Episode 4.01-”He That Believeth in Me”

Starbuck’s back! It’s true, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace is back, seemingly from the dead and with pictures of Earth and a new Viper to boot! However with no recollection of the more than two months that have passed since her “death” she falls under suspicion from nearly everyone. This had to be a Cylon trap right? Some kind of awful toaster trick to lure us to our doom. Remember what the hybrid told Kendra Shaw abourd the Base ship: “Kara Thrace will lead humanity to it’s end”.

So there’s that to deal with, not to mention the revelation of the Cylon sleepers hidden in the fleet. Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tori are all cylon skin-jobs but they are four of the fabled “Final Five”. This makes them different from the human-form models we’re familiar with. Different how? I’m not sure. During the battle at the beginning of the ep. Anders was unable to fire on a Raider even though he had it in his sights. That same Raider did a nifty 180 and scanned Sam with it’s evil red eye/scanner thingy and suddenly all the Raiders turned and left. Fight over. Not really WON, but over nonetheless.

Let’s not forget good ol Gaius Baltar however, there was no shortage of outrage as last season ended with him being found not guilty of crimes against humanity. That doesn’t mean he’s off the hook however. There are still plenty of folks in the fleet who’d love to see him dead. Fortunately for him there there is a new group of people out there who see him as a prophet/messiah figure and they help hide him away.

One of the newly devout followers of Baltar has a sick son and brings him to Gaius for help. Now I’m not sure if he was keeping up appearances for the people taking care of him or if he’s actually starting to believe in his own divinity but he prays over the sick boy and asks god to take his life instead. Of course later that very same boy is healed and the legend of Baltar grows a bit more. Ugh.

Kara meanwhile feels like the path to Earth is slipping from her grasp the farther the Fleet jumps from the nebula. Unfortunately, Roslin is hell-bent on following the eye of Jupiter and ignoring Starbuck so Kara is left with whet she sees as no choice and busts loose from the marines guarding her and sneaks up on the prez, gun drawn. Ooooohhh. Tense!

And that’s Episode one.

Episode 4.02-”Six of One”

Episode two picks up right where the last on left off. Starbuck has a nice gunpoint heart-to heart with Roslin that ends with Kara in the brig and getting crazier with every jump.

The Cylons are having some problems of their own nowadays. See they copied humans very well and I don’t think they knew what they were getting into. The seven models aren’t getting along like nice robots should. The 1’s, 4’s and 5’s (Cavil,Simon and Doral) are trying to “fix” the Raiders that failed to attack the humans in the last fight. Doing so effectively lobotomizes them making them more tools than actual Cylons. The 2’s,6’s and 8’s (Leoben, Natalie and Sharon) are of the mind that all Cylons, human form, Raider and Centurion alike are sentient and equal in Cylon society.

They vote. Having “boxed” the number 3’s they arrive at a deadlock. Cavil then reveals that one of the 8’s wants to vote against her “sisters” and breaks the tie. This is another first for the Cylons and things can clearly be seen to be changing within the Cylon command structure. So the “bad” Cylons go about fixing the raiders, meanwhile the “good” Cylons have some tricks up their sleeves as well, the Six, Boomer, and Leoben models have upgraded the Centurions and given them the gift of reason. The Centurions then learn exactly what Cavil has been doing to the raiders, and they’re not very happy about it. The toasters blow away Cavil and some of his cronies. Awesome.

Meanwhile Baltar and Tori have been getting to know each other better over a nice cup of SEX! That’s right Gaius is nailing Tori, completely unaware of course that she’s using him in an attempt to gain info on the “last” Cylon. Whether or not this will turn out to be anything or not remains to be seen.

Lee “Apollo” Adama is finally leaving Galactica for his new position in the Quorum of Twelve and along the way to the hangar deck he stops to say goodbye to Starbuck. Cue the kissing. Upon reaching the hangar Lee finds all his friends and family gathered for a grand sendoff. Tearful farewells and much clapping and back-thumping ensues.

Finally, as Kara seems to be going more and more batshit with each passing minute, Helo shows up to escort her to the Admiral. Adama surprises Starbuck by giving her a ship and a crew to help her on wer quest to find Earth. So Kara, Helo, Anders, Gaeta and a few others load up the Demetrius ( a sewage treatment freighter) and that’s the end of Episode 2. Sweet.

More next week folks.

