All Hail Darth Disney

With the recent news of Lucasfilm Ltd. being purchased by the Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion, it only makes sense that there would be a huge amount of both positive and negative reactions coming from fans of all ages. Some fans are viewing this as as a blessing, while others see this as Disney’s next step towards owning the childhoods of fanboys everywhere. The part of this deal that really has people talking though, was the announcement that there will be new “Star Wars” films, beginning in 2015 with “Episode VII”. The creator of the “Star Wars” franchise, George Lucas, has announced that he will not write or direct any of the future movies, but will instead serve as a creative consultant. Under Disney’s supervision, these new films have the potential to either be as cool as seeing Liam Neeson as a jedi, or to deliver the agony of what it would be like to sit next to Jar-Jar Binks on a fifteen hour flight. Lets have some (new) hope here though, and focus on the potential positives of these announced “Star Wars” films.

Photo Credit: Beartoons.com

Just look at Marvel

When Disney took over Marvel a few years ago, the results could not have been better. For starters it saved Marvel from going bankrupt, but it also attributed to the creation of some of the most enjoyable movies of the past decade, leading up to  “The Avengers”. With the seemingly endless financial assistance that Disney provided Marvel has been able to pump out great movie after great movie from their Marvel Movie Studios. Disney knows how to let people who know their source material do the work. If it worked for Marvel, then there is no reason why is should not work for Lucasfilm.

George Lucas is not really involved

As pointed out above, George Lucas will not be writing or directing the upcoming “Star Wars” films. He will have a somewhat minor role as something along the lines of a “creative consultant”. This means that in order to make these movies, Lucasfilm is going to have to find a new director and screenwriter(s). The best thing they can possibly do here is hire somebody who has grown up with the source material, and who will treat the new films pretty much like they were their own children. Its tough to make any guesses at who this could possibly be, but surely there will be no lack of people trying to take the job.

Tons of source material

After the original trilogy ended in 1983, the story of “Star Wars” just kept growing. Through the “Expanded Universe“, there have been hundreds of stories told about what happened in a galaxy far, far away after the second Death Star was destroyed. From the struggles of jedi Kyle Katarn, to the adventures of the children of the original heroes, there is plenty of source material for the makers of the new films to work with. The most difficult part here of course is deciding on which path to take.
These are just a few reasons how and why the upcoming “Star Wars” films should not be terrible. I’d love to hear any feedback that anyone who reads this might have in the comment section.

May the Force be with us all.

Fall 2012 Video Game Preview

So its video game season again, the most wonderful time of the year! Lets take a look at a few of the games that will be taking your time and money from you this fall.

NBA 2K13                        (October 2, 2012)

With this years release, the 2K series looks to (somehow) improve on its already outstanding NBA simulation video game. The game play will remain the same for the most part, which is perfectly fine. Highlights for this year’s game will include a revamped “MyCareer” mode, an awesome soundtrack put together by the game’s executive producer, Jay-Z, and more nods to previous eras of basketball (1992 vs. 2012 Dream Teams anyone?). NBA 2K13 will be rated E for Everyone, and will be released on the PC, Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360.

Resident Evil 6              (October 2, 2012)

The premier survival-horror game from Capcom makes its return this fall in the series’ sixth installment. Returning for this game are fan favorites and series veterans Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy, both as playable characters in a globe spanning campaign. Also making a return in this entry to the delight of many players are the traditional zombies players have grown to love (or hate).  Players will be able to fight for survival either alone or cooperatively with a friend. Resident Evil 6 will be rated M for Mature, and will be released on the PC, Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360.

Dishonored                        (October 9, 2012)

Developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Fallout 3), Dishonored is a first-person action game that puts players in the role of a former bodyguard of the Empress of Dunwall, who has become a deadly assassin after being wrongfully framed for her murder. Through a combination of dark magic and unique weaponry, players must stealthily take out anyone and anything that stands in the way of their innocence. Dishonored will be rated M for Mature, and will be released on the PC, Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360.

Assassin’s Creed III             (October 30, 2012)

Ubisofts’ blockbuster franchise returns for its final installment this fall, and it looks awesome. Set during the American Revolutionary war, players once again take on the role of a new Assassin doing his part to thwart the plans of the evil Templars. Players will travel the cities, frontiers, and the seas of colonial America in their quest to stop the Templars, and to do whatever it takes to make sure America wins the war. Assassin’s Creed III will be rated M for Mature, and will be released on the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, as well as the Wii U. The PC version will be released on November 23, 2012.

