New Update Schedule/ Minecraft Review... Again!

Well, now I feel bad for not updating when I said I would. Sorry about that.

Ok, so I have decided that I am going to try and update on saturday nights, hopefully around 8-9. We'll see how that works out. Finals are over so I should be able to update regularly until College start again.

Now on to the review!

This time I am reviewing Minecraft. Now I know I have done that before but this one is different. I will be reviewing the Minecraft Mod pack by the guys at Feed-The-Beast. I might make a new review of the vanilla (Un-Modded) version of Minecraft later, since there have been so many changes to Minecraft since my review of it.

Now, onto the review part of this review.

Modding Minecraft can be fun, and while Minecraft does have a ever increasing amount of items and materials to work with, it can still be maddeningly basic. That is where mods come in. The only problem is that modding Minecraft is extremely difficult at times. Feed The Beast makes it easy. To use Fee The Beast, Go to the website linked above, download the client, and then install it. Once inside the launcher, you will see a place to enter your Minecraft ID, the account you bought Minecraft on from Minecraft's homepage. Once you do this, you can pick a pre-assembled mod pack to install when you launch it for the first time. The launcher will then proceed to install, and mod Minecraft for you.

So far I have only tried the normal Feed the Beast mod pack. The feed the beast mod pack comes with so many mods that I can't even tell you what they are. So far I only have experience with the Buildcraft mod, and only a small portion at that. The most significant thing that Buildcraft adds is the oil wells. It also adds pumps to pump water, lava, oil, refined fuel, and items. It can automate a large amount of the process, and everything runs of electricity, which requires engines to make, which require fuel to power them. You can build automated mines that will go to bedrock and deposit any materials in chests as it does so. All in all it adds a new challenge to the game. The only real problem with it is that it is really complicated. I suggest that if you try it out, that you create a Creative mode world to practice on, just don't make it a flat one, oil doesn't seem to spawn on it, or at least I haven't found any.\


This mode pack is really fun and I highly suggest checking it out.

Till next time.

Apology

I apologize for my inactivity. I have been in college for awhile so I haven't had very much time for anything. But the semester is coming to and end and I will try to get some reviews up during my in-between semester break.

Expect a review later today. Unless this computer concepts class gets really boring, then I might write one during it. We will see.

Once again I apologize to any regular readers I might have. I am not getting my hopes up though.

Plantronics .Audio 355 Review

Before the review I would like to say sorry for the inactivity, not like any one reads this stuff.

The Plantronics .Audio 355 headset is a Gaming headset. It comes with a Noise canceling Mic and Good sounds quality headphones.

The construction is quite sturdy and the headphones and mic both have very good sound quality. Don't expect to record vocal tracks with it but for gaming and Skyping it is perfect.

At first the headphones were uncomfortable but that worked itself out.

I honestly think they are the best headphones I own, I regularly opt to use these instead of my more expensive Skullcandy headphones. These are simply awesome.

On a scale of 1-10 I give them:

Comfort: 8 (A bit iffy at first but soon you won't notice them.)

Sound Quality-Headphones: 10 (Best headphones I have ever owned. I may purchase more just in case.)

Sound Quality-Mic: 7 (Not a studio mic but very clear for gaming and Skype.)

Price: 8 (At $29.99 it is more expensive then most would pay for a normal set of headphones but it is really good for the quality you get with them.)

All in all I give them a 8.5

I really love these headphones.

I am going to try and do more reviews soon. Trying to find a job is really interfering with my schedule and my stack of shame (Games that I have bought but not played) is getting very large.

Supreme Commander 2 Review (PC)

First, I would like to say sorry for the lack of updates recently. Now, onto the review!

Supreme Commander 2 is a Real Time Strategy, or RTS, developed by Gas Powered Games.
The hallmark of the series was it's focus on extremely large and futuristic battles.

The story places you in a time of peace shortly after the infinite wars, The president has been assasinated and all hell breaks loose. Over the course of the Campaign you will control a commander from each of the three factions:

Dominic Maddox, Representing the UEF, a very down to earth and USA(Although quite a bit more racist) like faction, They focus on ruggedness and function.

Thalia Kael, Representing the Illuminate, a very radical religious group, They focus on form and weird tactics.

and finally, Ivan Brakman, Representing the Cybrans, The cybrans are cyborgs, thats it, They focus on pure technology.

Personally I just love this game, I love the units, the scale of the battle and the story is even ok, Thank you Square Enix. My only real complain with the game is that the first Supreme Commander was what got me really into RTS games, in the game each player could have up to 1000 units each (Experimentals only counted for 1 unit), whereas in this one the games default max unit cap is 500 each, and I realize that the units got scaled up in this game but I miss the scale of the battles I used to fight.

