- DEVELOPER: Arenanet
- ESRB RATING: T for Teen
- GENRE: MMORPG
- PLATFORMS: PC
Guild Wars 2 Beta: A new and refreshing take on MMORPGs
Innovation is hard to find in games; taking a risk is even harder to find. ‘Guild Wars 2’ finds a way to do both successfully, creating something unique and, more importantly, a ton of fun.
While still rough around the edges for its first beta weekend event, the idea and foundation are very solid.
The “Guild Wars 2” beta allows the choice between three out of the five playable races in the main game. One immediate difference from other MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) is that every race can be any of the eight different classes in game. The race that you pick will determine your personal story, starting area and a few race specific skills.
What “Guild Wars 2” does really well is give players a world they’ll want to explore. You’ll find hidden skill points to unlock new skills, or unique dynamic events. Dynamic events are best explained as random quests that everyone in the world can take part in, and sometimes have pass or fail options. Maybe a town will be under an attack, or a high-level creature will spawn and will take a ton of people to kill.
Combat is another thing that is different than other games in its genre. There aren’t tanks, healers or DPS (damage per second) like you would see in “World of Warcraft.” Instead, everyone has their own ability to heal and you get a dodge roll that will help you avoid damage. Combat is very frantic and dodging and using the right skills at the right time are the only way you’ll be able to defeat some of the stronger enemies in the game.
The one issue with combat is that using range weapons seems to be favorable over melee combat. Standing close to an enemy is always a risk, and you can be taken out so fast. Hopefully, they’ll be able to balance this better and everyone is not forced to use range weapons. This would break the ability to choose how you play, on which the game is focused heavily.
Another disappointing thing about the beta is that many high-end PCs were having trouble playing it. While ArenaNet promises that optimization for frame rate is on the list to be fixed, it was a little disheartening that the big battles with 50 or more people would make the game slow to a crawl.
“Guild Wars 2” is looking very promising, especially for the first beta weekend. It’ll be up to ArenaNet to respond to fan feedback and make sure the game delivers on its lofty promises.
But if you’re looking for something new and unique, keep an eye out for “Guild Wars 2.”
GENRE MMORPG
(INTERNET REQUIRED)
ESRB RATING
T FOR TEEN
PLATFORM PC
DEVELOPER ARENANET
Diablo 3: A slice of heaven and hell
- DEVELOPER: Blizzard Entertainment
- ESRB RATING: M for Mature
- GENRE: Action RPG
- PLATFORMS: PC, Mac
Among PC gamers, Blizzard Entertainment is known for its extremely popular role-playing games. “Diablo 3” is the sequel to one of the fastest-selling PC games in history and will be released soon. An open beta weekend was held near the end of April and provided fans with a lot to be happy with, despite a few niggling issues.
When the game is available on May 15, players will have a choice between five different classes, each with their own unique style. The monk can move quickly and strike multiple foes with martial arts, while the wizard prefers to stay at range using elemental magic. They all feel well-balanced and will keep players wanting to increase their character’s level far past beta caps, which is only level 13.
Maybe one of the biggest concerns from longtime fans was the removal of many of the complex systems from “Diablo 2,” which included stats and skill points while leveling. Instead, everything is streamlined with automatic stat increases and the ability to gain every skill in the game. This puts the emphasis on what skills you want to use, the runes that modify each skill and how well you use them. It works great; skills are fun to use and combat is fast and fluid.
The few issues the beta had related to the ability to get into the game with the mass amount of people logging onto the server. This also extended to playing when massive frame drops would sometimes hit at certain areas in the game. Blizzard has said that the open beta was designed to see the stress on the servers, to help ensure a smoother release.
One thing players should keep in mind if they are big PvP (player vs. player) fans: “Diablo 3” will not launch with any form of it. The arena for PvP will not launch until a later date, so if this is a reason for wanting “Diablo 3,” some fans will be sorely disappointed
But “Diablo 3” does have a lot going for it. The combat feels great, enemies are varied and it’s fun to play with friends. The streamlined approach gets rid of many of the frustrating mechanics from “Diablo 2,” and everything just feels good.
