NiniaPimp Magazine

It’s often hard to tell the difference between one year’s MLB 2K and the next. Just about every aspect of this year’s 2K Sports take on the national pastime is the same as last year’s 2K Sports take on the national pastime. Some minor improvements on the field make for more realistic games, the player-ratings system has been upgraded, a new throwing meter is used when fielding, and some of the visuals have been fine-tuned. But other than that, this is just a baby step forward for the series.

Chicks dig the long ball, men fear the beard.

With all that said, MLB 2K11 is still a very good baseball game. This new game rehashes everything that made last year’s edition perhaps the best in the history of the series. Modes of play have been carried over with few noteworthy changes. My Player mode still lets you create a pro and role-play him from AA to the majors, earning skill points through being able to take part in every at-bat, pitch, and fielding attempt. Little work has been done to improve depth, though. In-game challenges are pretty much the same. Skill advancement is the same. Even the generic career advice offered on the menu screen is the same. It’s now a little harder to make it to the bigs, due to added criteria like having to achieve ratings in a range of specific skill categories before getting a phone call. Just knocking the cover off the ball for a few weeks isn’t good enough anymore. Skill points are freely handed out for about everything you do in games, however, so even with these added hurdles, it isn’t all that arduous to make it to the show.

Franchise mode still lets you take over an entire team and try to get deep into October for years into the future. A few adjustments have been made, mainly to injury tracking; players can now come down with minor nagging problems that reduce their effectiveness. You now need to make more managerial decisions, deciding whether your starter at 85 percent is a better bet than his backup at full health. MLB Today mode lets you track the real pros and play games day by day as the season progresses from spring training through the World Series. Other standard options let you get into exhibitions, online matches and leagues, a home-run derby, training competitions, and so on. The overall feature package is identical to last year, so if you’re familiar with the series, you know exactly what to expect. About the only noteable upgrade is stable and almost lag-free online play (there is an almost imperceptible delay when batting on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so you have to swing a split second earlier in comparison to taking cuts offline), which is a huge improvement over the matchmaking bugs that made it tough to find games a year ago.

Your dreams of putting on the pinstripes can finally come true. Warning: they’re the Florida Marlins pinstripes.

A handful of minor refinements combine to make the diamond action more realistic in MLB 2K11. At-bats have been tweaked in subtle ways to provide more authentic pitcher-batter showdowns. It’s easier to read pitches this year in the batter’s box. AI pitchers are more authentic and can’t paint corners as robotically as they did last year. In other words, they throw more balls. As a result, you can work counts effectively, fight off tough pitches, and hang in there for walks. Running on the basepaths is also more accurate now. Last year, it was pretty much impossible to steal bases, or even move ahead on a hit and run without nailing a solid single or better. Now, it’s still tough, but it’s at least possible to swipe a bag every so often if you get a great jump. Pitching pretty much stays the course. Twirling and twisting the right stick to throw different pitches remains as accurate and innovative as ever. Pitchers respond a little more dramatically to pressure now, though, as the gamepad throbs and the cursor shakes with runners on. At times, this is a bit much, as when you see an experienced World Series winner like Josh Beckett practically having a nervous breakdown on the rubber after giving up a homer and a double in the first inning of a game in April.

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It’s often hard to tell the difference between one year’s MLB 2K and the next. Just about every aspect of this year’s 2K Sports take on the national pastime is the same as last year’s 2K Sports take on the national pastime. Some minor improvements on the field make for more realistic games, the player-ratings system has been upgraded, a new throwing meter is used when fielding, and some of the visuals have been fine-tuned. But other than that, this is just a baby step forward for the series.

6304198The low camera angle makes him look like a real giant.None

With all that said, MLB 2K11 is still a very good baseball game. This new game rehashes everything that made last year’s edition perhaps the best in the history of the series. Modes of play have been carried over with few noteworthy changes. My Player mode still lets you create a pro and role-play him from AA to the majors, earning skill points through being able to take part in every at-bat, pitch, and fielding attempt. Little work has been done to improve depth, though. In-game challenges are pretty much the same. Skill advancement is the same. Even the generic career advice offered on the menu screen is the same. It’s now a little harder to make it to the bigs, due to added criteria like having to achieve ratings in a range of specific skill categories before getting a phone call. Just knocking the cover off the ball for a few weeks isn’t good enough anymore. Skill points are freely handed out for about everything you do in games, however, so even with these added hurdles, it isn’t all that arduous to make it to the show.

