Console Gaming

Nintendo Might Be Adding VR To The SWITCH

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What’s going on guys…I don’t know about you but I am freaking pumped about the Nintendo Switch! I haven’t been able to say that about Nintendo for a lot of years now as I was not a Wii fan and they lost me as a customer long before that came out.  But…..the Switch looks amazing, and the features that Nintendo is promising to deliver have me hooked.  I am somewhat a skeptic when Nintendo says they are going to deliver on something nowadays though as they have failed quite badly in the past.

So the latest news on the Switch is that Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has explained that the company will add VR support to its upcoming Switch console if it can resolve issues of comfort over long periods of use.  VR on a device like this honestly would be mind blowing awesome!  WE shall see what they do though, as the company is researching / working on how to implement virtual reality into the Switch but have some pretty big concerns on the process.  This part doesn’t sound promising, but like I said we shall see what they do.  They did say that if they are able to resolve the issues with playing “VR” comfortably for long periods that they would support the feature in some form or another.  “Some Form Or Another” from Nintendo is not very reassuring that we would be getting a solid preforming device.  I hope they stick to the basics here and don’t try to overextend and deliver a hybrid gaming device that tanks.

The Switch Super Bowl Teaser – 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDkrkykvZs

Looking back over the last few years at VR and some of the things it’s brought with it are hopefully things Nintendo will weigh heavily before implementing such a thing.  VR can suffer from a number of comfort-related issues, including simulated movement nausea, eye strain and the weight of headsets can cause quite the headache over time.  Their are a lot of factors to weigh in on technology like this, and to have a hybrid gaming console, tablet, and VR system all in one….. Too Much?!?! Or is this just a step into the future of where gaming is going?

Nintendo has played around with VR in the past, and the creator of Mario even explained that they have the “base foundation technology” of VR and they continue to research it. Apparently Nintendo even went as far as to patent a VR headset that the base of the switch tablet could slot.  We won’t see The Switch arrive until March 3rd of this year and I’m really hoping to get my hands on one.  Very unlikely as I’m sure they will be sold like hot cakes….but here’s to hoping.

Destiny: Rise of Iron – How We Advanced

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Today is happy Destiny day for all of us Guardians out there….yes it’s Rise of Iron release day and I’m sure most of you have already been grinding away to see all the new stuff.

Here’s a quick run down on some of the important things we are getting.

  • Felwinters Peak, the new Social Space with new vendors, a new Cryptarch, and it comes with wolves!
  • 5 main campaign Story ARC Missions, plus other Missions and Quests
  • The Plaguelands, which is the new open patrol area of the revamped snow covered Cosmodrome.
  • SIVA infected Fallen called Devil Splicers are here now
  • The Archon’s Forge, a new arena much like Prison / Challenge of Elders
  • We’ve got new STRIKES!!!
  • Wrath of the Machine, the new Raid, available September 23rd!
  • Yes we have a new PvP mode as well called Supremacy!
  • Iron Banner has been re-worked
  • 4 new Crucible maps
  • New artifacts that were created from scratch!
  • New Max Light Level
  • New Armor, Weapons, and a ton of new Rewards
  • You can now put Ornaments on exotic weapons, and armor, a skin that changes the look of the weapon

Big Light Level Jump

Bungie told us we would be getting a big light level jump but no one really knew what that meant.  Well here is what we got!

Rise of Iron Launch Light Level Increase to: 385

Once the hard mode of the RAID releases the light level will cap at 400

We have a new Record Book

Rise of Iron has a new free Record Book which tracks all activity in Rise of Iron account-wide. As you complete missions, quests, and other activities from the new expansion, you will gain percentage points of completion, and as with past Record Books will receive rewards at set intervals.

These rewards include:

  • Full Iron Lord armor for all Character Classes
  • Multiple new Emblems
  • New Shaders
  • The new Iron Song Ghost Shell
  • And More

Engram Boost

We’ve all been asking those questions of what will our engrams do when we decript them after ROI drops.  Well, Uncommon and Rare (Green and Blue) gear will drop at higher light levels (potentially up to 350 for Rare items). Most of mine were dropping and coming out around 330 for blues and 200 for greens.  Higher for Legendary / Exotics.

