I’m not much of a kart racing fan because the games tend to be too simple and easy, but Transformed really knocks it out of the park. The last Sonic Kart Racer was just okay; it had a slow pace, and it just wasn’t designed very well. This game really surprised me with its excellent graphics, track design, and character selection.
The obvious are Sega mascots such as Sonic, Amy, Shadow, Robotnik, Alex Kidd, and various others. While any of these guys outside of Sonic aren’t well known, it is nice to see them here. PC users get exclusive characters such as Football Manager (I know), Team Fortress, and Shogun (I know… Not exactly amazing characters you would want in a kart racer, but oh well. When you start your first race, you will immediately see how much better this game is. The handling is so much more fluid, and the races just flow. What really sells the game are the tracks that change mid-race and are able to transform into flying and nautical vehicles. Each character has three different vehicles, and it just feels great. They all handle things differently, so it makes you stay on your toes. The track design is amazing. There are hazards everywhere, and the weapons are really cool. The tracks are featured in various games, like Sonic’s Green Hill Zone and Samba De Amigo’s crazy LSD track. These levels are fun, but I just wish there were more.
The weapons vary from iceballs, twisters, remote cars that explode, rockets, blowfish, and various other crazy weapons. You pick up the question-mark capsules to find them, but you will find an All-Stars weapon that will make you really powerful and fast. Your car transforms, and it just looks really cool. Along the way, you can pick up coins that are used in other modes’ load screens in a slot machine to acquire boosts and other items. I just found the game to be very pleasing to play, but not with a single player. Easy was too easy, medium was too hard, and hard was impossible. The AI is really bad, but people play kart racing games for multiplayer anyway, which is where all the fun is to be had in this game. Unlike the last game, PC gamers get online multiplayer.
The graphics are really nice, with bright, vibrant colors, great-looking textures, and some really amazing lighting effects. Of course, the PC gets the best treatment, and it looks way better than the last game. As you play the game, you will eventually find tracks that become your favorites and find which character you prefer. The dynamically changing tracks just add that much more fun to the game. Hitting speed boosts, finding weapons, and avoiding track hazards are so much fun, and the sense of speed is incredible.
I just wish there was a bit more, but while there is more content than in the last game, I feel something is just missing. Maybe if the AI wasn’t so bad, the single-player would be more fun, but I found myself getting bored with it. The only reason to constantly come back is multiplayer. There is a licensed feature that allows you to add up to three stickers that you earned, but I felt this was completely useless and something to put in for little kids. However, as it stands, it doesn’t add anything significantly new to the genre or push it forward, which is what it needs. While it may not reinvent the wheel, it just makes it bigger and louder.
Dead Space is one of my favorite franchises of all time. The first game was the most memorable with its deformed and twisted monsters, a very deep and intriguing plot, and revolutionary HUD that was very minimal. Dead Space 2 was more of the same, but not enough new to make it memorable. It also had so-called multiplayer, which was fun for a few hours but quickly got boring. Dead Space 3 is here with a co-op and a new more open design. Is it better than DS2? In a way.
The story is pretty epic and is told on a larger scale now. You are no longer stuck on a derelict ship or space colony. You start out on Earth in your run-down apartment, where we find out Isaac has turned himself into a depressive bum. Ellie has recently left Isaac for another man, but they soon get brought back together to save humanity once again. A crazy man named Danik is trying to find a way to bring humanity to “ascension” and “rebirth” by wanting the Necromorphs to destroy everything. You and a team cast off to the Marker homeworld to stop all this once and for all. The problem here is that the game is stretched out so much that the story is hard to follow during the first half. Cutscenes are too far apart, and so little is told because it is saved for the end. The story is a bit disappointing, and the ending doesn’t have the wow factor that it should. You just finish it and think, “That’s it?” It’s one of those trilogy endings.
The gameplay is pretty much the same and untouched. Things feel a bit more smooth and streamlined, but nothing has changed there. The first big change you will notice is that you can create your own weapons. A crafting system has been implemented where you get loot off of dead bodies to craft various items. You can build weapons from blueprints or build your own. You start out with a frame, then add an upper tool, a lower tool, and a tip for each tool. After that, you can add chips that increase the gun’s stats more than two support modules, such as more ammo, stasis-coated bullets, and various other things. This is really awesome and allows you to combine your favorite weapons. Stick a flamethrower under your shotgun. How about a blade gun under your plasma gun? Do whatever you want. The problem here is that you can only carry two weapons now. This really sucked. I guess they thought that each gun had two weapons, so it really was four. It doesn’t really work that way. It also takes a really long time to gather enough materials to craft anything. I couldn’t really do much until I was nearly halfway through the game. This is to encourage people to spend money on microtransactions and sucker them into buying materials. Taking advantage of impatient gamers isn’t a nice thing to do, but what can you expect from a greedy corporation like EA?