Franchise mode still lets you take over an entire team and try to get deep into October for years into the future. A few adjustments have been made, mainly to injury tracking; players can now come down with minor nagging problems that reduce their effectiveness. You now need to make more managerial decisions, deciding whether your starter at 85 percent is a better bet than his backup at full health. MLB Today mode lets you track the real pros and play games day by day as the season progresses from spring training through the World Series. Other standard options let you get into exhibitions, online matches and leagues, a home-run derby, training competitions, and so on. The overall feature package is identical to last year, so if you’re familiar with the series, you know exactly what to expect. About the only notable upgrade is stable and almost lag-free online play (there is an almost imperceptible delay when batting on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so you have to swing a split second earlier in comparison to taking cuts offline), which is a huge improvement over the matchmaking bugs that made it tough to find games a year ago.

If you hit the ball into the giant soda bottle, it’s 10 runs. If you hit it into the giant glove, it’s 10 outs. Or not.

A handful of minor refinements combine to make the diamond action more realistic in MLB 2K11. At-bats have been tweaked in subtle ways to provide more authentic pitcher-batter showdowns. It’s easier to read pitches this year in the batter’s box. AI pitchers are more authentic and can’t paint corners as robotically as they did last year. In other words, they throw more balls. As a result, you can work counts effectively, fight off tough pitches, and hang in there for walks. Running on the basepaths is also more accurate now. Last year, it was pretty much impossible to steal bases, or even move ahead on a hit and run without nailing a solid single or better. Now, it’s still tough, but it’s at least possible to swipe a bag every so often if you get a great jump. Pitching pretty much stays the course. Twirling and twisting the right stick to throw different pitches remains as accurate and innovative as ever. Pitchers respond a little more dramatically to pressure now, though, as the gamepad throbs and the cursor shakes with runners on. At times, this is a bit much, as when you see an experienced World Series winner like Josh Beckett practically having a nervous breakdown on the rubber after giving up a homer and a double in the first inning of a game in April.

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When the first Shogun: Total War came out, its real-time battles made you feel like you were playing through the epic battle scenes from one of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. Shogun 2 is like playing through a new, remastered edition of that game, complete with both the character dramas and the enormous battles. Merging beautiful graphics, scheming generals, improved multiplayer options, and deep strategic gameplay with countless small details that imbue it with historical flavor and drama, Shogun 2 is one of the most captivating strategy games ever made.

SJM seeks SJF. Interests must include poetry, strategy, and the wedge formation.

Like the previous Total War games, Shogun 2 combines a turn-based strategy mode with tactical, real-time battles. The turn-based portion of the game takes place on a gorgeous strategic map that, although limited to the country of Japan (minus Hokkaido), feels every bit as epic as the continent-spanning maps of previous iterations in the series. It is on this magnificent 60-province map of Japan that you make all of your strategic decisions, manage your dynasty, research technologies, build improvements like roads and farms, and direct your armies. When an army engages in combat, you can either use the auto-resolve feature or fight things out in fantastic real-time battles. The goal during real-time battles is to route the enemy army as an attacker and hold out as a defender. Either way, you have to make intelligent use of terrain and unit abilities, keep your flank adequately protected, and do your best to sap the enemy units’ morale before they can get the upper hand.

Shogun 2′s turn-based single-player campaign stands on its own merits as an excellent strategy game. You play as an ambitious daimyo, or leader, of one of the 10 most powerful clans in Japan. Each clan has unique strengths that you have to master if you plan to capture Kyoto, the nation’s capital city, and unify Japan as its new shogun. For instance, the Chosokabe have superior bow infantry, while the Mori are master shipwrights, and the Hojo get building construction bonuses. The choice of clan is an easy one compared to the many difficult decisions you have to make during the campaign. One example is the allocation of your research efforts, which must be carefully divided between the chi and Bushido arts (the civilian and military tech trees, respectively). A strong economy based on chi is needed to pay for a powerful army’s upkeep, but a narrowly focused autocrat, however enlightened, may be overrun by a militaristic brute. Furthermore, sound economic planning is necessary for success. Your economic potential and buildable units are limited by the types of buildings in your provinces. The size of a province’s castle determines the number of possible buildings that may be constructed there. Since larger castles consume more food, you have to carefully plan your upgrades lest you inadvertently cause mass starvation. Temporary prosperity is possible through honorable trade relations with other clans, but these arrangements rarely last.

By law, all Japanese generals must be exceptional orators.

