Shmee.Me

August 28, 2015August 28, 2015

PAX Prime Begins!

PAX Prime 2015 is here! I can’t wait to get in there and start waiting in some giant lines! Well maybe not the lines part, but they are part of the PAX experience that is for sure. This year I get to try my hand at the Omegathon, but since they are starting with Super Monkey Ball 2 I am guessing that I will be out in the first round. Hey if you are at PAX Prime show up at 1:30PM in the Cerberus Theater and give Shmee a cheer! (Or the other Omeganauts, but it should totally be me!)

If there is anything you would like me to check out on your behalf please let me know, and I will be happy to try and scope it out for you.

August 21, 2015

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

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.

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

I Got An Indie Surprise With DeadCore!

I love getting discounted bundles of games over at HumbleBundle.com. When I got their most recent Bandai Namco Bundle, I thought I was paying $6 for Enslaved, Ace Combat, and Ridge Racer, but it turns out the game that I was really getting a deal on was DeadCore by 5 Bits Games. This game didn’t even show up on my radar when it launched last October, so I had to go to the DeadCore’s Steam page to find out more about it. It turns out it is a First Person Platformer/Shooter. So kind of like Valve’s Portal, but nothing like Portal.

Portal is all about tweaking the physics of things and creating the titular portals, in DeadCore you are running and jumping at precise moments to try and climb higher and higher up a tower. You use your gun to flip switches and temporarily turn off turrets and robots on your way up the tower. I usually hate platformers, but the game’s flow, constantly daring you to go a little bit higher, is perfect.

DeadCore’s creators it seems share my love of Tron. With the game’s art highlighted by clean neon lines. This game will not push your graphics hardware, but it still manages to look great. For a world that is apparently only populated by your character, you never are lacking things to look at. Though you will be too busy perfecting your path through the next obstacle to care. The music is also wonderful. Again they seem to really be pushing the Tron vibe with their cool synth tunes. DeadCore might be worth the purchase just for the music.

You still have a little time to pick this game up for very little money through HumbleBundle.com, but even if you missed out on that deal DeadCore is worth the full price of admission. I just wish I had heard about it sooner. DeadCore is now among my favorite platformers, and I hope I have convinced you to give it a try.

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015

Why All Excitement Over The Non-Announcement Of Warcraft 4?

So RTS (real time strategy) gamers everywhere lost their collective minds when Blizzard said they were open to making a Warcraft 4 once they shipped the third and final installment of StarCraft 2 this fall titled Legacy of the Void. Now don’t get me wrong, the Warcraft games are super influential and they are thought of as some of the best ever made. Plus without them Blizzard wouldn’t have had the universe for World of Warcraft, so I get that a new title in the franchise would be welcome news, but this is Blizzard we are talking about. It has taken them five years to finish the StarCraft 2 expansions, and I shouldn’t even say that since Legacy of the Void hasn’t shipped yet. There is still time for them to announce a delay.

Now to be fair I have never been a big RTS fan. I am just not good at them and there are so many games to play that I never felt like I needed to invest the time to get proficient, so maybe I am just immune to the hype. Still if Blizzard is just saying they are open to making a Warcraft 4 that means even if they do decide to make it, it will not be out for at least ten years, maybe more. That is just the pace that this studio operates. That means maybe my one year old daughter might be old enough to play it “should” it come out in our distant war torn future. If you are excited for Warcraft 4, I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but I would take a deep breath and focus on other games for awhile. Perhaps Total War: Warhammer could tide you over?

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

So About That New D&D Movie…

Warner Brothers after much legal wrangling has gotten the rights to make a new D&D Movie. I am less than excited. I love that another big budget fantasy movie being made, but not one based off the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Sure there have been a couple of good D&D books written to base the movie off of, people swear by The Legend of Drizzt for instance, but most of the books are more like The Dragonlord of Mystara. Which is to say terrible. I may get in trouble for saying this (some people love their D&D lore), but you don’t play D&D for the great stories that were written about the D&D universe, you play D&D for the stories you and your friends make in the D&D universe.

D&D is about having a good time with your friends and trying to brake the GM’s will. To see if you can take the story he is building somewhere completely different, and to try random stupid things with your character’s skillset. Now there is a good movie you can make about that, and the movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising comes close, but that is not a movie Warner Brothers is going to throw a bunch of money behind. The number of people who want to watch a bunch of nerds play D&D and then zoom in to the action in their minds is limited. Like pretty much me, and the guys making the “The Gamers” movies. They could even try and make a Jumanji style movie where the players were sucked in to their story and they had to complete the campaign to return home, but that would still will not sell to the masses.

So instead we are going to get another attempt to try and turn the D&D universe in to some giant sweeping epic with people quoting their dialog like Shakespeare, and other people Wayansing it up to try and add life to the picture. (As an aside I don’t blame Marlon Wayans for the D&D movie, he was doing what could with what he had. Which was nothing. Maybe less than that even.) I will no doubt watch the production of the D&D movie with interest, but Warner Bros is going to have to role an 18 or better to make a decent film, and after the last two outings their dice seem to be producing a lot of natural 1s.