Now, on that note, the game has also shown to be very accepting of mods, one of which is supposed to raise the unit cap to not just the old 1000 but to 2000, this mod is the revamp mod and it adds in the classic units from SupCom 1 and FA and scales down the current units to accommodate the larger numbers, they also add their own. Developed alongside this mod is a Supcom mod manager, here's the good part, that works.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it:

Ease of play: 6 (RTS games tend to be complex and hard for some to learn, also while I did not play the Forged alliance story for Supcom 1 I understood the story fairly well from just playing the first game, those that haven't played any of the story might be slightly confused.)

Graphics: 7 (While the game looks beautiful and the maps are great improvement over their pure height map Supcom 1 brothers, I can't but feel that the style is a bit more cartoony than the previous game.)

Replay: 8 (You will probably finish the campaign quickly and will only replay for achievements and harder difficulty but the real value is, as with any RTS, in the skirmish and multiplayer.

Family Friendliness: 7 (Some cursing is in the game and the story can be a little dark but overall it is a safe game with the only real problem being the complexity of the game.)

All in all I give it a 8.

This is a fun game and possibly good for mental exercises as well. I also recommend purchasing the "infinite war battle pack" DLC as well.

PSVita review

Alright, My first console review, The PSVita.

The PSVita is Sony's newest handheld. The Vita sports dual thumbsticks, a d-pad, the standard playstation buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, and most importantly, a HD touchscreen, and a rear touch pad.

First off the Vita sports amazing graphics, I can easily imagine the Vita competing with the Xbox 360, the 3DS(no contest), and to a lesser extent the PS3.

The dual thumbsticks and the graphics invite developers to create shooters and other games(can we say Portal on the Vita?).

The Vita's touchscreen is easily on par with the iPhone and iPod touch and the Vita also sports a gyroscope (or accelerometer, not sure.) and I am sure it is pretty safe to assume that some iPhone and android based games will definitely make a Vita experience.

Now my only complaint with the Vita is not a hardware issue, the problem is that the hardware appears to be extremely underutilized. The Vita so far does not support online video(youtube and other videos) and no netflix to my knowledge. Also in the game I played to test the controls (Ultimate Marvel VS. Capcom 3) I found that the touchscreen and touchpad had been severely under utilized. I was disappointed that in Simple and touch mode the only Hypercombos I could perform was the level one attacks, What might have been better was to be able to set certain attacks to be activated by tapping different areas of the rear touchpad, similar to the 3DS using the bottom screen in street fighter. I do have to say that I would probably play the game if I could do that because I am a horrible fighting player and have never intentionally used a move in street fighter type games. This feature might be able to be added as an update but I am not sure how that will work on the Vita as of yet.

The web browser is very snappy as well, not as snappy as safari on an iPhone but a definite improvement over the PSP, the touchscreen keyboard alone makes it more bearable, add in Youtube support and I will be really sold.

It might also be an idea to be able to view media from a network hard drive.

So far I haven't been able to come up with any thing that can't be improved upon.

So my final analysis is:

Very nice specs and solid design.
Good graphics and sound, with solid controls.
A very friendly interface.
A great improvement over the PSP and hopefully for Sony redemption for the Go.
A hefty but not out of this world price tag.
A bit disappointing list of launch titles.
A solid platform with a lot of potential.

Worth it? I would say yes. The system may be more expensive than the 3DS but it has some very solid specs to expand upon.

My last thought and it is very last second but a shout out to Majong, This would be a very good platform for Minecraft in my opinion.

Twisted Metal PS3 Review

Twisted Metal is a PS only title that I fondly remember from my childhood. I can now say I own a copy of every single game in the series.

Twisted Metal is a car combat game that revolves around the Twisted Metal tournament hosted by Calypso, if you when the tournament you get one wish, this wish can be anything, Fame, Fortune, even eternal life, if you can think it you can have it, there are NO limits. However, voice your wish carefully, Calypso usually adds a twist to the wish. Very few have outsmarted him.

Personally I love this game, it fits in nicely with the other titles and is quite fun to play. My only problem with the game is that while all TM titles have been dark this one seems to take things a bit further, I am thinking that I am going to have to take a break and go play a happy game soon.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it:

Ease of play: 7 (while veterans of the Twisted Metal series will have no trouble playing it, it might be a bit confusing to newcomers.)

Graphics: 9 (The game is well modeled and the live action cut scenes are great. Although you might not pay much attention to the world as you try to kill and not be killed.)

Replay: 7 (While there aren't any collectables or anything, you can try and go beat your records in single player and of course there is always Multiplayer.)

Family friendliness: 3 (Not family friendly. The game is very, very dark and will be a bit much to younger audiences, that coupled with blood splatter, violence, and Strong language, like F***, B****, and others of that caliber, make this game a no no for younger gamers.)

All in all I give it a 8.

This game is fun an I believe it will be very fun to play multiplayer even on split screen.

Portal 2 Review

Portal 2 is by far on of my all time favorite games.

In Portal 2 you must complete tests to survive and hopefully win your freedom from the Aperture Science facility. Using the Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling device you will solve many puzzles to free yourself and save the day.

