Gamer Limit » Kevin Miller

Gamer Limit Review: Resistance 3

Kevin Miller — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:00:10 +0000

Four years have past since the events of Resistance 2. Mankind has grown tired and weak as the Chimera continue to ravage Earth. An Earth that, as each day passes, looks and feels more like the frozen Chimera homeworld.

Between the change in climate and landscape and the worm-hole now forming above New York City, the future looks bleak. But between the mind of Dr. Malikov and the combat skills of Joseph Capelli, hope may not be lost after all. And so begins the journey of one man who wishes nothing more than to have his family live their lives without fear of what the next day might bring.

The first thing that Resistance 3 does right is allow for you to invest in a believable, down-to-earth family man — Joseph Capelli. By doing so, the desire to progress is immediately established. Thankfully though, this is far from the only driving force in the game.

The feeling of hopelessness and tension that is strewn throughout the campaign in its environments and characters is nothing short of awe inspiring. This world that Insomniac has created can only be compared to that of Metro 2033 — a game that’s environment is second to none. But while the environment and characters are an important factor, most are probably more concerned with the gameplay — especially after the lukewarm campaign experience in Resistance 2.

One of the biggest strengths in Insomniac titles is the variety of weapons that are made available. Resistance 3 is no different in this regard. Throughout the campaign, up to eleven weapons with primary and secondary firing modes are provided to you one by one, within the critical path of the game.

While it may seem disappointing at first that these weapons are accessed without any effort, it is actually a benefit to the overall experience. It is in the weapons that the combat in the campaign maintains a consistently fresh, rewarding feel. With each weapon having unique primary and secondary firing modes and additional benefits being rewarded through its continued use, the sheer number of options available to you allows for a sense of strategy that is usually missing in modern first-person shooters.

The large arsenal is almost a necessity at times as the battles are some of the most grand scale, intense, engaging experiences I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. Between the cinematic, scripted events and even the smaller scale gunfights, the campaign manages to keep you at the edge of your seat and never lets up. While at times the overwhelming variety and number of enemies may feel cheap, this acts as a quick reminder that the weapons at your disposal need to be utilized intelligently.

The strongest improvements over Resistance 2 is the removal of regenerative health in the campaign. Before you shake your head at this old-school gameplay element, know that the placement of health capsules is extremely balanced and allows for a much more challenging and rewarding experience. It adds yet another element of strategy to the game as it is extremely important to be aware of your surroundings and use each health capsule when it is absolutely necessary.

The campaign is not without its issues though as various scripted events can fail to occur. While this experience may vary from player to player, you may find that a quick reload of the latest save is required in order to allow for the game to make another attempt at the event. Another annoyance is in the friendly AI when leading or following a character. The AI will at times get stuck in certain places so it becomes very important to stay close with the AI whenever possible.

Speaking of annoyances, the first experience for every player with Resistance 3 will be one of the most frustrating, lengthy experiences — one that comes with the PS3 territory though I suppose. When booting up the game for the first time, a mandatory install occurs that takes roughly ten minutes. After the install is complete, a game update will need to be downloaded and installed adding another five to ten minutes. Finally, once through downloads and installs, the game will ask you to enter the online pass code which actually requires you to exit the game, go into the PlayStation Store, and enter the online pass code. This convoluted process, although a one-time occurrence, is enough to frustrate any gamer.

Sorry about that. Got a bit off track there. Anyhow, what kept me playing Resistance 2 long-term was the unique co-op mode. These co-op events were quick, collaborative, multi-stage scenarios and allowed for each player to fill a specific role. Unfortunately, this mode has been scraped and co-op is nothing more than co-op campaign. In all honesty, if Insomniac had kept Resistance 2‘s co-op mode and still added co-op campaign, this would have been one of the most complete first-person shooter packages available this year.

This time around, it is instead the multiplayer that will extend the life of the title. While the 60-player online multiplayer in Resistance 2 was a great idea, the actual experience was very lacking as each match turned into a chaotic mess. Resistance 3‘s 16-player multiplayer contains various game modes that most may have become used to in multiplayer today. The leveling system and perks aren’t anything revolutionary, but that does not hold the multiplayer back from being a balanced, rewarding, fun experience. Keep in mind though, this will in no way overshadow the multiplayer beasts that are Modern Warfare and Battlefield.

For those of you that still have their PlayStation Move lying around, Resistance 3 comes with full motion support. But, as with most PlayStation Move games, it is ultimately a disappointment. The input lag is noticeable and an extreme disadvantage during the large-scale battles within the campaign. This support feels tacked on and should not, under any circumstance, be a factor when deciding whether to purchase.

In the end, Resistance 3 is one of the year’s best first-person shooter experiences. The single-player and co-op campaign is easily worth the price of admission as it is an engaging, challenging experience. This is not only a must for Resistance fans, but any PS3 owner looking for a solid first-person shooter.

Gamer Limit Review: FIFA 12

Kevin Miller — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:30:20 +0000

More than any other sports series available, FIFA has been the pinnacle of consistency. To not falter from this in an industry with yearly installments of sports games is almost unseen. FIFA, without question, has always pulled it off — somehow staying consistent in polish, realism, innovation, and delivery.

FIFA 12 is no different than its predecessors in this regard. However, many are skeptical of the latest gameplay changes and the impact they will have on the balance and realism of the game. Thankfully, there is nothing to be worried about.

