Check out the Ultimate FPS Simulator

A UK show called The Gadget Show just did something truely amazing. They actually built a First Person Shooter Game Simulator. A world first they say. The goal is to create a simulator to create that sense of realism, making you feel that your literally in the game. Game of choice? Battlefield 3.

It's pretty sick how they pulled this off. You walk, aim, crouch, and even get hurt if you actually get shot in the game. Thanks to some hacking on a Kinect device, performing an actual jump or a crouch will trigger those movements in-game. With Battlefield 3' s already realistic gun sounds and explosions,  I'm sure it helps their goal to make it as realistic as possible. Gaming companies should take some pointers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Bh5iI2WY&feature=player_embedded

Now I think they did an awesome job creating a realistic game simulator, but imagine if they can pull off adding a way to use vehicles. Mind blown.

Weekend, what are you playing?

December is upon us and we’ve only got a month before the New Year. So for the first weekend of December, what are you playing?

Migoy: Got some UMvC3 matches in with my cousin which was fun. Seriously, we are just learning the moves of characters as we go. I also downloaded more PS3 demos so I tried some of those out. No Skyward Sword action since the last weekend but the Wii did get some love. Played a bit of Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special. The new kawarimi meter is a great addition as opposed to the old system of using up charka to do the substitution technique. I’ve looked up a guide on how to unlock the other characters and it seems pretty simple unlike in the older games where you had to do some bogus missions in order to unlock stuff and since I can’t read Japanese it was a bit of a bitch to pull off.

Arlie: Something bad happened to my PS3 while playing Skyrim a while ago. I was cleaning up trophies, doing the last one (Master Criminal - Have 1000 bounty on each of all 9 holds) when my game suddenly froze instead of giving the trophy. When I restarted my PS3, it began to scan my HDD for possible corruption and attempted to restore. All was fine until I checked my Skyrim trophies, they're all gone! I went online to refresh my trophy list, and I recovered it all except the ones that were still unsynced. That's 7 trophies total including the  last one and the platinum that didn't pop, I was able to recover 3 trophies because they were easy to get. The problem is the other 3 which are quest related trophies, the trophies I got from doing the Dark Brotherhood quest line which involves a lot of sneaking and stealth kills. I was planning to sell my PS3 copy of Skyrim after getting the platinum trophy to get a PC copy for my 2nd playthrough. OH WELL.

Quash: SKYRIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! Enough said.

What if Skyrim was a Saturday morning cartoon?

Ever wondered what things nowadays would look like in cartoon form back in the 80's? They could so totally make a Skyrim cereal commercial in the exact same style.

Lyrics:

Laughter and fun in the Nord land of Skyrim Saving Tamriel with cool dragon rhymes

Battling monsters while spreading good feeling Bad guys beware because it's Dovahkid time!

Impressions - Star Wars: The Old Republic weekend beta test

I was given a chance to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic last weekend during their weekend server stress test. Problem is, I found out I was invited the weekend it was happening which resulted in around just about a day of testing out the game.  Lesson learned though: Emails must be checked religiously when applying for beta testing. Regardless, I did get enough game time to get a feel of how EA's new MMO plays.

I just had to realize the invite late...

It sucks, I know. Found out last friday that I was accepted and received the link to download the client, but with how big the client is,  it took me two days to download it. 20gb was it? I do have decent connection but I occasionally turned off the PC to de-stress it since it's usually oven hot in the afternoon, which resulted in me having the client all patched up and ready for use by Sunday afternoon. Then when I saw the login screen all ready for me to add my info, I had to go out for the night. Before leaving though, I quickly created my character so it's all ready when I get back. I knew server's were going down after the weekend and that I had a very small window to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic. So I decided that when I get the chance, regardless of how late it already is, I'll try the game. 1AM in the morning, I started my Human Smuggler class.

There where 2 region's to choose from: North America or Europe. With me living in Asia, lag was inevitable with those choices, but Europe felt like the best choice to have less lag, well that's what  I thought. I had a latency of 600-800(1-2 bars) which was close to annoying at certain points during play. I bet there will be asian servers but during my time with the game, I had to live with it.

Fully voiced NPC's makes a HUGE difference

While I did start having my first character as the Han Solo class of the game, the lag avoided me from enjoying the unique cover system for the class, so I quickly switched to something easier, the Jedi Knight class. What came out awesome when I started with both characters was that each class has it's very own prologue. With the jedi Knight class, the prologue has you coming out of a transport ship, with a training lightsaber stick equipped ready to be assigned as the new Padawan of a Jedi Master. The back story given gives you a sense of how important you are to the story it tries to tell, and with the whole game fully voiced, it's the best introduction you will experience in any MMO.

