First Impression: Fable 2

I just picked up Fable 2 used. I ignored it last fall due to an onslaught on my gaming time by multiple titles, led by fallout 3. I realize now that I committed a grave injustice as this thing seems pretty awesome right now. 

The game art made me think the story and subject matter would be a little more kid oriented. I was wrong, there is prostitution, alcohol, condoms and marriage (now that is mature) including the option to have multiple husbands/wifes. Also seems like a quarter population of the villagers in the world is gay so there is something for everyone which ever way you swing. Having experienced the first 6 hours of gameplay it seems like the visuals would be a bit darker in nature. Don't get me wrong the visuals and art direction is great. It just seems more Zelda than Fallout. 

By all appearances so far it seems like the player decisions affect the game-world more so than any other game I have played. Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls do it relatively well, but it carries more weight here. I fully intended to play this game as evil as I could considering I finished Fallout 3 and Mass effect as a paragon. I couldn't do it though, it felt wrong, this was well reflected by the slow visual transformation of my character into a prick. I started over playing a good guy. Maybe I can be evil second time around.

More when I finish this gem.

Mass Effect 4/5

With Mass Effect 2 around the corner I decided to finally pick up the first Mass Effect game to see what the deal was. I originally planned to get a 360 for this game, but life distracted me and I got the system much later. Bioware has made some of my favorite games, including what I consider to be the best PC RPG out there: Baldurs Gate 2 : Shadows of Amn. Another Bioware creation is the Star Wars licensed Knights of the old Republic (KOTR), probably the best take of this universe in video game form.

Mass Effect seems like a spiritual sequel to KOTR. Bioware created it's own universe with unique races and history. The future is not so distant, but humanity has progressed at a great pace, especially after finding the Mass Relays that allow fast interstellar travel. The plot and setting are easily the best part of the game; the world is fleshed out, giving the player tons of optional background information on all the known alien races, space battles and space politics. The characters are splendidly voiced, my favourite being the villian Sauren, as performed by the great Fred Tatasciore. There is plenty to love in this game and it's a nice world to lose yourself in. Rather than gush over it, I'll focus on some of the design weaknesses that I hope will be absent in the sequel.

First problem from the beginning is the action. The game functions as a real time third person shooter pretty poorly. The enemy AI is uninspiring, and the combat tends to come down to run and gun, despite lots of character abilities that made me expect the combat to be more tactical. I would rather see a well implemented turn based strategic system like the one used in KOTR. The sequel will focus on the action aspect more, and from the looks of it the team is working hard to make it better, much better.

Second issues is the uninspired side quests and locations. I love the idea of exploring the universe and taking on space pirates or rescuing far of research installations. However the planets for all their difference in descriptions and topolgy are far too repetitive and barren. There are about 3 standard preset type of installations on every planet that consist of 4 or 5 rooms. That combined with the weak action left me wanting more. The main story and quests however do not suffer from this.

Last issue and one that actively drove me nuts was the vehicle control of the game. The Mako APC is your primary (and only) method of transportation when you drop on alien planets. The vehicle it self is a mean looking 6 wheeled off-road monster with guns. The vehicle's turret implies that it has good maneuverability and strafe runs will be possible. Sadly this is not the case. The left control stick is mapped to the vehicle control and the right stick turns the camera and turret direction. You can steer the vehicle towards left and right. However if you turn the turret the vehicle will start righting itself so forward goes towards the turret facing. This creates two control schemes that try to steer your vehicle. Pressing up on the stick acts as the accelerator and turning at the same time if you turned your turret. This makes strafing runs while driving in a straight line nearly impossible. When you turn the turret 90 right you essentially have to steer left on the vehicle to keep it going straight. This gets in the way of regular driving and really kills tense situations where you need to control your movement. I hope this gets fixed in the next game.

Despite my focus on things that bothered me, this is an amazing game from a company that I trust to deliver amazing rpg/adventure games. Now is a good time to pick this up in the bargain bin if you haven't tried it yet. It surely left me excited for the sequel.

Dead Space 4/5

Released in late 2008, Dead Space brings the horror genre to space. I approached the game with some reservation as I am slightly burned out from 1st and 3rd person shooters. What I didn't experience was one of the best and most immersive games in recent history. (It surpassed the Gears of War campaign in my eyes).

The game places you in the role of Isaak the engineer. You arrive with a small team on a repair ship after receiving a distress call from the large mining ship the Ishimura. Your role is to figure what happened on board the ship and to repair the various systems that are vital to your survival, while surviving the new residents that have infected it. The setting and atmosphere are reminiscent of the 1997 movie Event Horizon.

