First Look - Bioshock 2

I've gotta say, Bioshock 2 is an amazing game, for the first couple hours that I've played. Most of that is due in part that it is basically the first game but with a few gameplay touch ups here and there.

The biggest change for Bioshock vets is that the Wrench has been replaced with an all purpose melee with all weapons. So no need to swap to a melee weapon to use it. Since you play the role of a Big Daddy this time around, the Drill becomes an effective melee tool as well. It works as you would think, run up to bad guys and drill on them till death does them part. They've also limited the Drill usage to how much fuel you have left, which can easily be regarded as ammo. Everything else is as you last imagined, guns feel the same. The Rivet gun is super powerful just like in the first game. Splicers drop in just three or four hits easily.

Now I have to rap on some stuff that I didn't find as impressive. If you were planning on returning to Rapture and seeing a somewhat of a utopian, clean society you can leave those thoughts at the door. Everything has a broken and destroyed feel to it but with due reason as the story does take place 10 years after the events of the first Bioshock. Splicers have overrun Rapture and chaos is seen everywhere. It's almost as if the game takes one too many queues from Fallout 3 in it's post-apocalyptic themes. Since one of the biggest characters in the first game was Rapture itself, it's only fitting to think that the city has become more mature and wreck less. That said, Rapture's new facelift does grow with you over time. It just takes a bit getting used to.

Another problem that I found, that I hope it's just an issue on the consoles, is that I found there to be much more pop in than the first Bioshock. When you first pull up the Drill you'll notice it takes a while for the textures to load. Wall textures look extremely low poly and seem to pop in more frequently than before. Again that said, you won't be looking at the deails when you are bashing peoples heads in with a Rivet Gun, and some of the smoke and fire effects look absolutly incredible. It's just I was hoping to see some major improvements or upgrades. I will say though the water effects are just stunning. There never seems to be a shortage of waterfalls in Rapture as the game almost goes out it's way to show off the water flowing down the players screen. It almost gets annoying, especially in a firefight when you don't need your vision to be impaired.

The newly upgraded Little Sister system seems like a great addition to the series. the rules is the same as before, you kill the Big Daddy watching over the Little Sister to have a chance at more ADAM. This time around they've added an Adopt feature. When you Adopt a Little Sister you carry her around and when you find a dead enemy body filled with ADAM, you can send the Little Sister to do what she does best. The gameplay then becomes sort of a Defend the Objective style gameplay. As the Little Sis does her thing, you'll get swarmed with all kinds of Splicers in attempt to take the ADAM that the Little Sister is harvesting. Succeed and you will be rewarded for more ADAM. After about two or three bodies you can then return the Little Sister to one of the many vents in Rapture and here is where the gameplay shifts back to the original Bioshock. You have either the choice of Rescuing the girl or Harvesting her. When you Harvest the girl, you get not only the ADAM that she collected during her blood spree, but a sizable amount of ADAM but in return she will not survive. Rescuing the Little Sister will turn her back into an innocent little child and just barley enough ADAM to get you by. Of course, whichever option you pick, Big Sister will be right behind you. These upgraded Big Daddy wannabes are nothing to be messed around with. Think of Spider-man, but with a Drill for a hand, and the same kind of Plasmids (and Tonics?) that you have. Thankfully there is enough of a warning apon their arrival for you to prepare for the fight.

The Tonic and Plasmid system seems unchanged from the first game. You get Plasmids and Tonics and you equip them. If you need more slots, you spend more ADAM. I've not played through far enough to enjoy any of the new Plasmids, but there are a few notable new Tonics that I will always have equipped. One of which negates the Eve eating features of alcohol. It's been too many times when I've accidentally picked up one too many Gin bottles and having it eat all my EVE.

In short over my first few hours of the game, I am enjoying my return to Rapture, although there are a few bumps along the road. I probably won't do a review of the game seeing as how everyone else will be. I'll pride myself in doing games that no one probably will be playing. Something like maybe Shadow of Destiny for the PSP...

Not Guilty Pleasure Edition

Yea that's right, not so guilty. In fact if I didn't have Firefly I'd be mighty disappointed on what I would watch on a rainy day. Now I ain't saying it's a rainy day, just saying I love me some Firefly.

Upcomming Attractions Edition

Things I am looking forward to most this week

Bioshock 2

Bioshock was one of the games that I was looking forward to the most. Even more so when the first game was announced for the PS3. Bioshock 2 will be no different. It's hard to tell how the game will turn out. Much of what made the original Bioshock so unique was it's environment and setting. This time around, Rapture has changed a plenty showing more scars and destruction. All of the prestine and asthetics looks to be gone and replaced with a more post-apocalyptic feel. I'm not one to judge a game before it comes out, but I am excited to play as one of the Big Daddies this time around. You get a Drill. You get a Drill!

If anything, I am also thinking that Bioshock 2 will start a bad habit of me buying stuff that I really don't need. Namely the Vinyl soundtrack containing the first Bioshock's musical score. Most modern people don't have vinyl record players including myself but i'll be dammed if I find one for cheap cause I wanna listen to the soundtrack on a vinyl damnit!

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

Star Ocean is one of the JRPGs that I've always wanted to get into. Trying to stomach my way through Star Ocean 3 was tough. I don't even think I made it though the first five or so hours. I attribute that to the terrible english dubbing. Perhaps this time around things will be different. I mean Square Enix has shown that it can handle better voice acting now with FFXIII around the corner. Plus, the International Edition of the game features the Japanese language track, something not found on it's Xbox 360 predecessor.

