Adam's Blog

October 22, 2014October 22, 2014

Mad Max Fury Road

Oh man, where do I even begin? The tittle says it all; a new Mad Max is coming and it is glorious! In case you don’t know what I’m talking about or haven’t watched any of the previous Mad Max movies, do yourself a favor and order this:

Now that the educational lesson is over, lets talk about Fury Road. Set shorty after the events of the third movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdom, Max will be facing a new gang with Imperator Furiosa as the boss who wants to cross the desert and reach her childhood homeland. Two rebels on the run are rumored to be able to somehow restore order and that’s what I like the most about this upcoming post apocalypse movie; Hope. See, Max 2 and 3 were about surviving and nothing more. Don’t get me wrong, the movies were excellent with the exception of the first part which I found to be boring.

This time around, we are expecting a twist; Something new, something hope related with possible a good ending. To be honest, I would love to see a happy ending in a post apocalypse movie and seeing as how the last two parts ended, something different is expected. From what is seen in the trailer, allot of action with strange cars and humans hanging on top. Blood thirsty gangs with fast cars, typical Mad Max drama.

But what makes me rejoice the most is that this film is set after the events of the third part and not in between two and three as originally intended. I hate prequels and find them pointless as we already know the ending and seeing the saga continue makes me happy.

To the people who haven’t seen the trilogy, I suggest doing so before watching this so you are up to speed on whats happening. I will say this again and again; I’m so happy that they finally decided to shoot it after years of doubt and cancellation. Mad Max deserves a proper ending and may I add, a Happy one.

Take a look at the trailer bellow to get exited as I am. Cant wait for 2015.

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014

Upgrading old PC for The Evil Within challenge

What is The Evil Within Challenge you say? Its a challenge created to test how far can I push my 7 year old PC. True, I upgraded the graphics card sometime back but that was the only thing I did. I will be getting the game on Xbox One in the near future but a PC version is a must so why not have any fun while doing it? I have ordered the final upgrades for this rig as I will be building a new one soon. Bellow is what I got:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHz CPU, an upgrade over my Core 2 Due. Now I realize I could have gone with Core 2 Extreme but reading incompatibility stories as well as not a huge boost made me go with this. While many of you will lough, I manged to play Batman Arkham Origins with everything on high on a decent resolution. I will not be gaming on 4K or even 1080p so that’s no big deal. It did say it needs a 4 core CPU ;D

4 GB of DDR2 is a must. An upgrade over my 2 GB of current Ram. Nothing unusual here seeing as 4 GB is becoming the standard new days.

EVGA – GeForce GTX 750 Superclocked GPU. I have heard great things about this card despite being a budget card, an upgrade over my 250 GTX. The card supports direct X 11.1 and that should be more than enough for the time being. Keep in mind I will not be doing 4k so this should do its job fine. As a bonus, it will not be needing a additional power as its energy efficient. Lets see how far this baby can go.

Now while the above may seem like a joke, I assure you I am very serious in finding out how far I can push things, hence this test. I am not trying to pretend that I will be running the latest games just fine or sell that I can achieve the impossible. I like proving my point and test things out and with the news that The Evil Within’s specs were exaggerated, I took it upon myself to see how things really are. I will be doing a video play through on my YouTube channel as soon as the parts arrive so stay tuned.

October 18, 2014October 18, 2014

The Walking Dead Season 5 ep1 Review

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is king of zombie movies, no question asked but the show got little repetitive for me and I started to lose hope. Season 5 brought back danger, action and with it mayhem, but was it good enough? For starters I would like to point the obvious spoiler alert. Now, The Walking Dead was always about danger from Zombies AND Humans alike picturing a perfect post apocalypses world where everything and everyone is trying to kill you. I was happy when The boring and annoying Governor finally got killed, although I wasn’t happy with the person who killed him or how he was killed but that’s another topic.

Any way, when the prison was overrun and they got nowhere to go, I go excited that we will now move forward instead of the same thing over and over. When the guy with the supposed cure showed up, I got even more excited as I was looking forward for a twist. The final thing that got me nervous was the Terminus, an evil looking place. Season 5 came and with it Terminus only to be a generic, quick story with little to no emotion. Now that the place is destroyed which happened too fast if you ask me, that leaves me with another thing to worry about; Governor 2.0.

Dear God, please don’t let this be the same stuff again, the surviving boss of the Terminus will reform and hunt down the survives. Rick said that he will finish off the reaming of the gang but I’m still not sure if he will actually do it or is it just for the sake of drama.