GENRE ACTION RPG (INTERNET REQUIRED)
ESRB RATING
M FOR MATURE
PLATFORM PC, MAC
DEVELOPER BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT
And the winner is…
Both “Diablo 3” and “Guild Wars 2” have fantastic ideas and gameplay.
They are both very streamlined RPGs that provide the idea of playing with others, both combat systems are really fun and they both have frame-rate issues that have yet to be optimized for high-end PCs.
If you could only choose one, go with the more innovative and unique game: “Guild Wars 2.”
Timothy Clark courtesy photo
The “Uncharted” franchise has been an action darling ever since it was released in 2007 and each subsequent game has been better and better.
Just four months since the release of the third game in the series, “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” is called upon to be the system seller for the PlayStation Vita.
Once again you’re in the shoes of Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and suave everyman, in a search for a lost city in Central America. While a prequel to the original game, it’s set up as its own story. The writing is snappy and funny, and the story provides some cool historical and mythological touches, but it lacks any real character development. Rather than exploring Drake’s background, you get what feels like a filler episode in a TV series. All these events happen, but have no effect on the trilogy ahead of it
“Golden Abyss,” while developed by a different studio than the PS3 versions, retains most of the original gameplay elements. You’ll still be ducking into cover, shooting from a third-person perspective and defying death with each jump you make. A few wrinkles are added in due to the Vita’s motion controls and touchscreen.
For gunplay, the Vita’s motion controls allows you to tilt it for aiming, which is a great addition. Once you get good at it, you can point in a general direction and make a slight adjustment by just shifting the Vita in a direction. Once you master it, you’ll be popping out of cover and making headshots with ease.
Another really cool feature is the touchscreen puzzles and treasures. In the original games, all treasures were just shiny points on the map that you ran over and picked up, but in “Golden Abyss” there are all different types. Using the Touchscreen to do charcoal rubbings, take photos and even using the back camera to display writing on a light sensitive paper makes you feel like a treasure hunter.
While many of these qualities are cool, many of them are also gimmicks. It seems that “Sony Bend” was forced to place every single function the Vita has to offer. Swiping the screen to open doors gets old, using the gyroscope to balance on beams and using the back-touch to climb ropes just seems pointless and boring.
One of the things that most people say when they see an uncharted game is that it looks like a movie. The graphics, while gorgeous, don’t get the set piece movie moments that the “Uncharted” series is known for. Most of the game involves climbing through jungle environments and temples with no real change through the 8-12 hour experience. Instead of escaping a sinking boat, or fighting your way on top of a moving train like the other games, it boils down to merely shooting dudes and making jumps; which is still very fun.
While not up to the high standards of the original games, which set the bar very high, “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” still stands out as the blockbuster game that you’ll want to show to everyone if you have a Vita.
DEVELOPER: Sony Bend
ESRB rating: T for Teen
Genre: Third-Person Action Adventure
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Adrian Hedden/The Washtenaw Voice
Nearly seven years since the release of the PlayStation Portable, Sony has finally released a successor. The PlayStation Vita has launched, and it packs console graphics into a portable device.
With the increase in tablets and smartphones, Sony is attempting to compete in a space that is crowded with devices. Fortunately, the Vita stands out despite a few small issues and creates a great hardcore gaming experience.
The system features a five-inch OLED screen with touchscreen control, and a rear touchpad on the back of the system. The OLED screen is gorgeous, but doesn’t hold up to sunlight and fingerprints well. The smudges are hardly noticeable when the system is on, but if you’re into keeping your systems in pristine condition you’ll need to clean it frequently. Increasing brightness can also help with the sunlight problem, but at the cost of battery life, which is usually around 4-5 hours on lower settings.
The front and rear touchscreen works well, but the rear touchscreen seems gimmicky. I have yet to use it for any practical use. Hopefully, later game releases will find ways to use it for something unique.