The crafting system is similar to your suit because you can gather materials to upgrade them, like air capacity, stasis, telekinesis, health, and armor. Another major addition is side missions. There are only seven of them in the game, but three additional ones are added for co-op only. I found these side missions boring because they were all the same. Go through the same identical compound, killing hordes of Necromorphs, to find a chest of stuff. The stuff isn’t even that good. The loot packs don’t give you much, so these side missions were disappointing. At least the main missions are fun and varied, with some fun scripted events. You can set out scavenger bots to help find loot if you want, but that’s just a distraction rather than a mission. I felt EA really tried too hard with this game. Instead of making the game memorable like the first one with scares, they just make it completely action-based and stretch out the world.
The first half consists of you floating around several ships in space, trying to find information and various other things. Humans are a new enemy in this game and are a nice change of pace, but the same old Necromorphs pop up. Sure, they are cool, but there weren’t enough new ones. By the end of the game, I was so sick of these damn things. I honestly don’t want to see another Necromorph again, not because they’re scary but because I’m tired of seeing them. The game just isn’t as scary as it used to be. In the beginning, it felt a bit eerie, but after that, it was just the same hordes of monsters coming at you. Once you are done being in space, you crash land on an icy planet, which is the “homeworld,” but things just feel the same here too.
The game just suffers from fatigue at this point. Fans will enjoy this game for sure, but you long for a good scare or something to really change. There is a lot of backtracking towards the end of the game, with you running back and forth through the same area several times. It is almost like the developers ran out of ideas towards the end. I would have loved a shorter, more solid campaign, but what is here is fun. The graphics look good on PC, but the textures still stink. Up-close shots really show that this is a console port. There are some nicer lighting effects, but they are subtle. Even an older rig can handle this game maxed out.
Should you buy this game? If you are a hardcore fan, sure, but I just suggest waiting for a price drop. When you finish this 15-hour campaign, you will be slightly disappointed. Sure, it’s fun and all, and crafting weapons is neat, but the scare factor that people expect when they play a Dead Space game is nearly gone.
So here I am with my first tablet, I swore up and down that, I had no use for one because I have a laptop and a 4″ phone. Why would I need a tablet? Apparently for a lot and this is one of the best devices I have used in a long time. It’s sleek, powerful, and well designed. Why a Nexus 7? Well, the 7″ size is perfect where it isn’t too small or too big. I don’t like 10″ tablets because they just feel big and clunky. You are probably wondering what’s under the hood, why not an iPad Mini, and is the screen nice?
The Nexus 7 is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset which is one of the most powerful on the market. Directly competing with Apple’s A5x chipset in their iPad 3, the Nexus 7 is extremely powerful for a 7″ tablet. This tablet has a whopping 16 cores, a quad-core 1.3Ghz CPU, and a 12-core Geforce ULP GPU. The tablet CPU has a fifth core that is dedicated to running in a power-saving mode during times of low processing needs. That is one powerful tablet. The Tegra 3 chipset allows for some of the most advanced graphics seen on a tablet as well. Games like Dead Trigger, Dark Meadow, Zombie Driver, and a few others optimize their games for the Tegra chipset adding extra effects and higher FPS. The tablet has 1GB of DDR3L RAM rather than DDR2 RAM which is in both the iPad 3 and Mini and it is twice as fast. The Tegra 3 chipset is even more powerful than the iPad Mini and iPad 3 with the Mini having a single-core 1Ghz CPU and the iPad 3 having just a dual-core 1Ghz CPU. Even the ULP graphics chip is more powerful than the iPad 3’s with 416Mhz. If that doesn’t impress you…I don’t know what will.
Asus just stopped producing the 16GB models so only the 32 are available now, but that’s fine. 16GB really isn’t enough space anyway, but there are no expandable storage options. You can use an OTG cable and a USB stick, but most people won’t know to do that. 32GB is plenty for games, movies, music, and books. I have over 30 games on my tablet and still have plenty of room. I found the battery life is pretty decent for such a powerful device. Running high graphic games you get about 3 hours and everything else will last you most of the day, but that’s with Wifi on. With it off it is probably 30% less power-consuming.
