Knack (PS4) Review

It's been such a long time since I wrote a review for something, so here's my review for PS4's launch title "Knack"

We're at war with Xbox One the Goblins. Can Knack save the humans? 

You begin your journey in the game's tutorial as a demonstration by Doctor Vargas (Doctor for short) showing a group a resolution for against the Goblins and their highly advanced weaponry. Knack, being the Doctor's intellectual creation from ancient relics and the name he (Knack) has given himself,  has the ability to absorb relics. Absorbing the relics increases the mass of Knack making powerful more than he was. Along with strengthening himself, the life meter grows as he absorbs more relics. Knack can and will at times use his ability to abandon these relics to travel where he couldn't. Obviously, he then becomes less powerful and weaker. With the only ability to increase and decrease his size, there's very little of what Knack can do

With Knack not being able to do much of anything with his ability, the controls for this game are very basic. You have simple a three-button attack combination Knack is able to perform by rapidly pressing the square button. He's also able jump and double-jump to get to areas needed. As you progress through the game, you're collecting energy from these crystals. Depending how much energy you have collected determines if you do one of three special attacks. Depending on what enemy you're facing in the game determines your strategy throughout the areas

You're more than likely will cause Knack to die. There are surprisingly a good handful of variations of enemies, but with so many chapters and sub-chapters, they become quite repetitive. Depending on the size of Knack determines what enemies you face. Sometimes those enemies are just plain ruthless if you don't know what attacks they do. Luckily, they established many checkpoints for trial and error. There aren't any lives nor game over screens, so this likely will make it feel less challenging. Sometimes collecting the crystal energy and dying is the best strategy depending oh how many and what kind of enemies you're facing. Many times I died out of carelessness as I was played it on hard difficult for the challenge. Some of the enemies would attack all at once and there were limited ways to escape around them. On the topic of escaping, there wasn't much place to escape to

When playing Knack, the areas you're placed in are extremely linear. I can't make that much clearer. There's truly no exploration going on at all in this game. If you love exploring, this is definitely not for you. The only true exploring you can do in the game is trying to find hidden chests throughout the story. These chests are most of the time easily to spot. They're mostly hidden behind a wall that looks like somebody repaired after the Kool-Aid man jumped through. The chest contains either parts to a gadget or gems. The gadgets if all the parts are found, will help you in the next playthrough by telling you were certain stuff is or increasing Knack's damage. The gems if collected enough provides Knack with alternate costumes.

Knack does have that classic arcade feel, but after an hour or so I felt the repetitiveness striking me bored. The story itself isn't dull, but the voice acting and the Pixar like cinematics made me feel tired. The gameplay itself was colorful and you could see that 1080p graphics you would want from a PS4 game. However,  The story plot had fore-shadowing so easily predictable, it felt like spoilers. If the game's story and area were shorter, then it would be a pretty decent game. There were thirteen chapter for the game and I felt it was eight chapters too long.

Being a PS4 launch title exclusive, I felt it was below average and that made me disappointed. The game was great looking, but stopped being a great playing game after the fifth chapter. I give this score a 2.5/5 (score based upon GameRevolution.com's grading scale)

- Repetitive enemies
- Long story
- Very linear
+ Great visuals
/ Simplistic controls
/ Pixar like cinematics

Aiming Towards PS4. Thanks, Microsoft.

Good time (I like to say time, because I don't know what timezone you live in) everyone! Yesterday, Microsoft finally announced their new system, Xbox One. However, people that were so thrilled and excited waiting for that special moment were (in my opinion) let down like what Tony Stark did to Harley Keener. So, am I leaning towards Microsoft's Xbox One or Sony's PS4? I'm actually pretty positive I'm leaning towards purchasing Sony's PS4.

Microsoft's announcement was a huge letdown. Yes, it was great being able to reveal their next gen console, unlike Sony. However, in order to reveal a console, you gotta reveal what it's capable of doing. Being a black box with its new controller and better version of the Kinect doesn't make me want to reach for that console like Magneto reaching for his mom. I need details! Thankfully, Microsoft was able to do just that. Looking at the specs, they're amazingly similar to the PS4. Also, they've finally added a Blu-Ray drive to the system, unlike Xbox 360's system. "Hey, Microsoft! My PS3 can already read BR discs Suck on that!" So, their visualizations in games will be pretty much identical to PS4's system. This actually makes me quite happy, because it's extremely annoying seeing people complain about how much their multi-platform game's graphic on the PS3 is identical to Xbox 360's where it should be better looking. Hopefully, this would put  a stop to those complaints. Xbox One is may have similar hardware specs, but their focus on what "next-gen" should be, is completely opposite than what Sony's views are.

