We’re Sorry, but You Have Reached a Number That Has Been Disconnected or is No
Longer in Service — Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Announced
Become irreversibly entangled in violence as reality dissolves into a haze of neon
and carnage
MIAMI – You’re a murderer. You murder people. Again. And again. How certain you are
of your actions and what is, and what is not, real is what you must determine in
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, due out later this year from developer Dennaton Games
and publisher Devolver Digital. The epic finale to 2012′s blood-soaked hit follows
an escalating level of violence through multiple factions born from the events of
the original game — all within the confines of blistering combat, the unmistakable
visual style, and another powerful and intense soundtrack that pushes you to the
limit and forces you to question your own thirst for blood.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number commands you to step into the murderous minds of
several distinct characters – each with their own motivations and methods of
execution – as storylines intersect and reality slips away into a haze of neon and
carnage. Witness hundreds of new sprites and animations in lush new areas to clear
floor-by-floor, and harness a variety of savage new weapons to satisfy your murder
lust.
Firstly a Thanks to Tom Champion and Eurogamers who are providing the Tickets for the Expo,
As you guys know Eurogamers Gaming Expo is one of the largest gaming events Held in the UK every year since 2008 and as the years have passed it has increased in Size and the number of people who attend each year increase.
Over 50,000 people attended last year and tickets always sell out within days
So this is your chance to Get hold of Tickets for Thursday the 26th
You will Get Two Tickets for the Day to attend Eurogamers with anyone of your choosing, you don’t want to be enjoying such a gaming Event on your own now?
You will get to play some of the latest Games to be released and soon to be released
Enjoy the Developer Sessions.
So the Question you must be asking,
How do you get hold of these great tickets?
Simple Register at http://www.gamingrev.com/forum/ and Say Hello (Introduce yourself in the new member section) and then enter the competition in the giveaway section
You have to be a Resident of the UK to Enter and Be able to Make it to London on the 26th of September
You must be 16 or over to Enter this Competition
Winners will be notified that they have won on the 1st of August
by Participating in this competition you agree that your Name, Date of Birth and Email Address can be shared with Eurogamers if you win, As they will be sending you the Tickets.
Welcome to Columbia A far place from Rapture and the previous Bioshock Games.
Lets get started
You are Booker Dewitt, a former Pinkerton detective who has basically fallen into the wrong crowd by gambling away his money and has debted himself, to get out of this debt he has agreed to take on a Job which will erase his debt to the people he owes the money to.
His Journey begins and his Job has been handed to him, Free and Elizabeth and hand her over to the people to wipe away his debts.
Unlike Bioshock 1 and 2 where you explore Rapture which is an undersea city and gloomy and very dark, Columbia is pretty vibrant floating city, where only few places are dark and miserable.
This is a big change from the previous games and something which strikes out most. not that I am complaining as I quite enjoyed not having to run around in the dark looking for objectives.
Speaking of objectives, One issue most people found in the previous games was a Loss in Direction when playing as they would get Lost, well Infinite has a solution for them.
A HUD which directs the user in the right direction of an objective, this is purely optional feature for players to use and something most people will just ignore while others who will use it.
Skyline/Weapons
One great addition to this game and my favourite is Sky-Lines and the skyhook which allows you to travel from one area to another using the sky-lines.
now the skyhook isn’t some glorified tool used to just travel from area of the map to another, this is also a weapon used in melee attacks and can cause great amount of damage to your foes.
when you are in the tight position and you have some thugs or peace officers running at you and you don’t have your weapon ready, press melee and use your bruit strength along with the skyhook to take them out with ease.
While we are on weapons, I will be honest I don’t like the fact you are limited to how many weapon types you can carry, (you are restricted to two weapons) for me I found this to restricting as some situations call for long range sniper to close distant weapons.
It does add to the challenge on being ready and picking your weapons wisely and how you use them along with the abilities you gain as you progress through the game.
Upgrades
you can still upgrade the weapons at terminals and aren’t limited to upgrading just one weapon, each kiosk allows you to upgrade as many items as you want (as long as you have the funds for it)
so you can upgrade weapons damage, Speed which is something which most Bioshock players are use to.
Now while we are on upgrading, You can also upgrade your abilities as you progress through the game, but this is limited and you have to choose which ability you want to upgrade.
Shield, Health or Salt.
remembering what you upgrade will affect you later on in the game,
For example upgrading Salt will give you more salt allowing you to use more powers over a longer period before needing o replenish yourself.
Same goes for Shield, this will allow you to take more of a beating before your health is affected and you need to start thinking about taking cover from the hail of bullets and beatings.
One last thing on upgrading, Yes that’s right you have more options on upgrading as you can upgrade your Vigors and make them stronger and more effective in the field.
