Revisiting Skyrim

The last time I touched Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was back when it was released in 2011. It was one of my favorite games when I played it. It was this beautiful, gigantic, buggy open world extravaganza. After dumping dozens of hours into it, I closed the book on that story and went on other games, forgetting about all the wondrous adventures that Tamriel still had in store for me.
So when the 2013 Steam autumn sale rolled around with all of the Skyrim DLC on sale, I decided to delve back into Skyrim. I also discovered that in my time away Skyrim on Steam now included Steam Workshop mods, which really made the game more interesting to play. I'm now 20 hours back into Skyrim and I'm loving it. Especially when you can install crazy mods like this one:

The Black Friday Creep

I've been frequenting Black Friday sales for the past 10 years. The first time I ever attempted Black Friday shopping was in 2003. I stood in front of a Best Buy waiting until they opened "early" at 7am on Black Friday. I stood in line from midnight until open with my group of friends. All of us were huddled around the front of the store munching on Thanksgiving leftovers and sipping on lukewarm coffee that eventually turned ice cold throughout the night. At the end of the adventure, I ended up buying a handful of DVDs and an electric shaver. I didn't even get any of the big ticket items, like a gigantic 30" CRT HDTV with full 1080i resolution for $999. I will admit that it was still a great experience, one that my friends and family repeated for a few years after.

This year, I will not be standing in line for Black Friday. Aside from the fact that I realized most of the electronics doorbusters are pure crap (I don't want a 42" Seiki TV for $299 when I have an awesome smart TV already), I refuse to become a part of the increasing Black Friday creep problem. Stores will be opening up at 6pm on Thursday. This is when a lot of people normally have their Thanksgiving dinners, including myself. I'm not going to trade in quality food gorging time for $4.00 blurays and bottom tier television sets. I'm not saying that I won't be shopping on Friday, I'm just saying that I won't be one of the millions huddling in the cold fighting over doorbusters. I'm going to casually stroll in once the smoke clears to pick up deals on towels, vacuums, and other stuff everyone else looks over.

If you like Thanksgiving the way it's always been, skip the lines this year and wait. We have to draw the line at some point. And with that, here's my turkey defrosting:

Battlefield 4 - A Nerd Sophisticate Review

Battlefield 4: Pokemon for Gun Nuts

As you may already know, I fancy myself to be a Battlefield connoisseur. I've been playing Battlefield since its first debut on PC with Battlefield 1942, with Battlefield Vietnam, 2142, and BF2 taking up a ton of my time in college.  I skipped over Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2, but I really got into Battlefield 3.
After a short wait, we're now at Battlefield 4. At first glance, Battlefield 4 is just an incremental update to the tried and true Battlefield series. It looks fairly identical to its predecessor. However, once you dive in, the seasoned Battlefield vet will notice the changes fairly quickly. Here's my review after 3 weeks on the battlefield.

So first off, my thoughts on Battlefield 4 to newcomers to the series:

This is not Call of Duty. This is the one thing you need to wrap your mind around as you first enter the foray. If you think you're going to jump in and start 360 noscoping people all day long, you're going to have a bad time. If you think you're going to be able to pull of 10 headshots and then get some UAV to bomb the crap out of you just for getting a killstreak, you're going to have a bad time. If you want to jump into a game and play with your squad and team and attack some objectives, you are going to have a good time. Battlefield is true to its name, it is a digital Battlefield where individuals matter, but the team must operate like a well oiled machine if you expect to win. Having 24 recon soldiers on one team sitting on a hill taking pot shots and people will does not win a game. Also, you can't throw any knives.

You must manage everything from Battlelog. Including joining games. I know a few people who found the web based game join system to be annoying, They were pining for the ability to do that in-game. I think it's because most of us are used to playing games with built in game lobbies. Personally, I like the idea of having the game lobby screens on Battlelog. This allows me to do other stuff while I wait for my game to load. I can edit my preset loadouts, check my stats, go on Reddit. You just have to break away from the frame of mind that the program has to be actually open in order to join a game within it.

