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• 4Jan 13

  The Wii U, Youtube Game Recording and 2013!

  Hey everyone!

  Firstly, Happy New Year (late, but better late than never)!

  With the ending of the legendary year 2012 brings a new wave of video game consoles and games, most recently;

  Nintendo Wii U

  

  I was lucky enough to preorder and recieve a Premium Black package at launch, and I can say that I've definitely not been disappointed. It's a fantastic console with loads to offer, and is exactly what the Wii should have been- innovative, but not alienating. It has the right graphical power and handling capabilities which allow the same third party games and extras, whilst offering something new which hasn't been done before.

  It takes inspiration from the original Game Boy, the connection to the Gameboy Advance and the Gamecube, and also the touch integration that the DS's offer. Couple that with an enhanced online system with built-in community forums which give the player the ability to share acheievements, post questions and answers, chat and even print screen their game images to show others, and you've got a pretty great console. You even have your own gamer profile viewabe, which uses your Mii character, something not done on the Wii successfully, as the Mii was only integrated with certain games, like Mario Kart.

  If you'd like to add me, here's my Nintendo Network ID:

  

  SpeedStarTMQ

  See my games list for the owned Wii U games

  I've also recently obtained the Roxio Game Capture recording equipment, therefore I'm now able to post gameplay videos online from my Wii and Wii U. You can check my channel here:

  http://www.youtube.com/user/tquinnathome1

  See you around!

  -SpeedStarTMQ

  • Posted Jan 4, 2013 4:28 pm GMT
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• 8Apr 12

  My Black Ops 2 Speculation

  

  So we know that Black Ops II will be coming this year in November. Whether it will truly be called Black Ops II isn't known, but what we know is that it will be the sequel to Black Ops. It being a sequel leaves a lot of people wondering what the game will be about plot wise, and after viewing information from previous titles, there's a lot of possibilities pertaining to what they could ultimately do. I've reviewed current evidence which gives conclusions as to what they could do and where the series itself is headed.

  1) The Cold War is not over. Moscow is disintegrating and the Soviet influence is overpowering. Moscow went dark during the fiasco with Dragovich, showing that he was not a lone agent, and that his own quest for power masked Russia's own motives. They were prepared and willing to have the United States attacked and invaded, and would have made their own move to conquer it had the plan succeeded. As it stands, there is no concrete evidence to publically prove that Moscow planned or at least partially knew of this attack. It was a Black Operation.

  In the same way that the nuclear missiles in Modern Warfare were publically treated as tests, this attack can be covered up in a similar manner. it is also a precursor for the invasion of America, and thus the Third World War.

  2) Mason, Hudson and Weaver are due to be killed. It would be difficult for them not to acknowledge this, seeing as these characters are pivotal to the Cold War, which is still ongoing. Therefore it could be concluded that all of these characters will make appearances in some form or another during the plot.

  3) John Price of the SAS is alluded to in the final intel document of Black Ops. There is a strong possibility that Price will not appear in any future-set games again, due to the Modern Warfare series seemingly ending. Therefore, being an already referenced and long-lived character who already likely has a background just after the Black Ops timescale seeing as Modern Warfare references issues in Beirut (of which there was extended conflict from 1975 to 1990), as well as the fact he is heavily referenced as being the character who will be spearheading the assassination of Mason and his colleagues, it can be assumed he will make an appearance within the storyline, giving the character some extra screen time on top of his Modern Warfare ending.

  4) Resnov is alive. He is referenced to be the database user Trent, and secret codes within Black Ops also reveal that he's likely alive, with no body being found. Having Resnov alive and well makes sense, seeing as he's also the Treyarch equivalent of the Cpt Price character. Resnov has a score to settle with his own government, who is becoming corrupt beyond question and causing suffering to its own people. Is he a known agent of the US government? Did he know Mason would enact revenge in the way he did and as such feigned death to ensure this? What are his motives? Can he really be trusted?

