Game Review: RAGE

I've been looking forward to RAGE from the second it was announced. I've always been a fan of id Software. Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3d were a few of the first computer games I ever played. The thought of playing a Doom-like game set in a wasteland environment with vehicles and top-notch graphics and gameplay was too much to resist.

I was disappointed when I read the less than stellar game reviews and sadly RAGE fell off my radar. Fortunately, I spotted a great deal on Amazon ($19 new and free shipping) and I couldnt pass it up.

Herese the skinny:

Story - The story is simple: Earth has been laid to waste after being struck by an asteroid. You play as the sole survivor of a vault that was part of a failed plan to rebuild civilization. The people that survived the impact of the asteroid have divided  into factions/tribes with the mutants at one end and The Authority at the other.


The story starts off interesting enough but fails to develop into anything truly exciting or original. By the end of the game it feels like you are just going through the motions and the end comes abruptly and is unsatisfying.


Gameplay - RAGE is an action-FPS at it's finest. Combat is fun and varied. Enemy AI is very good and keeps you on your toes. The character animation in RAGE is some of the best and most believable I have seen in a game. Enemies come at you from all directions, jumping from the walls and ceiling and also grab at their limbs when hit.

You have a variety of weapons at your disposal and the ability to craft, upgrade, and use different ammo types. There are also unique weapons like the Wingstick (like a boomerang) and mind-control bolts that let you shoot an enemy and turn them into a walking meat-bomb.

RAGE makes the switch from first-person shooter to driving game seamlessly. Vehicles are easy to control and vehicle combat is a blast. You have the option to compete in races to win tokens to upgrade your vehicle and racing is a good way to switch up the gameplay if you need a break. 

Graphics -  This game looks awesome! RAGE uses Megatexture technology, developed by Jon Carmack (id Software), that relies on a single massive texture for an environment. It defaults to a low resolution and as you enter parts of the map it loads in the high res texture. Here is the problem: there is a slight delay when you move your character around. If you are looking right and suddenly look left you can see all the low res textures before the high res textures pop in. This happens very fast but it is noticeable and distracting.

Texture issues aside the wasteland has never looked better. The terrain is where RAGE really shines. Rocks and hills look very realistic. The NPC characters all look great too.

Sound - Voice acting, music, and sound is excellent. No complaints here.

Clocking in at at eleven hours, RAGE feels a little on the short side (I did most the side missions too) but all good games seem like they should be longer. I can definitely see doing another playthough and trying out different fighting styles (more stealthy, more gadgets). Eleven hours might not be much but with the addition of co-op and multiplayer there is a lot of potential for additional gameplay.


My biggest disappointment was that I really wanted to get out there and explore but there isn't much out there to find. One of the incentives for buying the game new was access to sewer levels throughout the game and I only found one (there are supposedly nine) and it took me all of ten minutes to clear.

I had a blast with RAGE. It's not a perfect game but is it a lot of fun. RAGE's biggest flaw might be that it fell shot of peoples expectations. We have the right to be a disappointed. The brains that pioneered the FPS genera put out something new and claimed that it is going to be unlike anything we had seen and played but what we got was something that felt like the love-child of Fallout 3 and Borderlands. 

To sum things up:

The good - 

• Awesome graphics
• Gunfights and vehicle combat fun and rewarding
• Lots of weapons and crafting/upgrading options

The bad - 

• Texture lag issues
• Short single player campaign 
• The wasteland is small and there isn't much reason to explore

RAGE is available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360

*photo from Amazon

Game Review: Metro 2033 3.5/5 Stars

It is hard not to compare Metro 2033 to games like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. The first thing that struck me when I played this game is, "This is what Fallout should have looked like." The atmosphere in this game is perfect. Everything from the narration, the music, the level of detail, the voice acting, everything just sucks you in. 