Halo 4                          (November 6, 2012)

After more than ten years since the original game’s release, the Halo series is back this fall with Halo 4. With a new developer at the reigns (343 Studios), Halo 4 marks the first entry in a new trilogy that aims to further expand and explain the vast Halo universe. Players return to action in a game set five years after the events of Halo 3, to find a Master Chief ready to face his destiny. While the game will most definitely feature an epic story campaign, the most exciting feature about Halo 4 will be its multiplayer, which now allows players to create their own custom Spartan and progress through your multiplayer career in both competitive and cooperative game modes. Halo 4 will be rated M for Mature, and is a Xbox 360 exclusive title.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II                        (November 13, 2012)

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the next entry in the blockbuster series, and a direct sequel to the best-selling Call of Duty: Black Ops. Featuring a campaign that will explore both the past and the future, Black Ops II looks to offer a promising and satisfying single player experience.  As with the other games in the series, there is once again a heavy focus on the multiplayer aspect of Black Ops II. Featuring a cleaner interface, a revamped “Create-a-class” system that aims to offer unprecedented customization, and a heavy focus on eSports integration, Black Ops II looks to do what it can to go back to basics and offer the most refined Call of Duty multiplayer experience to date. Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be rated M for Mature, and will be released on the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, as well as the Wii U.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2… maybe.

With the news that Activision will be announcing the next Call of Duty next week on May 1st, during the 2012 NBA Playoffs (go Sixers!), its time to talk about what I would like to see from a game, that if evidence is correct, will most likely be a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops. A game that I only had two minor issues with and because of that, I will be focusing only on the multiplayer aspect of the game, and more specifically the only two issues I had with it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops brought some changes to the traditional multiplayer style of Call of Duty, with the introduction of CoD points. This brings me to the first thing I would like to see in Black Ops 2’s multiplayer; the removal of CoD points! These points took away some of the satisfaction that came with leveling up a specific gun until you unlocked the desired attachment. CoD points made it too easy to acquire the attachments like the red dot sight or a fore-arm grip;  things that can make any decent player a serious threat. For Black Ops 2, I would like to see a return to the traditional earning of XP for weapons, as it has always been in the Modern Warfare series.

The other thing that I would like to see brought back to the series’ multiplayer would be a return to how killstreaks used to function. While it was more challenging to get 11 kills on your own, without the assistance of your death dealing killstreaks rewards, the amount of killstreaks available to players was limited because of this. The original Black Ops only offered 15 total killstreak rewards to choose from, compared to the total of 28 killstreak (including the bonus MOAB for 25 kills) split up amongst the different strike packages. If Black Ops 2 were to make the return to the traditional killstreak style, where your attack helicopter kills and so forth are included in your total killstreak, this would allow for more variety in the amount of killstreak rewards available to players.

As long as they fix these two things, and don’t stray to far from Call of Duty’s true form, Black Ops 2 should not only be able to match the enjoyment brought by its predecessors, but also their sales.

Turn Back Time Tuesday – Shadowrun

I would like to introduce a new feature that I will be adding to this blog called, “Turn Back Time Tuesday”. This will be a segment where I reminisce about a particular game, movie, or whatever I feel like thinking about, and try and make it seem interesting to anyone who might find themselves reading this. As a starting point for this weekly recurring segment, I would like to begin with one of my all-time favorite games, Shadowrun (the 2007 game for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista).

The year 2007…to think that five years have passed by so quickly is something I would rather not do, nor is it something most people would care about, so lets not continue down that road. In 2007 I was a sophomore in high school, a time without any real responsibilities like homework that teachers actually cared about, or the need to maintain an active social life. Life was simple back then; wake up, go to school, play whatever sport I was required to be a part of, and then come home and play video games until the early hours of the morning. If there was one game I could always be seen playing on Xbox Live, it was Shadowrun. Whether by myself, or with my partner in crime, (who at the time went by the gamer tag, Renegade Bubbles, or Bubbles for short) we could play Shadowrun for hours on end without getting tired of it.