Dont get me wrong, the action was good and I’m glad the group is back together but I’m expecting new and creative storytelling this time around. I want them to get to Washington DC and actually manage to find the cure. Applying it is a different story and a new adventure.

the walking dead season 5

Another thing that I wish would happen but highly unlikely is: A boss. A Resident Evil nemesis like boss. This can only happen if the story is shifted to a company creating a virus that infects people for military use but seeing how the current story is going this is highly unlikely. The Walking Dead is trying to stay as realistic as possible and I understand that but it is a Zombie show and things need to happen. If you want a realistic post apocalypse movie, go watch The Road. Back to my main point; We are now at Season 5, meaning at least half way to the end assuming it will get 10 seasons. Up to this point, there were no -in my opinion- ground breaking shocking moment and the show feels like its going nowhere at times.

I’m no script writer or movie director although I directed home made movies and edited allot of my Skating clips but as a fan and zombie/science geek I cant help but feel more can be achieved. I also think that the show should start getting more aggressive like the comic. Yes I haven’t read them all but from what I did the deaths and general story feels more aggressive although I could be just imagining things if that makes scenes.

I know we are just at the start of the season but future episodes should be just as action and story orientated as the first one. No more meaningless episodes until the final one aka season 3. Rant and hopes aside, The Walking Dead is an overall well done show and I really enjoyed it and will continue to watch it although in my opinion, Lost is still the greatest show ever made minus the stupid ending.

Any way, let me know what you think..

Thanks

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

What can Capcom do next?

What was once an unstoppable leading force is a straggling company today. Who would have thought that Resident Evil would become absolute trash, Street Fighter a rerelease sellout and Megaman go extinct? What angers me the most is that nobody asked for this stupid change. Resident Evil was doing great, I remember waiting for part 3 and going crazy when a class mate brought it bragging. Why did Capcom completely ruin the highest selling horror game and keep insisting on going nowhere.

Why did Megaman go bye-bye when Megaman X was doing great? I ask myself what happened as I brows eBay for retro Capcom games? Would it hurt any one if Capcom released Final Fight 4 on 3DS or even Xbox live arcade?

Why do I have to replay Resident Evil Code Veronica instead of Resident Evil 6? I don’t know if anything can be done at this point but as they say; better late than never. Capcom should start making things right before its too late including and not limited to:

New Street Fighter
New 2D Megaman X style game
Port the Megaman X collection to arcade, PSN and Steam
Resident Evil 2 remake
Final Fight port or even new part

I must give credit where credit is due: Capcom is trying hard with PC gaming and is cross porting the games along with great optimization. I want Capcom to be successful as they are one of the last old school game makers that did great games. I know that we can not always control the destiny of the things or people we love but I really hope for the best.

October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

The Evil Within first impression

Now that the most awaited game of our era is out, I managed to grab it for my brother’s Xbox One while missing the chance to grab one myself. Why you ask? I still did not decide if I’m going with the 360, PC or Xbox one but at any rate, I’m grabbing the 360 version very soon. Now that my sad rant is over it is time for my first impression.

Keep in mind that I watched my brother play it up to chapter 3 so my first impress will be about the first two chapters.

Installation

After retrying the installation for the second time, the game started downloading a 7 GB day one patch. Strange and disappointing although we were given permission to play while download. What amazes me is the size, 7 GB day one patch? Why? and for what? Gone are the days when I can slide the disk into a console and start playing and came the days of a late 90s PC problems.

Graphics

Truth be told, the graphics look good. Some aliasing is there but nothing game breaking. Everything looks good and detailed. The atmosphere it self is realistic but you cant help but notice the Hostel movie inspiration in the first chapter. All good, nothing to complain although some may argue that the graphics are far from next gen, for me personally everything looks good. Yes, this is a last gen game ported to Xbox One and PS4 and yes, PC can pull better graphics but consider the full package and not just one part.

Gameplay

Resident Evil meets Metal Gear. This is what Resident Evil 4 should have been so Capcom please take note. Ammo is nowhere to be found so running, stealth and environment traps is the way to go. The movement looks realistic and smooth and many Resident Evil like stuff are in like memos and burning the corpses. The game itself feels like a Resident Evil we never got.

Sound

.The sound effects and music is good, fits right in the game. The gun firing and burning sounds along with everything else is a job well done

Conclusion

.I am yet to play it myself but from what I’m seeing, the game is amazing. Will pick it up today for deeper review but you cant go wrong with this game

October 11, 2014

So whats happening?

I apologies for not blogging much during the last two weeks. I had a few things going like finishing Resident Evil 6 and starting 4 on the Xbox 360, sorting my eBay purchases which are yet to arrive and some other things.

I was planing to get a PS4 and later Xbox One but decided to give it more time since no big games are coming out that are not available on the PC. I will be placing an Evil Within preorder on my Xbox 360 until I decide what to do next.

I have also placed an order for a replacement CPU for my brothers old rig which is yet to arrive.

