Gatsby's Reviews: Lead and Gold

Is this the western that can hold us over until Red Dead Redemption?

At $15, I'm going with a definite yes.

Full disclosure; I am a huge fan of pretty much anything western. I loved Gun and Red Dead Revolver, even though those games weren't perfect. So I am skewed a bit in that direction. If you don't like the Western Genre, your probably not going to be a fan of this game for all the reasons you don't like Westerns.

However, if you like Westerns, this game will certainly satisfy you. Every part of it seems drawn from classic western films. The music is an excellent blend of twang folk and 19th century strings that really capture the setting. It's nice that they spent time putting together good music even though the game has no single player and is essentially a 3rd person shooter with no story. Each class/character has a stereotypical look and feel, from not only their costume but the way they use their weapons and the synergies they give off. It makes sense that the Old-Prospector, aka the Blaster, wheres overalls and a mining helmet, throws dynamite, and gives off an Armor buff. That makes sense to me. The levels also mirror what you would expect from a western games, from farms and oil rigs to ghost towns to old mines.

While the setting, music, and art draw you in, its the simple, effective game play that gets you hooked. The game has an easy to understand HUD, a simple aiming system, and five weapons: Buffalo Rifle (single shot sniper), Lever action rifle, Coach gun (Double barreled shotgun), the Admiral revolver and the Negotiator Revolver (instant reload/Gunslinger only). Each class also has one unique ability; Trappers lay bear traps, Deputies mark a target which makes them always visible, even through walls, Gunslingers can rapid-fire their pistol, and Blasters chuck Dynamite. The third person shooting aspect is very easy to understand, pick up and play.

Fatshark does a great job at softly encouraging teamwork. Rather than forcing the player to play a specific role, Players can choose to play a given class a variety of ways while simply having an advantage of going down a certain path. A gunslinger may charge in and flay his revolver at enemies in close range, or hang back amongst a group of deputies, giving off an accuracy bonus and protecting them from blasters or gunslingers that get too close. No synergies stack, so players are encouraged to have a few classes running around together. Another way teamwork is encouraged is the flag spawn system. When a player picks up the flag from the spawn, other players have the option of either spawning at the flag's location or at the main base. It is especially useful to have the flag carrier near the front line, in the thick of action, but it is also important that the carrier stay alive so the enemy cannot reset the flag and force the team to spawn back at base. Finally, everyone's a medic: All classes give off a healing buff to other players, and all classes can revive knocked down teammates, who never bleed out and are always indicated on the level with a medical cross.

This game misses a few beats in more technical areas. For one, no integrated voice chat, which makes things difficult in such a team focused game. However, the action isn't fast enough that type chatting is impossible. Also, as of this moment no dedicated server support exists. However, Fatshark has repeatedly said they are working on adding support ASAP, and from how interactive they've been with their beta community (which I was a part of), I believe them. It's also currently not possible to switch teams, which could be annoying playing with friends.

Overall, this game is very fun and very addictive. It's inexpensive, and it doesn't have all of the frustrations that come with many shooters. I think I'm going to go play right now.

Let's Play Mega Man X Review

I've finally finished. I originally intended this Let's Play to be a quick run through of the game, but I forgot talking while playing is a heck of a lot more challenging than simply playing the game. Without any talking, it could've been a very short play, but also very boring.

Mega Man X is so fun because it is a very simple, fast paced game with excellent execution. The game fits very well with the kind of player who wants to go through a level as fast as possible; any backtracking results in enemy respawns, and a dash is given right at the "beginning" of the game. The inclusion of things like lives is really only so the game can have some extra longevity. Lives are simply a way of making the player play slower/more cautiously or go back track to get more lives in order to avoid a game over, but it doesn't actually make the game any harder or longer (<- Insert Joke).

Now even though I'm the kind of person who prefers games have strong plots, something about the charm of a robot/dude with a gun strapped to his arm makes me overlook the fact that no characters are named, why taking out any of the bosses matters, or how any of this happened. We've got some shooting to do, no time for things like reading!

Something else nice about this game, as compared to the later games of the series, is that, by and large, the bosses tended to make some kind of sense. An Armored Armadillo in a cave, yea I can see that. A Octopus that Launches torpedos, makes sense to me. A Mammoth that shoots flames and lives in some kind of lava infested oil refinery/junkyard factory.... As the series progressed, things started to make a lot less sense.

