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.