Minecraft Xbox Edition, Coming Soon

With a game as popular as Minecraft, spreading to other gaming platforms seems like common sense, and it's common sense that the people at Mojang have. Already branched-out onto mobile devices, Minecraft is also set for a console release sometime in the Spring; announcment of both platform conversions were announced nearly a  year ago at E3, and so far only the mobile version has seen the light of a release.

 Details about the Xbox version, ported by 4J studios (who also ported Oblivion to PS3) have remained in the dark recesses of Minecraft's underground caverns. However, the light at the end of the tunnel (or just a really big underground lava flow) has finally been found: a countdown for the announcement of the official release date is in progress right at the time of the very writing of the post. The countdown is being hosted by Play XBLA, with the link being down below.

http://playxbla.com/minecraft-launch-date-tease-2/ (good luck getting through, I can't seem to get in from my current location).

New SimCity, Set for 2013

If anybody has participated in the Future Cities program in middle school, they might remember the simulation they used to base their city creations off of: SimCity (of various versions I'd assume)

EA seems rather ambitious of the new game, stating:

"(it's) a true rebirth of the franchise that brings the depth of simulation that has been the series hallmark for more than two decades and marries it with next generation accessibility and a robust multiplayer mode, giving players the power to change a world together."

With the last true SimCity game being released nine years ago, it's safe to say that it has been quite a wait for the fans of the series, but Maxis and EA have teamed up once again to develop a new installment to the series, simply named SimCity. Not many details have been released on the game so far, but out of what is currently known, the game runs on a new engine deemed "Glassbox Engine".

A video showing off the new engine can be found here:

SimCity is set to be released sometime in 2013.

Crysis 2 Review Part Two

Okay, multiplayer. This part of most FPS games is what drives players into buying the game in the first place (yes, you Call of Duty). Crysis 2 doesn't rely on multiplayer to be it's main selling point, something I appreciate very much. Unfortunately, this also means it won't be as big or attractive as other triple-A titles on the market.

From what I've played so far in Crysis 2, the multiplayer is not nearly as competitive as other games like Halo; the game is much more casually-oriented, but meeting a level 50 still means getting your rear handed to you. Every gun in single player is brought over to multiplayer, even the Gauss rifle attachment on the SCAR. This allows for some fairly unique customization options, with a weapon modification system  similar to Battlefield.; each weapon has separate categories for attachments, such as optics and under-mounted. With this configuration, multiple attachments can be added without taking up valuable perkspace.

Similar to perks in Call of Duty (which I've been comparing to a lot for some reason...), Crysis 2 offers the option of "modules" to alter certain functions of the nanosuit. Each module can be upgraded up to three times, adding incentive for the player to keep using them and stay playing the multiplayer.

I know this was somewhat short and lacking compared to the single-player review, but that's exactly what multiplayer is; problems occur with the amount of effort to kill someone. I don't know for sure if it's my connection or the game itself, but I also noticed this in the beta. As I mentioned before, the multiplayer isn't the highlight of the game.

Crysis 2 Review Part 1.5

This is an addition to the previous post, as I forgot to mention a few things (I'll take notes next time, I promise). Music in Crysis 2 is vivid and surrounding, another feat that this game pulls off well. The game also generously gives the player access to the soundtrack via in-game menus, given that the player has run through the levels in which they were played. A consistent theme is present in Crysis 2, which was in an unfortunate absence from the first game.

Part two will be multiplayer, I promise :P

Crysis 2 Review-Xbox 360 Part One

What can I say? I expected a sequel, I got a sequel, I played the sequel. And I can for sure say that I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign this time around.

It's not too often that the campaign serves as the highlight of a game for me, but I always make sure to play it before hopping into the multiplayer, as it's generally the ways that the developers intend it to be. Unfortunately Call of Duty has seemed to get rid of this ritual for most players, but that's another topic.

Both games in the Crysis series have most of their emphasis on the campaign of the game, and Crysis 2 stands no different. Crysis 2 features a 10-hour campaign, 4 hours longer than the standard Call of Duty game, giving it a much more fufilling story than the previously mentioned. Despite usually only running through the campaign one time and leaving it be, Crysis 2 has a certain pull factor that makes me want to go back into the campaign and play it; the story is very fufilling, and definitely one of the best FPS stories I've played in quite some time. A normal FPS story is straight forward and require no explanation; Crysis 2 has a story that will have you go through the entire game, and end with a "what just happened?", which in this case is by no means a bad thing. The fact that Crytek can make such a complex story with only about five of six characters (and no alien hivemind) is quite a feat. It seems like I've been rambling about the glorious campaign part for quite a while, so I'll move on to the other aspects, starting with gameplay and continuing with graphics.