Stats. So many stats. Battlefield 4 has some of the best statistical record keeping I've ever seen in a game. I absolutely love it. You want to know how many shots you fired out of your 870 MCS? You want to know how many times you've been knifed? Battlefield has you covered. Battlefield 4 has also introduced leaderboards for the different kits, vehicles, weapon classes, etc. The leaderboards also drill down to your actual physical location. It will tell you how high you rank among other people in your town. My goal is to be the best damn defibrillator guy in the Midwest.

Guns. So many damn guns and accessories. Did you ever get into the Pokemon videogame? Did you spend countless hours wading through the grass to catch a damn psyduck? Well if you like collecting stuff, Battlefield 4 is definitely the game for. Not only are there dozens of weapons to unlock, but there are also dozens of accessories to unlock for each individual weapon. There are also accessories to unlock for all the vehicles as well. These unlocks happen when you hit a certain XP point marker, kill number, or other time consuming stat. It really fleshes out the RPGish grind in the Battlefield series. I'm not going to lie, I spent hours running around with my support kit, ammo box in tow, just to unlock C4 for my support kit. It was worth every moment.

My thoughts for Battlefield 3 vets:

Levolution may be a gimmick, but it is an awesome one. As a game progresses, the landscape can definitely change while you play. Can't access the rooftop of C on Siege of Shanghai? Easy, bring it down along with all of the defenders inside of it. Tank bothering you on street? Blow up the street and let it fall through the pavement. The increased amount of destruction in Battlefield 4 is a great addition. Hopefully they'll allow for more building destruction in the expansions, but so far this is a great start.

Use the test range to practice flying. Don't learn how to fly in the middle of a 64 player conquest large battle. If you crash the helo full of squad members into the side of a building, be prepared to receive a ton of hate mail. Use the test range to safely test out vehicles and equipment. Your not KIA squad will thank you.

Why is my aim so much better now? I don't know what it is about Battlefield 4, but I feel as if my aim has drastically improved. I think it might be the default mouse tracking speed settings that may be helping, as BF4 feels a little bit "slower" in tracking by default. Combine that with an adjustable DPI mouse and you have the perfect recipe for a headshot extravaganza.

Commander mode is back. You can now command an army on your phone or tablet while you take a shit. You can tell 32 people to follow your orders, resupply them with more ammo, and send cruise missiles at their enemies while you sit on the can. This is what I call next generation gaming.

This is Battlefield, play it however you like. You don't have to play the objective. You don't have to work as a team. You can go hide on a mountain with your M48B for all I care. Just go have fun. If you want to spend your day creeping through the brush knifing all the camping recons, more power to you. If you want to hide under a train track mortar spamming, enjoy it (because I certainly did). If you just want to hop into your transport helo and fly your friends around in circles around Siege of Shanghai, you can definitely do that too. Battlefield is whatever you make of it. It can be your CQB pistol frenzy, your large vehicle warfare arena, or your ATV + C4 playground. You're going to have fun doing whatever you enjoy doing. Just don't be a cheat.

Verdict: 9.5/10 
You buy now.

XCOM: Enemy Within First Impressions

Today I also got started on XCOM: Enemy Within. XCOM EW is the expansion to one of my favorite strategy titles XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Rather than being a separate story expansion, Enemy Within actually incorporates into the main game and radically changes the style and shape of XCOM play. The main additions to XCOM EW are the new unit classes. So far I've created a "mec trooper". Basically a person inside a mech suit. It is as awesome as it sounds.

That's Betty. They cut off her arms and legs and filled her vag with motor oil.

So far I'm enjoying XCOM Enemy Within. While I find it to be quite entertaining and challenging (I just rage quit, which is why I found the time to write this blog post), Enemy Within isn't going to change your mind if you weren't a fan of Enemy Unknown. With that being said, here are some screen shots I snapped whilst playing today.

Say whaaa?

My sniper, Maximum Foreskin.