One other device that the Vita has incorporated is a gyroscope and accelerometers for tilt controls. This provides some games with the ability to tweak shooting by tilting the Vita in a direction, or rolling an object on the screen. This all works well, but seems to be used sparingly in games.
All the motion gaming is optional for most games, and you can use the dual analog sticks and face buttons for main use. All buttons are responsive but I find the analog stick not as precise as I would like. If the sticks were just a bit longer they’d be much more comfortable and precise.
The Vita sports front and rear cameras that don’t provide the greatest pictures. They seem grainy, but work well enough. For all the state-of-the-art features, I was expecting a crisp, clear picture.
The interface the Vita features is an app-style screen that you flip through and find what you’re looking for. One downside to this is that it can become cluttered, and in the future will get even worse. By the time the system is out for a year, you could be flipping through 7-10 pages of games and apps. Hopefully, with future updates to the system they’ll have folders to place apps and games for easier management.
The Vita comes preloaded with apps, but there are a few to also download for free such as Netflix and Facebook. The Internet browser is a nice perk, but there are some major problems with it. You can’t open it while playing a game and it doesn’t support Flash. If you were looking to use it as a dedicated Internet device, look somewhere else.
The most important thing about a system launch though, is the games. Luckily, this is where the Vita shines and outclasses Nintendo’s 3DS. It has a pretty strong launch lineup. It covers all the bases well, from blockbuster games like “Uncharted” to small indie titles like “Escape Plan.” While you can buy most of the games on game cards, you can also download all of them digitally. The nice thing about this is you’ll be saving about $5 on each of the games.
This leads to one of the biggest agendas for the system, the attempt at cross-platform play. Content Manager, a preloaded App on the system, allows users to plug the Vita into PCs or PS3s and swap things between them. A promise that eventually you’ll be able to play full console games, then move saved data on to the Vita and continue playing on the road is a great concept. So far, the only thing that allows cross-platform play is “Hustle Kings,” but there are more games planned for this feature later.
The Vita price is $250 for the Wi-Fi and $300 for the 3G version, which is a steep starting price for a handheld. This also includes an extra $20-$100 dollars, depending on what memory card you want to buy, which may cause many people to think the system is too pricey for an initial purchase.
However, for gamers who have a PS3 or want console quality gaming on the road, there is no better handheld than the Vita.
Product: Playstation Vita
Company: Sony
Price: Ranges from $250-$300, depending on product package
Collider.com courtesy photo
For independent filmmakers, the Sundance Film Festival has been a staple for more than 30 years. In an attempt to expand audiences across America, nine select cities, including Ann Arbor, were chosen this year to screen one of the movies from the original festival in Park City, Utah.
The Michigan Theater was elected to screen the movie “For a Good Time, Call…” to a sold out crowd of 1,700 people on Jan. 26.
“It’s a very special theater,” said Laurie Raymond, one of those moviegoers. “In 2010, I saw the Sundance shorts here and laughed my butt off.”
Raymond added she hopes Sundance continues to include the Michigan Theater in the future. “This theater has a very old and ornate feeling to it,” she said. “It’s great.”
Russ Collins, the executive director and CEO of Michigan Theater, took the stage before the movie and called it “the biggest venue in Sundance history.”
“For a Good Time, Call…” is a self-proclaimed raunchy comedy directed by Jamie Travis and stars Justin Long, Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller and Ari Graynor. One of the supporting actors, James Wolk, is a native to Farmington Hills and a graduate of the University of Michigan drama school and was one of the surprise guests at the Q&A after the show.
During the session, there was a big announcement made.
“We got a distribution deal about 24 hours after the debut” said Miller, who also co-wrote the movie.
“Ten-thousand films get submitted to Sundance, and there are literally a dozen or so that get decent distribution deals,” Collins said, calling for a round of applause.
The Sundance festival in Ann Arbor also had a second showing on Jan. 29, which showcased the best Sundance shorts from 2011.
Foodgathers doing a pick up at Krogers on Carpenter Oct 18, 2011
Every box you open, a new surprise awaits you. It could be the sweet aroma of strawberries or the strong smell of a pepper. Searching each fruit, vegetable or frozen food for soft spots, mold or slime is the key to knowing which go into the trash, and which go into the box to be shipped out to people who desperately need it.