I'd say if there is anything I don't like about the game, its the Lightsaber Sigma boss at the end of the game. Probably the most mindlessly challenging fight in Mega Man X, and maybe the entire series. I feel like they didn't even want to try by that point. They just figured "hey, we got to make this final stage harder, lets add this guy". I don't regret using the hadouken.

This let's play was fun. I'll be starting another one very soon, on a very different game.

How I Make and Edit videos

This isn't so much a guide to video making but more of how I make my videos. If anyone has any tips or advice for me on something I'm doing wrong, please let me know. So far, for the last hundred or so videos, I've essentially used the same programs and the same strategy.

Programs:


For Recording: FRAPS

For Video Editing and Compressing: VirtualDub

For Audio Recording, Editing, and Compressing: Audacity

Recording:

Using FRAPS - First, I test the game using FRAPS in a somewhat intense scene or area. This will give me an idea of what sort of graphics settings I need/should turn down. A couple important notes about your in game graphics: Unless your recording full 1080p video, don't bother turning your Anti-Aliasing or background draw distances very high if at all. When you compress the file down, you'll loose the look of Anti-aliased footage anyway, so you might as well remove it now. I tend to play Mass Effect and Dragon Age at low/near lowest settings, and it still looks pretty good. Better, more consistent frame rates are better than a few minor jagged edges, especially on youtube.

I let my FRAPS float on framerate, which basically records at 60FPS. Now your actual FPS are not going to remain at 60 the whole time, but you will record at that rate. Its hard to visualize, but this is important for compressing/editing in VirtualDub later on. If your computer really struggles with this, you can force FRAPS to record at a lower frame rate, which will also force your game frame rate down to that level. I found this was actually harder for my computer to use.

When playing the game, I have FRAPS record at full screen and play in a 720p (1280x720) window.

It goes without saying, but make sure you're not running background programs. Shut down your download clients and iTunes.

Storage - I have a 180gb hard drive devoted just to storing all of my videos. FRAPS filesizes are massive. When I'm recording Dragon Age, which tends to be around 55-60FPS the entire time, two and a half minutes of footage is four gigs. So a 10 minute video on youtube is going to be around 15-20 gigs uncompressed. I keep none of this footage; as soon as I've edited and compressed a section, I delete all of it.

Recording Technique: I try to record as much as I can in one session, rather than just recording per video for Youtube. That's why I tend not to ask for requests in the middle of a section of videos, because I've already filmed what's going to be in them. Also, I do have bad playing days. I'll go back and re-record a section until I think its acceptable. This cuts down on having to wait for load times between starting and shutting down the various programs, and its more fun.

Editing/Compressing Video:

VirtualDub is more of a video compressor than a true piece of editing software. Since it is free, you shouldn't expect to be able to anything particularly amazing. However, there are resources out there for doing more complicated tasks. My videos are pretty basic so I have no need for anything more complex, though I am thinking about eventually upgrading to something better.

The codec I use for Encoding is the XVID MPEG-4 codec. When using that encoder, you have the options for setting general, non technical quality settings, or a specific bitrate or a specific end file size. I did a lot of experiments and I've found that 4000kbps was the best for me. I actually didn't arrive at the 4000 mark until my Dragon Age videos, to give you an idea of how much toying around I did.

A 10 minute video is compressed to around 300 megabytes with audio included at that setting. Depending on your upload speed, that could take you awhile, but for me I upload videos in about half an hour. Youtube is fickle about processing; sometimes the process takes hours, other times just minutes. That aspect is entirely out of your hands.

When editing, I first arrange the files and crop. Then I save a .WAV file of the audio. Then I select no audio, select the video compression setting, set to Full Processing Mode, and compress. This usually takes about twice to three times the length of the footage to compress. Also, this will occupy a huge portion of your CPU. I've had my CPU overheat several times while compressing. Try to do as little as possible with your computer while it works.

Editing/Compressing Audio:

Audacity is much more of a full audio editing program than VirtualDub. I don't even know of all its features yet, but I'll share what I mainly use. Its pretty basic.

After the footage is done compressing, I open up Audacity and the video. I then hit play on the video in Windows Media Player and then record on Audacity and start talking. I have a terrible mic; the Fatality gaming headset mic, so I need to keep the mic somewhat close to my mouth. However, to cut down on popping and breath noise, I turn down the input volume to about 75%. I also try to speak a bit louder than a normal conversation.

