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Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
PlayStation Move Review: Lets get Moving!
I've had the Move since launch day on September 17th here in the states, and its been a few days since. How do I feel about it, you ask? In all honesty, its an impressive piece of tech, with a lot to live up to following the success of the Nintendo Wii. Follows are a few reasons why this Sony motion controller isn't just a "Wii 2" and stands to become stiff competition for Microsoft's own Kinect motion controller.
Right off the bat I knew what to expect from Sony's Move having used the device at several trade shows. As much as I had used it though, there was never enough time with the hardware itself to fully determine how it would perform in normal lighting conditions. Now that I've had it, I can assure you, the tech is pretty smart in determining how much light is in a room.
The Move utilizes the previously released PlayStation Eye camera and the wand controller itself plus optional navigation sub-controller. The Move wand is equipped with an led lit globe that changes color depending on the colors the camera sees in the room. For example, if your playing in a room with white walls and your wearing a white shirt, the controller will change to any other color than white. This helps in tracking your movements more precisely.
As impressed with the hardware as I was, its ultimately the software that defines the experience and justifies the purchase. So as far as the Moves launch line up you have your options. Theres Eye Pet, which in my opinion showed off one of the more unique aspects of the move, a sort of augmented reality placing a virtual pet/monkey thing in our world through your television. Allowing specific and playful interactions between the user and the animal on screen.
Theres' Sports champions, think PlayStation's version of Wii Sports Resort, a game in which you can choose to play several sport mini games. Games such as Disc Golf, Gladiator, Bocce Ball, Volleyball, Table Tennis, and my personal favorite Archery. Its your standard fair sports game, if not a little generic, but it gets the job done and can be quite challenging.
Theres also Start the Party, think any number of Wii mini game collections, and Kung Fu Rider, a game where you rush down hill on a number of different rolling seats trying to avoid obstacles. For the cheaper, more accessible fun you also have the option for a few downloadable titles on the PlayStation Network. Most notably Tumble, a block building puzzler thats uses the Move's 1:1 motion to simulate the difficulty of stacking varying shapes to create a stable structure.
At $50 for the Move, $40 for the camera, the optional $30 for the Nav controller and a $40 game, your looking at a rather expensive investment. If your into motion control gaming and are looking for some new experiences with your PlayStation 3, pick up the move. If your still not too sure I recommend waiting for a few more games (The Fight: Lights Out) to drop before rushing out.
IE9 Beta - Why You Need This Browser Today!
Tech.
You may have heard, you may have not - Internet Explorer doesn't suck again! If you're anything like me, you've been shying away from the browser more and more since the release of Firefox, and all of it's lovely spawn (Google Chrome.) Over 2 million people have downloaded IE9 Beta within the first day of release - I am one of those people, and here's why it just might take back it's place in history as the best browser around.
Ever since the implementation of 64-bit Operating Systems, those who have used the operating systems which support the full speed of their PCs have had a disadvantage, thanks to Adobe. If you're one of those people, you likely already know I'm talking about Flash Player. Adobe Flash Player is available for the IE9 Beta Platform as a default build this time around however. That's right, you heard it correctly - You can watch YouTube, and play Farmville, all while browsing the web in a 64-bit platform. Why is this important? I'll tell you why that's important!
IE9 Beta is FASTER! Looking for something to juice up your performance, without upgrading the whole PC while surfing? If you've already been using a 64-bit PC, you'll well know that about everything that you can get in 64-bit coding runs twice as fast as the 32-bit version. With Flash Player supported, and HTML5, there is really no reason not to use the 64-bit version if you can. If you're one of the many without 64-bit Operating Systems out there, you will still find yourself loading faster than before with built-in boosts in the coding to help you see content sooner. Something noticable you may find when using IE9 Beta however, is that with this software boost in speed, as your images may render faster, you will see the web page load in blocks. Individualized sections of the code popping up as they are downloaded. This may take a bit of getting used to, but it's normal as your PC sorts out the bits fine, it just looks a bit strange for the first 3 seconds of loading.
