So since this is my first Halo review, you folks may not know that I am one of the biggest Halo fans in the world.

I have played all the games through on Legendary multiple times, have read every book, watched every film and even listened to the entire Truth podcast series.

So needless to say, and am a bit of a fanboy, so chances of finding a biased opinion here is pretty slim.

I grabbed the ultimate edition of the game last year, and sadly did not find time to dive in until now.

One of the main upsell to the Ultimate version was you got the original Halo Wars that they remastered included, so it was sort of a 2 for 1, plus the season pass.

The original game was something special when it launched 9 years ago in 2009, it was the first non-fps game we got for Halo, and while it was commercially panned back then, it was a damn fine deviation in my opinion.

The story takes place in the first 5 years of the covenant war, a while after we lost Harvest to the hinge heads.

Admiral Cutter is sent to help take it back from the covies, and in doing so goes on a wild goose chase across the galaxy in search of a kidnapped scientist and a massive Foreunner installation.

What really stood out in the story is that we got to go back to a very early point in the war, see where things began and get a sense of what the covenant were like and where the old hatreds came from.

Sadly the game ends on a bit of a “to be continued” with the crew of the Spirit of Fire going into cryo-sleep for the long ride home (as they lost their slipspace drive).

Little did we know at  the time there would be a second game, especially since HW1 did not do very well in sales.

So when the news came in via E3 that the sequel was planned, it was a good day for us Halo fan.

The second game pics up 28 years later, with the crew of the Spirit of Fire waking up to a shock, the covenant war is over, and they are sitting in front of the Ark, a Forerunner seed vessel that was the stage of Halo 2 and 3.

I wont get into spoiling the story here, but it goes in some very interesting direction, right up to yet another cliff hanger ending that has direct ties to Halo 5.

What also adds a little intrigue to this story is that there is a pseudo tie in novel called Smoke and Shadow. This is the story of a girl in search of any information about her father (Forge) who was presumed dead after the Spirit of Fire disappeared in the timeline of Halo Wars 1.

So there is a lot of media to consume for a game that is essentially a B-list title from Microsoft.

As for the game itself, it was very enjoyable, where Halo Wars 1 was a nice RTS for the time, you can see where Halo Wars 2 expands on the new gaming advancements made in the last 8 years.

With missions that are 100% tower defense, to small commando like squad missions that really keep you on edge as you have very few troops to use and keep alive.

The visuals also got a HUGE bump, with an extra layer of zoom it is like watching a mini Halo play set, it is just unfortunate this game never had VR support added on PC, that would have been incredible.

The missions span all kinda of environments, from arid dessert climate to old but shiny forerunner installations.

This is one of the few games too that supports 4k/UHD on the XB1X. So the presentation is brilliant. Colors pop and the subtle shadows really jump from the screen on a properly calibrated display.

The sound in the game was typical fare, but did get a bit annoying, when moving troops, every click illicits a “going” “moving out” “yes sir” “on our way”, not terrible, but after hearing it for the 100th time in a single chapter, it gets a little grating.

Both of these game sadly are not very long, each clocking in around the 6 hr mark only, and very little time added for the DLC.

Now the DLC is where my problem lies. Season passes are meant to include everything that is put out in DLC for a game, that is the whole point. Pay the extra 20-30 upfront, not knowing what you will necessarily get, and it is cheaper than buying them one at a time.

But the real issue here is that MS or the dev really screwed their fans with the release of the final DLC, Awakening the Nightmare. They opted to sell this outside of the season pass, and gouge fans for a whopping $30 for a 2-3 hour campaign.

Sure it had a lot of spit and polish, even including full CG cutscenes, but I certainly do not feel that the few commanders (used in MP play) and the 2 mission Operation Spearbreaker constituted the original $25 extra for a seasonpass…

So it was a real slap in the face to Halo Wars supporters.

In the day and age of trying to milk people with loot boxes, this practice is sadly jsut as bad, but oft overlooked by reviewers.

But not me, I felt ripped off.

Sure the story was interesting, and playing as the Banished (the covenant baddies) was cool as you got to use units that we only killed up until now. But it still does not justify the double dip on price.

And in the grand scheme of things, the story was kind of throw away. It revolves around 2 Brutes sent to the wreckage of High Charity to find supplies and riches and they accidentally release the flood plague.

