Here are a couple of videos I recorded while I was playing the Titanfall beta. I will be posting more footage and a full review in the near future.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Path of Exile Gameplay: Volume 1
Here are a pair of videos I recorded a while back of Path of Exile. It is an excellent Diablo style game, and in many ways, the Diablo 3 we were all hoping for. It is important to mention that Path of Exile is also 100% totally free. The only thing you can pay for are aesthetic character modifications and stash tabs.
Try Path of Exile Here!
Try Path of Exile Here!
My Body Is Ready for...Wolfenstein: The New Order
The History
Despite what many people think, Wolfenstein 3D was not the first Wolfenstein game. It was actually a title released in 1991 called Castle Wolfenstein. It was a stealth adventure game about stealing secret plans from the Nazis. Having said all of that, Wolfenstein 3D was the game that really put Wolfenstein (and first person shooters) on the map. It revolved around slaughtering Nazis by the hundreds, stopping their nefarious projects, and stealing their gold from them while you did it. Killing a mechanized version of Hitler occurred at the end of Episode 3, only halfway through the game. You shot Nazi mutants, ate dog food to survive, and if you were a committed player, pressed the "use" key against every wall tile in sight, just hoping for a secret room filled with ammo and gold.
The New Order
There have been several Wolfenstein sequels over the years, some more successful than others. I personally have enjoyed every entry in the series, even the ill fated "Wolfenstein" that was released in 2009. However, I can say with no hesitation that Wolfenstein: The New Order has me more excited for a first person shooter than I have been in a long time. It appears as though it is going to be a glorious amalgamation of old school and new. The New Order is being developed by MachineGames, a Swedish developer comprised largely of ex Starbreeze Studios employees. The New Order starts off in 1946, and from the footage I have seen, it is clear that the war is not swinging in favor of the Allies. Then, through an unfortunate turn of events, B.J. Blazkowicz (the protagonist of this and all other Wolfenstein titles) suffers brain damage and spends the next 14 years sitting in a mental hospital, in a sort of catatonic state. In that time, the Nazis win the war, and rebuild the world in their image. B.J. is helpless as all of this happens, but when the Nazis come to slaughter everyone in the hospital, it shakes something loose, bringing B.J. out of his condition, and putting him back in the fight. So, what's so special about that? Why is this different any number of modern day shooters with an underdog hero taking on a massive war machine? Its all in the details folks.
Old School is Making Love to New Age
What I am loving about the new Wolfenstein, is how it perfectly melds things that used to be prevalent in old shooters, with things that we now expect to be in new shooters. B.J.'s health only regenerates up to the nearest multiple of 20. Beyond that, the player must find health packs. That's right kids, you can't put the character behind a crate and wait for him to breathe a few times in order to get his health back. The player needs to scavenge the environments for supplies. Health can be overcharged past 100, but it immediately begins counting down back to the normal maximum. Armor is also back in play in a retro fashion. Enemies drop their helmets or other small armored pieces that can be picked up to give the player a few points of protection here and there. Ammo and weapons are taken primarily from defeated enemies. Dog food can be eaten for health once more, although I haven't seen any footage of B.J. slurping up blood puddles, which was another desperate way of gaining health in Wolf 3D. The player can also carry all of the weapons simultaneously, and can dual wield many of them. Oh, and there's one more thing I'd like to mention. Wolfenstein: The New Order will not have multiplayer.
I have seen a lot of disappointment and anger from the gaming community due to The New Order's lack of multiplayer. In my opinion, a lack of multiplayer is a good thing, at least for this game. Too long have we dealt with shooters focused on multiplayer that have a wimpy 4-6 hour campaign tacked on to keep us "old timers" happy. I've seen several people say that a game isn't worth $60 if it doesn't have multiplayer. I guess they forgot about Half-Life, Far Cry, Bioshock, and other shooter franchises that either did not possess multiplayer game modes, or had multiplayer that felt so unnecessary they were barely touched. I don't know about anyone else, but Far Cry 3 was totally worth the money, and I played two matches of the multiplayer before calling it quits. I would rather have a lengthy, polished single player campaign (kind of like the original Wolfenstein and Doom games) than an imitation Call of Duty with a Wolfenstein coat of paint.
