The Coleman Times

The Flaw In Virtual Reailty

2014-04-14T20:33:00.001-05:00

Titanfall producer Drew McCoy talked about Virtual Reality at Pax East. He talked about Respawn's interest in Virtual Reality and his excitement about the idea of it. But he still admitted that a game like Titanfall couldn't be created for VR due to motion sickness to put it simply.

Motion sickness is a bigger problem than you would think because everyone
is subject to it and when you count in whiplash, it comes apparent that fast-paced shooter games don't have a place in VR and it might actually be a reason that gaming will not fully transition over as many (me) it will.

When it comes down to it, there aren't many genres VR can dive into. It's easier to just say what it can do: First Person Adventure/Action games,why first person? well Virtual Reailty is literally just an illusion that you actually exist in the game and you can't look at yourself as you go about your life can you? If VR were to have a third person game it wouldn't even be a VR and the same as the gaming we do now.
Some games try to escape this barrier like one I heard of one recently.

You're a person controlling this miniature swordsman as it fights another, which is being controlled by literally and figuratively the person you're sitting next to (co-op) you can even look over and see the character model for your friend. This is a rather interesting try but I fear that because people won't get the same type of games they're used to their going to reject Virtual Reality entirely.

Thanks for reading follow by email and share if you enjoy and want more article like this one, and before you go what game do you want transferred over to VR the most regardless of the restraints?

Are Free to Play Games "Good"

2014-04-13T22:45:00.001-05:00

Well GameSpot put several MMO-based videos up recently (two) so of course I have to talk about them as well! But of course I love all of my fans and I can't deny a request when someone personally asks me so here we go (I'm telling you to send me thing you want covered).

Is Free to Play Really Free?

One of the most controversial subjects in the MMO community is if "Free to Play" games are really GOOD for the developers and community as a whole.

It's exactly as you picture it being, you can just randomly download and play without a snitch or a dollar for that point.

Free games, how is that bad? Well it very literally makes no sense for a well-made AAA big-budget game to be "Free". The world once again very literally runs on money so the game has to make money in one way or another.

and that one way or another part is really important due to the fact that the way money is taken away from the player is not always good.

The Bad

By this I mean something like the mobile game Star Trek: Trexels which not be an MMO or a free-to-play game but I feel it has several qualities that aid in making my point. Ok so you just bought a iphone or ipad and is excitied when you download your first game star trek themed too. you have fun for awhile you pay a dollar or two but you don't feel like they were wasted, and right before you go to the second set of planets they ask you rate the game and of course you give it a good rating. After that you see the gigantic pay wall or galaxy I guess. What do I mean by this? Well all of the planets take a ridiculous amount of resources to "unlock" a timer from which you have to wait out for one bit of info and these resources take 6+ hours to gather without spending a dime. Of course it can be averted with a few "crystals" and if you don't want to pay these crystals just go and get one of these crystals literally spending hours within a mini game.
This also transfers over into First Person Shooter games when the weapons that are paid for with real money reign supreme over the starter weapons you are given.

The Good

Now I believe the "proper" or most popular way that money is taken and still leaves a good taste in the payer's mouth, is special equipment and or change of your character's appearance and has no long bearing on combat or some godly advantage over other players.

My Opinion

I love MMOs. I do, but I really don't know why. Most of the time their mind-numbingly boring with the occasional boss fight. Maybe it's the fact that i'm not good at socilizing and don't like my general appearance and in MMOs I can be who I want to be. Or maybe it was just me glad I had something to play because i'm not like of other who buy multiplayer (Like COD) games and play that one game for years. I could and alot of people do that with MMO games infact it's completely cut off from all other genres of gaming. I personally know mainstream gamers who just simply don't like to play MMO games after the first few hours if even that. And I know almost all MMO players wouldn't touch mainstream games with a 100-foot long stick.

But it's gets insanely repetitive after countless hours due to MMOs being designed so you never beat it. but the point i'm trying to get to is that "Free" does not mean "Good" no matter which one of the methods of payment above is used. I confused two words and I know many others do as well and when it comes down to it MMOs are just gigantic games and because they're so big they have lower quality than other AAA titles and noting ever truly comes free in the world we live in so if we can just accept that and see the game as it truly is just another game than whatever problem we have with the game is actually with the game itself.

Conclusion

I'm sorry I haven't made any posts in awhile! I just wasn't inspired but as soon I start pressing keys I really can't stop, and this was a product of that.

I'm going to make one or two more posts concerning MMOs dealing with it's affect on the social life, the good, the bad, and the real AKA my opinion

I don't want to report news I want to talk about topics so if anyone wants me to talk about something i'll make it a field day but I find there no need to me report news that everyone already hear from all the YouTube commentators and other gaming sites

and finally share this post and the blog if you liked and follow by email if you desire these opinion pieces I do

Now if you accuse me time to go play some DC Universe Online and hopefully manage to work some sleep in there somehow

Microsoft's New Approach to Xbox

2014-04-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Phil Spencer has said some interesting things in his latest Microsoft powered interview. And thankfully it was that Xbox was actually going to be about gaming first entertainment second. Why is this good you ask, it's because Xbox One has lost the next-gen race with news like the realization that Xbox One and the PS4 resolution and FPS (sometimes) gap won't just disappear (If you read my last post you would know how it might change in the future) and that PlayStation is winning by 1.6 million units worldwide probably because it's actually released in the countries where most of the people buy them.

But it seems that Microsoft has learned from their mistake of letting people forget they spent a billion so 15
titles can be released on the Xbox One/360 8 of which are new series. Phil is work hard at "work" surfing the web to find new ways to improve Xbox One and Xbox Live. It's good to know that he's actually listening to the feedback we take time out of our lives to give.

And it's also good that Microsoft as a whole is actually focusing on Xbox. If you didn't notice both Sony and Microsoft are two gigantic companies and they can't survive on console sales alone.