Additionally you will find that which makes IE9 Beta faster, also makes it feel more clean, and web-page oriented; A simpler Address Bar. Atop all of your websites, you've always had, and been used to having that address bar, with your home button, back, forward, and other respective buttons. In IE9 Beta, though I didn't imagine it were possible, things look more minimalistic with a signature "Aero" style and transparent buttons that will only change color if you use some new IE9 Beta fun features. Add a bookmark as a taskbar item in W7 and you'll find you've been given an automatic theme for the browser, completely masking the fact that you were using Internet Explorer at all, but rather that you were only going to be going to Facebook - and then maybe some other places after - an interesting approach by Microsoft. This process does end up saving time if you find yourself doing very time-centric operations on your PC. Find yourself going on Facebook and other Social Networking sites in the morning and doing buisness, or paying bills at night? Having two different IE9 Bookmarks on the taskbar can help you by essentially creating two home pages. One step faster than opening and then clicking on your "most viewed websites." Finally where speed is concerned, if you find yourself needing to compare one image to another, or you like to just watch a movie and play a game at the same time, IE9 speeds up your surfing time a bit by allowing you to use the W7 "snap" feature. Remember, drag something to the left or right wall and it automatically takes up 50% of the screen on that side? Well, now IE9 Beta supports that same function with individual tabs. Drag a tab over, and it will automatically open that tab in a new window, snapped to 50% of the screen width. Yum!
On the mixed opinion side...
Understanding that this is not a final version of the browser I can accept this flaw, so long as it is patched. IE9 Beta crashed on me within the first 10 minutes of serious extensive use. On the plus side, it was only one tab. On the negative side, it was only the one page - Again and again. IE9 Beta has an interesting feature in this build; Should your Tab crash, it will automatically close it, and re-open the page, just as it was before. In this case the page itself had 5 Flash-Based ads that happen to simultaneously load, causing the new availablility of Adobe Flash Player in 64-bit to sieze, and crash the tab not once, but twice! I'll stick with this issue as being a rarity in my opinion, and say that this feature of automatic re-opening of a crashed tab is going to be a good feature overall, but it left me feeling quite puzzled.
Another benefit to the IE9 Beta layout is that you have a new favorites button! YAY! Yay? Ok. You can now add a favorite directly to your "favorites bar" with one click. Sounds great, but why am I so "meh" on the feature? When you add a favorite to the favorites bar, it automatically adds the favorite on the left. Every other browser before this, since the beginning of time, has added it on the right. This confused me, and really put me off a little. Does this mean I'll have to reorganize my favorites every time I add a new one to my bar? I'll list this as a mixed opinion for two reasons however. The first - How often am I adding new favorites to the favorites bar? The second - Are the newest items on my favorites bar actually going to be viewed MORE than the older ones, and if so, it looks like Microsoft has shown me the light.
A few things to complain about...
It's been a year since Google has released it's Chrome browser in Beta, and I've had it all along. Here are two features that might have me bouncing back and fourth. Paste-and-Go; Sounds about self explanitory, right? Here's what it does for you. If you find yourself being referred to a website in Chrome, you can easily copy a link that didn't automatically hyperlink (underlined and clickable) then just paste it down in the address bar, and Chrome takes you there. In IE9 Beta, you've got to paste it, then hit the enter (return) button, or click go. Why doesn't IE9 Beta have this feature? The world my never know. Conclusively, for the complaint department, why is there no home page for the most popular sites? In Chrome you can choose to make your Home page an eight-page heads up display of the most visited websites on your PC. It's a handy feature, and on IE9 Beta, you only find yourself on that page when you open a new tab. Sadness.
For those of you reading this, if you find yourself enjoying the idea of Flash Player in a 64-bit browser, or quite enhanced page render times, or many of the other features that find themselves hidden in the IE9 Beta program, I actually have an easy work-around for that last complaint, so start that download now, and get out your notepad.
Make sure that you are on the standard IE9 Beta page, not a Taskbar Bookmark. Click on the gear on the top right, then enter Internet Options. In the Home Page field, type in "about:Tabs" without the quotation marks, then hit the OK button on the bottom. Your new Home Page is now the page you would normally see if you were to open a new tab. (Make this a button, Microsoft!)
Overall rating - 9.2/10 Great speed improvements and Flash support in 64-bits. This really hit the spot, and stays innovative
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Mortal Kombat Pre-Play
The past is most certainly the past, but sometimes that past is so memorable, you can't help but want to relive it. That being my case with Warner Bros first addition to the Mortal Kombat franchise. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment purchased the rights to Mortal Kombat with the recent acquisition of Midway Games, and most of its assets in July 2009.
