New Blog and Schedule

I'm going to start posting my reviews on a new site for a bit, no real reason just trying a new site.

http://nerdherdinc.wordpress.com/

A couple of reviews coming up in June

6/13: Red Dead Redemption 

6/27: Bully

Homefront

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Homefront is one of those games that tries to reach the a certain height, but in the end it only seems to have reached about half way up what they were aiming for and promised, which makes this game feel like quite a bunch of failed potential. There’s not much to the game with a rather lackluster single player and a Call of Dutyesque multiplayer adds to an underwhelming experience. It’s sad to me as I’m a huge fan of 1984’s movie Red Dawn, so when I heard that it the story was being written by the same writer/director I hoped that it would be a similar experience, but it was not to be. The main problem is what was promised; THQ pushed ads for this game like there was no tomorrow. Bus ads, billboards, magazine covers and exposes, this felt like this was THQ’s answer to Call of Duty. They even released 100’s of red balloons into San Francisco which pissed a lot of people off but still was impressive in a dickish kind of way. But sadly what we got felt like a half-assed version, that’s not to say it sucked (I’m a sucker for “Invasion America” games) but it’s not what we were told we would get. But onward to what the game has in it.

The story is set to a background of a potential future were North Korea has gotten it’s shit together and in the years following 2011 and the death of Kim Jong-Il, (I started this review around summer 2011, now it’s feels kind of creepy with the death of Kim Jog-il) a series of events starts to comes unfold that brings a unified Korea under Kim Jong-un (son of Kim Jong-il) that results in a unified Korea being thrust to the forefront of power in Asia. They eventually start swallowing up Japan and many others of the Asian/Pacific nations which adds insult to injury to the United States which is already hurting via its failing economy (such a $20 gas). The United States pull all of its military forces back which culminates in a Korean invasion of the weakened and fragile United State in 2025 and a complete occupation. Though Europe falls to help us for some reason, it seems like they would have our back or at least Russia (those two haven’t gotten along since a falling out during the Korea War) though at the end there’s news cast that has Europe finally thinking about helping (assholes) which leads to the single player which starts about two years after the invasion within the occupied United States.

The single player puts you in the silent protagonist boots (original) of a Untied States Marine Corp pilot (not ex, there’s no such thing as a”Ex-Marine) named Robert Jacobs (unique) who is rescued from is shitting hole in the wall life in an occupied town in Colorado by the local resistance movement in town and you start helping them in there noble cause of overthrowing the Korean occupiers from American soil, and from a main story point that’s about. Throughout your journey of freedom, you fight the faceless Korean horde throughout ruined American suburbia, mixing in cul-de-sacs, a faux Cost-Cos, and a work/refugee camp out of high school stadium (complete with a “Go Wolverines”). The areas do have great atmosphere and add the feeling of this world of a ruined and occupied United States. Unfortunately though most of the areas of very liner style with limited flanking or maneuvering outside what the game lets you do, which kind of makes you out of the feel and reminds you that you’re playing a game. Adding to the limiting tactics the graphics of the game often show poorly to about 3in the draw distance making everything that’s more than a few yards ahead seem fuzzy which takes you out of the action and again makes you realize you’re playing a game.

In the way of A.I , joining you in the cause of freedom is three shitty A.I teammates (more on that in a sec) which help you in your missions to which they are the standard war story archetypes of a trio, you basically have with the aggressive one, the passive one and the passive-aggressive one, they have really come without any change or depth to them causing you to have very little attachment to them if something terrible happens to them it doesn’t have the full emotional impact that it should have. But these are about the only members of the resistance that you really need to remember as although you meet a bunch of them at their headquarters called the “Oasis” those guys have little to no effect on the story at all which kind of makes it seem like the resistance is made of 3-4 people. .

Adding to this lack of friendlies is the really poor friendly A.I your teammates possess, which especially shows up when the combat arises. When the bullets start flying they get in your way constantly while totally half-assing it with the fighting and seem to take a step back in intelligence, I’ve had several occasions were an enemy soldier was able to get past our lines even though one of my team mates was several feet away and completely ignoring him and resulting in my ass getting shot off. (Asshole) The Korea soldiers you face share the same level of tactical intelligence often standing still, not taking cover or straight up rushing towards a wall of lead. This added to all of them seeming to share the same uniform (camo with a face shield for some reason) and a lack of variety to the enemies (you got your standard, sniper, heavy, and elite) which all together makes it feel like you’re shooting Stormtroopers or robots rather than enemy soldiers. I know other games how similar cookie cutter enemies but it just feels more apparent in Homefront, maybe they face you can’t see so many of their faces does something to you.