For example would be Devils Kiss, this Vigor allows you to throw fire at opponents and set them alight, you can upgrade this for example to throw a bomb which splits into multiple fragments causing a larger scale in which it causes damage to opponents.
Enemies
One difference you will notice from the previous Bioshock games is that you are not fighting all deformed humans this time,
Bioshock Infinite brings you some new bad guys to kill and in some cases have your assess handed to you on a silver platter.
Yes you even get the privilege of having to go head to head with histories well known presidents George Washington even if it is his Robot counterparts.
Apart from taking on Robot replicas of George Washington you are also challenged by those who are dead and have been resurrected to those who are alive and well and not really seeing eye to eye with and really want you dead.
Now you might thinking ok this is all great and dandy and its fun shooting robots and humans, where are my monsters which Bioshock is known for? well don’t worry as you will also come face to face with supernatural beings and those who have been altered whom possess powers and abilities which are also immune to some of the Vigor you posses which requires you to think about how you fight them.
Elizabeth
One great addition to Bioshock infinite is Elizabeth and her ability to open up windows and bring in objects from other realities to help Booker in fights,this ability can’t be used to randomly bring in any objects randomly but only where there is a tear and objects from other dimensions are visible can you ask her to bring it through to support you.
This can range from simple supplies to turrets to suppress incoming targets or to completely neutralize them.
The added companion is great as she comes in handy when you run out of ammo or are running low on health as she scours the grounds while you fight and throws you health, ammo and salt to help you out in combat.
The graphics
The graphics for Bioshock is amazing, it has grown and it has adapted and improved much over the years, The texture even during game play is superb.
and I don’t mean it in a cheesy way as you start the game and you first set your eyes on Columbus and you see how vibrant it is. for me this was implemented perfectly.
The Story
The story its self is pretty straight forward and not to complicated and without going into it as it would just rip it all apart for those who haven’t played it and spoil the hell out of it.
as you progress through the game you learn new things about your mission and Elizabeth how you two are interconnected.
this is made clear at the end as you see everything unfold in front of your eyes.
Personally I feel the ending lacked the same feeling as the first and second one had on me, this is mostly one thing that disappointed me about the game as it lacked the same impact.
Apart from the story and the one issue I had with it, Bioshock Infinite was a great game and I will be honest about it, well worth the wait (even so it has been delayed so many times)I would say that delay has been worth it.
and I would recommend people to play this game and if you are a Bioshock Fan, what are you waiting for if you have not bought this already? Go out and buy it lol
What I would Rate the Game
Graphics : 10/10
Story: 8/10
New additions (weapons and Vigor) 7/10 , reason for this is limited weapon slots
Ease of play 10/10
As anybody that has even fleetingly ventured into the dank, sweat-stained underbelly of the Gamingverse can attest, worms are a belligerent bunch. Those wacky funsters seem to love fighting each other with OVERSIZED FIREARMS OF GUN-TASTIC PAINFUL BULLET-PAIN even more than humans (and humans, I’d venture, enjoy this a lot). You’d think, if you were the type to brandish the Stick of Logic and insert it into orifices where it doesn’t belong, that invertebrates aren’t particularly suited to the use of bazookas and other such ballistics. Via a deft little look, ma! I have arms piece of biological-cheatery on the designers’ part, Worms was born; the phenomenally prolific franchise has since grown to monopolise animal-centric combat.
Well, I’ll concede that it almost has. Infogrames’ oddity from 2000, Hogs of War, subverts the concept established in 1995 with a few unheard of elements: three glorious dimensions, and pigs. Many, many pigs, speaking in preposterous, offensive, stereotypical country dialects. These were the days before political correctness got its staunch, iron grip on the world’s gonads, and it’s all the more humorous for it.
In a similar vein to Team 17′s strategy shenanigans, slapstick comedy and cartoon violence with bizarre weaponry is the game’s modus operandi. The plot pertains to a World War Two-era realm of anthropomorphic pigs, whose land is embroiled in a conflict to seize the Isle of Swill. This area is replete with resources, and the nations of PorkyPorcinePeoplePigPlanet (which is not, I hasten to make plain, the actual name of the place. Even slightly. But they didn’t deign to provide one) are vying for control of it.
Image Source: www.game-rave.com
This is the situation into which you stride heroically, with no pants on, in the single player campaign. At the inagural stage, you must opt for one of the available factions to command. These constitute Tommy’s Trotters (Britain), Sushi Swine (Japanese), Piggystroika (Russia) and other countries besides; suffice it to say that the PC police would be aiming their best GRRRR facial expressions at Hogs of War. Decidedly so as English comedian Rik Mayall has bestowed his resplendent vocal talents upon the game, adding his own farcical touch to the accents of each faction. In a further salutation to Worms, each character will make some manner of ghastly quip before attacking (in the usual, dignified turn-based manner), complemented by other pre-demise remarks as their health is fully depleted. This is paramount to achieving the endearing character that each of Team 17′s warriors were infused with, as the animation itself is rather sparse here.