I believe I mentioned The New Order possessing elements from new shooters, and I did not forget about that. Apparently, neither did MachineGames. The New Order runs on ID Tech 5, which will make it a very attractive game in my opinion. I thought Rage, the first game to make use of ID Tech 5, had excellent visuals. Of course, PS3 and XBOX 360 visuals will suffer some, but that is to be expected when running new game engines on hardware that is almost a decade old. In addition, The New Order includes things like unlock-able perks that reward your preferred play style, weapon upgrades, stealth kills, and other mechanics that reassure the player that they are playing something that was made in the past couple years. Speaking of stealth kills, the knife assassinations look excellent, with different animations playing depending on the enemy type and their current position in relation to B.J. All of this speaks to me as someone that loves the classics, but is always looking forward at the same time. Its going to pay homage to the humble beginnings of the franchise. A franchise, I might add, that in many ways is the reason why modern shooters exist. At the same time, its going to give us the level of depth and visual fidelity we have come to expect from modern games. At least I hope that's what it will do. We won't know for sure until May 20th, but rest assured, I will be picking up Wolfenstein: The New Order on the day of its release.
Despite what many people think, Wolfenstein 3D was not the first Wolfenstein game. It was actually a title released in 1991 called Castle Wolfenstein. It was a stealth adventure game about stealing secret plans from the Nazis. Having said all of that, Wolfenstein 3D was the game that really put Wolfenstein (and first person shooters) on the map. It revolved around slaughtering Nazis by the hundreds, stopping their nefarious projects, and stealing their gold from them while you did it. Killing a mechanized version of Hitler occurred at the end of Episode 3, only halfway through the game. You shot Nazi mutants, ate dog food to survive, and if you were a committed player, pressed the "use" key against every wall tile in sight, just hoping for a secret room filled with ammo and gold.
The New Order
There have been several Wolfenstein sequels over the years, some more successful than others. I personally have enjoyed every entry in the series, even the ill fated "Wolfenstein" that was released in 2009. However, I can say with no hesitation that Wolfenstein: The New Order has me more excited for a first person shooter than I have been in a long time. It appears as though it is going to be a glorious amalgamation of old school and new. The New Order is being developed by MachineGames, a Swedish developer comprised largely of ex Starbreeze Studios employees. The New Order starts off in 1946, and from the footage I have seen, it is clear that the war is not swinging in favor of the Allies. Then, through an unfortunate turn of events, B.J. Blazkowicz (the protagonist of this and all other Wolfenstein titles) suffers brain damage and spends the next 14 years sitting in a mental hospital, in a sort of catatonic state. In that time, the Nazis win the war, and rebuild the world in their image. B.J. is helpless as all of this happens, but when the Nazis come to slaughter everyone in the hospital, it shakes something loose, bringing B.J. out of his condition, and putting him back in the fight. So, what's so special about that? Why is this different any number of modern day shooters with an underdog hero taking on a massive war machine? Its all in the details folks.
Old School is Making Love to New Age
What I am loving about the new Wolfenstein, is how it perfectly melds things that used to be prevalent in old shooters, with things that we now expect to be in new shooters. B.J.'s health only regenerates up to the nearest multiple of 20. Beyond that, the player must find health packs. That's right kids, you can't put the character behind a crate and wait for him to breathe a few times in order to get his health back. The player needs to scavenge the environments for supplies. Health can be overcharged past 100, but it immediately begins counting down back to the normal maximum. Armor is also back in play in a retro fashion. Enemies drop their helmets or other small armored pieces that can be picked up to give the player a few points of protection here and there. Ammo and weapons are taken primarily from defeated enemies. Dog food can be eaten for health once more, although I haven't seen any footage of B.J. slurping up blood puddles, which was another desperate way of gaining health in Wolf 3D. The player can also carry all of the weapons simultaneously, and can dual wield many of them. Oh, and there's one more thing I'd like to mention. Wolfenstein: The New Order will not have multiplayer.