My trip to PAX Prime this year led to my first hands on with the game since its announcement on June 10th of this year. Having been a huge Mortal Kombat fan for most of my life (yes, I even enjoyed both movies), I couldn't wait to play the newest iteration.
Simply named Mortal Kombat, no subtitle, is a kind of rebirth for the franchise. It's going back to the days of 2D plains and visceral combat. Things that shone bright in the first 3 games, the 4th went a different, but still satisfying, direction. Fatalities are back in full bloody, gory force, and a new combo system is in place, making Mortal Kombat feel much more competitive than previous entries.
One of the more notable changes in the game is the ease of performing a finishing move, or fatality, in this instance. It could have been simplified for the public demo to show off some of the more mature content, but here's hoping it's a little more challenging come release time. I chose my favorite character, Scorpion, and began to pummel my opponent. Unfortunately I forgot how to play since the last MK game I played was over a year ago.
Without knowing Scorpion's spear, teleport, or even air throw moves, I was a sitting duck. My opponent seemed to remember Sub-Zero's freeze attack right off the bat. This made things pretty difficult. Even more stressful was having Ed Boone, creator of the MK franchise, standing behind us and watching every move I made. I had to try and avoid embarrassing myself. My gaming cred was on the line.
Out of three rounds, I was able to eek out at least one win before having my ass handed to me in the decision third round. Lets just say ROQ editor Joe was pretty smug after the win. Lucky for me he didn't get directions from the exhibitor in time for the fatality. We'll see who's laughing after I buy and master the game.
Mortal Kombat is slated for a 2011 release on Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Most likely will be rated M for Mature, just the way I always wanted it, and the way it always should be.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
RoQ Pod Episode 3: Special 'PAX' Edition BEYOND!
I've got Balls of Steel! - Duke Nukem returns at PAX 2010
Within the first 30 minutes of the ROQ cast entering the building on the first day of the PAX 2010 conference, it was obvious the news was coming straight down from 2K Games, and GearBox Studios. Duke Nukem is back, and he's back with a vengeance!
As you enter the GearBox Studios Closed display area, you are immediately given notice that the press were not invited for this event, as it was for the fans, so listen up, fans, this was for you! Without a pause, we move right into details from a very laid back Randy Pitchford ready to blow the top off on the group. He explains briefly about how he's been very excited about the ultra hush-hush Duke, and he's glad to show us the new video clip, which to this point is not out on any other media, but their showroom.
As the preview video begins, you find yourself in a fairly destroyed, post-modern earth, invaded by a sparse alien population. Audio overhead explains that we were invaded, and Duke has disappeared. The world was in ruin, and all was lost, until they fucked with the hot chicks! "You Want It!" Flashes on the screen. Explosions, Fist fights, and strippers abound for 30 seconds. "You Need It!" Gunfights, alien aircraft, "And Now..." The guns get bigger, alien planes fly above, and an eight foot alien in a low-lit room, "We're Bringing It!"
The first live video footage of The Duke's render hits the screen, smoking a cigar - Typical. A few flashy screens, a few more aliens, and you quickly move to a large, three-breasted alien, standing over 100 feet tall, 50 feet above ground. "I'd still hit it," says Duke. "He's ready" hits the screen, "He's Rested," "He's Really, Really...All Out Of Gum."
The hype and excitement screamed through the air, as we were notified that we would be getting a 5 minute hands on with Duke Nukem: Forever immediately. Game play was clean, fast, funny, and Classically perfect. Your demo begins with a 3D flashback. Your tutorial finds you in front of a urinal, watching your own urine fall into the drain, you pull the trigger, as if you were shooting a gun. Fast forward to the only fight in this half of the demo - A 40 foot beast stands in front of you, muscular and grey on a football field. Roaring, you immediately rush into the fight with which you will use a grenade launcher. As you begin, you spray your enemy with shells, and quickly find yourself out of ammunition. A vehicle flys overhead occasionally, dropping in 69 more rounds of ammunition for your launcher in a marked location. You spam the monster with shells continuously until it changes phases to charge at you, so you can hit it in the back. Fairly standard. What is not standard however, is your victory celebration. A short cinematic loads in which the monster's single cycloptic eye falls from his skull. The Duke takes three steps backward, runs toward the eye, and gives it a swift boot across the field, through the uprights. It's good.