The screen is gorgeous. Being better than the iPad Mini with a 1280×800 resolution rather than 1024×768. It also has double the PPI at 216 rather than 163 for the Mini. It also is a 16:10 aspect ratio rather than the Mini’s 4:3 aspect ratio so it is a widescreen tablet. The text is crisp and-and the images are sharp and vibrant. You won’t be disappointed watching high-definition movies or games. I also found the screen to feel very nice to touch and my finger would just glide across. The tablet is also fitted with scratchproof Corning fitted glass, also known as Gorilla Glass to some. The glass is alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass which is the best out there right now. On the back, the device has a bumpy, leathery texture which makes holding the device easier. I love this texture and feels so much nicer than the hard plastic of other tablets with their sharp edges. You also don’t have to worry about setting it down and scratching it up. The whole device just looks so sleek and smooth.
The tablet comes stock with android Jelly Bean 4.1, but as of a week ago the new 4.2.2 update is out. Nothing else to expect software-wise other than a great Google Android OS experience. However, if you’re a gamer check out Nvidia’s TegraZone app to get started on what games were specifically designed for the Tegra chipset. My only complaint is that there is no rear-facing camera. Just a front-facing 1.2MP camera for video chatting. However, most people don’t use their tablets for taking pictures (unless you are one of those iPad people)
Overall, the Nexus 7 is one of the most powerful tablets on the market and the most powerful 7″ tablet you can get your hands on. With the 16-core chipset, bright vivid screen, and sleek design, any hardware fan will want this tablet. For the low price of $250 for 32GB of storage…nothing beats it! Once you pick this up you will realize why it was chosen as 2012’s best tablet.
The Nexus 7 is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset which is one of the most powerful on the market. Directly competing with Apple’s A5x chipset in their iPad 3, the Nexus 7 is extremely powerful for a 7″ tablet. This tablet has a whopping 16 cores, a quad-core 1.3Ghz CPU, and a 12-core Geforce ULP GPU. The tablet CPU has a fifth core that is dedicated to running in a power-saving mode during times of low processing needs. That is one powerful tablet. The Tegra 3 chipset allows for some of the most advanced graphics seen on a tablet as well. Games like Dead Trigger, Dark Meadow, Zombie Driver, and a few others optimize their games for the Tegra chipset adding extra effects and higher FPS. The tablet has 1GB of DDR3L RAM rather than DDR2 RAM which is in both the iPad 3 and Mini and it is twice as fast. The Tegra 3 chipset is even more powerful than the iPad Mini and iPad 3 with the Mini having a single-core 1Ghz CPU and the iPad 3 having just a dual-core 1Ghz CPU. Even the ULP graphics chip is more powerful than the iPad 3’s with 416Mhz. If that doesn’t impress you…I don’t know what will.
Asus just stopped producing the 16GB models so only the 32 are available now, but that’s fine. 16GB really isn’t enough space anyway, but there are no expandable storage options. You can use an OTG cable and a USB stick, but most people won’t know to do that. 32GB is plenty for games, movies, music, and books. I have over 30 games on my tablet and still have plenty of room. I found the battery life is pretty decent for such a powerful device. Running high graphic games you get about 3 hours and everything else will last you most of the day, but that’s with Wifi on. With it off it is probably 30% less power-consuming.
The screen is gorgeous. Being better than the iPad Mini with a 1280×800 resolution rather than 1024×768. It also has double the PPI at 216 rather than 163 for the Mini. It also is a 16:10 aspect ratio rather than the Mini’s 4:3 aspect ratio so it is a widescreen tablet. The text is crisp and-and the images are sharp and vibrant. You won’t be disappointed watching high-definition movies or games. I also found the screen to feel very nice to touch and my finger would just glide across. The tablet is also fitted with scratchproof Corning fitted glass, also known as Gorilla Glass to some. The glass is alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass which is the best out there right now. On the back, the device has a bumpy, leathery texture which makes holding the device easier. I love this texture and feels so much nicer than the hard plastic of other tablets with their sharp edges. You also don’t have to worry about setting it down and scratching it up. The whole device just looks so sleek and smooth.
