Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode has arrived in the Master Chief Collection along with this week’s 3gb patch which also further improves gameplay and matchmaking. I never played a lot of Spartan Ops, so I figured I’d give the first mission a try yesterday.
It was pretty fun, but it’s certainly geared toward co-op play as overall it felt like there was just too much to kill and the mission dragged on longer than it probably should have. Still it’s nice to have a couple more hours of new content added into the Master Chief Collection. So grab a few friends and head into Spartan Ops and see what damage you can do. Enjoy!
I’ve enjoyed console billiards games since Side Pocket on the NES, and Pure Pool is the first pool game available on current gen systems. On the 360 I enjoyed Pool Nation quite a bit, and hope it’ll make its way to the Xbox One, but for now Pure Pool will have to do.
The first thing you’ll notice with Pure Pool is that it looks quite good. Pool Nation was very flashy and overly shiny, so it’s nice that Pure Pool sticks to more lifelike visuals. The balls, table and backgrounds all look nice and they aren’t trying to be too fancy.
The game plays quite well and making shots feels great. You have to aim from behind the cue ball (you can’t aim from an overhead view) which makes across the table shots a little difficult to sink. This makes the game a bit more realistic when compared to other pool games which make it too easy to line up shots that should be difficult to make.
The career mode is enjoyable with some side objectives along the way that keep things interesting. For example in the speed mode you’ll be given a time in which you have to sink all the balls to gain 3, 2 or 1 star. You use those stars to unlock more tournaments along the way where you’ll face more skilled opponents and more difficult challenges.
I attempted to try out the multiplayer, however didn’t have much luck so far. I got into one game of 8-ball but my opponent left the game less than a minute in (giving me a win). After that I was unable to find a match. After about 30 seconds of searching the game says there’s no one else looking for a match and suggests I play against an A.I. opponent. Hopefully there will be more people playing Pure Pool in the future, as I’d like to go head to head with challenging opponents over Xbox Live.
The only thing I can say I don’t like about the game is the mellow music that most pool games over the years seem to have. Pure Pool is a great game to play casually while listening to a podcast or watching TV on the side, however, so I can’t fault it too much for the uninspired soundtrack.
For $12.99 Pure Pool will easily sate your appetite for billiards.
So yesterday I downloaded Tetris Ultimate on the Xbox One with the hopes of playing some Tetris with my girlfriend. However, I found it incredibly difficult to figure out how to start a local multiplayer match. The menus say to add members to your party to start a Versus or Coop match, and there’s a box on the right with “friends” in it (it only lists AI players for me right now).
Even though my girlfriend was logged in, she didn’t show up on that list. I tried starting a party via Xbox with her in it, and she still didn’t show up. It turns out, any additional local player needs to press the Menu button (“start”) and then they’ll be asked to select a profile and they’ll be added to the game.
There’s no prompt for this at all that I could find, it was just by dumb luck that we finally figured out how to get her in the game. Hope this helps!
EDIT (25 January 2015): I’ve created a video now if you prefer to see how to add a second player.
There’s finally a Halo CE playlist in the Master Chief Collection! Unfortunately it’s only 3v3 which seems a little small at times, but I guess it’s better than nothing! It seems like matchmaking is working a lot better as well, I was able to get into several matches back to back tonight and it was great!
If DISH Network is your TV provider, you may have noticed that Fox News and the Fox Business Network no longer appear in your channel lineup. Just a few weeks after CNN, Cartoon Network and other channels returned to the air after their dispute, Fox has been pulled due to its own contract dispute.
Luckily this is only affecting the Fox News channels and not FX or FXX which I tend to watch every now and then. Personally I wouldn’t miss Fox News if it never came back, but I’m sure it’ll be back in a matter of weeks for those who are missing it. It’s unfortunate when these things happen, but they always seem to resolve themselves before too long (though CNN was gone for quite awhile).
Last night we watched The Theory of Everything, the biopic directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire) and based on the Jane Wilde Hawking memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen (Alma Books, 2008).
