This happens to other people, right? Every once in a while (one out of every 8 to 10 games) the game will glitch out in such a way that I will not be able to interact with anything on the map. As in, unable to resurrect downed players, damage enemies, climb ladders, receive ammo or cap objectives. It doesn't happen too bad in this video since it eventually seems to go away after dying and being resurrected. Most of the time though, I end up quitting out of the match. Unsure if it's a glitch or just dodgy ass netcode. I had assumed that I was joining a game with a host on a bad connection, but we were hosting this game and the bug was inconsistent.

I have been playing Tribes Ascend a lot lately, or more accurately: a lot pre-Mass Effect 3 (forgot to publish this entry :P). Admittedly, for whatever reason, this game is my first real descent into the Tribes series. The game itself is a free-to-play class based science fiction themed multiplayer FPS. It is currently in open beta with a slated release date for early/mid April (the 12th I think).

Tribes’ unique movement system is what sets it apart from the standard fair of copypaste shooters currently available on the market. The game experience has a whole is literally almost constant high speed movement. If you are new to the series, it isn’t a bad idea to run through the movement tutorial to review skiing and jetpacking basics before jumping online. It’s not difficult or anything, but the game doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you do not have a grasp on the movement concept. If there is a downside, I guess it is that almost every other online shooter will seem like a slow speed camp fest in comparison.

I had the beta sitting on my computer for quite some time, but started playing quite a bit after the big update in early February which more-or-less overhauled most of the interface and added an assortment of interesting new things (classes, weapons, and the like). The skill trees were nixed in favor of a more straightforward linear upgrade system and the interface looks just way way way less of a clusterfuck. As a whole it feels like a much more polished game.

Vehicles at the moment, unless this has changed, are purely call-in perks. As such, they really aren’t utilized all that much. Basically, it’s pretty rare to see anyone use a vehicle which is a kind of a shame because they are cool. Learning to lead shots takes some time to get used to. It’s fun, it’s (mostly) free, it’s fast paced and a breath of fresh air. Random video footage below:

Just clearing out, encoding, and uploading some of the videos that I have laying around in my FRAPS folder. If I recall correctly, this video was recorded at some point during Skyrim's launch day. I don't remember exactly what level I was at, but that draugr was way way hard. Conveniently, a dragon happened to spawn nearby. Ignore the inane running around and faffing about; This video is the clipped version. It took absolutely forever to bait the dragon over.

Hello internet! We just finished moving and settling in to the new place, which would be half of the reason why there have been no posts made. Being lazy and not having much to play would be the other half of why no posts have been made; But that's another story I guess. BlizzCon is this weekend! As in tomorrow! I will try to post pictures and what not within a reasonable amount of time, but the gallery module on this site is kind of perma broken so we'll see. We are hoping to catch at least one of the big BlizzCon meetup events. I know that WoWInsider has one tonight; There was supposed to be a huge barcaft event after the con, but that was cancelled QQ. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the Foo Fighters live on Saturday. Was kind of sad that yet again, I neglected to buy tickets when they were touring in my neck of the woods.

So, several things that I have been meaning to post about:

1. The Battlefield 3 open beta was kind of lame initially, then significantly less lame when the Caspian Border map was released. I swear that at least half of BF is spent running from one interesting point to another. It was fun, but probably not my cup of tea. Actually, I may buy it if A. Is cheap enough and B. If the developers fix all of the dumb interface quirks.
2. Orcs Must Die is really fun. I downloaded the demo then purchased the full game earlier this week. It's not that cheap of a game at $15, so I was reluctant to buy it in lieu of the upcoming November game releases (and having just spent a shit ton of money on real life items). It's a tower defense and third person hack n' slash hybrid. Both the tower defense and action elements are fairly average in terms of gameplay, but it's a great combination. It's fun, it's polished and can get challenging as the game progresses.
3. The Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC (Missing Link) is pretty fun, though again, fairly expensive for what it is at $15.
4. I've started playing Team Fortress 2 again on-and-off to quench a bad itch that I've had for an online shooter. It's still fun even with the hats and what not, though I can only play it for about an hour or two before getting bored. Either my tastes are changing or my attention span is shrinking...
5. My keyboard is starting to go. It will occasionally freeze up or stick on one key and I will have to reach behind my case to unplug and replug the USB cable to resolve the issue. I don't know if it's some sort of software conflict or if it is the keyboard itself. I think I am going to settle on a nice mechanical keyboard for my next hardware purchase.
6. We just finished watching Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica at the recommendation of several fellow anime fans with similar tastes. I detest magical girl shows so I had my doubts, but this series was actually very very good. It's one of the better shows that I have seen in quite a while.