The tablet comes stock with android Jelly Bean 4.1, but as of a week ago the new 4.2.2 update is out. Nothing else to expect software-wise other than a great Google Android OS experience. However, if you’re a gamer check out Nvidia’s TegraZone app to get started on what games were specifically designed for the Tegra chipset. My only complaint is that there is no rear-facing camera. Just a front-facing 1.2MP camera for video chatting. However, most people don’t use their tablets for taking pictures (unless you are one of those iPad people)
Overall, the Nexus 7 is one of the most powerful tablets on the market and the most powerful 7″ tablet you can get your hands on. With the 16-core chipset, bright vivid screen, and sleek design, any hardware fan will want this tablet. For the low price of $250 for 32GB of storage…nothing beats it! Once you pick this up you will realize why it was chosen as 2012’s best tablet.
Whine, whine, whine. Bitch, bitch, bitch. That’s all fans ever do these days. Instead of embracing a new take on a series and trying something new, they want the same damn thing over and over again. I have never heard a fan base cry over a game as much as DMC and over just the character redesign at that. Just because he doesn’t have white hair doesn’t make him a bad character—or that man bra. Ninja Theory did an amazing job with this game, and it has all the greatness of past games: fluid animations, slick controls and combat, fun boss fights, and an engaging story. In fact, the character designs in this game are so much better than in past games. It’s the whole “breath of fresh air” thing going on.
The story at least sticks to the lore of previous games. You start out with Dante coming out of his trailer, and a mysterious woman named Kat is telling him to run. You are stuck in Limbo. This is the main world you will play in, where the environment constantly shifts around you. It’s very interesting and fun, and it’s a nice visual treat. You learn about Dante and Virgil’s childhood as well as their father Sparda. Exploration requires some platforming via the two angel and devil whips. Pulling platforms towards you or jumping around in the air on different floating platforms. Not a single level is the same, so the game is never visually tiring. DmC doesn’t really focus on puzzles, which is good because most people play these games for the action, and boy is it good.
I can understand this game not being as hard as previous games, but playing it with higher difficulties solved the problem. Moving on, the combat system is very fluid and pretty deep. There are four different weapons you will acquire: two angels and two demons. The Eryx is similar to the Beowulf gauntlets and the Arbiter, which is a demon scythe. The angelic scythe is Osiris, while Aquila has two fast-moving glaives. There are three weapons you can use, which are Ebony and Ivory pistols, Kablooey, and Revenant, which is a shotgun. Kablooey shoots darts that explode when you detonate them, making it the most powerful gun in the game. Of course, your standard weapon is Rebellion which is a fast-moving mid-range sword. The weapons handle excellently and are really fun to use.
The game still uses the stylish system when fighting. Going from Dirty to Sensational I was never able to get past sadistic, even when I tried hard. You are rated just like in previous games and penalized for dying and using items. The same orb and star system are here. You also get to use Devil Trigger, which regenerates your health while throwing all enemies in the air for a limited amount of time. Saving this up for tough fights like bosses is crucial. The controls are really smooth, with one button being held down to activate either demonic or angelic weapons. Switching between each is fast and easy. You can also use your demonic whip to pull enemies toward you or the angelic one to pull yourself toward enemies. You eventually unlock more combo moves, and then you can really have at it. The fighting system feels great and is silky smooth; I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Honestly, it feels more fluid than past games.
There are hidden areas throughout the game, which are key doors that have special missions. Finding the keys is tough, but you get health fragments to increase your health bar. You can also buy these in the shop, but each one will cost more red orbs than in past games. Honestly, the game feels very similar to the past ones, the only difference being in what you see in the game. The boss fights are amazing and challenging on their own, but they look unique and have a very disgusting demonic style to them. I loved fighting the bosses, which are one of the best features of the game.
When it comes to visuals, the PC has some nice flair to it. Better lighting, anti-aliasing, HD textures, and it can run at 60+FPS, which is actually a huge step up over the consoles. This alone makes it the superior version, even without the flair. Of course, this was made for consoles, so there are a few ugly spots here and there, but overall, it looks great. I love the art style, and the voice acting is superb. Even the facial animations are very well done. I honestly loved how Ninja Theory redid Dante and Virgil; I just like them better in this game. People need to just stop complaining and sit down with this game without a bitter taste in their mouths beforehand.
Overall, DmC is an excellent game, and my expectations were met. I feel it is better than previous games, but of course, the previous games do hold a special place for me. It’s time to move on, though. It’s sad that a fan base can’t accept change because they want the main character to have white hair or that the combat didn’t kill you 500 times on the first level on the easy difficulty. Grow up and get over it, is what I say. The past games are still there; DMC was in no way ever “ruined” or “doomed.” I hope Ninja Theory makes a sequel and continues to give the middle finger to the fans who show no love or support.
