Category: Games

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So Long Lionhead Studios! You Will Be Missed!

Lionhead

I can’t believe I am writing this, but Microsoft is shutting Lionhead Studios down, and development on Fable Legends has been canceled!  Fable Legends has had a troubled development, but I have had not any indication that they were going to just shut it down this far along.  From what I understand they were still releasing regular builds for their closed beta.

Regardless of the reason for this closure, I will be very sad.  I know some people were let down by the Fable games, they couldn’t quite live up to Peter Molyneux’s extreme hype, but I loved them.  They were light and easy to play RPGs.  You didn’t have to get bogged down in crafting or endless dialog trees, you just got to go out and adventure.

Maybe if Lionhead had focused on Fable 4 and not some odd 4v1 free to play hybrid things could have worked out, but now we will never know.  I will miss the Fable games, and I will miss Lionhead Studios.

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It Is Friday So It Is Time To Give Away Some Free Code!

star-wars-knights

Thanks to the current Star Wars HumbleBundle going on, I have an extra copy of ‘Knights of the Old Republic‘ and ‘Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords’ on Steam.  Sure you could pay, as of now, just a little over $8 to guarantee yourself a copy of each, but where is the fun in that?  You can randomly win one of them for nothing!  Well nothing except a follow and a retweet.  Just go on Twitter and follow me (@Shmee_Is_Me) and re-tweet this tweet:

I will randomly pick a winner for each game at 6PM Pacific Standard Time and then message them!  Fun right! RIGHT!  If you have any questions feel free to ask them.  Happy #FreeCodeFriday everyone!

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Shmee Watched The Skies And Survived Neptune’s Fury!

team-uk-watch-the-skies-small

Team Japan filed their immigration paperwork and became Team UK for Bellingham MegaGame’s second Watch the Skies event.  This time subtitled: Neptune’s Fury.  You can see how British I am now since I am smoking a pip and holding a blue teacup!  I was curious how much would change between the two games, and I am happy to report quite a lot!

The basic gameplay mechanics didn’t change that much, so I am not going to go back over them (my link to my first game is here and The Paladin’s is here), but the teams playing sure did.  This time people went in to the game with their eyes wide open.  Everyone had agendas and schemes they wanted to accomplish.  This made the game much more fun since we were constantly trying to figure out what was going on.  So much so that the Aliens were secondary for much of the game.  Another big change was that we all shuffled our roles, so this time I was no longer in charge of Science, but I had instead been promoted to Prime Minister!  Well until Brazil assassinated me for selling them bogus tech, and then my second in command took over the country and I became a totally different person who was appointed Deputy Prime Minister.

The Prime Minster is an odd role.  Because while you are in charge of everything, you also know the least.  The other countries’ leaders are all lying to you, and your own teammates can only relay a bit of what they are gathering in their specific areas, but they don’t have enough time to do it thoroughly.  It is like being the center of a giant game of telephone while throwing money at people.  Being the Deputy Prime Minister on the other hand is crazy because you can go anywhere and do anything.  Your legs ache from all the running around, but at least you can find out what is happening for yourself.  Like that all the Scientists are creating their own country.

With so many teams having so many things going on it is still hard to explain all that happened, but I am happy to report that the UK, despite being attacked by a giant monster, London getting nuked by the US via France, and of course myself getting assassinated, end up pretty dang good:  The people were mostly happy; We launched an aircraft carrier in to space Battleship Yamato style; We kicked those American jerks out of the UN, and then our Chief Scientist started his own country only to leave them to return to Britain and declare himself the King since we all decided to go to space and take the Queen with us.  Enjoy your nuked castle!!!!  We have all of Space!  Long Live The Space Queen!

I guess what I am saying is, if there is a MegaGame going on near you, you should attend.  If you have already played the game you should still go because not only will the controllers change up the story, but a different role not to mention different players totally change the game.  It is a ton of fun.  If you don’t believe me you can read The Paladin’s experience here.  Oh and here is me being the best Prime Minister ever, you are welcome:

shmee-as-pm

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Is Sony Going To Be The Savior Of VR?