One of the most noticeable improvements this year is precision dribbling. The control this gives you is much more substantial than one would think. In the past, one would resort to special moves to make way around an opponent when the player’s speed was outmatched. Now, precision dribbling (which is utilized by holding L1/LB and using the right analog stick) provides the close, controlled movements that are necessary at times to either give that edge to make your way up field or provide a safer way to wait until the field opens up before making a move.

Precision dribbling brings with it yet another sense of risk/reward — an element that has always been sprinkled throughout the game. The defensive AI plays safe when making these more controlled movements which, in turn, opens up the field. Precision dribbling coupled with special moves or a smart pass provides that seamless one-two punch which will quickly become a part of any player’s arsenal. That alone makes this one of the greatest changes in FIFA 12.

The next substantial change to gameplay is tactical defending. In the past, defensive strategy boiled down to a pressure system that was ultimately unrealistic and, quite honestly, extremely cheap at times. Now, defending has become much more strategic and, thankfully, less automatic.

By initiating your defensive-men to contain, the AI will shadow and close in on the opponent. The distance at which this contain occurs is entirely controlled by you and allows for a more realistic, tactical approach at defense. This change truly turns the defense of FIFA‘s past on its head as instead of the all-out pressure approach, it is now a more patient, wait to strike approach.

Waiting to strike becomes the key in tactical defending as auto-tackle is now a thing of the past. Instead, tackling is initiated by you and must be timed appropriately. The tension this provides on the other side of the ball becomes extremely refreshing and makes one of the most important parts of football an absolute blast to engage in.

While utilizing the new tactical defense, you will also notice more realistic player collisions. Through the use of the Player Impact Engine, collisions are now almost exactly what you would see on the field. While not without its occasional hitches, it is safe to say that the physics shown off through this are unparalleled in sports games today.

Outside of gameplay mechanics, EA has introduced something called the EA Sports Football Club. For those familiar with the NCAA Football franchise, this is very similar to Season Showdown. The idea here is that your progress throughout any aspect of the game is rewarded through experience. This experience is then applied to the club that you choose to support. Teams are then ranked against eachother based on everyone’s contribution. In addition, there are friend leaderboards and challenges that mimic real-life events that have occurred throughout the year.

While the Football Club will surely not turn many heads, the additions to career mode certainly will. When first brought into the most feature rich mode in the game, you will notice the much needed changes to the front-end. These changes make information such as news and the calendar much more accessible. While this may seem insubstantial, I can assure you this was a much needed addition over years past.

Other additions to the career mode are in the area of scouting. Scouts can be hired and sent around the world to find potential prospects. The better the scout, the more expensive the salary, but the better chances at snagging that primetime player. Once prospects are acquired, they are placed in the Youth Academy where you can watch their progress and eventually bring them up to the main squad. This is easily my favorite addition as, with any sports sim, I find myself becoming very meticulous with the control I have over my team’s needs and future.

The final and most intriguing element added to career mode is, well, drama. Coaches and players will interact with the media and become very open with their opinions on the current state of your club. Players will also approach the coach and voice these opinions as well. The plethora of information provided by the players not only creates that drama that most sports games lack but also provides a realistic way of gleaning information in order to keep form and morale at its best.

Online has also seen some additions as well through Online Friendlies and Head-to-Head seasons. Online Friendlies is a more contained version of Head-to-Head seasons where players can challenge their friends and play through 10-game seasons. Head-to-Head seasons is similar but is instead on a much grander scale as you will face off against divisions of players and work your way up the ranks to better divisions playing in season games as well as tournaments. For me, most of my time online in past FIFA titles was taken up by FIFA Ultimate Team — which is of course still around — but I have now found my new online mode of choice for the foreseeable future.

FIFA 12 takes realism to an all-time high in sports games. The innovative changes in gameplay mechanics, much needed changes to career mode, and additional online modes makes this one of the most complete FIFA packages to date. If you’re a true football fan, you’d be remiss to pass up FIFA 12 — even if you own FIFA 11.

Gamer Limit Review: Crimson Alliance

Kevin Miller — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:30:40 +0000

With Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 right around the corner, there is no better time to fill that desire we all have for an enjoyable dungeon crawler than right now. Crimson Alliance sets out to do just that. And in all honesty, it can — if you let it.

This co-op action RPG for the Xbox Live Arcade is a throwback to titles like Gauntlet and provides the most basic elements of your typical dungeon crawler. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is up to you to decide if that will provide enough content to your liking. For me, it did.

The first thing to mention is its unique pricing structure. You can either purchase Crimson Alliance for 800 Microsoft points and get one character, or purchase for 1200 Microsoft points and get all three characters. Unfortunately, there is no suggestion I can make as to which you might want to purchase. It is completely up to you whether you see yourself sticking to just one character or dabbling in all of them.

Again, sticking to the typical elements of a dungeon crawler, the characters available to you are the ranged, magic casting mage, the elusive assassin, and the heavy melee focused mercenary. Each character allows for a solid single player experience and a fantastic co-op experience. However, there are some that end up falling into specific categories.

The mage, for example, is a very solid support class that works best in the co-op environment while the assassin operates best in the single-player environment. This isn’t to say that these two classes aren’t enjoyable in either environment, it is just that each class ends up having its obvious advantages and disadvantages. But in the end, this is where that sense of strategy can come in.

