This week it’s Jody, Dez and Eddie and we are talking about Raams Shadow NFL Blitz and rumors of a TMNT game by Rocksteady plus a new xbox that will not be able to play used games. You think Gamestop is a little worried that it might be true? We talk about all this and more in this episode 132 of the Fellowship of Gamers. Go ahead and Step into the FOG.
Jan
27
2012
Category : Podcast
Jan
25
2012
Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning is an upcoming action RPG being developed by 38 Studios and set to release on the 7th of February here in the U.S. The demo for the game just released, so here are some of my thought on it in a sort of preview for the game.
First off, the story seems to be very interesting. You are either a human or an elf, involved in a struggle against an old race of creatures that were once allies, but now under a new leader have become your enemies. To make matters worse, while your allies are being whittled down, the enemy’s numbers only increase, because you cannot completely kill them, they are sort of imortal or something along that line. You begin as a blank slate, finding yourself in a pile of dead bodies deep in a laboratory of sorts. You make your way out of the the castle, and help the workers fight against the enemies who are attacking the place. There is more story involved in the demo, but I don’t want to spoil it as I found it very interesting.
The gameplay is action RPG, with stealth, melee, and ranged aspects. You can build your character in whichever style you prefer. I found the melee combat to be a little rough, but extremely satisfying. You can block and dodge enemy attacks, and the enemy A.I. seemed to be pretty sharp, I really had to work hard in some of the battles against multiple enemies. The ranged combat was a little less interesting in my opinion, you don’t have a reticle or any way to aim like that, once you get the center of your screen close to an enemy it locks onto it for the bows, and seems to do somewhat the same for magic combat. I found the little magic I learned in the demo to be quite fun, and useful in a fight. There seems to be a decently deep skill tree, and leveling system, though it is hard to tell in just a demo. The fate shift aspect of the combat I didn’t fully understand, and found the key mapping involved to be cumbersome, though it likely can be changed in the options and remapped to an easier to access key. I found the gameplay hit all the right spots for me, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.
Graphically the game looks very nice. The world is very bright and vibrant. There were a number of graphical glitches in the demo, such as your shield being inside of you in the menus when equipped, and a characters hand was not lined up correctly on a cart handle, but other than that it looked very nice, and didn’t seem to be extremely graphically intensive. I suspect that the reason for the glitches and such would be that this is likely an older build of the game, and should be ironed out before release.
Overall, this is shaping up to be a very promising game, and has solidly moved onto my radar, and possibly may be a game I pick up shortly after release, which is something I have never done before. 2012 looks like it may be the year of the RPG for me, and it if is this definitely will be a mainstay for me.
Jan
24
2012
Well it was a great season and we at The Fellowship Of Gamers wanted to thank all of our participants for making this league a success because for the most part we all kept up with our games and had a good ole fashion blast with little to no issues whatsoever.
The league/season was a long grueling and hard fought battle to claim the ultimate bragging rights (well..for a year at least lol) as the F.O.G. Madden Champ so lets all hear it for this years winner…….ME!!!! surprised were you? You know it kind of sucks because since I won I get no prizes etc lol.
Ok enough with the the bragging as in all honestly the league was a lot of fun and each and every game played was fun and hard fought whether it be against a fellow man or the ever so resilient CPU (I think we all dropped or darn near dropped a game to the dastardly A.I.) so once again thank you to all who joined us this year as we hope to continue the tradition.
This was an F.O.G. staff Super Bowl with Myself and Maverick being the the last two teams left standing and as you can see from the stat line and video highlights it was a very close an exciting game to play in as we both came out swinging and in the end I ended up winning by only four points 28-24 after scoring within the last minute and holding off Travis’s relentless attack on defense. And when I say holding off I do mean that as he was pesky lol, he nearly caught his last two Hail Mary passes with the last one actually being in his hands in the endzone until I jarred it loose for the last play of the game WHEWWWWW!!