While Sony HAS to put more effort in their other tech and first-party games because their not really doing so well to the point that a well-known business analyst said that there is a high-chance that Sony won't be around in a year or two. Microsoft isn't doing that bad but i'm glad that they aren't stubborn enough to realize that if Xbox tanks the whole company will be in a financial disaster.

Comment below what you think about Phil's ambitions and with the insanely likely chance that he will read your comment include something Xbox should improve on and or a new feature they can add

Follow and Share for more! including an upcoming interview with Ubisoft

What is Cloud Gaming and Why It's Important

2014-04-04T15:49:00.000-05:00

The video to the right showcases Microsoft's ambition and belief in Cloud computing being used to aid Gaming on the Xbox One. I was interested in this even while not understanding what Cloud Gaming actually was so I used the almighty Google to bring to you State of Cloud Gaming.
And to find this we need to find the original source of

The Cloud

To put it simply, a interconnection of information between devices and infinite supply of digital resources, for example the Titanfall servers mentioned in the video but more on that later.
Cloud is in essence thee "Internet" everything on the Internet "Interconnects" into one big hub. I can feel i'm losing some of y'all so let me say it in a different way, this webpage and any other you have ever visited was stored in one big "Building" and web addresses, like real addresses, gives you access to one particular apartment but the building encompasses much more than that one apartment, that's how you can go from one YouTube video to another like as if you're going from one door to the next.

Cloud Gaming

Ok so does everyone get it now? Close enough, so how does all this connect to gaming you ask? Well, let's use good old Titanfall as an example. It's Xbox One version is more limited than the PC one as you might be aware of. And that is purely because of cheaper hardware,and if you read my earlier article on my blog Consoles Wont Ever Be Strong Enough to Match PCs (In which I covered the power of the next-gen console's hardware and why it's hard to achieve 1080p and why it's weaker than PCs) you would know why. So to compensate they used the Cloud to create a infinite number of servers (because their digital, they had no real limit) and that's very good because, the less programs/items (players,bots,maps,menus) on a single server the better that server runs which makes the entire game run smoother.

The Cloud's Weakness

"Oh ok cool the Cloud gives us a better experience, why hasn't this been used more?" Sadly, Cloud is not some super computing program something Rich from Reviewtechusa covered, our internet speeds, especially the U.S, just isn't up to par enough for The Cloud. For The Cloud to be used efficiently it needs fast Internet speeds, something that is too rare for it to be used to it's full potential...yet.
In a few years maybe but due to bandwidth limits, (basically the amount of data you can use, for downloads video streaming, and webs surfing, in a specific set of time) quality of our Internet providers, and overall make-up of our Internet, utilizing The Cloud's potential is still a distant memory hiding in the future.

The Gaming World's Cloud Investment

Microsoft wasn't the only one to bet a big chip on The Cloud, in fact many other big names in the gaming world has dared to venture into the skies even while the likes of Nintendo disputed Cloud Gaming as being "The future". At 2013's E3 not only did Microsoft flaunt their Cloud Gaming, Sony announced the Playstation Now service which is the pure definition of Cloud Gaming. Everyone had already known that Sony was out to define the term when they purchased Gaikai, a cloud streaming technology-based company. But later that year Gamespot proved that if you reach too high you run the risk of getting burned down by the sun. They had also made a purchase of Spawn Labs (a company similar to Gaikai) to ensure they keep their high position in the Cloud revolution but they ended up having to shut it down due to the consumer's non-interest and complete lack of faith or knowledge concerning Cloud Gaming.

Conclusion

I wrote this article for that the same reason that Gamespot had to close Spawn Labs and the reason Microsoft released that Cloud/Titanfall trailer video, the general consumer (you) is not educated and aware of The Cloud and therefore does not take advantage and or appreciate the Cloud services given to them. So please share this article with as many people as you can, friends or family anyone that plays games should read this, The Cloud is a very important tool and it will someday be used for great feats but if we don't let the developers know that The Cloud is useful and that we want it to be applied to our games, It will not have any place in the future of gaming, after all you have all the power in your hands developers don't decide anything you do.

And that is a goodbye ladies and gents I strangely had fun writing this article so I hoped you're taking something away from it! And if you'd like, comment below on what you think The Cloud could be used for in future games (be as specific as need be!) you can find me again at colemantimes.blogspot.com for informative posts like this, opinion pieces, video game/ tech reviews, and numerous discounts,giveaways,and contests.

The Waiting Room - Wolfenstein: The New Order

2014-04-01T17:42:00.001-05:00

Hello all and welcome to the first edition of The Waiting Room of video games, with the gaming world never
letting us take a rest without thinking about the next upcoming game with the teaser that wouldn't stop teasing your brain.
Today's topic is an adaption of a retro game with a similar name Castle Wolfenstein where you attempted to escape a German/Nazi fort as an American captive. This game got a sequel and even a 3D adaption in a short while but it's been dead since the beginning of the new millennium.
So one would ask a question of why to reanimate the corpse now? (pun intended) and most of whom I asked the question answered "To bring back the old FPS genre" and when I thought about it, I ended up agreeing. I would never have guessed the design and gameplay before it was shown to us and that is most likely because I've never seen something like it, the shooters I grew up playing was battlefield, medal of honor, and of course COD.
But with game like the Metro series and Bioshock (I seriously thought this game was a fusion of the two when I was viewing gameplay) popping up I see a new line of FPS games appearing, one with an increase of story and shooting actually taking a back-seat to story and exploring, something battlefield and COD fans been asking for for a long time purely because the mainstream shooter games lack them.
And that what I think this game will be a product of this new kind of shooter. But make no mistake the shooting is just as satisfying as any other games with the big gritty metallic gun selection your bound to have fun destroying your enemies as you rush through them like 80-90s action movie.
You're bound to have lots of interesting enemies with on par if not better level design. With you playing a man who fell into a coma in the middle a of World War 2 and woke up in 1960 to a Nazi-ruled world with almost any resistance laid to rest by the classic robotic super-soldiers (Big Daddy prototypes) backing up Germany. With beautiful Bioshock-centric (I'm done) art and a soundtrack composed of classics and German songs that's bound to get a rise out of you negative or positive, Wolfenstein is definitely going to be a good time which is only going to make this Waiting Room harder to sit through.
If you want some tension lifted follow and share colemantimes.blogspot.com for more editions of The Waiting Room and if you want a old game to come back comment below I'll love to see some probably-never coming game just to make fun of those in the waiting room.

