The Gamer Geeks Show! Episode 1: Weiss Schwarz

Welcome to the newest show on the Geek IO Media Network! Every week, CJ and friends go deep into different games, teaching how to play them, as well as providing insight on them as they go along.

This week, is the Bushiroad Collect able Card Game: Weiss Schwarz! Join CJ & Matt Rumbold of ConGeeks as they go in depth on to see if Fate Stay Night can beat Disgaea!

On this show, CJ and a rotating panel cover a game in depth and bring it to you in a way that you can understand and play it yourselves. This time around, it's Weiss Schwarz, a Collectable Card Game from Bushiroad Entertainment.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengence review

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More of the same - in the best way.

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The game that rekindled my fire for strategy RPGs is back, and this time on the PlayStation 4.  It may look the same on the surface, but the deeper you go the more in depth this game goes.  The story, as in the other games of the series almost an after sight, and certainly not the main portion of the game, the game focuses on the craziness that comes out of Japan.   

The combat in this installment is again, more of the same, you have the basic set of weapons (sword, axe, staff, gun, bow, staff, fist, and monster weapons) you have your story heroes, your generic characters that you can create, monsters, and your basic SRPG tile-based turn-basted battles.  Geo panels, field effecting (positive and negative) panels are back, plaguing some levels, also creating the ability to quickly level.   

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The weakest point of this game, as with previous installments, is the sound and music.  The overworld music when you’re just walking around your base is truly atrocious, and the voice actors in this are some of the worst in the series.  Thankfully, you can change the background music (BGM) of the overworld, and I did, but the voice actors are there to stay, unless you go to the Japanese voice actors, but those are not much better.  It is something you just come to live with, but it is the weakest point of this otherwise great game. 

If you are looking for a jumping on point to Japanese RPGs, Strategy RPGs, or isgaea in general, there are worse installments than this one. Also, given how this is the first on the current generation of consoles it is a sure fit.  Currently, the previous installments are not available for the PS4, but remakes have been made for the PS Vita. 

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SCORE: 4/5

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No, Chet Faliszek did NOT just confirm Half Life 3…

...But he did have some good things to say about VR.

Try holding your hands out like this for ten minutes. That's when you realise why a mouse and keyboard works so well.

 

Valve writer Chet Faliszek did indeed run a Developer Session at this year’s EGX but no, he did not confirm that Half Life 3 was in development, and that it would not support Virtual Reality. OK, so it was admittedly open to a little interpretation, but there were whiteboard doodles during Half Life 2’s development that yielded more useful information.

So what was actually said? You can actually find the full video over at Eurogamer’s website and it’s definitely worth watching the whole thing, but the exchange that’s being reported elsewhere comes at the end when the floor was opened up for questions.

“Is Half Life 3 gonna be in VR?” was the first of one guy’s questions. Chet responded with a polite smile and, “We were kinda betting that that was gonna get asked, no.”

You could interpret this as confirmation of Half Life 3, or you could see it as someone who constantly gets asked such questions and now will only respond with a flat and succinct, “no.”

The guest followed it up with a question on wireless technology, but even he didn’t think he’d gotten any confirmation on the matter. Before surrendering the microphone he added, “You didn’t answer my first question.” The response he got?

“I said no.”

Do you want this? Yes. You want this.

Now that that’s out of the way, go and watch the video anyway. Chet Faliszek had some very interesting things to say about the development of Steam’s VR platform and the HTC Vive.

One of the most important points he wanted to make was about space requirements. Although we’ve had confirmation in the past that the Vive would work sitting down, there has been speculation that the difference between Vive and Oculus Rift would be that one would suit a seated experience and one would require a dedicated room. This naturally lead to some concerns over whether people without the floor space would be able to enjoy Valve’s offering or be forced into going with another solution.

The HTC Vive would work in a space up to five by five metres, but that is a maximum limit, not a required minimum. The experience scales down to a stationary and, yes, seated experience. The point was pressed so hard that it’s clear Valve have been listening to people’s concerns on the subject. Unfortunately, having finally experienced the Vive demo, while I may not need a five by five space for VR, you really really want it.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Review

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Spike Chunsoft for the Playstation Vita.  It is a spin-off of the main Danganronpa series, as well as a connecting game for Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair.  It was released on September 1st, 2015 by publisher NIS America.