If you were a fan of XCOM Enemy Unknown, I'd definitely recommend you go pick up Enemy Within right now. It's a 7gb download via Steam, so you better get at it.

Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea First Impressions

Bioshock Infinite was one of my favorite games of this year. It had one of the most engrossing stories I've ever experienced and some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in a game. Today marks the release of it's first storyline expansion: Burial at Sea.

I won't spoil the story so far, but those familiar with the first 2 Bioshock games will definitely be in for a treat as the expansion takes place in the city where it all began: Rapture. 

I've about one hour into the game so far, and I can definitely say that it has retained the immense creepy factor that the original Bioshock had. It has preserved the dark, dreary neon feel that the original Bioshock had while keeping some of the newer gameplay elements of Infinite. So far so good.

I've managed to take some screenshots of my adventure through rapture so far

This looks familiar...

I guess Elizabeth smokes in this world

No Gods or Kings

They're back

Not as cheerful down in Rapture.

I'll keep you posted about my adventure through Rapture. So far it has made my skin crawl a little bit, which means so far, so good.

Holiday gaming extravaganza

Ok so I've been a bit late on generating new posts lately, but I have a good excuse. We're entering the holiday gaming season. My gaming backlog has just exploded. This is what I currently have on my plate:

• Battlefield 4
• Batman Arkham Origins
• Splinter Cell Blacklist
• Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
• Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea
• Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
• X-Com: Enemy Within

Not to mention that I receive my PS4 on Friday (sans games). 

I'll be posting more frequently once I delve into the meat of these games I promise.

Battlefield 4 Emblem Maker: I've seen enough wieners already

New to Battlefield 4 (and something that CoD players will recognize) is the emblem maker. You can now make customized emblems that show up on your profile, player stats, enemy kill cam (you see the emblem of your killer during the killcam now) and even vehicles. The web based emblem maker program is decent, allowing you to pick from predetermined shapes and figures to create your own customized emblem. It's a little too basic in my opinion, as it took me forever to make identical sized shapes (I tried to make eyes). However, I've seen some pretty awesome emblems in my short time playing through Battlefield 4.

PSA: EA/DICE mods will make you take down any offensive emblems, stop with the veiny wieners already.

Battlefield 4: A Rough But Glorious Start

It's day 3 of Battlefield 4 time and I'm happy to report that so far the game is everything I've hoped for and more. I just got my PC version in the mail and I'm not going to lie, I tore that shit open within seconds of pulling it out of my mailbox.

 Although numerous users have voiced their complaints about the PC version crashing, I've had minimal problems so far and the few that I've had could probably be attributed to over zealous private server owners and the initial waves of new users stressing EA/Dice servers. 

I did get one of these messages this morning, but I also got a lot of those during my time with BF3.

I'll be bringing an in-depth review shortly, once the reported rubber-banding issues and game crashes have leveled on. Until then, I'll see you on the battlefield.

PS4: The Ultimate FAQ is now live thanks to Sony North America

I preordered my PS4 a few months ago, but I have to admit that I didn't know the answers to most of the questions posted on this FAQ. Definitely worth a look!

You can read the full PS4 FAQ Here

X-Men Days of Future Past Trailer Released!

Check out the new official X-Men Days of Future Past Trailer!

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - Official Trailer (2014)

For those of you who have never read the Days of Future Past comic storyline a brief synopsis courtesy of Wikipedia (Obvious spoilers): The storyline alternates between present day of 1980, in which the X-Men fight Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline, taking place in 2013, is caused by the X-Men's failure to prevent the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. In this future universe, Sentinels rule the United States, and mutants live in internment camps. The present-day X-Men are forewarned of the possible future by a future version of their teammate Kitty Pryde, whose mind traveled back in time and possessed her younger self to warn the X-Men. She succeeds in her mission and returns to the future, but despite her success, the future timeline still exists as an alternative timeline rather than as the actual future. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled for to be in theaters May 23, 2014.