New GTA Online "Aliens" DLC Rumored

2014-03-31T18:33:00.003-05:00

GTA was a great game, and my favorite game of the year, so why wouldn't we be happy that they gave us a whole online world to roam around in after we complete the main story, oh how wrong I was.
NONE of the things we were promised, besides a few bug fixes, has been given to us yet and nearly a year has passed already. Online heists was the main thing that pulled people to GTA Online and with it still not even getting a mention, people have been leaving the game one by one including me. So you can probably tell how much I was overjoyed when I heard that some form of (More than a few weapons!) DLC was being made for GTA to keep us bay while they work on the heists.
And the DLC's expected theme, much like Call of Duty's next DLC, will be aliens. I think this is a wonderful no matter how they integrate, they could have an Extinction-like mode where you and friends fight aganist ascending hordes of aliens while completing objectives so basically like Survival but with real-time objectives adding an extra layer of challenge.
It could also be entered (alone) when your character smokes pot and you will have to attempt to stay alive as your environment changes around you, like in the story mode. Either way if this next DLC really is aliens then i'm going to have fun going back to GTA.

If you liked then share and follow for more of the like! colemantimes.blogspot.com
And if you're interested comment below (On blog) what DLC you desire for GTA whether story mode or online
Thanks for reading!
____________________
ESPORTS
Do we have any fans in the house? Well i'm one or at the very least interested, and I heard OpTic came in 3rd in the last COD championships so I wanted to interview a member of their team OpTic NadeShot about what happened and also about his life and career
Oh you want to know some things too? I'll remember to ask him any question you send me but in return you have to tweet him "@Player1CJ wants a interview tweet him back" so it'll actually happen

Minecraft Canceled for Oculus Rift Thanks to Facebook

2014-03-26T18:21:00.002-05:00

I'm sure alot of people are aware of the fact that Oculus VR has been bought by Facebook very recently, personally I think that a social integration into the Rift would be good IN THEORY. One moment you can be in a blizzard of immersion doing whatever your heart so desires, then you can jump straight into a Facebook-esque browser, look at what your friends are playing and also see what your brother or sister is eating for lunch that day. You might even be able to hit up your friends and organize a dungeon raid on the fly.
But I also think Facebook will try to force one thing or another down Oculus's throat and they always have their way, at least from I've observed. But I didn't think there would be a massive chain-reaction this early. I will be the first to say Minecraft is not the game for me and I do not play it. But this is not about my preferences this is about the success of Oculus Rift as a whole, Minecraft has a gigantic following and trust that thousands maybe even millions of people completely gave up on the Rift after hearing about this. And you think this is the end of the ramifications? Hell no, more developers will follow suit with the preference of not getting involved with Facebook.
I don't blame them really but the fact that a big-time developer can simply say "No" that easily scares me down to every single one of my molecules, after all if a certain Nintendo product has taught us anything, third-party games is everything for a console no how good first-party games are.

I'm still looking forward to Rift and possibly getting my hands on the second Development Kit (prototype) if you want more opinion-pieces on Oculus and the upcoming Development follow my
blog colemantimes.blogspot.com and follow me on G+ if you like randomness,being up to date on things I don't deem worthy of a full article, or to send me a story you would like this handsome devil to cover.

Leaked Assassin's Creed (Unity) Images

2014-03-19T23:09:00.001-05:00

Assassin's Creed is one of my favorite series of all time and AC2 is absolutely my favorite game of all time, so you can probably guess how I reacted to this, organism of course.
According to some leaked images Kotaku picked up the next assassin game will be called Unity , perhaps, And I think the name itself speaks about the bond between a Creed or Brotherhood so maybe we will see more assassin's then certain previous titles had, due to the fact they were dying out during their time period.
Also some land marks suggest that it will most likely be set in the French Revolution which would be only a short time after AC3, but make no mistake the two revolutions couldn't be more different. Even though the French was inspired by the Americans, to revolt, they took a much more bloody and extreme route to their freedom resulting in over 17,000 executions including the king and the queen.
The graphics and texture don't look as good as I think it should but for all we know this could be coming out on handheld and I expect a graphical gap between a handheld and next-gen consoles. If this turns out to be real we're in for a real treat this time and let's hope it's close relation with AC3 doesn't affect the quality!
If you liked then come check out my blog it wont hurt you!...probably http://colemantimes.blogspot.com/

New Watchdogs (Story) Trailer!

2014-03-06T17:08:00.002-06:00

He's back everyone! The world hasn't heard a peek from watchdogs since it was delayed back in 2013. If you actually went back to my Most Anticipated Games of 2014 you would see that watchdogs was my number 1 and that excitement still hasn't burned out.

In this one, in a very blockbuster trailer style, we see what the actual story is going to be like and that was big because all we've seen was some free-roam gameplay (good gameplay but still) and a brief synopsis of the plot. Our lovely main character has a bounty hovering over his head (Probably because he fucked with me on GTA Online) and he's out to find out why and during so he obtains powers beyond his wildest imaginations and he comes on the verge of a plot that is much bigger than his self.

This was a short one guys but the main reason I wrote this was to get people pumped for Watchdogs when it hits this May and maybe relight the fire that was brewing in them for playing Watchdogs at PS4 launch only to have a bucket of water thrown onto them hearing it was delayed but hopefully it was all for the best. To achieve the true "Next-Gen" experience.