Skyrim with guns. That was Ubisoft’s description for Far Cry 3. While it isn’t quite Skyrim with guns, that’s okay because no one really wanted that. Far Cry 3 is still a huge open-world game and is exactly what Far Cry 2 should have been. After Far Cry 2 left a bitter taste in my mouth with its boring, empty world and mediocre story and missions, I just didn’t have much hope for Far Cry 3. Thankfully, I was wrong, because this game is truly great, with memorable characters and a great story. The whole world feels more lively this time around and less empty.
Far Cry 3 has an awesome opening and really shows that this is already the best game in the series. You play Jason Brody, just a regular guy who vacations on an island with his girlfriend and a few friends. Of course, things go wrong, and you are captured by some local pirates. The story has a lot of torture scenes spread throughout, but the beginning jailbreak with your brother really shows off the amazing voice acting and animations. You immediately get attached to these characters, and you are introduced to one of the most memorable game characters in recent history, Vaas. This guy is a sick and twisted psychopath and is truly demented. His relationship with Jason reminds me a lot of the Joker and Batman. Jason makes Vaas question his own sanity, and he is not comfortable with that. Jason seems to always come back from the dead, and this infuriates Vaas all the time. Every time Vaas comes on screen, you can’t help but get excited for what he’s going to do next. Truly a well-developed character.
Once you get past the first scene, you are dumped into this huge, luscious jungle and start getting introduced to various gameplay elements. Hunting is introduced as well as crafting. This includes crafting with animal skins to hold more things like ammo, weapons, and syringes. You can gather plants to craft syringes for health, enhance perception, hunt, steadily aim, and various other things. While these two new elements are fun, they seem a bit disconnected from the formula of Far Cry. The hunting is a bit underdeveloped because stalking these animals isn’t anything like in Assassin’s Creed III. You can try sneaking up on them, but most are hidden in grass, forcing you to use hunting syringes. When you fire off a shot, all animals scatter, and some take quite a few hits to take down. If you don’t get them down in one shot, you have to chase them down, and eventually you lose them. The crafting requires different animal skins for each set, but I really felt it was a hassle to do this.
The same goes for plant gathering. Certain plants are required for certain syringes, but early on, these fill up your loot sack, forcing you to hunt for the skins for a bigger one. You also get a small wallet and have to craft a larger one for more money. Not exactly economical game-wise, but this is to the taste of the player. I didn’t mind it, but I never really pursued hunting specific animals. I just gathered whatever got in my way. There just isn’t a huge incentive for hunting and gathering this game.
There are a few side quests, such as hunting specific animals with certain weapons, killing marked targets, racing, and the Trial of the Rakyat, which requires you to complete certain goals, such as killing everyone in the area with headshots. These are fun and can break up the main story. The map is actually completely blacked out until you find radio towers and take them offline. This involves climbing the towers and figuring out how to scale them. It feels a bit like Assassin’s Creed, actually. There are also loot containers and relics spread throughout the island, but I honestly didn’t bother. I really hate item gathering in games because it is a lazy way to extend the playtime, but some people out there like it.
My favorite part of the game was the main story. Missions vary greatly, but I looked forward to the new characters and the ever-evolving story of Jason, Vaas, and Hoyt (the main bad guy). The whole idea of going from a city slicker to a powerful tribal warrior is really interesting. There are some fantasy elements thrown in when you go through trials to become the most powerful Rakyat warrior on the island. You have to defeat a giant boss at one point with a bow and arrow. Pretty exciting and fun. This is probably one of the more interesting FPS campaigns I have played in a long time; in fact, most FPS games seem to bore me these days. Far Cry 3 was a nice change of pace.
When it comes to visuals, Far Cry 3 pushes PCs yet again, like it did back when it first came out. The game has amazing DirectX 11 features such as SSAO and HBAO, as well as anti-aliasing, high-resolution textures, high-quality shadows, some amazing lighting effects, and some great shaders thrown in to make this game look like a lush jungle. You will need the latest PC gaming hardware to run it like this, though; even my rig couldn’t run it 100% maxed out. The PC version is definitely the best. When it comes to multiplayer, I really can’t say much other than that you won’t be coming back too often. Nothing really exciting there.