So congrats to Maverick for the well fought game and now I’m pretty sure he’s going to be gunning for me in every single thing we play from here on out and he’ll probably succeed lol, I can only imagine next years Madden League as I’m positive he’s going to want revenge and while we’re at it go take a look at Travis’s xbl avatar when you get the chance as we had a friendly bet in which I won so now for the short time being he’s decked out in a nice shimmering Micheal Jackson jumpsuit.
Tennessee Titans 18-1…I wish they were the same in real life lol
GOD Bless
Jan
24
2012
Category : F.O.G. Blogs, Feature, Main, Tim's blog
So you read the title and are probably wondering “what is that supposed to mean?”. What I mean is this: I believe that everyone has his or her own “trumps” when it comes to whether a game is liked or not. It is almost like in rock paper sissors, where one item can trump the next, but also can be trumped by another option. It isn’t necessarily that simple, because there can often be more than three variables involved, depending on the person. I’ve thought about this for a while now, and have come up with my own trump circle of sorts, so I will give it for an example
First, gameplay/controls. Extremely solid or fun gameplay can keep me playing a game even if the graphics or story are not very good. And example would be the original Call of Duty. The graphics are not good, and the story is pretty “meh”, but the superb COD controls and great gameplay keep me playing through that game. So good controls can beat out a poor story or graphics.
Next would be story. A great story can keep me playing a game despite either bad graphics, bad controls, or both. An example of that would be the first Mass Effect. As a shooter the controls were not extremely well done, and it could be frustrating at times until I got used to them. There was one point a litte ways into the game where I was stuck at a level because I just could not beat a sort of boss fight, but I kept on trying. It must have taken me twenty some tries to finally beat it, but I did because I wanted to see more of the story. Another example would be KOTOR. While its controls are not bad, when I started playing it I was a complete novice at RPG’s, so I really did not get the controls and gameplay very well, yet I kept at it because of the story So a story can trump graphics or gameplay, yet can also be trumped by gameplay in certain cases.
And finally, graphics. This is the one that is slightly more complicated for me, because by itself graphics alone will not keep me playing a game. Graphics in conjunction with a great story, or great controls will do it, but it can also be trumped by both gameplay and story.
So mine is not a perfect circle, but I think it gives the picture. It all boils down to tastes, for some people gameplay may take the top spot, and not be able to be beaten by any others, or story may be the most important. Knowing what yours are will likely help you to better know if you will like a game when reading reviews, and can help you better recommend games and receive recommendations from friends and people you know. It isn’t rocket science, but it is something that is interesting to think about.
Jan
24
2012
Category : Dez's Blog, Feature, Main
The year 2011 is behind us now and during that year we were blessed with some truly phenomenal gaming releases in which was debatably one of the best years in gaming history with a constant flow of quality material form the beginning of the all the way to the tremendous wallet breaking fall rush complete with numerous AAA titles.
Those who know me know that I’m a stickler for a game’s great online aspects as I’m not one to replay a games single player offerings once beaten and that if a game doesn’t include good/fun & not a trashy thrown in multilayer then I’m less likely to purchase and will only rent. I’m not against single player only games as when a game is developed strictly with this in mind it usually makes for a greater more memorable experience..in most cases, but I love the online aspect of team play/deathmatch and other competitive modes when not tackling a games campaign offering (and its a mega plus in my book if a game includes a online co op campaign) so my ideal game has the best of both worlds which is a stellar campaign and an equally if not better multilayer suite.
I’ve been gaming for 25+ years and it seems that my tastes in gaming haven’t swayed too much during this time. I’ll play just about anything but my favorite genres are Sports/Fighting/Action/Shooters (I love them all but prefer 3rd person over 1st person) and on top of that I will also dabble in the occasional rpg and racing title so as you all can see I’ve established quite the illustrious career lol.
So without any further hesitation here are my top 10 for 2011 and I may shock a few with what ended up on my list and also where some games actually landed.
