47 Takes Care Of A Few Things In Italy!

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Hitman‘s second location has arrived and this time you are whisked off to the fictional town of Sapienza, Italy (it is the name of a University in Rome however).  There you will have to take down a scientist and his protégé, and destroy a new bioweapon.  It will be all in a day’s work for the world’s greatest assassin Agent 47.

Sapienza builds on the great level design of Paris.  The areas are varied, and each area creates a new wrinkle for how you are going to get in and earn your pay.  It also seems like this map is a bit bigger than Paris, and considering how big the fashion show was, that is no small feat.  Even better Hitman seems to load twice as fast, and a lot of the glitchiness seems to have been fixed.  Plus the servers haven’t crashed once, so things are looking up for Hitman.

However, even with all the bugs they have fixed it looks like they have added one.  Once you start map if you start to follow any ‘Opportunities’, the little guided events in the game, but then do something wrong so you load a game to a point before you started that ‘Opportunity’, it will not track it anymore.  This is a pain since you earn ‘Mastery’ for completing ‘Opportunities’.  Fortunately there are several to find, and you just have to remember to save right after you start one.  It is just annoying.  I hope they fix it soon.

Each level of Hitman so far has been better than the last, so this is shaping up to be the best Hitman game yet.  The only thing holding it back may be value.  If you are like me and are going to play through this level a few times than the $10 to pick it up makes sense.  If you are only going to play it once, and you aren’t going to explore the map you could beat this in like an hour (it took me about two hours my first attempt), so it is a tougher sell.  For Hitman fans this is must buy, for everyone else you may want to wait for a sale.

Nintendo Just Had The Most Boring Console Announcement Of All Time!

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Nintendo NX Controller Patent Image

When Nintendo said they would talk more about their new console in 2016 we assumed that they meant E3.  I mean that is where console launches happen.  You get on a big stage with flashing lights then you show off a bunch of cool games that are ‘only possible’ on your new shiny toy.  That is just how it is done.  Well Nintendo went another way.  They got in front of their board members and said it is launching globally March 2017.  Oh and that it will get a port of the Wii U version of Zelda.

That was it.  No fan fair, no lights, no nothing.  Way to get the crowds excited!  Worse yet they said that the console would be skipping E3 completely.  The focus of their 2016 E3 would be the Wii U version of the Zelda game that no one is going to want because they are going to want the Nintendo NX version.  Not to mention the date.  Who in their right mind launches a console in March?  Get it out there just in time for Summer when kids go outside to play?  Are they worried the new Xbox will be out next Christmas so they are trying to get jump on the competition?  Who knows.

Nintendo has kind of always done its own thing, and that is great, but this feels like a mistake.  They should have had an E3 where they focused on Zelda like they were planning, and then just have “One more thing”ed it like Apple always does.  Fans would have gone crazy.  Instead now we are just wondering when we are going to get our first look at this new machine.  PAX West? Probably not since they will try and push the Wii U for one last Christmas.  CES? I guess that would make sense.  They would pretty much get the whole show to themselves.  Though my bet is they release one of those puppet YouTube videos.  I do love puppets.

Regardless of what their plans are, congratulations Nintendo on the most boring and confusing console announcement in recent history!

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Beta Impressions!

mirrors-edge-catalystNow that the Mirror’s Edge Catalyst beta is over, I thought I would give my impressions.  For those of you that don’t remember 2009’s Mirror’s Edge by EA’s DICE (creators of Battlefield), Mirror’s Edge is a first person platformer about couriers who pass secret information back and forth in a future controlled by a totalitarian government which is run by giant corporations.  Faith is the best of these couriers, and of course she gets caught up in a giant conspiracy.

Catalyst instead of being a sequel to that story is kind of a reboot.  It sort of has the history of the first game, but at the same time it pretends it didn’t happen.  It is an odd choice considering the franchise consists of only two games.  Maybe the writers felt constrained or something, or they were worried not enough people would remember story of the first game.  Who knows.  The story isn’t that important anyway.

What is important is if the platforming/free-running/parkour elements are good, and thankfully they are.  Running around the rooftops finding the best path to get from A to B is a lot of fun.  There is a red guide line to show you where to go, but half of the fun is to kind of ignore it and see if you can get there faster by making some slight deviations.  Honestly this game would be wonderful if it wasn’t for a few pretty major issues.

