Author: tavia.
First Impressions: FUSE
[wpspoiler name=”First Impressions vs. Reviews” ]First Impressions are based on demos while Reviews are based on entire games.[/wpspoiler]
Insomniac Games has finally come out with a game that doesn’t star a Lombax and a robot: FUSE. Though my heart breaks at the knowledge that the more non-Ratchet and Clank games Insomniac puts out, the fewer Ratchet and Clank games come out.
Ratchet and Clank is my very favorite franchise. I often don’t finish video games in story mode, but I’ve finished every one of Insomniac‘s Ratchet and clank games. I only own a PS2 for these games. I play on the treadmill and put a PS3 and the Ratchet and Clank games on my wedding registry. I’m a diehard fan of the franchise and thus a die hard fan of Insomniac Games.
Therein lies the problem for Insomniac. A brand and a product are two different things but many people, including me initially, were expecting Ratchet and Clank with humans on a new platform. That’s not the game they set out to make or the game it is– and I’m glad.
Initially, FUSE started out as Overstrike which did look like a human version of Ratchet and Clank. People were excited and set their expectations accordingly. But then Insomniac decided to make some changes and finishing touches that didn’t reflect the game that seemed silly in the announcement trailer.
The final iteration of FUSE is a game for grown-ups[1. Though no amount of distance between the present day and my date of birth with get me to disown Ratchet and Clank] with a distinct brand of grown-up humor, weapons, and problems we didn’t see with the Lombax and the robot turning their enemies into chickens.
Naya is a mercenary and the only thing between her father (also a mercenary) being taken in alive or in a body bag.
Dalton is technically the leader of this pack though from what I can see his leadership consists of being bigger than everyone else and being the first to shout, “go” and “fuck this.”
Izzy is pretty much a supergeek-mage…
Jacob, the black guy, shouts “That is whack,” and “damn.” JOKES! He’s a former LAPD officer ready to take the law into his own hands.
Developer(s) Insomniac Games Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Insomniac Engine v.4.0 Platform(s) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Genre(s) Action Mode(s) Single-player, cooperative,multiplayer Distribution Optical disc, download
What happens when humans gain access to powerful alien technology they were never meant to have? When a volatile energy source called Fuse falls into the wrong hands, the CIA calls in an elite contact team to retrieve it: Overstrike 9. Join up to three friends in team-based co-op play as you take down the rogue paramilitary corporation behind the theft. Use lethal teamwork, coordinate devastating attacks, and provide cover for one another with fringe-tech weapons and gadgets. The unique LEAP feature lets you instantly shift from agent to agent during combat, allowing you to take advantage of each one’s special arsenal. You’ll need your teammates and their firepower to stop a global arms race from spinning out of control.
FUSE Pros:
1. Because I have the attention span of a rodent, I like that I can easily switch between characters during gameplay. Sometimes I’m a dick and I do it when I run out of ammo.
2. I got healed by my teammates a number of times during fights which totally helped me with my run-headlong-into-danger strategy.
3. There is still just enough of Insomniac’s trademark snark to keep FUSE fresh and fun.
FUSE Cons:
1. Some of the mechanics were not intuitive enough to keep my attention on gameplay. I had to level up each character separately when I was playing them, so I could forget and leave Izzy at 1 and have Naya going HAM at a 10 (maybe, that wasn’t really well explained in the demo). Also I couldn’t figure out how to get my party to get the fuck out of cover.
2. I wouldn’t have hated some set up or a bit more… story. Insomniac is know for punchy exposition. It doesn’t need to be more of the same but let me know what’s up in more than one line. We’re Overstrike 9 and we’re going to ______ the ______ so we can finally ______!
3. It did feel very familiar. I play Halo 4 every Friday night with friends. There’s still a bunch of episodes from the free DLC that I haven’t finished. I play them with my husband…
Overall, what I think of FUSE:
I enjoyed the demo and the characters and trying new powers. Unfortunately, for $60 while I already have a first person shooter in my rotation, I need to more than like it to buy it. I didn’t see enough to think it filled a niche I didn’t realize existed like War of the Worlds did.