Such concerns coupled with the constant barrage of special events and natural disasters are problematic enough, but the tricky issue of religion is added to this explosive mix. Allowing Nanban, or European, merchants into your cities lets you field units with powerful matchlock firearms, but it also opens up your homogeneous Buddhist society to Christian influences. The growing Christian population has to be either appeased or subdued in some manner. One solution is for the clan to convert to Christianity to unlock powerful European cannons or carracks, but this would outrage the Buddhist population and bring dishonor to the daimyo. The best course of action is to ensure that the majority of the populace follows the daimyo’s faith whether through conversion or isolationism. Angry religious minorities are an Achilles’ heel for any daimyo, so religious and secular grievances must be kept to a minimum lest bloody rebellions ruin your chances of becoming shogun.

In Shogun 2, generals add another level of strategy, as well as some much-appreciated drama. Generals have always been important for maintaining troop morale in the Total War series, but they’ve never had as much character as in Shogun 2. For starters, generals now have a loyalty rating, and one could conceivably turn on you, especially if his overambitious wife is feeding him poisonous ideas. As a result, you need to find some way to keep them loyal. You might give them important positions in the clan, or bring them into your family through marriage or adoption (which works even if the general is only slightly younger than the daimyo). For example, a general’s loyalty improves immensely once he has been entrusted with the clan’s finances. It is vitally important to keep generals around for as long as possible because their combat experience can be used to gain a variety of new skills and followers for the clan’s benefit. For instance, you could increase a general’s poetry skill, giving your clan a research bonus and opening up the path for your general to become a “living treasure” capable of bringing unrestrained jubilation to any province he passes through. Alternatively, you may mold a general into a feared tyrant, an expert at siege warfare, or a near invincible legendary warrior. The general’s retinue, which is increased every few levels, is equally diverse.

Keep an eye on the weather because adverse conditions can cost lives.

His retainers can be people, like a samurai master who gives a melee bonus to all units; animals, such as a lovable monkey; or even inanimate objects, like a Go board, which increases the general’s command ability. These are all in addition to random traits that generals pick up during battles or through marriage. The “fecund wife” trait, which ensures that a general sires many children, is particularly useful for daimyos since they need heirs to carry on their legacy after death. The daimyo’s male children will grow up to become fairly loyal generals, so you want to be blessed with a large brood. In addition to the generals, all special characters, such as the metsuke (inspectors), monks, ninjas, and geisha, gain experience points, skill traits, and a retinue. A Christian missionary, for example, can learn to become a scholar and aid his clan’s chi research, or he can focus his efforts toward proselytizing for Christian faith with the help of his retinue of church notaries and Japanese converts.

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TDK Sound Cube

TDK is working hard to break away from its history of dusty cassette tapes and make a new name for itself with a line of premium portable speaker systems. The company kicked off 2011 with its TDK 3 Speaker Boombox, which sent us into convulsive fits of retro sonic bliss. For those interested in something more affordable and portable, the TDK Sound Cube ($299) is a more manageable option than its bigger brother, while still holding its own as a great sound system.

Design and features
When we call the TDK Sound Cube a boom box, we literally mean that it is designed like a box. There are speakers on each of its sides, a comfy leather handle up on top and a compartment on the bottom with room for 12 D-cell batteries.

Without the batteries inside, the Sound Cube weighs as much as a 12-pack of beer. With the batteries installed, you’re in for a workout. Still, it’s a much more portable system than its big brother, which was a bit of a shin-smacker.

The audio source, station preset, playback control, and other functions are accessed using illuminated capacitive touch controls located above the front speaker. To the left and right of these buttons are two gloriously oversize aluminum knobs that control volume, radio tuning, and other functions. As on the 3 Speaker Boombox, the volume knob goes to 11.

In spite of our enthusiasm, there are some design disappointments in the TDK Sound Cube. Instead of offering a proper dock or enclosure for your connected iPhone or iPod, the speaker system just has a nonslip padded surface on the top. In fairness, TDK’s design decision makes it easier to use with a broad range of audio devices (heck, you could place an old Walkman up there), and makes it more future-proof. Still, a secure space for docking your precious iPhone would be nice.

On the back, the TDK Sound Cube offers an iPhone/iPod connection (via USB), USB stick media playback (MP3, AAC, WMA), and a slew of auxiliary input options, including RCA, minijack, and a quarter-inch instrument input that can be blended with the other audio for instant karaoke and block party high jinks.

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