ExtendPlay Controller Extension at PAX East 2011

Watch as Zac and John see this all-new product that extends an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 controller for support and comfort! 

Gears of War 3

Today on the second day of PAX East, I got an opportunity to play the long awaited Gears of War 3. I was hooked up to a system link with 5 other people in a team death match, Humans vs Locusts!

So far everything I’m saying seems like nothing new, well that’s good, it means they’ve stuck with what’s most important, the cove-system, the crazy guns, and the brutal executions!

However, they’re many subtle changes that really make the experience worth your while. For one thing, new, guns. You get to use an older model of the lancer that has a dagger instead of a chainsaw, so for everyone who thought the current lancer was too slow for melees, this is a great solution. The one downside is that it’s not as accurate as the current one but you’ll barley notice at close range. The other subtle changes include “easy to use menus” that look way less cluttered than in gears 2.  You’re also able to take 2 weapons into battle this time, a main weapon and a secondary weapon.

Something that truly makes the characters seem more badass is the fact that they’re wearing less armor this time around. There arms are completely venerable so it truly is the power of their manliness and 3 feet thick neck muscles that heal their bullet wounds, excellent.

Now for the main event, when you play Gears of War 3, you’ll notice something that the previous 2 games didn’t have, actual color! The environments are actually not different shades of brown. There are blue skies, green leaves, red blood, that is actually vibrant. Reviewers can no longer say “this game’s graphics have the gears of war kind of look and color scheme”.

So yeah, more guns, simpler menus, and color are all but small and simple changes that really enhance the experience. The maps are designed to make the game play seem faster. In other words you’re not just wondering around for the first 3 minutes just looking for people anymore.

Gears of War 3 comes out later this year so pre-order now.



Homefront

As day two of PAX East ends I come to realize that I only played three video games today, and stood in place for several hours. This article is about one of those games: Homefront.
Homefront, being developed by Koas Studios, was there in its entirety on the PAX floor but I only stayed to play the first level. The game starts with an introduction to how North Korea successfully occupies the United States and most of the Pacific. The introduction leads to a cut scene where you are arrested by North Korean police and are dragged onto a school bus turned prisoner transport. There, you are able to turn your head to witness the brutality of the North Korean rule; people being arrested, squatters living in tents, couples being torn from one another, people being executed for running, people being forced into labor camps, and a couple being executed in front of a small child. This successfully instilled hatred towards the North Korean occupiers. After the introduction you begin combat. Combat is the same combat we have come to know in this Call of Duty FPS world; sprint to cover, hit B to duck, fire at the enemy. The combat was fun if you like modern FPS, which I do. The level was fun but I did find flaws in the game. The graphics were great but there was heavy pixelating if the player looked at NPCs and turned. The grenade throwing motion is awkward and, while I had hatred towards the Korean occupiers, I felt zero sympathy towards the resistance, who ran around guns a blazing and would act like in an action movie rather than trying to have a more serious tone. The game comes out March 15th 2011.