The main antagonist in HW2 was Atriox from the comic series, so it would have been nice if we saw more of him, but alas they went in a different direction with 2 character we never heard of before.

So after a quick 2-3 hours, the plot remains the same, Atriox is still alive and well and plotting his revenge.

All in all the entire story of HW1 and 2 plus the DLC makes a nice tight narrative and leaves us wanting more, when or if we will get more is yet to be seen as there have been no announcements thus far of  Halo Wars 3.

As a whole a solid 8/10, but individually, Halo Wars 1 – 7/10, Halo Wars 2 9/10 and the DLC sadly a 6/10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Lego Ideas is both one of the best and worst concepts Lego has ever come up with.

On one hand, ambitious MOC designers have a chance at glory, to submit they idea and design to Lego and get it made into a full set, complete with royalties from the sales.

On the other hands, sets that do not make it, remain forever property of Lego, and should they take some concepts you have presented and work them into a similar model, you get squat.

On top of that, once a design is rejected (Lego only picks 1 out a finalist lineup of 10), the sets will never be available for re-submission. So it is forever lost in the Lego vault.

They have also put new restrictions in place for submission of existing licenses, so that means no Star Wars ships, Marvel ideas, etc. All Licenses are off limits, no matter how good an idea you have.

Now on an upside, a lot of those failures show up on the Chinese block-off market. But, this is usually still of no use to the original creator, as they may make $20-$50 selling their instructions for the set, but never see a dime in royalties.

But, when all goes right, and the stars align, what you often get from Lego Ideas is some non-traditional sets that are really cool.

Case in point, the new Lego Ideas Ship in a Bottle:

Coming in at a meager 962 elements (280 of which are 1×1 blue water bricks) this set feels rather small for the $99cdn price tag.

With just 4 numbered segments and a few clear elements.

The boat itself is rather tiny, but it has to be as it fits in a rather small bottle.

The bottle design itself is a mixed bag.

On one hand, it is a really slick idea, and even has a built in base to hold the ship in place (something the original submission lacked)

On the other hand, there is just so many line to obscure the ship itself.

The fit is also very snug. Now I understand you do not need tons of space here, but the top crows nest actually presses against the clear bottle, so at least 1/2 inch of clearance would have been a nice thought.

What really shines though is the front 1/3 of the bottle. Made up of 4 large windows, it give you an idea of what could have been if Lego chose to make the bottom 2/3 a little better.

The cork along with the small seal with the creators initials on it is a real nice touch as well.

The stand (sorry for my bad focus skills, still learning to use the new camera) is really well designed.

With 2 globes, and a full compass (non working) that sits under the bottle is a real nice little detail.

As a finished model it is still one of the coolest sets I own right now.

I have been a Lego ship enthusiast for a decade now, and managed to collect almost all the old ships dating back to the pirates line in the 90’s

And this is one of my favorite looking sets of all the ships out there.

The unique design and finished model outweigh any of the gripes I had. Sure the bottle could have been better designed, but it was a good first attempt, and who knows, maybe this could spark a ship in a bottle line for Lego long term. One could hope at least.

A solid 8/10 and a must buy for any Lego ship fans like myself.

 

 

 

 

When Wofly 1 came on the scene a few years back it took the FPS genre by surprise.

None of us asked for a new reboot to the franchise, nor did we really want one.

But the presentation was so great, the game was fun, and deep, and went really far in terms of advancing the genre.

So when they announced Wolfenstien 2 at the last Quakecon, I was pretty pleased and looked forward to another trip with Billy Blazkowicz.

Sadly the execution this time was a real mixed bag, or more accurately, the story.

I have a pretty good imagination, and my suspension of disbelief is pretty broad, if you set the stage for me, and make it within reason in the confines of the game world you have created, I am in hook like and sinker.

Need me to believe I am humanities last hope, tell me why and I am likely to agree.

But Wolfenstien 2 does something so balls to the wall stupid about 60% of the way through, that I completely lost interest in the game and the story.

It was so out there that even the most seasoned sci-fi fan would think BULLSHIT! And that is exactly how I felt.

It was a useless plot point, and did nothing but ruin the narrative from then on, and ultimately in any new games down the road.

