Mad Catz has recently released a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier-branded headset for Playstation 3, X360, and PC. With so many options on the market, it’s best to shop around to find what fits your needs. This universal surround sound headset will fill the gaps for most gamers needing a new earpiece.
There is no doubt about it, the aethetics of this piece of hardware are fantastic. Being a Ghost Recon fan helps, but even the skull art could be considered “universal” and anyone could appreciate it. The cable to this wired headset is a matching blue and the lights in the ear cups light up the artwork for anyone to see – or if you set your headset on the bed and need to find them again.
In terms of sound, the quality is both exceptional and customizable, complete with Dolby Digital 7.1. While any surround sound set-up is exponentially better than listening through your TV, I felt completely engulfed in my games while wearing this headset. A small remote links into the cable and allows you to adjust both the game and mic volume on the fly. It also features a very-accessible mute switch. It’s all incredibly easy to adjust while in the game, too, as I generally had the game volume cranked up and had to turn it down once I hopped online with friends.
If you are upgrading from a TV/earpiece set-up and play a lot of online games, you are in for a surprising treat. While playing games like Battlefield 3 or even the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta, you hear things that you just can’t hear from a TV. Everything had a rich and crisp sound to it.
During extended-play sessions, comfort was never an issue. Once the headset was in place, I became oblivious to my surroundings and actually forgot I had them on. The mic can be completely removed, but it also bends so I generally just bent it out of the way when I didn’t need it. My only problem with this piece of hardware was that it made my ears sweat a little after a few hours of playing. It wasn’t a major issue though, and the benefit of enveloping myself with such immersive sound was fully worth it.
It is a common problem to talk louder while having headphones on, but with the optional Selective Voice Monitoring, you can hear yourself as your teammates do. The fear of waking everyone in the house while playing because you’re immersed is completely diminished.
Everything is included to hook up to your PS3 or X360 and it’s just as easy to hook into your PC. While switching rooms is a pain, if all of your systems are in the same room it is as simple as unhooking the optical cable and USB cable and switching it to the other system. There is also an additional cable to hook into the X360 controller. The quality through my computer was exceptional, too, and it just plugs in via the USB cable. The drivers self-installed and off I was, chatting on Skype with a much clearer tone than through the old mic/speakers set-up I was accustomed to (or worse, Skype over a smartphone).
This Tritton-built headset (it’s essentially a prettier AX720) offers the performance of a quality headset you would expect from Tritton, but with a much more eye-pleasing aesthetic to it. For someone that uses more than one system (consoles or PC), I couldn’t recommend this piece of hardware more; it’s one of the best upgrades you could treat yourself to.
Pros:
Cons:
Score: 5/5
Quick Attacks are Vagary.TV’s way of giving you, the reader, a glimpse at a game we are playing. This could be a game we are reviewing in full or just something we picked up for a few days to kill some time but either way it will highlight thoughts and impressions from the first hour or two of gameplay. Opinions could change before our final review (there will not be one for this title) though.
In this Quick Attack, we look at the first few hours of Rebellion’s Sniper Elite V2 for the Playstation 3, X360 and PC (played on the PS3).
In closing, I’d just like to say there are a few small sparks of genuis in Sniper Elite V2. Sadly, they are so few and far between that I can’t give it a recommendation. That said, I’m sure some people could find some entertainment in it.
What’s more depressing for a writer who enjoys writing up a release list than a week with no games? A week with one game. It’s easy to just blow off a week, but to sit down and formulate something for one game is a let-down. While we had a short Vita-fix last week, it’s back to no games again. Luckily, one of the big Playstation 3 franchises returns.. ~ Don
Please note dates are subject to change, and these do not account for digital releases, which can sometimes be as important as retail releases. Don’s personal picks are highlighted in red.
Playstation 3 only:
Starhawk is finally upon us and features new multiplayer mechanics as well as something that it’s predecessor lacked, a single-player campaign. Warhawk was a beloved shooter exclusive to the Playstation library, and from everything I have seen on the game (I didn’t play in the beta) Starhawk looks like a solid sequel. The “Build and Battle” system looks to dynamically change the atmosphere from game to game, so if you are looking for something with a constantly-evolving battlefield, look no further.
Are you picking up this weeks sole-release? Why/why not? Let us know in the comments below.