Really the story is great in its concept but the problem is the execution being the story and gameplay doesn’t get any deeper than what I’ve told you. It was pushed as “emotional” and “deep” and even though there are many chances to do some of that as the game does have some emotional impacting moments throughout the game such as a people being gunned down in front of their children, a mass grave they all come and go quickly and feel like there only there to pull the heart string and they quickly go back to shooting faceless Koreans, making them all feel wasted and pointless in the grand scheme of things.

Last but not least is the multiplayer portion of Homefront. Which in its execution sort of makes up for the so-so single player experience. It’s a slick and well-made format that seems to be an attempt to be a matching force the behemoth of “Call of Duty” but it sadly falls short but it does comes off as a good attempt at it. The player has access several classes mixing the limited customization of Battlefield Bad Company 2 with the ability to add “perks” like Modern Warfare and like both of those games it has a basic but effective persistent ranking system that givens unlocks to new ranks such as weapons, support items and upgrades.

The Multiplayer experience is pretty basic with a team death match and capture static sections of the map but with 32 player (16 to a team) makes a match feel pretty intense with massive firefight across maps such as cul-de-sac, a suburb, a highway section and farm. The multiplayer maps put you in various areas modeled after parts of the single player expect instead of the Resistance you have the United States Army fighting the Korean People’s Army head on with some maps giving you access to vehicles such as tanks, Humvees, a APC and helicopters. These maps range from wide open to close quarters and vary as some have vehicles that you can buy with battle points. Battle points are a currency in this game, when a player makes a kill or takes an objective that gain said points which can be used to buy support items such as airstrikes or attack drones and the use of upgrades like flak vests or an RPG. Heavy items like the use of tanks, helicopters or airstrikes can be high so if you intend to use them the player must save them up and they can only be used in the same round and cannot be moved over to the next match.

In-conclusion, the game in is whole is a bit of a letdown. What I feel Homefront was trying to convey was your homeland (if America) under attack, and while at times it does feel emotional at seeing my homeland under attack, it becomes quickly lost at the seemed over the top ness of it making it seem like it’s by an entire army of cold emotionless assholes. I know you need to make the enemy someone you want to hate but the as I said, the Korean soldiers seem less human and more like the Stormtroopers or robots with their mix of faceless ness, expendability, numbers and evilness. As a Red Dawn fan I wanted the same kind of experience of a gung ho story of a rag-tag group of Americans fighting some godless commies on American soil, but instead we get a short story and lackluster action mixed with forgettable characters and missed opportunities only saved by a decent and well-made multiplayer. I hear there making Homefront 2 so I hope THQ can learn from the mistakes of the first one and make the second what the first should have been.

The Good

* The Concept

* The Multiplayer

The Bad

*The Execution

*Game A.I

The Ugly

* Failed Expectations

Rouge Warrior

This clusterfuck of a game is set in the waning years of the Cold War as you play a Navy Seal name Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko (is an actual person) who in all intensive ways is a poor man’s Rambo. As Rambo was somewhat course and little rough but still likable “Demo Dick” is simply a dick. I’m not a prudish person (hell, I swear several times in this review) but when a hardened Navy Seal sounds like a 13 year old playing Halo, it doesn’t help the game but rather comes off like a bunch of frat boys made Rambo.

Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko is in tasked with saving the freed world as he must stop the North Koreans and then the Soviets from being able to create an operational ballistic missile shield .Through your "adventure" you cross the Korean-Soviet Border and fight through a grayish concrete North Korea port city, through the grayish port itself, and even through a grayish Soviet missile control center underneath a grayish mansion. As stated all the environments look similar with the same color of gray with small things making it different from the last. Of course you blast through the game so fast you don’t even notice with the game lasting about 4-6 hours depending on difficulty.

Adding to the cluster-fuck is the game-play itself, only with the environment the enemies have little to no difference between each other with only one or two things making them appear to be out of a cookie cutter (some have helmets… others berets) as well as their intelligence with them often just standing there firing as you sit behind cover 5ft away like that scene from Naked Gun makes them poor foes indeed. But you have a somewhat variety of ways to kill them, ranging from your standard AK-74 and 9mm pistol, to the Dragnov and other Cold War weapons, but most fire the same so it comes off as half-assed in the terms of weapons though the close combat kills with a knife are satisfying with plenty of brutality and blood to get your blood pumping, but only to have to simmer down again with the next half dozen cookie cutter commies.