Komaru, with the Hacking Gun and an attacking Monokuma Bot

You play as Komaru Naegi, younger sister to the main protagonist in Trigger Happy Havoc, Makoto Naegi.  The game opens with her apparently living on her own, though we learn soon that she's been a prisoner in her room for over a year.  Having no idea of what happened to the world outside, she lives in an apartment alone, going about her daily life and trying to stay sane.  Unfortunately, her life is suddenly turned upside down (again) when the door to her prison is destroyed by none other than Monokuma, one of the main villains in the series.  After escaping, we are introduced to a surviving member of the previous game, who gifts Komaru a megaphone that can apparently destroy the Monokuma robots that are suddenly attacking the city.  After learning about some about the city, as well as being introduced to our partner for the majority of the game, we are treated to a chilling introduction to the Warriors of Hope, the true villains of this particular game.  These children are controlling the Monokuma attacking the city, in the hopes of creating a paradise for children by killing all the adults - who are dehumanized by being called 'Demons' - and ridding the children of their influence.  We learn over the course of the game that the Warriors of Hope are haunted by events in their past - effectively trapping them with their own 'Demons' who they are attempting to destroy.

There is a lot more story to it, but expounding anymore will take much longer than I feel is appropriate for this review, as well as spoiling major plot points from both the previous and subsequent game.  Suffice it to say it's a very well-crafted game that holds many twists and turns before the finale.

The graphics are very similar to the games it's spun off from, though with added 3D models since a good portion of the last few games were 2D.  I'm glad they stayed true to the previous games in terms of graphics, though the game gained a lot with the introduction of the 3D modeling.  The controls are, sadly, somewhat finicky at times, making it very troublesome to hit the moving target at times.  I don't believe I found any way to fine-tune the aiming, but I jumped right into the action without really spending time in the settings so I might have simply missed the option to make aiming easier.  At any rate, I've yet to really run into any issue with the fine-tuning, so it's not really a complaint.

As for gameplay, it's fairly straightforward. You are attempting to escape and survive in the 'Demon Hunting Game' put on by the Warriors of Hope.  With the help of your partner, Genocide Jack, you move through the city, fighting Monokuma, the Warriors of Hope and, ultimately, Despair.  The series revolves very heavily around the concepts of Hope and Despair, so the writing touches on the swing connecting these two emotions.  The writing sometimes comes off as...contrived because it reuses the 'It's hopeless I can't go on' trope more than a few times, followed immediately by the 'I might as well keep fighting' trope almost immediately after.  However, given the overall story, the writing makes sense in this regard since the story as a whole is built on the connection between the two.

You can alternate freely between Komaru and Jack, though Jack has a time limit based on the battery life of the stun gun.  Jack is invincible, which makes her ideal for large groups of Monokuma, but keeping an eye on the battery meter (as shown above) is important to keeping yourself from running out of battery life and leaving Komaru high and dry when you need backup.  This resource can be replenished by defeating Monokuma, or activating Monokuma machines, scattered around the City.  Both can drop batteries, hearts to replenish Komaru's health, or Monocoins, used to buy upgrades to Jack's abilities or 'Bling Bullets' which modify the ammo used in the Hacking Gun.

Lastly, randomly located within the City are 'Game Rooms', which function as a challenge room.  You are given a group of enemies and a goal to achieve within the room.  In the image to the right, the clear condition is destroying all of the Monokuma in a single explosion.  The Shield Monokuma turn in unison and you're only able to use the Knockback Bullet.  For this, I had to sneak up behind the Bomb Monokuma on the right and shoot him with Knockback, blasting him down the room and he blew up all the Shield Monokuma.  These rooms add a level of strategy to the game, and helps break the monotony of running between very similar locales.  

I have a long way to go before I've finished the game; I'm just now in Chapter Two, and I'm almost certain there are five or six chapters within the game.  So I won't be seeing the end of this one for a while.  But, if this one is anything like the previous entries, and all that I've played so far suggest it's very similar, the journey to the end will be a twisting and chilling one.  I would definitely recommend this game for anyone with a Vita or a Playstation TV, because this game - as well as the other two - is one of my favorites on my Vita.

Fallout Shelter Review (iPad)

Fallout Shelter was announced and released at  Bethesda’s E3 conference.  Fallout Shelter is a iOS only tap to play game that puts you in the role of an overseer of your very own Vault.  As the overseer, you are in charge of taking care of the Vault dwellers, assigning jobs, managing power, food, and water expansion and exploration of the wastelands and protection.

    The main gameplay of Fallout Shelter is building rooms and assigning dwellers to either collect resources or to train their S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats.  Each room as a stat assign to it: food production uses Agility, Strength for power, and Perception for water purification.  As the Vault begins to grow, you will need to acquire new dwellers to maintain larger Vaults. New dwellers are either incoming people from outside the Vault or those being born to the current residents.  All residents have a happiness percentage which will increase or decrease based on the condition of your Vault.  Low resources will lower happiness and start affecting their well being and they’ll start to contract radiation sickness.  