Nerd Sophisticate Style Guide: Do as I say, not as I wear part 3: The mummy returns

So we went out for Halloween as mummies. I didn't use toilet paper and safety pins like I originally intended.

Courtesy of cheesecloth, black tea, and a hot glue gun.

Some easy to follow instructions can be found here

Batman Arkham Origins Release Day

The Batman Arkham Origins review embargo has been lifted so now I can finally start reviewing!
I just started the game, so for now enjoy this wonderful screenshot of Bats.

Nerd Sophisticate Style Guide: Do as I say, not as I wear part 2

So I gave into my primal nerd urges again and bought another Marvel hoodie. This time I picked up the Iron Man hoodie. This hoodie is also Mad Engine Marvel hoodie. I was walking through Wal-Mart looking for some Halloween costume materials (cheesecloth and thermal underwear for my mummy costume) when I stumbled upon a pile of these Mad Engine hoodies. This time around, however, they were priced at $18.47 a pop, which was $11 less than the Spiderman hoodie I picked up previously. I couldn't resist.

The quality is as good as the Spiderman hoodie I picked up from Kohls. It's pretty detailed for a hooded sweatshirt and although the design isn't as catchy as Spiderman's, I still liked it

I kind of have a gigantic head, so the head portion is a bit tight, but that probably won't be a problem for most other people.

The hoodie was made by Mad Engine and was $18.47 ($48.99 MSRP supposedly). I also spotted a Batman, Captain America, Wolverine, and Darth Vader version at Wal-Mart as well. 9/10 Will nerd again if my girlfriend lets me keep it.

I Choose You, Pumpkinchu!

We bought a pumpkin from the grocery store and decided to make a pokeball with it. 

 We used a ginsu knife and a dollar store carving kit. A dremel tool would've saved us some time but unfortunately we don't have one at home.

It came out pretty decent.

We're going to use him to hold our Pikachu captive.

Bioshock Infinite for PC - $9.99 via Amazon

You can grab Bioshock infinite for PC for the low low price of $9.99 via Amazon.com. 
I absolutely loved Bioshock Infinite and will have to say that you should definitely pick it up for 10 bones if you can. I kind of got mine for free when I purchased my 7870 Tahiti LE but I would have definitely spent the full $60 on it if I hadn't received a complimentary copy from AMD Never Settle.

Go pick it up here.

PSA: Windows 8.1 Available for Download Now

Windows 8.1 is now available as a free download for all Windows 8 users. I'm currently downloading the 2 gigabyte update now. You can access it by going to the Store app in Windows 8 and clicking the giant Windows 8.1 banner. Welcome back Start Menu, we've missed you old friend.

Pacific Rim: My Giant Robot Nerdvana - updated

Pacific Rim

As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

As many of you know, yesterday marked the North American release of Pacific Rim on Bluray and DVD. Although many Metacritic reviewers would say otherwise, I thought Pacific Rim was an awesome sci-fi extravaganza. The giant robots fighting monstrous kaiju reminded me of my days as a kid sitting on the floor pitting my Transformers action figures against my Kenner Aliens figures. The influence of old kaiju movies and the venerable sci-fi cheese fest that was Robot Jox  is evident throughout.

The attention to detail was so striking that I sat gaping in awe while watching the movie in 3D at the theater. It really is a technical marvel and a testament to Guillermo Del Toro's obsessive detail oriented style. I even realized that the jaegers had running lights that followed nautical standards, with the starboard side of the jaeger being green and the port side being lit red. That kind of attention to detail that a nerd would notice is what made me really appreciate Pacific Rim.

Although I found some of the acting to be terrible (the young guy piloting Striker Eureka should never act again), the story was interesting and humorous enough to keep me entertained even when there were no Jaeger or kaiju in sight. Idris Elba, Charlie Day, and Ron Perlman added some great acting that made some of the crazyness slightly believable. 

