I promised to upload more content onto our website, so here's the first of a couple of new "Quarterly Reviews" for ya:
As a life-long Batman fan, It seems only fitting that the first console video game that I review be the newest Batman game. For years, I've looked at various Batman games that have come out, and disappointed as each one was a lack-luster attempt at capturing my favorite superhero in a video game. When I saw gameplay footage of this game a few months ago, I began to get hopeful. It wasn't until I played the demo that I was sold (seriously, go download the demo and play it right now! You can thank me later), as I immediately left the house to go to my local gamestop and preorder the game.
The basic premise of the game is that Batman has brought Joker back to Arkham after his latest escape, only to find out its all been a setup for a trap. Joker is now in control of Arkham Asylum, and all Batman's foes are free and out to get him. Along the way, you get experience unlocking health/gadgets/etc. that help you in your quest to put the Joker behind bars.
This game does an AWESOME job of translating this comic book hero over to a video game. You really feel like you are playing Batman, as you must use the shadows and the layout to hide, as you are outnumbered and outgunned. I love the fact that, true to Batman, you never "kill" anyone, you only incapacitate them. I think one of my favorite moves is to hang from a overhand and wait for someone to walk underneath and then drop down, grab them, and soar back upwards tieing them to the overhang.
As a huge fan of Batman: The Animated Series, hearing Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill (yes, Luke Skywalker) reprise Batman and the Joker makes me all kinds of giddy. Seriously, the graphics are great, the gameplay is amazing, if you are a comic book fan at all you must play this game, and even if you aren't I recommend it as an awesome action/adventure game.
- Chris
In our first episode, you guys heard me quote from the book "Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End..." by Dr. Philip Plait. Now, two months later, I've finally had enough time to finish the book and tell you guys about it. This book is amazing. It takes astronomy, a field that can be laced with complicated science and mathematics and makes it easy for the everyday person to understand.
Basically, the book lays out all the different sort of astronomical events you hear about on the news that threaten our planet, such as asteriods, solar flares, black holes, etc. Each chapter tackles one of these events and tries to give the reader a basic understanding of how each of these events occur and how they can affect our planet. In addition, Dr. Plait tells what the chances are of these events happening close enough to hurt/affect us, and offers some solutions as to what Humanity can do to save itself should something occur.
I highly recommend people read this book, if for no other reason than so that the next time you hear the media or someone talk about how we're all "doomed" from *insert random space paranoia here*, you can smack them around with some scientific truth for once. Not only that, but you'll be surprised at how fun Dr. Plait presents the (complex) material in order to make it appealing to anyone, regardless of background. In my opinion though, the more actual science we can introduce to people and the less gossip we spread, the less people will panic and worry about stuff and start becoming part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
- Chris
(Wow two blog posts within two days, I'm setting a record!)
Okay, so this post is the first of what I'm going to call "Quarterly Reviews" (at least until I think of something better). In each of these segments, I'm going to talk about something of interest me and try and promote it to you guys (kind of a "Professor's Entertainment Recommendations Column", but that name is far too long).
This first post features a game I've been playing for the past few days: City of Heroes. City of Heroes (CoH) is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) similar to World of Warcraft (WoW). Set in the fictional town of "Paragon City", players create superheroes and team up with other players to fight bad guys and complete "missions". The aptly titled "City of Villians" (CoV) game adds to the experience by allowing characters to create villians instead, and also introduced player versus player combat areas where heroes can duke it out against villians.
The edition I purchased - "City of Heroes: Architect Edition" (~$20) includes both CoH/CoV in addition to a new "Architect Mode" that allows players to create their own missions within the game and play them with others. I've not played the game *that* long, but I've already fallen in love with it. I'm not really much of a fantasy person, but I enjoyed playing a MMO like WoW with some of my friends. Now that I've gotten people into CoH, I definitely prefer it as Comic books/Science Fiction is more up my alley. The character creation in this game is SO much more in depth than any other online game I've played. Be prepared to spend like an hour picking out your Hero's powers and designing his costume.
Not only is the character creation so much better than other games, but the gameplay itself has many advantages over other games like Everquest and WoW. For instance, back when I was playing WoW, if I didn't keep up with the fast-paced leveling of my friends, I'd get left behind and stuck trying to find random groups to quest with. In CoH, there is a "sidekicking" feature that allows higher level players to temporary raise a lower character's level while that character is within a certain distance, allowing lower characters to still be able to fight at the same pace with higher characters. Instead of waiting until level 30/40 to get a faster form of transportation (i.e. "mounts" in WoW), CoH has "pool powers", which include all sorts of cool powers like transportation, super speed, and flying -- which are available at level 14 to a hero.
There is a monthly fee ($15) to play the game, but the Architect Edition I picked up includes the first month with it, which makes it great for trying the game out. And if you don't want to take that risk with it, go to http://www.cityofheroes.com and sign up for the free 14 day demo. Make a hero on the "Justice" server and send me a message ("Scramjet") and tell me you listen to the podcast -- I'll team up with ya sometime. And if you create a villian, also let me know so I can come hunt you down and "bring you to justice".
- Chris