In conclusion, you know that person who has a very lose understanding on how to use swear words, the one who thinks that “fuck” is best said frequently and about anything, the kind of person who slaps swears together like they were Legos, well this game would be that person, all crass and no class.

The Good

· Bloody..?

The Bad

· Game-play

· Liberal use of "fuck"

The Ugly

· "Variety" of Weapons

Rules of the Internets

Rules of the Internets

1. Anybody can make a website and put whatever they want on its pages, so at first glance of an article remember the “Assassin’s Creed”. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

2. News wise, it’s not to be taken seriously unless backed up by three sources with something to lose. Otherwise it's just someone trying to sell a book.

3. Argument wise, there’s no medal for winning an argument, no ribbon no plague, so like running in the “Special Olympics” even if you win you’re still retarded.

4. Sarcasm comes off poorly in text format. Unless the person can hear you’re tone then assume they will take you seriously if you try, also don’t assume people will get satire.

5. The stupid outnumber the smart. Just because you spend a good amount time writing out a smart/witty response doesn’t mean it will be taken as such, it will be read by primarily by people who think they know more than they actually do.

6. Don’t take anything personally. The person calling you name’s and insulting you’re “work” is just somebody hiding behind a user name an avatar. You don’t know them and they don’t know you. (See 7.)

7. People are assholes; when people are given anonymity most will use it to annoy other people and just say racist/sexist/stupid stupid stuff to get a reaction. These people are called Trolls.

8. Don’t feed the Trolls. It’s the same as an asshole yelling at run in the city from a 5th floor window and you are the street. It’s all just words and chances are you’ll never meet, but that won’t stop him from yelling, and if you yell back you will just end up looking like a crazy person or worse the same as the one in the 5th floor.

9. Hitler is not a use all term, , just because a person did/maybe did something that Hitler did/maybe did it doesn't mean the person is Hitler. Yes Hitler was a good speaker like Obama but remember that Hitler wore a hat, and Obama didn't, thus no Hitler

10. Just because you can post something doesn't mean you should, just because you hate Islam/Gays/Women/Etc, doesn't mean you have to share. While you have the right to voice an opinion, I have the right to call an asshole.

11. Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean it’s your right, know what you're talking about and think it through before you post your reaction.

12. You will get something wrong at some point, so accept you messed up and move on, acting defensive and accusing the accuser will only make you look like an asshole.

13. Your opinion is not better or worse than the next person; an opinion cannot be wrong rather ill thought out.

14. Don’t assume that all your ideas are good ones; just because you spent time thinking out the best way to solve the world’s problem doesn’t mean it makes any damn sense to the rest of the people.

15. When it comes to different Forums, there is no poster bill of rights. A forum is a private intuition is a way a such the owner can control who posts and what can be said, granted it can be abused but if a moderator is being a ass and the owner either is in on it or ignoring you then leave, you gain nothing from starting a personal crusade against them.

16. Don’t start a person crusade against anyone, it’ll end poorly with you usually looking crazy, just because someone disagrees with you/is something you don’t like doesn’t mean there out to get you, and even if they are, there still some asshole behind an username, don’t be that asshole.

17. Don’t be a grammar Nazi, unless the person has made a GLARING war crime on English, then leave them alone, or for the love of god don’t be dick and crucify them. We get it, you were an English Major in College, how’s that working for you?

18. For Facts the same applies as (17) don’t be a fact Nazi, unless the person has missed the entire point or his facts are clearly wrong then correct them like calmly. No one like an asshole, especially when the say they know more then you

19. Avatars are not “free speech”, just because you find it funny/cool doesn’t mean that other will. If you post a Swastika to be “ironic” then don’t be surprised when you’re called a Nazi.

20. People are assholes, learn to deal with them

Darkest of Days

As a history buff I was somewhat looking forward to this game, the idea of a time travel game that had you using the weapons of that time period and participating in some of the greatest battles of that time. But like most ideas it comes out poorly, and this game has it in spades. This game suffers from problems involving the poor execution of the game-play, numerous plot holes, even glaring historical inaccuracy.