10. Madden 2012
Football is my favorite sport and my favorite sports game every year is usually Madden, I may be a huge EA fan but I don’t hold my tongue when it comes to their titles. This years Madden was greatly improved in the gameplay department and the graphics also received an overhaul, madden can stand to be better as it hasn’t came out and innovated/revolutionized the genre in a while but this years offering was no slouch and it can only get better.
9. Ultimate/Marvel vs Capcom 3
When MvsC3 first released in February it was a great game but lacked many features/options that are common amongst fighters today, no spectator mode was the biggest but there were other options missing as well. I said in my review that had this game included these features that I’d give it a perfect score so when it was announced that ultimate edition would release in November (typical capcom to re- release a fighter at a later date fully improved and updated) and include new fighters and other games modes/features that were missed from the first iteration at a $40 price point that set this games place for me as my favorite fighter of the year. The games vibrant and beautiful graphics and the awesome character design all zip around the screen with crisp clean and fluid animations, this game will get regular rotations at all tournaments like EVO and in many fighting fans systems.
8. NBA 2K12
Best sports game of the year…AGAIN.. if you ask me ,what visual concepts has done/continues to do on a yearly basis is nothing short of unbelievable seeing this game in motion is a sight to see. The gameplay is as always top notch and all of the extra features/modes/bells and whistles will blow you away. With me being the huge madden fan that I am it makes me wish that the NFL license would be opened back up for everyone to use to force yearly improvements due to the competition because Visual Concepts/2k sports has for years had to compete with EA’s NBA Live franchise and that came to an end last year with EA pulling out of the race for 2 years( supposedly returning this fall) due to this games excellence and their game being inferior. But even with no competition this season 2k12 still came out swinging and greatly improved a product which was already near perfect.
7. Crysis 2
I picked this game up about 4 months after release as I had heard of how great it was but I was seriously burned out on everything FPS but when I eventually got a copy I was blown away. This is the best FPS that I’ve ever played, the story is by far the best you’ll find in the genre and the multiplayer is quite unique and engaging. This game showed console gamers what pc gamers had been talking about since the release of Crysis 1( which has since been released on xbl/psn as downloadable titles) Crysis 2 is running pretty cheap at most outlets now so if you haven’t I’d suggest you pick it up if you have the opportunity.
6. Battlefield 3
This highly anticipated sequel didn’t fail to deliver..well multiplayer wise anyways as the single player was mediocre at best and in most areas a blatant rip off of the very game that they had been gunning for the Call Of Duty series. But with that said this game still got amazing reviews and is dear in many hearts due to its phenomenal online experience. This games multiplayer is amazing and that may even be an understatement and it delivers on a level that no other game could ever do with its team based mechanics/vehicles and gameplay to go along with its total chaos on the battlefield (no pun intended) so if your looking for “THE’ definitive online FPS experience then look no further.
5. Assassins Creed Revelations
The final chapter of Ezio Auditore’s story concludes in this game,this series has become one of my favorites and in this installment it doesn’t fail to deliver, but besides a few gameplay tweaks and added mechanics and the story there isn’t much that is extremely new to this game but that’s not totally bad as what the series has built is very very good and was one of my better gaming experiences of the year. With that being said this series has to evolve with Assassins Creed 3 as this formula has ran its course and its time for a change of scenery and gameplay.
4. Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception
How can you follow up the masterpiece known as Uncharted 2? this game is that answer and Naughty Dog brings another memorable adventure to gamers. The beautiful graphics, amazing voice work and top notch story that this series is known for all return with some gameplay mechanic tweaks and improvements most notably the shooting/aiming and the hand to hand combat making for a more enjoyable adventure. Add all of that with an also greatly improved online multiplayer offering and what you have here is a grade A blockbuster hit which will no doubt keep the masses satisfied and loyal to your brand.
3. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
I’ve never been been into fallout 3( had it, put in 13hrs but decided I didn’t like it) nor had I’d ever played or cared to play the elder scrolls/oblivion series as I knew I wouldn’t like them at all. Its not that I hate rpg’s as I actually like a lot of them as I loved fable 2/3 and have a little history of playing the final fantasy series but for the most part I’m a fan of MMORPG’s and action rpg’s. So after hearing and seeing( & not caring) about all the hype Skyrim had built up all year and after it released I began to get curious so I asked around/did research and I often got this reply ” Dude I hated Fallout 3 also but this so much better and different” that or similar responses so I eventually purchased it shortly after Thanksgiving and since then I’m about 40hrs in and a level 20 and have barely touched the outer surface of this game lol. I cant put into words the epic nature of this game as its a blend of all of what I like in a rpg, its not turn based but action oriented, no complicated menus to level up etc and its just too much fun. The world is massive and the quest/missions you can do are quite numerous and one could play play literally 100+ hrs and not even touch the main campaign (which is quite fun in its own right) for me to be an online junkie this game with no online aspects whatsoever has me hooked(and millions of others)..like a junkie. So if your curious I’d say do as I did step out of your normal box and try something else for a change as if any game deserves a chance its this one.
2. Batman Arkham City
Rocksteady knows how to make a Batman game and make them darn good. This sequel not only improves upon its predecessor in every way it does so in a fashion where it completely obliterates it, which is crazy seeing as how Arkham Asylum was great. Stick the Dark Knight in the middle of a part of Gotham walled off from the general public to house the cities scum in which they roam freely in the games open world environment and you have a game that has once again upped the standards for the way a superhero/comic book game should be handled. With this games gameplay & graphics,Fantastic voice work and totally enthralling story Rocksteady has served notice to any would-be game developer of the genre.
1. Gears Of War 3
Its hard not to say that this was the most anticipated sequel of the year (maybe in years) and this was a title that was supposed to release early in 2011 but was pushed back for whatever reasons, well EPIC Games went above and beyond with this title exceeding everyone’s expectations by a large margin. This game is probably the most complete and total package of the year with a gripping storyline and awesome multiplayer/co op this game was well worth its $60 price tag. The graphics are great as is the gameplay and also all of the other modes/components which will give this title survival for a long long time. It makes me wonder what if Microsoft had released this on its original date would it had been as great of a product? because it was supposedly ready for its original release date (complete with a multiplayer beta that was very well received) and that EPIC used this extra time to pour on a little…ok A LOT more awesome. But nobody but those close to the situation will ever know the real reason for the delay could it be to give EPIC’s other title bulletstorm life? which was releasing near Gears 3 original date and would’ve surely gotten buried by it. Gears Of War 3 turned out to be a fitting and memorable end to the stories of our favorite COG soldiers in their battle of survival against the Locusts……And I’m sure somehow there will be more??
Honorable Mentions
These are some games (in no particular order) that I also enjoyed throughout the year that while they weren’t in my top 10 they are really good games. Maybe I didn’t get the chance to play enough of them to consider them in my GOTY nominations (infamous 2) or while they were good there were some shortcomings ( LA Noire) but in the case of the other honorable mentions they are all great but just didn’t make my list.
WWE 12, Infamous 2, Modern Warfare 3, NCAA 12, LA Noire, Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition
So there you have it those are my top 10 but that doesn’t mean that there were only 10 games worthy enough to be played as there were dozens and you will have plenty of opportunities to play catch up if you missed any on release. I look forward to what 2012 brings as there are already some big titles coming down the pipeline so enjoy and GOD BLESS.
Jan
20
2012
Category : Podcast
After some time off we are back and this is our top five games of 2011 episode. Who will make our top 5? What games will be left out? Listen to find out.