Star Wars The Old Republic

As Day two of PAX East ends I come to realize that I only played three video games today, and stood in place for several hours. This article is about one of those games: The Old Republic.
After standing in line for a few hours I was finally able to sit down and play a segment of the game called a Flashpoint. The segment had four players fight their way on the ground as part of a Republic strike force against a Sith outpost on Taral V. The Republic is looking for an ancient Gree computer to learn how to navigate a system to find a Sith prison. The demo had four choices of classes; Smuggler Scoundrel, Jedi Knight Guardian, Jedi Consular Mage, and Trooper Vanguard. The Smuggler was the team’s healer, the Jedi Knight was the team’s melee DPS, the Jedi Consular was the team’s ranged DPS, and the Trooper was the tank. The Jedi Knight was shown here as a DPS rather than a tank but it still held heavy armor so it could take enemies blows. I have never played an MMO and two of the other people I was pair up with haven’t played in years leaving only one guy who knew what he was doing; he was automatically made the healer and I was made the ranged DPS. Generally, the Jedi Consular is the healer class but the way the Smuggler class had been set up for this demo was so it could heal with Kolto better than the Consular did with the Force. The demo starts with the players being briefed by a Jedi master on their next mission. This showed how the fully voiced MMO works in a dialogue with more than one player in the party doing the same mission. Whenever a dialogue selection toolbar appears each player chooses their response and the game rolls a number between 1 and 100. The player with the higher number is the one that speaks out loud for that dialogue. After the briefing the mission soon begins and I am thrown into the combat. The HUD was easy to use and understand and the combat fun. Since I was the ranged DPS I would simply stand back and use the Force to hurl large objects at the enemy using the Force. The Consular powers I was slotted with consisted of only Force based ranged attacks, with two buff actions, two healing actions, and several recover actions spread across the bottom toolbar. The combat, I found to be fun and entertaining. The final part of the demo required the group to fight two bosses simultaneously that, if one boss died long before the other, the living boss would become enraged. The team rallied together as the Trooper tanked the melee combat boss and the Jedi Knight held the ranged combat boss’s attention as Smuggler and I switched between targeting the two bosses and healing our allies. In the end we succeeded in killing the bosses and beating the demo. Also previewed at the booth (but not playable) was space combat. The combat could be initiated by simply arriving in a sector of the galaxy and looking for an icon that signifies a space battle. You enter battle in your own private ship and given an objective to complete, in the preview’s case; kill 60 Sith fighters. The preview showed the Republic Smuggler driven freighter dodging Sith fighters and asteroids before charging a Sith capital ship. Player driven space-craft have two weapons, turbo lasers that just fire as the main weapon and homing rockets. Completing the objective will switch objectives to merely surviving the combat by getting clear of the area. The previewed showed the Republic freighter barely surviving with the commentator explaining that the player’s companions would make comments and damage reports according to how well the ship was faring up. In the end though, I am more excited for this game and I have greater faith in its doing well as, in the words of our team’s Trooper, it will attract MMO fans, Star Wars fans, and BioWare fans.

Shoot Many Robots

 Hey Will here commenting on a new demo I was able to play whilst I was wandering the showroom today. This is going to be a bit of a brief preview because the demo that I was allowed to play was very basic and there was not much I had to comment on. The game I tried was called Shoot Many Robots. I started the tutorial portion of the demo and was excited when I realized the graphics were cell shaded. The game itself looked very good for a downloadable title but when I started to play the game I was disappointed. The game was just a side scrolling shooter that was just monotonous that is the only word I can describe it with. To be honest it was not too bad but on the flip side it was not good either. The enemies were not very fun to fight and there were quite a few times during the five minute demo where I was just frustrated. For instance there was a jet pack that your character could utilize when he was aiming while jumping. At first I really enjoyed this feature but after I started using it in more scenarios in the game the jet pack was just painful to use. The biggest issue with the whole jet pack schematic was its inability to stop while flying. The player had to constantly move while in the jet pack mode and I found it relatively difficult to change directions mid flight. This was a problem during the demo boss and while I did manage to beat him it was only by a smidgen. I really did give this game a bit more of a harsh review then it really deserved but I was expecting more then the simple side scrolling shooter that I got. For a downloadable title it was alright there were no major flaws besides the jet pack but I would not buy this if I had the opportunity.

Hello world, ITS NIIIIIIICK! Today I was lucky enough to play the demo of the new downloadable title, Shoot Many Robots. This is the first full game by Demimurge, who previously worked on Borderlands and a few other popular titles.

This is a traditional side-scrolling shooter. I was given a machine gun and a rocket launcher, and was able to see a large amount of unlockable weapons for later in the game. The graphics are cell-shaded, and there is a large resemblance to many of the arid areas of Borderlands. In fact, the characters looked a lot like Roland...

Anyway, the controls were standard to the genre, with the addition of a jetpack, which really only was for gliding. The standard enemies take many shots to die, and often can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, this is not a fun, strategic challenge, and is instead tedious and monotonous. The gameplay was repetitive and redundant. While it wasn't horrible, it wasn't good or worth purchasing.
I was confused that the game included a 'melee' button, because not once in the demo was melee useful. I assumed it would be a good way to beat back the enemies, but instead it left me more prone to enemy attacks, and it did minimal damage.

Overall, many of the controls felt awkward, and the gameplay was mediocre, but the four player co-op could provide some short entertainment among friends, and the game has its charm. I would recommend playing a demo first because this game won't appeal to everyone.