video games | Gumballs Plays Games

How to play with more than one controller in Scrabble on Xbox One

Posted on August 5, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Scrabble was recently released on the Xbox One (part of the Hasbro Game Channel collection of games) and the game doesn’t exactly make it easy to figure out how to use more than one controller locally. When you’re setting up a game you can select whether you want AI or human players (up to four total), but by default it’s set to ‘share controller’ and there’s no way to change it.

In order for each player to use their own controller they first have to sign into an Xbox account. Once the player signs into a profile it’ll change from ‘share controller’ to ‘individual controllers’ and each player will be able to play the game using their own controller.

Hope this helps!

A quick look at Magic Duels on the Xbox One

Posted on August 5, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Magic Duels is a free to play, yet fully featured Magic The Gathering game which made its way to the Xbox One last week. The game features a single player campaign as well as a battle mode in which you can challenge AI or human opponents with your custom built decks in order to earn coins. The coins you earn can be used to purchase booster packs, or other upgrades such as converting cards to foil cards.

I’ve been casually interested in the Magic games in the past. I’ve played the 2014 and 2015 games (both of which required a purchase) but could never quite get hooked. Magic Duels certainly has a very slick presentation, however the gameplay feels sluggish and dated, especially when compared to Hearthstone. I’m sure comparing Magic to Hearthstone will offend Magic players, but Hearthstone is much easier to play and its card battles run smoother than Magic’s. There are way too many button prompts in the magic games. When your opponent plays a card the game expects you to look at it and press ‘A’. When your opponent attacks you’re expected to hit ‘A’ after every card attacks. The battles should just be able to play out smoothly, without all of the prompts slowing the game to an annoying crawl at times.

Magic Duels will certainly appeal to Magic and card battle enthusiasts, but those with a more casual interest in the genre will most likely be put off (especially for those who have played Hearthstone). Ultimately, Magic Duels has me hoping that Hearthstone someday makes its way to consoles. Sure the ideal way to play is on an iPad, but I wouldn’t mind playing a game or two on the Xbox One if it were an option.

Rare Replay is out today: 30 games for $30!

Posted on August 4, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Are you looking to beef up your game collection for the Xbox One? How does thirty games for thirty dollars sound? If you want some serious bang for your buck, be sure to pick up Rare Replay for the Xbox One today!

Rare Replay was announced during Microsoft’s E3 press conference this summer and surprised just about everyone. The reception to the announcement was incredibly positive, especially after the price was announced. Considering most HD remakes or re-releases tend to sell for $60 while only including two or three titles, very few expected a collection of thirty games to be priced at half that.

Notable titles in the Rare Replay collection include Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Viva Piñata and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. The collection spans twenty five years featuring titles released between 1983 and 2008. Rare Replay also features over 10,000 achievement points, however it’s worth noting if you’ve previously earned achievements from the games released on the 360 you cannot double dip.

I’ve played very few of the titles featured in the Rare Replay collection so I’m excited to try out most of the games for the very first time. I’m currently downloading the games that aren’t bundled in the download of the collection itself and once they complete I’ll have to figure out which game to jump into first.

Are you going to check out the Rare Replay collection? Which of the games featured are your favorites? Which do you recommend I check out first?

FIFA 16’s cover featuring Alex Morgan

Posted on July 21, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

This year marks not only the first time the FIFA series will feature women’s teams (in the form of 12 national teams) but also the first time a female athlete has graced the cover of a mainstream sports game.

FIFA is one of the best selling video games in the world, so it’s pretty cool to see a female athlete featured predominantly on the cover and it’s even cooler to see the women’s national teams make it into the game. Hopefully this is the first step of many to expand the focus beyond just male athletes in EA Sports games.

I really like the cover, featuring Alex Morgan of the United States national team. I’m honestly a little tired of seeing Messi on the cover, I think they could’ve given Morgan the cover on her own to celebrate the women’s team World Cup victory.

I’m excited for FIFA 16 to release this Fall, and I can’t wait to see this cover in my digital game collection. Congratulations Alex Morgan!

Final Fantasy X HD: Just getting started

Posted on July 20, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

I’ve been slowly making my way through Final Fantasy X HD on the Vita recently. Final Fantasy X was actually my first Final Fantasy game, back in high school (I first rented it from Blockbuster in 2004). I fell in love with the game almost immediately and it took me most of the summer to finish but I enjoyed every moment of it. I was blown away by the characters, the music, the world, it was all unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

So far my return to Spira has been enjoyable. The Vita makes for a great platform to experience Final Fantasy X on. It’s great to pick up and play in small spurts here and there, and yet once you start it’s hard to put down. The game looks very crisp on the display, and the HD upgrade is pleasant to look at.