    The basic rooms are the diner, power station, water treatment station, and the residential area which increase the max number of Vault dwellers. Building multiple resource rooms will increase maximum production as well as capacity.  More advanced rooms are unlocked by increasing the number Vault dwellers, like training rooms and advanced version of the basic resource rooms.  Med bays are used to create stimpaks restore health and Science labs to produce Radaways to remove radiation sickness.  The training room are use to increase one stat at a time to improve productivity.  Rooms can be placed next to one another to increase the number of dwellers that can be assigned.  Bottle caps are the main currency used to upgrade rooms and to revive fallen dwellers.  Each production room can be rushed for collection at the risk of failure which will either cause the room to burst into flames or a radroach infestation.  

 

    Sending dwellers out into the wastelands will give them experience and also gives them a chance to find and collect bottle caps, weapons, used for Vault protection from raider attacks, and outfits to modify stats.  


    Fallout Shelter has a fast pace with no wait times for rooms to be built with the ability to modify wait time on resource collection by using higher stat dwellers to the rooms.  It does take some extra time for training and for children to grow up enough to get assigned to jobs.  Resources are  not automatic collected, so if you step away from the game you must keep checking on it.  Dwellers in a room waiting to be collected will stop working.  The game can be played without an internet connection, which it is only needed for the cash transaction of buying lunch boxes that contain cards that can range from bottle caps, outfits, weapons and special dwellers.  Fallout Shelter is a great way to pass the time until Fallout 4 is released this fall.

YouTube Bethesda

Sony @ E3

Going into the Sony Conference this year, I didn't know what to expect.  Bethesda had already brought the house down last night with the release date of one of the biggest games this year just last night, and Microsoft had surprised everyone with the announcement of backwards compatibility with the Xbox One.  So, Sony had an uphill battle.  However, with what I saw, Sony might've easily won E3 this year.

Right out of the starting gate, they bring out the big guns.  For the first announcement of their ninety minutes, they chose The Last Guardian.  A game that's been in development limbo for close to a decade, and the projected release date is...sometime in 2016!  This was simply a massive bombshell.  Everyone was hoping for information on this game from the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two critically acclaimed games from Team Ico, but I think many people expect it to be one of the final announcements, given how long it's been since the last bit of information was gleaned about it.  The trailer didn't show much, but it showcases the interaction between the main character and his companion.  All in all, it  looked stunning, and I simply cannot wait until this game is released.

Following on the heels of that is a huge endeavour, but Sony chose Guerrilla Games to appear next.  Best known for their work with the Killzone series, Guerrilla Games announces a brand-new IP called Horizon Zero Dawn.  Not much was said about this game, but what little information we have seems to suggest that it takes place centuries after present-day civilizations have died out.  Again, the trailer doesn't explain much, but it does show off some amazing combat against..mechanical dinosaurs.  Yes, there is little explanation, but from what they've shown, the game looks spectacular and it's certainly on my list of games to watch out for.  It looked very polished, so I expect to hear much more about this one at Gamescom.

With the huge games out of the way, Sony announces a new entry in the Hitman saga.  In yet another showcase, Sony shows nothing of the story - probably for good reason, since Hitman doesn't really need story - and instead opts for showing a myriad of locales and characters, some of which will probably be targets within the game.  I'm curious to see where they go after the ending of the previous game - which appears to be chronologically before this new entry, since a character says "Good to have you back" while focused on 47's face.  For PS4 users only, a preorder nets beta access, which suggests there will be a multiplayer component, which I'm unsure about.

Sony then went on to show some Street Fighter 5 footage. After a quick set of sequences showcasing Birdie and Cammy, they mentioned that the public beta for the game will be come to the PS4 exclusively on July 23rd..

After that brief calm, they called Sean Murray to the stage, who proceeded to blow our socks off - after we had just managed to put the back on after Last Guardian! - with some new No Man's Sky footage.  After starting in a real space battle, followed by a small glimpse at the sheer size of the game universe, he jumped to a random planet closer to the galaxy center and landed.  He then announced that every planet was fully destructible.  Still, with no release date in sight, this game continues to astound.  However, he did mention that the planet he jumped to will be able to be found by players once they get the game, suggesting that he was actually playing a final build of the game, which further suggests the release date could be sooner than we all think.