You'll notice somewhere around the end of my adept videos, all of the static in my videos is gone. This because I discovered a feature called "Noise Removal". Basically I record between 3-7 seconds of blank audio from my mic, then set the noise profile to that white noise. Afterward, I apply the noise reduction to my commentary and bam, no more static.

After I've finished with the commentary, I import the .WAV file, adjust the volume levels for both my voice (I turn it up) and the game (I turn it down), save, then Export to a .mp3 file.

Finishing Up:


With everything finished, I re-open VirtualDub, then open the audio-less .avi I saved earlier. Under audio settings I go to use audio from file, select the .mp3 I saved, then select direct stream copy. Under Video settings I select direct stream copy. Finally, I save the .avi again (this usually takes about 10-20 seconds), and then upload the new file to Youtube.

Hope this helps you out should you ever want to make videos of your own.

Dragon Age: Two-Handed Tank Build

I'm going to be drawing on a lot of other sources besides my own experience. I'm more of a game play strategist than someone who can really crunch the numbers, but fortunately many people have already gone out and done that sort of work for me. I'll be providing links as often as I can.

When I say "tank character", I mean a character whose main purpose it to get the enemy to attack it so it can soak up attacks, allowing other characters to do damage. As a general rule, the more survivability a character has, the less damage potential it has and vice-versa. Putting points in Strength means I don't have points in Dexterity or in Constitution.

Attribute Points:

In Dragon Age, their are two ways to make a Tank character. A player can either put points in Constitution and increase the total health that character has (more health means more hits can be absorbed), or put points into Dexterity (more times the enemy misses and more blocks means more hits can be absorbed). Ultimately, Dexterity is the better statistic to boost than Constitution, however, Constitution will be better in the short term.

The reason for this is that Constitution increases health at a steady and constant rate of 5 health per point in constitution, a straight line increase. Early game, points in health will appear to be much better than points in Dexterity. However, Dexterity increases at a "parabolic" rate: basically, dexterity looks like a curved line that gets steeper as more dexterity is put in. Pictures always help, so here's a graph thats loosely based on a great article called "The Science of Tanking" by Theramond. Its a bit math heavy, but if thats what your into, go for it.


Now this isn't a scientific chart, but you can see what I'm talking about. At some point, having points in defense will start to outpace points in health. What that point is up for some debate, but it appears that after getting a defense score of around 100-120 the tank begins to outpace constitution, and that around 150 the tank hits a sort of sweet spot for dodging/blocking attacks where the character becomes nearly unable to be hit.

Protection:

So now that we know the stat distrubution (everything in Dexterity), we need to find out what kind of armor we need to wear. Since the tank doesn't really use many abilities besides taunt, Massive Armor fits very well. The protection granted by massive armor, coupled with many of the bonuses certain sets of massive armor give, makes it well worth the fatigue price. Just because the tank is relying on the enemy to miss doesn't mean the tank should get one-shotted if something gets through.

The other major concern for the tank is resisting magic damage. To that end, some recommend going so far as picking the templar specialization just so the tank can wear Knight Commander Armor and its 40% spell resistance. This is certainly an excellent choice, but it is not absolutely required. Simply having the right balms for the situation, which can be made by an herbalist, can suffice. However, it will require you to hold on to all those balms that your find and then remember to use them in combat.

Talents:

This is where the 2h Warrior tank is unique. Unlike the sword and shield tank, 2h tanks can afford to wait until later in the game to proceed very far along the 2h tree. Sten is actually already equiped with every talent he needs for early game: Powerful, Threaten, Taunt, Indomitable, Pommel Strike. Eventually getting the ability two-handed sweep will be important for the AOE knockdown, and stunning blows and sunder armor are good abilities as well.

Since Sten has everything he needs, the player can begin to spend his talent points on the Archery path, specifically on the 3rd branch that ends in Scattershot. Scattershot is a great ability for the tank to have because it allows for major threat generation from a distance.

As far as specializations go, Templar is good for acquiring Knight Commander Armor, Reaver is good for boosting the effects of taunt with frightening appearance, and Champion is good for providing a knockdown effect through war cry and rally gives an attack and defense bonus. Personally I prefer Champion because it fits the role of what I want my tank to do a bit better, and since my 2h warrior will be close by the tank, the bonuses will serve him well.