Once you have your character setup, it is time to dive into the many dungeons laid out in front of you. These pre-made dungeons provide a ton of replayability across many facets. In order to fully understand what I mean by this, let me rundown what a typical dungeon is like in Crimson Alliance.

While the video below will provide the best understanding of the dungeon experience, simply put, you will make your way through very well designed environments full of unique enemies, hidden areas, and puzzles. Using the tools provided to you, you will kill your way through the dungeon, get some loot from chests, and kill a couple waves of enemies to finish out the dungeon.

Describing the game in such a simple manner does it a disservice though. Sure it doesn’t redefine the dungeon crawler experience, but it definitely uses a proven method that results in a very enjoyable experience. Each dungeon provides a number of unique combat situations that allows for the player to approach them in an endless number of ways.

The first set of tools available to you in combat — irregardless of class — are your light and heavy attacks. There are also consumables that can be acquired. At your disposal are deployable turrets, monster bait, healing totems, and throwing axes. As you can imagine, the variety these consumables can provide are where another element of strategy lies. Finally, there is an ultimate power that each class has which is acquired by killing a number of enemies. This is that fail-safe ability you will undoubtedly need in dire situations.

httpvh://youtu.be/wIj4FLe5TSA

Throughout each dungeon you will also have explosive barrels at your disposal to either pick up and toss at your enemies or simply hit the barrel to light it, and let it explode where it stands. While these can be very useful, you will come to find that there are far too many explosive barrels scattered throughout dungeons. This can either make things too easy at times or overly frustrating as you accidentally hit one in a frenzy and allow for you or your friends to take damage.

Taking damage will quickly become the largest element of frustration as each dungeon is ranked in a leaderboard based on your score. This score is largely dependent on the idea of a multiplier. This multiplier increases as you successfully kill enemies without taking damage. Unfortunately, this is where the combat falls apart as you will do whatever it takes — be it cheap or repetitive — in order to maintain that multiplier.

They are called leaderboards for a reason though. And the challenge is certainly there at higher difficulties. Unfortunately, the default difficulty proves to be an extreme pushover. I strongly recommend increasing the difficulty unless you are just looking for some seriously mindless fun.

And if leaderboards are truly your thing, then you will thoroughly enjoy the challenge maps that can be unlocked by finding the hidden map inside of each dungeon. These challenge maps are meant to be played over and over with the idea of just improving your overall score. Each challenge map has the same concept: kill waves of enemies until there are no more waves. Simple yet an absolute blast to kill some time in.

But let’s be honest, dungeon crawlers are only as good as the loot you can get. This is both an area of strength and weakness for Crimson Alliance. Weapons actually have both advantages and disadvantages to their use as they cater to a certain play style. For example, if you are in a combat situation as the mercenary where you find the need to manage a large group of enemies, it might be best to equip the sword and shield which increase shield bash. This made each piece of loot useful and I never really felt like I was completely replacing gear.

Unfortunately, the biggest weakness here is the way in which gear is acquired. You can either purchase the loot with in-game currency from the many mercenaries that become available to you or you can acquire it within the dungeon from chests that can only be looted once. That enjoyment of finding a unique upgrade is completely lost here.

At its surface, Crimson Alliance is a bit shallow. But if you take advantage of the tools provided, tweak the difficulty at times, and play with a group of friends, the depth starts to show. It won’t deliver in areas that other action RPG games do, but there is no denying this title is an absolute blast to play.

Gamer Limit Live – September 2011

Kevin Miller — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:52:05 +0000

This is the post where all live streams will live during the month of September. Of course, you can always catch the live stream at my Twitch.tv channel. Also, I have failed to properly save some of the past broadcasts so some were lost. I will be sure to fix this in the future.

The next Gamer Limit Live won’t be until Thursday night. Thursday I will be doing a 20-man raid in Rift and will then be doing some Madden 12 MUT trading with the Madden 12 forum community. Enjoy and don’t forget to follow the channel!

Tuesday September 13th, 2011 – Madden 12 MUT trading

Went ahead and did some more Madden 12 MUT trading with the Madden community. After some trades I took on one of the viewers and was able to pull out a win.

Monday September 12th, 2011 – Madden 12 MUT trading

So over the weekend I was working some on the new collections in Madden 12‘s Madden Ultimate Team mode. I have been frequenting the official MUT forums to do some trading but it was way too much work. So, I went ahead and started a MUT trading live stream and it went quite well. Decided that this is something I am going to do daily for about an hour each night.

Sunday September 11th, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

Wasn’t able to make Saturday’s raid unfortunately. So since the three foci and Warmaster were killed, we went ahead and did Plutonus and many attempts at progression on Herald. We got the hang of it towards the end so hopefully we get him down next week.

Friday September 9th, 2011 – Rift 10-man raid

Cleared both Gilded Prophecy and Drowned halls were both cleared. Pretty happy we were able to do full clear of both of these since we have had trouble doing so in the past. No reason we shouldn’t be able to though as both are easy.

Saturday September 3rd, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

A very successful raid night! Cleared all of Greenscale in less than two hours and got our first kill on Plutonus. Tomorrow, Herald goes down!

Friday September 3rd, 2011 – Rift 10-man raid

Completed Drowned Halls and about half of Gilded Prophecy. Overall a pretty good night but we really need to start clearing both of these instances faster. Hopefully next week.

Thursday, September 1st, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

Only had about 15 people showed up to the raid unfortunately. Going through some recruiting so hopefully we can always be running a 20-man roster soon. Nonetheless, despite this disadvantage, we cleared the three foci and Warmaster in River of Souls. Also got some pretty good attempts in on Plutonus. He should be going down this weekend.

