Friday, September 21, 2012

DarkSpore PC Review

I came across this game while looking for a co-op RPG for me and a friend to play that wasn't a fantasy or middle ages type genre. We were mainly looking for scifi so this kind of filled the slot.
How did it fare? Well I will get to that.


Over all it was enjoyable to play though it was the demo version. I think it could be quite a bit more fun with a buddy hacking away with me but not much different over all. It felt like most other dungeon crawler Hack-N-Slash RPG games I have played in the past. Nothing besides the fact that my character was a monster and the environment reminded me that it was a scifi setting. The only thing that stood out a little bit to me was that it wasn't just one hero I brought into combat, it was a team of 3 that were hot swap-able at any time during play with a cool down of a couple seconds. Besides that it was the typical fare of special powers that were usable from an action bar after being gained from leveling up. Kill your way through the map to the end point, picking up DNA(experience) and loot along the way from dead enemies, chests and the randomly placed and seemingly useless destructible structures. Enemy types were quite varied, though besides the actual models, nothing drastically set them apart from run of the mill monsters.

So besides being quite meh in most other areas, the game controlled fantastically well! The smooth flow of combat and control tightness was really the only thing that kept me playing as long as I did in the demo. Though I will probably return to see which monsters I unlock next, I got enough of a feel for the game to write about it. Obviously the love of loot collecting was there but it wasn't a super special affair.

The story is really non-existent. You are a super scientist woken from millenia of cryo sleep to find that your genetic experiment that wiped out most of the universe has finally evolved into usefulness. These useful creations (your heroes) must be tracked down and unlocked in order to purge the galaxy of the mutated menace side effects of your experiments. That's about it, in the load screens the game tacks on some back story and history to each location but seeing as there aren't any NPCs that you converse with, it is mostly forgettable.

The main cool feature of the game is the crazy amount of customization you can do with the loot you pick up and equip on your characters. Each piece as usual goes on a specific slot, but the look and feel of that item on your monster and be custom sized, colored, and placed. I can see endless amounts of fun and combinations involved with this as long as the equipment is varied.

All in all it is a fun game and fairly entertaining, it would be more so with friends. Having found this on steam for $15 I've decided that I am going to wait for the price of the game to drop. Can't honestly say that I would be willing to spend more than $10 on this game.



7.5/10

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Windows 8 and the new PS3

Windows 8

Well when I first started seeing screens and news of the new windows 8 I can honestly say I was less than thrilled. Good windows builds tend to skip generations, this one is looking to continue the trend.

I do not have a computer that I am willing to mess up then rebuild with a good OS so I have not spent any time with this versions beta. But honestly my reason for not liking the system actually has little to do with the OS itself as much as it has to do with what Microsoft is pushing along with the system.

This will be MSs flag ship for their new "App Store" which will be a closed platform exactly like Apples app store. What this means is that any application looking to get support on the new OS will have to get approval from MS to launch through the store or build for the OS as a whole. Meaning there will be far fewer reasons to run a windows system in the coming future. Having a closed system is not only a tool to cut out or leech off the competition but also a way to entirely squash the little guys.

I think this move will further push Googles power in the OS scene. They already have enormous power in the mobile arena, it is only a matter of time before their "Chrome Books" catch on.
Personally I hope this push for a closed platform flops entirely.


New PS3 Slim

PS3 Mini perhaps?? Either way I am pretty excited about it! It means PS3 is finally pushing towards more and more out of the box space! There will be two versions at launch, 250gb and 500gb. 
Though this is a move in the right direction, Sony still hasn't learned the lessons that Microsoft and Nintendo have as far as sales and getting market share.
Sony for years has been a leader in all things technology, they still haven't got software figured out yet I think. 

It is the games that sell the systems, they need to focus on their core franchises, they have only just started doing just that with bundles. Uncharted and God of War are reasons to own a PS3. Those should have been selling points and launch titles, not the albeit impressive list of capabilities that the PS3 had at launch.

They also need to do more special editions linked to their key franchises and bring more of them outside of Japan. They had GoW and MGS versions of the PSP 1k 2k and 3k, why not PS3??? I know I would shell out my gas money for the month for a GoW trimmed PS3!! Microsoft has this sales trick down to a science. I can't even count how many times friends have gone out and bought a new 360 simply because it had Halo plastered all over it and a few extra bells than the standard version. That is the reason why the 360 has a huge sales lead on the PS3, not to mention that few of them fail so there is much less need to go buy a new one.

Lets hope with that with the new generation of consoles on the horizon that Sony will not only have learned their lesson on software over hardware, but will be willing to spend a little money on fan service. I wouldn't mind having a few extra PS3s or PS4s around the house if they were a limited edition type build.