Geekazine.com

The Death Dial

I came across a game quite recently on my Google+ stream. Someone was talking about a fun, strangely philosophical flash game they had found called The End. So I thought I’d give it a shot. And surprisingly, they were right.

This game is cleverly disguised as a cute innocent flash game with platforming elements. However there is something much deeper at work here. And I’m not referring to the mini game you play against a grotesque creature to obtain items. At the end of each level you are asked a very personal philosophical question. How you answer won’t make you win or lose. What it’s meant to do is help pin down your thought process on what they call The Death Dial. This tracks not only where you fall on the scale they have made but you can see where people are located globally, you can connect to Facebook and see where those friends are, or my favorite, you can see which famous thinker you are the closest to. If you investigate further you can learn more about that thinker and some key attributes they had as well as related thinkers.

I’m still messing around with this game and it’s pretty fun. Give it a shot if you’re curious where you lie on The Death Dial.

The End Game

Massive Action Game

If you’re anything like me, you’ve played games like Halo and Modern Warfare and had wanted them to be bigger. You could switch to more realistic shooters like ARMA or Operation Flashpoint. But, unless you’re into super realistic shooters, where traveling to the destination and waiting for the moment to strike, you might be looking for something faster pace. MAG seems to blend more casual shooting games with large scale battles. And it does it beautifully.

A shooting gallery

MAG doesn’t just up the map size, it also drastically increases the number of players in a single game. I’m not talking about games where they upgrade the players to 32. MAG has several game types that go all the way up to 256 (128v128) real players in a single game. Now granted, that is only one of the game modes and it takes a bit of playing to be able to unlock it. However, once you do, it’s awesome. Even the two smallest game modes still offers 64 (32v32) players to duke it out, with one mode offering 96 players (32v32v32), and two more modes giving 128 (64v64) players a chance to meet on the battlefield. That’s including the two DLC game modes, Interdiction (128 players) and Escalation (96 players).

When you start the game you have to pick between one of three factions to side yourself with, and you can’t change it unless you want to delete that character profile or purchase more profiles as DLC. There isn’t a huge difference between the factions. It changes what maps and guns you’ll have access to. I’ve heard that SVER are better at close range combat, while Raven excel at long range weapons, and Valor meeting somewhere in the middle. However after playing for a while, if there is a difference, I’ve not noticed anything major.

It mostly comes down to personal preference

What does matter are the people you play with. if you play without a microphone or players you can communicate with, you’re bound to lose. This game requires teamwork with not just your squad, but with your team as a whole. The game breaks teams up into 8 player squads, each with a squad leader. In a larger game that is broken up into 4 squads per platoon, each with a platoon leader. The leaders are supposed to use different chat channels to coordinate with each other over who should be going where. And it pays for players to follow what their leaders are telling them. Not only do you need to be a certain level to be eligible for a leader position, but the game features very light RPG mechanics in which you gain points based on your actions, and more points when you do something in the vicinity of a objective marked by your leaders. The points can be spent on new guys, attachments and aesthetic changes to your character. Also, every level gives you a point to put into improving yourself, like giving more damage resistance to explosions, or a little more health.

Maps are this open

The gameplay itself is great as well. The maps are all big and open and allow for both long and close range combat. On the bigger maps, they offer vehicles to help get around, but I never found them absolutely necessary to get to the action quicker. The maps lend themselves more to outdoor gameplay where all these players can meet on the field of battle. So, if you’re good and have a couple people to back you up, you can find one of the multiple choke points of the map and be able to hold it against a great number of players.

From the moment you start a match you can feel how big everything is. When you hear something about an objective, those are real players fighting there. When you hear an explosion or gunfire off in the distance, it’s not a scripted event, it’s someone actually doing that somewhere on the map. Even if you happen to lose your squad, it’s simple to hook up with some other players from your team and help them out.

If your looking for a big experience, this is a game you need to check out. The size isn’t just a novelty either, the game proves it’s more than just a size upgrade time and time again.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This series has had so many entries in it that it’s hard to keep track of them all. That majority of the entries have not been that good to begin with. This hopes to change that.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes attempts to do a prequel to the original Planet of the Apes, using much of the same mythology while attempting to reboot the story previously set up by Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. So is this just another entry to a series that has been losing steam for a while in which the only option seems to be a reboot?

Short answer… yes. This movie is awesome. The film centers around a scientist played by James Franco (Spiderman, General Hospital) who is attempting to find a cure to Alzheimer, the same disease that plagues his father. After testing on apes he find that it not only cures faults in the brain but makes them smarter. Then a series of unfortunate events leads to the end of this prequel and the start of the series we all know. Not only is the revolt o the apes itself interesting to watch, but the first two acts of lead up that show everything that lead up to it was fascinating to watch. And if you aren’t interested in any of that, I can assure you that the scene in the trailer of the Gorilla attacking the helicopter is in the movie, and it’s awesome.

Get the soundtrack and book to Planet of the Apes.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes completely gets rid of the humans in ape suits look. Instead they CGI, as well as the technology and actor (Andy Serkis [Lord of the Rings, King Kong]), use to make Gollum from Lord of the Rings to make realistic looking apes. This technology allowed the film to use no real animals during filming, which to me worked. These apes look real, the way they move and act is great. And watching them plot against the humans was eerie to watch.

If you had a interest in this, go see it. If you loved the original, go see it. If you like good movies, go see it. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Cowboys and Aliens

If the title Cowboys and Aliens doesn’t spark something in you, then your imagination might need some tweaking. Just the idea of it was enough to get me interested from the start, then I saw the trailer and saw the people who was involved and I got really excited. So what happened?

The film revolves around Daniel Craig as a cowboy with amnesia and a mysterious weapon attached to his wrist. And it’s not long before the aliens from the title make a appearance and the major conflict begins, bringing together western archetypes together to do what we all came for, kick ass. So with this all going on why was I just entertained by this film and not in love with it?

Like to read before you watch? Get the Book Cowboys and Aliens

I think it can be summed up in one word; potential. The main problem had to do with the characters. Aside from a couple stand out characters (such as Harrison Ford), none of them were all that interesting. Most of them never broke out of the archetype they were introduced as, they seemed to just be filling the generic ‘doctor’ or ‘preacher’ role. Even Daniel Craig’s character who started off very interesting ended up becoming less and less so the more we figured out about him. One of the biggest character reveals can be guessed from the beginning of the film, way before the person was supposed to ‘shock’ us with it.

The action was fantastic. I loved seeing the gritty cowboys fighting against the superior technologically advanced aliens. Whenever any of those scenes started and the clash between these two groups happened, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for more.

The story isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. At no point in this was I bored or was wondering what I’d be doing after the movie. It’s just that it seems they could have done more. There is a point where the cowboys meet another group and anyone paying attention could draw some similarities between the present situation and one in the past, but the movie never does. I’m not saying it needed to be included, just seemed like something that would’ve been mentioned and might have made for more interesting character arcs.

If all you’re looking to do is have fun at the movies, this is a great one to do so at. If you’re looking for the movie to go beyond the appeal of it’s title for deep characters and story line, this isn’t it. Definitely see this one if it looked cool to you.

Vintage Google Plus Ad

Was looking through my vintage magazines and found this. OK, not really. But it was something fun to do and burn some time off for a few minutes while computers were updating…