Other than that, Crash Team racing also arrived which I think is the best vs racing game on any system including Mario Cart.

Im still searching eBay components for my new Rig but may grab a rare Saturn game or two in the process. So how is everyone? Keep Gaming and have fun.

October 5, 2014October 5, 2014

DirectX 12 coming to Windows 10

Unreal 4 Engine 4.4 Supports DirectX 12!

So as expected, the upcoming Windows 10 will have DX12. Technically, DX12 can make things better and smother on development side. Still not sure on the upgrade but things looking good on the gaming side. I’m waiting for more information and actual test before deciding on getting windows 10 but like I said, exiting PC gaming days are ahead of use if and only if developers started to use the full power of PC gaming instead of using the bench mark set by PS4 and Xbox One.

I’m currently building a new PC and thinking of going 64 now that 4GB is becoming standard and newer games may require more soon. Will update you all once actual testing takes place. Hoping that Microsoft starts taking PC gaming seriouse again.

October 3, 2014

Why am I holding out on next gen

I never was amazed by the lunch of the so called next gen consoles. Not only were the graphical updates normal, the lack of good games made the case even worse. At times I wished I had atleast one of them but soon I realize that spending the money on a useless consoles with no real games is no wise choice considering all the good games are coming out on PC with better graphics or on Xbox 360/PS3 which I both own.

I apologies if I offended any one but for me, and please take that as an opinion is no reason to buy them yet. Not when PC gaming is still around. So let us start with PS4:

Believe it or not, I actually skipped PS3 even though I loved PS2 and PSone. Well I have a few games like Initial D but I did not give it a serious go. All that changed when PS4 was released. At first I was skeptical and with my problem of no user change or region change things didn’t look good on me going toward Sony again. After looking around more I started liking it to the point of almost getting one.

What happened?

Two things: Region and games. Where I live, Pal is dominated the market with no sign of NTSC. Now I know that I can continue doing the thing I already do which is getting my games from Amazon and eBay but having the option to buy cheap games is always a factor. The other problem is games. Apart from The last of us remastered which happens to be also on PS3, Rayman Legends and The Evil Within of which all of them aavailableon Xbox 360 and PC there are zero games that I care about. Well technically The Order is on my list but apart from that, nothing.

Xbox 360 was my main gaming console this gen -PC not included- so it was only natural to jump on the next Xbox. Sadly the same problem as the above; no games. Lower resolution aside, the Xbox One had nothing to offer. Forza 5 and what? I am patiently waiting for Gears of War 4 but until released, there is zero interest in it for me.

So what will I do?

Build a new PC for less. I triad upgrading my old rig which by the way plays Batman Arkham Origins fine with extra ram but things went horrible fast. Slow PC, not booting and so on. Yes PC gaming has its downs but until the next gen starts offering real games count me out.

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

My thoughts on Windows 10

Microsoft surprisingly announced Windows 10 totally skipping the 9th version. Technically windows 8.1 is a stand alone windows so that could be counted as 9 but oh well. Any way, my opinion on why Microsoft made the decision to drop the 9th version name and jump straight to 10; Corporate market.

But before I get into that I would like to bring forward my two main reasons to upgrade.

Resources usage: I had XP for God knows how long before upgrading to 7 skipping Vista (Well I tested it but nothing serious). When I upgraded to 8 I noticed increased performance and smoothness in games. And since my main usage of the PC is gaming (I know I sound stupid but it is what is its) I welcomed the upgrade with open arms. Now will the same apply to Windows 10? I am yet to discover.

Compatibility: Software and games. Drivers seems to auto load and games and software that I have all supported. Nothing to complain about.

Now why did Windows 8 do so horrible or should I say not as expected on the corp side? Ignorance and touch phobia. See, Microsoft made a huge and stupid mistake of auto loading the touch interface with every restart and that scared the corps away. The problem with most corp including our own is that they fear change, especially when the current setup is working fine.

The removal of the Start button was another disaster which angered me personally for about 3 days and then I moved on with my life worrying about other stuff. Corps didn’t like that hence another reason to hate Windows 8. Another valid reasons is that some legacy software is not compatible with Windows 8. In-house software development wasn’t big on 8 and so we never moved.

Now did Microsoft do the right thing jumping to 10 to further itself away from 8 as much as possible? My answer is yes and no. Yes for the corps that know nothing but counting and 10 seems further than 9 so they might give it a chance especially that the Start button is returning. No, as hatters gonna hate. Many may see 10 slimier to 8 and skip it all together regardless.

At the end of the day, companies upgrade and will have to jump to the next thing as support ends for older windows so we will see how things play out. My concern; make it as smooth and less system demanding and I’m sold. Let me know what ya all think. Adam signing off.