The current state of Madden Ultimate Team

Kevin Miller — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:03:45 +0000

For those of you that haven’t yet indulged in an EA Sports Ultimate Team mode — be it in FIFA, NHL, or Madden — it is basically a way for you to build up your own dream team. Play games with your team, earn some currency, buy packs for cards, buy cards from the auction house, or, new to Madden, trade your cards on the trade block. All of this goes towards the end goal of building that perfect team and playing games online against others.

Since its inception as free DLC in Madden NFL 10, Madden Ultimate Team (aka MUT) quickly became my mode of choice. I was that person in World of Warcraft that would reset the market on the auction house. That person you despised who bought low and made a ridiculous profit by reshaping and owning a piece of the market. This, for me, was like a mini-game that brought instant gratification and reward.

As you can imagine, this was a large part of the appeal for me in MUT. The mode in Madden NFL 10 and Madden NFL 11 provided a rewarding and challenging experience. While it was never perfect in the past, it still allowed for a somewhat healthy market and an experience that drove you to perfection. The future of MUT last year was bright and I looked forward to what Tiburon had in store for the mode.

There is a balance in MUT that needs to be struck. An extremely important balance. One that, in all honesty, can make or break the mode. Currently, MUT is broken. While I want to give the benefit of the doubt to Tiburon and why this is, it feels very much as if this mode is nothing more than a way to drive players towards microtransactions.

Keep in mind that I am more than able to take a step back and understand where Tiburon is coming from. This balance needs to allow for a challenging and rewarding experience for the hardcore, allow for the same thing for the casual without being frustrating, and also still make microtransactions appealing to the masses. But as many games before this have shown, that balance is something you slowly work towards.

The latest update released on Friday has proven that MUT is headed down a path that not only completely ignores this balance, but does nothing more than turn the mode into one that loses its appeal and forces the player down a path where the only way to progress is to spend their hard earned money. I completely understand that the underlying goal of this mode is for EA to make money. I am perfectly fine with that. But this is not the way you go about it. Gameplay should never take a back seat to microtransactions. This is a slap in the face to every Madden player out there. And it will be a serious disappointment to many if this mode isn’t turned around quickly.

As can be seen in the video below, Madden Ultimate Team released an update that completely worsened an already bad situation. The primary issue that existed even prior to the update is the fact that all cards rated 75 and above have the same value. That means that a 75 rated player is apparently worth the same as a 99 rated player. Logically, this doesn’t make any sense.

Prior to Friday’s update, each card also came with a tiered cost of posting to the auction house. For example, a 99 rated player cost roughly 10,000 coins just to post to the auction house while a 85 rated player cost 1,000 coins. But this wasn’t really a big issue. Yes it cost a bit too much to post, but by tying a price like this to high rated players, you allow for the economy to be filtered and make certain cards somewhat rare to see on the auction house. That is a very important part about any economy. The market has to be brought into a state of many different worthy, appealing purchases.

Instead of just lowering and scaling the cost of posting auctions, Tiburon took a different direction. All auctions can now be posted for 50 coins — regardless of card rating. Many seemed happy at first but what they didn’t realize was the consequences that this comes with. As you can imagine, the market is now completely oversaturated because there is absolutely no risk of posting a card to the auction house. And now, what you see in the auction house is every single card 75+ at a cost of 10,000 coins. In turn, cards roughly 75-89 are now rendered completely impossible to sell and have become absolutely worthless.

Add all of this to the fact that gold cards are extremely easy to obtain in packs and you are left with a majority of players with teams rated 90+. This no longer makes MUT rewarding in any sense. The appeal is almost lost entirely because it takes only a couple of hours to build your team up to 90+.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxNdd_xoA-g

Now that your team is 90+ rating, you still might want to build it up even more. But what options do you have? How about the trade block? Well, this highly requested feature has also been rendered completely worthless due to the above issues. Why post a trade to the trade block when you can post a 90+ rated card to the auction house for next to no cost to you, obtain 10,000 coins from it and turn around and purchase the exact card or perhaps better from the auction house?

Since trade block is out of the question, you are left with two options without spending real money. One is to just play some games, build up your bank, and buy the cards you want off of the auction house. But as I noted earlier, cards rated 90+ are extremely easy to obtain from packs. So the majority of players will simply play a couple of games, purchase a gold premium pack, take the one or two cards that might improve their team and sell the rest on the auction house or simply vendor them for an average cost of roughly 50% of the cost of the pack itself.

After this is done a couple of times you more than likely have a team rated around 95 without any legendary cards. Legendary cards are now the only way to improve your team in any way. So, what options are you left with now to improve your team without spending real money? Well, how about the auction house? Nope, not the auction house. The cost of legendaries is at the least 100,000 coins. That is the cost of 10 90+ rated cards. So odds are this is out of the question.

If not the auction house, how about the trade block? Well, legendaries can only be traded for other legendaries. So that is out of the question as well. Awesome, our options our thinning by the second.

You are now left with one last option before being forced to spend real money as there are a few collections that reward a legendary. There are currently only 11 collections in MUT. Three of these collections — none of which are hard to complete — reward a legendary. But conveniently enough, each one of these three collections rewards a halfback. Which means you can fill only one position before being forced to spend real money on a legendary pack. A pack in which just saw an update on Friday that almost guarantees you to get a legendary.