Wanna hear more about Watchdogs especially when it hits? Follow my blog and you will not be disappointed
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Consoles won't ever be strong enough to match a PC

2014-03-05T18:43:00.002-06:00

I love consoles, I do but i'm also a PC gamer and it really irks me with all of this resolution talk on both
consoles. Hey! Have you heard that Killzone (Shadowfall) is 960p in multiplayer!? Who the hell cares! i'm sorry the majority of the community does since the reason that people keep writing and talking about it, is because you read and watch their shit religiously.

If you want me to break it down for you I will. First of all chances of (in a few years) every game being 1080p is nearly impossible because of the architecture of both the consoles the games will not improve much power-wise unless they take away certain elements purely to achieve 1080p (like stable FPS for example) but is it really worth it after that?

Second of all, news flash people the reason that consoles won't EVER be on the level of gaming PCs again is because it's price-point and power supply. Believe it or not a lot of the performance on your PC is due almost entirely to the power supply and you can't have high level processors or GPUs without a heavy power supply. So a 250 watt console will NEVER beat a 1000 watt gaming PC. Sure they can push all that power into the box but that will increase the size and especially the price of the console. Then after that it's just a goddamn gaming PC with a controller.

So please whoever reads this if you actually care about resolution get a gaming PC or if you can handle games not being 1080p (I used to play on a 1080p monitor now I have a 900p one so trust me the shit does not matter) then pick up your controller and just enjoy the game, after all isn't that what we always try to achieve? Enjoyment, you just need to find your way to get that enjoyment.

And if you received some enjoyment out of this article go back to my homepage move you're mouse to the right to follow to keep up to date for when I release more opinion pieces mixed with a bit of news,like this
colemantimes.blogspot.com

Government Stopped Funding to "Violent" Video Game Developers

2014-02-27T18:34:00.003-06:00

I'm sorry guys I wasn't going to write this article since I wanted to do something because I haven't sat down to write anything in weeks. But this just angered me to my core and I take this as an insult to not me but the entire gaming community.

For those who don't know the House of Representatives are currently passing a tax reform bill and within it states to not give funding to what they describe as "violent" video game developers.

Well damn, the hate and ridicule of video games has finally became a federal level "problem". I'm a teenager my mother just recently bought Grand Theft Auto V and my aunt advised against that due to how violent and sexual some of it was. And I agreed with the later parts it is very violent but people need to understand that it is not hurting anyone and it's just plain fun no one is thinking "If I can do it in a game why can't I do in real life?" while their playing and what fun about it is that freedom to do what you can't in real life if i'm stressed after a hard day at school do you think I should go back to school with a gun tomorrow or do you think I should sit down get something to drink and just play a deathmatch in GTA and have fun while doing it?

If this is passed it will definitely impact the business especially triple A games because they need so much money to make the wonderful work they do.And I do think it will be passed and not even account video games in their decision that's just how much people don't care, they really do think games are just for children and these violent games are what their children is playing even though they don't complain when they know they let their children watch specially R rated movies even though game are rated appropriately as well!

God guys, a lot of the crap I said in here was opinionated and I know some of you disagree with everything and I know most people reading this feel the same now I need to go and chill for a moment maybe play some GTA

If you enjoyed my ranting come check out my blog for more opinion-based articles like this colemantimes.blogspot.com

Beats Music Review 7.5/10

2014-02-16T16:15:00.000-06:00

Music is a universally known language and is integrated into every culture in some way,shape,or form. So of

course we need services to bring us our music and the talent-worthy performers who create our pastime.
Dr.Dre has done it again, found another way to bring music at it's finest. First was his infamous performing career then the pop cultural phenomenon known as Beats by Dre and now Beats Music.
But it has the likes of Pandora and Spotify to attend with if it wants to reign supreme. And even though I have never tried Spotify I think it has a fighting chance.
As you enter the app and sign you are asked to pick your favorite genres and performers, through stylish bubbles instead of a plain list I might add. Then you are treated to a favorable homepage with some recommendations to check out. But I myself think this is the weakest part of Beats Music and that is pretty sad considering that it's the first thing you see. It's just not good at picking things out for you and if you really want to find NEW music you know you wouldn't have listened to before, I recommend heading over to Pandora.
But if you already have a few artist in mind go look them up with Beat's quick and simple interface and add them to your library where you can live out music paradise for eternity.
Overall, Beats Music is a good place to go if you just want to find good music without much hassle but for anything else i'm afraid not with it's weak recommendations and lackluster but informative articles that describe the up and coming of artists and inspirations of songs or albums I give it a 7.5/10 with a recommendation to go enter it's 7-day long free trial and find an opinion of you're own I know I wasn't dissatisfied at least

Sonic Boom Trailer Impressions

2014-02-08T18:49:00.004-06:00

We all know that the Wii U is struggling and that nintendo's plan to help it out was to (not try to get third party games like they said) start developing some new games to some series that been lacking one of course being Sonic (Zelda too but uh we don't talk about that one).

We had a Sonic game last year but as I said it was extremely lacking at least in sonic game standards that we have come to expect, so it's nice see a new game with alot more potential and i'm interested to see how much power the Wii U actually has (I'm ready for the other two console comparisons after the article).

So to the part everyone been waiting for HOLY CRAP KNUCKLES WHAT U ON BROTHER? It seems like everyone got new character designs and I think this is the same reason that the next Zelda game is going to be so different from the previous. Nintendo is trying to bring out some new things while still retaining the old IPs (Nintendo we need some actually fresh IPs) so this is the way of meeting the community in the middle.

They are also going to let multiplayer into the mix with this new Sonic game is made to be co-op which I think is a very good thing since call of duty multiplayer has been a very important part of the western gaming market and it's something Nintendo has really took a while to get.

