Category: Games

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Who mourns for Prey 2? ThePaladin mourns.

***A transcript from the wake of Prey 2, attended by friends and close relations. Also open bar.***

Alright everyone lets settle down… close the bar, close the bar… good, get Uncle John over here. He doesn’t need to hold up the bar, its not going to fall. ((laughs)) Where’s Uncle Horace, Aunt Ursula, and Timmy? Gone home already? Be sure to recount the silverware then. ((laughs))

We all know why we’re all here… Or should I say we all know why there’s an open bar. ((laughs)) Either someone got hitched or we had to bury a body; looking at the newly joined Mrs. Sunset Overdrive married just last Tuesday you’d think it was account o’ her but then you see this pine box here.

Here lies Prey 2, a life full o’ so much potential and promise the good Lord took it from us for his own game console in the sky. Now many of you younglings didn’t know our poor “Yorick” here, off in the backwoods of Texas he was, developing in our eyes into a fine young game. Who didn’t want a Blade Runner by way of Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy (depending on what direction you turned at the Galactic Core) styled game?

The teaser trailer promised alien bounties just waiting for your human justice to come down on them with a righteous fury – sayeth the Lord. ((AMEN!)) But the reality was behind that shiny glimpse of otherworldy Magnum P.I. there was something missing. What the French would call a certain what-have-you. Prey 2 went from home to home, but never came together like honest folk. Somethin’ was broke and no amount of time could fix that – right Cousin Duke? ((laughs))

If there is one take away from this tragic loss, it’s that bringing a young soul like this from alpha to gold is no sure thing. You might have the right pedigree, the right backing, or the right tools, but that ain’t no thing in the grand scheme o’ life. ((Preach it, brother!)) Naw, even the best can go bad and there ain’t nothing for it.

So tip your glasses to the horizontal and pour out a bit o’ spirit for the dearly departed. Pallbearers take up your corners and Mrs. Prey lead us to its final resting place. But no tears, Prey 2 is in a better place, it’s no longer languishing in developer hell. Also the bar will reopen when we return! ((huzzah!))

To the gone but not forgotten.

Prey-2

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Re-Reading The Trawn Trilogy Proves The Expanded Universe Isn’t Dead!

Thrawn Trilogy

I decided that my life needed a little more Star Wars, so I decided to re-read the Thrawn Trilogy.  These books are really old and if you haven’t read them you totally should, but since they have been out there so long I am not going to review them, I am just using them to make a point.  Just because Disney has decided to kill the old expanded universe it doesn’t mean that those works are dead.

Sure this adventure with the original Star Wars cast isn’t canon anymore, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are engaging and fun to read.  The same is true with the Knights of the Old Republic video game.  Sure it may not be in the official Star Wars universe anymore, but the game isn’t worse for it.

Thrawn is still one of the best Star Wars villains of all time regardless of whether he is official or not.  I am happy that I spent time with him again.  If you are still in the dumps about Disney “throwing out” your favorite Star Wars character or piece of fiction, don’t be.  Just reread it or replay it, and I am sure you will have just as much fun as the first time.

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Checking Out Wasteland 2!

Wasteland-2

Wasteland 2 is a game by inXile Entertainment, and is the sequel the 1988 video game Wasteland.  If you have never heard of Wasteland it was the precursor to the massively popular Fallout series.  Wasteland 2 was also one of the biggest Kickstarter games to date pulling in just under $3 Million.  I like it a lot, but its old school charms can be frustrating.

The story starts off with your group as bunch of new recruits out trying to solve the murder of Ace, and track down a mysterious signal that is being sent out over the Wasteland.  Can you save the Wasteland from the lawlessness that has taken hold, or will you let everyone fend for themselves?

Everything about this game is old school.  To start it is a top down isometric turn based RPG.  Your characters are controlled by giant stat sheets, and you are always worried that you picked the wrong stats (you probably did).  You have to wander around the Wastes on a map and then cross your fingers that you will not hit any “random” encounters, but if you are like me and you grew up with games like this, you will love it all.