The original Deus Ex is legendary, it represents a turning point in gaming, offering a depth of gameplay, a scope of vision and a story telling method not seen in a medium of this type until that point in time. It is widely considered to be one of the best games ever made by myself and many other players. To say that Deus Ex Human Revolution has a lot to live up to is an understatement; I mean, how do you live up to the greatest game of all time? TL;DR: This game is a lot of fun (I'd say in my top three for this year: Portal 2, Witcher 2 and Human Revolution). It is single handedly responsible for me going to bed past 2am for an entire week, thus doubling my caffeine intake.

Deus Ex's "flavor" has always been that of variety and Human Revolution is no exception. The gameplay is fantastic and pretty much, exactly what I had wanted from this title. I really love games that offer a flexible range of experiences, particularly if there is a strong stealthing (straight up shooters are a dime a dozen, but stealth, not so much). I liked the first/third person hybrid gameplay. Though initially awkward to use, it worked out well in my opinion. Holding the right mouse button while behind cover will switch to a 3rd person view of Adam. Tapping and holding the space bar allows you to respectively roll to a new cover spot and round corners. You also have the option of blind firing. It is a good solution to common cover problems and works a hell of a lot better than repeatedly leaning to peek around corners in first person view.

As expected, Human Revolution provides a multitude of options for different gameplay styles. Players with a more subtle touch won't be forced to kill people if they do not want to. Similarly, if you aren't into hacking and sneaking, brute force works as well. Just about every single point in the game offers an alternative route for all play styles; All of which feel rewarding in their own way. I never really felt like the game was punishing me if I chose one method of advancement over another, and that's important. There's also fair room for more creative solutions. So if you want to cheese an area by spending an hour stacking crates or methodically collecting turrets, nothing is really stopping you.

The shooter aspect of Human Revolution feels fairly average and the mouse controls were reported as being laggy for some folks (the patch corrected that issue for me). Also, I didn't really like the take down animations. They were somewhat repetitive and awkward in the sense that, the game switches camera views every single time certain abilities were performed. It kind of broke fluidity. Otherwise, the normal flow of the game has a good rhythm.

There are a wide variety of augmentations available supporting the many styles of gameplay as mentioned above. As you play through the game you acquire experience for doing certain activities (killing, hacking, tranquilizing, etc etc). When you acquire enough experience, you level up and are rewarded with one Praxis Point to be used towards the redemption of various augmentations. Praxis Points may also be purchased for 5k credits from LIMB clinics. The Praxis Points really aren't that widely available, so you have to pick and choose carefully between upgrades as you progress through the story.

This point is kind of a nitpick but: Many of the augmentations felt a bit oddly placed to me. It is really easy to minmax out certain skills relatively early on in the game, trivializing certain challenges. Also, the energy bar upgrades were fairly useless seeing as how you can only naturally regenerate one bar. Since the candy bars were relatively rare I was reluctant to use them. Overall, the extra energy bars were only used at very few points in the game.

The hacking minigame, for once, was actually pretty fun. Though to be honest, it got a little old by the end of the game seeing as how I obsessively hacked just about every single door and every single computer in the game. The fact that the game does not pause when you hack adds a bit of urgency. You have to be quick or thorough enough to make sure that all of the guards along that pathing route have been accounted for (vending machine fort worked pretty well lol). Otherwise, you will be caught and shot at.

On top of that, it’s a game of risk versus reward. Without going into a long-ass explanation as to how the hacking actually works (just watch a YouTube video or something), most of the hacking screens have optional datacores that will yield extra credits, sensitive information or hacking goodies (stop worms and nuke viruses). Attempting to grab the datacores greatly increases the risk of you getting caught and also takes a bit more time.