Strike Exclusive Gear and Skeleton Keys

Nightfalls and Strike Playlists are getting a new inventory item added to their Loot systems: The Skeleton Key, these keys, which will drop randomly at the end of missions, can be used in Strikes featuring exclusive items to get a guaranteed drop of one of those Exclusive by opening the “Strike Hoard” – a new chest that will be appearing upon completion of Strikes, even outside of the Weekly Playlists.

Weapons, & Armor

From new Iron Banner weapons reintroduced Year 1 guns, Rise of Iron is giving us a lot of new options.

  • Exotics
    • Year 1 weapons returning –
    • We already knew the Gjallarhorn was coming back! If you pre-ordered well then you got it in (Black) and it’s sexy!
    • We also have another Year 1 that was very popular but brought a lot of pain among the Guardians…. The THORN is coming back!  It will have it’s own Exotic quest so get ready.
    • For those of us already sporting Year 1 models, it’s not clear if the updated version will be immediately available through the kiosk or if we’ll have to work for it the same as everyone else.
    • A whole list of new weapons, but I’m saving that for you all to discover
    • One very familiar weapon that every Guardian has used is coming back.  The Khvostov 7G-0X which is the exotic version of this weapon.  This weapon will be the reward from an exotic weapon quest, but this one is different.  This weapon won’t have a single exotic perk that makes it stand out.  Instead, Bungie has added something brand new, a set of perk columns that allows us to turn this primary weapon into a custom killing machine.

New Armor Concept Drawings

The armor just speaks for itself as it’s amazing looking!!! We want it all!!!

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The game has a whole host of new features to discover and this is just a base list of some new items that have come in, so get out there Guardians and go become an Iron Lord

The Wolf Among Us – Episode 1 Faith Review

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BigbyCigaretteFable.jpgThis game quickly took the top list of favorites in my book second only to Telltale’s The Walking Dead series.  They came very close to knocking The Walking Dead out of my number one spot but not quite.

Telltale tackled a very well done adaptation of Bill Willingham’s Fables which centers a story around Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of a magical New York City which is populated by fairy-tale toons.  Fables is a very dark fairy-tale so not one for the children but the way Telltale pulled this story into it’s unique game play design is fantastic.

Over the next few weeks we will take a look at this five part series on The Wolf Among Us and as I was saying this is one of the best adventure games I’ve played.  The first episode of this series is called Faith which slaps you smack dab into the middle of a mystical version of New York.  You now have to fill the shoes of Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown and Telltale does a fantastic job building on it’s choice and consequence game system.

images (2)This was a relatively quick episode to play but easily a two hour chunk of time you need to really see everything in this first episode.  The game drops some majorly hard bombs on you early on with the decisions you have to make, but being a big bad wolf made it a little easier to rough some Fables up.  Action and adventure are some of the main themes of this first episode but at the heart of things comes a mystery.  This is what makes this game such a joy to play is the wide use of emotions and rich story surrounded by well done characters.

If you’ve played any of Telltales games you know how the game system works as it’s not only decision based, but reaction based as well.  You’ve got to be quick when watching what needs to happen next and make sure you think quickly.  Each decision has a different outcome so it makes you want to come back for more just to see what they are. These actions aren’t just limited to Bigby as the world ded with is scattered with crazies and very entertaining characters.  Tad of a “SPOILER” alert but this first episode revolves around solving a murder which hasn’t happened in Fabletown for quite some time.

images (1)During your search, you’ll come across a rather interesting toad who refuse to hide himself from the human world, a member of the Three Little Pigs with a bit of a drinking problem, and an abusive woodsman with a startling revelation regarding Snow White. Since it’s based on characters that pretty much everybody knows, The Wolf Among Us is able to toy with our expectations and delivering some very surprising and entertaining character developments. It’s amazing how the dialogue swings between funny, absolutely tragic, brutal, and magical all over a course of the two-hour episode.

Even the entrance and presentation of Faith brings a very successful highlight to the harsh and strange world you see. All of this episode’s crazy interactions are met with a fantastic 80’s neon lit color style.  While you step into the alternate New York City, you get to experience a clash of both magic and gritty decision making that brings you quite close to the story and characters.

