Showing posts with label My Two Caps. Show all posts
My Two Caps are opinion pieces regarding current events in the gaming industry. They are my personal thoughts, my two cents if you will, but I love the Fallout games, so I made it caps instead. Please don't sue me!
Refreshing Duty
When a new Call of Duty arrives nowadays, I'm usually one to pick it up on the day of release, go through the game's campaign mode, and then play multiplayer for a month or so with friends before moving on to new titles to play. It wasn't always like that though -- Call of Duty 4 changed the multiplayer front for many players, and it had me hooked for months on end. From there, each release had me playing the game less and less, but I still enjoyed my time with the games.
While I have no problem with the series arriving each year, it was beginning to lose my attention more and more each time. This is why I hope that Call of Duty: Ghosts will change things a bit, and from the game's multiplayer reveal, that looks to be the case with some of the cool new features it brings to the table for the popular online mode.
Ghosts doesn't look to revolutionize things like the original Modern Warfare did, but instead reinvigorate multiplayer a bit by adding in some great elements that have been around in various other multiplayer titles.
We all love to create and customize characters, whether its playing games like Mass Effect, Saints Row, Skyrim or Fallout, and that also goes for online titles like Halo and the wide array of MMOs to check out. This new addition of customizing your soldiers in Ghosts is very welcome, and now we'll be able to customize our own group of A.I soldiers and create personal squad members to use and level up in the game's new multiplayer modes.
I love playing games with bots, and COD: Ghosts is taking that further by giving everyone options whether they want to play online or offline with friends or downloaded squads.
While not every bit of the game's maps will be destructible like the earlier Red Faction titles or the upcoming Battlefield 4, Ghosts has a few dynamic map setups, so specific areas of the game can be changed with explosives to mix up the layout a bit and can even catch enemies off guard with surprise attacks. So many people play the game though, so these traps will probably all be discovered Day 1, but there's always DLC!
Developers on the game have discussed the advantages of next generation hardware, but if you plan on picking up the game for 360 and PS3, you won't be missing out on everything Ghosts has to offer. From what I've read about the game, the visual and sound fidelity of the game will be impressive on the next gen consoles, but current gen versions will still look great and contain everything that the new versions will have.
Another neat thing about the game is that if you were to purchase the 360 version and buy the Season pass, you could later transfer your COD information and the DLC to the Xbox One, and this also pertains to the PS3 and PS4 versions as well.
When November 5th comes around, we'll truly see how long Call of Duty: Ghosts will stay in our game trays, but if everything in the reveal was accurate, the answer may be for quite some time!
[Image Sources: GiantBomb]
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My Two Caps are opinion pieces regarding current events in the gaming industry. They are my personal thoughts, my two cents if you will, but I love the Fallout games, so I made it caps instead. Please don't sue me!
Grove Street is King!
It's been awhile since I've done a 'My Two Caps', so I decided to make this one extra long, but I feel like it's something positive regarding videogames. The main two topics that I want to touch on is Grand Theft Auto 5, and the feeling of playing a highly awaited game for the first time with GTA: San Andreas.
You've read all the rumors and official information, glanced over the countdown timer throughout the days, watched all the trailers, discussed it in great detail with friends, payed it off at your local retailer, and now you're sitting down to play the game you've been waiting for since its announcement. It's a feeling that only happens every so often, and it's one you'll never forget.
Playing an anticipated for the first time is always great. Part of the magic is that it only occurs a few times each year, depending on the number of titles that you're looking forward to.
One of the first occasions that I remember waiting for a title was for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A bit before its release, I would view through all my gaming magazines about the game, and imagine all the cool scenarios that could happen when it was turn to play it.
I spent a good amount of time replaying Vice City as well, as I knew I probably wouldn't be going back to it for a while. I didn't skip school or anything when the day finally came, but it was all I could think about as I went through another seven hours of 11th grade.
Back when Movie Gallery was around, I usually went there to buy and rent games, and called when I got home from school just to make sure they're were copies left. I wasn't very knowledgeable about all of the gaming practices then, so I didn't realize that the game was a huge deal, so of course there would be plenty of copies available, which the employee told me over the phone to reassure me. Surely enough, my step-mom arrived from work with a shiny new copy of the game, and it was off to play as CJ.
A new GTA always bring a new question in terms of what you'll do first. Missions? Rampage? Explore? For me, I ultimately decided to explore for about an hour. While the visuals don't necessarily hold up now, at the time San Andreas looked amazing to me. It's a game I still play now, with the addition of some great visual mods on the PC version of the game. But in 2004 on the PS2, I felt content with everything that the game offered.
San Andreas believe it or not, actually made me a better student. I made sure that all of my homework and studying were completed for the day, sometimes even before I got home, just so I could have any 'academic distractions' out of the way as I tried to help Grove Street and Sweet reclaim what was theirs. My school bus usually arrived at 7:30am most days, so I began getting up at 6am to play a bit before then instead of my usual time of seven in the morning.
At school, the game was on everyone’s mind. People would talk about how they would just keeping saving the game to pass time, so that they could go to the gym more often and increase CJ's muscle and stamina, and also how it was better to only eat the salad meals from Cluckn' Bell or Burgershot, and Well Stack Pizza Company.
Some talked about how they took over all of the main territories from the Ballas, not knowing that after a few hours you had to leave Los Santos, thus erasing all of that progress.
My time with the game lasted for months. It wasn't until later on that I decided to look up cheats and things like that, so in the meantime I would just go through the flow of the game, doing missions here, and a few rampages there.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one my favorite games of all time, and part of it was due to my own personal anticipation for the game. I'll never get to experience it for the first time again, but a game GTA game is just around the corner!
