Crawl Out Through the Fallout!

Crawl Out Through the Fallout!

11/11/2015

            I’ve spend the past two days picking the corpses of raiders, eating canned dog food, and fishing boxes of Dandy Boy Apples out of dirty toilets. Safe to say, I’m already in love with Fallout 4. Everything I like about Bethesda games has been refined and polished to the point of damn near perfection here. Sure weird clipping still happens, textures pop in, frame rates can stumble in large battles, and I couldn’t care less. 

            Trekking through the ruins of Boston is as fun as it is dangerous. Radiation storms roll through with yellow fog and thunder. Raiders place traps around unsuspecting corners. Mirelurks wait in the water for you to stumble into their territory. And cars become ticking time bombs that will send your charred corpse flying across the wastes. It’s dangerous, but you don’t have to go it alone. At the first landmark you’re likely to pass, a Red Rocket fueling station, you’ll find a trusty dog to aid you. He can help you in a fight, or be sent to gather supplies. He’s a welcome addition to your lonely journey.

            I’m about 15 hours in, but I haven’t even touched the main story. I’ve been so wrapped up in a side quest involving recruiting settlements for a faction you meet early on that I just haven’t had the time. I’ve ventured into Boston once or twice but just recently found the crown jewel, Diamond City. I won’t spoil anything about it but it’s a really special location to be sure. The new DJ for the radio station is not nearly as special unfortunately. Following up Three-Dog and Mr. New Vegas is difficult, but they really screwed the pooch with the new guy. He has no personality and is so boring that I haven’t even bothered to listen for his name. At least he’s slinging good music. With a great blend of Fallout 3 jams and some new songs, blasting away raiders has never sounded so classy.

            My time in the Commonwelth is just beginning, and I can already tell you that I’m in for the long haul. So it’s time to strap on my power armor, pop a Rad-X, and head back into the irradiated ruins of Boston to put my new Bloody Mess perk to good use, painting the town red. See you in the wasteland, vault dwellers!

-Rory

Episode 19 and Platinum Spirit Round 2

Two weeks ago Panda wandered over to Tucson for TusCon.  Then, last weekend Panda and Big O went to Flagstaff for Kikori Con.  Listen to our newest episode to hear all about our grand adventures in the South and North of Arizona.

Episode 19: Con Artists

Also, I announced Platinum Spirit Round 2.  And the lucky winner this time is...

I don't know if it's just because I hate myself or what.  Sony recently announced that all the people who have achieved the platinum trophy will get an exclusive Playstation theme.  The only way to get this theme is to have the platinum trophy in Bloodborne, so I'm going for it.  I don't have a lot of trophies to go but the ones that I do have are doozies.  But I am determined, and I'll need that determination to carry me through.  Follow my progress on our Twitter page and root me on, or call me an idiot.  Either are valid responses.

@WCNerdCorps

-Big O

SPOILER MODE! Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 2

Spoiler Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 2

            “Previously on Minecraft Story Mode… The Minecraft world is being destroyed by a Wither Storm created by a man named Ivor. Later revealed to be a former member of The Order, a group of 5 legendary heroes, Ivor’s Wither Storm is out of his control and has obliterated our main character Jessie’s home town. As Jessie escapes with his friends, the Wither Storm absorbs another member of The Order named Gabriel along with Jessie’s friend Petra. Faced with a choice to either enlist the help of Magnus the Rouge or Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, Jessie must choose wisely or face oblivion….”

            Well that was fast. Not 30 minutes after posting the last Minecraft: Story Mode article, I heard news that episode two was dropping the next day. So here we are again, just a little sooner than I figured. Telltale usually spaces their episodic series installments out by a few months, but episode two released within two weeks of the first one. Color me surprised. Oh well, never complain about unexpected games. Let’s get down to the brick and mortar now!

            As much as Magnus’s explosive questline sounded pretty badass, generally in games like this I stick to what I consider the “Brains over Brawn” route. In this case I considered the engineer to be the smarter choice, much to Jessie’s friend Axel’s annoyance. So Jessie and Olivia are whisked away on an underground Minecart to Ellegaard’s mechanical wonderland. 

            Upon arriving, Jessie and Olivia find themselves in the midst of a group of builders trying to make their best inventions to impress Ellegaard, who’s a sort of deity to these people. The highlight of these inventions are a cow launcher, and a cow “Disco Party Machine” complete with a curtain of lava. After helping out these builders (or sabotaging them if you’re a jerk), Jessie gets all the pieces to open the door to Ellegaard’s workshop. I was kind of taken back by Ellegaard’s personality at first though. She’s pretty passive aggressive and nasty, but covers it with a sweet voice and tone. After reluctantly helping her out on a project, the Wither Storm unexpectedly attacks Ellegaard’s palace, which our heroes barely escape.