I’ll be honest. I ALMOST didn’t do a release list this week. Don’t get me wrong, the two games coming out look great. But two games are coming out this week. Is that worth making a new post, doing some format changes, trying to find some music to listen to, looking for that “killer pic” and then sending it on to be edited? In short- yes, it was. Enjoy the light week; it picks up in a few.. ~ Don
Please note dates are subject to change, and these do not account for digital releases, which can sometimes be as important as retail releases. Don’s personal picks are highlighted in red.
Multi-platform:
Store shelves won’t be bulking up this week, but what is lacking in quantity looks to making it up in quality with the one release coming out. Sniper Elite V2, a sniper-centered game (shocker, right?), takes place during World War 2. Instead of running around with guns blazing, V2 is focuses on precision. I found a nifty gameplay video to share, so enjoy.
Sony Playstation Vita
We’ve covered the latest Mortal Kombat game twice now, and there are never enough good things to say about it. Now, the story-driven fighter finds its place on the Vita. Taking advantage of the hardware and packing more unique challenges, this edition lets you take the MK that everyone raved about last year with you anywhere. FINISH HIM!
Are you buying either of these? Why/why not? Let us know in the comments below!
What it was:
Need for Speed Underground was the series’ departure into the tuner world. Released during the Fast and the Furious craze, Underground aimed to give would-be tuners a way to deck out Civics, Supras and Integras without going out and blowing all their hard-earned money. Street racing was now more mainstream than ever, and Underground gave people a way to enjoy most of the perks in the comfort of their home. Decals, rims, performance parts, paint jobs and bodykits; these are the great things about Need for Speed Underground. The tight, arcade physics helped settle the game as firm fixture of my racing game collection.
When Need for Speed Underground 2 came out with even more customization options and allowing players to freely roam the city, the series grew in great ways. While sound systems and Escalades were far from what the street racing genre needed, just having the options was great. Sadly, the series kept cranking the dial towards “story-driven” instead of “customization”. Need for Speed Most Wanted dropped customization greatly, allowing five whole bodykits to be picked from. This was the great decline, and it never really picked back up.
What it could be:
Need for Speed Underground 3 would focus on customization, much like it’s two predecessors. The over-arching story would take a back seat, but be relevant in the scope of unlocking new areas. Multiple bodykit pieces would return and in grand fashion. Dozens upon dozens of pieces to pick from. Car selection would be vast and as per typical Need for Speed, you would start with bottom-tier cars; only instead of focusing on top-end cars, Underground 3 would focus on middle-class cars. Some high-class cars will be available, I assure you.
Physics will also return to form. Not to say new Need for Speed games are lacking in that department, but a slight arcade-bias would allow easier drifting for racers of all types. Drifting would also be a-focal point, with just as much drifting as racing. If you don’t like the open-city model, you could quickly start events from the menu. Why force players to play a particular way when they don’t like to, right? But those people would miss out on the highway races against random opponents.
One of the series’ greatest innovations is the Autolog. If you’re a competitive gamer and haven’t experience this feature yet, you’ll be glad to know Autolog brags for you and rubs it in when other people beat your times. It doesn’t get old and honestly keeps me playing old tracks just to stay on top. The XP boost for beating someone is a great resource, too, so a level up mechanic to unlock parts and cars would be in place.
Online racing would be an obvious feature, allowing people to race their tuned cars. The new hook to Underground 3′s online play would be “Car shows”. Daily and weekly shows with different guidelines will allow people to submit their tricked out rides and vote on other peoples’ cars. This would play into the focus on customization and cement the game as a true step forward for the series.
Why it should happen:
There has been a lack of customization in street racing games lately, and none of them compare to the Underground games from a car tuner’s perspective. If it offered a more robust selection of parts than even Underground 2, the third Underground game would certainly mean business. While the last Need for Speed game (The Run) really proved a story-driven racing game could work, returning to the street-racing days of Underground is what I hope Need for Speed does next.
“Bring It Back” is a semi-regular column where writer Don Parsons takes a look back at some of his favorite games throughout his extensive years as a gamer, and dreams of having a follow-up. New games, old games.. none are off-limits.