Overall, Far Cry 3 sports amazing visuals, a great story, and memorable characters. The huge open world is fun to explore, but the hunting and crafting mechanics feel a bit forced and underdeveloped. Multiplayer isn’t as interesting as you think, but the co-op campaign is where it’s at. If FPS games have been boring you lately, take this for a spin.
I never really heard of Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy novels. I just ran across this on Google Play one day and was instantly immersed. This is a text-based adventure with some RPG elements thrown in. Think of this as a pick-your-own adventure with dice. Thankfully, the game handles most of the tedious work for you, like keeping track of items, stamina, and other stats. The story is really intriguing because of how mysterious the whole setting is. You play as a man who is captured and taken to a secluded castle. You later find out that people are being turned into zombies to become part of some crazy guy’s personal army. These aren’t just regular zombies and are a bit smart, as you will find out in the story.
When you get to a certain spot, you can choose to go in different directions; however, some have consequences and rewards. I found that going into a bedroom scored me a few medkits, some items, and maybe a weapon. Some paths lead to dead ends, and you have to restart at your last bookmark. This is very exciting, and I couldn’t put the game down. There are a lot of key items in this game, probably too many, and this is one fatal flaw the game has. I didn’t buy a steel pulley at the very beginning of the story, and it was a key item I needed. Near the end, I had to restart the entire book, which was very tedious and frustrating. I even tried other paths, but they all led to this path.
When you run into zombies, you have to fight. You can either use your weapon or a grenade. You roll the dice, and if you don’t like the roll, you can shake the device until you get the role you want. Some may consider this cheating, but if this feature wasn’t here, you would restart constantly. Some fights required a certain number or higher to defeat the enemy, and some scenes require you to roll to determine whether you survive said event. This is also exciting and makes things tense. However, there is one main issue that almost completely ruins the game. You have to kill all the zombies in order to finish the story. I got to the very end, and it said I didn’t kill them all, and my adventure is over. Huge bummer, and I felt like the book was a waste of time. I went back through them again and just couldn’t figure out how to kill them all. This was a huge mistake on the author’s part.
Other than that, the story is great, but I wish there were more characters. The art is excellent, and the dice-rolling gameplay is exciting and can get tense. I did find the music to repeat through the whole book and get annoying. I will check out more Fighting Fantasy novels, and hopefully I won’t run into an issue where I can’t finish it.
Razer is one of the best gaming peripheral manufacturers out there, and their mousepads are unmatched. They have a large line of them for different types of gamers, whether you want speed, control, portability, or a large area. The Vespula is a mix of control and speed and is so well designed. The mat itself is double-sided, with one side for speed and one for control. The side for control is a little more gritty than the reverse side, but they are both a solid gray color, so it doesn’t interfere with high-end laser mice. I actually like both and will change the side depending on what mouse I am using.
The pad comes with a rubber mat that has a wrist pad attached to it. This is so ingenious because the wrist pad feels just right. Some gamers scoff at the use of a mouse pad, but it keeps your hand steady for players who aren’t waving their arms around like crazy people. The wrist pad isn’t too soft or too hard, and it isn’t too big. I found it very hard to get this mouse pad to move at all, which is a good thing; it will stay put. You also don’t have to use the wrist pad because the mat has four rubber feet that are neon green to make the company’s art style. Yes, the mouse pad does look very cool and has some neat cutouts.
When you open the package, you get a thank-you card from Razer and two sticker decals, like with all their other products. This mouse pad may be a bit pricey for most gamers, but I thought it was well worth it. You’re essentially getting two mouse pads and a wrist pad for one price. I really love this pad, and it works so well with my Razer Mamba and R.A.T. 9 that I can’t help but recommend it to everyone.
Have you ever wanted to play an MC Escher sketch? Echochrome may come to mind, but Antichamber feels like a mix of Portal, using cubes instead of portals, and Echochrome’s art style. There isn’t really a story here; you just wake up in a hub with four surrounding walls. One wall has your game options, which you just interact with; one wall has the various clues you find throughout the game; and the third wall has your map, where you can jump to levels you have discovered. All you really know is that you are chasing down a gray, mysterious block and trying to escape.