We're going back to Los Santos soon!
As of the posting of this article, GTA 5 is 49 days away. Time has been flying by for the game's release pretty fast if you remember that the game was announced in October of 2011, with six official videos being released for the game so far (Official Trailer 1 and 2, 3 Character-specific trailers, and then the latest Gameplay trailer). It's awesome that the wait for those titles is just about over, and the game is sure to be a massive hit when it finally arrives on September 17th.
If there's one thing about GTA 5 that excites me, it would probably be the size of the game. While I'm very interested in getting to play three distinct main characters and see how their roles play out throughout the game, the ability to explore the massive Los Santos areas is going to be the real treat for me.
Ever since the Lost & Damned DLC expansion was released for GTA IV, motorcycles have been one of my favorite modes of transportation in open-world titles, and being able to drive around Los Santos in when is something I can't wait to do.
I also hope that with a game that is going to be bigger than Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas, and GTA IV combined, there will be more buildings to enter and check out. Toward the end of the Gameplay trailer, an online player is seen looking out into the city as others drive around in cars, helicopters, and jets, which hopefully means that we'll all get to have our own interior places to check out.
For singleplayer, it seems like Micheal’s house will be full of activity, as you'll be able to interact with his wife and children as they go about their routines, while Franklin looks to hang out with his friend Lamar, as well as his loyal dog Chop, who appears on the game's map during the gameplay trailer.
With less than two months to go, all we need is a glimpse of multiplayer to see, and then I'll have all the great details I need to actually stop thinking about the game for a while and get back to clearing out my backlog of games!!
[Image Sources| GTASanAndres.net | GTAV.net]
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6/7/13 3:00PM |
My Two Caps are opinion pieces regarding current events in the gaming industry. They are my personal thoughts, my two cents if you will, but I love the Fallout games, so I made it caps instead. Please don't sue me!
Xbox One: Who wants it?
Last night Microsoft detailed some of the more confusing aspects about the Xbox One. DRM concerns, Used games and trades were all addressed, as well has accessing your content from a different console. The end result has created understandable concerns for anyone who doesn't possess the optimal set-up for enjoying the Xbox One as a gaming machine. Like many of you, I fall into this category with different aspects of their plan.
You're able to purchase games digitally day and date of released retail titles
Of course this is something that Sony has been doing for quite some time now, and PC gamers have been able to do for years, but it's nice that Microsoft is doing this as well. This is also troubling for retailers, as it is much easier to download a game you've been waiting for and start playing rather than driving to a store.
More details will have to be revealed about this as well, since pre-order incentives are the main reason I purchase certain games, and going strictly digital will cost more than simply trading in games or renting new titles. This ability works fine for say the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS because digital games are usually priced lower, and portable titles are always less expensive than console games. My suggestion is to lower the cost of these digital games.
Say Grand Theft Auto V comes out on Xbox One. I know I would go back to it from time to time, so why not make it $49 or $39 to purchase digitally, since you wouldn't be getting a physical disc to add to your shelf. Instruction Manuals have almost become non-existent as a money saving factor according to publishers, so wouldn't it make sense that not having to print a lot of discs and cases would help as well, allowing for them to sell games at a lower price?
You can let up to 10 family members play your games
Sounds cool, right? Anyone who has access to your account can play any game you buy. Only apparently this is for two people at a time, with you being one and a family member being the other. Simultaneous play is allowed for two players, basically. Everyone one else can play when no one else is. That's sort of how it works for Xbox 360 at the moment. I can download a game, say Trials HD from my account, which I have on a friend's Xbox. I can then go home and play the game, granted I'm connected to Xbox Live.
My friend can also play the game, because it was downloaded on his Xbox. We can play together, but only the two of us, unless someone else from his Xbox logs in to play.
The issue about having to be connected at least once a day to play games is in fact true
This is where things go sour, and one of the major negative points being discussed across the net. Microsoft will allow us to play our games offline for up to 24 hours, during which time an authorization check will incur.
According the the Xbox One FAQ, this process is "designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection." If the console is unable to check for verification, you can't play any game on the console.
I'm usually online when I play my Xbox 360, whether I'm playing a game or not, but there have been times, say roughly 10 or so a year, where I lose Internet for long periods of time either due to a power outage, storm, or simply not choosing to be online. With the Xbox One, during these times I would not be able to play a game. This is not consumer friendly for anyone, but look at this one:
Anyone with access to your account on another console will have to be verified every hour to play
Every. Single. Hour. Once a day you can at least, kinda, sorta, understand... maybe? But Every hour? Now sure, letting friends play your game is cool, but now you have to limit them, Microsoft? This needs to change. But, what if Tazz-E-Boy from reddit is on the money? He wrote this:
"I have a prediction this is a radical new marketing technique. After everyone uncovers all the problems Microsoft will fix 100% of all the problems a month before the release as a demonstration of how well they listen to their consumers. They will pull some lame shit like "You talked. We listened. This is the game console YOU helped design."
Now, that would be interesting.
I don't want this to be too long, so I'll stop here. Well... after this bit. According to the FAQ, Publishers can either say yay or nay to letting you lend games and trade games. Microsoft is leaving it up to them. EA just got rid of online passes for current consoles. Hmm...
Well, I hoped you enjoyed the first of many My Two Caps. Bottom line: Microsoft needs to have have an amazing E3 to garner the audience that is losing interest in their new console.
Source of FAQs: Major Nelson's Blog | Source of Image: Empireonline
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