Technical nerd rantings aside, I found Pacific Rim to be quite enjoyable and accepted it as the movie it was meant to be: a robot versus monster battlefest best viewed with a bucket of popcorn and a fair amount of suspension of disbelief. I'll be honest and tell you that I totally boarded the Pacific Rim hype train and bought a bunch of tshirts with jaegers on them. 

via Teefury.com

Verdict: 9/10 will purchase ASAP.

Update: My better half purchased it for me this week. It is the collector's edition too. 

Gf review : 10/10 will put a ring on it.

Detailed collector's edition review to follow.

Capcom 30th Anniversary Sale

In case you missed the Steam promotion over the weekend, Gamefly is having a digital sale on all of their Capcom titles for PC, including Resident Evil 6 for $9.99 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record for $7.49. I had a blast with both of those games and can definitely suggest that you purchase the arguably superior PC ports. You can check out those deals here.

Columbus Day

Load up Age of Empires III and celebrate Columbus' mistreatment of the local population in style!

I personally prefer Magellan myself, but some people like the 'Murican style of Chris Columbus.

Retro City Rampage for Steam Anniversary Sale - $3.76

Another indie game that I would definitely recommend to all retro-style gaming fans out there is Retro City Rampage. To sum it up in one sentence - 8 Bit GTA+Every retro game parody.

Check out the trailer:

You can pick it up right now on their site for the lovely price of $3.76.

Battlefield 4 Beta - Week 1 Highlights

 Killed by some SaggyBalls

I've created a short highlight reel of my favorite moments from the Battlefield 4 Beta. There's a lot of dying from C4 mishaps. Enjoy.

Nerd Sophisticate Style Guide: Do as I say, not as I wear

The Spiderman Hoodie

Early Sunday morning I decided to go the mall with my better half. I wasn't expecting to buy anything, I was still half asleep, unbathed, and barely caffeinated. We parked our car outside of Kohl's and went through that entrance to get into the mall. While walking through the Men's department (the grown men's department) I stumbled upon one of the most glorious hooded sweatshirts I have ever seen. My nerd sense started tingling. I had found this:

Web shooters not included.

I thought "Whoah, that's a really cool hoodie". Then I looked at the hood and realized that it also did this:

 Kind of potato quality head shape, but whatever.

Here are some more shots of the hoodie:

The inside of the hoodie.

 The back of the hoodie.

The quality/construction of the hoodie seems pretty good. You can actually see pretty well through the mesh eyeholes. The fit is a little tight around the hood/head part, but I have a gigantic head so YMMV in regards to that part. That tight fit also creates a little bit of a point at the top of the hood but that's just due to the nature of the hoodie's construction and is probably very difficult to engineer out. The sizing is similar to American Apparel hoodies, with the fit being on the slim side. The colors are very vibrant and will definitely make you stick out like a sore thumb if you wear this out in public.

The hoodie was made by Mad Engine and was $29.99 ($48.99 MSRP). I also spotted a Batman and Darth Vader version as well. 9/10 Will nerd again.

Now I cannot say that this purchase was in good style taste, but fuck it. Sometimes you have to give in to the inner nerd beast and make these purchases. Now if they sold matching sweat pants....

Battlefield 4 Beta - Going solid snake on a fool

I encountered a little glitch in the knife animation and I accidentally Solid Snake'd this guy.

Battlefield 4 Beta - Let's crash our helo on the tall building!

Battlefield 4 Beta has brought out the Rambo in me. I decided to see if I could take my helo and my team up to the top of the center C control point and capture it.
It didn't end well. Twice.

A link to my first run at the game is here.
I already pre-ordered mine for PC. If the beta is a good basis for judgement, I would definitely recommend you do the same.

Battlefield 4 Beta - The hype is real

The Battlefield 4 Beta has been live for a day, and I will say that it has successfully increased the hype for me tenfold. With that said, here's my first attempt at basejumping off of the C deployment point.

Battlefield 4 Beta incoming

PSA

You can start preloading the Battlefield 4 Beta. It will be available to play for all beta users on October 1.
Get on Origin and start downloading!