Media Molecule, best known for their work on Tearaway and Little Big Planet, then announced Dreams, a pretty ambitious evolution of their previous works, in which players will be able to construct seamless 'Dreams' that can be explored endlessly.  Unfortunately, I sorta glossed out at this, since it seems directed at highly creative individuals, which I am unfortunately not.  Afterward, they announced Firewatch would be making its console debut on PS4.  It feels very survival horror, without that overt horror feel that typically comes with that territory.  I'm very curious for this one, and will probably add it to my list to buy when it comes out.

Next up, Sony trotted out their seeming partnership with Bungie with footage of the new Destiny expansion coming Septmber 15, The Taken King.  As well as adding new subclasses for the existing classes - a Void Bow Hunter, Arc Lightning Warlock, and Solar Hammer Titan - it will also pit guardians against Oryx, father of Crota, who has come inward from the outer solar system to get revenge for his son's murder.  It looks spectacular, and seems to suggest many new areas - Saturn was among what I saw, as well as possibly more Mercury.  Further, Playstation users will get more exclusive content, including a day one strike and multiplayer maps.  Given the time I've spent with this game as it is, I'll definitely be playing this one, though it has some huge expectations to fill if it intends to hold players after Fallout 4 is released.

Switching gears somewhat, we get some new footage for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the yearly release for the franchise with so many mixed feelings about it.  We are introduced to Evie Frye, sister to Jacob Frye and the second female protagonist available in an Assassin's Creed game - the first being Aveline de Grandpré from Liberation - and the first since Ubisoft's ill-choice of words last year about it being hard to have a female protagonist.  We are shown the Cane Sword, which seems quite intuitive in use, as well as throwing knives which appear to be somewhat useful.  PS4 is also going to be getting a set of exclusive missions titled the Dreadful Crimes.  I expected this to be connected to Jack the Ripper, but apparently they're focused on Victorian-era mystery novelists.  With what is already expected this year, I'll probably hold out on this one, since I was burned very badly with Unity's gamebreaking bugs last year.

World of Final Fantasy came next.  Exclusive on PS4 and Vita (the first time all show they've even mentioned their ailing handheld system) the World of Final Fantasy almost feels like a pokemon-esque game.  You can shrink your character to a chibi and ride monsters, or return your chibi to normal size and have those monsters ride you for some reason.  While not much was really shown about this, it looks intriguing enough that I'll definitely pick it up for my Vita, since my PS4 will be getting a major workout this holiday season.

And then, Sony brought the house down.  I thought it couldn't get any bigger after the announcement of The Last Guardian, but oh was I wrong.  Because they announced the Final Fantasy 7 remake that's been teased for years.  The character models appear to use modified Advent Children models, and I also think the in-game engine is modified from Final Fantasy 15's, which combine to make this look spectacular.  No release date was given, but I will predict it will have a 2017 release date to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7.

After that, I blanked out just slightly.  they showed off a quartet of new games from Devolver Digital: Ronin, Eitr, Mother Russia Bleeds and Crossing Souls.  They looked fascinating, but what little I noticed caused me to ignore most of this segment, since none of those games seemed to interest me - instead, spots sickened me, which is not what I want my games to do.

Sony then started talking about Kickstarter.  I was confused at first, and then the trailer came on.  Shenmue 3 appears to be happening.  A game originally based on the Dreamcast, Shenmue 3 launched a kickstarter literally during the Sony conference.  As of writing, the kickstarter sits at 1.2 million dollars, 60% of the asking price of two million.  A direct sequel to the previous games, this kickstarts still has a month remaining.  I fully expect this game to get far more than than the asking funding, and with Sony behind them, we can be sure that funding this game will get this game released.

Next, Batman: Arkham Knight was showcased.  With the release date of June 23rd, we are shown one of the exclusive Scarecrow Nightmare missions.  With you controlling a cop, you suddenly get dosed with Fear Toxin and you start shooting everything.  It looks very fast paced, but I don't know what the final reward for these missions will be, so we'll have to see if the exclusivity is worth it.

The next bits step away from games for a bit, first talking about Project Morpheus and dropping a few names of games coming for the system (which we'll probably hear more about in the coming days after people get some hands-on with it on the show floor), and then about Playstation Vue, a tv programming system currently availabe in LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Philedelphia.  They will be allowing subscribers to choose channels they want to pay for, which is huge - coming at a time when Verzion is pushing this exact thing with their Custom TV packages.  Further, Playstation Plus members will get an undisclosed discounted rate on subscriptions, which would just add to the already massive value of the service.