HTC-Vive

Preorders for Valve and HTC’s Vive came out yesterday, and the news for proponents of VR was not good: The Vive with controllers and sensors will set you back $799.  Plus you will need a $300 video card.  I have a mid-range gaming machine, so for giggles I ran the Steam VR Test Tool, and it said I could run the Vive, but all my settings would have to be on low.  However, at least Vive comes with the motion controllers, those will be extra with Facebook’s Oculus Rift.  For now it just comes with an Xbox One controller.  Though the Rift will ‘only’ set you back $599, but with the Rift not only will you need that $300 video card, but three dedicated USB3 ports, so I would have to buy an extra card making my total around $950 (still not including their controllers which I am sure will not be cheap).

I am sorry, but if a consumer needs to spend around $1000 to properly use your product, it is DOA.  Especially considering I am a least starting with a decent gaming desktop, so for most people the price of entry may be as high as $2000.  That is bonkers.  People rightly mocked Microsoft for launching the Xbox One for $500, so double to quadruple that price is almost insane.

VR as I see it has one hope left,  Sony’s Project Morpheus.

Project-Morpheus

Why Morpheus you may ask?  Because a lot of people already own the PS4, so they will not need to beef up their machine.  The initial hardware cost is built in.  If Sony can launch Morpheus under $500 they may have a hit on their hands.  $500 is still a lot, but it is well within the price range of first adopters, and it is a price that the average consumer can save up for.  Not to mention the best part, I am sure it will be much easier to setup and configure than either Rift or Vive.

I am not sure VR is something I want, but I know I that I don’t want it for $1000 or more.  If Sony can launch Morpheus at a reasonable price it might be something to consider.  Especially considering the initial hardware cost is whatever deal you can find on a PS4, and there are some good ones out there.  Plus I am sure Sony will have a Morpheus bundle that shaves a few bucks of the base price of the console.  If VR has any shot at mainstream appeal Morpheus might be its only hope.

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Forza 6 Is What Forza 5 Should Have Been!

forza-6

If you can remember back from two years ago I quite liked Forza 5, but Forza 6 is just a little better in every department.  There are more cars, more tracks, the graphics are a little more sharp, the cars handle just a little bit better, and the way you progress through the game makes more sense.  It is what a good sequel should be, more of a good thing, but in this case it also shows how limited Forza 5 was out of the box.

Two new track features added to this edition of the game are night driving and driving in the rain.  Driving at night isn’t that big of a change other than the corners seem to come up on you a little quicker, but driving in the rain is crazy.  Not only do you have to worry about keeping your car on the track at 150 MPH, but you have to dodge puddles while you do it.  Hit a puddle at the wrong time and you are no longer driving where you want to go.  They are dastardly.  Of course Forza’s signature ‘rewind’ feature is there to bail you out, but the added tension you feel on a wet track is definitely real, and if you are playing online there is no ‘rewind’.

It is also nice that this time around Forza is less reliant on micro-transactions.  While you can buy tokens to pay for things, the game provides more than enough in game cash to buy what you need, and with a little saving buy what you want.  Plus every time your ‘Drivatar’ levels up you get a free spin on a board that hands out anything from free exotic cars to cash to another new addition ‘Mod Cards’, so you always feel like you are getting something.

The aforementioned Mod Cards do a verity of things.  Rare ones will lower the weight of your car and add more power, while some will give you one time boosts to race payouts or Drivatar XP.  If the currant circuit you are on seems a little easy you can add ‘Dare’ Mod Cards that increase the weight of your car or lessen your breaking ability, but if you can still manage to win you get more cash or XP.

Forza 6 is more of Forza 5, but with everything tuned a little bit to make it that much better, and with more stuff added to make it a more complete package.  Not to mention a feedback loop that keeps promising more cars, cash, and cards that will have you itching to complete just one more race.  Turn 10 Studios has made yet another amazing racing game!