These types of games are never touched by big publishers, so it is up to indie developers to make them. Antichamber has a great block-gun puzzle mechanic that really gets your gears turning. You eventually upgrade to a yellow or red gun, but the basic is blue. Once you learn how the antichamber works and how optical illusions can change the world around you, you get the gun. You walk around linear hallways, trying to discover new areas. You may see a staircase leading up, but it disappears, and a straight hallway opens up. There may be an eye on a wall, and if you stare at it long enough, it will open up. Another illusion puzzle has you going up and down a shaft three different times; each time is different. These illusions are really unique and make Antichamber stand out from other first-person puzzle games like Portal.
The block puzzles consist of shapes on walls, and you have to fill in these shapes in certain ways. Sometimes there is glass blocking certain areas, so you need to drag them around instead. Lasers are a major part of the puzzle; some need to be blocked, and some need to be activated. Figuring these puzzles out is hard because you also have to generate new blocks if there aren’t enough. Drag them around in the puzzle grid in a square shape to fill in the middle. The puzzles get harder and harder as you move along.
If you mess up, you just press Esc to go back to the map room and start that room over again. I just wish the game had some more platforming rooms thrown in and wasn’t so puzzle-heavy; even Portal made you jump around some. The antichamber uses doors as another puzzle element. You have to insert cubes into holes to open doors, but sometimes there aren’t enough cubes. Use one to hold the door open, go through it, grab the cube, and just piggyback a few cubes to gather what you need for the final puzzle. Antichamber really had me stuck most of the way because of how unique and different the puzzles were; there’s nothing else like it.
There isn’t anything else like the visuals of this game. All white and bright primary colors. You feel like you are in one of MC Escher’s sketches. Nothing fancy here at all, which is what made Echochrome so great as well. Due to this art style and the illusions, the whole chamber can be very confusing to navigate. Pathways open up to nowhere; a pit may drop you into another part of the chamber, which can be confusing. I even found the ending pointless, but the whole idea is to solve puzzles. If you don’t like puzzle-solving, stay away from this game.
Overall, Antichamber has a wonderful art style and puzzle-solving elements that are like nothing else out there. This game is making a huge splash in the indie scene for a reason. If you love quirky puzzle games, this is just for you.
Shadow Hearts is a JRPG that is all about politics and religion. Of course, what is a JRPG? Covenant has a very interesting story with memorable characters; however, the pacing is a bit off. You play as Yuri, a young man stricken with a curse called the Mistletoe. This locks out his inner powers inside his heart, and you are trying to find a cure for it. Along the way, you meet many people with various abilities for combat. The story is a bit involved and complicated, but it is interesting. I could try to explain it, but it would take nearly 3–4 paragraphs just to do that.
Let’s start with the combat. Shadow Hearts uses a ring system where a needle spins around a ring, and you press X when it falls in the yellow and red areas. Each character has different-sized hit areas and different amounts. You want to try to get it in the red zone, which is a strike zone that does extra damage, but it can be hard because some characters’ strike zones are small 2 pixel slivers. You can acquire expansions for these areas, and you can customize your ring. Once you get good, you can increase the number of hit areas, but they become smaller. This ring is used for everything from items to special attacks to magic. In Shadow Hearts, you can do combos with characters by watching your battle turns at the top. Use a four-player combo, and you can do massive damage and special combo magic attacks. One thing I really like about this game is that you aren’t stuck with specific characters that only do magic. Everyone can do it because you use magic crests, which have different magic attacks that are both offensive and defensive. Some characters just have more MP than others. This means your heavy hitter can also cast Raise Up without compromising anything.
Covenant is mainly comprised of boss battles. They are very frequent but are the most fun in the game. Each is different; some are weak to combos and special attacks only, and some are just weak to physical damage. However, the ring system makes you solely responsible for whether or not attacks hit or miss. If you don’t focus and miss part of the ring, you don’t attack. This also makes the combat more engaging because you aren’t just flipping through menus. Yuri has the ability to switch between fusion forms, which are elementals. This allows you to target a weakness on the fly. However, everybody has SP, which are sanity points and deplete with each turn. When you run out, characters go berserk, and JRPG players know that is not a good thing. You have to use pure items to restore these points, but this only becomes an issue early in the game. Once you level up enough, you get enough SP that it won’t run out before a boss battle is over.
The amount of grinding in the game is minimal. Since you mostly fight bosses, you get globs of XP all the time, so just from bosses alone, you can get to level 40. There are random battles, but they aren’t as frequent as most JRPGs, but they still exist. Random battles are the single thing that keeps me away from these games. It is a lazy game design that just needs to end. There are puzzles in the game that can be kind of challenging, but the mazes are frustrating. Running around and trying different combos on different floors is just a nightmare. Partner this with random battles, and you are bound to toss your controller a few times.