I have seen a lot of disappointment and anger from the gaming community due to The New Order's lack of multiplayer. In my opinion, a lack of multiplayer is a good thing, at least for this game. Too long have we dealt with shooters focused on multiplayer that have a wimpy 4-6 hour campaign tacked on to keep us "old timers" happy. I've seen several people say that a game isn't worth $60 if it doesn't have multiplayer. I guess they forgot about Half-Life, Far Cry, Bioshock, and other shooter franchises that either did not possess multiplayer game modes, or had multiplayer that felt so unnecessary they were barely touched. I don't know about anyone else, but Far Cry 3 was totally worth the money, and I played two matches of the multiplayer before calling it quits. I would rather have a lengthy, polished single player campaign (kind of like the original Wolfenstein and Doom games) than an imitation Call of Duty with a Wolfenstein coat of paint.
I believe I mentioned The New Order possessing elements from new shooters, and I did not forget about that. Apparently, neither did MachineGames. The New Order runs on ID Tech 5, which will make it a very attractive game in my opinion. I thought Rage, the first game to make use of ID Tech 5, had excellent visuals. Of course, PS3 and XBOX 360 visuals will suffer some, but that is to be expected when running new game engines on hardware that is almost a decade old. In addition, The New Order includes things like unlock-able perks that reward your preferred play style, weapon upgrades, stealth kills, and other mechanics that reassure the player that they are playing something that was made in the past couple years. Speaking of stealth kills, the knife assassinations look excellent, with different animations playing depending on the enemy type and their current position in relation to B.J. All of this speaks to me as someone that loves the classics, but is always looking forward at the same time. Its going to pay homage to the humble beginnings of the franchise. A franchise, I might add, that in many ways is the reason why modern shooters exist. At the same time, its going to give us the level of depth and visual fidelity we have come to expect from modern games. At least I hope that's what it will do. We won't know for sure until May 20th, but rest assured, I will be picking up Wolfenstein: The New Order on the day of its release.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The Greatest Doom Mod Ever Made
So Brutal Doom, by Sergeant Mark, is something I have been following for a while now. Today I recorded some footage of the mod in action. Check it out.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
What The Hell Am I Doing Here?!
Hopefully, you've arrived at this page because, like me, you have a deep seated love for the gaming industry, and want to vacuum as much information and as many opinions about it as possible. I live for games. I have been playing them since I was five years old. With that in mind, let's lay the groundwork for this blog...
On this blog, I will be writing previews, reviews, analytical pieces, and posting gameplay videos. Pretty standard fare. I do not expect everyone to agree with me. As a matter of fact, I hope to start some lively discussions amongst portions of the gaming community.
This blog will sometimes contain language that may not be suitable for children. I am not a babysitter.
I also write the blog for Fledgling Studios, my indie development team. I am aware that, since I am the founder/CEO/big cheese of Fledgling Studios, I am always speaking as a member of the studio. However, my personal opinions are not necessarily shared by the other members of Fledgling Studios, and anyone that reads this blog should endeavor to keep that in mind. Oh, and keep an eye out for our game, Flesh Asunder. It should be arriving sometime this decade, if all goes to plan.
Did I mention that my sense of humor is pretty dry?
At some point, I will be adding a donation button. That button will exist for those that enjoy the content this blog has to offer and want to reward me. All of the proceeds will go towards keeping my lights on and my fridge full. Unless this thing really takes off, in which case, I will be buying a summer home.
Thus ends the orientation phase. Welcome to my new blog.
-Tony
On this blog, I will be writing previews, reviews, analytical pieces, and posting gameplay videos. Pretty standard fare. I do not expect everyone to agree with me. As a matter of fact, I hope to start some lively discussions amongst portions of the gaming community.
This blog will sometimes contain language that may not be suitable for children. I am not a babysitter.
I also write the blog for Fledgling Studios, my indie development team. I am aware that, since I am the founder/CEO/big cheese of Fledgling Studios, I am always speaking as a member of the studio. However, my personal opinions are not necessarily shared by the other members of Fledgling Studios, and anyone that reads this blog should endeavor to keep that in mind. Oh, and keep an eye out for our game, Flesh Asunder. It should be arriving sometime this decade, if all goes to plan.
Did I mention that my sense of humor is pretty dry?
At some point, I will be adding a donation button. That button will exist for those that enjoy the content this blog has to offer and want to reward me. All of the proceeds will go towards keeping my lights on and my fridge full. Unless this thing really takes off, in which case, I will be buying a summer home.
Thus ends the orientation phase. Welcome to my new blog.
-Tony
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