First up is the seemingly random mission failure rules.  Like hey you hit that guy wrong, or you didn’t go over there first.  This wouldn’t be a big deal except for the second issue: Long loading times.  If you die or fail a mission the game thankfully has a great auto-save feature that puts you right back to where you need to be to try again, but if you are like me, you will die and fail a lot, and the loading times are excruciating.  I just want to run and jump across a city skyline, not stare at a black screen.  The other small issue I have run in to is that the game can get pretty choppy during cut-scenes.

Now this is a beta so they do have a little time to fix a few small things like the cut-scene stutter, but since the game is coming out in June, I don’t think they will be able to fix the load times.  Unless this build is much older then the one they are going to ship out and they have already fixed it.  I hope so.

For the people that loved the first Mirror’s Edge, Catalyst should be a welcome return.  For everyone else, wait until the game comes out and see what reviewers have to say about the load times.  If they have shortened them up, I think you will be in for a treat.  If they are still long, you may want to wait for the game to hit the bargain bin.

Thanks To The MTV Movie Awards It Is Trailer Day!

First up we got the new Suicide Squad trailer!

With Batman v Superman underperforming DC/Warner Brothers are doing everything in their power to make sure that the Suicide Squad is a hit, and I do have to say it is looking very fun.  This trailer mostly has longer shots of things we have already seen, but that is alright with me.  I think we can safely say that Enchantress is the big bad guy in this movie.

Next we have Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!

Again Warner Brothers is really ramping up the hype train, and this movie looks great!  We get to see a little more magic in this trailer, and we learn a little more background info about Newt.  On thing is for sure I will be in the seats come November!

Now how about a video game with Gears of War 4!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3f8VgQ_dqk

Clearly the people over at Microsoft are paying homage to the classic ‘Mad World’ Gears of War trailer with a very somber cover of ‘Sound of Silence’.  This trailer sets up the new character and the setting for Gears 4 pretty well, and I have to say after not playing the last two Gears of Wars games this makes me pretty excited for Gears of War 4.

Happy trailer day everyone!

Shmee Takes On The Automatron!

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Fallout 4 got its first piece of DLC, and I have to say it is pretty good.  I wasn’t so sure about Automatron when I first heard about it.  Sure it had more robots and a random villain, The Mechanist, to shoot, but no new city to explore.  Well I was wrong okay!  It turns out Automatron was just what Fallout 4 needed: more loot, and more ways to use the loot you already have.

Automatron starts off with you getting a new radio frequency to listen too, and if you tune in, you hear a distress call from some traders.  When you rush to help out you will be too late, but you will find Ada the robot programed to defend the caravan, and she will want vengeance on The Mechanist for her fallen group.  If you help her, you will gain the ability to build a robot work shop to customize not only Ada, but bring to life as many robots as you have the scrap for.  Of course you can only bring one robot companion with you at a time, but it still it really lets you build some pretty great robots.

Making the bots is the best part of the Automatron DLC pack.  If frees you to design the perfect companion.  Auto laser canon? Sure.  Freezing canon and a hammer to break apart your foes? Absolutely.  Need someone to pick locks for you? The bots got you covered!  The robots can fly, walk, or roll on the ground it is up to you.  Well provided you have the perks to do it.  The perks to build the robots are the same as all the other crafting perks: Armorer, Gun Nut, and Science.  Since you will be fighting a ton of bots it might also be good to have Robotics Expert as well.

Now if you don’t have those perks don’t fret.  There is another way to build the bots you want, and that is from killing other robots.  They will drop parts that will go in to your Mods inventory that you can attach to your robot pals.  The cooler the robot you destroy, the higher the likelihood that they will drop something sweet for you to take home and strap to your favorite metal friend.

When you start Automatron you may disappointed with the apparent lack of customization offered, but don’t worry once you beat the quest all robot mods will become visible to you.  You will still need the perks to build those mods, but at least you will be able to see what you need to get what you want.  Side note: It was nice that this quest offered a couple of outcomes which is sadly rare for Fallout 4.

Automatron has made Fallout 4 better.  The quest, while generic, did at least have a couple of endings, but the creators of this DLC really understood what makes Fallout 4 tick, and that is loot.  By giving players more ways to use loot in a creative ways it really adds to Fallout 4’s already addicting feedback loop.  While the main quest-line in and of itself probably isn’t enough to recommend Automatron, building cool robot friends is.  Even if after a while they do seem to be a little over powered.