MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!

After the success of the rebooted Mortal Kombat 9, titled Mortal Kombat, it was no surprise that the series would continue anew with creative director Ed Boon at the helm of NetherRealm studios. After the success of Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm decided to tackle the D.C. License again with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Now they are shifting their focus back to Mortal Kombat with the announcement of Mortal Kombat X. According to IGN, some footage from the cg trailer indicates some new game play mechanics that might appear in the sequel. The brutal x-ray attacks from nine will likely make a return along with: environmental hazards, weapon switching, possibly the return of the run button and the oh so gruesome fatalities. After sinking many hours into Mortal Kombat 9 and Injustice, I cannot wait to see what NetherRealm has in store for E3 this year.

Wolfenstein: The New Order Review

 

    Wolfenstein: The New Order is the continuation of Wolfenstein (2009) developed by Machine Games,  a game studio compromised of some former Starbreeze developers. Wolfenstein takes place in an alternate timeline of 1946-1960 where Nazi Germany won the war and are in global control. You once again step into the shoes of Captain B.J. Blascowitz as you begin your Nazi killing spree. On the story side of things Wolfenstein does a great job of introducing the player to some interesting characters both old and new, some of my favorite moments from the game have been the interactions between B.J. and the other characters that he'll meet during the game. Unlike most World War 2 shooters, including Call of Duty, Wolfenstein offers to show a side to Nazism that I don't believe has really been explored in most games and that is how truly terrifying the Nazi war machine was at the time. Sure the game alters the timeline but Wolfenstein does a beautiful job by portraying the Nazis as a terrifying regime and not just endless waves of men in uniforms. A scene with a character named Frau Engel sums up quite well just how vicious and aloof Nazi officers were in caring for the lives of others.

     The game not only gives you a big choice to make that affects the rest of the story, one that came sooner than I was expecting, but it also gives the player a bit of free reign to explore the world. Wolfenstein isn't as linear as I was expecting; the game allows players to explore for things such as: power-ups, armor, health boosts, collectibles and other upgrades. To boot the game also has a perk system that allows the player to upgrade by meeting certain requirements such as 10 kills with grenades or taking out a Nazi commander with a take-down. The game does suffer from some game play contradictions. The game encourages several methods of play styles such as sneaking, tactical combat or some old fashioned dual wielding actions. The problem is unlike the old school shooters, items must be acquired by hitting the use key rather than simply walking over the items. This makes combat out of cover almost pointless as you have little chance of survival even when at max health and armor. To compensate the player can grab as many health packs before a fight as they want and B.J.'s health will go into overcharge, which will deteriorate back down to his max health either over time or when he takes too many hits.

    Overall I think Wolfentein is a strong game. There is no multiplayer and game does suffer from some performance issues both game play and hardware alike but the experience is solid and will keep you entertained for a good while with the collectibles, branching story and multiple difficulty modes. I'd recommend Wolfenstein for a good time but you won't quite find your nostalgia boost if you're looking for it here.

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    New Order ended up being a very interesting surprise for the month of May, reminding me how a good story or concept can help elevate a first person shooter.  I kept getting reminded of games like Half-Life 2 or the Metro series, with an emphasis on characterization, exploration and cool set-piece moments.  It's a pretty different feel from most shooters today and something I have sorely been missing.

   Tonally, the game is all over the place, with B.J. scowling under his breath one minute, sometimes with one-liners, followed by a scene showing the atrocities of newly invigorated Nazi menace in the next.  This ends up playing off to varying degrees.  Rarely it discombobulates and adds dissonance to the story, but more often than not this wide-swinging pendulum plays out with black humor, very reminiscent of Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards.

    Gameplay feels solid with light stealth elements often being optional, and gunplay being a neat hybrid of old and new mechanics.  Blascowitz can take a hit, especially with a retro health and overcharge system.  Just about all the weapons can be dual-wielded, often to comedic effect.  Iron sights and leaning round out the moveset if you find yourself getting low, and it all plays out great, infusing the game with a lot of potential for action.  If you're looking for a shooter to sate your summer, Wolfenstein is a great gem that shouldn't be overlooked.

Let's Play Dark Souls 2

Decided to start doing a Dark Souls 2 playthrough with some commentary.  Calling it a Let's Play when really it's me fiddling with knobs to get the sound and the picture right.  Hope to be updating regularly.  The first episode is kinda quiet so you'll need to turn it up.

Let's Play Dark Souls 2 Playlist

VGR Episode 305

Getting around to some once again belated shows.  304 unfortunately had a stream crash, so we skip now to 305

-=Download VGR 3.05=-

Best Stuff on the Net: Does Twitch Plays Pokemon Give You Hope for Humanity?

Idea Channel is easily one of my favorite thing that PBS has turned out in a long time, always topical, clever, and opinionated, it's a great place to go for, well, ideas.  This week they tackle some of the greater implications of Twitch beating Pokemon Red.  There's some lofty ideas that are pretty interesting born from a bunch of people on the internet collaboratively playing a portable video game from the 1990's.

If you enjoy this kind of format, you'll probably get a kick out of the rest of Idea Channel's random thoughts.

Best Stuff on the Net: JP Kellams from PlatinumGames speaks at IEA

Polygon had this linked at the bottom of an article talking about the potential of moving Bayonetta 2 from the WiiU to other consoles, and how it's exclusivity came to be.  That's all nice and dandy for a headline, but this hour and a half presentation by JP Kellams, a creative producer at Platinum Games, has lots of really cool info.  If you've got any desire to see what it's like for a foreigner over in the Japanese game industry, advice on how to break in yourself, or just how the sausage is made, this is absolutely worth a view / listen.

Presentation starts at 10:21

Twitch Plays Pokemon: The Final Battle

If you've been listening to the show, then you know I've been covering the phenomena that is Twitch Plays Pokemon for the past two weeks. Finally, early in the morning on March 1st, 2014 Blue was defeated, and Red was finally freed from the thousands of voices in his head telling him what to do. It was a wild ride, and I'll be posting a more in depth analysis later. For now, enjoy the show.

http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon/

Titanfall Beta Commentary

With the Titanfall beta opening to everyone for a short time this past week, I decided to record a few matches on my last day of play, along with a bit of commentary associated with each.  The main highlight for these videos is the new "Burn Cards" feature that was rolled out for this test.  They end up adding just enough spice to a typical match to be interesting, but not downright broken.  If you want to see more videos from the beta, including a look at the Stryder Titan, make sure to check out the beta playlist:

Titanfall Beta Playlist

VGR Episode 303

So it's longtime friend of the show Mike, along with newcomer Wil, talking about a ton of news from the week, as well as Hearthstone, the 3DS, and a bunch of other stuff.

For fans who like to listen live, our new time slot is now Friday at 11pm to Saturday at 1am, so feel free to listen in at WUAG.net

-=Download VGR 3.03=-

VGR 302

For episode 2 of season 3, we have special guest Helen on while we talk about what's going on in the World of Warcraft, a review of Warframe (as of 11.5), and what exactly is Bit Brigade.

For fans who like to listen live, our new time slot is now Friday at 11pm to Saturday at 1am, so feel free to listen in at WUAG.net

-=Download VGR 3.02=-