So, congratulations on your easily acquired 90-95 rated team. You can now either spend that hard earned money or play games with your team against every other 90+ rated team out there. Either way, you are now left with a mode that is no longer challenging, rewarding, or fun.

Tiburon has a long road ahead of them with MUT. There are a lot of things that could bring this mode back into the state it was in years prior. Be sure to check back as the suggestions I have as to how to fix this mode will be coming next week. Until then, hit up the comments and let us know what you think about MUT thus far.

Gamer Limit Review: Madden NFL 12

Kevin Miller — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:00:12 +0000

Be honest, you already have preconceived notions about this game. That’s fine, I get it. After all, it is an annual sports franchise that, for the most part, takes an incremental approach year in and year out. However, last year was no such year with the introduction of GameFlow and Game Planning. Sure, it might not have been a feature for everyone, but the impact it had on the game was as important as the introduction of Focus was to the Tiger Woods franchise.

Fact of the matter is that Madden NFL 11 opened itself up to be much more accessible without taking anything away from the hardcore. While the game wasn’t perfect, it was innovative and took a necessary step in the right direction. Madden NFL 12, on the other hand, falls right back into that incremental approach. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though.

Before I start getting into what is new in this year’s installment, let me make sure you understand that those looking for a game that fixes some of its core issues from previous years will be extremely disappointed. Front line and downfield blocking and defensive coverage still has its fair share of issues. But, outside of rocket catching — which is still around unfortunately — there is always a way to compensate for such issues. And while I do think this needs to be Tiburon’s top priority in the future, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this game is challenging and, most importantly, an absolute blast to play.

If mention of such issues are enough for you to already want to overlook this year’s Madden, I strongly advise you keep reading as there are a few new additions that help alleviate these issues. The most noticeable in this regard is online communities. Online communities are a way for you to cut a slice out of the large pie that makes up the Madden community.

Basically, if it isn’t obvious already, communities give players a place to meet up with a group of players to play a specific way. For example, if you are a hardcore sim gamer and don’t want to play against anyone who rocket catches or exploits issues with zone coverage, you can join a community that describes itself as being true sim. While finding the right community for you might take a while, once you have found the right one, the online games are much more enjoyable as you don’t have to keep playing quitters, cheesers, and, well, players that act like absolute children.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-X34Oh19g

Unfortunately though, this is the one and only change to the online gaming scene in Madden. That’s right, no changes made to online franchise. While unfortunate, the offline franchise mode — which is broken down in detail in the video below — makes up for this ten fold.

Offline franchise mode has finally gotten the attention that it deserves with the addition of player roles that have a direct impact on the field, cutting players during the pre-season, scouting players, and a fast paced free agent bidding system. The addition of these features brings a much more deep, realistic, and enjoyable experience to an already addicting mode.

When starting a new franchise you will begin in the pre-season. This leaves two new features available to you during the course of the season: cutting players and scouting. Cutting players allows you to evaluate player performance during the course of the pre-season in order to cut down your roster to the 75 player limit. Because new players to the team don’t have completely accurate ratings, it is up to you to make the tough decision of who to cut or who to keep on to further evaluate and wait for more accurate ratings to become available. While this sometimes boils down to just cutting the lowest rated player, there is still enough depth and choice here to make it a process that requires a good amount of thought.

Once pre-season is complete you are onto the regular season. During the regular season you can now start to scout college players. As with cutting players, ratings are not entirely available to you since you need to see more from the player in order for it to become more accurate. So throughout the season as well as during the combine, pro days, and workout scouting that occurs in the following off-season, ratings progressively open up. The process involved from beginning to end in scouting is extremely rewarding and, as with cutting players, requires a lot of thought. Analyzing the needs of the team after a season and having even more control over filling those needs is an extremely rewarding feeling.

If your needs aren’t filled from the NFL draft, you can always rely on the new free agent bidding system. This eBay-style bidding system offers a fast paced, stressful 2-3 minute period where you are on the clock to acquire the players you desire. In real-time you are able to bid on players while other teams fight right back to give the player a better offer. While this is a simple and short-lived experience, it is easily one of the most enjoyable additions to the franchise mode.

The final and most surprising addition to franchise mode is called player roles. Think of real football for a moment. Over the course of the NFL season players begin to fill a role — be it good or bad. For example, Eli Manning threw the most interceptions in the league last year. If this were the case in Madden NFL 12, he would most likely be assigned the player role of interception prone. And because of that, his attributes will begin to scale towards making interceptions more likely. The direct impact this has on the field really does stand out and, in turn, becomes the most innovative and welcomed addition to the franchise mode.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EaD8c-BSvc

For those of you that enjoy taking control of one player and living out their career, there’s superstar mode. In previous years, superstar mode has remained unchanged and was very lackluster. Thankfully, this year, it has been completely revamped. But just because something is revamped doesn’t mean it is going to be great.

With the option to create a player of any position or import your player from NCAA Football 12 you can live the NFL athlete experience — outside of all the drama that occurs off the field though. Once created, your player will be drafted onto a team and become the position starter. This is undoubtedly the most disappointing element of the game. Never will you be fighting for that starting position. Instead, it will be handed to you on a silver platter. Enjoy!