Bigby’s story arc has some very large moments of decision making which really pulls you into the characters past and present.  Bigby has a very complicated story which ties into so many of the stories characters it’s quite difficult at times to know what decision to make.  This made me want to go back multiple times to look over all the decisions you could make and replay each scenario.  This is one game and adventure that I will definitely go back to play over and over again.

Holy Patch Day for Destiny

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bungie-destiny-s-april-update-will-not-revamp-vault-of-glass-crota-s-end-502042-2Destiny’s April 12th patch 2.2.0 update is an oh my goodness moment as I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for a patch to hit a game.  When I first played Destiny it was not a pleasant experience during the first closed beta….see my review from a couple years ago.

Needless to say I picked the game up a month-ish ago and have enjoyed absolutely every single second of game play!  Other then the awe struck moments I get in The Division, this is by far my favorite console game!

So here’s what to expect once we get to boot back up in Destiny.

This patch will take Destiny to version 2.2.0, and it’s by far the largest update since The Taken King last September.  There’s so much to look forward to, including mass amounts of loot and activities to keep you quite busy, along with a new end-game activity, five brand new sets of armour, the return of year-one exotics and much more.

This is a fairly large download as it looks like the Xbox One and PS4 is around 1700 MB but for everything we are getting I can’t complain as we are getting a ton!

oaingrkvbw6wst3ocmg5.pngI’m super excited about the Challenge of the Elders – This is the section of GOLD for all us level 40’s who want to reach the new light cap of 335 as Bungie has reworked the Prison of Elders to give us something brand new, which is two new levels of difficulty, levels 41 & 42 which I’m sure are bonkers insane hard.  Four new bosses, yes, FOUR new bosses and new modifiers will be added. Level 41 includes match-making, and has a recommended Light level of 260 and apparently will drop gear up to light level 320.

I’m currently at a light level 294 and haven’t been able to run the King’s Fall Raid yet, as I literally just hit that a week ago.  Level 42 will be called Challenge of the Elders, it has no match-making, is recommended to be a light level 320 and this is where you can win the 335 armour and weapons.  Challenge of the Elders is fought over three rounds, much like the old Prison of Elders and each round with it’s own unique boss.  The scoring is interesting as your teams points will be tracked on a card called the Elder’s Sigil, and this is used for both the high score and cumulative score. If you and your team hit a high score of 30k during the run, then it’s a guaranteed win of a 335 weapon,  If you all hit 90k cumulative score each week, players will be guaranteed the 335 armour pieces, but the Challenge of Elders will reset each week, wiping the cumulative score….which honestly will be a nice little challenge for that new gear!

Here is what I’ve seen for the new run’s/strikes.

Challenge of the Elders will be a total of 16 encounters with variations of bosses and game modifiers.

Blighted Chalice – A brand new quest line and strike comes with this update.  Apparently the Taken are after Oryx’s crown again in this one….guess they will never learn that us Guardians just won’t let that happen.

Winters Run strike – Update to this strike is it’s being added back to the Heroic strike list and it will be Taken this time you battle, and has a chance to drop some nice loot.

Everything is going to increase in difficulty across the board and new rewards will be added to, The Court of Oryx, Heroic Strikes, Nightfalls, and The Kings Fall Raid.  Apparently Kings Fall Raid’s normal mode will now drop loot up to level 320, and the hard mode getting a boost up to the level 335 mark.

Malok_destinyLike I was saying previously I haven’t hit the previous light level cap of 320, and today’s update brings us the new light level of 335, hence all the gear boosts to 335 and I’m super pumped to see what they all look like, especially the Taken gear!  Included with the new armour sets is, three revamped faction sets….one for Future War Cult, Dead Orbit, and New Monarchy.  The other two sets of armour are brand new, one being the Desolate set which is the Taken armour I’m so anxious to get, and the other is Spektar armour which will have some color customization to it outside of shaders.

The way we infuse our weapons is also changing as it will now be a 1 for 1 level meaning you get the full light now and not just a percentage jump.  If you infuse a 320 item into a 310, you will now get a 320 light item! Super pumped about this, as I’ve got some goodies just waiting for my Warlock!