Microsoft is thinking about having an all in one media box. Their mission is too bring media entertainment instantly. They're not focusing on games. In fact, they're still calling their consoles "entertainment system" and not a "game console." During their announcement, all I saw was Windows 8 in a black box. Their dashboard interface looked very similar. It seems like they're trying to go with a Windows 8 feel and that's exactly what they're doing. With their new and fully rebuilt Kinect, you can grab a window and switch from game to Internet to back to game instantly. Wow! Not only that, you can use simple voice commands to switch from TV to game and back to TV. Amazing! This is pretty much useless to me, because I for one don't have cable TV and I definitely don't need to waste power just so I can switch it from TV to games. During Sony's announcement, they weren't thinking that way, obviously. Sony actually cared about games. Sony wants people to share their game experience instantly. They want games to be sociable. With their new instant live streaming, gamers can do just that. They weren't focusing on motion controllers, unlike Microsoft. The most they added to their controller was a touch pad and an instant stream button. Not entirely sure how this is going to work, but E3 will most likely explain everything. I'm actually glad Sony didn't focus on motion controllers. I mean they did, but they weren't showing off PlayStation Move's ability, did they? Sony learned we're not ready for that, yet. Microsoft on the other hand believes we are. Speaking of their new Kinect, this leads me to why people won't buy their system.

Besides the horrible announcement that happened yesterday, they've been answering the rumors that have been floating around for a good while. One of the those rumors happened to be about the Kinect being required in order to run their system. And their answer was yes. Boom! That's going to drop so many sales for Microsoft, because there are many people like me that have very limited space. If you can't work the new Kinect properly, how else are we going to run the system? Not only is space needed, but lighting as well. Okay, lighting may not be a problem, but it certainly doesn't help. Also, there are families with pets. What if those pets decide to bump it or chew on the Kinects wire? It'll render the system useless. It doesn't just have to be pets. It could be from a clumsy person as well. It's bad enough I wasted money on my Kinect. Now, it just sits their collecting dust.

So, with Microsoft's mission on how to make this system not a video game console, the games were ready to be announced. Well, at least I thought they were. They mentioned 15 exclusives and 8 of them were new. So, I'm hoping for bunches of games. Oh wow, Forza Motorsport 5 looks amazing, unfortunately for me I'm not a racing type person. I dislike racing games the most. However, the detail on the graphics was pretty impressive. Too bad I already stated earlier the tech specs is ideally similar to Sony's PS4. So, I'm not really excited to see it look that good. Then there were bunch of EA games I didn't give two sh*ts about. Not really a sports gamer. Now there was one game I'm thinking will be good is Quantum Leap. Being developed by Remedy is a plus. You may remember Remedy from being the developer of Alan Wake. So, this may be a great game, but I wouldn't waste money on a console just for a game. Then it happened! The most greatest news that happened during yesterday's conference. The announcement of Halo TV's series. To help with in making this projected happen, Steven Speilberg was hired for the project. Yes, this is great news. Unfortunately, I don't have cable, but I know other ways of watching this. Ending all the disappointments that were made on that day came more details on Call of Duty: Ghosts. Hooray! Swimming with da fishes and having them evade me! Their most greatest news was the service dog. Being able to use a service dog in the game by your side is a plus. Of course they go on for a few minutes about how much detail they placed in the game due to Xbox One's incredible hardware. Oh and they're releasing the game exclusively first on Xbox One. Whoopee f*cking doo!

With these announcements today. I can confirm with you I'll be purchasing the PS4 first if not, only. There are still questions that needs to be answered, but it'll have to wait until E3. Really, Microsoft's announcement was pretty terrible today. Maybe it's me, but I was more excited waiting for the announcement then I am waiting for the system to release. There are more stuff for me to b*tch about, but I'm thinking Microsoft will get my point. Oops, let me scratch that out for you, Microsoft isn't focusing on the gamers. Sony, you weren't my first choice back then. I actually enjoyed my time with the Xbox 360 and still do. However, the PS4 will be my first choice of this gen console, unless Microsoft can magically change my opinion. Microsoft, you got until E3 to change my mind.