Simply put, superstar mode is more of a bare boned, skeleton of a mode. There really isn’t anything unique or engaging about the experience. While it sticks to the essential RPG mechanics and progression, it doesn’t do much beyond that.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1sCobDK0YQ

The final mode in Madden NFL 12 that received some love is Madden Ultimate Team, or MUT. For those unfamiliar with this mode, MUT is a card-based game that allows you to purchase cards from card packs with in-game currency called coins and build up your own team. By playing games you earn coins based on performance and can turn around and use those coins to improve your team.

Outside of purchasing packs you can also use an auction house which is nothing new to the mode. What is new to the mode is the trade block. This much desired feature allows players to post a card to a trade block and supply information as to a specific card they would like in return. This adds yet another addictive element to an already addicting mode that kept me playing Madden NFL 11 for almost 150 hours last year.

Unfortunately though, MUT has some issues that need to be addressed. The first and biggest issue is how easy it has become to build your team up to 90+ rating. Since its inception in Madden NFL 10, MUT has been an extremely challenging experience that required a lot of effort to build a team above 90 rating. And being as only the best teams in the NFL are at 90+ rating, I feel that is the way it should be. Nonetheless, I do agree with Tiburon that the mode should be more accessible.

Thankfully, after speaking with Tom Lishke, the producer of MUT, the future looks bright for this mode. He has informed me that the issue with easy access to high rated cards will be resolved and more collections will be added. As such, this is definitely a mode I will revisit and cover in a future article as it is an ever-evolving game mode. But at the time of review, I am somewhat disappointed but at the same time quite addicted to the mode. And given the accessibility, it is bound to hook many more.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFGW3Ax6nFY

While changes to game modes are a large part of interest in this yearly sports tile, the core gameplay is another. As mentioned previously, there are still quite a few core issues that remain and will undoubtedly turn some away from purchasing. However, despite these issues, the overall core gameplay is improved over last year.

The largest impact on core gameplay lies in collision based tackling and dynamic player performance. The former is exactly what was debuted in NCAA Football 12. No longer will players be “sucked” into an animation and instead, tackling will occur on true collision. This not only results in more realistic gameplay but also allows for a much more improved running game — that is if you can get past the, at times, poor front line blocking.

Dynamic player performance is another interesting addition that has brought about some mixed feelings. Think of player roles mentioned before but applied to each game. A player’s performance will directly effect specific traits and attributes. Well, at least that is the idea behind this feature. The impact it had on player performance didn’t seem that substantial. While this isn’t a bad thing, it is a bit hard sometimes to tell how this comes into play on the field.

After a disappointing debut of Gus Johnson as commentator in Madden NFL 11, the thought was that it could only get better. Boy was that wrong. Commentary is easily the weakest element of Madden NFL 12 as it is stale, horribly stitched together, and the audio quality is all over the place. Think of Gus Johnson talking into a can — that kind of audio quality. It is also extremely obvious what lines were recycled from last year and what lines were new. Add this to the list of things that have to be addressed next year.

The last thing that got some attention this year is presentation. Camera angles are now more authentic to what would be broadcasted from each stadium and team entrances are unique to each team as the star players are announced as they run onto the field. For once I actually didn’t feel like skipping the game’s intro. That definitely says something.

Despite the remaining core gameplay issues and the poor commentary, Madden NFL 12 is a great title. While superstar mode needs some work and online franchise could use some love, offline franchise is simply fantastic and is well worth dozens of hours of your attention. If you enjoyed Madden NFL 11 and are a fan of franchise mode, this game is a must.

Gamer Limit Live: August 2011

Kevin Miller — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:53:20 +0000

So I decided that it would make more sense if I notified readers of Gamer Limit Live in one monthly post since I don’t want to overrun the front page with my live streams. I’m sure that will be appreciated by all.

I will be moving each excerpt into its own section within this post and provide updates after each night so people that missed it know what the video encompasses. So be sure to hit the break to watch any of the live streams during the month of August. Enjoy and be sure to follow my Twitch.tv channel!

There was no Gamer Limit Live on Wednesday and Thursday since I spent my time playing Madden NFL 12 for review. But, embargo is up on Madden today so after a Rift 10-man or two I’ll be live streaming Madden NFL 12! I expect the Rift 10-mans to run from 7:30 to 10:30PM EST and Madden around 11PM EST. Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Played some Deus Ex: Human Revolution for about 3 hours. Really enjoying the gameplay so far but getting used to the Xbox 360 controls has really been difficult for me. I don’t know if it is lag within my setup, the game itself, or me being away from console shooters for a while. Nonetheless, I will power through it and most likely adapt. The game will be reviewed by myself for both the Xbox 360 and PC.

Monday, August 22nd, 2011 – Terraria

Ended up doing a 10-man in Rift but the video got corrupt somehow. So, I ended up trying out Terraria for the first time. I lasted about 20 minutes but I definitely plan on revisiting it. That is, once I figure out what the hell I’m doing.

Sunday, August 21st, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

Pretty good raid night. Ended up one shotting Prince Hylas and Greenscale and moved onto progression in River of Souls. Ended up wiping quite a bit on Plutonus but we should definitely have him down next week!

Saturday, August 20th, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

For Saturday, August 20th I will be doing yet another Rift raid. At the moment my Rift raiding schedule is Thursday – Sunday so expect Rift and other games on those days. Also, I plan on playing some Xenoblade Chronicles after Rift around 11pm for those that are interested.