Beside said story event, the game was solid, the game play was slick, the weapons varied and felt right, and the story was pretty heartfelt and emotional.

It is just a crying shame that one little thing could ruin the whole game.

Technically it is sound, no glitches to speak of, and it looks brilliant on the PS4 Pro, offering silky smooth game play in 4k.

Sound was on par with your average modern day shooter, nothing stood out, but there was also nothing wrong.

Over all a fun game to play, but ultimately severely marred by poor story direction in the second half of the game.

If you enjoyed the first, there is more of the same here to be had, and if you can forgive the missteps, it is a decent game.

A solid 8/10 overall, with a story of 5/10 (you’ll know why when you get there)

Now I am not your average gamer, not because I play so many games a year, but because I am a bit of a masochist when it comes to playing games. I love my games hard, like old school 80’s Battletoads hard.

So when Demon Souls broke onto the scene in 2009, it forever changed the landscape of modern day torture games.

It was hard in a way we had not seen since Ninja Gaiden, and it was unforgiving in all aspects.

This started a whole new genre of games that we now refer to as Souls-like, from Dark Souls, to Bloodborne to Nioh, and now The Surge. They all clamor to be the most perilous of games in a attempt to get gamers of the world over to buy new controllers, as they have thrown theirs across the room after their 3000th death.

The Surge sets forth to somewhat streamline the whole genre a bit and in some ways this is good and others bad.

What it offers is very much like all other Souls’like games, if you die with a pile of “tech” on you, you need to make it back to your body to collect you “souls” and if you die in the process, they are lost forever.

One thing they do that is new to the genre, is place a time on this, which adds a real pressure to the mix, you could run like hell in hopes of making it to your body, but with each kill you get on the way, you add more time to the forever present countdown.

This keeps you constantly on edge, the combat is tough, and each encounter could mean certain death, but those extra 15 seconds could mean you save that pile of tech you need to level up.

This new timed balance comes at a cost though, unlike the Souls games, there is no online component at all, no one invading you game to hand you your ass, or no saviors to help you out.

Another strong move in the right direction is the equipment progression and acquisition.

You do not just find weapons and armor, instead all of it comes from felled enemies, BUT, the catch is you have to cut off the stuff you want. So if you find a new enemy, chances are they are sporting a new armor type, you need to target their head for a drop of a helmet schematic, or arms, body and leg armor.

Additionally the weapons work the same way, facing off against an enemy with a staff, cut off their dominant arm for a chance to get that staff blueprint for yourself.

Once you have the schematics in hand, when you are in your med bay (re: campfire) then you can use your tech to do a few things, update you base level, or spend that tech on making and upgrading your equipment.

There are 5 levels to each armor set and weapon set, and they take more and more to upgrade, not just in base tech, but also in collected machine parts, so you will need X number of lenses to update the helmet optics, etc.

On top off all of this, you also have mods that can be added to your suit, that will range in their abilities.

From being able to heal yourself (a must by the way) to reducing damage, or boosting damage of certain types and elements.

These mods open skills, so when you hit the L1 button you will activate that skill, be it healing or whatnot.

These mod slots come at a premium though, they use up your core power. Every time you level up, your core power increased, so a basic healing mod may cost 1 power point (PP) but an advance heal, or regen may cost you 5pp. So it is all about balance, and the game ensures you never get overpowered this way.

You can pick and choose what mods to use when in a med bay, so properly gearing up for each boss fight is a must, it is imperative to your success. Running in without proper mods is a recipe for certain death.

So the game does a lot to turn this old stale genre on it head, but there area few issues unfortunately.

One major difference is there is zero online aspect to The Surge, no “invading” of world, or conversely, helping others in need, like all the other Souls games do. This makes for a rather lonely trek and also offers no reprieve from the difficulty, where in Bloodborne, or Nioh, you could call forth to other players to help you win a particularly hard fight, The Surge is all just you against the machine.

Now this is a mixed bag, in terms of personal accomplishment, this is pretty cool. There is no one to help hold your hand, but on the other hand, after dying to a particular boss for the 100th time, it would be nice to have someone save your bacon and draw a little fire.

Another thing that make stand out for folks is the setting, thus far all the other Souls games have had a very old / gothic feel to them, The Surge is pure sci-fi all the way, a post apocalyptic earth sets the stage. While I found this to be a nice breath of fresh air, I can see how others may not enjoy it.