Roxio Game Capture HD Pro Review

I don’t always write hardware reviews. But when I do, I make it informative with jokes along the way. Heath Hindman UghRochester is the Most Interesting Gamer in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Hello, everyone! A Week ago, Game Revolution’s DanielBischoff wrote a review for his new Hauppauge HD PVR 2. I have to admit, I was quite jealous of what he had. When I saw YouTube videos of the quality he is capable of recording, I decided I wanted to search for something similar and cheaper, because let’s face it, my Pinnacle Dazzle DVC100 was not the best quality. Luckily, I found something new…and cheaper.

What I have found was the Roxio Game Capture HD Pro. Few weeks ago, Roxio released their new HD recording device. I was lucky, because their original price was $149.99, but with promo codes, I would be able to get it cheaper, $40 cheaper that is. Anyways, I had to ask myself, “Would it be worth it purchase this?” I did some research before buying this. Not much was detailed, because it was still new and customers haven’t posted much about it. However, I saw YouTube videos of the quality compared to be the HD PVR. The HD PVR does have a better image quality, but not by that much. Both are amazing for recording HD, as it was compared and both of them has an HDMI port. So, I decided to purchase one.

Unboxing:

When it came in the mail, I quickly opened the box to see what was in there. What you’ll have in the box is the capturing device, software and a gold plated USB cord to connect to your computer. The USB cord isn’t universal and I wished it was. What I like about the device is you don’t have worry about getting extra wire splitters, because both inputs and outputs are all in one. However, it’s disappointing, because you have to get an extra component or HDMI cable. It’s like receiving a gift requiring batteries, but wasn’t with your gift. The software that came with your device is located behind a cardboard flap. You won’t be able to see it until you bend the box to make an open gap. You’ll also find a manual for the device. The manual is made me chuckle inside, because it has little information about how to set it up with the Xbox 360, but has all these pictures and directions for the PS3. That’s everything that is in the box.

Using the Device:

After installing the software to my laptop, I thought I was ready. So, I turned on my TV first and then my Xbox 360, but I didn’t receive any signal. So, I tried again and the results were the same. So, I turned them both off and connected my laptop to my capturing device and tried again. Well, I’ll be a horse’s anus. You need have your device powered by USB in order for your TV to receive signal from your video game console. This isn’t really a big problem, but it is annoying to have the device powered by USB. Once I figured that out, I was able to capture and record videos in HD. Due to the device being powered by USB, it sometimes lags during recording. However, this works greatly for recording. If you have no video editing software, the software includes editing tools.

Live Streaming:

With this device, you’re able to live stream directly to Justin/Twitch TV. Changing settings to stream a better quality sucks more than that person using a straw to get the last drop of beverage from their cup. The only thing you can do is change your output, whether you want to stream in higher or lower qualities. You can also change your bitrate. That’s the only changes you can make to stream. Once I started getting used to the device, I went to a program called “Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE)” I use this free software to help me make changes to my encoding in order to get a better stream with my Dazzle. So, it recognized my new device as both video and audio, but it wouldn’t support its content. I found out the codec for this device has MTS2 encoding. Roxio said they used this format for better quality of video, which is cool, but all other programs for streaming will not support this device, because of its format. So, you’re left with only streaming to Justin/Twitch TV.

Overall the Roxio Game Capture HD Pro is a great device. Comparing its quality to the HD PVR 2, I’m pretty impressed. It’s also much smaller than the HD PVR 2. I’m going to give this device 3.5 out of 5. It does everything like it says, but I wanted more options with live streaming.

+ Great price

+ Records HD

+ HDMI Port

+/- USB powered

- Live Streaming Options

*Based on gamerevolution.com's grading scale.*

ABC News: Quit it, it's the parents' fault!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog, but this event gave me motivation to post one more before procrastination takes effect one me (again). Rob Hayes’s article was brought to my attention on Wednesday, March 28th by an entry on Kotaku, one of many gaming websites I go on throughout the given day. Their (Kotaku) story was covering Hayes’s article about children being exposed to cursed words, racism, any sort of cyber bulling while playing with other gamers online. The reason why I’m creating this entry is the fact of how delayed and how much hilarity I saw in this particular article. Also, this entry will give me a much better view of parenting and what parents should do.

Don’t worry ABC News, you’re most of the time “on top” of the news happening throughout the world. Hayes’s article I viewed didn’t seem to be on top of covering this issue. As you will see by a couple of quotes I viewed in the article, I’ll try my best to give them my most honest opinion.  

“Imagine exposing your child to racial slurs and X-rated content on a daily basis without realizing it. Experts warn that's exactly what could be happening if you let your child play an online video game through Xbox, PlayStation or on the computer.”