It was fun to play as a group and I could see having friends jump into your open team slots be a good time like it was in Borderlands 2.
If you’re looking for a snarky FPS, with cartoon-style violence that you can play with friends FUSE
LOVE, a movie about isolation
The movie cover for LOVE caught my attention more than the description. Most of the space is space and down there in the bottom corner is an astronaut just siting like he’s waiting for a bus. This is actually a pretty accurate summary of what happens in the bulk of the film.
Stranded alone aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Lee Miller fights to survive the stress of isolation and stay alive. But everything changes when he discovers something unexpected that allows him to travel through space and time.
That synopsis isn’t quite right. It’s more like 2001 a Space Odyssey than any actually time travel movie. Meaning, the character starts to go a little mental and the audience get to go with them.
Lee is a dedicated and diligent astronaut on a mission to hang out on a space station and relay data back and forth between him and Earth. His station is about thirteen feet by four feet with about four feet of clearance. His mission starts out well and he even gets a video message from his brother about a new baby. Unfortunately, it’s not long before contact lessens and stops completely.
A year and a half stretches on-and-on and we watch Lee deteriorate from patient to… well I’m not quite sure what happened. Scenes of Lee on the station are spliced together with scenes of another Lee who lived during the Civil War and individuals being interviewed about what’s important to them for what seems like an end of the world video journal compilation.
This is one of those movies where you may or may not get it. Not to say I think it’s over some people’s heads but that it’s ambiguous. Maybe he dies or maybe he’s greeted by aliens. Maybe he died before Earth stopped talking to him or maybe he’s both Lee of the future and Lee of the past.
It’s all very strange but also peaceful and unsettling. Personally, I found it hopeful.
[rating: 3/5]
I accidentally watched the Tekken movie
I turned on the TV this morning and apparently I had stumbled onto the Tekken
Based, vaguely, on the game Tekken many of the characters from the classic fighting series chow up, including Yoshimitsu.
The film is set in a super-crowded future controlled by corporations and centers around Jin Kazama, a street rat from the poverty center on the city, “The Anvil.” Jin used to use his skills as a fighter to advance his goal of getting paid and living comfortably in fits and starts.
One day Jin crosses the wrong people with, people with the connections to murder his mom and start him on a path or vengeance and fight clubery.
Overall, I’d say it’s a solid action film with some oddly misogynistic plot holes. The women, Christie Monteiro, Nina Williams, and Anna Williams are exempt from the Tekken universe rules that apply to the men. Somehow the tournament is won without Anna even fighting or Christie ever actually getting eliminated…
I didn’t find it horrible. However that might be because I like movies like Crank, Torque, and Stick It… anything about dystopias and choreographed bad assery. This is a fun action-packed romp through a future controlled by oligarchies and top down power.
If you’d like to turn it into a drinking game, you can drink every time there’s a flashback or someone tells Jin how to live his life.
Are you excited about After Earth?
After Earth, starring (Will and) Jaden Smith as warrior types from the future who crash land on Earth hundreds of years after humankind flees from it.
The thing is, I really wanted to see it then I googled it and realized it’s and M. Night Shyamalan movie and all my hope drained away. M Night makes amazing trailers but really shitty movies– all featuring ridiculous twists. I watched The Happening in theaters and left feeling confused and a little offended.
Am I so stupid that I would find it plausible that even in a scifi movie -SPOILER- trees would attack humans in a war-like scenario with no plan then stop with no concessions made?
So a lot of effort had been made to avoid linking M. Night to the movie overtly which isn’t surprising when you look at the poll on the LAtimes.com where 66% (at the time of publication) of readers are less likely to watch After Earth because it’s directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
I still think the trailer looks amazing and I’ll add it to my list of movies to watch on Netflix streaming (don’t even want the DVD by mail) but I think the 12% on Rotten tomatoes might be more accurate than the trailer.
