Titanfall Review Update

I have bad news for all you Xbox 360 owners (Including myself) out there who were looking forward to finally purchasing and playing the new hit video game; Titanfall, we will have to wait another 2 weeks (After the 1st delay, so 3 weeks as of the time of this posting) to experience the new action-packed, parkour shooter.

Below you can find a quote from Polygon, a video game blog:

"Titanfall's Xbox 360 version, originally scheduled to launch on March 25, has been delayed to April 8, the game's maker announced.

According to a post on the game's official page, "we see a few things that can be made even better, so we're giving Bluepoint Games [the studio responsible for Titanfall's Xbox 360 version] a little more time to do that and deliver an epic Titanfall experience for Xbox 360 players.
"We appreciate everyone's patience as we get the last details right," the post added."

Source: Polygon.com

While it's obvious that upon hearing this news yesterday, I don't buy their reasoning for delaying the game.  I'd like to go with the theory that Microsoft is still trying to push more Xbox One consoles onto the consumer and also to make March's NDP (A monthly report of video game sales for North America) numbers look better for their investors/shareholders and other 3rd parties as well as the NDP for April.  (Since the Xbox 360 version of the game is coming out next month now...)

While I and other gamers have no solid evidence to back up this claim, I don't think that Bluepoint Games can really do much in the next 3 weeks besides making the day 1 patch of the game better because the game already went gold. (In the video game industry, that means that the game is done)

In the long run, none of this will really matter because I still intend on playing the game on my Xbox 360.  I do not plan on purchasing a Xbox One until maybe next year if they announce a price drop for the console as well as the inevitable redesign.

End rant.

Game Review: Yoshi's New Island (3DS)

***This is my first game review so any feedback is welcome to help me improve in the future!***

 
Game Description:  
Yoshi's New Island was released on March 14th for North America and Europe and March 15th for Australia on the Nintendo 3DS handheld system.

The game is a successor to the 1995 game "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island" (For the Nintendo Super Nintendo) and the 2006 game "Yoshi's Island DS". (For the Nintendo DS)


Game play:
The game play focuses on controlling Yoshi characters who must escort Baby Mario through a series of levels. Like similar Yoshi games, the game features a hand-drawn art style, with level designs and backgrounds stylized as oil paintings, watercolors, and crayon drawings.

The player can become transform Yoshi into different vehicles such as an airplane in order to reach secret areas of a level or progress through the level to reach the end goal.  The 1995 game also had this feature and players should be familiar with both the controls and how to use them.


Music/Sound:
The game features both cutesy sound effects and music which goes well together with the style of graphics of the game and level design.  Below you can listen to one of the many songs from the game.

None of the music is quite memorable such as other games like the Final Fantasy, Mario, Zelda or Pokemon series but the music is still quite good.

 

Re-playability:
On each level, there are hidden flowers and other collectables for the player to search for and collect.  Doing so unlocks secret stages.  After that, there is not really much else for the player to do except play with a friend in co-op created levels.


Overall:
While a sequel to the 1995 game is appreciated, the long wait does not exactly live up to the hype and hopes from fans of that game and the DS game.  Still, the game offers both familiar game play and graphics which players of the games can appreciate.


The Verdict: 
Gameplay - 8/10
Music/Sound - 7/10
Re-playability - 6/10

Overall - 7/10 "Good"


Other links:
Official Website
Yoshi's New Island Wikipedia article
Official Game Info

Prepare for Titanfall!

It's that time of year again where the "must-own" video game is about to be released!  In just two days (For North Americans), Titanfall will be released for both the Xbox One and PC while Xbox 360 owners will have to wait another two weeks to purchase the game.  (Like me..) :(

The concept for Titanfall is simple, yet, fun.  You can either play as a pilot (Fast, nimble and sneaky) OR you can call in your Titan (Similar to a mech) and get inside to dominate your opponents.  Titans vary because they have three different forums, discussed below:

The Atlas: "As a multi-role Titan, the Atlas excels where all other models fall short.  The Atlas represents the state-of-the-art in weapons platforms and provides good protection and increased mobility over the Ogre chassis.  Whether the mission demands reconnaissance, rapid assault, fire support, tactical support, or a combination of all these, Atlas frontline elements are dependable, powerful, and importantly, get results."