There are side quests, but they are pretty weak and not really worth it. You usually just get items for it or armor, but these armors can be bought later on, usually just after the next boss fight or two. A lot of the character’s abilities have to be learned from fighting people in the game or finding them, which I found irritating. I’d rather just learn them by leveling up. Karin’s sword arts are found by talking to certain people, so if you miss them, then your special attacks will always be weak and not fun. Besides all that, this is a more tolerable JRPG, and even people like me who hate them will enjoy this game.
The graphics at the time were good, and there is a nice art style here. The CGI cutscenes are nice, but there aren’t enough of them. The voice acting is spotty; a couple of characters sound good, but the rest sound like cheesy high school students in a play. That is usually expected in English versions of JRPGs, especially back then. I would play this game for the story and the fun boss fights. Skip all the side quest crap and just finish the story. There’s nothing worthwhile about spending 20 extra hours on some items.
With fans being so upset with Diablo III, I have to first say, turn here. Torchlight II builds upon the already excellent engine and adds more content, a lengthy campaign, and tons of great loot. The dungeon crawler genre is all about getting great loot, leveling your character, and fighting tough bosses. Once you get to the last couple of dungeons, you will be guzzling potions like crazy. The game is non-stop action with no breaks. While Diablo III may have a larger budget in the millions, a better story, and better graphics, Torchlight II delivers on what the fans want: loot, dungeons, and bosses.
You can pretty much forget the story. It is told in three pieces and isn’t very interesting. Something about Nephilim invading the world and you trying to stop it? I honestly don’t know. I lost track because the story is broken up too much and told in between three large acts, so you forget what happens. What matters is the action. You can choose between four strong classes that are typical of the genre. Mage, duelist, warrior, and middle ground guy. Each class has a slew of great abilities that you actually won’t completely acquire in one play-through. I chose the duelist and stuck with akimbo pistols. There was even a perk called Akimbo! There’s something here for every type of player.
The loot feels nearly endless, and it is actually good. There are boss chests, large chests, and just regular ones spread throughout. You don’t have to worry about getting good loot. Of course, most of it ends up being junk, but when you beat a boss, you will get something good. You can equip rings, belts, shields, leg and body armor, helmets—you name it. You can enchant items that add random stat increases, add jewels, or even disenchant items to regain the money. There was even an option to use junk loot to create new items, like potions. I’m glad there are a lot of options for the main part of the game: the damn loot.
I found the dungeons and enemies to be plentiful and varied. I never really got bored. Each area has small, large, and champion enemies that get tougher to fight. Sometimes you will be swarmed by over a dozen, but that is the whole point. Every step led to an enemy, and I felt the urge to uncover every part of every map. I always found a secret somewhere or a new champion to beat. Doing this helps you level up faster, making the game easier. There are side quests that are fun, and some downright tough bosses. A couple at the very end had to be beaten 2-3 times over, which is a challenge all on its own.
When you die, Torchlight punishes you with gold instead of lame armor damage. Resurrecting at the entrance is the cheapest option, but doing so in town is free, just inconvenient. The best one is resurrecting on the spot, which costs three times as much as at the entrance. This really makes you wonder if it is worth it or not. Usually, I only resurrected on the spot in the middle of a large overworld area where backtracking would take forever.
You still get a pet this time around; you can equip armor and other items on it. You can have your pet take your loot back for you and sell it, and now you can give it a list of items like potions and scrolls to bring back for you. You lose your pet for two minutes, but this is a lifesaver. Let your pet do the tedious work while you continue fighting. I found this almost revolutionary for the genre, which is already one of the least updated in the gaming world. If you want one reason to play this, the loot is what kept me going. I wanted to acquire new abilities and get the best weapons and armor. There is also great balancing in multiplayer, which is what most people are going to do.
Overall, Torchlight II is a lot of fun and has all the genre staples that people want: lots of great loot that is dished out often, tough boss fights, and a lot of strong, varied enemies. Sure, the game isn’t a technical hound, but who needs that for this type of game? The story kind of stinks, but in the end, we just want to click away and kill stuff. Diablo III and TL2 are always being compared for a reason. TL2 did everything everyone expected D3 to do, and it didn’t. For even a fraction of the cost of D3, this game is a steal.
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ORC is probably the worst game in the entire series. It's objectively awful. Being bad isn't different. Different is Outbreak…