Any doubts, throw it out.
“I’d rather have something you’re not sure about be thrown away than to ship out any bad produce,” said Brian Weemhoff, 26, volunteer coordinator for Food Gatherers, the nerve center of the food chain for Washtenaw County’s hungry.
All the preparation to handle the foods feels like any restaurant, complete with set of gloves and sanitizer for cleanup. It can really take you back to the days of working your first fast food job. You can even listen to a little country music as you sort the items.
Food Gatherers has many other opportunities besides sorting produce, including picking up and delivering food and working as a kitchen volunteer at the Robert J. Delonis Center.
“We partner with 150 non-profit programs in Washtenaw County and a lot of those programs assist people with shelter, like the Delonis Center,” Said Mary Schlitt, director of Development at Food Gatherers. “Community Kitchen has served over 100,000 meals to people in need, and a large population that access the Community Kitchen are homeless.”
The charity was founded in 1988 by Zingerman’s Delicatessen. It is the state’s first food-rescue program and the primary emergency food distributor in Washtenaw County.
In its most recent fiscal year, Food Gatherers delivered 5.25 million pounds of food, which equates four million meals to needy families, seniors and the homeless. With need growing, it is striving for a higher goal in this fiscal: 5.7 million pounds and 4.4 million meals.
“We serve about 48,000 individuals with emergency food resources. About 14,000 are kids and 6,500 are seniors,” Schlitt said.
There is certainly a moment of astonishment when you see how large their warehouse is and the amount of people that greet each other with a “hello” and a smile.
“I always tell people I work for the best place in the world,” Weemhoff says with a smile. It’s truly amazing to think That Food Gatherers started off working out of Zingerman’s Deli.
Two hours of volunteering seem to fly by as all the boxes from the unsorted pile have been moved to the sorted pile and your shift comes to an end. You clean your area from the somewhat messy job, and more volunteers take your place. About 5,000 people make up the volunteer force and they work for around 70 percent of the hours put in at Food Gatherers, but sadly that is not nearly enough.
“It’s a tough job, and we can’t do it alone,” Schlitt said. “We need people to donate food, to volunteer and contribute money to help us meet the need and demand, because the demand is high,” said Schlitt, who said there has been a “130 percent increase in the last four years of people seeking emergency food resources and it’s staying high, it’s not budging, it’s growing incrementally every year”
Food Gatherers demographic focuses on people who are of low income and can’t afford the prices of food.
“The majority of people that we serve are not homeless,” Schlitt said. “We serve families, mostly with children.”
The charity has also seen a rise in the number of seniors which has doubled in the last four years.
“There are families that are making money, paying their bills, paying their utilities, maybe paying medical bills – and at the end of the day, when they pay all these things, they don’t have money left over for food,” Schlitt said.
To increase the amount of fresh produce getting in the hands of the needy, Food Gatherers started the “Gathering Farm” to grow and harvest produce.
“It’s fresh. It’s local. We don’t have to pay a lot of money for it because we’re growing it on our own,” Schlitt said. “Through the gathering farm, we have distributed close to 60,000 pounds of produce over the last three years.”
Among the partners of Food Gatherers is Washtenaw Community College. Its Student and Women’s Resource Center has an emergency food pantry that gets much of its food from Food Gatherers.
“We’ve been a partner with them for about 8-10 years now,” said Elizabeth Orbits, manager of the Center. “We served about 86 families last year, the age range about 20 to 59.”
About 75 percent of the students who receive this help are working, but still need help, she said.
“We’re very fortunate here at the college to be able to take some of our funding and be able to purchase to keep it stocked,” Orbits said, “and of course the generosity of people in the college community has helped a great deal.”
The gratitude in services provided by Food Gatherers is heartwarming to those who work there.
“It will surprise you how many people write notes to us who say, ‘when I am in a position where I can help, I’m going to volunteer. I’m going to donate to Food Gatherers,’” Schlitt said. “We get a lot of people that feel uncomfortable receiving services from us. They want to give back, like down the road.
