Starhawk, what to say about this online beta? That is the question here. Starhawk is the sequel to the “ye-old” Warhawk game that came out around when the Playstation 3 launched, course having never played that I have no reference to go to here. The beta is strictly an online mode only, and a capture the flag only! Meh. If you try to select any other option like Team Death Match it automatically sends you into the CTF mode of the bat. Boring modes to showcase. Anyways, firing this bitch up was a pain the first night, with constant errors that servers were down, it didn’t even run. Once I got into the game the next day I got to see what she was all about. It basically plays like Red Fraction Guerilla in the third person sense and has some little Section 8 mixed with some RTS/Tower defence flares added in. I only played one map I believe, fair size with different “rocky” space like terrain. To deploy your character pick a spot on the map marked in a section (green zone) and you come flying down in a tube to the ground. Hence the Section 8 reference. Once out, you have the option to build up your base with whatever fucking weird currency the game uses? I couldn’t figure that out for the life of me. You can build turrets, walls, barracks, vehicle stations, and jet pack stations. Once built your team can utilize all the tools cast from each. It’s a really ambitus attempt at something here, but I can’t put my finger on it, confusion is what I got once I first started playing. The shooting mechanics in the game, the main thing, are not good at all. Sloppy guns with no real sense of the weapons used in this universe. The dumbest thing is you get a rifle off the bat, if you want more weapons to roll with you have to walk around this shitty base your team made and look for it the “barracks”. There are NO directions/tags to anything so they all look like generic Red Faction looking buildings. Gameplay is just poor, even with the constant updates and patches day by day , I seen no true improvements. The jets are probably the coolest thing in the game, they fly around streaking neon trails, and can transform into mech on the ground. It’s basically a Warkhawk jet that transforms into a transformer. I was really bored with the game after one round and never really wanted to play it again, I only played more each day because I wanted to see what was improved. My character level was always reset to 1, so no progress was ever made in the game, awful! I have no idea who this game is designed for, but there must be an audience somewhere, right?
Recently DC: Universe has went free to play. I sort of got excited when I read this on Twitter, “Sick, I’m going to check this out right now.” A free game means some new stuff to check out and possibly some trophies to earn. So, I fire up the old PS3 and get at it… The game needs to be updated, cool. I’m prompted with a 255mb download, all good so far. Finished that. Next, oh you need another update, 350mb or so. Ok I’m still in. I get that all in order in about 15-20 minutes, installed. Sweet I am on my way to the Universe in no time. The game finally fires up, “checking your data”, good, then all of a sudden it goes into a 14.6 GB download. WHAT! I look to confirm that I added up the megabytes right, 14600mb…. hmmm. Estimated time 14-16 hrs!?!?! WTF! Watching this bar fill up even for a couple mins was pain. I walked away, ate lunch and came back and it was still NOWHERE! Sure the game is free and all, but how do you expect people to even play this shit if it takes them more than half their day to get it downloaded and not even installed. Shit I could drive to America, buy any mmo, come all the way home and install it before this thing is even halfway done. Fuck I could fly to England, visit my relatives, have a cup of tea and watch a whole football game before this shit is done. It just way too much! Then I heard (cause I’m not going to finish this download) that if you get in, the servers are overloaded and sometimes you can’t even get in to play! Taking more than a half a day is ridiculous in this day and age. Then still having to still sign up somehow, then create my character, then try to log in…. No! I love my PS3, I know that downloading stuff can be kind of slow. I can live with that just fine, but this game needs some serious ex-lax asap.
