Sniper Elite V2 Remaster

Earlier this month, Rebellion released their remaster of Sniper Elite v2.

I just got done playing it, and I got to tell you, it's nice. On Steam it sits at a rating of Mostly Negative, which I do not understand. If you read some of the negative reviews, people seem to be mad about not getting it for free or then they're upset at not getting more out of it.

Yes, Bethesda gave their Skyrim remaster for free if you owned the original and all the DLC, but Skyrim like all Bethesda games lives on through mods, and the Sniper Elite series can't, to my knowledge, be modded at all.

Rebellion gave a nice discount if you own the old SE v2, but they had no need to give it away for free.

The graphics are updated, and it looks great, but I guess some people expected it to be even prettier, somehow. The sounds are as they've always been and the gameplay is smooth and fun. No complaints from me.

Rebellion added some extra goodies, though. The remaster includes all the DLC, it has an option to choose your weapon load out and you can choose which character you want to play as, since they added in the characters from the Sniper Elite spin-off, Zombie Army Trilogy.

There is also a photo mode, that I can't talk about as I have ignored it completely. I'm awful at taking screenshots anyway, so a photo mode isn't relevant to me at all.

This is by all accounts a fun game to play, if the Sniper Elite games are your thing. Now, that said, if you came into the series later, particularly in SE4, then this will feel clumsy and old, because it is old. Most of the things that sort of annoy me were fixed in SE3 and 4.

For example, a staple in the series is using your binoculars to tag enemies so that you know where they are even though you can't see them. In V2, those tags vanish after a while which is annoying.

Likewise, instead of running in, on a few occasions an enemy will just spawn in instead, bypassing any traps you may have laid out.

These things are annoying, but in the greater scale, fairly minor. Sure, the maps are somewhat small, compared to what came later, but the original came out in 2012 – seven years ago.

Bottom line: if you have played Sniper Elite 3 or 4 and missed V2, play it, it really is a fun game. The haters really seem to hate for no reason, in my book at least.

In other related news, Sniper Elite 5 has been announced with no further info yet, but I'm eagerly waiting to learn more.

That's my 5 cents, and until next time, have a great week!

Game News

So Minecraft is ten years old. A game that is all about blocks, about mining and building with said blocks and so much more.

I played a bit of Minecraft back in the day, and although I liked it, it didn't really keep me interested for long. I think it's incredible success comes from the same place LEGO does. It give you the tools to do “whatever” you want to do. To this day, it's still played by millions, streamed by hundreds of live streamers on Twitch, and still immensely popular.

A small indie game, developed by Markus 'Notch' Persson, until he set up the company Mojang to help finalize the game, up until he sold the game to Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars. Yes, billion with a B.

I think it's safe to say the game is a success.

Speaking of old games, fans of World of Warcraft should mark August 27^th in the calendar as that is when WoW Classic launches.

If you're not in the know, WoW Classic is a fully playable version of how the game was before any and all expansions, i.e. vanilla.

If you want a sneak peak, go to Twich and watch a beta tester or two run around in a limited version, to remind yourself what it used to be. Highlights of that experience include:

No mount until level 40, and it costs 100 gold.

The need to keep buying arrows, poisons and other reagents.

No Paladin on Horde & no Shaman on Alliance.

Etc.

I'm fascinated about how it used to be and I will likely try it out, but for how long it can retain my interest, who can say? Probably a week or two.

From gaming history to modern news. The Epic Game Store keeps reeling around making people angry.

I've talked about my feelings toward this so called store, but now they've gone beyond bribing publishers to get timed exclusives. Even beyond snapping up kickstarted games, which is also questionable behavior. Now they have held a mega sale without informing publishers in advance.

You see, when Steam has a sale you get to choose which of the games you publish to include and at what percentage they get discounted. Epic just went ahead and had a sale, and they included amongst other things a game that is not out yet.

Beyond lowered prices, they had a flat $10 cash back on games costing more than $14.99. ( I believe these numbers are correct, I may be off a bit.) So a great deal for the customer, but really bad for some publishers. Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is set to come out next March, and it was included in the sale. A sale that heavy on an unpublished game is a disaster for the perceived value of a game. Besides, it normally takes months after release before even a small discount is to be found, not a year in advance.

To make matters worse, Epic does not take into account the different values of currencies around the world, which meant that Vampire 2 could be had for the equivalent of $5 in Turkey and $10 in Russia.

Paradox was furious and pulled the game. A couple of other games by other publishers were also withdrawn.

Epics response was to admit they failed to communicate but they also called the publishers 'greedy'. Wow... Words fail me.

A couple of months ago, Epic couldn't stop yelling about how good their store were for developers and publishers, and now they are greedy... Not good.