I didn’t know a whole lot about the film going in, or even much about Stephen’s life so I expected it to center more on his scientific achievements over his personal life. In reality the film focuses almost entirely on his relationship with Jane and the trials and tribulations during their time together. It was actually quite informative and a good story that causes a great variety of strong emotional reactions throughout.
The film is a great visual experience, with plenty of great colors and wonderful scenes that left me in awe. Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking wonderfully from his healthier youthful days right through the rapid progression of his disease. I also really enjoyed the performances of Charlie Cox (Jonathan Jones) and Maxine Peake (Elaine Mason).
Overall The Theory of Everything is an incredible movie with superb acting, a wonderful soundtrack, great visuals and a compelling, emotionally taxing story. I highly recommend it, 5 out of 5.
A few days ago I happened to check out the games store on the Xbox One and saw the Risk store page. I could watch Twitch streams and view clips from people playing, and it seemed like the game was in a releasable state. I didn’t try to purchase it right away, but figured I’d probably end up buying it this weekend.
Well it turns out the game was mistakenly released early and has since been pulled from the games store. It was announced on Major Nelson’s blog as being released on December 16, however there is now an updated announcement before the post:
Update: Risk and Trivial Pursuit Live!, from the Hasbro channel, was downloadable on Xbox Live for a short period of time in error. It has since been taken down from XBLA and will be available again early 2015 for the official launch.
I’m not quite sure what that means for those who already purchased it, but it seems like the rest of us will have to wait until early 2015 to get our hands on Risk and Trivial Pursuit. Bummer.
Usually my trips to Starbucks involve enjoying a latte, mocha or Frappuccino, but today I decided to try something a little different. After reading about the Starbucks Reserve store / tasting room opening in Seattle (it looks amazing) I figured I ought to try one of their Reserve roasts.
Reserve coffees are described as “the finest coffees” they offer and as “exquisite and rare.” They are made in a special brewer and from beans sourced from a single location. The drinks are priced in the same range as lattes and mochas (about $3-4).
I asked for the barista to recommend a dark coffee to try and ended up getting the Sumatra Lake Toba coffee. I’m no expert in describing taste, but I can say it’s strong and dark yet smooth and doesn’t taste burnt. I’ve had plenty of dark coffees that taste burned, so it’s nice that it can taste strong and yet still be smooth.
I’m interested in trying more Reserve coffees, so if you have any recommendations throw them my way in a comment. I may also have to purchase some beans at some point and get a coffee grinder.
Last night I celebrated the return of the SWAT playlist to the Master Chief Collection with a ‘Halo and Brews’ Twitch Broadcast where I enjoyed a couple Square Mile Ciders and saw my performance get worse and worse through the night. Enjoy!
(Apparently Twitch muted the second video due to copyright, so there’s that. I guess I’ll throw some YouTube music into it or something in a bit)
I really wanted to like Destiny, and to an extent I do enjoy parts of it (the shooting is solid and quite satisfying) but the game has way too many downfalls for it to be enjoyable. I could go into extensive detail, but I’ll just list off a few of Destiny’s shortcomings: Story (there is none), mission variety (you literally do the same mission over and over), the loot (nothing ever feels special), the lack of voice communication (so much for being a multiplayer game) and the lack of matchmaking in raids.
If you expected Destiny’s first expansion, The Dark Below, to make the game more enjoyable you’re probably in for a disappointment. The $20 expansion (which released this week) brings barely any new content to the game which was already lacking in content from the start. For $20 all you get are three new missions, a single strike and a single raid (and a few Crucible maps if that’s your thing). Heck, there aren’t even any new achievements added. It’s really hard to justify coughing up $20 just to breeze through a few new missions before heading into another grind where you’ll repeat the same strikes over and over again just to gain access to a single raid.
Maybe you enjoy Destiny enough to put up with all the repetitiveness, but personally I think it would take two or three more expansions just for there to be a reasonable amount of content in the game. And even then a $120 investment will get you much less bang for your buck than the $60 you could spend on an Dragon Age: Inquisition or the Master Chief Collection. If I were you I’d save your money and skip The Dark Below.
Gumballs Plays Games 