The original Crysis was well-recieved for its open-ended levels and player choice; it's not quite the same way in the sequel, given that it's set in the urban jungle of New York City this time around. Goals are generally straight forward, usually one at a time. Unfortunately, this means that's there's less choice to be given in order of goals, but the game still gives the players choices through the super-human abilities given by the Nanosuit. Should I use the suit's cloaking ability to sneak around the enemies? Or should I use maximum armor to go in guns blazing? The game is filled with opportunities like these, and it gives the player some fresh air for a change; instead of  the standard "run to room, shoot everbody, move up, repeat that has become ridiculously overused in FPSes, there's more than one way to do one objective. Plus, stealthily stabbing the enemies one-by-one unnoticed by the other enemies is just so much fun.

Crysis 2 delivers many new gameplay features, as expected being a sequel. Immediately when I started the game, I noticed a table; normally tables just stand, maybe sometimes able to be pushed around; but I saw a little message come up-"Hold RS to power kick"- and to my joy and happiness, I did exactly as the game told me and the table flew across the room. The introduction of kicking heavy objects has allowed for some actual tactical purposes depsite seeming like a minor feature to add fun; cars and table alike can be kicked into enemies immediately to quickly neutralize them.

While the addition of kicking things is my highlight of new stuff, new customization options are added; along with the modification of weaponry similar to the first game, the player can also short-press the "back" button (on Xbox 360) to open up a Nanosuit modification menu; the player can choose one modification for each module of the suit, between basic suit upgrades, armor, power, and stealth (invisibility)

 In order to buy these upgrades, the player has to collect a substance called "nano catalyst", which can be scoured from defeated aliens. Unlike the original Crysis, upgrades to the suit, along with all the weapon attachments the player has found, are carried over to any level the player chooses, and even if they start a new game; this means that the player could have the air stomp ability (picture Mario) right at the beginning inside the castle they awaken in.

Graphics in Crysis 2 remain basically the same as the first game, although with slight improvement, mostly like optimizations made to compensate for the console's hardware; Crytek consiously developed Crysis 2 with all platforms considered this time around, so it does, as expected, look great. Lighting remains this series' strength; from the light pouring down from the sun to the crimson trails of the insidious eyes of the Ceph, lighting looks amazing.

Vehicle gameplay this time around is much more subtle than Crysis, with only a few vehicles present in the game to even get into; the entire damage system and "diagnostic" showing the current locations of damage have been removed, instead replaced with visual signs. Basiscally, if you see fire, get out. Tires still pop on vehicles, and the bare rims on the road shoot out sparks; however, the player rarely, if ever, gets the chance to take advantage of this; there are hardly any circumstances where an enemy vehicle is moving, let alone travelling at a high enough speed to get them to flip from popped tires. Despite the lighter emphasis on vehicular gameplay, Crytek still made a "tank" level in the game, although in an LAV of some sorts. The level (and it's actually a part of a larger level), is somewhat short, but it's still enjoyable to speed down the FDR drive, explosions everywhere, pushing any civilian vehicle out of the way with minimal effort.

Crytek has done an amazing job with the campaign in Crysis 2; although not quite as open or nostalgia inducing as the first game's setting, the campaign of Crysis 2 still stands as one of the best storylines I've ever had the pleasure to play.

Stay tuned for part two: multiplayer. (Don't expect a lot of words like this one, I plan on making it brief, as I'm rerunning the campaign again.)

A Comparison of Game Communities

So...you've played through Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield, the triad of mulitplayer kings. But how does each community of players compare overall?

I'll give some of my insight here.

Halo seems to be the most friendly from the people I've heard through the microphone, as Halo just seems like more of a casual game, being placed in a fictional future. Unfortunately the players seem to be generally younger and more annoying with their high-pitched voices breaking my eardrum constantly. Use of the mute button advised.

Call of Duty...well...I don't think there's much to say here about the blasphemous community here. But just in case you happened to have stumbled upon my blog and you're unfamiliar with it, COD's communities is mostly filled with shrubcakes galore. It's physically impossible to get into a match and still have your sanity intact by the end of the game. However, it's a ton easier to vocally troll all the 12-year olds in COD compared to Battlefield.

Battlefield unfortunately doesn't have a way for the entire team to communicate together (or rather fortunately in this case), so voice chat is restricted to each respective squad of four people, and people hardly ever have their voice settings correct in order for me to hear them. I don't think I've ever heard the voice of my squadmates in-game aside from my friends in my party. However, the amount of angry messages stemming from Battlefield entering my message box is substantially higher than when I've played other games. I can't help but smile every time I get someone mad enough in Battlefield to send me a hatemail though, with them telling me that I'm the one who's angry when I send a message back in response.

So what does all this mean? Pop Skyrim in and forget about mulitplayer together if you want your ears and eyes devoid of stupid.