GH

YES! The long-awaited return of the most awesome of sci-fi shows hit the airwaves last night on SciFi and boy oh boy let me tell you, it was frakkin’ sweet! I know you already know about last season’s big deals what with Starbuck’s “death” and return claiming to have been to Earth and whatnot; not to mention the big revelation of the identities of four of the “final five” Cylons.

I’m not going to go into what happened last in last night’s episode until next week’s post since I know not everyone out there has seen it and I’d be a huge dick if I spoiled it for them, but damn. Just damn. The first five minutes were jaw dropping! Where the hell did Starbuck go? Are Tigh, Anders, Tori and Tyrol really Cylons?

All questions will be answered in the final season, just don’t expect to see the whole run before the end of the year. Basically we’re down to about nine more episodes before they take another months-long break and I thought I ‘d keep everyone up to date on the BSG happenings in a weekly post, like I said, the actual info will be on the previous week’s ep to avoid spoilers so look for the recap here on Friday or Saturday nights.

Also I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you guys about your theories and predictions about the directions the show will take this year. Come on over to the Forums and let your opinions be heard. And finally, if for some reason you’ve not been watching the show and want a quick primer an the first three season’s worth of goodness head over to SciFi.com’s BSG site or just watch the 8 minute video “What the Frak is going on” right here.

A few weeks ago BioWare released the first of what will hopefully be many downloadable content packs for Mass Effect, the amazing sci-fi RPG on the 360. Awesome. So I thought I’d go ahead and put my two cents in on this one since Mass Effect is one of my current-gen faves. The short description is this: it’s a one-off mission about saving a planet from an Armageddon-style asteroid.

The new DLC adds about 90 minutes of gameplay and a new race for you codex-junkies out there. All in all it was a nifty addition to the game but not quite enough for me. I’d say if you have already played the game, maybe wait until the next DLC comes out and get them both then as it might make for a more satisfying use of 400 MS points (hell by then it might even be cheaper). Folks new to the game should definitely pick it up right away though as it adds some new chances for EXP and a pretty easy achievement.

G.H.

Gamer Hero Score: 8/10

If you tried to access Gamer Hero yesterday and got nothing, we apologize. Apparently, my web host - even with my recent upgrade to a dedicated server - can’t handle even 25k hits in one day. Weak. But yeah, I figure that now’s as good a time as any to continue our miniseries on starting your own gaming site - today’s topic is, of course, web hosting.

The main thing - and I can’t stress this enough - is research, research, research. I would’ve saved myself so much work, heartache, and wasted money if I’d put more time into reading forum & blog posts about various web hosts before I tried them. Try and find a company with a good reputation for honest billing, quick customer service, as little downtime as possible, and an accessible, friendly, and knowledgeable staff. Trust me, paying a bit more for a company with a better reputation will be worth it in the long run - I’ve learned this the hard way! Having the trust and peace of mind that your websites won’t randomly vanish into the ether is way more important than saving a few bucks. So yeah: research.

Halo 3 - everyone knows about this game already right? Well that’s OK, because I’m going to review it anyway. I know I’m not going to make any new friends by saying this, but I was a bit underwhelmed by this one. I know it’s probably just a result of year’s worth of hype and speculation but I’m gonna just say it, I wasn’t impressed.

Don’t get me wrong - I did enjoy the single-player campaign on the first trip through but the multi-player was over complicated coming from a Call Of Duty background. Also I am really just done with the whole Halo thing all together. I know I’m making enemies by saying that but this game didn’t break enough new ground to make an impression on this old, jaded gamer.

I get that the hardcore Halo-heads out there are just happy as pigs in shit to have more of their favorite shooter to play but that’s just the problem, it’s just MORE. More of the same gameplay we’ve been getting carpal-tunnel from since what 2001? I’m over it. Nowadays I’m looking for innovation in my games (still hard to come by) and a graphically updated version of a game I wasn’t that into when it was originally released seven friggin’ years ago just isn’t doin’ it for me.

The graphics are pretty good but you never see the Master Chief’s face so a shiny helmet is all you get. The characters whose faces you do see aren’t that impressive either. I’ve seen better voice matching on some Japanese RPG’s that are better than this. There’s also still the issue of texture pop-in that tends to take you out of the story. The enemies are poorly defined and are sadly just more of the same bad guys we’ve been killing for three games now.