Jan
17
2012
The Elder Scroll: Skyrim has quickly become the new hotness lately, faster than you can take an arrow to the knee. But what if you don’t want to jump into Skyrim right now, but still crave an expansive open world RPG of that ilk? Than maybe you might want to try the game prior in the Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, or just Oblivion as it is more commonly known, was released by Bethesda for the 360 and PC in 2006, with the Playstation 3 hitting the shelves a year later. The story revolves around the quest of a magical creature trying to take over the land of Cyrodiil. You begin as whichever race you choose, locked in a prison cell for some crime, but it turns out that you are divinely chosen, and will play a part in the battle for the land of Cyrodiil. I know that is extremly vague, but I don’t want to give away any of the story. It is extremely well done, and that is just the main story, there are a number of other smaller story arcs in the other quests available that are also well done. I’ve heard that if you stuck just to the main quest line you probably could beat the game in about 20 hours or so, but if you set out to do everything there is to do you can easily sink a couple hundred hours into just the main game, and probably another 50 or so into the DLC.
Gameplay is a mix of ranged and melee combat from either a first or third person perspective. I loved the archery in the game, I though it was extremly well done, you do have a small reticle for aiming, but you do need to adjust your aim based on how far away the target is, so it is really satisfying when you take down an enemy unaware at a great distance. I did not find the sword and melee combat to be nearly as satisfying, it mainly came down to block, then strike, block, and strike again. The magic was also fairly well done, with a wide variety of spell ranging from healing to spells that alter the world around you, to spells that deal damage and ones that can summon creatures and weapons. The world is one of the major draws of the game, according to Bethesda the world is approximately 16 square miles. It is fun to just ditch the quests sometimes and wander around the world exploring. One downside in the game is the leveling is very complicated, and the game doesn’t do a good job of explaining how you should go about it. This seems to be the common denominator throughout the game, as the tutorials are not very well done for a lot of things, and I would have to look up how to do different things in the game.
Graphically, the game looks ok, it doesn’t hold up the best, but still looks alright at high settings. And there are several mods available for PC where people have touched up the graphics and made it look very nice. Voice acting is extremely hit and miss. The major characters are well done, yet it seems like they tried to save money on voice acting for the other characters, as there seems to be only three or four voices for all the other male and female characters, and it really bugged me at times because you would be talking to a beger who started out in his voice, then when you asked another team he would reply in the voice of one of the guards.
As far as content, it really depends on how you play the game. It is M rated, and there are some really dark things you can get into if you want to play the game that way. In playing the game more as a good guy the content wasn’t extremely bad in my opinion, but I see how it can get much worse if you start playing more as a bad guy.
There is one more thing to talk about, after all this is a Bethesda game, so that means that thing is bugs. It’s been out for 6 years now, and I did not come across any major bugs, but even after all this time there are still bugs that Bethesda never got to. I’ve had a few instances of glitching into objects, seen animals and enemies glitched into stuff, but no major gamebrakers. If you are playing on the PC there is a fan done “unofficial” patch that fixes around a 1000 or so glitches that were never fixed originally. So if you do want to play this, at least on the PC it isn’t an extremely glitchy mess.
Overall, I would say this is definitely worth trying if you like open world or fantasy RPG’s. This game was extremely polarizing for me, I can’t think of a game I have played that I wanted to play more when I wasn’t playing it, yet dreaded playing at the same time due to some of the mechanics.
Overall
(3.5/5)
Well done story, amazing world, some fun gameplay mechanics, confusing leveling.
Graphics (1.5/5)
Looks ok, can be improved with mods.
Objectionable Content (4/5)
It is M-rated game.
Gameplay (3/5)
Archery and magic is fun, though melee is not extremely deep.
Jan
01
2012
Alpha Protocol was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in 2010. At its release it was plagued with bugs, and took somewhat of a pounding in some reviews. However, now that it has been out a while is it worth picking up?
The story revolves around the character of Michael Thornton, an CIA agent whose background is chosen by the player at the start of the game, varying from a spy type who is good at stealth, to a weapons expert, gadegets expert, etc. Each “class” has different abilities already leveled some, based on the style of that class. There is also a “rookie” option where Thornton is a blank slate, and his skill can be more tailored, and also has unique dialogue options. Beating the game using the rookie options will also unlock a “veteran” option with unique dialogue options in a certain places and a few other special perks. Thorton is chosen to be part of a highly secret, elite group of spies called Alpha Protocol. You assignment starts out straight forward enough, but very soon your world is turned upside down, and things are not as they seem.
