There are reports coming out already on problems with the new Kinect. The main problems are with Kinect's facial recognition, which we will be looking at in this New's Friday article!
GameSpot released an article saying that Kinect is having problems with the systems facial recognition with people who are "dark-skinned." In GameSpot's report, two of there "dark-skinned" employees had problems with the facial recognition. Kinect recognized one of the employees inconsistently, while the other employee it didn't recognize at all despite multiple calibration attempts. Further testing with the same employees showed that wearing lighter clothing helped. They tested this in the same room with the same lighting, once with darker clothes and once with lighter clothes. The article by GameSpot can be found here. Some people think that the Kinect is racist because of this. I don't think it's racist, I just think the first game of this kind is bound to have problems at first. Let's see if the second version will fix this.
While some players have problems with facial recognition, you can still sign in manually and play the games, but some of the games features might not work.
Tips for playing the Kinect: - Wear lighter colored clothing if you are having problems with the facial recognition - People, or big dogs, walking in front of you while you play will mess up your game, but if they walk behind you it wont. - Wearing baggy clothing or really loose clothing, such as a robe, will slow down the reaction time, but only by a hair.
Keep your eyes out for the up-coming Kinect review by our very own Gamer Dude!!
I watch a lot of stuff on the internet and every now and again I find a series of videos or a single video that really moves me. Well the people at The Escapist have come up with a new series called Extra Credits (which has now been running for almost 3 months) and in their short time at the site they have created thought provoking and intelligent discussions about gaming and the gaming industry that have really and truly made me reflect on my life as a gamer. Recently they have had two videos, one released a few weeks ago and one released today, that deal with video games and the controversy that surround them. If you care at all about games you will watch these two videos.
Here is the first one from a few weeks ago:
And here is their most recent video which goes even deeper into the subject:
If you have 20 minutes to burn, watch these two videos. Even if you don't like games you will get a lot out of them. Trust me.
The Gamer Chick here! I first need to apologize for the long absence. But I am back and not going to let you down! I know I usually post a trailer today, but since I missed Monday Modern Reviews and Tech Tuesday I am going to throw them in today.
Fable has always been one of my favorite series. Today, we will be taking a look a the newest game in the series, Fable III.
The Story
Fable 3 takes place about 50 years after Fable 2. You play the son or daughter of the Fable 2 hero. Albion is now being ruled by the king who happens to be your brother Logan. You live in a castle along with Logan, your dog, and your servant Jasper. Albion is also now in the industrial age, although parts of Albion haven't changed. One of my favorite places to explore is Bowerstone Industrial. Because of your evil brother, children are forced to work in the factories and beggars line the streets. This leads to your first main quest, to overthrow your brother and take over the thrown.
Game Play
There are two very distinct parts to Fable 3. One is you leading the revolution, and the other is you as king.
In order to overthrow Logan, you must rally the support of Albion. You pick up supporters as you travel to Bowerstone Industrial, to Aurora, and then to take the thrown. But in order to gain supporters, you make promises to them. When you become king, you have to fulfill those promises, which can be the toughest thing in the game.
Much like Fable 2, you can have odd jobs, buy houses, have a family (which now you can choose a type of wedding), and commit murder. There are also the demon doors, keys, ancient tomes, and garden gnomes.
You still have the three buttons for the three types of attack (one button per type of attack). They are melee, guns, and magic. A good thing to note is that the longer you hold the button, the stronger the attack.
Aurora is a new desert continent that you get to explore. I wont say much about it, but it's as big if not bigger than Albion and a blast to explore.
The Sanctuary is your 3D map and inventory that is tended to by Jasper, your butler. In the Sanctuary, you can mix and match outfits, mix spells (that's right, mix spells!), analyze your weapons, and check on your achievements.
The Weapons
You start out with the hammer, the sword, the rifle, and the pistol. Just like I said above (in case you are skipping around), there is one button for the melee and one for the guns. Also, the longer you hold the button, the stronger the attack.
The weapons now reflect the characters nature and they have improvements. The improvements include the amount of damage dealt, the attractiveness of your character to other characters, and the amount of experience gained. The only way to gain these improvements though is by using that particular weapon, which leads to one or two weapons being used more, and stronger, than the others.
One last thing to add, you can now mix your spells!! Just imagine all the possibilities! A fire tornado, electric swords, and the list goes on!
Chicken!
Co-Op
Co-op has some cool new features. When you enter into another players world, you bring your own hero, your dog, and your own camera. Each player has their own camera, which allows one player to go explore and another to fight for example. You can even get married in multi-player! Something to keep in mind, when you get married to another player, both players gold is shared with the other. When you get a divorce, the total gold is split between the two players.
The Verdict
There are a few cons in Fable 3. They are:
1. The game does have a few bugs. I have heard of some players not being able to finish a quest, and audio cutting out.
2. My biggest complaint about Fable 3 is that they did away with the old action wheel. Insted of being able to choose exactly which action you perform, you can only choose between good, bad, or funny and then the game randomly chooses an action. Also, you can no longer perform the action for a group of people. All actions are now only one-on-one.
Besides the cons of the game, this is a great game over all. My verdict: BUY.
For many gamers, and non-gamers, you know that today is a big day in gaming history. The Supreme Court is hearing from Schwarzenneger and the EMA/ESA. For those who don't know what is going on, they are battling over whether or not video games should be allowed the same First Amendment rights as other forms of entertainment. Schwarzenneger is trying to say that video games shouldn't be allowed the same rights. While I do have school and a funeral today, I will do my best to keep you up to date on what is happening, seeing as I can't be in DC (unfortunately).