Let me just start to say that Battlefield 3 is a different type of shooter, we all know that and some either like it or don’t. I personally prefer battlefields open concept mayhem to the close quarter type gameplay that is in found in Cod (unless it’s rainbow6). These are two totally different games, but they always seem to come up when one is mentioned so I will try to stop at that. Starting off the single player is the weaker element of the game for sure, though I still enjoyed completing it, and probably would run through it again. It went for the more “blockbuster hit” campaign that is portrayed in other games and ends up just an above average campaign for a shooter. The open concepts that was present in the BF:BC series has been now been stripped down to a basic straight line and follow the icon above your team-mates name type shit. Not cool. It has its flashy moments in it that are good, but nothing too over the top like that “Michael Bay” bullshit that’s found in other titles. The game had its good moments though, I think this is saved by the beauty of the game all together. The lightning effects are sick, everything from the sun to a flashlight is on point. The sound is just tops ANY shooter out there, especially, when it comes to multiplayer. It is ridiculous, and I love the sounds of destruction. Jets screaming by in the sky sounds like you’re at an air show, and being beside a tank that’s banging the fuck off and piercing your ears is captured superbly. The Online is where it is at. I have to admit, I enjoy single player games more than multi, so this one really grabs my attention. Dice did a fantastic job with this online experience. I picked the game up on the ps3 because the majority of my friends play it BF on that system where as the Xbox everyone plays that fish game. *cough*. There were no problems with the servers, if a little slow down here and there, everything ran smooth as planned. While the other consoles suffered from reported drop-outs and major lag issues, I believe that I made the right choice. The Frostbite 2 engine is clean, but I think it’s not as destruction as the first, where buildings would collapse after a relentless barrage of fire. I have seen couple buildings drop in BF3, but its nothing compared to Bad Company 2 where almost every building would be rubble by the end of a match. Guns and attachments are unlocked by using the class to the max, and same goes for the vehicles. As far as game modes, conquest has to be the best mode in my opinion. Object points are placed on the map and your team must capture them together and hold them down. This causes the line in the battlefield. I’m sure all of you know this from Bad Company 2, and shit, you are probably already playing this as we speak. Basically what I am trying to say is this game is awesome! If your on psn, come look me up so we can go fuck some shit up! Wesker Out.
Most people hated on GT5 at launch, I was not one of those people. I love me some hardcore racing sims. Yes the game had tons of issues to be worked out and some of the promises of the franchise were not met, but Polyphony has supported this title with many free updates enhancing the experience. Almost bi-weekly the game is updated with a new seasonal event and most if not all the online mechanics have been tweeked for better online racing experience through these patches. So it’s basically like there still working on the game, which isn’t a bad thing right? In the next couple weeks GT5 will see its biggest update ever, Spec 2. The most badass part of this update is that all cars will now have an interior view. This was the biggest fucking piss off to come from the games launch from hardcore GT fans, and Polyphony has clearly recognized that. Announcing 1000+ cars in your game and then shitting on your fans with maybe a good 350 fully modeled was, lets face it, is wack. Though the models will not be fully detailed as some of the other cars, it is still a great addition. The worst case I can assume is that some of the cars interiors you might get an inside model like something in GT Portable, a black outline basically. I’m Hoping that’s not case though. You will also get an update to the Nascars in the game, the 2011 season cars will be added to the roster. Though I could give two shits about that personally. The menus speed and load times will be cut down, which is well needed still. The arcade mode will feature adjustable opponent AI for a more custom experience for messing around on your own. Racers will be able to save their progress in a race at anytime and return to that previous state, which is sick for those long race like endurances. Weather conditions can now also be fully adjusted with a slider from mild to severe for that extra hardcore touch. If you enjoy taking snaps of your whips, you can now add your driver avatar in the mix with all the gear you have unlocked like helmets and suits. Playing online will offer more bonuses to people who log in and play on a regular basis. GT5 has also added the support of more Racing wheels, the Logitech G25 and G27 are added to spec 2. They also have announced a gang load of DLC to come, that being cars and tracks. No one knows at this time if there will be any fees involved with those downloads. All in all this is quite the upgrade to a very excellent racing simulation, and now for a low price of 39.99 you can’t beat that gearheads… Well maybe until Forza 4 drops. I’ll keep you guys posted on that soon!
of Press Pause Radio. Sorry I didn’t credit you, brother!)
Hello Internet, and get ready to listen to the new and improved Ballscast 2.0! In this episode we talk about bears driving cars, dirty words in scrabble, which video game vixens we’d make sweet love to, Portal 2, the PSN outtage, and Nintendo’s next console. And why the Dreamcast sucked.
(Oh, and in the intro I call Ballsrog the “Gangstar of Video Games” which is a term coined by GeorgieBoysAXE of Press Pause Radio. Sorry I didn’t give you props!)
So download that shit and put it in your ears! Right click below and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” or search for us on iTunes and Zune!
Show Notes: WordPress won’t let me put links in here. So just Google “Enviro-Bear,” “Pogo Scrabble,” “Press Pause Radio,” and “Crush! Frag! Destroy!” Also, fuck WordPress.