Meet my favorite example of the genre - ADOM
As a teenager, I spent countless hours exploring dungeons. Whether it was on a quest for gold, to save some fair maiden, or to slay some demonic force, my adventurer days wove wonderful tales that I created. Don’t mind the fact that all of these brave journeys had me slaying “k’s” (kobolds) and “O’s” (orcs) at my keyboard; they are days that I miss regardless of being a lone “@”.
If you are unfamiliar with Rogue-likes, allow me to briefly explain. Around the year 1980, a game called Rogue was developed that started the player on the top floor of a dungeon, with the ultimate goal of getting to the bottom to retrieve an artifact and return with it. The whole game was designed using ASCII characters to represent both the dungeon, the player, and enemies. Rogue is still quite popular to this day and has spawned a seemingly-endless amount of copies (aka, Rogue-likes). A personal favorite of mine due to its amount of depth (Rogue-likes are generally basic in design) is ADOM. Rogue-likes are typically suicidal games, with the hope of getting further and further each time you play, and since the dungeons are randomly generated, they offer great replayability.
Meet David Williamson, developer of PC game Hack, Slash, Loot. David has been developing games for the PC as an independent/hobbyist developer for quite some time. As if reading my mind, he pairs my love with dungeon crawling, Rogue-likes with another love of mine – pixelated graphics. Hack, Slash, Loot (HSL) looks like a Rogue-like from the early-console days, only sharper. Instead of the usual ASCII characters, HSL has very charming characterizations of the heroes and enemies.
Oh, how far we've come..... the charming Hack, Slash, Loot
You’ll get your pick from different characters, each with their own perks and flaws. More characters unlock as you die and complete games. The problem with this is the game’s difficulty and the starting characters. One would expect the difficulty of the game to come from mastering unlockable characters that, although more difficult to use, reward a higher level of playing skill. Instead, you start with basic versions of atypical classes and unlock better versions. The first character you unlock got me quite a bit further than any of the starting characters did.
Multiple scenarios are available. Each one features different environments and different enemies. One, for example, is littered with coffins that will randomly give you loot or a skeleton that will do some serious damage to you up close. A mini-map will help you on your quest to the next floor; the brilliant aspect of this little guide is that you can click anywhere on the mini-map that you have already explored and your little adventurer will scampers off across the pixel dungeon to where ever you clicked, which is such a time saver.
Did someone order loot?
Loot is everywhere in HSL. The problem is that so much of it is specific to certain classes that it becomes tedious to even look at it. Who wants to pick up a wand when you are a Barbarian-type close-combat class?
The look of your sprite doesn’t change with the loot, which is understandable, though it would have been an amazing addition. Starting with leather garb and finding plate mail would have made me look as tough as I felt when enemies were doing little-to-no damage to me.
With a lack of character levels, upgrading your gear becomes the progression system in HSL, so it’s a very important factor and will determine how far along you get in your quest.
The brutal difficulty in the game can be off-putting so players that aren’t used to games like this. There’s also really nothing inventive to it to make it a must-play for newcomers and veterans of the genre. That said, for a $10 USD price on Steam, anyone looking to go on some difficult adventures into some dark dungeons can get their moneys worth with David Williamsons little gem, Hack Slash Loot.
Pros:
Cons:
Score: 3/5
April is ending with a bang! Well, with at least one good console release, though quantity is still very slim. After a chaotic month like March, I am personally embracing this slow period. It gives me time to catch up on Mass Effect 2. Yes, Mass Effect 2, not 3…. ~ Don
Please note dates are subject to change, and these do not account for digital releases, which can sometimes be as important as retail releases. Don’s personal picks are highlighted in red.
Multi-platform:
The sequel to a game that I never thought needed one, Prototype 2 looks more promising, strangely enough. I actually just watched the trailer (an ad on Youtube) and I am now genuinely wanting to play this game (Editor’s Note – Don is easily swayed by television ads, he once bought a GoJo. ^CS). It didn’t hurt having Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” as the song either. You’ll even encounter Alex Mercer, protagonist in the original Prototype game, as you unleash your devastating powers in this sandbox action game.
Nintendo 3DS:
The 3DS is the only portable system with any retail releases and it’s in the form of a black-and-white puzzler. Shifting World has a “Spy Vs. Spy” aesthetic and is loaded with puzzles to keep you occupied. With the contrasting colors, I would like to see how this looks in full-3D.
