FirstSpear
December 8th, 2010Review for H.A.W.X. 2
December 8th, 2010
H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade flight game. Unlike a simulator, which tries to replicate the realities of flight, the arcade flight genre simplifies the process to make it more enjoyable for a wider audience. Luckily, this is the way I prefer it. Who needs reality slapping them in the face while shooting down enemy craft or doing multiple barrel rolls at 1400+ miles per hour? Not me, and it makes for quite the action packed experience.
There are several modes available in H.A.W.X 2: Story, Free Flight, Survival, Arcade, and Multiplayer.
Story mode takes place in the near future and is told from the perspective of pilots from three countries: USA, UK, and Russia, and their involvement in quelling insurgent and Russian Ultranationalist activities across the globe. This is somewhat familiar territory for recent military-based games, but it still works. The inclusion of Ghost Recon and references to other Clancy games is also a nice touch. Most missions involve dogfighting in fighter planes, but the occasional UAV, recon, bombing, or AC-130 mission adds a bit of variety. After completing the entire story, you can play custom versions of the missions using any unlocked planes and loadouts you have. It’s pretty fun to tear through earlier missions in an F-22 Raptor or A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Free Flight is simply a threat-free way to try out your new planes in any of the game’s environments.
Survival is, what else, a survival mode. You pick your plane and fight off waves of increasingly difficult enemies until you finally lose. It’s a good way to gauge a plane’s abilities in combat situations.
Arcade is one of the more interesting modes. Every story mission is represented, but also has a certain restriction placed on it. This can be anything from being allowed only your cannon to being forced to play an entire mission in assistance OFF mode. These missions then become either fairly simple or frustratingly difficult.
Finally, multiplayer allows for other players to face off in matches. Sadly, I wasn’t able to find a match online, so I can’t properly review this portion of the game.
In-game environments look incredible. Thanks to GeoEye, every location is highly detailed and are a real treat to view, especially in HD. Planes are also equally detailed, but the human models and non aerial vehicles leave a bit to be desired. Of course, the main focus in the game is the planes, so detailed people and ground forces may be asking a bit too much.
The controls are simple enough. There are buttons for acceleration and breaking, yaw, flare release, target acquisition, and your weapons. There is also assistance OFF mode, which removes the game’s limitations on plane movement, allowing you to perform impressive maneuvers at a greater risk of stall. In this mode the camera also zooms way out. When paired with the increased maneuverability, this can make combat a bit more difficult. Difficulty, of which there are three levels, also affects plane movement.
The game features a rewards system. Defeating enemies and completing missions nets you experience points which raise your in-game level. Certain actions also complete challenges, which often reward you with additional experience. You can use points earned while leveling up to purchase new weapons packs, planes, and overall upgrades. Continuously using a plane will also raise the mastery of that plane, which allows for greater levels of customization.
So, to buy or not to buy? I say go for it. I found it to be enjoyable, and the multiple modes and unlocks can keep you busy for a while. Plus, F-22 Raptors! ‘Nuff said.
[Review was done using the Xbox 360 version]
-Tactical FanBoy
Sniper Bladeworks Presents…The E-Tool
December 7th, 2010Finally an alternative to that dreadful Chinese E-Tool profiled earlier this year. Designed for Mike Hawke, co-host of “Man, Woman, Wild” on the Discovery Channel, the new E-Tool from Sniper Bladeworks is a no nonsense tool built with survival and field chores in mind. It features a solid handle, sharpened edges, a flat pounding surface, and circular cutout for small trees and shrubbery. Word is that Fox Knives USA will handle the full-production models.
Mad Duo Reviews the Craptastic Movie “Skyline”
December 7th, 2010Skyline: the Big Screen Version of Getting a Urethral Swab
You should definitely go see the sci-fi thriller Skyline…but only if you gouge your eyes out with a fork beforehand, however, or intend to watch a private viewing with all the female AVN award winners for the year. Barring one of these two contingencies, avoid it.
It’s our fault, really, that we’re even able to write this review. We read a preview a while back about Skyline that described it as “Blackhawk Down meets War of the Worldsâ€. Foolishly, we went by that description (which was apparently written by someone who watched an early showing of the movie while doped up on PCP, immediately after suffering traumatic brain injury) and of course the previews—which, predictably, are actually better to watch than the movie itself, because at least you won’t have lost an hour and a half of your life nor paid any money for involuntary IQ reduction.