The game is full of wonderful characters and a brilliantly written script. Like most Valve games it manages to tell a wonderful story without the use of cut scenes.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it:

Ease of Play: 8 (The game has a very simple control set and pretty much all these controls are explained throughout the game, really the only things keeping me from giving it a 10 is that there are significantly more controls in the Cooperative Testing Initiative mode and that most newer gamers have issues in FPS games.)

Graphics: 10 (Portal 2 is beautiful no matter what console it is on, though it is probably prettiest on a high end computer. If Valve ever makes a sequel I would love so much to explore more of Apertures Sub levels.)

Replay: 6 (This is really the only area where it lacks, there are no collectables and the game is very linear so no exploring. But I have beaten the game 8 times now and I am thinking that after things settle down some more I will try for times 9 and 10. The game is just fun to play.)

Family Friendliness: 7 (While not inherently violent the game has some dark tones and the environment could be scary to younger audiences, Also there are some minor swear words used later in the game, the only one I can remember and it may be the only one is "Damn".)

All in all I give it a 9.

Valve, you have once again given us a wonderful game. Please make a sequel and as always we are still waiting for HL3.

Minecraft Review

I guess with how much time I spend playing it I should review Minecraft finally.

Minecraft is an open world survival/creative based game. In it you are stranded in a strange and unknown world where you must collect resources, food, and build to survive and bring your dreams to reality. In the game there are two modes: Survival where you can be hurt and killed by monsters and hazards and must eat and collect resources to survive(duh); and Creative where you have almost all items given to you and you are invincible and can fly.
One of Minecraft's best qualities is that it is almost constantly updated. Most bugs are quickly eliminated and new features added.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it:

Ease of Play: 7 (While the game lacks a true manual it makes up for it with an easy to use, understand, and very extensive Wiki.)

Graphics: 6 (The game has block based graphics but is still beautiful nonetheless, also new texture packs can be downloaded from many sources and in many styles, I currently am using a Steampunk style. Also the Game is very forgiving on lower graphics cards and on board graphics of newer computers, though you will have to turn your draw distance to small or tiny.)

Replay: 10 (I play this game more than any other game I own. When I "Complete" the world I am in I plan on making a new one since I created the current world before upgrades where made to the generator, also world generator mods can be downloaded as well.)

Family Friendlyness: 9 (Very family friendly. No cursing, blood, and minimal violence. The only problem you might run into is scary nights when the monsters seem to be overly active.)

All in all I give it a 9.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone. No cons so far.

Birthday!

It's my Birthday! No post today. Maybe later in the week.
Just wanted to say that it was my Birthday! 18 WOOOO! I can buy cigarettes(Ick.) now... Or a rifle where i live. The pawn shop my family gets it's ammo from has an AR-15 I have been eying but first I am going to build a computer. Almost have all the parts. I'll post pictures and specs when it is done.

Rage Xbox360 Game Review

Rage is set in post apocalyptic America approximately 160 years in the future. The planet has been devastated by a meteor that has turned at least the U.S. into a wasteland. Your character is an Ark survivor, the Arks were essentially big bunkers where about six people per unit where frozen and all that kinda stuff.

Your character must fight for survival in the wasteland and do jobs to prove his worth and fight the authority.

I found this game to be very very fun entertaining. My only complaint is that while the game is stored on 3 disks it is surprisingly short. The main game can be beaten in under 10 hours easily and is only stored on 2 of the 3 disks. I realize that the most probable reason for the extra disks is that the game has absolutely stunning graphics which understandably take some space, however I expected a much longer campaign and more of a sandbox type experience because Bethesda(Elder Scrolls) was involved in production.

However despite the shortness of the main campaign I still greatly enjoyed the game and can see myself returning to it to beat it on as many difficulties as possible.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it:

Ease of play: 7 (The game does and acceptable job of teaching the player how to play, however I have noticed that FPS games are surprisingly difficult for some people to play. I also did not like that I couldn't bring up a help tab or something for weapons with extra controls, such as sniper zooming, later in the game.)

Graphics: 10 (This is one of the best looking games I have played.)

Replay: 6 (I don't see that much replay in the game other than people wanting to beat it on all difficulties.)

Family Friendliness: 3 (The game is one of the gorier FPS game out, being able to decapitate enemies with the shotgun and wingsticks or blow them to pieces with various weapons makes this game a no no to violence wary families. The game has fairly severe language though not by the main casts, Most cursing will be heard from enemies during firefights or in conversation. No nudity that I noticed so if that is all you are concerned with then you are clear.)

All in all I give it a 8.

I would have given it a 10 but it was just to short to for me, I feel like the end was just cut off.

Over all I would urge anyone who enjoys FPS games to pick this up if they haven't and have fun and I look forward to hopefully seeing a sequel.

...Dynamite crossbow bolts are fun by the way.