After playing Battleheart on my iPod, I longed for a similar structure but with classic RPG elements. On paper, Battleloot Adventure sounds just like that; lots of quests, different character classes to level up and manage and an assortment of equipment to arm yourself with. The perk here is the turn-based battle system, as opposed to the drag-and-attack nature of Battleheart.
Battleloot starts you off with a warrior-class and quickly introduces the mechanics. Combat is simple and starts with you tapping who you wish to use, and then double-tap who you wish to attack. Defense can be increased by tapping the character being attacked and they will parry. The caveat is that you only have so much energy, which is used for parrying and combo attacks. But in the grand scheme of things, the control system is genuinely easy to use (Note: I generally don’t like controls in iOS games.).
Once you have multiple characters in your party, you can use your energy to chain attacks together. While it depletes your energy, you also gain stars for doing so which are handy once you have unlocked skills. With the assorted character types being assigned a color, and the Pokemon [Water] > [Fire] > [Grass] approach being used, combat is a matter of matching your party’s strengths against the weaknesses.
The problem with this becomes apparent after an hour or so of play. You can only have three members in your party and there are four class-types. If a class is not weak against anything in your party, battles become drawn out annoyances. In Battlehearts, you picked your party based on preference and skills. In Battleloot, you struggle through a battle mad that you didn’t pick your Rogue-class because all you ran into were Warriors.
Skills in Battleloot are rather bland and un-inventive. The Knight, instead of having some devastating physical blow, heals some HP each turn instead. That is the payoff for reaching level five. While the Knight helps defend other units, he doesn’t personally take damage during this so it seemed rather moot.
The rest of the aspects to the game are rather pleasant. Graphically, the cartoon characters pop out of the vibrant backdrops while dancing back and forth. The sound effects are ear-catching, and never really got old. The large over-map drops you into a more detailed area map where you accept your quests. The characters have little quips that are entertaining, though the story is obviously not supposed to be taken seriously. It all presents itself in a whimsical way that shouldn’t be ignore because of the few problems I mentioned before.
For a limited time, Battleloot Adventure is on sale for $0.99 USD, so it may be worth grabbing now. Despite the shortcomings, it was an enjoyable adventure that was worth the money. An added bonus is the fact that weapons and gear all change your overall appearance. Battleheart stole my heart for a much longer period of time, but I don’t regret picking up this turn-based variant at all.
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Cons:
Score: 3/5
You’ll be hard pressed to find a survival game without some sort of supernatural gimmick playing into it such as zombies or ghosts. Ubisoft Shanghai knocks that stigma away with its latest digital release, I Am Alive. Instead of surviving horrible creatures with limited supplies, you are tasked with surviving the elements and the harsh survivors within it.
You play the part of Adam, a man who has traveled across the country in hopes of finding his wife and daughter. The world has been devastated by “The Event,” something the game never touches on, but traversing the fictional city of Haventon leads one to believe it was unapologetically brutal. While the overlying story is you trying to find your wife, you eventually meet up with a few friendly characters that you help out through the duration of the game. I won’t spoil anything, as that is the joy of such a game, but I found the story arch to play second fiddle to the gameplay; though the end sequence was quite a surprise and ended the game with a thoughtful moment of “what just happened”.
The strength in I Am Alive is the platforming. This is the selling point, in my opinion, and anyone who enjoys platformers should take interest. Stamina sets I Am Alive apart from every other platforming game I have played, and it’s so well done that anytime I got to a combat situation I grumbled because I wanted to scale more buildings. Some of the jumps and climbs Adam performs are a little unbelievable, but the stamina bar is the key element in creating tension.
As you climb around the environments, your stamina bar slowly drains and once you hit your limit you begin permanently stunting your stamina. You’ll find items to replenish the damaged stamina bar but these items are rare in the beginning of the game. The situations are so well placed and designed that, as you are making your way up to that open window, you really don’t know if you are going to make it into the window (climbing up to a standing position replenishes your stamina, though, if you lost of the bar itself, you’ll need an item to correct it) or if you’ll have to exert extra energy.
The environments themselves are a little wasteful, though. You can spend an hour of your five hour playthrough roaming around looking for hidden items only to come up empty handed. That’s not to say roaming won’t get you anything, as there are some people that need help scattered across Haventon. But the majority of the time I spent checking around corners and what-nots, I was left disappointed. I kept expecting little notes to fill in the details on what exactly “The Event” was, but nothing ever came up. That said, the areas you will roam around all look fantastic. The character models may look dated, but the environments look great.
