image via shirtoid.com, and you can get it on a shirt!

As long as there has been more than one gaming platform, there has always been the argument that one reigns supreme over the others, but instead of discussing it like mature adults, we like to rage against one another on forums. The sad fact is that now more than ever the platforms are very similar to one another, so all this rage is mostly meaningless. Why is it that we can’t all just get along?

I think it all comes down to money. Gaming can be an expensive hobby. By the time people get the hardware, the peripherals, and the games, you can be several hundred dollars, if not thousands, in the hole. A person just wants to feel justified in their purchase, so when someone makes a different choice then them it is like they are saying “you were wrong”. Buying a console or PC is not a test. There is no wrong answer. Are you having fun on the platform you purchased? Yes? Good you made the right choice. That is all there is too it. People are reading in to the current console hardware sales, and trying to use them to prove that one console is better than the other, but the console race will last for years to come.

Plus we do not really want a winner. If there was only one platform, there would be no competition, so games would cost even more, and the lone console would be pretty crappy. For those of you that are old enough, look what happened to the Atari. The Atari 2600 came out, and it was the only game in town, so when they made a follow up, the 5200, it was a giant pile of dung. It was so bad it almost destroyed video games, but luckily the Nintendo Entertainment System saved the day.

The new consoles are all selling well, and there is a resurgence in the PC market due to the rise in indie development. We as gamers should all be happy about that. As an Xbox One owner, I want the PS4 to do well, and as a PC owner, I want there to be strength in the console market. We are all part of the same hobby, and it is something we enjoy greatly, so we should be happy for one another. Though I am sure we can all agree that mobile gaming is the WORST! 😉

December 31, 2013January 1, 2014