Shadowrun was great for two reasons: it allowed for a unique game play experience that combined minor RPG elements with a fast-paced FPS experience, and because it was very easy to be excellent at, as long as you know what you were doing. While the choices of weapons, magic, and tech gear were limited, when combined together they were able to produce many different unique play styles. You could opt for a hit-and-run technique as an Elf with Wired-Reflexes, a Glider, and a Katana (my favorite), or post-up as a tank while playing as a Troll with Tree of Life, Smartlink, and a Mini-Gun. Whether you chose to play as an all-out, guns blazing (or katana swinging) dealer of death, or a more team-friendly oriented healer, Shadowrun offered more than enough distinct game play experiences to keep players happy.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to attract as many players as the game truly needed to survive. Due to an original pricing of $60 for a game that only provided a multiplayer experience, many gamers turned away from purchasing Shadowrun. This sadly led to the game not being able to have the large player base that a multiplayer only game needed to thrive, let alone survive. Eventually game lobbies became full of the same players that you had been been playing against for the past week, which was good in the sense that it allowed for some minor rivalries to form, but bad in the sense that team sizes were often unequal and finding a game in general could also sometimes be a nuisance. In the end however, Shadowrun was still able to provide a gaming experience that I enjoyed very much, and that I have not experienced again to this day.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking this, but if not please feel free to share your thoughts.

Unlimited Magicka in Skyrim… Well Sort of.

As some people may know, there is a well to cast an unlimited amount of spells in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim without using any magicka, but for those of you who don’t, this article will explain how to do so. This is done not by using any glitches or cheat codes, but rather through hard work and dedication. The final goal is achieved by accumulating a 100% reduction to the usage of a particular school of magic, and eventually two schools. The remainder of this post will be a step-by-step process of how to achieve this game changing effect.

Step 1: Leveling Enchanting

The most important thing to do in order to cast spells without consuming magicka, is to get your Enchanting first to level 70, and then eventually to level 100. While this may sound like a very tedious task to do, it is actually quite simple, and can be done without dumping ridiculous numbers of hours in the process.

  • Acquiring Soul Gems – Soul gems are crucial to leveling enchanting, as they are used to both create enchanted objects,  and recharge weapons that have had an enchantment placed on them. Acquiring soul gems can be  a pain early in the game, but once you get the proper materials it becomes very simple to do. While their is a spell called “Soul Trap” in the Conjuration school of magic, it is not the most efficient way to gather the souls that are needed to level your enchanting skill, as it requires you to be within melee range to successfully cast the spell on an enemy, and then use another spell or weapon to kill the enemy before the affect expires. Thus, there are two alternatives. You can either search the map of Skyrim high and low until you come across a weapon that is capable of capturing souls, or you can level up your Conjuration skill while putting the perk points into the branch of the tree for conjured weapons, until you reach the spot that allows them to capture souls.
  • Enchanted Weapon with Soul Trap – If you chose to find a weapon with Soul Trap, bring it to the nearest Arcane Enchanter and disenchant it. This will allow you to be able to put the enchantment on any weapon you want in the future. If you chose to go this route, make sure you enchant the weapon with only a 1 second cast time, as this will provide the maximum number of charges, and it is really all you need.
  • Gathering Souls – Once you have all your means of collecting souls, you must then gather as many soul gems as you can to store them in. You will find numerous soul gems, both empty and full, during your travels in Skyrim, but searching for them can take a long time. The easiest way to acquire empty soul gems, is to travel to the College of Winterhold, and buy every empty Petty or Lesser soul gem that the vendors there have to offer. These are very cheap in cost, and will be a great start to leveling your enchanting.  Once you have as many empty soul gems as you can get your hands on, set out into the wild and begin killing enemies with whatever means of Soul Trap that you chose to use. Avoid killing humans and humanoids, as their souls can only be captured in Black Soul Gems.

Step 2: A bit of Blacksmithing

After you have filled up as many soul gems with souls as you can, you must now begin the enchanting process. To do this, you will need very large amounts of non-enchanted items to place enchantments on. The easiest way to do this (while gaining some extra skills points in the process) is to craft as many Iron Daggers as you can.

  • Making Those Daggers – To do this, you basically just need to check out the inventories of every available Black Smith, and buy every single Iron Ingot and Leather Strips that they have. Proceed to the nearest forge, and let the crafting of what seems to be endless Iron Daggers begin.
  • Magic Daggers – Once you have your daggers, head to the nearest Arcane Enchanter, and begin enchanting the daggers with the desired enchantment (I have found that Turn Undead provides a pretty good amount of gold, which is what you will want since you will be selling these daggers after you enchant them). Hopefully you have some sort of weapon enchantment, but if not bring any already-enchanted weapon to the Arcane Enchanter, and disenchant it to acquire its effect.
  • Sell Those Daggers – After you have enchanted as many daggers as you can with what soul gems you have, head out to any vendors you can come across, and sell those daggers for as much gold as you can get. This should fetch you a good amount of gold, which can then be used to buy more soul gems. The vendors at the College of Winterhold will have a new supply of soul gems after 48 hours of in game time.