“They feel so grateful for this service, so they want to pass it on.”
‘Battlefield 3’…
There is no denying the mass appeal and selling power of the Call of Duty franchise. Millions of gamers will flock to their local gaming supplier to “get their fix.” And while I believe that the better game for the masses is “Modern Warfare 3,” the real king of shooters is “Battlefield 3.”
What sets the gameplay in “Battlefield 3” apart is the realistic nature of how the game plays. Unlike in “MW3” your character cannot glide across the ground and stab a person from five feet away. Bullet damage is more powerful and doesn’t allow for players to absorb an entire clip of ammo in them before dying. That is unless you have one of the trademark “MW3” perks that provide such an unrealistic advantage that calling “MW3” a shooting-simulator a stretch.
And while I’m sure that it happens occasionally in “Battlefield 3,” I cannot tell you how many times I spawned from a death only to start directly in front of an enemy only to be killed right away. The ability to “spawn-kill” in “MW3” is an inexcusable oversight by developers.
The new Frostbite 2 engine and ANT makes this game standout in terms of graphics and playability. Destructible environments have been a feature of the series that gamers love, but now, Frostbite allows for a more authentic destruction to occur. Tired of that camper in the third floor? Pack some C4 on exterior of the building and bring that sucker to the ground! Destructibility in “MW3” is essentially restricted to breaking glass and walking into a room.
The engine also allows for wide open maps and condensed maps to run at peak performance. Unlike the COD franchise, maps on “Battlefield” feel like warzones and not sandboxes. Too many times in COD, players are able to take control of a central area and filter opponents to one area that is inescapable. “Battlefield 3” allows for a multitude of entrance points and strategies based on the sheer size of an area.
The ANT animation technology lets your character behave more like a person and less like robots with minimal movement. Players can take cover and come out of it in a way that resemble actual movement and not pre-programmed animations. You can also drag allies out of dangerous areas and interact with other characters like real people.
Sure the campaign is a stale and is nothing really groundbreaking in terms of story and plotlines, but most players will look at the campaign as a second game. Multiplayer is where it’s at and that’s where most gamers will spend their time anyway.
If you want a pick up and play type of game, then by all means continue with what is essentially the same game you’ve been playing for years in “MW3.” But if you want an authentic experience filled with realistic gun-battles and environments that feel like the real thing, go with “Battlefield 3.”
…vs. ‘Modern Warfare 3’
Every year since Nov. 5, 2007, one video game series comes out that smashes sales records and goes above and beyond expectations. This series is the “Call of Duty” franchise. This year “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” released and has already reported 6.5 million sales on day one, which breaks its predecessor’s record. If you’re a gamer looking for a military first-person shooter, you don’t need to look for anything other than “Modern Warfare 3”.
Why does “Modern Warfare 3” stand head and shoulders above its competitor this year in “Battlefield 3”? The simple answer is no shooter has the silky smooth controls, robust online community, and fast pace shooting mechanics that “Modern Warfare 3” has nearly perfected this time around. Sorry to tell the fans of Battlefield who bought it in October, you should just trade your copy of “Battlefield 3” in for a copy of “Modern Warfare 3” Maybe you aren’t sold on this yet, maybe you need more reason then my word; let’s just stick to the facts.
In the graphical department “Modern Warfare 3” runs at 60 frames per second on Xbox 360 and PS3, while “Battlefield 3” only runs at 30. This means that you’ll notice a much smoother experience in the shooting and the graphics as a whole. It never dips below 60 no matter how many explosions, buildings crumbling, and enemies on screen. In a competitive game like this, it can be one of the biggest deciding factors in a battle.
