Tomb Raider Review

               Tomb Raider is a modern reboot of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider video game series that began on the PlayStation in 1996.  This game tells the origins of young Lara Croft as she learns to survive and not be a little girl.

                In what may be the worst opening to a video game ever, you are treated to Lara looking into a mirror and then stuff goes bad.  Seriously, if you have seen any of the trailers, the opening is cut just like that. It’s terrible! It was like the creators thought, “Just jump into the action. Let’s not take forever to set up a story.”

                Your boat crashes on an island and you must find your crew mates.  You soon fine that the island itself is keeping you stranded. You find yourself battling the Solarii and Japanese samurai warriors. During the story I did find myself caring for Lara, but I could care less about any other character. The game does try to explain these characters, but does a poor job of doing so.

                I have never enjoyed how other Tomb Raider games played, but this one is enjoyable.  At first Lara seems too slippery to control, but you will get used to it. Lara can also make ridiculous jumps! At times I was unsure how to progress because I knew I could not jump as far as the game wanted me to; but yes, take that leap of faith.

                Along the way you find many weapons that can be upgraded during your adventure. Your arsenal includes a bow, shotgun, handgun, and machine gun. You will always have plenty of ammo. My personal favorite was the bow since you could get your arrows back out of enemies. It also is needed to progress in several puzzles. 

                The game seems like it is a survival game, but do not be fooled like I was. It starts as this, but quickly becomes, “kill hundreds of bad guys.” It begins to feel much like Uncharted, but not as good.

                The game is also filled with quick-time events. These are the worst as the game gives you a fraction of a second to press the Y or Δ button to save yourself. It caught me off guard several times and was a cheap death.

                The puzzles in the game are quiet fun. I liked them because they did make you think, but not frustratingly so. There was only one puzzle that I didn’t like only because my timing was off. See, it was me that was the mistake; that’s how you design a game! Good job Crystal Dynamics.

                If you get tired of just following the story, you are able to find collectables. In each area there are documents, treasures, and optional tombs to find and discover. Completing everything will get you extra XP and achievements.

                At camp sites scattered throughout the island you can upgrade you skills and weapons. You will earn XP during missions and find salvage to use as money. This allows you to use a melee attack, throw sand in enemies’ eyes, or making your weapons deal more damage.

                If there is one amazing thing I must point out, it is that there are virtually no loading screens. This may be because I bought the digital version on Xbox On Demand, but it is remarkable. The only loading screens I saw were after I died or used the teleporting feature to other campsites.

                Overall, Tomb Raider is not impressive, at first. It took some time to warm up to, but I found myself enjoying the game as time went on. After about three hours I didn’t want to stop playing. I give Tomb Raider for the Xbox 360 a 7.9 out of 10. It is also available on PlayStation 3 and PC via Steam.

Phantom Breaker: Battleground Review

               Phantom Breaker: Battleground is a side-scrolling beat-em up that I had never heard of before. I believe it began as an anime, that turned into a fighting game, that became this. The Xbox Arcade exclusive has a wonderful anime style with beautiful sprites and fluid combat. Let’s see if it’s any good.

                I honestly don’t understand the story. It has something to do with you finding a girl, and then you are trapped in some demon world. You fight a bunch of guys to escape with your friend. All the dialog is in Japanese with English dialog boxes.

                The gameplay is where this game shines. You start off with four playable characters. Two are melee specialists, one a sword master, and the last a staff master. I prefer the sword. You have a light, medium, and heavy attack with a special attack that deals damage to all nearby enemies and an ability to slow-down time.

                You travel through 8 levels and several bonus levels to complete this short game. As I said before, it’s a beat-em up. You spend time beating up hundreds of bad guys in every stage with a boss or two at the end of each stage. Once you enter the demon world, you lose all of your powers and strength. Every enemy you defeat leaves XP that you can pick up to level up and improve your character.

                The game has plenty of difficulty levels, should the game get too easy for you.  Nightmare is the best way to level up, but Nightmare+ is impossible. Thankfully there is no XP in this difficulty, but I couldn’t even beat the first boss.

                This game is incredibly fun, but where it shines is multiplayer! It has 4 player co-op and even a V.S. mode where you can fight against each other and test your skills. I played with my brother and both of us had a blast trying to level up all the way to Lv. 99. The game can also be played online.