            Arriving to the HQ of The Order, where you left the rest of your friends in the first episode, the group is surprised to find that Axel went off on his own and brought Magnus back with him. Also a surprise visitor, Petra has returned after escaping the Wither Storm in the first chapter. Immediately Magnus and Ellegaard begin arguing, which quickly got on my nerves. But eventually they craft a plan to go get some super duper dynamite from Soren the Architect, the missing leader of The Order. Petra later reveals she has a zombie like virus, contacted from the Wither, with no idea of what the side effects will be going forward. Deep inside Soren’s mountain lair, the heroes find and confront Ivor again. After a lengthy battle, he hits the group with a potion that slows them down to a crawl and walks right past them and out the door. With a maniacal cackle from Ivor, the episode ends.

            Overall I thought this episode was much weaker than the first one. It seemed rushed and had a short run time, only around an hour. I’m hoping the next installment has more to it and gets more in depth with the side characters. Jessie and Petra are fleshed out, but everyone else seems thin at the moment. What I’m really hoping is everyone has at least a chapter alone with Jessie so we can really dig into who they are. As usual I’ll make a post when episode 3 drops, although it better not be next week because all of my time will be committed to another world that has already faced it's destruction, Fallout 4. See you guys in the Wasteland!

-Rory

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors: A Spoiler-free Review

Every October, I like to pick a horror game to work on throughout the month.  999 is a psychological mystery game released in North America in 2010 by Aksys Games for the Nintendo DS.  It’s also considered an underground hit and is the first in the Zero Escape series.  Now that I’ve put a good amount of time into it, what are my thoughts on this game?

 

Story:  The story for 999 is interesting and keeps you guessing, which is good considering the gameplay revolves heavily around it.  I’ll get more into that later.  You play as Junpei, a college student who is abducted by a strange masked man called Zero.  Junpei wakes up to realize that he is on an old boat along with eight other people, one of them being his childhood crush.  Each of the abductees is fitted with a bracelet that displays a number and is used to enter doors throughout the boat.  Junpei and the others must solve puzzles and navigate traps in order to obtain their freedom by seeking the door with the 9 on it.  One of the things that makes the story so interesting is that there are multiple paths that you can take through the game.  Each decision unlocks more dialogue options and gives you more opportunities to learn about your fellow prisoners.  The story is solid and keeps you guessing through multiple playthroughs.  The only way to get the complete picture is to play through the story two or three times.  Who is Zero and what is his goal?

Gameplay:  The gameplay is pretty simplistic and will be very familiar to anyone who has played an Ace Attorney game, or pretty much any point and click adventure game.  This is known as a visual novel game.  I could go into more detail but the best explanation I can think of is, imagine you’re playing a choose your own adventure book.  Basically, the story unfolds and you make choices to progress the plot.  The puzzles range from easy to slightly less easy.  The only time you’ll really find difficulty is when you just need one more thing to make something work and you feel like you’ve clicked on everything in the room, and finally when you’re one second away from throwing your DS into a wall, you turn over the pillow that has the code you need conveniently placed under it.  Not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything.  All that being said, I still had a lot of fun with this game solving each of the puzzles and gathering background information on the other characters.  My biggest complaint is that they introduce a mechanic where you can turn objects to see the sides that you wouldn’t normally be able to view.  Which is really cool, except for the fact that you use it twice in the entire game.  

Overall:  Even though 999 consist of simplistic puzzles and occasional cheesy moments of dialogue, I still had a great time playing from start to finish.  The story was enthralling enough to keep me coming back and the characters each had enough personality for me to want to get to know them better.  As I stated earlier, if you enjoyed the Ace Attorney games or Hotel Dusk Room 215, there is a lot in 999 to keep you entertained.  However, if you’re looking for a more action packed experience, 999’s slow story driven pace may be enough to turn you away.  I’m really looking forward to continuing the Zero Escape series and playing the sequel Virtue’s Last Reward.  At the time of this review, you can grab 999 for $19.99 on Amazon and multiple other online retailers.  I would encourage anyone with a Nintendo DS (or 3DS) and a love of story driven narratives to pick this game up and give it a try.  It starts off a little slow, but I doubt you will be disappointed. 

-Big O                      

Episode 18 The Future is Now!

Virtual reality is something I've dreamed about since I was a kid.  The idea of being in the video game was always my biggest fantasy.  This week Big O, Beef, and Panda discuss what they are expecting once VR is released.  Also listen to us tripping on coffee.  Halloween is over and we're ready to get back to business as usual.

Episode 18: The New Reality

 

-Big O