Returning to the games, which is far more interesting than Vue or Morpheus (though both are big for Sony, I'm sure) we are treated to a reveal of Call of Duty Black Ops 3.  The segment starts with a four player co-op mission, fighting a wave of mechanized shock troops, as well as hackable artillery walkers.  After that, they surprised by showing multiplayer footage, which felt very like titanfall without mechs - there was a lot of wall running to be had and seemed very fast-paced.  It looked very polished, though since I'm not a fan of the CoD installments, much of the excitement was lost on me.  They also announced that from here on, PS4 users will be the first to play all map packs for Call of Duty, and a beta for Black Ops 3 will appear on PS4 first in August.

Shifting gears to the Star Wars side of things, we have an announcement for Disney Infinity 3.0.  Coming this fall, Disney Infinity will add Star Wars characters to their already robust lineup with two new playsets set in the world.  Even better, Playstation will get an exclusive starter pack which includes the base, five figurines (Including the exclusive Boba Fett figurine!!!) and the playsets Twilight of the Republic and Rise Against the Empire playsets, all a month before any other platform.  It's all exciting stuff, but I've stayed away from games like this solely because the figurine collection aspect seems like an unnecessary money sink for me.

More Star Wars news, we are treated to some Battlefront co-op missions.  We see the Survival mission type for the first time, pitting two rebel soldiers against waves of Imperial forces, starting with stormtroopers but including AT-STs and possibly Sith warriors.  It looked very exciting and I suddenly began wondering if I wanted to get this one.  Playable Offline, split-screen or online, the lack of a campaign still makes me leery.  Star Wars Battlefront is slated for a November 17th release.

Finally, Sony treated us to some Uncharted 4 gameplay.  After a small hiccup with their systems - and what appeared to be a demo restart - we see Nate and Sully working their way through an unnamed city toward the tower of someone named Sam.  While I'm unsure if Sam is friend or foe, the duo moved through the crowd for a bit before a combat wave appeared.  It looks very fluid, and makes me highly excited for this game - as if I weren't already.  Many of the environments looked and felt completely destructible, which is huge for a game like this.  I'm curious to see how much of the world can be destroyed.  Unfortunately, after this demo, the conference ended abruptly, without so much as a word from anyone regarding it.

All in all, Sony brought their A game this year.  I was a bit disappointed about the lack of Vita coverage, but that's par for the course these days - and maybe there will be some gems hidden on the show floor for the system.  As for the games, what they showed was highly surprising, and everything seemed designed to bury the competition in the dust.  Hopefully, the games without release dates will come out soon, because those are quite possibly the best looking of the bunch.

Microsoft @ E3

Microsoft kicked off their conference with the announcement of Halo Guardians with squad based combat.  With one team lead by The Master Chief and the other by Locke.  Online multiplayer Warzone Player VS Everything.  Along with Halo 5 campaign demo with squad controls and enemies.  

A new game by Keiji Inafune name recore for the Xbox One coming Spring 2016.

Some big news on the hardware front from Microsoft was that the Xbox One will now support Backwards Compatibility and the the fully customization Xbox Elite wireless controller.  Bethesda show have gameplay of Fallout 4 mech suit and Mods created the PC are free to import to the Xbox One.  EA show Madden 2016 and the addition to adding Titanfall and Dragon Age Inquisition to  EA Access vault.  Membership to EA Access will include early access to game.  Also showed a trailer a Plants Vs Zombie Garden Warfare 2.

Trailer showcase Forza 6, Dark souls 3 in 2016, Tom Clancy The Division Xbox One Beta in Decmeber, and Rainbow Six Seige on October 13, 2015.  A new Free to Play for Xbox One and Windows 10 Gigantic with a Beta in August 2015.  

Microsoft show off some indie titles from the ID@Xbox.  With Tacoma from the developer of Gone Home,  Ashen, Beyond Eyes, and Cuphead.  

Xbox Game Preview is a early access service launching with Long Dark, Elte Dangerous, and Day Z.  Each game will have a free trial to give you a change to decide if you would like to pay for a still in development game.  From the Develovers of Day Z come Ion.

Rise of the Tomb Raider ice climbing gameplay out November 2015.  

Rare announced Rare Replay with 30 games for $30 released on August 4 2015

New game from Rare Sea of Thieves.

Fable Legends free to play on Xbox One and Windows 10.  Microsoft announced a partnership with Value VR.  Minecraft was showed off with the Hololens.  Gears of War Ultimate Edition on August 25 with 60fps and a one week public beta this week.  Gears of Wars 4 Holiday 2016.