All in all this is looking to be another awesome Sonic game that I can add to my collection

Are you going to follow this one or do you think their going to kill sonic by 2015? Answer down in the comments section below and if you enjoyed this mess come check out my blog colemantimes.blogspot.com where I do everything from Tech to TV

The Internship Review 7/10

2014-02-02T03:56:00.003-06:00

The world is constantly changing around us especially right now with all the advances technology has made in the last few years we're on the verge of the revolution of evolution. And us humans naturally don't like change but The Internship is the story of two men who are forced to change and adapt to their new environment.Oh and it's a movie about google what more can you want?

Billy and Nick just lost their jobs as salesman because technology has replaced their jobs and the times have moved on from them but it doesn't take long for them to fake them going to college and land an internship at Google.
Woah woah woah slow your roll buster.
Google?
Yep google the thing that EVERYONE (which is not an opinion) uses and some could argue that this entire movie was an expensive as all hell advertisement for google since they casually drop facts about google that you might not even know but it became so much more than that.
The interns are then thrown into a mental hungry games where they must complete several challenge over the summer to secure their entire team a spot at google.
I though this was a fun simple premise that could lead to a lot of things and it really did. You'll spend most of the movie laughing and pretty much just enjoying every second of it especially with the colorful cast who are a lot more than what they appear to be at first glance.Though the story gets boring at times and they never really could balance drama and comedy.

The acting was superb with the great dynamic of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn a solid support cast and i'm a total fanboy for Dylan O'Brien from his role on teen wolf. Though I wish they were more outgoing with the music not saying that it was bad or anything, I actually enjoyed how they threw in a little track near the end that reminded me of George Lopez if you ever watched it you would know what i'm talking about (That would go on my things to watch before you die, by the way).

The internship is fun to watch for a good afternoon or with friends over but it doesn't really leave a lasting impression so I have to give it a 7/10 good.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online Review:Best MMO Shooter Since PlanetSide 2

2014-01-28T04:21:00.001-06:00

Sorry I haven't made many posts as of late, but I was caught up in the new game i'm playing and just like any new game I get I marathon the shit out of it. This time it was about 2 days of nonstop play you know how intense of a gamer you are if your uncle is proud that you got in the shower.

It's been a really slow month for gaming (I plan to start playing some games I miss this year but this happened earlier) so I picked up a couple MMOs since it's the only my computer can handle right now since I haven't got my gaming PC together yet (work in progress).I really liked PlanetSide 2 but it wasn't working out with my PC they didn't really get even decent framerates on medium (20) so I dropped it and moved on to some other shooters which eventually led me to Ghost Recon through my friend's (...Acquaintance?) blog.

And what will your play style be sir?

From the beginning you are treated to 3 classes to choose from without much info if you hadn't watched or read anything about the game beforehand.
You have your classic rusher,sniper, and the inbetween, I would say that the class system doesn't take any risks but after a few games you can customize your gun so much that you can be whatever you want for every class.
So what are you the point of the classes than? One of my favorite features in Ghost which is the special ability that each class gets at level two, two for each class. These abilities are represented as high tech weaponry, what the original Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers was all about.
Whether it's Recon's oracle revealing the locations of nearby enemies or Specialist's Aegis shield that covers them and their allies as they rush the opponent every single ability plays a role in the match and a good mix of all those abilities leads to a rock-solid team.

A Tactical Joy

Ghost is still in open-beta so there is always the chance that they will add deathmatch modes. But if a call of duty fanboy (you all know at least one) told me he was going to play this game I would laugh until my heart stops than look up at him "Oh you're serious?". This game is not about getting kills and racking up your streak (maybe i'm just mad because I only ever got one and it was only a 2 kills?) there is either one or many points that you have to get ahold of to win the match and then you have to stop the opposing team from stealing it.

Initially I was turned off by their not being a deathmatch mode but when I played my first match all of those doubts disappeared in a blink of an eye. The mixture of different players and special abilities always kept you on your toes you didn't know if an assault was coming to rush your ass off or am you were going to be one-shotted by a sniper as you were running for cover from a special ability that damages your equipment and makes sparks fly from your helmet (by the way it's hard to do pretty much of anything with electricity IN your head ).

Ghostly Fun

Overall, Ghost is a amazing game to play when you got a few hours to kill but it comes with it's problem like anything else. texture pop in is a regular occurrence that happens almost everytime you walk around a corner (Have you ever tried to flank someone only to run directly into a wall that literally came out of nowhere then find yourself at a dead end?).
After a few games you can get enough money to upgrade your gun but after that it's hard to get that amount of money again unless you cough up some real cash. This also connects with how long it takes to find matches sometimes you have to wait 15 minutes and if it does take that long you're probably thrown into an ongoing game because a guy quit. They may also have to make the skill range larger with you confronting the guys who can one-shot you while you five-shot them.

I give Ghost Recon Online a 8.5/10 with a recommendation that you go and download it right now from the link below (not on steam yet) it's free to play and that's a damn good deal for something as amazing as this game.

If you enjoyed the review come check out my blog colemantimes.blogspot.com
You can check out my friend's blog for a list of MMOs you can play but he also does PC builds for specific things he just made a MMO build I believe you can play any MMO on max with good FPS on that build http://nglo-pcbuilds.weebly.com/
Ghost Recon Official Site

Xbox's Quest For Games

2014-01-25T17:27:00.002-06:00

When I first got into gaming it was through anime (look it up) and it's very closely related genre RPG so I played them almost religiously shunning any other genre like shooters and action. But that kinda did not work out when I got my xbox 360 coming from my wii. I had discovered that the Xbox had a very thin category of RPGs especially my favorite franchise period, Kingdom Hearts which was one of the many PS3 exclusives.

The first game was the very FIRST game I played. Ever. So I spend the latter part of the generation growing accustomed to adventure games trying to get my weekly gaming fix. I'm happy now because playing other genres I truly grew to love gaming replacing anime as my hobby.