  He has already bestowed some truths to Mason which seem to be becoming very real: "The flag may be different but the methods are the same. They will use you, as they used me." Mason is due to be killed by actions of his own side, despite his loyalty.

  Cpt Price, a possible character for Black Ops II, also has his own relevant view concerning the methodology of the governments, and also the Black Ops obscured from public view; "History is written by the victor. History is filled with liars". If Price kills Mason, the governments lie will become the truth. This would be ironic, that the man to save future history, Price, would also be writing it before our very eyes.

  I actually believe this game is going to be very critical of government methodology throughout history. In all of the previous Call of Duty's, you've been a soldier of a nation, a government. When this government kills its own people, what does that make you? What has that made the player through all these games? A pawn?

  5) The game must follow the general course of history. The Cold War ended- will it end with this game? If so, where next for Call of Duty? The next period after this is Modern Warfare, with little goings on in the early 90's, so unless they decide to expand upon previous or smaller wars, there's little left to do without going way back to WWI or in to the future, which I believe to be a bad choice.

  What do you guys make of this? Obviously this is purely speculation, but I would be very surprised if a lot of this does not become real. or isn't similar in plot points. There's been a pattern to these games and Activison's own internal workings- the firing of major Infinity Ward staff, the merging of teams to create Modern Warfare 3- seem to hint at the series amalgamating in to one continuous flow.

  Previously I could not have imagined an Infinity Ward character crossing over in to a Treyarch game, but seeing as that already happened in Call of Duty 3 with Major Ingram and James Doyle, it's not really much of a stretch.

  Thoughts?

  • Posted Apr 8, 2012 4:38 pm GMT
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• 20Sep 11

  My Top 5 Biggest Video Gaming Disappointments

  I've been gaming quite a long time, especially for my age. A solid 16 years at 20 years old is pretty good, and as such it's obvious that I enjoy my hobby. Every day brings new updates in technology and more games to play. Unfortunately sometimes, things really don't please me at all. As I frequently play video games, I'm often reminded of things that dont quite sit right with me- things which could have been better, but ultimately turned out falling short of expectations. These examples below are my top five.

  The Guitar Hero Song Library

  

  Where's all the awesome music filled with amazing riffs? Where's The Jam? Where's The Clash? Where's The Who? Where's AC/DC? Black Stone Cherry? Nickelback? The Offspring? Stereophonics? The Undertones? Thin Lizzy? This list can go on. Truthfully, the series has given us a few tracks from some of these example artists, but they're few and far between. Guitar Hero tends to miss all the crazy retro bands and their songs where guitar is key, instead opting for new stuff that the kids dig, like Linkin Park, or Gorillaz. Yeah, they're good, but why the hell was What I've Done a good song to put in the game? It's hardly exciting stuff, and Feel Good Inc. is a great song, but again, there's nothing to it. Having 10 good songs doesn't warrant spending £50 on the game and the guitar. Update your library, Activision.

  Sonic Chronicles

  

  It's not really a bad game- It fleshes out the Sonic saga quite nicely, it's colourful, nice to look at, and quite absorbing. However it's also frustrating as hell. It uses ONLY the stylus for movement and interaction with objects and menus, it's the most linear RPG ever, the battles are dull and long winded, and the music is awful. I really don't know what more to say. It's a shame it's a disappointment, because I really wanted it not to be.

  The Nintendo DS (all models)

  

  Don't get me wrong, I love my DS. I got one on launch, and I updated it not long after the DSi came out. I've had hours of fun playing it, however there's a few issues with this console which really stop it being as decent as it could have been;

  Decent 3D Games! Not the type which pop out at you and make you feel like you can touch the objects, ala the 3DS. No, actual 3D games, like Super Mario 64. Granted, the DS HAS Super Mario 64, as well as Metroid, and the Call of Duty Games, and Ridge Racer, but two thirds of the games are little 2D titles or mini games. The DS was built for proper gaming, yet it never recieved the right amount of decent 'hardcore' 3D games it deserved. They came out few and far between, and though 3D isn't nessecarily the way forward (hello Sonic Rush and NEW Super Mario Bros!), the initial hype surrounding the DS brought gamers to believe they were getting a portable home console in their pocket, and this never really came to fruition. The DS's power seems to have been largely left untapped, excuse the pun.

