The RazerNagaMMO gaming mouse is a bit of a crazy dream of computer hardware. Well tackle this thing in the same manner as the others, with a bullet list! Pros
Offers 17 buttons (12 side, left and right normal, center "click", and browser forward/back)
Software offers a diverse set for macro assignment/creation, back-light on/off toggle, and dpi settings, as well as automatic profile changing (sets mouse to specific user created profile when a .exe file designated is run)
Comes with "training bumpers" to place over oft-used keys to make it easier to grow used to button locations
Cons
Corded (Can cause clutter, limited reach [shouldn't be too much of an issue, I've seen console controllers with less reach])
Browser Forward/Back keys are located oddly, making them slightly awkward to use
Some of the side buttons are also slightly awkward to use
May take a little while to get used to
Profiles don't automatically exit (profile does not set back to default after a game/program is closed)
All in all, with a price tag of around 60+ dollars, the mouse is pretty nice. Fans of MMO games will find more use for the side buttons than others, but those good with their thumbs will find it works well for many other things. On the other hand, this is purely a right-hand tool, so unless they decide to make a left hand version, It's probably not a good idea for a lefty to buy this.
Ah yes, the doomed titanic that with all its glitz and romance still fell to icy waters in a failure never to be forgot. A lifetime sub, who only got a mere fraction of the time it would take to balance the cost of a lifetime sub, I'm fully jaded against Failship studios, but this game is still one of my personal favorites.
The premise is simple: Lets make an action RPG that lets you play like a shooter too. Thus we have born the three main factions: The Templar (heavy metal and melee), The Hunters (sci fi military guns and robots), and The Cabalists (mages that wish to tame the demons and use their powers).
The three offer a diverse play field, each weapon feeling different from the others, and each LOOKING much different from the others. You certainly don't mistake the three factions for one of the others when you run into them. Of course, with that much faction going on, you would expect PvP, but NO! You can duel, sure, but who cares about beating up on each other with such a lovely bunch of demons around?
Anyways, lets get to the nitty gritty:
Graphics: This sucker can haul. There are a lot of people out there that complained about how bad it looked - they obviously haven't seen most other MMO's on the market at it's time. On the lowest settings, yes, it wasn't the most pretty of games, but it was one of the first MMO's you saw out there adopt the DX10, and (a couple patches later) the darn thing looks AMAZING. It's fully accented by all the lighting and tech-assets in game as well, so not only does it look pretty, but it does it in a tron-kinda way, if tron had knights, guns, and fireballs too.
Set-piece wise, yeah, it got bland. Although the tile-sets for all but the primary event locations would be randomly generated every time you went in (ie. Layout of the tunnels/ruins/whatnot are random) the actual pieces (buildings, cars, wreckage) was the same, so the path could very well be totally different, but they looked so similar in visuals that they all tended to blend together. Later patches added stonehenge, which gave a nice refreshing taste of the wilds (forest-y areas? Sweet).
Play: It was an action RPG. Instead of click-and-forget, you run around madly clicking (or holding down) the attack mouse button to kill stuff, in combination with skills from the usual hot-keyed toolbar of skills and items available. The layout of this, however, is nice and streamlined, so the majority of the screen is still clear for all that beautiful carnage.
Even with all the hacking and slashing, most melee weapons ended up feeling the same. The guns each had a feel of their own, big one shot spreads, little fully auto pingers, crazy big damage snipers, but most of those are limited to just Hunters. The magic skills where all pretty unique to an extent as well, as where the demonic-theme weapons the Cabalists used (one shot bugs, IIRC). Of course, the equipment is only as good as the randomly generated loot you find (or buy, as shops are also randomly generated). The old loot-enthusiast game play mechanic has worked for many a game, and really makes it feel awesome when you finally nab a super-rare item that puts all your current equipment to shame.
The inventory system had you playing "tetris" with items, squeezing different sized items into different spots to maximize the amount of stuff you could fit in your inventory before you had to go back to town to sell things. It was annoying, but later alleviated to an extent with the addition of cubes (little mini storage boxes that you could carry in your inventory).
Skills are straight forward, although what you equip is dependent on them as well in this game. For instance, want a real nice enchanted armor? Well, chances are it is going to use X stamina, Y strength, and Z willpower to equip it. All the items equipped must not have the "feed" (total reqs of the items) exceed the total available (your stat) or else you cant equip it. This really makes the +stat items feel valuable, but at the same time causes some grief when you put your stats one way to find out you needed it another for the newest thing you picked up.
Story: Uhm...it's by far not the best story in existence, although it itself is in existence, which is more than can be said for some games. It essentially is this weak string of events that makes sense for you to do, and holds everything together, but if also feels like someone from a SyFy original could have penned it as opposed to some great author of our times.
Audio: Its as good as one can ask for. Thunks and splats from swords, thuds and booms from guns, and the sizzle of magic are as they should be, critical hits reward the player with a splash of light and a nice identifiable sound effect, and the background audio really adds atmosphere (screams sometime send a chill right down the spine). The music is upbeat, normally doing nothing more than making your adrenaline flow a bit more and getting you back in the mood to slaughter evil creatures, and certainly it's not going to win any awards, but its there and its not bad at all.
Voice acting is, to an extent, awesome. The lines are believably British, but more importantly is some of the crude humor that can be picked up. One shop keeper delivers a line as you enter her shop along the lines of "Is that a heavy weapon in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?", while another comments that he "doesn't sell burlap sacks no more" after asking you if your looking for something for your ugly face. Mostly though, the voice acting is delivered as everyone's favorite RPG staple: the text box. We are use to it by now, so it's not to bad, although mostly all characters have at least a one-liner they spit off when you start to talk to them.