Human Revolution has two main weak points: One, the boss fights and two, the cut scenes. Both elements to say the least feel like relics from the past. It’s also worth noting that the load times, though GREATLY improved after a patch are still plentiful and fairly annoying (especially for quick save abusers). But combined, these issues interrupt the game’s rhythm.

I will just outright say it: The cutscenes are god awful and distracting. What was the point of doing that and what was the point of pre-rendering them? The clips are short, about 30 to 60 seconds on average and usually occur towards the beginning or the end of a main quest sequence. In otherwords, you get a crap ass movie at every single pivotal point in the game. To top it off, not only does the game steal control away from you during these critical moments, but it completely abandons the game engine in favor of cheesy looking poorly rendered video

There are good boss fights and then there are bad boss fights. As I see it, boss encounters should feel like a natural climax to a storyline or a chapter; It should be meaningful to the game’s storyline or at the very least, original in terms of gameplay. The problem with many many boss fights is that they feel artificial and detached from the main narrative. They feel like an arbitrary and somewhat irrelevant end level challenge for the sake of having an end level challenge and not because they really belong there. That is my real issue with boss fights.

The boss fights were an interesting choice for Human Revolution, especially for someone who chose to play most of the game as a 100% stealth run (most lol). And especially since, if I recall correctly, the first Deus Ex offered non-lethal options or ways of avoiding boss encounters (I could be wrong, it has been over 10 years since my last playthrough). On one hand, they offered a change in pacing. On the other, I didn’t really like being forced into lethal action, though that my have been the point. It would have been awesome if the encounters offered a stealth objective or something more creative than running and gunning. It was particularly awkward seeing as how I had skilled most of my points into stealth and hacking.

I really liked Human Revolution’s graphics from a design standpoint. It is a stylized game, as in, not meant to be photorealistic like Crysis. The limited color palette keenly depicts a cold and narrow world. Frequent use of gold and black contrasts and accents important parts of the game (along with read and white serving as highlights). The colors  also tie the game together as a central theme: Gold represents the golden age of cybernetic research whereas black represents its dystopic side. Revolutionary advances in biotechnology stifled by socioeconomic strife.

Some people don’t like limited color palettes (another “brown game), but in this case its fitting and represents good use of the intentional color palette limitation. After all, it’s not as if the dystopian near future is going to be painted with happy rainbow colors. From a technical standpoint, Human Revolution has several problems. First of all, as detailed as the game is, some of the texturing and shadowing do not look very good at higher definition. The overall city scenes, interiors and overall designs look quite nice, but some of the details, not so much.

Also, many of the character models look sub-par (screenshot comparison). For example: Compare anyone from the main cast (Adam, Sarif, etc) with less important characters. Some kind of don’t look too good to a distracting degree. The facial engines or lack thereof are notably rudimentary. Most of the soldiers, civilians and other non-main characters are grossly reused. It wouldn’t have hurt to include a bit more variety. Overall, nitpicks and what not aside, I was happy with Human Revolution’s art direction and style. It’s an overall very slick looking and well designed game.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the choice system. The Witcher 2 had spoiled me so I set my bar rather high. Along the sliding scale of choice systems, Human Revolution feels like it lays somewhere between The Witcher 2 and Mass Effect. It’s not bad or anything, but I really wanted the ending of the game to feel like the culmination of all of the choices that I had made throughout the game. I did not feel that was achieved. But that said, I was comparing game stories with several folks and was very very surprised at exactly how different each person’s game experiences were. May mission outcomes and game reactions are a direct result of your choices and actions.

(First mission spoiler). I didn’t realize that the hostages in the factory could be saved because I was never presented with that objective. So lo-and-behond, post action everyone in Sarif was pissed at me and I did not understand why. I mean, sure I didn’t save the secretary, but she had a gun pointed to her head. I did the best that I could given the urgent situation! You all are dicks! I did not realize that if you dick around headquarters for long enough, the hostages would be executed. I had been so damned focused on rummaging through emails and stealing shit that I had kind of blown off David Sarif’s irate message. My bad. Actually, to best honest, I had assumed that the hostages were scripted deaths. I made a point of saving everyone the second time around.