*UPDATE* Well Wednesday came and went and to be quite honest it looks like the ESA may actually win this thing. Why? Well you have this person to thank: Ruth Ginsburg.
Welcome back to Monday Modern Reviews! Today we will be taking a look at the new and controversial Medal of Honor.
The Gamer Dude here filling in for the Gamer Chick while she's away. Don't worry she'll be back next Monday with a review of Fable 3 but for now I'm here and I will be reviewing a few games to hit the store shelves recently starting first with the new Medal of Honor game aptly titled "Medal of Honor."
The Medal of Honor series has been around for over a decade now and it set a precedent of how First Person military shooters are supposed to be played. Despite it's main competition Call of Duty pretty much overshadowing them now with the Modern Warfare (and upcoming Black Ops) series of games, Call of Duty wouldn't be here without Medal of Honor (MoH came first).
The series was created and developed by Steven Spielberg (he was hot off the heels of Saving Private Ryan) and was designed to be a First Person Shooter that put you into the shoes of an Allied soldier during World War 2. Well they ran with that gimmick for 12 games (even after CoD moved to Modern War scenarios) and despite mixed reviews from critics, the series has sold well. On top of that it has developed a hardcore fan base, so loyal that their outcries for a new Medal of Honor, this time in today's settings, was heard by the developers at EA and Dreamworks and they decided to oblige.
All the way through E3 2010 and even leading up into PAX Prime 2010, Medal of Honor was thought to be serious competition for Call of Duty. The game was made by two developers, Danger Close and Digital Illusions, each tasked with taking a crucial part of the game and working on nothing else but that. DC got to take on the Single Player game, making it engaging, fun, and if nothing else cinematic, and DI was tasked with doing what they do best: multiplayer. They ARE the people behind Battlefield if you remember. But then news came in about the game's multiplayer, more specifically who you could play as, and this game went from a top tier competitor to a blacklisted bastard of a game.
What do I mean? Well the news came in that in any multiplayer match, you could choose between playing as the American soldiers or the Taliban. Now to some that just seems like an "Okay what about it?" but you have to realize that we are not only still at war with said Taliban, but said Taliban has killed a LOT of people's fathers/brothers/sisters/cousins/sons/daughters and people are still pretty worked up and sad over that. So for people to play as Taliban soldiers and kill British and American soldiers....kind of hinky. I mean I knew where EA was coming from since in any match there will be opposing sides and the opposing side of the American/British soldiers is the Taliban, but to a lot of people it seems tasteless.
Well people got up in arms about this and since that announcement Canada, Australia, and the UK have all tried (unsuccessfully of course but still tried) to ban this game from being released and the US Military responded by banning the game from PX's all over the US and the head of AAFES basically damning EA and saying that they would never work with a game developer again (they let EA check out there resources, outfits, weapons ect for realism) unless they know full well of what's going into the game.
And since the Supreme Court hearings are going on about the whole violent video game controversy, the game industry pretty much shoved this one under the bus and ignored it. But is the game any good? Well it's good but it's no Modern Warfare.
The game loosely follows Operation Anaconda which was one of the US Military's first big operations in the War on Afghanistan. You play a squad of soldiers under the call sign Neptune and play specifically as a soldier named Rabbit. There are three others in your squad, Voodoo, Mother and Preacher, and your job is to find an informant named Tariq, rescue him, and get the vital information he has out of him. You also alternate between other characters as well, each providing a different gaming style from Rabbit. Rabbit is your typical FPS kind of shooter, Deuce is a Sniper, Dante is just a badass destruction machine, and Hawk is a gunner inside an airship. Rabbit is the main story and where you'll get most of the plot developments but I do appreciate having the other characters there.
The story itself is cinematic but pretty cookie cutter. If you've played one Modern War story you've probably already played Medal of Honor's story. It doesn't take risks like the Modern Warfare series or uses humor like the Bad Company games but it's not bad, just generic. It's also unforgivably short, clocking in barely around 4-5 hours. I realize multiplayer is the main mode of transportation for these guys but if you are going to have an entire developing team focus ONLY on the SINGLE PLAYER, make the SINGLE PLAYER WORTHWHILE!
The multiplayer is where it's at though in this game and the multiplayer is really good. It uses a lot of the elements set forth by the Bad Company series (as well as a little Call of Duty) and uses a class based system. There is Riflemen, Special Ops and Sniper. You earn experience as you play and the more you play, the more you unlock which actually helps your character grow. Say for example you are a Sniper and you want to use a Scope. Well you have to be level 3 before you can use a combat scope. See, it gives you incentive to play!
There are a bunch of different modes, mostly standard to what you're used to on FPS's, but two game modes, Clean Sweep and Hot Zone are definitely my favorites, taking an old style (King of the Hill and Last Man Standing) and growing them into something better then before. There are also 8 maps currently with more to come in DLC.
Overall this is a game that will divide players. If you want a good single player AS WELL AS a good mulitplayer then you are out of luck. The story is mediocre and cookie cutter with some noticeable drops in framerate and pop in during the more cinematic sequences. But the mulitplayer is extremely well done, entertaining and for any fans of Battlefield it will be like your second home. Do I recommend it as a buy? Personally no, I prefer a good single player as well as good multiplayer but I would definitely give this one a rent.
Oh and the whole Taliban thing was removed and changed to "Opposing Forces" to get rid of some of the controversy. It still has some baggage though so changing it really didn't do anything. Plus it's still the Taliban in the Single Player mode...just saying.
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