So yes, the game had problems when it came out, but in the hands of people that seemed to care more about their product, I have no doubt it would have been one of the greatest out there. Word is that the korean company that won the rights to it from FSS after they went under (Hanbitsoft, IIRC) has plans to release it over here (with new content and expansions) as a free-to-play called Hellgate: Resurrection. Apt name, and I know I would sign on without a doubt.
To start, the video really didn't go into as much detail as I wanted, principally because it's rather hard for me to talk about a game that isn't incredibly fast paced and fit it all in while concentrating. So then, I guess it's good you came here to read it!
Monster Hunter Tri is the 3rd "core" installment of the franchise, and I haven't played it since back on the playstation days. Keeping this in mind, I had some prior knowledge as to how the game works, so it was rather easy for me to pick up.
Gameplay:
For beginners, Monster Hunter has always had a bit of a learning curve, but anyone who takes the time to read the manual and play around with it enough can easily get the hang of how to deal with most of the game. Mechanic wise, the game gives a large selection of weapons (7 to be exact), and each feels pretty unique as for attacks. These attacks are performed in a manner of ways depending on what controller you are using, as Tri is set up for both Wiimote and Classic Controller play, even allowing two configurations with the Classic.
The general way things go involves starting in the village (or city, if online), taking a quest (or just wandering to the solo woods if free hunting) that leads to killing monsters (some peaceful little deer types, some gigantic monstrous dragons that want to eat you and your friends), carving them up for parts (random "drop" achieved from carving), gathering other goods (through mining ores, picking plants, catching bugs, and searching bone piles), and (if on quest) achieving the goal of your quest. Anything gathered is then either sold or, more often then not, stored for later use as a weapon or armor component.
Weapons and armor can both be Forged and Upgraded. In the case of weapons, upgrading is the way to go, costing less and enhancing the weapon to new forms with better qualities. In the case of armor, Forging new pieces is the greater help, as upgrading simply increases the defensive stat a little each time. In both cases, different components are needed (such as 2 unknown skulls, 3 scales, an 15 bones) with a bit of money to complete. The rewarding part, however, is seeing how all these parts put in makes it look different (you can tell someone killed the big red dragon to make the armor, since it looks very similar to the big red dragon).
Camera controls are done with the D-pad, allowing a pretty good range of not having blind-issues. In underwater segments (new to Tri), the up/down camera is also used to control depth while in motion (looking down while swimming forward makes you go down). While underwater, there is also a breath gauge, which can be restored by surfacing, items, or swimming into bubbles - it isn't something that drains so fast it makes you feel in a hurry though, which is good considering the kill-carve- repeat philosophy of the game.
As said before, the controller setup dictates the controls of the game, and with the wiimote it can be a little hairy at times - having the controller tilted left while hitting "A" for instance will do a side slash, while holding it perpendicular to the floor an holding "A" will do a chargeable overhead slash with the Great Sword. Sometimes though, you aren't holding the controller just right and you get a swing opposite what you wanted. More troubling then executing the attacks (which are easy when you get the hang of it and practice with a weapon) is lining up attacks. Monsters are constantly moving, an even though the camera offers you great control, getting that forward cut to hit when you are off by just a little can sometimes cause much grief.
Some mini-game like material exists, with the combining of items (as simple as picking combine, selecting an item, and looking for the material that is highlighted informing you it can be combined) and cooking of food (raw meat carved from monsters can be cooked using a BBQ pit, resulting in a game of watching your spinning fillet turn progressively browner, and stopping it hopefully before the charcoal black BURNT status).
All gauges are easily visible and laid out across the screen nicely, from time left on a mission, air, health, weapon durability (sharpness), and stamina (regained by eating food, used by running/dodging/blocking).
The largest problem with the game doesn't really come from gameplay, but rather the feel of grinding - there are no levels, but the amount of material needed to upgrade your gear can lead to spending two hours simply killing the deer-type Kelbi to try and gather some horns, for example. Part of this may have been able to be remedied if there was a bit more focus on a plot, but then it wouldn't feel like monster hunter if you took the emphasis away from hunting monsters.
Multiplayer is set up similar to a quest-only version of single player, with I believe 4 people per hunting party, but numerous people per "city" (I have yet to really tool around with the multiplayer, thanks to not having anyone I know own the game).
There is also an in-house split screen mode called Arena, that I haven't tried, that alludes to being you and a friend versus whichever 'boss" character you choose to fight.
Plot:
There really isn't one. Your a hunter, hired by a village, to eventually kill a giant water monster that showed up. Ideally, you take jobs as a hunter, become a better more renowned hunter, and just keep killing more monsters that get harder as you go. With a game that has such a blunt, straight to the point title as Monster Hunter, I guess it should be expected that the game is all about hunting, and not a huge story of love and revenge and saving the world. Right?
Graphics:
Graphically, it's the best Monster Hunter yet. The animations are all fluid, although the walking animation will often carry you past what you wanted when you wish to move just ever so slightly. It might not be up to the standards of games on the other current gen systems, but the wii handles it near flawlessly, so far exhibiting no frame rate drops or odd glitches, although the game itself's gear can cause clipping issues (when sheeted, the sword and shield combo weapon's sword goes THROUGH the shield, which makes it look like a strange off-centered spike on the shield).
Audio:
The sounds are pretty top notch. Animals all sound different, the cooking pit noise is incredibly catchy, and most of the weapons sound like they hurt when they hit. Music is good, when you heart it, but most of the time if it is there you barely notice thanks to all the ambiance.
Overall, I love the game, even if it is essentially grinding for items to make the next better gear. It reminds me a lot of Phantasy Star Online, except with gear that visibly changes every time you equip it, and no real noteworthy in-house multiplayer. Rent it first to see if you could enjoy it, and buy it if you are already a fan.