Crysis 2 First Impressions

Yesterday I awoke to the sound of the mail truck slowly driving up our neighborhood.

Nothing  better than waking to the sound of your mail being delivered.

After finally doing the dreaded by finishing the original Crysis on the hardest difficultly, my copy of Crysis 2 conveniently arrived. Now, coming from a game of Crysis' caliber, Crysis 2 had some high expectation to meet with me.

Are the graphics better?
On console, yes.
Check.

Is there a conceivable story?
Yep.
Check.

Is the game generally entertaining?
Of course, it's Crysis.
Check.

Did I get more than I expected?
There's a progression-oriented multiplayer, so yes.
Check.

Do I have open sandbox-style environments to explore?
Sadly...not quite.
(Uncheck? Maybe an "X" here...) 

So, as I just said, Crysis 2's environments aren't quite what I wanted coming off from the original title. Levels generally have you progress in one direction, but instead of giving the option of order, the player gets the option of tactics, which isn't necessarily all too bad, I guess. The nanosuit highlights tactical options in various spaces, notifying the player when there are some available with the phrase "tactical assessment recommended" (yes, the suit talks).

So far, I've found it to be not quite as enjoybale as the first Crysis in this aspect, but the game does a much better job of storytelling...it's a shame the character you play as doesnt talk though. :'(

Crysis Crises

Being an avid gamer, Crysis has came up is many conversations with friends; any game that's five years old and still has to have its graphics tuned down for console release is obviously not any ordinary game. In fact, Crysis on the PC is still used as a graphics benchmark, with cascading light still not nearly as prevelant in other game than it is in Crysis.

Upon hearing of Crysis' release of a remake for consoles, I immediately set it in my bucketlist of things to get; I had played the Crysis 2 Mulitplayer beta after already knowing of Crysis, so playing a single player representation of the Crysis series had huge appeal for me. A few months later, I can proudly say Crysis is in my collection of games.

Crysis takes play in the relatively near future, the year 2020. As such, the technology is vastly improved over its current state, with the Nanosuit that the main characters wear being a testament to that fact. The Nanosuit, which the player uses as the character "Nomad", is similar to most generic sci-fi power suits, although it takes its shape in some sort of body glove. There are four different modes for the suit to switch between, which are simplified to match the limited number of buttons on the Xbox controller: maximum strength, maximum speed, cloak, and maximum armor. Most of the abilities are melded within each other to make up for the lack of buttons, like strength jumping being mapped to holding the "A" button down on the controller. Unfortunately, as a side effect of this, strength mode is always turned on, making the player and all others equipped with a Nanosuit continuously glow red. Although not essentially game-breaking, it's still annoying when all of Raptor team is glowing bright red during a dramatic cutscene when they're obviously not supposed to.

Gameplay is Crysis is thankfully different from most first-person shooter; the game lets the player approach mission objective in any order they choose to, allowing the game to become somewhat of a sandbox shooter. Roaming around the fictional Lingshan Islands with Crysis' beautiful graphics is a giant relief from typical straight-forward shooters such as Call of Duty.

Also different is the sheer amount of weaponry and customizability of them thereof; the player can carry two primaries, a pistol (or dual-wielded pistols should the player find another), a missile launcher, remote detonated explosives, their fists, and an additional weapon at the end of the game (which would spoil the ending if I said...). While not necessarily part of the "carriable" armament the player can have, Crysis allows the player to pick up objects and hurl them wherever they desire with Nomad's Nanosuit-enhanced strength. Despite all these weapons, I still find it incredibly enjoyable to go around the island with my fists out Falco-punching every enemy I see, allowing the ragdoll physics to take over their bodies and make them fly away.

Can you tell the difference? Yeah, me neither

Crysis' technological feats are amazing even today five years after its initial release; buildings collapse, the lighting is otherworldly, and the in-game models are accurate representations of real life; however, being a console port of the superior PC version, some performance problems with framerate occur, along with a few low-res textures and shorter draw-distance; the game also lacks the PC version's multiplayer mode, meaning Xbox gamers are limited to the single player campaign.

The storyline in Crysis isn't overly amazing or overly original; the story seems to have been "inspired" by Halo in more than one area in the overall campaign structure. The player is somewhat of a super-tank, absorbing ridiculous amounts of fire at the same time. While making an archaeological dig, the scientists taken hostage by the enemy Korean government unearths a massive danger; this can be related to the Flood in Halo, which the enemy of that game, the Covenant, also finds deep within the world. The games also end in a similar way; without saying to much, it basically ends the same way with "we're not finished here, there's probably more", not unlike Halo 1's ending.

Despite a few minor issues and a somewhat generic story, Crysis remains a spectacular piece of work on the Xbox; the game is only $20 on the Xbox Live Arcade, which is practically a steal for anyone willing to wait the four hours to download it.