Unit 13 - Vita - Funny Story

So TJ was talking up the tactical shooter "Unit 13" (from the makers of the SOCOM series) for the Vita and since I enjoyed the demo I picked it up yesterday. 

We were excited to have a fun coop shooter on a handheld and I'll just say that the game is surprisingly fun, controls very well and demands you pay attention while playing because, in SOCOM fashion, it can be pretty difficult with quick deaths if you aren't careful.

The funny story was that TJ and I were unaware of a built in feature of the Vita we'd never used because we didn't know it existed.  In game headset-less chat.

Now we knew that there was a party system and in game chat, but we figured it was all with bluetooth headsets.  Basically for about 40 minutes we messed around with Vita settings and in game settings and party settings, but we weren't getting good results.  We were hearing ALL audio in the headsets and sometimes we could hear each other and other times not. 

Finally, after a while I said, "we'll figure this out later, lets just disconnect the headsets and play a round or two."  As soon as we disconnected the headsets we could hear each other perfectly through the systems mic and speakers.  The audio quality was quite shocking and is easily on par with the 360 chat and normal phone conversation. 

We just kicked ourselves for a minute at what noobs we were and then continued to pwn the AI in numerous scenarios and mission types.

My takeaway lesson is that you shouldn't overcomplicate things.  Sometimes....shit just works all it's own.

Best Worst Game You've Ever Played and Finished

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand - 360
This was one of those "I'll get it if you do" type purchasers between me and Salad.  It has, arguably, the worst story ever with a ghettotastic soundtrack and yet it's tons of fun. 

Amazingly fun online coop was a blast and the controls and action were almost always tight!  Played like Gears of War, but with gangbangers instead of comic book characters. 

My favorite moment was when a helicopter was dropping off some bad guys and Salad shot a rocket perfectly into the door of the chopper and killed everyone inside before they could bail.  It was just one of those rare moments that you don't hardly ever see.  Especially when considering it was done very fast and on our one and only playthrough.

Best 3 Handheld Games

It seems that the most action this blog gets is for lists so here goes:

Tetris - GameBoy
Arguably the best game ever.  Tetris for the GameBoy was given hundreds of hours of my time.  My family would spend every vacation passing the system around trying to one up each others highest line count.  Add in an amazing soundtrack and the super huge battery life of the original 4 AA GameBoy and you've got a bitchin' game!

Super Mario 64 DS - DS
This is a port (go figure with Nintendo) of one of the best 64 games ever.  It's also the game that singlehandedly got me through all of my chapels at school senior year.  The camera system was balls, but the overall experience was preserved well with this title.

Gravity Rush - Vita
Can't remember ever being more impressed with any handheld game, ever.  A console sized game on a handheld that doesn't sacrifice on anything.  Great controls and fun combat.  My reigning champ of handheld game to beat. 

L4D on Vita

Just like modders doing more with Kinect than Microsoft ever will it appears that, so far, the Vita is doomed to the same fate.

Somebody has got remote play running through a PC to his Vita and he's playing Left 4 Dead on it.



Holy balls.  This is something that I'm dying for Sony to do officially as they've stated many times in the past that they plan to, but let's face it....the speed at which Sony works we'll be on the VitaGO before it happens.

I just love the idea of playing my PS3 games on my Vita.  Not that it allows for a huge benefit in any huge way, but it's just neat that this tech is already out there and working with non-Sony products.

I'd love to play Mass Effect 3 from my bed.  Just sayin....

Halo Wars general thoughts/semi-Review

I’ve owned this game for almost 2 years, but just finally got around to playing it. I can’t really say what took so long. I remember playing the Tutorial and the first stage right when I got it, and enjoying it, but then it just got pushed back as newer games poured in.

For anyone who may not know, it’s a Real Time Strategy game on the 360. It was made by Ensemble Studios, who promptly shut down after completing this game. I’m not sure of the circumstances there. Ensemble also made the ‘Age of Empires’ games for PC, so they were no slouches when it came to the RTS genre.

The game takes place about 20 years before the events of the original ‘Halo: Combat Evolved.’ It follows the exploits of the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire, led by Captain Cutter, Sgt. John Forge (voiced by Nolan North!), a woman scientist named Anders and the AI Serina. The long and the short of the plot involves the Covenant digging up an artifact that ultimately leads them to a fleet of powerful Forerunner ships, with the Spirit of Fire on their tail the whole time trying to prevent them from accessing said ships. If you’re interested, here’s a more detailed plot summary, along with some commentary on the role the women characters play. It also shows off the cut-scenes in the game, which I found to be really enjoyable and impressive, honestly. I recommend watching it.

The game has a few different modes. There is a 15 mission campaign that I quite enjoyed playing. Each mission takes between 20 and 40 minutes on average, with incentives to go back and play on different difficulties and collect skulls, black boxes (unlock “Timeline events” to see some additional Halo backstory). The missions have great variety, with different objectives for each one. You’ll escort civilians to escape ships, build a huge army to take down a Super Scarab, clear out multiple bases, etc. Each mission also has a par time. You earn Tin, Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals for each mission depending on how quickly you go, how many bonus objectives you complete, etc. Corresponding achievements apply for those inclined. Skirmish mode is the standard “Versus” mode where you can play up to 3 v 3. I haven’t gotten to do that, but it sounds interesting.

Moving on to the gameplay, I found it to be a refreshing change from any RTS I had played on a computer. In the past whenever I’ve played a RTS game, I feel pretty weighed down with options. I think Ensemble did a great job paring down for the game to work well with the limited control options on a console. There are bases with 7 spots for additional attached buildings to help build your army. Each building can generally be upgraded a few times to unlock unit upgrades, faster build times, or more supplies. Again, I appreciate that there are a limited number of units. Selecting units is fairly simple. The LB button selects all units, RB selects local units, double-tapping A selects all of the unit type that you have selected. All fairly simple and it works well. My biggest frustration comes from my units not prioritizing their targets very well. What I mean is when I’m attacking an enemy position I have to basically just select every unit on the screen and have them attack the same target instead of “dividing and conquering” or having certain units attack the turrets and some attack Building X and some attack Building Y. I think that sort of thing is much easier to divvy up on a PC game but like I said, this game pulls things off pretty well.

 

I’m about out of stuff to say here. I’ll just close in saying I had a really good time with Halo Wars. It was a nice change of pace from my standard gaming experience. I recommend it to anyone looking to change it up a little bit, or just anyone who loves Halo and the Halo universe.