The conversations you have is as if your playing a Dragon Age/Mass Effect game which is the games strong suit because it actually works well. Choices at times also matter since there is light and dark alignment. If you choose a more jedi-like approach(Which is always the top choice), you earn light reputation; If you pick the dark choice(always the bottom choice), it will earn you dark reputation. They say raising this will give you access to certain items depending how high you are in that alignment, so there's a bit of an incentive to choose what path you'd like to take for your character. It's literally Bioware's conversation wheel in their past RPGs but now placed in an MMO.  You will see a conversation bubble above a player's head to indicate that he is engaged in a conversation with an  NPC.

Gameplay is nothing much to mention since its very similar to World of Warcraft but with a slower pace. Which is proven by WoW to be a very effective format, so why change it? Quests still require to kill this much, or activate certain devices but again what makes it unique is that you can engage in conversations that make you care about the quest a bit more.  Even with a mini boss that die in like 2 minutes, you first talk to him and have the option to find out his intentions(If you really want to care). Thanks to this sto-driven element they focused so much on, this MMO will definitely stand out and make players look the other way, question is for how long.

I sadly only was able to produce a level 8 Jedi Knight and was so close to finishing the prologue to see the game outside the introduction. Was close to collapsing so had to call it quits. They say around level 10 is where you get out of the prologue and at the same time pick your specialization(two for each class) - For my Jedi Knight, I had the choice to be either more damage focused or more designed for the tanking role.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Opening Cinematic

Am I Interested?

No. While I enjoyed how this MMO is very story-driven , the gameplay has too much similarities to a game that I've spent 2 years of my life on. While it's a formula that just works in the MMO world, I personally don't plan to go through it again. Thanks to this beta opportunity, I get a chance to get rid of my curiosity in Star Wars: The Old Republic. For avid MMO gamers though - It's worth exploring and is definitely THE Star Wars online that fans have been waiting for. Its sound score gives me goose bumps as I charge through a group of droids and the quality of the voice acting is one of the best, just as expected from Bioware. How I wished I had more time to explore more of what the game has to offer but If I was still into MMO's, I'd definitely pick this game up, even pre-order it since you get to start playing the game 5 days earlier.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is out this December 20 for PC only. It will have a monthly fee of $14.99 with other payment plans like a 3 month plan or a 6 month plan. If you want to gather more info, head over the official site or check out the game's FAQ.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Impressions

A lot of people say that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the greatest Zelda game of all time.  But with Nintendo’s latest Zelda incarnation, some people are saying that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword can rival or even exceed the greatness of Ocarina of Time. Now that’s a pretty big claim but after playing a bit of Skyward Sword, I can definitely say that it’s giving Ocarina of Time a run for it’s money.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the latest Zelda game that Nintendo has graced us with and was released on the year of Zelda’s 25^th Anniversary. Taking a mix of both the art styles of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, we have a grown-up Link done in a very gorgeous cell shaded style. I think this is a great middle ground between the light heartedness of Wind Waker and the dark and gritty theme of Twilight Princess and it suits the Zelda franchise very well.

Despite being properly proportioned (lol Wind Waker melon-head kid Link), characters show a great deal of emotion and it really brings out a lot of personality in this game. I found it funny when a shop keeper sighed and frowned as I walked away from his shop while not buying anything. The graphics of this game also pushes the Wii’s ability to its peak. Environments are very bright and colourful and are generally just fun to run around in.

Combat was never really something to talk about in previous Zelda games. In the 2D ones you’d just press a button and Link would swing his sword where he is facing. In past 3D Zelda’s you’d have the Z targeting and just mash B till the enemies died. Future people, takes notes cause this is how motion control is done. Skyward Sword still has Z targeting but since we have a legitimate right-handed Link and 1-to-1 motion control with the Wii Motion Plus, combat is a little more interesting this time around. Link would swing his sword in accordance with the direction you swing the Wiimote for the most part feels very good and responsive. What also adds to the tension of combat is that your shield has a durability gauge  so aside from having to watch your opponent, finding their weak point, and striking with the right slashes, you also have your shield durability to worry about. Oh and taking damage from enemies costs 1 full heart. Swordplay in past Zelda games wasn’t really bad but it was mostly just more of the same and sometimes a chore but in Skyward Sword’s case, it’s pretty interesting and keeps you on your toes.

Some controls do feel a little awkward at first such as having to hold the sprint button, run and then shake the nunchuck to roll is still a bit confusing to me as I have to do all that while watching the spring meter at the same time but I’m sure it’s something that I will get used to.

I’m about maybe 3+ hours in so far but I am having a blast which is more than I can say for Twilight Princess’ first few hours. If you own a Wii and haven’t picked this up yet then what the hell is wrong with you? Go out there and get this game now because it is not something you want to miss.

If you are worried about not having a motionplus, you can pick up a bundle of the game with comes with a golden Wiiremoteplus (the wiimote with the built-in motionplus) and I think also includes an orchestrated soundtrack as well as an art book and a cloth map. Speaking of soundtracks, this game has a kickass one.