Combat is handled in an interesting way, and even though I didn’t particularly care for it, it was because I enjoyed the platforming so much that combat just felt unnecessary. Most of the survivors of “The Event” are territorial, so the moment you walk into view, they will start to approach you. Thankfully, each situation is different, so you may get approached by one person with a gun and two with a machete, or vice-versa. The combinations make you think, because you can quick-kill one of them and then have the option to scare the others off by aiming a gun at them or outright shooting them. Bullets are in short-supply, so you really have to think about each situation carefully. It’s a genuine system, I will say that. After you have played through it once, you can go back through on a harder difficulty and try your hand at surviving the harshness with even more limited supplies.
My biggest complaint is the checkpoint/save system. Being an autosave-only game, you have to rely on the game saving at certain intervals. I didn’t actually know this in the beginning, and thought maybe a checkpoint would have been a good stopping point during one play session. When I booted it back up, I have lost 15 minutes of playtime and had to redo a few things I had already had a problem getting through. It’s not really the games fault, more-so the system the developers chose to work with. Much like quick-time events, I will state this is a personal preference thing, and I can’t stand these systems in games.
I Am Alive is a tense survival game. It stacks the cards differently and plays a great hand despite the few shortcomings. If you are looking for something with a gripping story that will keep you playing to see what happens, though, I Am Alive may wind up disappointing you. If you can get past the last-gen character models, and get into what the game is going for, you will find enjoyment and won’t regret your purchase.
Pros:
Cons:
Score: 3/5
Note: This game was played on the Playstation 3 console with a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on the X360 console.
The Vita’s launch titles ensured that everyone had a game they could get and be satisfied. One game in particular takes a far more effective approach; it can snag the attention of people that generally won’t want to have anything to do with golf.
The newest Hot Shots game, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, is packed full of features. You start the game with very limited equipment and two characters. As you play through the Challenge Mode more options will become available. Each character has their own perks. I initially used the starting male character as he focused on power. After awhile, I switched and used the starting female character, which plays far differently. While I wasn’t hitting the ball quite as far, the added control made hitting shots more effective.
Loyalty with the characters are achieved by simply playing with them. As it adds up, you unlock skills that can be used. Playing as the starting male, I unlocked a power shot that added 10 yards to my shot. You can only use these skills so often, but as you level up your loyalty, you get more chances to use them.
Challenge mode is extensive and features multiple tiers of rounds ending with a “boss” match. The fun part is when random rules get applied like “hitting the ball in the rough and getting two shots added as a penalty”. Playing against AI starts off easy, and if it ever becomes a challenge you can turn on “Easy Mode”. This adds to that appeal to non-golf fans so they can still have fun. It still feels challenging, too, because one screw-up can drop you down to their level during one hole.
The problem I had with Challenge Mode is that each round, you can earn a gold crown. Getting so many of these elusive crowns opens up more “boss” challenges (which, in turn, unlock more characters). What’s the problem with more objectives, you ask? They don’t actually tell you what the objective is. I randomly got one for “winning a round with five bogeys.” Up until that happened, I had no idea these objectives even existed.
A big draw to World Invitational is the Daily Tournaments. Each day, three tournaments appear. As you play through you are given an estimated rank. Watching as you rise up the ranks with every birdie is satisfying, or depressing when you lose ranks for bogeys.. Some of these tournaments even have the previously-mentioned stipulations to add some flavor.
You can also golf online with up to eight other players via Wifi. The lobby system is designed around your little charming character which you can customizae how you see fit by buying parts with credits. These are dispensed randomly, so that mustache you want may take awhile to get. I didn’t spend as much time with the online mode because I was addicted to the challenges during my playtime, but what I did experience with it was robust.
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational is a golf game for two audiences. Fans of golf will find it entertaining and challenging, while fans of arcade-sports games like NFL Blitz and NBA Jam can still get engaged in it. It offers enough just with the Challenges to keep you playing and entertained for a good portion of time. The trophies are all achievable and lengthy, so they will require a lot of playing. World Invitational is not a game a to overlook because “you don’t like golf”, and anyone who owns a Vita owes it to themselves to give it a go.
Pros:
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