Multiplayer is one of the main focal points of these games and looking at the numbers you may get excited about “Battlefield 3”. 64 players in one match, giant fields and vehicles to use, it sounds like a recipe for success. Sadly these numbers are for PC versions only, and if you’re stuck with a console you’ll be reduced down to 24 players, smaller map sizes and fewer vehicles. For Modern Warfare 3, nothing is trimmed and every map is perfect for the size of the squads. While it has no vehicles outside of kill streaks, it keeps the focus on the speed and ferocity of the shooting. With the enhancement of Call of Duty Elite for stat tracking and chances to see everything in your past matches, “Modern Warfare 3” marvelous multiplayer is better than it has ever been.
Many will see the cooperative play and campaign as an extra to multiplayer of these games, “Modern Warfare 3 trumps “Battlefield 3” in both of these modes. The Campaign finishes the story from the previous Modern Warfare titles and can only be described as a summer blockbuster of videogames. In “Battlefield 3” the story nearly rips many components that we saw in “Call of Duty: Black Ops” last year. On the cooperative side of this, “Battlefield” only includes 6 co-op missions compared to the 16 spec ops missions that “Modern Warfare” has. To top it off, “Modern Warfare 3” also includes a survival mode as you face increasingly difficult enemies and provides more value then you’re already getting.
So stop wasting your time trying to decide which one to get, the answer is simple. “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3” is the best value in gaming; prepare to be addicted once again.
For Mack Hayes, it’s like the hands of a clock were swirling in reverse and memories of the past were flooding in.
The 90-year-old World War II veteran from Ypsilanti joined up to go to war even though he could have received a deferment.
“I was working at a defense factory and all the young men were going, so I felt I should go too,” said Hayes, who was a “key man” making machine guns in Plymouth. He was married with two children at the time. But he raised his hand even though he wasn’t called.
Hayes trained in San Diego, Calif.
“I made expert on the rifle range,” Hayes recalled. “I figured I’d probably be going in the infantry, but I signed up for air corps and ordinance – and they put me in the Marine Air Corp.” Hayes was a part of the 3rd Marine Air Wing and was signed to the USS Block Island aircraft carrier.
“My job was to run along the side of those planes when they were taking off, putting shocks under the wheels,” Hayes said. It was dangerous work, and it nearly killed him.
“One day, the wind was coming so bad it blew a shock out of my hand and instinctively I grabbed the shock and let go of the plane,” he said. “So when I did, I dropped to the deck grabbed on to the thing (tie down) and crawled back to the wheel.”
Claudia Waller, 66, who was born while Mack Hayes was overseas fighting that war, always reflects on that moment on Veterans Day.
“I’m thankful God was with him and he wasn’t caught up in that aircraft,” Waller said, “and that I have had a dad all these years.”
Hayes had two buddies on the ship, Maurice Settler and Joseph Cordova. He refers to their group as “The Three Musketeers.” While Hayes survived the dangers of the aircraft carrier, Cordova did not. He fell from the flight deck to the hanger deck.
“It didn’t kill him right out; he lived about a couple of days,” Hayes said. “He died. We had to bury him at sea, and I was one of the pallbearers who put him in the sea – and boy, it was a sad time.”
Sadness is common in war, and Hayes made it a point not to get too close to pilots. “Sometimes you’d see the planes leave,” he said, “and they just wouldn’t come back.”
Hayes traveled all through South Pacific and received battle stars for Saipan, Guam and Okinawa. When he came home, he was glad to see his family, especially his new daughter.
Hayes was 24 when he joined the service. When he returned home, his family continued to grow. He has eight children in all, and they see their father as a hero.
“Dad never spoke a lot about his military service. I don’t think was ever involved in any veteran groups, either,” said his son, Mark Hayes, 54. “I think he just did what was right and served his country in a time of need.”
Mack Hayes tends to downplay his service, though he looks back on it with a sense of humor – and sobriety.
“I guess I learned to obey orders” he said jokingly. But on a more serious note he couldn’t quite sum up what the experience meant to him.
“There are some things,” he said, “that you can hardly put into words.”
- DEVELOPER: Insomniac Games
- ESRB RATING: M for Mature
- GENRE: First-Person Shooter
- PLATFORMS: XBOX 360, PS3
The war is over, and we lost. It’s 1957 and the world is being terraformed by an alien race and there is little time left for humanity.
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