Note that Alistair and the Warden can fill the role of the 2h tank as well. You get Alistair early enough that you can afford to abandon his sword and shield path, and if you have the pc version of the game a respec mod is also available.

I hope this helps people along their way to building a better tank

Articles used in reference:
Tanking: An alternative approach
The Science of Tanking

Dragon Age: Two-Handed Melee Build

Dragon Age has, in my mind, one of the best leveling systems I've ever come across. Even though the stats are minimal in presentation, there's a great depth behind its simplicity. Fortunately, for the Two-Handed Melee user, stat allocation is very simple: Put everything in strength.

Stats:

It seems almost too good to be true. Everything in strength? What about dexterity or constitution or willpower? Why not get more stamina or more health? The answer is because in the long run, those stats have less of a benefit than putting points in strength.

What is almost alarmingly simple about Dragon Age is that it is one of the few games that counts strength as both a damage increaser and an accuracy (attack rating) increaser. On my first playthrough, I put points in dexterity early game, only to realize it was ultimately pointless since strength gives the same benefit. It makes sense though. Why would a warrior who carriers a huge sword/hammer/mace/ax take the time to work on the finess of swordplay. Hard to do when one can barely lift the weapon.

Some brief history: Two-handed swords have not really been about sword "fighting" but about essentially bludgoning someone to death with a giant blade. Plate Armor had gotten good enough in the middle ages that a sword and shield combination was unnecessary: The armor was strong enough to ward off blows, reducing the need for a shield, and a swordsman using only one hand had a tough time puncturing the armor of a well-equipped knight. The two-handed sword became the weapon of choice for plate armored knights.

Back to Dragon Age, you can see how it would make some realistic sense, you know, with all the Dragons and Magic and Morrigan (yea, no one was that hot in the middle ages) around to have warriors concentrate mainly on strength.

Now for RP purposes, you may want some points in other stats like cunning, but for the main focus of the game, strength is the way to go.

Note on Willpower: Some people like to put points in willpower. I'm undecided about this point, but for now I am taking strength and pretty much ignoring willpower. I may eventually use a respec and take some will power to experiment, but there are plenty of success stories, including my own, of people who focused on strength and got fantastic results.

Talents:


The Two-handed warrior is not a tank. Therefore, there is no reason to really proceed much into the Warrior tree. Both threaten and taunt are counter-productive to dealing lots of damage, because they require the warrior to focus on trying to heal her/his self instead of doing damage. My talents are as follows:

Powerful, Precise Striking, Everything in the two-handed tree.

What is nice about the two-handed tree is that there are no bad decisions. Some abilities aren't as useful as others, but as all of the Tier 4 abilities are good, its worth taking everything. This leaves room for focusing on your specialization trees.

Specialization: 

Berserker, personal choice. First, Berserker.

As a melee damage dealer, it's hard to go wrong with the berserker talent. Even though originally you will suffer from an attack rating and stamina decline, but as you put more talents in the tree that will have less of an effect. Take the damage boost.

I say the others are personal choice because they make less of a difference than Berserker does. If for some reason your tank does not have champion, you may want to consider that, especially if you want your Two-handed warrior to be a knockdown machine. Reaver can boost damage at tier 3 and 4, but at this point the 2h warrior is going to have quite a few sustained abilities active. It may not be wise to add more. Finally, templar can help you if you run ahead and smash the back rows of mages, but the instances of being able to do this are not many.

Armor:


Probably the most disagreement about the 2h warrior is what kind of armor to use. Warden Commander Armor is very good for its stamina boost, but massive armors in general really reduce the amount of abilities one can use. At this time, I lean towards the group that advocates for lighter armors, like heavy or even medium. The reason for this is: I get bored making an Auto-attack machine, and I want my 2h warrior to operate more as an ability damage dealer and a cc'er than just an auto-attack damage dealer.

However, this depends substantially on the kind of armor you have available and the situations you find yourself in. Do you find that your warrior is getting hit often? Take heavier armor. Do you find that you need to manually manage your party members more and need an auto attack machine? Take heavier armor. Does your heavier armor grant you bonuses better than the lighter armor you currently have? Take it. Be fluid.