The story in halo isn’t too bad if you’re a fan of overly cliched sci fi. I didn’t think I’d ever say this since I’m one of the biggest SF nerds around, but this one just didn’t do it for me. I guess it comes back to Master Chief not being a relatable character to me, and that is mostly due to his hidden face and the tired video game theme of the one man army saving the day. I’d say rent it from if you want to give it a shot. Don’t waste your sixty bucks on it until you try it though. Just to be safe.

I know that nothing pisses off a fan boy like a negative review of his favorite franchise so I’ll apologize to you folks now. I’m sorry, the Halo series has never really gotten me interested enough to give it the time that’s obviously required to get good at it. That being said I’ll admit to having my own guilty pleasures in gaming (Lego Star Wars, anyone?) so to fans of the series, more power to you, they made the game for you, not me. You go take on the flood, I’ll be over here killin’ Nazi’s. To each his or her own right?

The Gamer Hero

Gamer Hero Score: 6/10

Hey y’all, Zee here. So this post is kind of a departure from our usual all gaming, all the time programming, but I’ve been getting enough e-mails asking “how do I do what you guys are doing?” that I figured it was time to make a few how-to posts about starting your own blog. So consider this post the first of a series; I’ll be breaking it down a bit to tell everyone how you can create (and maybe even make a few bucks from) your very own gaming blog.

The first and most important step is obviously domain registration. I mean, you CAN get a free blog at BlogSpot or Xanga, but honestly… those are way harder to brand and thus keep readers coming back, so to me, domain registration is a necessary expense. Plus it’s only like $15 a year, on average, so it’s not really a huge purchase or anything (and by that I mean that you do have to renew your domain name yearly, but most registrars make that incredibly easy and painless).

Unless you immediately come up with an awesome & available domain that you can’t live without, I’d recommend spending a few days coming up with ideas before you go through with domain registration - remember, it has to be something you won’t get sick of in a few weeks. Assuming you’re in this for the long haul, a well-chosen domain name is critical to blogging success.

So that’s the first step! Easy, huh? Keep your eyes peeled for the next part of this ongoing series - and remember, if you do infact start a gaming-themed blog after reading these posts, feel free to contact us at GH and ask for a link trade - we’re always looking for more affiliates!

Ok so everyone knows that most movie or TV based games suck serious wind right? Right and as a rule that still holds pretty true even in today’s next-gen gaming world. So why even bother reviewing The Simpson’s Game at all? Because it’s one of the few (very few) TV licensed games that DOESN’T suck, that’s right it’s actually pretty good! That’s not to say that it doesn’t have it’s flaws but as a Simpson’s experience you really can’t go wrong here.

So let’s hit the basics here, graphically, this is one of the best conversions from two to three dimensions that any ‘toon has received. You’ll get to roam a beautifully rendered Springfield as all four Simpsons (Marge carries Maggie on her back), and interact with the town’s colorful (sorry) cast of characters. Even the face-mapping to the dialogue is pretty good, sometimes better than the show. So no complaints here.

Sound is another great aspect of this game. All of the voice cast from the show are here to bring the residents of Springfield to life, and you can expect to see all your favorites, yes even Ralph. The writing is sharp and does a very good job of poking fun not only at the show but the gaming industry as a whole as well. You’ll collect video game cliches throughout the game reminding you that the developers were very aware of what they were creating.

Which leads to the gameplay. It’s not bad. It’s not GREAT, but it’s not bad. There are times when the camera gets in the way and the lack of vehicles is sorely felt. Any gamer worth his or her salt will find conventional gaming elements that range from classic platforming to GTA-style sandbox play, a breeze to pick up an master in about two minutes. That’s not to say that it’s a bad thing, they just didn’t break any new ground here.

So here’s what it comes down to folks, if you’re a fan of The Simpsons, get this game, you’ll love it, I did. If you’re a casual gamer looking for a light romp through a familiar world, rent it from GameFly. And if you’re a hardcore gamer looking for a challenge, you might want to look elsewhere. Just remember, easy games equals easy achievements.

The Gamer Hero

Gamer Hero Score: 7/10

The gaming is getting heavy around here at the Gamer Hero homestead, I’ve upgraded my GameFly account to three games out at a time and I bought Saint’s Row. Plus there’s the little game dropping this week, today in fact, called Army Of Two, all of this is creating a bit of creative backup in the Hero’s brain so keep your eyes peeled for a review of The Simpsons Game and Saint’s Row this week. We’ll also take a look at another useful gamer site for 360 owners called 360achievements.org

I hope to get Army Of Two soon so we can all bask in the co-op goodness together, but who knows what GameFly’s gonna send? For now just get a look at the videos of this sweet new title from EA. Oh yeah and this…

Get to the choppah!