Beyond that, the Epic store still does not have a shopping basket, so many gamers have had their credit cards locked by their banks as the automated safety systems detects multiple, small purchases in a row. Thanks Epic...

Well that's enough ranting from me. Until next time, have a great and calm week!

Crossing Lines

A few weeks ago, my wife found Crossing Lines on Netflix and suggested we give it a try. I'm very glad we did, since it's the most interesting cop drama I've seen in years.

In a nutshell, Crossing Lines concerns a fictitious international police unit working under the ICC, or International Criminal Court, taking on cross-border cases in Europe. A bit like how the FBI handles inter-state crime in the U.S.

Crossing Lines is a German-French-Italian-American production that was canceled after season 1 and picked up by Netflix and Amazon for season 2 and then 3. This change in management shows a bit between 1 and 2, and quite a lot in season 3. After season 3 the show was canceled permanently, although some fans are still holding out hope for a fourth season, but seeing as it ended in 2015, that is very unlikely.

The show was criticized for misrepresenting the function and purpose of the ICC, as the court does not care about drugs and regular “murder” as an example, and they do not (apparently) have their own task force on standby. Instead they work against things like dictators and genocide.

With a few exceptions, the show uses a case of the week formula, sometimes broken up with a two part episode. Seasons 1 and 2 have more recurring villains, dropping this concept in season 3.

For the most part, the cases are really good, and not just the same old, same old one is used to from American shows like Law & Order. A couple of episodes failed to impress, but they were the exception rather than the rule. The pilot was a little rough around the edges, as they tend to be. Also, the episode about the bikers was pretty bad, otherwise I liked them well enough.

What really carries the show are the actors. As far as I can tell, they all hail from the countries their characters come from, with only one exception. This cements the international nature of the unit and lends authenticity to the whole show.

This in itself creates an oddity, as the point of language is never made. Whether they come from Ireland, Italy, Germany, The U.S. or France, they all seem to speak the local lingo wherever they go. This is of course to keep the plot ticking along, but especially in the beginning I found myself wondering how the hell they could communicate with the locals so easily. Speaking German does not allow you to speak Polish...

Likewise, travel times seem to be irrelevant, as they get where they need to go at the speed of plot. My recommendation is to let these two points go and just enjoy the show.

As for the actors, William Fichtner and Donald Sutherland stand out as the biggest names internationally, with guest appearances by actors like Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix) and Ray Stevenson (Rome). The others were equally good though, so don't stare yourself blind on star names.

Sadly, most actors left the show after season 2, with only three remaining, and although the new people are very good, it isn't the same. Still, season 3 is enjoyable enough, especially if one sees it more as a spinoff.

So, I do recommend Crossing Lines, and I'm sad I didn't get more of it.

That's that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week.

Good doggy...

Late last night, I finished Cujo. You know, the novel written by Stephen King and published in 1981?

Okay, so it's been 38 years since publication, but that didn't bother me at all, after all, I lived through the 80's and remember it fairly well.

I'll try to avoid spoilers, but the basic premise is so well known by now that I'm assuming you know the central issue of the story is a dog with rabies. A St. Bernard in fact, and apparently one of almost world record size. The titular dog, Cujo, is mentioned to weigh 200 pounds (90kg) and the world record dog was 210 pounds (95kg).

The novel is set in King's fictional town of Castle Rock, in Maine during an unusually hot summer. There is a small cast of characters and a large part of the book concerns their interconnected lives. The rest of the book is about a couple of people trapped in a hot car with the dog trying to kill them.

I found that from the start, King weaves a very compelling narrative. Even though it's essentially just normal life, he makes it interesting without bogging you down in pointless detail. Everything has a meaning, even if it might take the entire book to understand it.

The characters are incredibly believable, with their hopes and fears realistically portrayed. Good or bad, you know there are people like this, even though you might not have met any. Likewise, the environment works.

The book is set in 1980, but that really doesn't matter that much. I really don't think it would have mattered all that much if the story was set today. Yeah, the whole trapped-in-a-car scenario would be different with mobile phones, but those run out of battery and not everyone keeps an adapter in their car.

So, what is my verdict? Cujo is a very enjoyable book. Before going into it, I knew as much as I mentioned above, but the book is something that has to be experienced. Even if I broke down the whole thing, you would still have to read it to really get it. I did find towards the end that there was a coincidence too many, but that's about the worst thing I can say about it.

Is it a horror novel though? Depends on your definition of horror. There is no murderous supernatural clown here, nor is there magic or vampires, but a 200 pound rabid dog hell-bent on ripping you to shreds is pretty damn scary. It's a more mundane and down to earth story compared to some of King's other works, but a very easy and good read.

If you haven't read it, and you're in the mood for something tense and miserable (in a good way), then read Cujo.

That's it for this time. Until next time, have a great week and stay away from rabid dogs!