So I was happy when I heard that Microsoft worked out a deal with Square Enix to get Kingdom Hearts 3 on Xbox One.

Even though I plan getting the PS4 as my main console (I'm still getting the xbox one for the exclusives) i'm happy that Microsoft truly learned from their mistakes last generation were to be honest the 360 was for shooter fans (Which I was not) and not much else excluding the occasional action-adventure.

The Xbox is going through whatever means to get exclusives or at least old PS3 exclusives as cross-platforms appealing to a larger audience.

Like I had expected, the first year of the new consoles was going to turn into a battlefield for the gaming community now the ball's in Sony's court with their Playstation Now.

What do you think about Microsoft's new approach to games? or do you think Playstation will still reign supreme?

let me know down below in the comments section and if you enjoyed the article come check out my blog for my thoughts on events in the gaming world plus the occasional game/tech review colemantimes.blogspot.com

Alienware Steambox Non-Upgradable: Dell's Gamble

2014-01-24T17:15:00.000-06:00

So most PC gamers are aware of the upcoming steam boxes and most of those most is fascinated with Alienware's,because a certain youtube gaming channel showed their interest in it even without knowing any of the specs. Well i'm very interested in it as well not because of the specs though because of the new information surrounding it.

Dell is known for their laptop entries in the gaming PC market so they have some leverage to play around with since we all know their is a very devoted group of people (as with other big companies) that will buy their steambox no matter what. So they took a leap of fate into the Steamboxes target market the console players,similar to the steam controller's recent redesign (which I, not like a lot of others, am not happy about).

PC gaming is always evolving that's why it's ahead consoles right now (notice how I worded that) and the basis of that evolving is the sheer amount of customization that one can have on their PC and they will eventually have to upgrade no matter what.

well like I mentioned in my earlier article on the "Single Player" this new generation is bringing brand new innovation out of companies (no matter what anyone say yes PC also has generations).

Ok ok i'll get to the point alienware's steambox is un-upgradeable making more like a console following what my dear friend (I wish) Rich from ReviewTechUsa said if they really wanted console players they shouldn't be making all these models of steamboxes with these ridiculous prices.

They should just make one base model that every single game made for Steam OS and even ported to it can be me played on high settings. I think what PC gamer nerds like me should not be mad about this that you wont be able to max out all these games with 100+ FPS but just be glad that we're not getting the same type of thing we already have.

This is for people who want to get into pc gaming but either says A it's too expensive I genuinely do not believe that alienwares prices will be low their known for sometimes overpricing things but the iBuyPower and CyberPC steamboxes are both 500$ the same prices as the xbox one which they probably already have.

This will stop non-PCers from being confused about all these different parts that they don't even know how to compare to find out which is better.

How do you guys feel about this one? Do you think Alienware is killing their fanbase? or do you think that this is a good step forward to getting steamboxes in living rooms alongside the PS4 and Xbox?
UPDATE: Even though everything in this article still stands alienware will actually allow upgrades but still I think all games should be able to work the base hardware console gamers won't want to upgrade and if there's a new one every year why would they?

Check out my personal blog for more info on steamboxes and much more

New MMORPG:Aura Kingdom Beta Thoughts

2014-01-18T15:49:00.001-06:00

I love RPGs and I used to play them exclusively but I had an xbox 360 which as you might already know has a very thin category of RPGs and I had a cheap computer so I couldn't play any full fledged PC games on it,besides it did not have the classic series like Tales either.

So my next option was MMORPGs after searching for a while (3 minutes) I found Eden Eternal and loved it playing for hours on end every day and when the "Reawakening" came out I came back to it and started to grind once again as many of us MMORPG players do.

This time I started to play a game made by the makers of Eden Eternal and redownloaded Aeria Games on my new computer just to play it. Right off the bat you are introduced to a cinematic scene not knowing much at all. You battle several boss-looking monsters with AIs acting as a party making this seem like an actual dungeon raid. The healer in your party makes it so that you can't die so this is basically a tutorial for you to try some things out and get used to the controls.

After some scenes I rather not mention (It's a decent story considering that there's rarely any story at all in MMORPGs so I rather not spoil you) you wake up in your small fishing town thinking that everything that you just saw is a dream (but is actual a foretelling of later game events THEORY). So you are then introduced to the standard MMO fetch quests which is not at all but there's SO MUCH story in this game if you don't stray away from the quests every once in awhile you get a cutscene every 10 minutes.

Don't blame yourself if you end up skipping a few conversations I just don't recommend skipping everything thoughtless because like I said it has a strong story integrated in the gameplay.

And the gameplay is well uh.....decent the classes have good variety but some are just copypasted classes from other games with new name and appearance I thought it would be fun to be a gunslinger but it's basically an archer but less fun then the one from Eden. there's some good skills as well but you're only treated to a few at the beginning and since I only just started I don't if it gets better but I definitely don't want to be rocking level 1 skills in a level 40 dungeon and the same exact things goes for the weapons.

But a portion of the combat problems can be compensated when you get your chosen Eidolon a guardian spirit that helps you in combat some games like Dragon Prophet also try this but I think this is the best integration since Pokemon. You can level them up ask them questions and have a conversation you can level them up into bigger and badder spirits eventually and there really valuable in boss battles.

Overall Aura Kingdom is as you expect an unfinished product though there's not many bugs I think they should have kept this one in closed beta for a little bit longer

What do you guys think of this one and will you give it a try? And if you already have what do you think of the game and do you disagree with anything I've said?