We’ll give you a rundown. There’s an artist guy you’re supposed to like but have a hard time identifying with, with a girlfriend who is kinda hot but isn’t hot enough to salvage any of this movie’s scenes, ever (not her fault, no one would be), meets up with a smug musician guy we’re supposed to also kind of identify with because he’s made it big and is their best friend (or at least the best friend of the poor bastard named after the Subway spokesman). This guy has a girlfriend that may be the only decently cast character in the whole movie—she’s a fake-baked over-tanned shallow bitchy blonde, and actually manages to pull that off. As or the other characters…
Actually, you know what? The characters don’t matter, because they all suck. The dialogue is stilted and either pallid or melodramatic, depending upon the specific scene, and there’s only about 8 or 10 of them in the whole movie anyway. The one character that seems like he’s not a pussy and is the kind we’d like to be pulling for in a class warfare or documentary situation is grossly overshadowed by the trite one-liners someone was paid way too much money to write. Now, the monsters are kind of cool, if they look cobbled together from a couple other sci-fi movies or three, and if you don’t mind the noises they make (sort of a strange combination of Transformers, the robot squid from The Matrix and the giant robots in that last Terminator movie). Unfortunately, cool monster scenes can’t counterbalance a plot line and script that wouldn’t make the cut in a Saturday night SyFy flick or even a Ben Ten episode.
To be fair, there are some good fight scenes with the Air Force, Army and Marines…but wait, if you took some of the scenes from Independence Day and replaced the F-18s with stealth aircraft and UAVs they would be pretty much the same. Same with the ones from War of the Worlds. Of course, the giant spaceships are cool…except they too are invulnerable to everything we’ve got in our arsenal (including nukes), though in this movie they don’t catch cold and you can’t upload a virus with a Macbook and shut ‘em down.
There are a couple of good scenes with Army and Marine grunts. At one point, for about a minute and a half, it was cool. They were rocking aliens with M4s, Barretts, mini-guns and AT4, though purists (or anyone with a brain) may take issue with the Marine NCO bellowing “Reload soldier!†at his Marines.
Don’t even bother renting this or queuing it on Netflix unless you just want it playing in the background while you play pool in the garage for background noise. Do not, upon pain of cinematic lobotomy, watch it and expect to enjoy it.
The two best parts of the movie were when the giant blue lightning vacuum cleaners suck a bunch of people up and when it’s finally over.
Luckily, they’re making a sequel already, which may do something to salvage the [spoiler] ending and the wondrous orange glowing brain. Maybe the hero-turned-alien can hook up with that shrimp-alien guy from District 9 and get a little face time in the upcoming Battle for LA…one can only hope. We thought about going to see it a second time to see if we just missed something of redeeming value, but…do you really need Chlamydia a second time to know it really sucks?
Mad Duo Out!
Solution To The .50 William Tell
December 6th, 2010Lately we’ve been getting a few e-mails asking about the authenticity of the infamous .50 cal William Tell video. Well, after seeing it was done by Youtube special effects guru freddiew, whose Time Crisis video I posted a while back, I knew it was nothing more than the clever use of special effects. It doesn’t even take that much digging to prove as much, as he posted the behind the scenes vid on his alternate channel.
Just goes to show how far you can go with a little special effects.
-Tactical FanBoy
New Combat Shirt from Poland
December 6th, 2010Polish company, SPECOPS has introduced a new combat shirt with a torso made from POLARTEC Power Dry FR material. Available in two versions, the standard model features NYCO IRR-treated shoulders and an FR version made from Tencate’s DEFENDER-M. For both models the shoulder pockets feature PALS webbing to accommodate small pouches. The elbows are reinforced with SUPERFABRIC ceramic laminates and are compatible with d3o shock-absorbing inserts.
The Paleo Solution
December 6th, 2010
“The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet” by Robb Wolf describes a method called Paleolithic dieting, which involves eating foods that closely mimic what our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed. In layman’s terms, this means no grains, dairy, or legumes of any kind but rather eating seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seafoods, and land animals, preferably organic and grass fed. Unlike many books on dieting, the technique is easily accessible and includes well-researched information on the benefits of paleo dieting, testimonials, a simple to follow 30 day meal and exercise plan, and even a bit of humor spread throughout.
I bring this to your attention because of the not so recent news about military personnel struggling with their weight and turning to methods such as liposuction and crash dieting to achieve their goals. I’m not claiming this as a definitive method for weight loss and long-term health, but like anything else it’s worth a shot. So pick up the book and follow it’s contents for a while. You might end up liking paleo dieting, or at least the results it brings.
-Tactical FanBoy
There Is An Underbarrel Flamethrower!
December 6th, 2010On my Black Ops Weapons article, I claimed that an underbarrel flamethrower never existed. However, one of our readers alerted me to a model that existed as early as WWII. Created by the Finns, it was an underbarrel mount for the M44 flamethrower which was used on the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. While not entirely like the underbarrel Flamethrower found in Black Ops, this proves the concept still has some basis in reality. Thanks!
-Tactical FanBoy