Repeat these steps until your enchanting reaches a skill of 70, while placing your perk points in the following spots (They are all in the middle of the tree):

  • Enchanter 5/5
  • Insightful Enchanter
  • Corpus Enchanter
  • Extra Effect (once you reach skill level 100)

Step 3: Almost There

Now that you have an enchanting skill of at least 70 or higher (and hopefully a hefty sum of gold), you are now within grasp of achieving the final goal of casting an unlimited amount of spells. Although this can be done with any school of magic, the school of Destruction may be the best (and most fun) to do this with.

  • Finding the Enchantment – This may be tricky, but you will have to come across a piece of gear that has a “Fortify Destruction” enchantment on it. Once you find it, disenchant the piece of gear to acquire its enchantment for your own use.
  • Armor Up – After you have tracked down the “Fortify Destruction”  enchantment, gather a a chest piece, and a helmet (Glass Armor, Glass Helmet, etc.), 1 ring, and 1 necklace. You will also need an Enchanter’s Draught or stronger, which can be found while adventuring in the wild, or occasionally at an Alchemy Shop.
  •  Done – Consume the the potion that will increase your enchanting. and combined with your current skill, it will be enough to bring your “Fortify Destruction” enchantment up to 25% when placed on an item with a Grand Soul Gem. When used on four items, this will achieve a 100% reduction for that school of magic. Eventually, with the Extra Effect perk, you will be able to do the same with a second school of magic.

And there you have it! The ability to cast spells without consuming magicka. You will notice that after you have achieved this effect, your magicka bar will no longer appear when casting a spell from the school that has the 100% reduction. Enjoy!
For a video walk through of this effect, check out this video, courtesy of Youtube user Zowbaid89

Diablo 3 Beta – Afterthoughts

This past weekend marked the first time the masses could get their first taste of the highly anticipated dungeon crawler from Activision-Blizzard, Diablo III. Many people, including myself and my roommate, devoted the majority of our weekends to slaying mobs and gathering all the loot we could get our mouses on. The instant I sat down in my chair and entered the game world, I finally knew what had been missing from my life for over a decade; the urge to advance my character further through the levels, and to acquire the best gear available to me, while praying my mouse would not burst into a million pieces from the ridiculous amounts of clicking it was about to be the recipient of. Diablo III is definitely a return to glory for Blizzard (as if they ever fell from it), as well as a game that holds tons of promise for countless hours spent in front of the computer screen. Though short, the beta contained more than enough to give any fan of the series, new or old, a taste of what is to come and to leave them begging for more.

While I did devote the majority of my weekend to the beta, I did have other responsibilities to take care of (stupid homework). Due to those other obligations, I was only able to two of the classes the game had to offer; the returning Barbarian class, and the new Monk class. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, but in order to avoid any spoilers for anyone who might have missed the beta (and who might actually read this), I will discussmy time with the Barbarian, and just leave my time with the Monk as a very enjoyable experience.

Oh the mighty Barbarian… it was the first class I played in Diablo II, so in order to keep the tradition going, I set out to make it the first experience I had with Diablo III as well. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. From the second I smashed my first skeleton enemies to a million pieces, I could only imagine what sorts of awesomeness lied ahead. The Barbarian in Diablo III is the only returning class from Diablo II, and the way the class is played has also made a return. Whether you chose to be a tank, or an all-out damage dealer, the Barbarian’s main resource is Fury, which functions similar to a Warrior’s Rage bar in World of Warcraft.  I chose to go with the relentless play style of a dual-wielding Barbarian, to bring down my enemies with a whirlwind of steel and brute strength. Though my playtime was short, I could not have been happier with what I encountered and cannot wait until I am able to advance further.

Diablo III hits stores on May 15th, 2012.

Please feel free to share your thoughts of the beta in the comments section.

Return of the Nerd…

Hello anyone who might read this,

I have decided to stop being lazy and once again return to the world of blogging. I hope to enlighten anyone who stumbles upon this page, with what knowledge (if any) I might have about the topics I chose to write about.

Cheers

Glorious Mission?

The Chinese are setting their sights on American soldiers. Well, at least they are in a new virtual training program.