This game starts off in 1876 at the Battle of Little Big Horn as a soldier in General George A. Custer’s army. As most of us know, it goes poorly and as your fellow soldiers take arrows to the face you are rescued at the last second by a guy in some sort of exoskeleton who puts you into a sort of time bubble that sends you to the future (no date given) where you meet your new “boss” who goes by the name of “Mother” she gives a lecture about a company called Kronotek and gives an exposition that the founder of this company (named Dr.Koell) solved time travel and used it to research history. She goes on to say she is a co-founder and that the company they created has a strict policy of not messing with history. She states that Dr.Koell has gone missing; and not only that but she has noticed that there have been disruptions in the time stream (no idea how she knows) and that you have to fix it by saving a person who is not where they’re supposed to be, Cpl. Welsh from the Union Army in the American Civil War at the Battle of Antietam and a Russian Army Officer named Petrovich in World War I at the Battle of Tannenberg. You’re then introduced to an Agent Dexter and sent through boot camp. After boot camp you begin your time travel adventures.

You are given two choices/time periods to begin your mission to find Dr.Koell and save history. The two time periods you can choose are the Battle of Antietam in 1862 during the American Civil War and the Battle of Tanneberg in 1914 on the Eastern Front of the First World War. Unfortunately these two periods are really it, you do go to a POW camp in World War II but that‘s only for three missions, and to Pompeii in 79 A.D but that’s only at the end. These two periods are stretched out through the entire game sending you into portions of the battles. This is sad because it seems that you could easily have thrown in other areas and/or sections of the Wars.

Game play is a basic shooter, the only difference being the weapons you use. You can use historically “accurate” weapons of those areas. Such as muskets in the Civil War and bolt-action rifles and machine guns in the WWI sections. The weapons even reload “historically” with muskets only having one shot and reloading it via barrel, the reloading has a meter which at the right time if you press reload again you can reload instantly (ala Gears of War) or if you miss your game jams for a few seconds. As a history buff the attention to detail is nice as they even name them and use both sides’ weapons. The missions are pretty basic, you need to hunt down you’re targets and you have to kill your way to them, but you always miss them for whatever reason until the last missions.

The plots of the missions are weird as any time “Mother” talks she goes on and on about keeping history the way it was and pretty much sounds like Doc Brown from Back to the Future. But, once you’re in the battle you are sometimes given access to future weapons such as tactical shotguns, assault rifles, and such. The reason for this is that you’re outnumbered so you need to make sure you can even out the odds, this seems weird cause if you left well enough alone the battle would be the same. Also you have to fight through the entire battle to get to your target, but it would seem easier/ less risky to just pop in grab the target and pop out, but you need to kill thousands of Germans/ Confederates. At one point you even have your target but a Union Commander orders you to go to Bloody Lane, even though you have your target and you’re essentiality just a guy in a Union uniform your partner (Agent Dexter) says we have to go there because those are our our orders (even though you just grabbed the target, plus Dexter had said how shitty Bloody Lane ends at the beginning of the level.)


NITPICKS:
Some problems I had with the game involve my historical buffness, such as the historical inaccuracies. I really only want to say two inaccuracies as not to sound like a history snob, both are in the World War 1 section as those two got me the most annoyed. First, in the beginning couple of WWI levels where you’re fighting in the first months of the war, during one of the levels you come across a section of the level that you have to run away from, and what is keeping you running is a never ending onslaught of Germans and a German’s tank machine gun. The problems are with that are simple. The Battle of Tannberg took place in August of 1914, Tanks didn’t enter combat until The Battle of the Somme which was in September 1916, two years after the game has them fighting. The next nitpick is in another WWI mission in which after you protect the side of a hill from a German attack, you come under Mustard Gas attack which quickly covers the hillside and you have to put on a gasmask and quickly run away, I have several problems with this. A. Mustard Gas was not used effectively till 1917 at the Battle of Ypres against the British, B. Mustard Gas does not rise that fast, nor does it move the fast. C. Gas Masks at the time were no more than simple pieces of cotton as the only gas used during that time (1914) was tear gas.

In conclusion the game is not horrible, but it’s not great either. To someone who can’t stand firing a weapon that doesn’t fire dozens of bullets at once, it’ll get stressful and frustrating fast, but if can but that past you it’s a good rental and a good weekend.

The Good

· Good Ideas

· Interesting Story

The Bad

· Poor Execution

· Plot Holes

The Ugly

· Glaring Historical Inaccuracies

I'm back

After a long hiatus I'm officially starting again, I will but up a new review soon within the week :), sorry for the long wait for my fans (if any).

Change of Plans

Due to a variety of reasons I'm gonna have to cut back on reviews. I'm still gonna do the summer reading list but I've decided to expand that into a full time thing. Though I'm gonna cut down on my game reviews, due to money and time they have become stressful. Though I still will do some (few times a month) but they will not be on any schedule. I also an redoing the reading list so a summer schedule will be up soon.