  The D-pad! Nintendo were spot on with the original DS pad. it was large, dented inward, comfy and easy to use, so why the hell did they turn it into a tiny, sharp edged, unmovable brick with the later models? The DSi's pad is awful, not only harder to use for the DSi's intended audience (adults), but it's also much harder to press in a cornered directon (example; up & right). This makes games like Mario 64 and Call of Duty a pain in the neck to play, and hurts your thumbs like hell.

  Forced touchscreen control! Why Nintendo,? Why? I don't want to play Zelda with a pen. I don't want to move a character using a stylus when the same thing can be done with the d-pad, and has been for the last 20+ years. It's difficult to move the character when your hand is getting in the friggin' way, and holding the DS with one hand becomes tiresome. You messed up Nintendo. You could've given us the choice.

  The Wii's Downloadable Content

  

  Yeah, Nintendo ultimately gave us the first awesome downloadable service on home consoles, letting us download large portions of previous consoles' games, and we thank them for that, but they've not exactly pushed their service. Admittedly there is a large catalogue of games to choose from, but the service is limited for three reasons;

  Download size! Nintendo have a max file size limit for games that can be put on the Wii Shop- 40MB. To put that in to perspective, an average MP3 song is about 7MB. The Playstation and Xbox can hold thousands of times more data than the Wii, and as such, have a much more robust downloadable library of games. The problem itself isn't that it doesn't live up to competition however- as Nintendo promised retro games and delivered- it's that the file size limit hinders the service. Games like Sonic 4; Episode I have to be downgraded in order to fit. In Sonic 4's case, this meant replacing the recorded music with midi's. Sonic 4 isn't even a large game itself, which really shows the problems of having a size limit like this. Other games like Sonic CD's re-release can't even be made available for Wii at all because of this, so it's a real shame.

  Missing Gems! I've not played a NES for a long time now, ever since ours grew old and started to wear out, meaning that we had to throw it away. Because of this, there are many amazing games which I've been missing out on for the last decade or so, which I would love to go back and play again- Rad Racer, Stealth ATF and Duck Tales are all great titles which unfortunately can't be downloaded on the Wii's service. Nintendo seem to be taking their sweet time to release these sort of games, instead opting to release the more well known and played to death titles. C'mon, what's this whole service for? I've had the urge to resort to piracy, but I shan't sink that low.

  Rubbish! How many WiiWare games are there? Over a hundred? How many would I play? Two or three; Sonic 4, possibly Onslaught (that alien FPS) and Pearl Harbour Trilogy. The rest are overpriced cr@p mini games I wouldn't look twice at. How deplorable.

  Black Ops (Wii)

  

  Amazing game. It has the biggest, most in-depth online mode for any game on the Wii, including headset capabilities, 10 players in frantic, fast paced battles, reduced lag, keyboard functionality, insta-add friends (you don't have to use Friend Codes), zombie mode, updates, and a whole lot of guns, maps, perks and challenges.

  However, one thing stops the game dead. Freezing. The game freezes constantly. Sometimes offline, constantly online. There's no way to stop it. The game just stresses the Wii's lens too much. Nintendo and Activision deny anything about this game's relation to broken Wii's, and when asked for advice, are about as helpful as chocolate teapots. With two seperate Wii's damaged by two seperate copies of this game personally, it's safe to say that this game is the number one disappointment in all of my gaming years. it's such a shame, because it truly is such an amazing game.

  • Posted Sep 20, 2011 5:01 pm GMT
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