What I’m Playing: Episode 3
On the iPad:
- Small World [$6.99]
- Angry Birds HD [$4.99]
On the iPhone:
- Doodle Jump [$0.99]
- Wurdle [$1.99]
On the PS3:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
[price varies]
Saturday Shenanigans: Recent Entertainment News
You know the drill, I look up the most interesting entertainment related stories of the week and pass them along to you. Before we jump into it though, I’d like you to look a bit to the right here and notice that we’ve got a fancy new logo! At least it’s what we’ll use for the time being. How do you like it?
Well, I hope you just said you liked it, otherwise, I guess you can just ignore that little portion of our weekly Shenanigans. Your entertainment stories are waiting for you after the jump. Read More
Video: Crysis 2 Multiplayer
By now, all you nerds know that Crysis 2 drops March 22nd of 2011 (here in the US). But you might not have seen this sweet trailer of multiplayer gameplay.
Enjoy!
Easy Starcraft 2 Strategy: Void Ray Rush
A standard Protoss build in Starcraft 2 almost always has a basic framework of ground units to start the build. From a basic army of Stalkers and Zealots the natural progression takes you to a Robotics Bay and Immortals/Colossi/Observers. These units are almost indespensible in games that last more then 15 minutes. Any build that ignores this basic progression is banking on ending the game quick. That’s why these posts have “Rush” in the title. If you don’t succeed with the rush, and your opponent is any good at all, you’re probably screwed. That principle is never more true then with this build:
Void Ray Rush
Here’s the scenario. You ignore ground units completely. Your goal is to get a Stargate as soon as humanly possble, then Chrono Boost the heck out of it to get your first Void Ray up to your opponent’s base with the goal of either killing his CC/Nexus/Hatchery or killing most of his peons before he can mass enough anti-air to make a difference. This strategy primarily effective PvT and PvZ. PvP is doable, but only if he’s out of position, or if you can out build him early and quickly kill any anti-air he has.
Also, if you play a lot of 3v3 and 4v4, you’ll see people abuse Void Rays like none other.
Without further ado, the build:
N.O.V.A. HD on sale for $0.99
Get it while it’s hot folks, N.O.V.A. HD the premier FPS game for the iPad is on sale today for $0.99, previously $6.99, and before that $9.99.
Awesome deal for a $1.
Hijinks Reviews: Batman Arkham Asylum
Hello again boys and girls. I realize Batman: Arkham Asylum isn’t the latest and greatest video game by any means, however, it is a solid game that merits involvement in our line of game reviews. It’s no coincidence that it’s also one of the games I played with my recent game pass from Blockbuster.
B:AA (short for Batman: Arkham Asylum, I like to simplify things) is an action-adventure stealth game that gets quite a bit more right than wrong. Many of the other Batman games that have come out over the years took a lot of liberties with their story lines. This one strictly adheres to the comic book mythology. They even went so far as to have long-time Batman scribe Paul Dini write the story. That’s a big point in favor of the game. The second big thing they got right with this game is the voice acting. They went out and got the actors from the DC Animated Universe, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and Joker, respectively. Many hardcore Batman aficionados consider these two to be the best representations of what these characters should sound like, in an animated universe anyway. The third biggest achievement? No Robin!! Just how Batman should be!! Read More
Nothing to See Here: Starcraft 2 is NOT killing graphics cards.
Since the launch minor issues have been growing, and today Blizzard Confirms an overheating issue. However, this story has been spun by the technology community even to the point where Slashdot picked up on it. It has been given menacing sounding titles such as “Is Starcraft II bad for your graphics card?” by ZDnet and “Is Starcraft II Killing Graphics Cards” by Slashdot. A much more appropriate title to the actual problem is one given by OverClockersClub “Starcraft 2 causing some GPU’s to Overheat”
The problem is that during some of the in-between mission screens, cut screens and menu screens are not frame capped like the actual game play is. This causes the GPU to render these screens as fast as possible. Since these screens are simple and, for the most part, static, the computer has an easy time and is able to render these very quickly causing the GPU to heat up. This increased heat and power consumption exposes flaws in Starcraft II players’ computers, causing crashes, reboots, and even some claimed GPU failures. Read More
Hijinks Reviews: UFC Undisputed 2010
UFC Undisputed 2010 is the 2nd edition of the THQ line of UFC games and, as expected, it makes some improvements over last years game. Here’s the big changes that they touted:
- Encourage camaraderie by forming fight camps and leagues to participate in ranking and champion tracking systems. Join forces, train like real-life UFC fighters and go online to compete against other camps in the virtual UFC world.
- Navigate a roster of more than 100 prolific UFC fighters, each fully rendered to convey a photorealistic appearance. Prominent UFC personalities, including the commentary team of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.
- A new Sway System with full upper body and head movement allows for the dodging of attacks, while on the ground and a new Posture System delivers fight-ending strikes from every position.
- Choose from an array of moves from all available disciplines, including newly added Sambo, Karate and Greco-Roman Wrestling, to become a true mixed martial artist.
- The “Game Is Watching You” system tracks every action and uses this information to dictate in-game commentary and career progression. Enhance the Career Mode experience through online co-op sparring sessions.
I can tell you that they really delivered on most of those promises. However, this game has been plagued with a number of problems on the online side, so I didn’t mess with that at all. For my thoughts on that parts I did play though, follow me after the jump. Read More