 
The Ogre: "There are no two ways about it - the Ogre is engineered to be the ultimate battle tank, in Titan's clothing.  As a consequence, the Ogre places a premium on its armor and offensive capabilities.  When your mission demands maximum survivability, the Ogre is the only battle platform which consistently out-performs, out-shines, out-lasts and outlives everything else on the battlefield."

The Stryder: "Survivability through speed and agility is the key to the Stryder's considerable battlefield prowess.  Faster than every other Titan chassis on the market today, the Stryder's mobility is the culmination of many years of award-winning R&D into linear and rotary actuator technology.  Of course, even with this agility advantage, the Stryder does not sacrifice any of the superior features your mission has come to depend on in the Hammond Robotics line of Titan battle platforms.

Now that you know all of the Titans which are available to pick from, who will you play as?  A pilot or Titan?  Once I get my hands on the game (Which I pre-ordered last month), I will follow up with a review blog post!  Stay tuned!

Find out more information on the game at: http://www.titanfall.com/

Titanfall E3 2013 videos:

It's officially the first day of reading week for college and university students!

Like any student in college or university, the workload tends to start off as small and manageable.  Then, as the weeks go by...it starts to pile on and on and on...until you're completely overwhelmed and have several assignments to work on, presentations to create and tests to study for.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Tim, how does one properly manage and balance both their social and school life?"  Well, you're in luck, I'll be going over some of my personal tips on how to balance your college workloads.  (This also applies to university too!)

Tip #1:

Write everything down in the format of a list - Why?  Well, it's important to see what is due and when and that leads us to my second tip...







Tip #2:

Prioritize - Priority is key when it comes to manageable your college or university workload because let's say that you have 3 assignments due the same week.  You should be asking yourself "What is due first?  Which will take more effort to complete?"

Doing so will allow you to focus on more time-consuming assignments and also let you work your way down.



Tip #3:

Get help! - While there's nothing wrong with being a lone wolf when it comes to school, it's always good to make friends and in turn, help each other on each others workloads because you may be good at one class while weak in another.



And there you have it!  Three of my personal tips on how to properly manage your college/university workload!  Do you have any tips?  Share them!  I'd love to hear yours!

The Weather...

Hi all...

Sorry I haven't posted a new blog post in almost a week...been pretty busy with working on assignments and preparing for presentations.  You know, same old, same old.

Now, moving onto the discussion for this blog post, I heard that it's going to start snowing a bit tonight and then it'll continue to get worse while I sleep and well into tomorrow morning...

While I will admit that Winter is my favorite season of them all, this Winter has been particularly brutal in terms of not the amount of snow that we've gotten over here, but the bitter cold.

On the topic of Winter, I also read an article that the groundhog saw it's shadow so that means that Winter will stick around for the next 6 weeks but remember, this is for the Americans.  For us Canadians, Winter will probably last until the end of April, haha!

Hang in there everyone!

That Winter feeling!

Ah Canada, where almost half the year is cold and where hockey is our sport.

This morning when I woke up and looked out the window, there wasn't THAT much snow.  I also heard on the radio that the buses for most (all?) school boards were cancelled meaning that exams were pushed back till Wednesday.  (I sure wish we got snow days in college...)

I then trekked over ONE HOUR in the blistering cold to get to class.  (Usually only takes 30-35 minutes to get to the campus)  Let's just say that today wasn't that good for me, here's hoping that tomorrow is tho!

The site which I use to check the weather is The Weather Network!

Working on my resume

Hey everyone, how's it going?

I'm currently working on updating my resume to bring to a resume workshop which will take place during my Monday afternoon class on February 3rd.

I actually quite enjoy the class because I am learning many useful things and tips which I am sure that I'll be utilizing in the future as well as life in general.  While I've never been satisfied with the current state of my resume, it's gotten quite a few revisions over the years since I created it back in high school.  I plan on taking it to the career centre (Click here for more info!) located on my campus and I hope to have it fully updated and edited so I can start to apply to jobs in the near future!

I mean, it's never too early to start that, no?

Well, that's all that I have to say for now, see ya!