Update: Guild went ahead and 15-manned 2 bosses in Greenscale and one boss in River of Souls. Seem to be having some attendance issues but at least we can still get the content we need to do done. Tomorrow night’s raid should have better attendance. Anyhow, enjoy the raid above.

Friday, August 19th, 2011 – Rift 10-man raid

Another night of Rift tonight. The plan for tonight is some 10-man raids and maybe some PvP if I feel like it. I also plan on streaming some Bastion later as well since I really need to beat that fantastic game already.

Enjoy and be sure to go to my Twitch.tv channel if you want to chat it up while I play. Distractions are always welcome.

Update: Went ahead and cleared Drowned Halls 10-man raid. Ran into a couple of issues with a zoning bug but cleared the instance. Enjoy parts one and two above.

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 – Rift 20-man raid

After a bit of a break from live streaming I have spent the past couple of weeks getting my setup ready for a comeback. After overclocking my PC, purchasing an XSplit license, and figuring out a schedule it is time to start!

Recently I have been preparing for a couple of articles that revisit Rift since I reviewed it. And because of that, I must raid. So tonight, enjoy some Rift raids. Depending on how many people show up tonight it could be Greenscale, River of Souls, or rifts.

Update: Only had 15 people show up so ended up doing the first boss of Greenscale and the 3 foci in River of Souls. If you missed it, feel free to check out the raid above.

Gamer Limit Review: Trenched

Kevin Miller — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:52:04 +0000

A two week stint of creative thinking during Brutal Legend birthed four ideas. These ideas then manifested into Costume Quest, Stacking, Once Upon a Monster, and Trenched. An impressive two week collaboration of creative minds to say the least.

Given Double Fine’s track record, it is almost guaranteed that the art direction will be awe inspiring and the writing will be nothing less than witty. But whether this mech shooter meets tower defense will deliver in gameplay was unclear at first. Thankfully, I can confirm that Trenched delivers in every area, in almost every way.

War has unfolded into a unique set of events. A deadly signal broadcast upon the world left only two radio operators alive and imparted upon them unparalleled knowledge. This knowledge then brought about technology way ahead of its time. One abused this knowledge and created a television based monster army and the other did everything in his power to combat this evil by creating mechs called trenches.

While you might be shaking your head at the plot, the game never takes itself seriously and in turn the story provides a ton of whimsy and enjoyment as you fight your way through three regions of the world. Each region brings with it a unique set of maps filled with personality and, more importantly, an increasing amount of challenge. It is because of this challenge that the game provides not only plenty of gratification, but unlimited amount of ways in which to approach each mission.

It is in the sheer amount of customization that you are given the chance to approach each mission as you please. The amount of depth provided here is enough to give any gamer hours of fun. With each core providing unique give and take, there will always be a lot of thought that goes into customizing a loadout. Whether purchased through the shop with money gained from missions, loot dropped from enemies and bosses, or rewards from leveling the dozens of attributes, Trenched provides an addicting loot system that results in some truly incredible loadouts.

Once a loadout is chosen, you will then make your way into a typical tower defense type mission. Protect one or multiple bases through the use of your weapons and emplacements. As enemies are destroyed, scrap metal will be dropped thus providing a currency system for emplacements. It is then up to you to choose how you wish to spend the scrap metal — be it upgrading current emplacements or dropping new ones.

Each and every mission is challenging and fun, but that is then multiplied when playing with friends. While split screen co-op is not provided, the up to four player online multiplayer is painless to setup and will quickly become the preferred way to play Trenched. It is because of multiplayer that each player is able to approach a mission as they see fit. If you are more of a strategist, you might go in with an engineer loadout and be responsible for maintaining the emplacements. If you are into more of the shooter aspect of Trenched, then leave the emplacements to a friend and go in with the big guns and play it as a shooter.

Trenched screams personality, polish, and customization. While it is labeled a tower defense game, it allows for so much more. Lack of split screen co-op is disappointing, but overall, Trenched is well worth the dozens of hours you will inevitably invest in it.

Gamer Limit Review: NCAA Football 12

Kevin Miller — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:16:25 +0000

The NCAA Football franchise has come a long way over the past couple of years. Year in and year out it makes great strides towards becoming the best football sim game around. Last year was easily the most contested year as more hardcore football gamers pledged their loyalty to NCAA than ever before.

This year, NCAA Football 12 brings with it improved presentation, visual upgrades, custom playbooks, revamped Road to Glory mode, coaching carousel, and a much needed collision based tackling system. But are these along with other new additions to NCAA Football 12 enough to regain the loyalty of its followers? Simple answer: absolutely.

One of the more noticeable improvements is in the area of presentation. This year, the focus is on the smaller things. While this may seem insignificant to some, I promise you it truly does make a difference.

Whether it be 3D grass, HDR lighting, 3D crowds, or field and uniform degradation, the fact of the matter is that NCAA Football 12 has the most realistic graphical representation of the gridiron to date. And while the addition of ESPN was a huge step in the right direction last year, this year’s improvements are the refinement that gamers desire in yearly installments of sports games. And if the little things aren’t enough for you, the improvements to tradition will be.

While entrances were something introduced last year, NCAA Football 12 brings with it many improvements to some of the oldest traditions around. From the Georgia bulldog, to the Sooner’s horse and carriage, to the many traditional touchstones, the new entrances are enough to draw any alumni into the game. And thankfully, for those colleges that didn’t see improvements to entrances, custom sounds for pre-game were added as well. Finally, my Hokies will be entering the field as ‘Enter Sandman’ is blasting throughout the stadium.