Watchdogs: the Next-Gen GTA With a Twist

2014-01-15T19:32:00.003-06:00

Even though it was released awhile ago I saw actual gameplay of WatchDogs a few minutes ago. And let me just say i'm impressed in every aspect of the word.
You spend the video free roaming not just to not give away much about the game's story but also to let the world see how well-made the entire world is.
The main appeal of this game is the ability to interact with the technology of the city itself. In the not so distant future of Chicago (My hometown! :D) to prevent crime and generally better the city an advanced operating system was put in place (CTOS) and if someone was able to enter the system itself they would possess a truly terrible power,control of the entire city. And it's truly what makes this game fun every single piece of world is interactive through the CTOS you can hack phones,security camera,bank accounts and even see a person's entire background just by glancing at them.
The story doesn't end there though, there's so much more. The shooting and driving mechanics are superb and the cars worthy of a rockstar, you get to drive really brought me back to GTA of which I think WatchDogs is a bigger and badder version of I honestly expected it to completely rip off GTA but there's so much more besides that game, to be explored in the open world genre which is only just getting more popularity which comes with more titles to be made within it.
And then the interactivity is taken to a whole new level, the CTOS is essentially a crime-prevention service it marks potential victims and potential criminals in the gameplay you follow a women who is an expected victim and so have it, as she walked down an alley she was attacked by her ex-boyfriend and was about to be killed or at the least beaten to a pulp. We intervened and entered a chase sequence which hasn't been my favorite mechanic in most games notably Assassin's Creed but it actually looks much more fleshed out in WatchDogs which also applied to the car chase scene directly after so.
Ok to be honest I kinda squealed when I saw a gun shop riding up on the corner (don't judge) but this showed off the moral system implicated in this game. After surfing through a rather extensive list of guns (things to look forward to) a news show came on the tv in the gunshop stating that you were the number 1 suspect in a crime which the owner reacted to by pushing a silent alarm. But nothing gets pass us right?
Ok fine that has nothing to do with the moral aspect but the gist of that is how you handle events such as crime prevention effects how the people see you a true vigilante or a reckless criminal and it WILL impact the story in one way or another.
And perhaps the most interesting thing I've seen today represented exactly what my last article was about the single player and multiplayer were molted together. You or any other person for that matter can enter a single player without the player even being aware and you can continue to hack the player's phone to get a portion of the information they got during their game. And that begins the fun, the player is now aware of your presence and will be hunting you down while you try to stay alive but stay close enough so that the connection is not broken and the hack completes.

All in all WatchDogs will truly be something for when it releases and will definitely dominate the market now I have to go spend the rest of my days scanning the internet for every tidbit about WatchDogs
But what did you think about all this info and are you going to be checking out watch dogs yourself? tell me down in the comment section below and see you next time

Is Single Player Still Necessary?

2014-01-13T22:10:00.000-06:00

Titanfall is having a tough time with marketing since it has no single player now this raises a question in my mind that the guys over on gamespot's podcast "GamePlay" had an interesting conversation about.
With the surge of Multiplayer that Call of Duty brought us more and more shooters are following the trend of focusing on Multiplayer and in some cases *cough* Destiny *cough* they attempt to merge single and multiplayer or focus solely on multiplayer and have shitty campaigns in the case of Call of Duty and Battlefield, the two most popular shooters. So we should have seen the moment someone was brave enough to break this meaningless cycle and do their own thing. I hope they continue to break cycles with next-gen and become something completely new.The video game future's looking bright that's a definite.

The Evolution Of Mobile Gaming

2014-01-12T11:31:00.002-06:00

Alot of stuff to talk about since CES ended yesterday while searching for a topic that hasn't already been used and abused by almost every tech or game content creator on the internet I wanted to cover something that is a bit more broad and implied rather than stated.
Mobile gaming is becoming much more than what it is right now. Phones has evolved so much in such a little time that we couldn't have imagined what our phones does for us right now, 30 years ago.
I always thought mobile will take over sooner or later it's just wasn't powerful enough at the time but it would be. both AMD and Nvidia has created these powerful mobile processors that will be able to keep with consoles and even PC.
Nvidia actually worked with Epic Games so it can run their next gen game creator the Unreal Engine 4 which is what being used on the xbox and PS4 today the tech demo they showed was just astounding then nvidia said it themselves, they did not think Mobile will be at the place it is at until a few years into the future.
The challenge right now is not the hardware it is the general gaming community not taking mobile seriously, both companies and consumers alike. Well, I look forward to having triple A games in my pocket ready for play no matter how long I will have to wait

More info on Nvidia's Tegra K1
Tegra K1's full tech demo with commentary

Steambox: PC and consoles came together and had a baby

2014-01-07T02:07:00.002-06:00

So it has been quite awhile waiting for the steambox to come into the picture and it has been worth the wait they have officially unveiled the steambox (13 to be exact) starting from 500$
The web has been set on fire this pass week with steambox being the source and I don't blame them this truly something to be excited some people are completely against the idea of steam machines but they just don't get the market I would love to play my PC games in my living room on my TV like my consoles and if they can sell a steambox for the price of a Xbox I would choose it over the Xbox

So there are quite a few steamboxes mid to high-end that have appeared at CES the most notable being iBuyPower giving you a very affordable mid box that can easily keep with next gen for at least 2 or 3 years but I was really surprise is how customizable the models were though I will be getting a iBuyPower and upgrading separately

But the real market for this box was to bring PC to console gamers and I think it will truly accomplish that especially with the new steam controllers they imitate mouse and keyboard even though it's not perfect it get the job done and looks pretty fun to play with

Check out some other stuff
Most builds with their specs and prices Kotaku
Some more info on both CES and Steambox IGN PC Gamer

Will you be getting a steambox or do you think you don't need one? tell me all about it in the comment section below I will definitely respond to any questions you can ask I spent a lot of time on this one so I think I know most things

Destiny : A Wide Open Living World

2014-01-03T00:52:00.001-06:00

I was surfing YouTube looking at some gameplay videos and I was brought to a old E3 Demo of Destiny a new next-gen shooter from the ones who made Halo and I took that with a grain of salt because I never actually Halo because I only got into shooters recently
So after watching IGN Coverage of the demo I was excited i'm a really big fan of MMOs and it sounds like the next-generation of consoles are going to be moving into that market, this might just be the deciding factor of me getting a next gen console at all

