Josh Henry
Former Host
Former Segment Host
Former UpStream Contributor
Josh has come from the Brazilian wilds to bring yet another perspective on the gaming industry as well as today's up-and-coming technology. You may have seen him at GameStop over the past two years, or if you're a lover of Largo High School Productions, you have seen him up on stage doing his thing the last 4 years. On occasion, you can catch him on Xbox Live mowing down zombies in Left 4 Dead or making it rain on Madden 2010.
Recent UpStream Articles
A Story About Fable.
posted Sunday Oct 24, 2010 by Josh Henry
As you may or may not know, Lionhead Studio's game Fable III is about to hit the shelves this Tuesday. I have some good news for those of you that are planning on buying the game and some kind of good news for those of you that pre-ordered the game. First, the kind of good news. If you were wise enough to pre-order Fable III you will get an exclusive chance to make another mark on the world of Albion, by creating your very own villager! The only problem is that they (Lionshead) have been having some technical difficulties when it comes to creating said villager. While there have been a few slight detours here and there it seems as though it is up and running again, but we will only be able to tell if the character creator really works once the game launches this Tuesday. In case you are wondering if you can still get your hands on a redeemable code to creator a villager, the good news is that you can; just make sure you make your character by the expiration date of November 23rd.
For the really good news, hit the break.
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permalinkToday's Forecast...Blizzcon!
posted Sunday Oct 24, 2010 by Josh Henry
This week Blizzard fans everywhere spent copious amounts of money to travel across the country to attend Blizzcon. I am here to weed through all of the fluff, to bring you some information that you might be interested in hearing. I am sure some of you out there are still anticipating Blizzard's third installment in the Diablo series and it just so happen that we recieved a lot of info regarding the highly anticipated game. Ranging from information about one of the new classes known as the Demon Hunter, or the fact that Diablo III will indeed be featuring Player Versus Player content (OMGZ AWESOME). If you wanna see a more in depth analysis of the pvp you can go here and check it out or if
information on the demon hunter is what you are after check this out.
Given that it is Blizzcon it is only natural and to be expected that we get some sort of info about their newest expansion to their life sucking mmo World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. While we didn't get to see much we did get to see the opening cinematic, which you can check out below. Or if video's aren't your cup of tea' you can check out these bad boys.
Now before you go sayin "But Josh! Didn't they say anything about StarCraft 2?" Silly listener/reader! Of course they did. If you have, like myself, been playing StarCraft 2 lately you may notice that there have been a lot of mod's being created based off of other popular game series some examples being Starjeweled, based of the casual puzzle game Bejeweled, if that doesn't float your boat and you are a fan of food networks Iron Chef, how about you try out Auir Chef? Those are just a few of the mods that were on the show floor at Blizzcon that will be coming to the game soon. So as you can see a lot went down at Blizzcon this year and if you have any questions feel free to contact any of us on the show.
read more...Final Fantasy XIV Review
posted Sunday Sep 26, 2010 by Josh Henry
As you probably know, Jon and I got the chance to play Final Fantasy XIV and today we will give our initial review of Square Enix's newest MMO. We will be evaluating the game using several criteria including: community, the learning curve, content and graphics. A little overview of FFXIV for you guys given by Wikipedia:
Final Fantasy XIV Online, is the fourteenth installment in the Final Fantasy series, due for release on September 30, 2010 for Microsoft Windows and March 2011 for PlayStation 3. The game is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and is developed and published by Square Enix. The game takes place in a land called Hydaelyn, mainly in a region named Eorzea, which will have a contemporaneously aesthetic blend of science fiction and classic fantasy elements.
Lets get this party rolling, shall we?
Community: 3 Sick Chocobos out of 5
When I first logged into the game I was surrounded by people of all shapes and sizes, which actually got me excited because the game already had such a big community....or so I thought. Now while the game itself has a decent sized population I never really felt intrigued or compelled to engage with other players. The game was easily soloable so there really was no need for joining a group, unless you wanted to up the difficulty of your quests and get better loot. Usually, when you are playing an MMO you see groups running around everywhere completing quests together. This may be because they are playing with their friends or they actually NEED to work with others to accomplish a goal. While playing FFXIV however I saw no groups and outside of the tavern areas I saw no interaction or mingling between players. Now because this is a new MMO we will give it the benefit of the doubt and give the community 3 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Learning Curve: 2 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Back in the day MMOs would throw its new players into the world and hope that they adapt and survive (Star Wars Galaxies or EVE Online). The new MMOs however are very easy to just pick up and play. While FFXIV does have tutorials and in game guides (don't forget manuals either..but who reads those anyway?) I would still say that the game could be considered a hybrid of the old system and the new. The user interface or UI is pretty simplistic but it can be pretty confusing when it comes to interacting with your surroundings. In a traditional MMO you would interact with almost everything with the simple click of your mouse. For FFXIV however, the quickest way I could figure out to interact with quest givers or players in general was using the tilda key to bring up your options and then find the option you are looking for. The hotkey system can be just as confusing if you have never played a Final Fantasy Online game. Usually you would be able drag and drop abilities into your hotkey bar, but in FFXIV you have to open up your spell book, pick the appropriate spell, right click the spell, and choose to equip it to your off hand or main hand hotkey bar. Because of how confusing the system can be for new players we are gonna give this 2 Sick Chocbos out of 5.