Technically the game looks great; crisp textures, detailed models. This would mean little without great design, and that's something the game is certainly not lacking. The Ishimura's interior is not limited to dark tight corridors (not that it lacks those), the ship is huge and houses over one thousand crew, it's essentially a small town complete with a tram system. You'll see working engine rooms, communication chambers, loading bays, a huge command deck and even a hydroponics facility. Many of the environments are used as game play elements. For example you'll have to make your way past the engine room while the engines are firing in succession. Another important detail is the lighting, it flickers and dances as the light sources move, making your flinch as you sometimes see your own shadow moving in your peripherals. At times you'll be making your away in zero gravity chambers or on the outside hull of the ship.

Sound is as good as i ever heard. Every part of the ship has great ambient sound of far of machinery and computer systems. I played this with a 5.1 surround sound system and constantly had to turn my on screen character as I heard noises all around me. Sometimes it's far of echoes of pipes falling in hangar bays, heavy footsteps in walkways above you, or minimal whispers you hear as Isaak begins to loose his sanity. The doesn't just elevate the creepy atmosphere, it serves a function as important as the visuals. This is the type of game that surround sound systems were made for.

The story is interesting and has some interesting nuances and twists. The experience can be greatly enhanced by watching the animated movie Dead Space: Downfall. It tells the story of the Ishimura before the events in the game. It's a very well executed tie in that stands strong on it's own.

Available on Xbox360 and PS3.

Ivana Santilli in Concert @ The Revival 3/5

I've been following Ivana Santilli since her Bass is Base days, and have been a great fan for more than 10 years (eeek, its already been that long?) As she ventured into solo territory (her first album Brown is still on my playlist), I made the treks to cozy bars and clubs to support her, along with a legion of friends who share the same passion for her music. With Canadian Music Week graced upon Toronto in early March, Ivana was a headliner for a showcase at The Revival. Of course, I jumped at the chance to see her, so off I went to Little Italy to party it up last Friday, March 13th.

She was scheduled to hit the stage at midnight, but as per the time continuum for concerts, they never happen on time. Around 12:30am Ivana and her band hit the stage, and the crowd started to come alive, as did I. My fellow group of Ivana fans and I bounced along to the music, with some of us excited enough to sing along with her. As we were in the front row, I'm sure she heard our squawking. It was mix of songs from the past albums Brown and Cordoroy Boogie, but with the most part focusing on her latest offering, Tony, release in 2008. She debuted her new song, "Your Girl Tonight" - it was a bit too breathy voiced and dance music-like for my usual liking, but hopefully with a few more spins, it will catch on.

Alas, this concert did not have the same magic which I am used to with her previous ones. Perhaps it can be attributed to my tiredness (staying up late and me don't mix too well anymore) and Ivana and her band's lack of rehearsals (she did admit to only rehearsing twice during the week). It was not her best performance, but still an enjoyable night. I will still look forward to catching her play live, as she does have charisma to charm the crowd and bring energy into a room.

Harvey’s Angus Mushroom Melt 3/5

Harvey’s are currently pushing their Angus Mushroom Melt, and as I’m often up for one of their regular Angus burgers this was a product I just had to try. But first, to build anticipation, just check it out on their website. The picture of the burger is animated, the damn thing is *steaming* or at least wafting waves of beefy, mushroomy deliciousness out of the monitor at you.

The good news is Harvey’s pretty much deliver on the flavour and texture. But then it is based on their Angus burger, so they weren’t going to screw that up. It’s juicy, roasted and meaty. The bad news? The burger can’t possibly live up to the advertising image. Maybe the slice of cheese I got in mine was Swiss like in the picture, maybe not, it was too melted to tell based on the appearance, and in my experience Swiss doesn’t melt quite like this had…it looked like a melted slice of processed cheese, unappetizing. Furthermore, from the ground up the burger should be: bun, meat, cheese, ‘shrooms and bun on top. When I got mine I had to take it apart to find the mushrooms as I thought they’d left them off. Turns out they were there, on the bottom bun, hidden under the ‘cheese’ and not piled high and spilling out like I’d been promised. Perhaps I have too high an expectation, but if you’re going to show me a picture of something like this, it better look somewhat like the product you’re going to serve me. I know they wanted to make it look good, but if you underdeliver on appearance quite so comprehensively folks are going to be so underwhelmed they may never come back for a second try, and it’s all about repeat business in the fast food game, isn’t it?