This isn’t even half of the updates we are getting but these were the major ones I found, and the exciting ones…but weapons, class updates etc are also coming.

Enjoy Guardians, and I will see you next time!

scr.ee tags:

#patch #consolegaming

Heavyweights Clash – PC vs. Console Gaming

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Are you a gamer?  Do you prefer pc, consoles, or both?  If you look at the console giants with Playstation 4 and Xbox One the ultimate debate still exists of which one is better?  I believe you will always have the hardcore brand loyalty enthusiasts when it comes to the console gamers.  On that same debate there are some who believe that consoles will never own the future of gaming as the PC gaming systems will always be in the lead.  I think time will only tell.

This is a hard debate due to the pure nature of all the systems and what they bring to the table as a PC gaming system has some advantages, but so does a console.  It’s a tough line to dissect as it comes down to personal preference most of the time.  I love both console systems and PCs but the console systems to me bring a more enjoyable gaming platform for building community.  Consoles breathe ease of access, connecting with friends, new players, and solo play.  PC’s are a tad limited to the in-game community and experience you get with friends.  Not to say it doesn’t exist but that it’s different and more difficult to achieve in my opinion.

Again, these two worlds of gaming are both giants in their own aspects and they dominate the markets in the areas they are good at.  So what’s one of the biggest differences you see in PC vs. Console?  It’s “The Guts” your hardware inside and what makes the systems perform.  PC’s a lot of the times will have the latest and greatest graphics, RAM, HD’s and other top notch gadgets to make your gaming experience awesome.  This usually comes with a top notch cost as well.  Think of that new game that was just released for the PC…you’ve been following the development, watching, and waiting for the release.  It finally arrives and low and behold your ultimate PC system or what you thought was good enough barely runs this new blockbuster.  Now what?  Is it time for an upgrade or possibly a new machine?  When looking at a console system, that new blockbuster game is designed specifically for the system you have.  If you go buy the newest game for the Xbox One or PS4 it works right?

There’s not a lot of additional expense in owning a console system.  If gamers are willing to pay the price of having the ultimate PC gaming systems that could handle anything possible then more power to them.  Games for PC’s are usually a bit cheaper as they can be digital content only and directly downloaded from a website.  Still when you think of hardware the machine has to handle the specs of the game so it can still take a chunk of change if upgrades are needed. Consoles on the other hand tend to be a little more forgiving on the wallet due to the fact that upgrades aren’t needed to play new games.

When I think of gaming I think of the word fun, stress relief, community, and endless gloating banter back and forth with friends.  The digital game world of PC and Console has allowed us to become a multi-functional gamer.  The developers of these games have opened up the world of multi-player to so many new levels.  Interacting with other gamers, friends, and being involved to more than just playing a game.  Bringing conversations to the table, learning new ways to play, and being able to interact in new ways is something that is always being tweaked for both PC’s and Console systems.  PC games are a bit more limited to in-game chat or maybe a MMO game that allows you to go raid with a few other people but console systems especially the new generations have opened up technology like the Kinect for motion sensing, the Wii U and its tablet devices, or even the social media features the PS4 controller has integrated.

This new technology that consoles are using helps bring players into those quick group invites, just shoot your friends an invite and you are online in a group. Maybe just plug in another controller and have a multi-player match right on the same machine…quick and easy.  PC’s are a bit harder to get that sense of interaction with a group especially if you want to do a LAN party.  You can’t just plug into one PC and get started as everyone has to bring their own hardware, have plenty of power to run all the systems, enough network ports for people to plug into, and then you’re still only playing on one machine….”Yours” So again the LAN party thing doesn’t really bring the same group play interaction to the table as a console party would.  Each has its own unique benefits and challenges and offers a large variety to whatever game style you prefer.

Whether you are an avid PC gamer and are always looking for the best in class and newest gear, or you are a console brand loyal maniac, or even a casual stroll through whichever system you seem to be sitting at for the moment type gamer, these are some amazing worlds to explore.  Whichever you prefer…enjoy it, explore it, and have fun while doing it.