                The only bad thing about the game is that to level up your character completely, you must buy DLC. Now for $5 you get the extra 50 levels and a new playable character. It’s nice, but it really should have been included.

                All-in-all, if you enjoyed games like Golden Axe, Double Dragon, or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, then you will love this. I give Phantom Breaker: Battleground for Xbox Arcade, a 9.5 out of 10. You can buy it for 800 MSP with the DLC for 400 MSP.

Rayman Origins Review

               If you have played video games for a while you may have heard of Rayman. No, not those annoying Rabbids! The real Rayman, who was an action platformer who debuted in 1995 on the Atari Jaguar and Sony PlayStation. The series has had many games and even created the previously mentioned Raving Rabbids video game series.

                Rayman origins is a 2D side-scrolling adventure like his classic games. The game is meant to explain the origins of Rayman, but it doesn’t. To find that information out you have to watch a cutscene on YouTube to find this out. That’s bad!

                The story opens with Rayman and friends sleeping in a tree. The tree happens to be connected to a witch’s home underground and she is fed up with their noisy snoring. To end this she sends an army of dark, evil, creatures to kill you and capture the very busty and curvy Nymphs. Rayman must rescue all the Nymphs, save all the Electoon inhabitants, and stop all the evil in the world.

                As I said before, the game is strictly 2D. It has a very cartoonish style that is amazing to see in motion. The game is fast, fluid, and hard. As you save the Nymphs, they will grant you new powers such as gliding, wall running, and swimming.

                The game is split into 9 worlds with about 7 levels inside them. There are collection and time challenges in each stage. There is even a quick run stage that you must unlock in each stage to unlock the hidden level and true ending to the game. These quick run stages are brutal. You must beat them in one try.

                All the stages are fun and have wonderful music. Every time I entered a new stage I couldn’t help but smile and be reminded of the more simple times of gaming. I really felt like I was playing an old game on the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo.

                The bosses in this game suck! They are not fun at all. When the rest of the game is so fluid and just feels good, the bosses are really under whelming and unfair. You cannot just sit back and learn their pattern of attack. You have to die about 10 times till you learn how to beat them. I hated all the bosses except the extra boss, he/she/thing/it was easy to predict.

                Rayman Origins is the first Rayman game that I really enjoyed and even completed 100%. For those who have friends, you can play it with 4 player co-op as well.

I give Rayman Origins for the Xbox 360 a 9.5 out of 10. Rayman Origins is also available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and PC via Steam. A sequel will be released later this year titled Rayman Legends for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii U.

Red Dead Redemption Review

                I have never been a huge (pardon the pun) fan of open world games. The Grand Theft Auto series just never felt real enough for me. Red Dead Redemption truly creates a living, breathing world that I enjoy telling people about.

                You play as John Marston, a man robbed of his life. He grew up in a gang and was left to die by his “friends.” He is later hired (or forced) to kill three men from his former gang. To do this you will travel all through the old west and even Mexico.

                This is an open world game where you can do just about anything you want to. To advance the story you must complete missions, which range from killing people, to killing people, to making trades with rebels, to later kill them.

                When you are not completing missions you can run around towns, ride your horse, kill innocent people, complete side quests, and even complete random stranger’s quests. During the day you can break wild horses in, while at night you can follow a dog and stop random acts of crime.

                The game has lots of shops which give you guns and supplies. You earn money by completing missions or looting bodies. The most fun way to get the green is by gambling of course! You can join games of poker, Black Jack, horseshoes, or my personal favorite, Liar’s Dice. These can also be played online with real players.

                There are some issues though. To me the main game was just a tad bit too long and repetitive. I felt like the game pretended to end twice before it finally ended. I thought only Bayonetta could get away with that! I also ran into several graphical glitches that prevented me from doing anything until I killed myself.

                Also, I love and hate the randomly generated animals. I would kill a deer and walk up to kill it, when suddenly a cougar would jump out and knock me off a ledge to kill me. But, sometimes it is fun. I saw a townsperson get chased by a bear, only for the man to get run over by the passing train! I’ve never laughed so hard!