I want HEAP (a post-apocalyptic battle card game)
One of my favorite things about apocalyptic shows and movies and the no-holds-barred “design” on everything from the outfits to the vehicles. Well,
Card games are an acquired taste for a past time. But maybe this one should be given a chance. This one has crazy vehicles and goblins! It’s like Halo meets Mad Max.
Check it out.
Each player plays a gang of crazed goblins that have traveled across the post-apocalyptic wasteland in broken-down vehicles to converge on a gigantic heap of long-discarded scrap – perfect ingredients for demented automotive modification. In arena-style bouts, each gang selects its champion driver to storm the heap and duke it out for the best parts to upgrade their vehicles. Be first to trick out your vehicles and dominate the final pileup to rule the heap!
Defiance [the show]
Defiance is a SyFy original show about a race of aliens who sought refuge on Earth only to accidentally terraform the planet into a whole new, and dangerous world for everyone. The show is set 33 years after the arrival of the aliens where they’re now integrated into the world in a semi-hostile land-share with Humans and newly evolves wildlife.
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Defiance is a new city build on the bones of what use to be St.Louis. The city is a (mostly) harmonious blend of “the eight races” suffering from the same power struggles found in most post-apocalyptic rebuilds.
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Everyone thinks their way is better and everyone wants to seize the next opportunity for power.
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Nolan and Irisa are the first of the cast we meet. They’re average grifters looking for a hearty pay day any way they can get it. Irisa, an Irathient, refers to Nolan as her father in the journal but rarely speaks enough to others to divulge anything personal and Nolan, a human, refers to to her as his traveling companion. Nolan is “one of the defiant few” who fought in The Battle of Defiance where soldiers on both sides stopped fighting to save civilians. He eventually divulges the fact to the mayor, explaining that Irisa was an orphan in Denver and he took her in and raised her.
In the pilot we see a number of groups clashing inside and out of Defiance. The Sprint Riders are a wild band of Irathient thugs who run about looting and generally being dickish. The ones with dark hair don’t like the super pales ones, they bald ones are industrious and unassuming, and the large ape-like ones are usually body guards or oh-so-gentle giants.
The set up is interesting but the dynamics and interpersonal conflicts are a bit too … dynamic. There’s a lot to catch up on because we’re just peaking into into a lit of lives already in progress. There’s a mafia and a mine overlord and political strife and Ark falls and one black guy.
Defiance isn’t really about aliens or New Earth or man vs. nature. Defiance is about people and power in the face of limited structure. It’s an interesting lens to look at people and relationships through; part western, part crime noir (Nolan is the quintessential anti-hero) all set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic wonderland.
The show is beautiful and the Pilot takes about an hour to warm up to the major plot point:
[wpspoiler name=”SPOILER” ]Aliens are coming and they’re only goal is to conquer and destroy and the sweet old lady who use to be mayor is helping “clear out the town.”[/wpspoiler]
[rating:3/5]
It’s good but not amazing. Check out the Defiance pilot for free on defiance.com and if you can sit through it, the show might be for you.
Tower Defense, The Apocalypse, and YOU!
Tower defense games are games in which you have a limited amount or resources available to build towers to defend your safe space from waves of enemies. Each wave defeated gives way to a stronger wave and loot you can use to build more or upgrade existing towers. [Like real life, except with do-overs!]
I like to say things like, “I’m not obsessed with [thing I spend time that should be allotted to other things doing].”
Sometimes I’ll be playing my tower defense game and not realize that an entire flight from Phoenix to Boston has passed me by. Hm… But it’s not because I want to, it’s because I must—I’m the God of Front Doors! I must protect my nouns.
This week (month?) that statement is directed at a tower defense game on my phone called Castle Defense (or Castle TD once it’s downloaded…) Creative moniker’s are not a staple of the genre.