I hope this was helpful for everyone, and I will be posting some new Dragon Age videos very soon.

Gatsby's Equipment: Logitech Trackman Mouse

This is my gaming mouse of choice. It doesn't have the buttons of a gaming mouse, its not even marketed as a gaming mouse, but to me, it's my favorite mouse to game with.


The Good


What's really nice about this ball mouse is that all the control is with your thumb. What that means for me is that the reflexes I have with my 360 or PS3 controller carry over in some ways to my gaming mouse, and vice-versa. It's not exactly the same as an analogue stick, but its similar enough that the skills carry over. If you play console games at all, you'll have a very low learning curve with this mouse.


Its also great for low-space desks. My area for moving my mouse around is less than a foot wide. I can't really move my hand around much, and I don't really want to. In that way, this mouse works really well for me.


On the off chance you really like the change things up, you can basically rest the mouse anywhere and it will be just as effective. If it can sit still, it'll work. For example, when I'm using my laptop on the couch, I grab the mouse from my computer and set it on my leg (not really a fan of trackpads).


You don't need to install any drivers. It's a USB mouse. It's not very expensive, around $30 for the wired version and 37-40 for the wireless. And its pretty durable. I've dropped this mouse numerous times moving around my computer and I've never had a problem. The ball clicks in and out, so if something ever serious happened to it I could replace it.


The Bad


One thing I don't like though is it does not have nearly enough buttons. Even though it has the 3 button setup, that center click is not really the best button to use gaming because that's also where most games switch weapons or zoom. If you're playing something fast paced, the last thing you want to do is get those two functions confused. The mouse has room for more buttons, but I highly doubt Logitech is ever going to do much to change this mouse.


Verdict


I recommend this mouse throughly if 1) You play console games often and 2) You don't have much space. If you are only used to using a normal mouse and don't play console games, a mouse with more buttons is probably better for you. But if you are like me, then this will work out well. Its not an expensive mouse, and it does the job well and has for quite awhile.


 

Commando Soldier 110 - Assault Rifles

Choices:

With the Avenger and Collector available from the beginning of the game, and the Vindicator available from very early on, the Soldier has some choices to make with weapons. I think out of all the weapon choices, the three Assault Rifles are the most balanced, meaning that they aren't necessarily upgrades of each other but are more play style options.

What Weapon is Best?

Short Answer: For straight damage, its the Vindicator. The question is, is damage all that matters?

This isn't just a classic RPG where we look at numbers; since its a gun, player skill and player style have a far greater role in the effectiveness of a gun than simply looking at its DPS.

Ranking the Guns (High to Low):

DPS: Vindicator, Avenger, Collector

Damage Per Bullet: Vindicator, Collector, Avenger

Recoil: Avenger, Vindicator, Collector

Accuracy (From cover + From the Hip): Vindicator, Collector, Avenger

Ammo Count: Avenger, Collector, Vindicator

Benefit from Adrenaline Rush: Avenger, Vindicator, Collector

Recoil, Accuracy, and Ammo are just as important as damage when all of these weapons are so important. Sure the Avenger can put more bullets out than the collector, but it cannot be held full auto and consistently get headshots at medium range like the Collector can. The Vindicator has high damage, but even a few misses might mean you have to leave cover to find ammo. The Collector gets almost nothing for turning on adrenaline rush, whereas it covers the Avengers great weakness in recoil and help really line up Vindicator shots.

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference. What's most important is figuring out what you need from your gun and why you need it. For me, I like high rate-of-fire so I have a higher chance of a status effect (disruptor/cryo/incendiary effects), something accurate, and something with plenty of ammo. For me, the Collector fits quite nicely with all of those elements. Its greatest strength, hip firing, is something I use often when moving from point to point, and during speed runs, and I don't have to worry about ammo.

What About the Geth Pulse Rifle?

The GPR is a heavy submacine gun/light assault rifle. Think about a mix between the collector and the tempest and you have the GPR. It has better accuracy, rate of fire, and less recoil than the avenger, but does less damage per bullet. It has very slightly greater DPS than the Avenger. If you don't have the Collector and you want a similar weapon, you may want to try out the GPR. However, usually by the time one gets the GPR, it's late enough that the player has already really found her/his weapon of choice.

For some straight Damage tests, check out this forum post: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/103/index/1595869