Last night I made it to two of the first challenges in Finaly Fantasy X, the rapid fire encounters with both Sin and Sinspawn Echuilles.

The cutscenes before and after the Sin encounter are incredibly good looking (they were mind blowing back on the PS2) on the Vita. I forgot just how darn good FFX looked at times. The battle with Sin was easier than I remembered it being, I just pecked away at Sin with Lulu and Wakka while Tidus slashed away at the Sinspawn. I finished the fight without any real trouble.

Without anytime for a breather you’re thrown right into the Sinspawn Echuilles fight, which is actually a bit more challenging than the Sin fight.

You’re only given Tidus and Wakka during the fight, and Echuilles presented me with my first KO situation (I suffered a few KO’s during the fight but made it through without a complete wipe!). The fight was the first exciting encounter of the game, however with some tactical thinking it didn’t go too horribly. I had Tidus cast Cheer while Wakka used his Dark Attack which saved me from most of the Drain Touch attacks. His Blender attack, however, left me in some critical health situations that I barely escaped. Fortunately I made it through the fight to be greeted with some more scenes featuring Sin’s destructive power.

I made it into Kilika and hit up the Sphere Grid before saving and calling it a night.

I remember the Sphere Grid being quite confusing at first, but eventually it became an almost addictive leveling system. Being able to see all of the ways you could power up your characters made me want to grind away and try to get as powerful as I could. I do wish the Sphere Grid would take advantage of the Vita’s touchscreen as I feel like touch would be the ideal way to navigate the grid, but it’s not so bad once you get the hang of it again.

I’m looking forward to making some more progress in Final Fantasy X over the next couple of weeks.

EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is terribly diasspointing

Posted on July 14, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

I pre-ordered EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour and was excited to check out EA’s first current gen golf game (also the first in two years and the first since dropping the Tiger Woods name). It took all weekend to download over the hotel WiFi, and today I finally got to give it a try.

What a disappointment! Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is lacking in so many ways compared to the great Tiger Woods games of the past. First of all the tutorial seems lazy and is also lazily narrated. The Rory McIlroy prologue lacks excitement as does McIlroy’s commentary (that you can’t skip).

Career mode was my favorite part of the Tiger Woods games, and I especially loved trying to rise from the amateur ranks to the PGA Tour, all while earning sponsorships and increasing my stats. Most of that is missing from this game. First of all, the character customization is terribly lacking.

There are hardly any customization options at all. As you can see above, there are only eight haircut styles to choose from! Not only that, but what’s even worse is you can no longer pick and choose how you spend EXP to increase your stats. The game increases your stats for you and your only choice is between a few styles to start out with (power, finesse, balanced). Career mode starts you off with the Web.com finals, and there’s no other amateur career leading up to the PGA Tour. What’s worse, is by default the game is set to simulate most of the round with you only getting to play four or five holes.

Once on the course the game doesn’t get much better. If you’re playing with spin enabled (arcade controls) any amount of spin at all affects the ball so drastically it’s almost impossible to use. Even a slight amount of backspin will stop the ball dead in its tracks and any amount of forward spin is likely to cause the ball to run clear off the green even if you land toward the front.

I’ve had several chip shots get stuck on the flag rather than sink into the hole, and putting is impossibly hard. Even with putt reads enabled putting is hopeless. In fact half the time the reads seem to be completely wrong and indicate the ball breaking in the complete opposite direction. You’re better off ignoring the reads entirely, but prepare to be frustrated beyond belief with putting. I’ve never had this much trouble with a Tiger Woods game.

There are so few courses and gameplay features in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour you’re much better off picking up any of the recent Tiger Woods games (I recommend The Masters). Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is terribly disappointing and I can’t recommend it even to the most hardcore golf fans.

Lounging around, playing The Witcher 3

Posted on July 3, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Hey there, hope you’re enjoying the start of your holiday weekend! I spent my day off by going to the gym, cleaning and organizing a bit and now I’m just lounging around playing The Witcher 3!

Pokemon X: Finally finished Santalune City gym

Posted on June 30, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

So last night I finally made it to the first gym in Pokemon X, the Santalune City gym led by Viola. I’ve played the game very little since Vanessa got me a 2DS for Christmas this year, but I’ve been curious about the appeal of Pokemon.

The only other Pokemon game I’ve played is Pokemon Red, back in middle school when I played on an original Game Boy with no color. I remember enjoying the game, however I would often get lost and have no clue where I was supposed to go (especially after not playing for awhile) and at one point I got stuck and never returned to the game.

I jumped into Pokemon X last December and began exploring the world, slowly leveling up my various Pokemon. I not only played the game casually (two hours over six months) but also inattentively. I know very little about the Pokemon universe and have little patience to learn how to efficiently play the game. I honestly barely know what the different abilities do, and it often seems like in each fight I’m just going through the motions without much thought.