With the recent news that the Chinese Army has been using a video game training program that puts American soldiers on the wrong side of the cross-hairs (something that is very unheard of in video games), a large portion of the media is outraged at the fact that Americans are being targeted by the Chinese, even if it is only in virtual reality. The problem here is whether or not we as Americans should be upset about this or not. Many people in the media are seeming to have forgotten about almost every first-person shooter video game made in America, which target almost every nationality in the world as America’s fictional enemies.”Glorious Mission” is the recently released game that is causing such a stir of mixed opinions. Co-developed by the Nanjing branch of the People’s Liberation Army (China’s combined armed forces), it is being used a combat training simulator for soldiers preparing for active duty. Using video game simulations to train for armed combat is not a new trend however, as the United States has been doing this since 2002 with their “game” “America’s Army.” The difference here is that “America’s Army” has been used more as a recruitment method and features generic enemy soldiers of no specific nationality.

The larger issue here is whether we should really be upset that virtual depictions of American soldiers are being targeted by the Chinese army. Even though “Glorious Mission” is being used as a training simulator, it is still a video game, and American games have been targeting other countries as their virtual enemies for years. Take “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” for example, where you spend almost the entire game battling Russians as they invade the United States. I’m sure there are some Russians who are a bit sour about about their virtual counterparts being slaughtered by millions of gamers around the world, but I’m also sure they come to the quick realization that it is still simply a video game.

Lets face it, video games in today’s world are beginning to rival the artistic expression of many other mediums, and as time goes on more and more games are going to be considered controversial. I’m not saying that I am completely okay with “Glorious Mission” choosing American soldiers as their virtual enemies, but as long as the being enemies part stays in the virtual world, I really can’t complain. Besides, if people really started caring about who was being killed in video games, we’d be looking at an endless amount of World War II games because if there is one thing that history has shown us, it seems to be okay to kill Nazis.

Well… that was fun.

About Time

I finally got around to trading in my Xbox 360 the other week, and all I can say is that I wish I had done it sooner. This is because during those last  weeks of it just sitting in a box under my bed, not even once did I think about buying a new game for it. This was largely due to my possession of a Playstation 3, but part of it was due to what my Xbox had become in its older days.

By the time I had stopped seriously playing my Xbox, my collection of games was only a shadow of its former self. I had long since traded in any game that would fetch me a fair price at GameStop, while using the profits to fill my shelves with PS3 games. Eventually my collection of 360 games could have been used to make the argument that the Xbox was the new console, with my the only games left in my possession being The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth II and Rock Band 2; two games that I refused to get rid of for some slightly different reasons. Battle for Middle-earth II simply because I am unable to play the PC version (Mac FTW), and Rock Band 2 due to the huge amounts of money I invested into expanding my song collection. Rock Band 2  was key though, as I’m almost positive that it was the reason that caused the inevitable extinction of my relationship with my Xbox 360.

The demise of my Xbox 360 was directly linked to the huge drop in popularity of the music game genre, or at least that is what I’ve decided on. At first I thought that I was the only one losing interest in banging on plastic drums, but eventually it hit me that the trend was more widespread than I had thought.  The news of the Guitar Hero franchise being canceled came as great news to me, even though I had known the whole music game genre was just a phase. Yet it was a phase that lasted quite a long time and involved my friends and I spending countless hours wielding those plastic instruments like they were attached to our bodies. Like all good things though, the fun of playing these games came crashing down faster than they had began.

To put it simply, I think I just got tired of playing the same old songs over and over again. Sure, the large amounts of songs available to download were a nice added bonus, but eventually all the songs, especially  while playing the drums, began looking the same. Unfortunately, I began to associate this sense of dull, boring game play to my Xbox 360, which sadly, made me never want to touch the poor thing. I guess you can say that this is a pretty dumb reason to give up on a system, but its the truth.


Memories

Remember These Babies?

Earlier today I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about whether or not he should buy Mass Effect 2 on a disc or simply just download the digital copy (once the Playstation Network is back online of course), and almost immediately we had to stop and wonder whether or not a decision such as this was even worth thinking about nowadays.

Both my friend and I have the 160 GB Playstation 3 Slim, so neither of us have ever had to worry about running out of storage space. Maybe the two of us just have never owned enough games at one time, but the most recent time that we could think of when we actually had to worry about minuscule amounts of memory was way back in the days of the Playstation 2. You know, the days when 8 MB memory cards determined whether or not we would be playing our favorite games. The days when you were so excited to go play a game at your friends house only to remember that he didn’t have a memory card, and your mom was fifteen minutes too far away to take you back home to get the one your forgot. Yeah, those were the days.

The point is though, we never actually determined if we completely approve of the almost complete extinction of memory cards. Because lets be honest, using a flash drive just is not the same as lugging around a memory unit made specifically for your games. Maybe we were just being nostalgic, or even better, perhaps we were just showing our age, but either way the fact remains that the technologies of video game consoles are moving further and further away from their classic roots.