Heavy Rain Demo

With any luck the Heavy Rain demo should not disappoint. I played it at PAX 09 and cannot speak any more highly of it. Not even just the visuals being the way they are, awesome, but the way it's the way the story unfolding that interests me the most. The guys over at Quantic Dream really know what they're getting into with this game and it may sound like a clique by now but if you have a PS3, this is a game that you have to get.

Games in Review - BRAID Edition

So lemme make this short and sweet. This game is really, really, reallllly hard. Braid takes the traditional side scrolling platforming and adds a time based twist. This is the kind of game that you can't really die in. Just like in the re-imagining of Prince of Persia.

Without giving too much away about the story, you play the role of Tim. A mild mannered type man who as the protagonist of the game, is trying to search for his lost Princess. A very simple idea for such a complex game.

In terms of gameplay, it's got the basic side scrolling aspects as well as jumping on enemies to defeat them. Thrown through the levels are puzzle pieces that you pick up that in the end you can use to piece together the portrait for that level. The game also introduces the time mechanic where with the press of a button, time moves backwards, allowing you to retry some of the games jumps, enemies, or more importantly for puzzle solving.

It's hard not to compare Braid to the likes of Super Mario Bros and the lesser known game Blinkx, but it really is a breath of fresh air for the side scrolling platformer. With puzzles that will kick your ass, then kick you while you're still down, and then when you get back up they'll maul you with a mace, how can you not resist? The ending is another event to behold as it's got a nice surprise to it.

In short, if you haven't played this game yet, you have no reason not to seeing as how it's on nearly on every modern platform.

Airsoft Edition

This is going to be on my sights for my next purchase.

Games in Review - No More Heroes 2 Edition

There’s a lot to be said about how crazy movies and comics can get. It’s safe to say that No More Heroes 2 easily adds itself to the crazy section of my media.

The game takes place three years after the events of the first No More Heroes game. Santa Destroy has been overrun by the all kinds of evil corporations. The UAA (United Assassin’s Association) has even changed from the first game, citing Assassination as the new extreme sport.

Travis Touchdown returns to Santa Destroy only to find that the way to the top has changed from 10 Assassins to 51 Assassins. The same plot from NMH1. Kill all the assassins in your way to reach the top. This time however for Travis, it has gotten personal and revengeful. And that’s the jist of the story this time around. It’s hard not to compare this game to Mark Neveldine’s and Brian Taylor’s Crank 2: High Voltage.

A few things have changed since NMH1 game. Gone is the open world aspect. Traveling between missions and locations has been super streamlined this time around by just providing a list of places to go. Here is where you’ll navigate the Ranking Missions, Side Missions or the vendors of clothing or weapons.

Jeane has gained some weight from the first game.

The meat of the gameplay, the battle system is taking straight from NMH1. Pressing the Z button locks onto the nearest enemy. The A button is the all purpose attack button. Pointing the Wii Remote up unleashes a flurry of fast attacks while pointing the Remote down lets out a series of slow stronger attacks. Holding down the A button will cause Travis to unleash a charged super attack. When the Beam Katana runs out of energy you'll have to charge it up by pressing the 1 Button and feverishly shake the Remote. Occasionally killing an enemy with one the several wrestling moves or when the lower right hand screen Tiger is out will cause a slot machine to appear. The results are always random but matching three images will net you a sort of ultra move for Travis. One of which transforms the player into a Tiger and allows you to maul enemies. I kid you not. The one thing I found a little off was the emergency evade technique, which does what is advertised, but always seems to send you farther away from the enemy, thus not giving the player any opportunity to counter-attack. Overall I'd say the fighting mechanics do not have a steep learning curve and are quite simple, even for first time players.

In between the Ranking Battles with assassins you’ll be provided with all sorts of fun side mission mini-games, all with varying rewards such as improved stats and money. There are several Side Missions, similar to the ones in NMH1, that you can take on for money. All the mini games are presented in old school style and the developers went as far as to recreate the real tinny sounds as to make it sound like. Even upon booting the mini-games there is a recreation of blowing of a Cart and inserting it into the system. There are also some Revenge Side Missions you can unlock once you progress the story far enough, though I played through about five of them and saw no bonuses. Perhaps if you finished all the missions you would be rewarded with new moves.

Take some time to pimp out Travis with some clothes with pizazz.

The NMH2 developer pressed the pedal to the metal and seemed to forget to let go. There’s just so many wild and insane things that are done in NMH2 that it’s almost impossible to nail each one of them down, from the Tetris like Side Missions to exercising your pet cat because she gained too much wait from the second game. You won’t even mind the periodical self-awareness of the game’s dialogue or the short length.

iPad's Power - Apple's Forward Thinking

There's an interesting article on Maclife.com talking about the spec of the A4 Chip. The same chip that is powering Apple's iPad. The article brings up a lot of good ideas but what interested me the most is how Apple practically made the A4 Chip with all it's mobile devices in mind, specifically the iPhone and other future iPads. The article continues to talk about how the A4 has a "aggresive power management" seeing how it has a better battery life than the average Macbook.

So yes, the iPad may not be the best idea that Apple's come out with in the last decade, but it is a great stepping stone for other mobile devices. Give them a few more years and hopefully we'll see some pretty awesome tech comming out of Apple. Not only will this improve future Apple products, but it also ignite the competition into making better and greater things themselves.

Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/ipad_cpu_all_you_need_know_about_apple_a4