                I cannot even begin to cover everything in this game. I have completed over 25 hours of the game and only gotten 84.8% completed. The environment just feels so alive. The random wildlife attacks and a weather system helps create a real feeling environment. I give Red Dead Redemption for the Xbox 360, a 9 out of 10. It is also available for PlayStation 3.

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Consoles (#1)

The First 128-Bit System!

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Video Game Consoles (#2)

The First HD Console!

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Consoles (#3)

My first video game console!

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Consoles (#4)

The most highly anticipated system ever!

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Consoles (#5)

16-Bit Super High Definition Graphics!!

Tech world taking risks

Welcome back to another issue of Spec Tech.  This week Google kills a product, Windows 8 price increases and LG is rumored to have a new phone on the way.

Imagine having the first social streaming media player. In June Google released the Nexus Q, an orb that allowed you to stream music from your phone/tablet to a home entertainment center.  Now that sounds awesome, but not at a price of $300. Upon initial negative reviews from critics, Google refunded customers and stopped selling the product.
 
It is now dead, but could it be revived in May at Google’s I/O conference?

Are you one of those people who like BlackBerry’s?—the phone not the fruit. Well, on Jan. 30, RIM will finally unveil the BlackBerry 10.  This might be RIM’s savior or final nail in the coffin.  I will report more on this as information becomes available.

If you have thought about buying Windows 8, buy it now! The limited pricing of Windows 8 will expire at the end of January.  Right now you can upgrade for $40, but after this month it will cost $120, and Windows 8 Pro will cost $200.

The LG Optimus G Pro is on the way.   It’s rumored to have a 5-inch HD display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 13 megapixel rear camera.  It would also ship with Android 4.1—Jelly Bean.

That’s it this week folks.  Have a great weekend and come back next week for another issue of the Spectator.

Question of the Week: What phone would you like to see more: an iPhone 5S or a Samsung Galaxy S4? Email me at smsetser@valdosta.edu

Mastered 4K Blu-rays arrives soon

Hello and welcome back Spec Techies to a new year.  Glad to know that we all did NOT vanish on Dec. 21. Let’s catch up on new tech from the CES event last week.

First, the show was mostly about 4K television sets.  Don’t know what 4K is?  Well, it is an Ultra High Definition (UHD) pixel resolution.  Its pixel count is 3,840x2160-- four times the amount of pixels in your current HDTV.  Sony is really behind this revolution being the only cable/movie studio to create content for 4K.  In the summer, Sony will launch a 4K video distribution system as well as improve 4K blu-rays. 

Imagine you are at a sit down restaurant, but instead of waiting for a waiter/waitress to take your drink/food order, you simply order on your 22-inch Touch Table PC.  This is just a concept, but the MTT300 Touch Table PC would allow you to touch your desired order, pay and even listen to music all at your table.  Of course the waiters/waitress would still bring your order. 

Do you love playing games on your Android device but find that pesky touch controls are difficult to use?  Then Nvidia has got you covered.  Not only did they announce the new Tegra 4 processor, but also Project Shield.  This is a controller, which looks a lot like the Xbox 360 controller with a touch screen attached just above the controller.  This screen is 5-inches with an output of 720p.  But that is not where it stops.  It can also stream your PC games to the screen.  As a demonstration, they showed Project Shield running Borderlands 2 with no hiccups.  There is no release date or price yet.

Project Fiona was announced at the last CES.  The newly named Razer Edge is a 10-inch, Windows 8 tablet-- a full PC.  It had an attachment for physical controls before they were built directly on the system.  The tablet can be customized with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce GT640M LE graphics.  It has a separate dock for USB and HDMI connectors.  You can get an i5 chip for $999 with 4GB RAM and 64GB SSD memory.  It will be available Q1 2013.

Well, hope everyone has a great rest of the semester. Starting Jan. 31, I will begin a new video series for my favorite video game systems of all time.  If you are interested in being a guest in my series, email me at smsetser@valdosta.edu.  The Spec Tech blog is located at http://vsuspectech.blogspot.com/

Question of the Week:  What is your favorite mobile Operating System? Android, iOS, or Windows 7/8?

SpecTech Top 5 Favorite Video Games (#1)

My favorite video game of all time is.......

Come back to see my new top 5 list; my favorite video game consoles of all time!