In spite of my reservations, I have to admit, it’s a nice burger, representing good (but not great) value for money, and I might even buy another next time I’m at Harvey’s. After all, if I do buy it again it might just be put together right, with more mushrooms, and a little more care, and that would make all the difference.

Razer Lachesis and Deathadder mice 1/5 and 4/5

I recently decided it was time to upgrade to a mouse with somewhat more exciting specs, and as I still play the occasional FPS I thought it would be interesting to check out what Razer had to offer.

The Lachesis seemed to be the obvious choice; 4000 dpi lazer for movement speeds of “8 times that of a standard 800 dpi optical sensor”, 9 (programmable) buttons for when you just need to bind more stuff, and 32kb of onboard memory for storing profiles. Importantly, it also looks awesome (well, to me at least). Perfect I thought. Actually no. This mouse is a great example of some fantastic technology combined together and becoming much less than the sum of its parts. I later discovered that many people were having trouble getting this mouse to work properly as the cursor is prone to skipping around. In the 3 days I forced myself to use the mouse I never saw this problem, but I discovered something else. Using this mouse for more than a few minutes led to rapid fatigue and shortly thereafter hand and wrist cramps and pain, lots of it. This is easily the most uncomfortable mouse I have ever encountered. I think this was mainly due to the absurd bump on the back of the mouse which pushed up into my palm, a curious design decision for sure.

Eventually I caved and returned the Lachesis figuring I’d give Razer another chance and try their somewhat lower spec’d Deathadder mouse. With a mere 1800 dpi sensor, and only 5 buttons (2 regular, 1 clickable scrollwheel and 2 thumb buttons) this was bound to be a disappointment. Not at all. This mouse is fantastic. It’s just as twitchy as the Lachesis if you bump up the sensitivity in the software, it glides sweetly around the mousepad with very little effort, and my thumb can actually reach the sidebuttons. On the downside, it’s right handed only; sorry lefties. Now I see why people love their Razer mice. This is the smoothest, most accurate, and dare I say, most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used.

Lachesis - Pros: looks deadly. Cons: Is deadly
Deathadder – Pros: Almost everything I want in a mouse. Cons: only available righthanded, a couple more buttons would be nice.

MacPro Case 5/5

Based on 2008 Mac Pro, this applies for the most part to the 2009 models as well.

Say what you will of the holy war of Mac vs. PC. When it comes down to the system enclosure the Mac Pro stands in a league of it's own.

Aesthetic:
The MacPro case is elegant and pleasing to look at, brushed aluminum, a mix of soft curves a rigid edges. It's looks will fit right in a designer furniture showroom. While there is other nice aluminum cases on the market, many don't get all the details right (like plain metal back plates) or ruin the whole look with huge glass panels with fans sticking out and neon lights struggling to imitate a rave scene inside the case.

Design:
Over the years little has changed in the outward design of this case, as the form factor has not changed since the G5 days. The conection ports have been adjusted to keep up with technology and and an additional optical drive bay was added to the front. The carrying handles are the only weak spot. It's very uncomfortable to carry this case with one hand, it's a little bit better with two hands, but the edges still dig into my hands. The older G4 machines were a breeze to pick up with theirr softer angled handles, and were easily carried with one hand. Not a big deal if your machine is mostly stationary. Since I work at a studio with 12 of these and it ads up to moving the machines quite a bit, I do notice this.

The interior of the machine is great, due to the fact that Apple does not have to accommodate various motherboards and power supplies. All the ports and conectors in the case are pre wired and covered with the case, you will never see any cables except for the optical drive. Working inside the case is a breeze. It's quick to access memory and drives which snap into the system connectors with the help of drive caddy.
I have been unable to find a PC case that will match this due to the neccessary cabling of the current motherboard standards.

Additional Observations:
The MacPro towers are generally pretty quiet, (they were quite loud during the G5 days), although I find this varies from machine to machine. The fans will definitely spin up when the machine is being stressed by applications consistently.

Overall, it's the best heavy duty case on the market. Some of it is due to the closed Apple platform that gives the engineers creative freedom to build what they want. Most of it is just good design and quality materials. There is many cases that try to imitate this, some of them get some of the elements right, but never all of them. This is definitely a benchmark product, that has existed for much longer than most tech products have, the design has stood the test of time and is still the best in it's league. It's easy to consider this Legendary (on our strange scale) 5/5.