Unfortunately, last year, NCAA Football 11 made absolutely no significant improvements to the Road to Glory mode. Thankfully though, Tiburon was made well aware by fans that this is a mode that is extremely important to them – me included. And you will be happy to hear Road to Glory has been completely revamped and is extremely addicting – although not without its faults.

In years past you were only able to play in the high school playoffs which in turn brought you into college scholarship opportunities based on the limited time you play in high school. This year, you play the entirety of your high school senior year. While this is a more accurate assessment of your skills, the ten or more high school games that you have to play feels like a bit too much. Being able to play both sides of the ball this year was a welcome change though. But let’s face it, we all want to get right into the action of NCAA football.

Once in the NCAA it is time to gain the coach’s trust – a new RPG mechanic that will keep you coming back for more. Each practice and each game will reward experience points based on performance. However, this performance is based entirely on raw statistics.

Honestly, raw statistics are an extremely lazy way to assess a player’s performance. The biggest issue that results from this is if you aren’t playing one of the big impact positions like WR, QB, or HB, it will be extremely difficult to progress. Being a shutdown corner isn’t just about the interceptions or tackles, it is about playing your responsibility and taking the man across from you out of the game. EA Sports’ NHL franchise has done a great job of assessing player performance without basing it entirely around statistics. Hopefully in the future Tiburon will adopt this.

Nonetheless, for gamers like myself who love to play the star positions, Road to Glory mode is fantastic. Being able to spend experience points on career or one-game statistic improvements is what keeps me coming back for more. For once I feel like I have full control over my player’s destiny. Personally, it is my favorite mode in this year’s title. Which is impressive being as dynasty mode saw some fantastic improvements as well.

Dynasty has always been a cornerstone of the NCAA Football franchise. Now, create a coach and make dynasties happen wherever success brings you. The addition of the coaching carousel has the potential to completely change the way the mode is played – it is up to you though whether or not to embrace it.

The freedom of choice in the addition as well as being able to customize conferences provides you with many options. Whether you want to bring a hopeless team up in the ranks and gain the attention of other teams for offers or start at the top and see what the future brings is completely up to you. While I was a bit hesitant of the addition of coaching carousel I can tell you that it has been implemented perfectly and brings a refreshing experience with it. If this isn’t of interest to you though, ignoring the coach aspect of the mode won’t provide anything new.

While the improvements to the two biggest offline modes are welcome, online has remained unchanged outside of some premium features for online dynasty. This is an extreme disappointment as strong online play remains at the top of many gamers’ list. So if this resonates with you, you may want to evaluate the changes made to gameplay before deciding on a purchase.

Both NCAA Football and Madden have been plagued by one of the most frustrating elements of any sports game: sunctioning. Be it tackling, catching, or blocking, players on the field were sunctioned into animations. As a result, unrealistic actions occured on the field.

This year, collision based tackling and sunction-free gameplay have been introduced. And while it isn’t the realtime physics system we are all pining for, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Tackles, catches, and blocks are finally made when the player is in position to make the play. It truly makes for much more enjoyable gameplay.

Keep in mind however that the gameplay is not without its issues. Despite the fact that blocking has seen some improvements, there are still many issues with reads made by the lineman when at the line of scrimmage. Second level and third level blocking continue to be of issue and there will be many blown plays because of it.

NCAA Football 12 has seen some great improvements and provides a deep, fleshed out experience. Its issues with blocking, lack of online improvements, and few glitches are disappointing, but when it comes down to it, the gameplay is solid, the game modes are enjoyable, and nothing beats experiencing the traditions that bring us, the fans, enormous amounts of pride. Simply put, this game warrants a purchase whether you have NCAA Football 11 or not.

A look at NCAA Football 12

Kevin Miller — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:33:46 +0000

Today EA Sports presented fans with a look at NCAA Football 12 during a one hour live stream which can be seen above. This year presentation is the biggest focus as team entrances are enhanced, dynamic exposure lighting is added, game tracks are provided which recap highlights of specific players, and much more. For those simulation gamers like myself, you can rest easy as both Road to Glory mode and Dynasty mode have seen some intriguing additions as well. All in all, NCAA Football 12 is looking to be a strong step in the right direction for the franchise.

Be sure to check out the demo on June 28th for the PS3 and Xbox 360 where you can engage in two matchups between Oregon @ Texas and Alabama @ Florida State. If that isn’t enough, sharing the demo with friends will unlock Nike Pro Combat uniforms in the full retail version of NCAA Football 12. And after seeing Virginia Tech’s Nike Pro Combat uniforms last year, you’d be crazy not to share the demo with friends.

E3: The complete rundown

Kevin Miller — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 07:46:10 +0000

Over the course of the next couple of days, Gamer Limit will be pounded with content from the Electronics Entertainment Expo. And in the interest of organization and your sanity, this post will act as a complete rundown of up-to-date content from E3. So hit that break and take in all of the news from the gaming nerd mecha that is E3.

E3 2011 Podcast

E3: The complete rundown for your earholes

Kevin Miller — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:25:49 +0000

Join myself, Francisco, and Kyle as we run through everything at E3 from the press conferences, to hands-on and eyes-on impressions, to our thoughts of E3, and, of course, our personal game of the show. Sit back, relax, and take in the almost two hours of audio magic. Also, be sure to hit us up with your thoughts on E3 2011 in the comments section.