The thing about tower defense games though, is it’s not really about “fun,”“survival,” or even “winning”. It’s about PERFECT!
I don’t know what’s on the other side of that opening but it’s by duty to protect it. Protect it from super fast pigs and hearty Pterosaurs. Maybe there’s a genetic mutation factory and a pre-school on the other side of the wall and every creature that gets through is morphed into an even more terrible monster with a hunger for innocence incarnate?
I like to think about tower defense games in terms of survival preparation. I might not have everything I need to do the job that needs doing—Surviving—but I’ll need to sort out HOW? I can’t just spam the landscape with trip wires if an air attack is possible.
How can tower defense games help you prepare for the apocalypse?
Where's the 'Run and Hide' Button?
I’m watching Resident Evil: Retribution (That’s 5 for the uninitiated) and one of the Michelle Rodriguez characters is all sweet and innocent and doesn’t know how to hold a gun. So eventually bad ass Alice around again and teaches her to shoot a 30 second tutorial and gives her a child to protect.
HUWAT?! Do you give a shit of this child lives?
Not the point. The point is M.Rodz immediately looks around and says, “Over there looks like a good place to hide.”
Right, home girl? There are zombies on motorcycles using rocket launchers and someone it thinking straight.
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This blaze of glory shit is not for everyone. Sometime Plan A needs to be protect ya neck.
This is also my major issue with video games when I have a team.
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Sure I’m playing as Whoever TheFuck, The Unfuckwithable, but if Jill Valentine is hunting me, the last thing I’ll be doing is waiting in the street to confront the bitch. That goes for double sure if I’ve got Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, or Luther West fighting “alongside me.” Ya’ll handle that, I’ll loot these crates. Let’s play to our strengths.
Sometimes when I play Halo with friends, my goal is to not have the last death. Or the most deaths. Or the lowest Kill-Death ratio (I usually fail epically at this one). Or at least not all of those things in one game. My goal is to survive pretty well. Well enough that I don’t cost us the game. I don’t call it the “crouch button,” I call it the “hide button” because that’s what I use it for.
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[I’m always tempted to do the same thing when I’m with NPCs but that never works. It’s like they’re not using real bullets…
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Which is why I equip turrets and spam grenades.]
And in real life I’ma crouch in a corner no matter how much faith Alice has in me. Why? Because as soon as shit got rough and M. Rodz tried to use that gun she got tossed to the side to death like a chump. Lesson learned.
They bombed my city and I'm scared….
I work in Boston’s Back Bay-Copley area.
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I had lunch with my bestie at Copley square last week and that spot between the two bombs is where you can usually find some great food trucks. Sugar Heaven, that candy store next to Marathon Sports where all the blood is staining the sidewalk, is where I bought my co-workers candy because they helped me prep and score my sweet new job.
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All of that is now part of an active crime-murder-terrorism situation. And when the tape comes down and the stores reopen it’ll still be a crime-murder-terrorism situation. There’ll probably be a memorial– first ad hoc then something more permanent like a placard in the cobblestones.
Everyone has great things to say about the strength and resilience of Boston and its citizens. I’m more than inclined to believe them. Boston’s fucking awesome. “Masshole” is a term of endearment for us.
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Collectively, we’re unfuckwithable.
I on the other hand, I’m paranoid and scared and sad and don’t want to (also I can’t because it’s a crime scene still) go north of my office building. Not sleeping, eating, feeling safe.
All this time play-planning for survival and apocalypse and I’ve spend most of this week with no idea what to do or say or think. I even wore shoes one day that I could not have walked for miles in!
So… I need shoes I can wear to work and run from danger in.
I need to resume never watching the news because I was right about it being horrible and awful.
I need to exercise because science says it lifts your mood and prevents you from being got in a situation that requires strength and endurance.
I need to make a habit of eating and sleeping and doing normal things because one day I’ll wake up and Boston will be a normal place to be again.
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