Lastly there is the visuals, this game looks incredible, when played on the PS4 Pro you get the addition of 4k/hdr, which dramatically improves the ambient lighting and increases the color pallet.

The finest of details in the machine you fight stand out and almost feels alive.

Definitely one of the bstter looking HDR presentations on the PS4 to date.

All in all it was a solid game, and a welcome addition to the genre.

On a side note, it was just announced that the developer has The Surge 2 in the works set to release in 2019, with the story ending off where it did, this will be a welcomed sequel.

A solid 9/10 and a high recommendation for those who love Dark Souls and are looking for something a little different.

So I may be the biggest Star Wars fanboy you know. I have seen the 1st movie well over 400 times, I watched it every single day for over a year when we got it on VHS.

So when it comes to Star Wars content, I may be a wee bit bias.

I thought the EP1 – 3 trilogy was not that bad, I have watched all the animated series and loved every minute (well maybe not the Jar-Jar moments) and I am in the minority thinking the new trilogy thus far is outstanding.

So when it was announced that Star Wars Battlefront 2 was going to have a full story mode, I was more than thrilled. We may finally get some answers to what happened in the 20 years spanning Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

What Star Wars: BF2 delivers is a great addition to the Star Wars universe, but sadly due to some seemingly dubious business practices of their publisher EA, many of you may have passed on this game.

I am here to tell you to go buy it anyway, not because I like EA, but because if you are a Star Wars fan in any way, you owe it to yourself to check this out, it really is that good.

The game was seriously revamped after the community backlash about loot boxes and level progression, and it is completely playable and most of all fair.

I will circle back to that at the end.

The game itself starts during the events of Return of the Jedi, with you as a rising star in the Empire.

The story is pretty great, it will take you to places only spoken in Star Wars lore, you will see why star destroyers are crashed on Jakku, how Kylo knew to go there to find the map to Luke, how Luke got the compass that lead him to exile island and many more bits to fill in the movies.

The game play itself is exemplary, this is a very well crafted shooter, controls feel very natural and the weapons powerful.

But where the game seriously shines is in the flight missions, bombing runs on star destroyers, flying down the gullet of a repair vessel destroying shield generators before blowing up a docked star destroyer, dog fighting over trade blockades in the Millennium Falcon.

It is all fantastic and definitely bows to the fanboys of the world.

The single player story is not terribly long and on hard can be about 10 hours long or so, but front to back it is very enjoyable and challenging at times.

Once this is complete you can move onto the multiplayer side of things which is really the heart of the game.

Long after the story fade you will be playing the MP online.

Now I hung up my controller many years ago for online multiplayer games, but for the first time in probably 5 years I dove in with both feet.

The mission are just so well crafted you can’t help but want to come back for more.

You have a few game modes to choose from, some better than others.

There is a Heroes vs Villains, which is just as it sounds, pick you favorite (unlocked) hero and jump in again other over powered villains.

There is a Starfighter mode, that is in my opinion one of the best. You fly objective based missions against the enemy, either attacking of defending. Things like breaking a blockade, then taking out the bases defenses, and finally attacking a power core to blow it all up. That is just one of the example of the 5 or 6 missions of this type.

There is also a ground war type battle of similar style, moving ahead, taking objectives, very mush like Battlefield Bad Company from many moons ago. These battles are huge though, with vehicles, heroes and 40 players (plus bots) thrown into the mix. The maps are large enough to accommodate this no problem.

You also have the typical team death-match games with 6v6, and a pseudo “ctf” sytle game as well.

All of which I never found to be unbalanced.

One of the big slams EA had was that progression seemed to be to weighted towards grind, and fans (and idiots) seemed to think that PLAYING the game was an unfair way of unlocking stuff, and God forbid they have to actually play more then 5 minutes to unlock everything.

So sadly EA bowed to these loudmouths and changed the game, so much so that in a single weekend I managed to unlock all the Heroes, something that previously would have taken weeks, was a simple walk in the park and WAY too easy. But hey, we are in the generation of trophies for all those who show up, and if you cannot get your immediate needs met, than said media is utter garbage.

It is unfortunate that those vocal minority have the loudest voices. Because they are a blight on this industry.