It is easy to see why this game can pull this level of detail off when Fallout falls a little short when you compare them in terms on scope; Fallout is an epic open world game and Metro 2033 is very linear and takes place almost exclusively in very confined underground tunnels.

My only problems with this game were the combat and the story. Shooting and sneaking are very difficult in parts and require loading and replaying sections of the game over several times. They story was strong but I felt like there were holes that were never explained.

All in all Metro 2033 is definitely worth playing.

3.5/5 Stars

Rent it at Gamefly 

or 

buy it at Amazon

Save Money with GameFly

I have been a religious PC gamer since I bought my first computer. I only succumb to buying game consoles years after they came out and have dropped to a reasonable price. Recently, however, I took the plunge and decided to buy and Xbox 360.

I did some research and decided to go with a Xbox 360. There were more games I was interested in playing available for the Xbox than the PS3 and the Xbox was also more affordable. I bought a newer version of the Xbox 360 Arcade for less than $100 used from Amazon.com. It works great and looks brand new. I also purchased a 60BG hard drive for about $30.

I have been very happy with my Xbox (aside for having to pay $50 for an "Gold" membership if I want to play games online) but I needed some games. I had a list of around 40+ games I wanted to play and at a price of $20-$60 each there was no way I was going to get them all. To solve my problem I signed up with GameFly. I was already a Netflix member and have been very happy with that service, so I figured renting games online was the next logical step.

GameFly is great, for $22.95 a month you can get two games out at a time (I recommend this plan so you always have at least one game while you are waiting for the next to arrive). Do the math and you will see that GameFly will most likely end up saving you money.

Here is the breakdown:

If you rent two games a month from GameFly rather than buying two at $60 you just saved $100! Also, it's not just about the money you can save but how many more games you can afford to play. A one year subscription to GameFly (two games out at a time) will cost you $253 (minus your first month free). That works out to be about the same price as buying four new games. If you plan on buying four games or more over the next year GameFly will save you money!

The only drawback to renting games vs buying, that I can think of, is not being able to play them again after you return them, but you can always keep your saved games on your console and rent them again later.

Games ship out fast and will take about two or three days to arrive. The GameFly site is very user friendly, just search for the games you want and add them to your game queue. When you return a game and GameFly receives it they will send out the next game on your list. 

Sign up for GameFly using my referral link and you can get one month free!

Sign up here!

Play games (or work) on your desktop computer from the comfort of your living room

I have always been more of a PC gamer than a console gamer, who can afford to keep up with all the new consoles coming out every year? I finally got tired of sneaking off to my office every time I wanted to play games. I started coming up with ideas on how I could play games from my computer in my living room. It was easier that I expected. It really comes down to the distance between your computer and your tv. In my case it was about 20'.

Here is what you need:

Video cable - I recommend an SVGA cable if your tv has an RGB channel. If not you could always use RCA cables the quality just isnt as good.

Audio cable - Use either RCA or 3.5mm cable (headphone extention cable) depending on what jacks you have. I have an adapter that goes from 3.5mm cable (I plug this end into my computer) to RCA (I plug this end into my tv).

Keyboard and Mouse - This is where you can run into problems. When I was researching this I was told by multiple people that you can not have a USB extention cable longer than 12" or else you will start to run into problems (missed clicks or keyboard strokes). I have only had this happen occasianally and it wanst a big deal. I have expiremented with wirelss and non-wirelss keyboards and mice and had luck with both. If you are going wirelss it depends on how good your keyboard and mouse is. I get the best results when I hook the wirless receiver to the end of my USB extention cable and have it sitting close to me.

I also use the wired Xbox controller to play most games. (im not sure if the wireless one works)

My office shares a wall with my living room. I lucked out, all I had to do was cut a small hole in the wall and run cables from one side to the other. If your office is further away from your living room tv then mine, there are lots of ways to hide your cables if you have to run them down a hallway, etc.

Here is some of the gear I used on Amazon:
(Take your time and search around and you should be able to get most of these cables for under $1 each)