Now, I’m sure parents are fully aware of this situation. In fact, I’m sure they’re aware of it ever since online gaming has been created. Sony Computer Entertainment created the Playstation Network (PSN for short) for the United States in November, 2006. That’s almost six years! Microsoft created Xbox LIVE for its console back in 2002 and recently celebrated their tenth year of being in service. That’s ten years! As you can see, by now the parents should be fully aware of this issue. It has been years, since the online services have begun. I found this to be hilarious and as well as others, because you’re “on top” of covering this issue. Sometimes you can get a nice conversation online, but many times you’ll hear vulgar content. This is why it’s established online features aren’t rated, because you don’t know what might be heard. It is common sense to know there are morons that use “F*ck, sh*t, etc” in every sentence.

“Internet safety expert Parry Aftab says this inappropriate language in online gaming is rampant, and she's concerned it's leading to dangerous cyber bullying.
"They may trash talk. They may be calling you names. They may steal their passwords. Or a lot of them may gang up on one online, not because it's a good strategic win, but to hurt the other person," said Aftab.
Game companies attempt to combat these issues with on-box warnings, parental controls and special task squads.” 

Well, great job to the video game developers. Parents have warned for years! If it’s somebody to blame, I would blame the parent for exposing it to their child. What I love seeing is parents purchasing a product that has violence for rated for the mature audience and letting their child(ren) play the games. Some parents are ignorant and complain about their children playing this game, even though they bought it. Parents do have the right to complain about their child(ren) playing violent games when their not in view of them playing it. The child(ren) could be playing it at their friend’s house, because his/her parent wouldn’t buy a particular game. This is not the game developers’ fault. Again, parents are ignorant. Instead of complaining to the other parent about their view of the subject, they start blaming the game developers. Thankfully, we do have a system that enables a parent to see what a game’s content has inside and what to be cautious about for the viewing audience. That system is commonly known as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB for short).

This should not be an issue. I believe, and like many others around the world, parents should be taking responsibility for their own action. Parents should quit blaming others for once. They have been warned various times about what the content is being delivered. From what I read, there mighteven be another warning label to allow parents to see what content is in store for them. Please parents, quit complaining about your child(ren) being exposed to this. Also, thank you ABC News, your covering of this subject has made me look differently about your news coverage.

Assassin's Creed III prediction

Ubisoft released their Assassin's Creed III covers for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. I always look at covers of games to see what the setting might be and I predict what might happen in the game. Here's the cover, let's take an observation of this spectacle.

When I see this, the first thing I see is the Betsy Ross flag. Right there, I can deduce the game will most likely be in the era of the American Revolution. To help prove that assumption, do you see the Red Coats on the left? So, it's probably enough to say the setting is very likely to be during the American Revolution.

So, what might we see during the game. My prediction is Benedict Arnold. Everyone know Mr. Arnold is a traitor. So, will Ubisoft somehow make him into a Templar and assassinate him? We'll find out more when Ubisoft gives details.

Jason Altmire Opposes SOPA

A while ago, I contacted my state representatives to oppose SOPA and PIPA (for the senators). One of Pennsylvania's state representatives has informed me he is against SOPA by emailing me this letter.

"Dear Mr. Hall,

Thank you for contacting me with your views on legislation to combat online piracy.  I appreciate hearing from you.

Intellectual property development and protection is an essential driver of America's economy.  Additionally, many entrepreneurs and small businesses rely on the Internet to share those ideas and expose them to a larger market.  However, this innovation is threatened by online piracy and copyright infringement.  Any legislation that Congress considers should protect copyright holders from infringement while encouraging continued innovation.

Unfortunately, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (H.R. 3261) does not strike the appropriate balance between protecting copyrights and preserving access to the Internet.  I am pleased to inform you that, due in part to advocacy from constituents like you, I oppose  SOPA.  You may also be interested to know that, due to overwhelming opposition, the leadership in the House and Senate has agreed to withdraw its respective bills from further consideration in an effort to address the concerns of the online community.  I am open to working with industry experts on both sides of the issue and with my colleagues in the House to craft more appropriate legislation.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.  If I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other matter, please feel free to be in touch.

Sincerely,

Jason Altmire
Member of Congress

Please sign up for my e-newsletter at www.altmire.house.gov."

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier delayed.

Not much enjoyed the Ghost Recon games. I'm one of few who enjoyed they're FPS in which it was just a screen and crosshairs. Anyhow Ubisoft announced they're game will be delayed to May and an MP beta for April. Wasn't surprised with a beta since many developers nowadays take time to polish their work before release.