But I digress.

There was also the loot box controversy, a one two punch in the face for EA sadly. They set out to have loot boxes unlock abilities that would give you an edge in combat, an edge which mind you, you would have anyway through natural progression and unlocking things in time, but loot boxes doll out the new skills for each class.

Well considering you could buy the currency needed to open them (beyond what you earn through playing) people saw this as Pay to Win multiplayer and very unbalanced.

The part that people forget though, is natural skill plays a lot of winning a match, just because you have an uber rocket launcher skill, does not equate a win, not if you can’t hit the side of a barn with it.

But again, the whiny babies (who never even played the game yet) cried so hard and loud, that EA decided to pull the purchased credit aspect, so you could no longer buy the tokens needed to open a crate, and instead, had to play and earn credits to open them.

A win for the great unwashed, a loss for EA.

I think the most disturbing part is people do not realize the impact this has. Due to the failed success of Star Wars BF 2, we now may not get a BF3. Their collective pissing and moaning, may have forever changed what we get to play.

I would rather take a game made with nefarious business practice in mind, and play around that system, then to never have it at all. But that’s just me.

Lastly we have the visual presentation.

This game looks amazing… like jaw on the floor, holy crap how did they make endor look so real, amazing.

The game truly shine in it’s HDR presentation, with colors popping off the screen and the inky blackness of space forming a canvass for some epic space scenes, debris almost feels 3d in floating junk yards, and the sheer amount of moving particles is staggering.

It really makes the game feel alive.

The sound presentation here is top notch as well, with ships zipping overhead with DTS:X enabled, to the amazing WhirrrrrrBOOOM of Jango Fett’s mines rattling your teeth with LFE, the first time I dropped one and heard it I was grinning to myself ear to ear.

Visually and sonically, it doesn’t get much better than this.

All in all, the game was fantastic, front to back great, online and single player.

I know this review is in the minority here, but I am giving it a solid 9/10 and a must play for anyone who loves Star Wars.

So I am a rather big fan of sci-fi horror, dating as far back to the 70’s when Alien was released, and through my life I am always on the hunt for a good space horror.

This hit a pinnacle for me with 3 games in the last decade, Dead Space 1 and 2 and Alien: Isolation, three of the best sci-horror games ever made. And since Alien: Isolation was released, there has honestly been nothing to fill the void.

That is, until now.

Prey take a lot from its brothers and sisters in the genre, and adds in its own flair.

While not edge of your seat nail biting like Dead Space was, it still manages to keep you on edge from start to finish.

You have a choice when starting to play either a male or female character, which is an odd choice for a game in this genre and the first of its kind I believe. Whichever you choose will dictate some of your email communications, as they are written from the other sibling.

The set up is simple, and been done many times before, you are on a space station, things have gone south, the place is breaking down and seemingly abandoned, and you need to put the pieces together and find out what happened to everyone.

Where the game really shines though is through the skill tree advancement and combat.

Once you progress far enough, you can start to acquire alien abilities through neuro mods. Thinks like telekinesis, mind control and shape shifting to name a few.

This really adds to the first person shooter combat. It is not a mere run and gun, you need to play strategically, you have to plan each encounter (on hard at least) or you will be splattered all over the walls in no time.

The enemies themselves are what really adds to the tension here, as they are a race of shape-shifting chameleons. The can become any item in the environment. The coffee cup on a desk could be a mimic in waiting, ready to pounce if you get close enough.

This keeps you constantly on edge when entering new locations, as you never really know where they are hiding.

In addition to the usual FPS combat, there area few zero G segments of the game as well, this brings a whole new level of complexity into the fights.

Prey was also surprisingly large, for a shooter this game clocked in at about 28 hours for me on Hard mode, the space station itself is incredibly huge, and while you will be back tracking from time to time, it is typically in different segments of a previous area, add in the free space outside the base and it is simply massive.

The only real complaint I have about the games as a whole is, compared to modern day shooters, Prey feels rather dated.

This could be due to the troubled development of it, it was originally meant to be a true sequel to the original Prey game from the Xbox 360, that saw marginal success.

It came as a bit of a shock that a game that did not do too well was actually getting a sequel.

They debuted it at E3 many years ago, and it was suppose to have a completely fresh take on FPS, as you were going to be a bounty hunter of sorts.