As I approached the first Pokemon gym I expected to be met with a challenge.

The puzzle like navigation over the spider web was interesting, and certainly different from how I remember the Pokemon gyms being. It seemed cool at first, but overall I think navigating the web just ended up being a hassle.

I made the mistake of not healing my Pokemon before entering the gym (I didn’t realize they were hurt as the last time I played was months ago) and I thought this might doom me. However, I made it through the first battle without any trouble and used some potions to heal up the rest of my Pokemon (minus Pidgey of course. Poor Pidgey!). I then finished out the gym quite easily and Weedle and Caterpie evolved along the way.

I’m sure there will be more challenges to come and I’m hoping I can get myself more into the game. I have a long bus trip coming up next week so hopefully I’ll make some progress during that.

Do you have any advice for a Pokemon newbie? Is Pokemon X a good entry point into the series?

Streaming Xbox One to Windows 10 is awesome!

Posted on June 29, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

This weekend I finally got around to checking out the Xbox One Preview program and that means I finally got my hands on my most anticipated Xbox One feature: streaming to Windows 10.

With the new Xbox One software and Windows 10 you’ll be able to stream games to your Windows 10 PC via your in home WiFi or Ethernet. This feature introduces a plethora of exciting possibilities as all of a sudden you can access your Xbox anywhere in your house.

I’ve already found it incredibly useful to stream my Xbox One to my MacBook (running Windows 10 Preview via Boot Camp) while our living room TV is in use (i.e. Vanessa is watching Lifetime movies). It works incredibly well, with absolutely no noticeable lag (over my 5GHz WiFi) or hiccups. The best part is it doesn’t just stream the game to your PC, it streams the entire Xbox One dashboard experience. Therefore you can check in on friends, or swap between games by heading to the home screen, just as you would when playing through a TV.

You can connect your Xbox One controller to your PC and play that way, however I’ve found when doing so the home button on the controller doesn’t work (instead there’s a home button in the Xbox App UI you can use), so I’ve left my controller connected to my console and haven’t had any issues. It even reaches into the bedroom (which admittedly isn’t too far from the console) which is nice because I can plug a headset into the controller and game in bed if I want. You can also use HDMI out on your laptop or PC and play your Xbox on a different TV without having to move your console.

This weekend I was playing Tales From the Borderlands in the bedroom while Vanessa slept (headphones plugged into the controller).

The experience has been absolutely wonderful so far, but there are even more possibilities that I haven’t even tried yet. For example, you can play multiplayer where one person uses the TV and the other a laptop. Now both screens will be a mirror of each other, but you may end up with a better viewing angle using the second screen.

I’m absolutely in love with the streaming to Windows 10 feature, and I can’t wait to check out some more Xbox One / Windows 10 features!

The dark side of Twitch: Harassing female streamers

Posted on June 20, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

This morning I hopped onto Twitch while enjoying a coffee and bagel and popped into one of the top streams this morning, which of course was a League of Legends stream. I don’t particularly find League of Legends streams interesting, but I put it on just for something in the background.

This morning I witnessed first hand one of the most horrid and disgusting aspects of the Twitch community, and the internet connected gamer community. The streamer was showing cleavage, but it wasn’t anything extreme. She just happened to be larger than average, but she wasn’t wearing anything you wouldn’t see out on the town or in the mall.

The users in the Twitch chat, however, seemed to see the fact that this woman was attracting a large audience as something to take extreme offense too. They spammed the chat with insults like “You suck at gaming, slut”, “kill yourself slut”, “you’re a whore”, “no one cares about you, only your boobs”, etc. There were also those trying to rally everyone to either spam the channel or leave the channel, because apparently the female body is just too offensive to handle while watching a video game.

Now, I know that Twitch recently adjusted its guidelines to try to prevent ‘sexually suggestive’ streams, but I don’t think this particular streamer was trying to take advantage of the system. Even if they were, the chat reaction was entirely unnecessary and completely offensive. It’s something I expect to see on 4Chan, and it’s sickening even there, but not something I ever expected to see in something more mainstream such as Twitch.

I know this stuff happens all the time on Twitch, YouTube, Tumblr and elsewhere on the internet, but this morning was the first time I watched something like this happen live. It was appalling. I tried ignoring and reporting as many users as I could for spam and harassment but for every 10 I ignored 20 took their places.

I’m not quite sure what can be done to prevent these things from happening. The internet is a place where all kinds of terrible things are said on a daily basis and people don’t realize that these blurbs of text can and often do have real world consequences for those on the receiving end. This sort of behavior needs to stop. It’s not okay. We all need to appreciate each other and respect each other, whether it’s on Xbox Live, Twitch or anywhere else. It’s the human thing to do, and we all are human even if there’s a machine in between us. Act like it.