What you will not love are all the bugs this game has.  Again this feels like a throw back.  I haven’t had a game crash on me this much for a long time.  Oh and every now and then it likes to eat a save game, so save in multiple spots and often, but judging by the 1.5 GB patch I can tell they are working on it.

Unlike Fallout this game has a more gritty and grounded feel.  Sure it is still darkly funny, but it doesn’t have that future of the 50’s vibe.  This is more like what would happen if the world ended in 1995.  It is actually a nice change, and I am glad that they didn’t just copy Fallout’s aesthetic.

The story is large and branching, so you will not run out of things to do.  The side stuff feels a little shallow, but with such a large main quest it is a minor complaint.  This game will probably take you at least forty hours to complete the main quest, and that is not counting any time you are just wondering around.

This game has some major flaws due to the amount of bugs that it has, but don’t let that put you off, at least for long anyway.  It is fun, and I am glad that I backed it because until Kickstarter came around they just didn’t make games like this anymore, but I hope Wasteland 2’s success with spur on other developers to look to gaming’s past for ideas for the future.

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Windows 10 Impressions!

windows-10

Well I have been using the “Technical Preview” of Windows 10 for about a day, and I thought I would let you know what I think.  It is pretty much Windows 8 with a Start Menu, or if you prefer Windows 7 with an App Store.  Now Microsoft has said this preview has only 10% of the changes that are going in to Windows 10, so I am sure more is on the way, but at this point it is not a huge change.

The Start Menu works very similarly to the one from Windows 7, with the added benefit that you can put Live Tiles in it.  They are almost like Widgets from Windows 7 except now they live on your Start Menu.  If you are on a tablet and you want the Windows 8 Start Screen back all you have to do is right click on the Start Menu and uncheck a box then log off and then back in again, and boom you are back in “Tablet Mode”.  Microsoft showed a thing called Continuum that was supposed to make that transition seamless, but it is not in this build, so for now it takes a few extra steps.

There are also multiple desktops now.  They are pretty much just a new way to handle multiple open windows and screens.  You can have all your email and work stuff in one desktop, and all your webpages and apps in another, and then you can fast switch between the two.  If you are a person that uses a lot of running programs this will be a big deal, if not than you will probably never use it.

Apps from the App store now run in Windows instead of full screen, so you can move them around and arrange them the way you want them.  The”Charms” bar is now a menu, so kind of like the app version of the “File” menu in other programs.  It works, and is nice to move them around freely.  If you want the large frameless look of Windows 8 you can use the “Charms” menu to put them in full screen mode, and you are good to go.

The other changes are mostly cosmetic.  New Icons for things that look kind of like a throw back to Windows 2000, and the frames around programs are mostly gone, but now they have drop shadows to give kind of a 3D look when they are stacked.  Nothing ground breaking, but it does look nice.

I was disappointed that they are not showing off a lot with this build, but I guess that gives us something to look forward to in the “Consumer Preview” that will be out sometime in the first of next year.  If you have any questions let me know and I would be happy to try and answer them.

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Windows 10?!

windows-10

Well Microsoft threw us all for a loop yesterday by announcing Windows 10.  It wasn’t surprising that they announced a new Windows OS, but that they skipped 9.  Some are speculating that since it means “Suffering” in Japanese, “No” in German, and bad luck in China that 10 is a nicer number to market.  They did the same thing when they skipped build 13 for Office, not that anybody paid attention to that.  It also catches them up with OSX on Mac.

Other than that everything else went as planned.  The start menu is coming back.  Windows RT and Windows Phone are merging, so there will be only one version of the ARM OS, and from the pictures it also looks like Xbox One will be joining the party in some way.  So other than the name it is exactly what people predicted.

If you want to try out Windows 10 they are releasing a Technical Preview today around noon Pacific Time.  You can get it by clicking here.  It goes without saying that this is an early beta, and you should only install it if you are willing to deal with numerous issues.  I will probably be giving it a shot, and I of course will let you know what I think!