The gameplay is third person shooting/stealth. There are multiple classes of weapons available to become proficient in. However, the controls in this game are one of it’s weakest points in my opinion. Mass Effect has been criticized at times for its shooting controls not being extremely strong, but this game at times can make ME feel like a COD game as far as controls go. I find it very hard to play it in a run and gun, rush into the firefight style, the controls are just way to imprecise for me to do that. The stealthier, picking people off with a silenced pistol way was a bit better suited to the controls, though even the stealthy way was difficult at times due to sluggish and imprecise character movement. These things made for some very frustrating sections early in the game, until I got the hang of the controls. In adition, the tutorials for a few things in the gameplay, such as the hacking, were very vague on exactly how you are supposed to do it. I had to go online and look up exactly what you were supposed to do and how in the world you were supposed to do it while hacking. Additionally, the controls while hacking terminals are extremely sensitive for the parts that used the mouse, making them additionally challenging. However, once I understood what I was supposed to do and how to do it I found that I actually kind of liked the challenge of hacking.
Graphically, the game looks decent. I did see a number of clipping issues in cut scenes, such as clothing clipping through body parts. I have heard a number of people who did not like the way the faces were done, though I personally did not mind that much, they didn’t seem as bad as people made them out to be.
As far as content, this is a M rated game, there is blood during gunplay and melee combat, though not extremely excessive. I was supprised at the language in the game, other than a couple of characters there was not an extreme amount of bad language that I noticed. However, I do tend to play the “good guy” in these types of games, so the content might be worse if playing the other side of the spectrum.
Lastly, the bugs. When this game released it was very buggy, I heard horror stories about trying to play it from a few people. However, now that it has been out for a while and been patched up it was not that bad. I had a couple of times where I ended up glitching against something, and the camera did have a tendency to be a little wonky when trying to do a 180 quickly when in a smaller sized room, but other than that is was pretty uneventful.
Overall (3/5)
Definitely check it out if you like spy thrillers, solid game, I personally loved it, though it is definitely not for everyone.
Gameplay (2.5/5)
Less than supurb controls do make it tough at times.
Content (3/5)
Strong language and blood, though not extreme amounts most of the time.
Jan
01
2012
This is an animated adventure about a young hard nosed reporter named Tintin who gets involved in a race to find a sunken ship in which was known to be carrying a bounty of treasure when it sank many years ago. Tintin is joined on his quest by a Captain Haddock who is a hard drinking sailor who wants to redeem his himself by finding the treasure in which his ancestor was the captain of that very ship.
Overall (2.5/5)
Movie was actually pretty decent but really not for me,nice plot and direction but I felt it was a boring lull in many sections. Great acting and voice work to go along with the beautiful animation, this film can be for the younger and older crowds This was a good film but nothing I’d suggest rushing out and seeing,its quite ok to wait for this film on video.
Language/Content (1/5)
Nothing at all really as I stated earlier the captain is alcoholic and its mentioned and seen quite a few times on screen also there are gunfights/fights etc and other action sequences but its nothing that I’d be too alarmed with.
Dec
25
2011
Category : Community
All of us here at the Fellowship of Gamers wish you and your loved ones a safe and Merry Christmas. I know we have been taking some much needed time off, recharging our batteries and getting ready for 2012. After the new year we will be back and ready to go. I look forward to gamer nights coming back (maybe even a 3DS Mario Kart gamer night) and getting the podcast rolling again. But for now we are enjoying our time off.
Remember the real reason we celebrate today and that is the birth of Jesus. The greatest gift that any of us have ever gotten. For that I am extremely thankful and joyous on this day. God bless you guys and we look forward to gaming online with you very soon.
Merry Christmas