After that initial reveal the game seemingly disappeared off the radar, only to emerge a couple years ;later at E3 again as a space horror.

And I think this is where the game kinda stumbled, much like Duke Nuken Forever, this started development years and years ago, and I think they must have carried forward some of the core engine, because things like animation, lighting, etc, feels like something from around 2010-2012. The way NPCs move, and such, just feels older for no good reason.

Not that it is bad, but just not what you make expect from a game from 2017.

All in all Prey was a fun game to play, and on Hard mode it did add a real challenge, with many many deaths ensuing. This is really in my mind the only way horror games should be played, on as hard as possible, as it really adds to the survival type feeling, and every encounter becomes a struggle to survive.

While not ground breaking, Prey gets a solid 8/10, and a recommendation to all the sci-horror fans out there.

So after my time with the Medical Frigate MOC I was pretty leery about picking up another MOC set, but the draw of the massive 6500+ piece Republic Cruiser was just too huge.

This was the largest set available from Lepin until this years Millennium Falcon was released, and due to the nature of the Lepin sets, and MOC in general, this was a big problem.

As you can see, this is a 10 ft dining room table. 6+ feet are covered in bricks. There was almost no room to build.

Clocking in at over 130 individual bags, it took over 2 hours just to open everything up and try to get some semblance of order.

I found having a pile of old containers on hand really help, all the smaller elements went into containers so I could have some extra room to breath.

With everything sorted it was time to dive into the massive manual.

The core of the ship went together like any other regular star wars ship, it is really well built and solid, and it would have to be as the ship itself is over 20lbs, so a good strong base is a must.

On top of this, much like the UCS Star Destroyer, the actual stand is built directly to the frame.

 

This is a bit of a mixed bag for me.

While I appreciate WHY this is done, it still tends to look less than attractive, especially if you set is up as high as eye level (like mine is)

Now, much like the Medical Frigate, this sets design leave a lot to be desired.

There is a pile of guesswork to be done.

First and foremost is the entire bottom of the ship.

Lepin left out how any of this was to be connected, the main under plate just hangs off the ship and rests on the surface it is on. It is suppose to be attached to the plate above it.

This took some real annoying rework as I was expecting this to be addressed in a later step, and was not, so now I had a near complete (and fragile build) that needed to be carefully tweaked to make it work.

So after an hour or so of messing around, and multiple curses later, the issues was fixed.

Next up, and the most atrocious of the entire build is the 4 massive panels on the ship.

Now they assembled just fine, but installation is completely impossible by the book.

#1, the magnets you get are about 1 million times more powerful than a Lego magnet. So the second you try to place them, the magnetic pull rips them right off the panels.

To add insult to injury, the placement of the magnets is completely wrong. so even if you manage to get them to not pull off the base, they leave the panels all skewed and looking pretty uneven.

I had to heavily rework the interior system to fix this, and there was no way it could be done without krazy glue.

Above Pic is a complete custom fix on my part, and had to be glued in to work properly.

Magnet elements 100% need to be glued to work.

It took me almost 4 hours and constant frustration with pieces falling off to fix this.

Lastly, the giant missing panel… This section pictured should have a cover to hide the gaping hole in the top of the ship.

This area is not included… No rhyme or reason.

From what I have read it used to included be back in the day, and suddenly it just stopped, it is no longer in the manual, and the bricks are just not there.

Luckily I have enough spares from other sets that I was able to swap out parts from elsewhere to steal what was needed for the exterior finish.

Instruction were found in the original MOC instruction book (which I highly recommend buying if you get this set)

So all in all, it is an amazing finished product, but it is such a nightmare to finish it is hard to say if it was worth it.

There is little worse than getting to the last mile in a set, and the finish is so terrible it negates all the good thoughts you have about a set.

That is where I am left with the Republic Cruiser.

While it is one of my fave ships in my collection, I am hard pressed to think positively about building it again if I had to.

If you are a die hard Star Wars fan, then it is a no brainer, as it does look damn great when built. But if will cost you some hair from the pulling, and it may go a bit grey too.

A 10/10 for the finished product, but a paltry 6/10 for the actual getting there.

One last thing, this is the pile of spare bits that were left, quite a bit considering a lot of folks claim they have no spares and are missing parts.