The demo skips quickly to "level 15." You find yourself strapped into an off-roading vehicle which says, "Hail to the King, baby!" on the back. Speeding along a chasm, you must choose to either avoid the alien scum shooting at you as they are left across the landscape by the dropship ahead, otherwise run them down with your bad ass truck! When the initial event comes to a close, you leave your vehicle without a weapon, and are forced to aquire one by any means you choose. Meleeing an enemy, I quickly found myself with a small machine gun wasting away at enemies, but not very effectively, as it was somewhat of a small caliber. After a few good kills, I walk across a sniper rifle, resting on the ground strategically placed. I decided it was at this point that I would test the limits of my own health, known in Duke as "EGO." I quick scoped a few baddies down, and sprinted ahead, taking fire from all sides in a wide open area of this destroyed desert town. My 5 minutes of given demo time ended just as I approached a turret, a rocket launcher, and a small horde of oncoming jerkwads.
I found that the game was quite intuitive, with great Duke Nukem humor, and a fair amount of life, that didn't regen too fast, nor too slow - about 5 seconds of hiding will get you 20% "EGO." The guns weren't too overpowered, but scale something to that of the original Halo, which is fine by me. This game is worth looking into when and if Gearbox decides to release a demo on consoles, and for fans, certainly worth buying, at the no doubt Mature rating level, if not to be scaled down a bit to just miss that AO. Oh, and he's all out of gum.
PAX 2010 CosPlay With ROQ
Reviews On Q always strives to bring you the best, and most entertaining coverage around the net. Today, we bring you a PAX 2010 CosPlay extravaganza. Good or bad, your decision. When it's all said and done though, these CosPlayers will not be denied the merits for dressing courageously as they do. Props to those who participated.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
PC Gaming = Not Dead
A walk to the bathroom, and a little curiosity, helped me capture a picture of the PAX wildlife.
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ROQ on Facebook/Twitter! Free Codes!
Are you following Reviews On Q on Facebook and Twitter? Nows the time, because we have free PlayStation Network and Xbox Live codes to give out! Thats right, we will be posting these codes throughout the week so keep an eye on the ROQ posts! And remember, we'll have PAX coverage throughout the weekend.
Gaming Celebrities on ROQ
Ed Boon, creator of Mortal Kombat
Adam Sessler, Editor-in-Chief of G4TV Gaming
More to come......
Friday, September 3, 2010
Motor Storm Apocalypse Pre-play
PAX 2010 is in full swing and the games are being shown in abundance. Sony's offering tons of titles in its first party line up. Motor Storm, the fast paced apocalyptic racer Sony now totes as their reason to play in 3D, was one of the first games ROQ got its hands on. At first glance, the racer looks as though its mimicking a game like EA's Burnout, but in a matter of seconds, it becomes clear that Motor Storm is standing in a league of its own.
Once I got my hands on the controller, I sped off the starting line, into a world crumbling around me. Several computer controlled drivers slammed into my vehicle, the weight of my car shifted as I scraped the guard rail. Seeing my competition pass me by, I pressed on the turbo, gaining a much needed boost of speed. After catching up, I was shocked to find my vehicle on fire, followed by an explosion, and my falling behind once again. The realization struck and I was reminded that I was playing a Motor Storm game. Motor Storm has always had a realistic way of limiting a players boost by overheating and eventually blowing the engine and entire car.
The race seemed typical fair until the world around me starts taring itself apart. Gigantic set species such as buildings, crumbled as I tried to avoid getting hit by the shower of shattered glass. Pedestrians rushed across the roads, sometimes unexpectedly, and ended up rolling across my hood. Destroyed, flaming cars sat in the middle of the road, creating obstacles which I struck several times.
After a few jumps and a couple of buses flew at me I came to a fallen building and began to drive up the side. Racing to the top of the building, I looked forward to another huge jump, and before I got there the demo ended. Suddenly my sad 12th place position appeared on the screen and I breathed a sigh of relief. Relief not because the game was in any sense bad, but that the unlikely racing environment engrossed me in the action more than I could have expected. Motor Storm Apocalypse is one to watch, and if your even slightly a fan of the franchise, you'll definitely not want to pass this one up.
Title: Motor Storm Apocalypse
Platforms: Playstation 3
Release Date: Q2 2011ESRB: Rating Pending
Thursday, September 2, 2010
RoQ Pod Episode 2 : Run Tell That
Intro/Outro Song by : Gregory Brothers ft. Antoine Dobson
iTunes Link : http://itunes.apple.com
YouTube Video : Bed Intruder Video
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