One of the public events

It showed a lot of different types of classes and weapons and I felt a wee bit nostalgia it looked a lot like Planetside 2 which I also recently started playing (I might do some articles on it when i'm done being a total Planetside noob 24/7 I only got one kill which was a freaking accident) we also saw a small machine by the name of Ghost which seemed similar to the little machine in Killzone:Shadowfall no one else really paid it much heed but it seemed like a nice little edition to me the fight scene was fast-paced and adrenaline fueled definitely the kind of fights I want in the IGN video they stated something I didn't really focus on and that their will be several different kinds of magic attacks which will be used in conjunction with guns adding some more aspects and more depth to the fire fights
The thing that ended the demo was what really sold me and that was a public event where all the players in the area chose to fight against this one opponent and get some good loot for it I really enjoy events like this in MMOs especially when it's done right and this is a prime example of that
I regret not putting this in my 2014 anticipated games but be sure to watch out for this one it's definitely going to keep me busy for awhile atleast

Most Anticipated Games Of 2014

2014-01-02T00:37:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year's everyone! To welcome 2014 I wanted to say some of the games i'm really waiting for so in no particular order
Infamous Second Son
I didn't get a PS3 this generation I had a a Xbox instead so I missed out on a lot of exclusives one of those being the Infamous series so i'm looking forward to see what this highly acclaimed series got

Kingdom Hearts 3
A lot of you main stream shooter fans probably just went like HUH but this game is the wet dream of almost all RPG fans the long-awaited direct sequel of the strange crossover of Final Fantasy and Disney

took the world by surprise back in the early 2000s it has been a long 7 years since KH2 we are ready to pick our old keyblades back up again

Dying Light
This sucker is released on the same day as infamous and three days before my birthday! (I know what my present will be) zombies games are becoming more and more popular and this one is definitely going to show what lays ahead for the genre in the next generation (Shut up dead rising you weren't even 1080p) you should definitely go check out some gameplay videos over on YouTube you will know what i'm talking about

Titanfall
This is definitely my least most anticipated game of 2014 (yolo) only because i'm not really into mechs never have and probably never will be but the few gameplay moments I've seen peaks my curiosity but not my attention it wont be on ps4 I might not be able to play it if I don't get my gaming PC together soon

Watch Dogs
Thank god for it not being released yet it gives me times to get a ps4 (or pc) to play this guy at his best the last game I played this year was GTA 5 after finishing and loving it I find myself wondering, "With all the games attention to details I wonder just how amazing it would be on next gen" and this is the answer

We only know one thing for sure that is that 2014 is definitely going to be a interesting year with Next Gen, New 4k resolution,Steamboxes, And more apocalypse theories (Yes you know their coming)

Robotic's Notes Review 10/10

2013-12-29T03:15:00.001-06:00

I find how anime has become so much more than it used to be likewise how for someone it became more than a slight interest more than curiosity and then more than a hobby and Anime like robotic's notes tell us
why it has come so far.

Set in the near future of 2019 this sci-fi is set in the ground of reality and all the things in it might actually be what will appear in 2019 a lot of it technological advancement is thank to the world-wide anime hit Gunvarrel which inspired many to test the technological limits of their era and build a giant robot like you see in the movies after all who wouldn't want to have a giant robot in their backyard it would be a great conversation starter.
The robotic's research club one goal since it's formation nine years prior was to build a real life Gunvarrel, Gunbuild 1.

The current generation of member only consists of Akiho the younger sister of the girl who formed the club and seeks to finish her sister's dream and Kaito a care-free boy who never actually helps Akiho and spends almost every waking second playing Kill-Ballad a game based on Gunvarrel
to point he's ranked 5th in the world and you have to beat him if you want him to do anything
So the first few episodes consists of the two trying to find members for their club and to receive more funding
it seems like a plain premise at first but the story evolves to astronomical heights from their and it's mixture of dark plot,comedy,romance, and plot twists all come together to form a unforgettable experience.

The character development in Notes is the main thing that keeps you immersed in the story
The club members are such colorful characters whose personality MAKES you cares for them. Each have deep back stories that try to pull on your heart strings and they come together perfectly.
Kaito has to be one of the best main characters in any anime I've seen you think your gonna get another lifeless character at the beginning but he's the most developed out of all the characters and his one goal never changed or wavered "Protect Akiho and her sister" I wont spoil anything but he goes through some crazy things and thinking back he was just like you or me a regular guythrust into situations he doesn't understand and placed with a task he takes upon himself to prefill.

The animation is top-notch and i'm pretty sure that's because they went into it trying for another steins gate
Thought the first opening was a bit too fasted pace for the series the second opening and all of the in-show music was spot on and definitely got you ready for the scene ahead whether it was emotional action or just the characters talking.

All in All Robotic's Notes is definitely something worth watching no matter what your looking for after you remove the sheet covering it you will see the masterpiece which robotic's notes .

so...yeah....uh...go....watch...it...like right now
Oh crap you're still there well I guess I might as well show you to some other anime you might enjoy if you haven't already than you should go watch the first two entries of this sci-fi series.
Chaos Head Steins Gate

I still haven't watched steins gate so i'll probably do that later myself

Oh by the way if don't already know visual novels are games but more like books their's voice acting music and pictures to match the gameplay part comes in when you are given multiple choices which can have minor effects or drastically change the ending.

Robotics Notes and the rest of the series are based on visual novels as well as other highly acclaimed anime like Kanon Fate/Stay Night and many others.

one particular visual novel I thought bared a lot of similarities with Notes is one by the name of Rewrite another Novel made by key the makers of Kanon and Air
And if you're one of the many people who already watched steins gate try it's visual novel as well their's different ending so you might even like it more than the anime
Hope I helped you find something you would like I will link you to where you can download visual novels and tell me what you think about my first review in the comment section

down below