Game Content: 3 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Content is so important to MMOs these days because the goal of developers in the genre is to have enough compelling content to keep subscribers interested in their game. Because when it comes down to it subscribers are what generate revenue so that the developers can continue to pump out patches and content updates, otherwise there is no hope. FFXIV, at least in my eyes, has a lack of content. One of the most annoying factors of your average MMO is the constant repetition players have to go through when questing. The basic formula for a quest in modern day MMO's is simply go collect x amount of this and go kill x amount of that. FFXIV has decided not to break from the established tradition and follow suit with its fellow MMOs. The other problem with the content is that IT IS SO REPETITIVE. You literally do the same quest over and over until you either die of boredom or move onto the next level tier of quests. So with all this considered I am going to give the content 3 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Graphics: 4 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Graphically speaking, if you have a computer that can run it, FFXIV on all high settings is visually stunning. The world itself is filled with vibrant colors and little details that truly make the game something to marvel at...graphically speaking at least. Now my computer wouldn't be considered a "high end" computer, but I can still run the game on medium settings and have the it run smoothly. That is what is most impressive about the graphics engine. My only pet peeve however is the lack of options for running the game on fullscreen. Depending on what resolution you want to play on will have the choice of playing fullscreen or in windowed mode, and for some of the resolutions windowed mode is your only option. But with that aside I would give the graphics of FFXIV 4 Sick Chocobos out of 5
Overall:3 Sick Chocobos out of 5
If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series you would probably be content playing this game and have no problems whatsoever. But looking at it from a gamer's perspective this game is disappointingly average. While the graphics for the game are stunning (if you have the computer that can run it) overall we are going to give FFXIV: 3 Sick Chocobos out of 5.
read more...A.P.B.: Dead and Gone
posted Sunday Sep 19, 2010 by Josh Henry
All Points Bulletin was originally conceived as being a groundbreaking game, with an endless amount of potential and in most respects it was. Specifically, it seems to have broken new ground in the shortest turnaround time between launch and closure clocking in at 79 days. And while there may be a ray of hope after all, it's going to be hard for the game's players to love again after having their expectations so suddenly deflated. Whether you liked the game or not, it's sad news that the city streets have been forcibly emptied so quickly.
The true crime in my opinion is that the potential of the game will probably never be realized. The game had one of the most in depth customization systems ever seen in the mmo world and an innovative revenue model this is an MMO that should not be forgotten. I really wish we could have got the chance to try it for ourselves a little further down the road once the game had gotten its footing down, but it looks like that that'll never be possible.
While APB's future fate - and any possible resurrection - looks bleak, Hi-Rez has given a word to the wise to the game's players: come over and give Global Agenda a try. To make the offer an even more tempting one, the studio is providing a decent discount on the purchase of Global Agenda through September 24th. GA will cost just $20.99 during this time period, and that fee covers both the cost of the MMO and unlimited play. Not too shabby, eh? Prospective purchasers will need to buy through Global Agenda's online store and use the code "LongLiveShooterMMOs" to take advantage of this special. Global Agenda is a game that I myself have played and found it extremely funny, although I only played the first ten levels and had a blast. One can only imagine how much better the game gets if you stick with it into the higher levels.
read more...Starcraft 2 Balancing patch is here!
posted Sunday Sep 19, 2010 by Josh Henry
The faction balancing and new features outlined last month for Starcraft 2 will be implemented this coming Tuesday, September 21, when Blizzard updates the successful strategy title to version 1.1. These new features include support for NVIDIA 3D Vision displays, left-handed hotkey options and new map editor functionality. The full list of features and balance changes can be read over on Battle.net.
The patch will go live during a maintenance period starting Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. until 11 a.m. PDT, at which time the game's online multiplayer modes will be temporarily offline. If you've got a score to settle with a distant rival, you probably shouldn't schedule your grudge match during that downtime - not that any of you are awake that early. As far as how the community is recieving the patch, it seems as though everyone is extremely happy with the majority of the updates. I myself as a protoss player am a bit worried but I will just have to adapt and overcome.
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