The Gamer Hero

Oh man, where did the idea for this game come from? I mean this is one dark and creepy em-effer of a game. 2K studios really out did themselves on this one. I’ve only had a working Xbox 360 for a few months but I’ve played a pretty good variety of games in that time and I have no qualms about placing this game at the top of the list in terms of quality.

First off let me say that this is one of only a few games that I’ve played that truly delivered on the “next gen” gaming experience. Every aspect of BioShock has been executed with the utmost of care and attention to detail. The first thing you’ll notice is the amazing graphics, I mean just looking at this game is a feast for the eyes. The dark, brooding nearly derelict underwater city of Rapture takes on a life of it’s own as you progress. You’ll find yourself searching every nook and cranny to find just a few more dollars to spend.

The sound in this title is probably my favorite aspect of the game (and that’s saying something). From the crazed ravings of the splicers (what’s left of the inhabitants of the city) to the low, whale-song moans of the Big Daddies heard from afar, creepiness abounds in Rapture. Then there’s the music. The game is set in 1960 so the soundtrack sounds like a tea-party at granny’s house (if granny and all her friends were insane). Awesome.

Gameplay is a half-and-half mix of standard FPS fare and “magic” powers gained from gene-splicing. The controls are tight and responsive but in today’s gaming market that’s to be expected. But BioShock does everything so well it’s worth noting anyway. Upgradeable weapons and powers lend a bit of role playing elements and the progression of upgrades is balanced and well executed.

Rarely in games do you find a true mystery based story (or at least one that you can’t figure out in the first five minutes), but this on will keep you guessing right through the final act. The story may be a bit confusing at first but the urgency conveyed by the voice acting will keep you hooked. I want to give you a good idea of what the story is about, but I really think I’d be doing you a disservice by giving it away. Suffice to say that it’s riveting, it’s creepy, and by the end it’s mind blowing.

I know this reads more like an ad for the game than a review, but I truly am hard pressed to find anything to gripe about when talking about BioShock. There is no question that this game deserved all the critical praise it received, multiple gaming sources touted it as game of the year including the Spike Video Game Awards and G4TV’s XPlay. I don’t know what else to tell you folks, if you own a 360 you need to own this game. If you can’t swing the $60 price tag, grab it used from Amazon (running around $30 now) or rent it from Gamefly. You won’t regret it, I promise.

The Gamer Hero

Gamer Hero Score: 10/10

Remember the good old days when games cost around 30 bucks new and like 2 bucks to rent? Well I’m sorry to say that those days are looong behind us. Now we as gamers have to deal with skyrocketing console costs and unreasonably priced software and peripherals. The market for used games has gone through the roof as more and more of your average gamers find themselves unable to afford that hot new release. I know how it is. It sucks. Hard.

Well have no fear fellow gamers the solution to our dilemma is here! It’s called GameFly and it’s one of the best services to spawn from the internet in well, ever. I know you’ve heard of this before but listen this is a great service here. I joined and have been nothing but pleased with it ever since.

You go to the website and register, input what systems you own and pick which games you want to play from a huge list (they have everything). The choices you make appear in your GameQ which keeps track of the games you want to rent. The games at the top of your Q will be the first to be mailed. It only takes a few days to get the games in the mail (depending on your subscription level you can have one or two games out at a time).

When the games arrive, play to your little heart’s content since there are no late fees. Keep the game as long as you need to beat it (or get sick of it) then send it back in the included postage-paid envelope and the next game on your Q will be sent. GameFly even has a deal with the post office that allows them to know when a game has been recieved at the P.O. so they can expedite your game turnaround. Also they have recently added a shipping center in Florida to help with rising demand. That makes three shipping centers including the California and Pennsylvania locations. They even say there will be more to come. Sweet.

The prices range from 15 to 25 bucks a month depending on how many games you want to have out at once. So unless you’re one of those types that has to OWN a copy of every game he plays, give this shit a shot. At the very least it’ll help you avoid dropping 60 bucks on a turd. Oh and by the way, the last post I made was about the 360Voice site and their challenges, well one of the prizes in said challenges is a year subscription to GameFly so now you have NO reason not to try it. Just do it.

Don’t say I never hook you up.

The Gamer Hero