Nevertheless, it’s plain that the 3d graphical capacities of the year 2000 would look about as aesthetically pleasing as a bulldog’s balls, so we shan’t be pernickety there.
But I digress. To hasten back aboard my rapidly-departing train of thought, lest it vanishes into the distance belching noxious smoke like Stephenson’s Rocket, this is the premise of the single player campaign, which is far more robust than that of Worms. You’ll traverse a map of ‘Saustralasia,’ engaging in missions against each other nation in turn. Each skirmish unfolds on a battlefield akin to those of 2003‘s Worms 3D, with you manoeuvering a squad member, taking an action and watching as a foe does the same. Repeat ad nauseum until your objective is complete or your porcine pugilists lay in a shattered heap of blood-leaking bone fragments on the ground. Except, obviously, not.
Image source: en.wikipedia.org
So far, so Team 17-esque, you may conclude, with a derisive middle finger at Infogrames’ concept-thievery. You may indeed, but if you did, you’d be the wrongest wrong that ever wronged it up in a distinctly wrong fashion. The ‘promotion’ mechanic lends a remarkable sense of progression and cohesion to proceedings throughout the 25 stages, and combat is infinitely more varied and tactical as a result. Promotion points are awarded for completing levels, with bonuses added atop them for prevailing over any sub-objectives you may have been given in addition. With these, you can advance each pig in your squad along a separate career path, from a choice of four. The saboteur has a proclivity for pyrotechnics, giving him a formidable arsenal of TNT and mines by forsaking any real ability to launch long-distance attacks. Conversely, the gunner possesses all manner of bazookas and other heavy ordinance but is about as terrifying as a one-legged puppy with a limp to close-quarters foes.
The spy has a rather more insidious approach to combat, able to disguise himself as an object in the background (a tree or other such fiendish foliage, for instance) so as not to be attacked until his next turn. Their most dastardly ability? Stealing weapons from opponents with the ‘pickpocket’ attack (whereupon the weapon will directly vanish from their own inventory to bolster your own). Should extra ‘pickpockets’ be purloined from a fellow spy, you have the capacity to empty their arsenal entirely and force them to forego each turn that character has! Finally, the orderly dispenses with much in the way of power, but is the only class able to heal allies. This customisation elements enables (nay, demands) vastly disparate approaches to each stage, and demonstrates that, in Hogs of War, it is the lone player that is best catered to.
The multiplayer shenanigans, lamentably, are significantly less robust. There is a scant selection of stages, and your hogs are hamstrung -huzzah! How’s that for a wit-tacular zinger propelled straight into your admiring faces?- by being set at the lowest level of their respective classes; the combat seems rather ineffectual when compared to the main game. It’s akin to two houseflies having a ‘light your fart’ contest.
Nonetheless, in summation, Hogs of War would be quite a coup for any fan of wacky Worms warfare. It sports more longevity and replayability for the lone player than anything that franchise has deigned to offer thus far, and has more quirky oddness stuffed into its novelty oversized clown’s underpants to boot.
Dead Space made its inaugural appearance in 2008. It’s a futuristic, third person horror shooter, akin to the much-vaunted Resident Evil 4 (well, y’know, with more spaceships and less syphilitic farmfolk with craptacular beards/furious albino monks brandishing Medieval maces at your genitalia) in many respects. The rural, (presumably) urine-stained streets of Resident Evil‘s ‘somewhere ghastly in Europe’ village and Dead Space’s circa-2400, clinical spacecrafts are shockingly disparate notions, of course, but the two titles are both contemporary pioneers of the same genre-splicing sensibilities.
Nevertheless, while recent entries in Capcom’s seminal series have been the subject of disdain and contempt, and caused flaming bags of excrement to be placed on the doorstep of their HQ (how many expensive Japanese businessmen’s shoes were ruined by these -hypothetical- antics?HOW MANY?) for eschewing its horror origins in favour of balls out action WITH ITS BALLS OUT, this has not been the case with Dead Space. Why, prithee? I’d venture that it’s primarily due to the weaponry.
Lest we forget, Isaac Clarke (protagonist and possessor of the finest designer stubble in the cosmos) is an engineer. He is in no badass, renegade space marine from the depths of the devil’s dangling manplums (a la the entire cast of Aliens). As such, there was scope for EA to bolster the impact of this sci-fi horror franchise with elements pertaining to Isaac’s personality and abilities.
Psychological horror has always been a stalwart feature of the series. I’ll concede, there’s excessive gunplay, cruising inadvisably through darkened corridors only for something to spring from a corner and leave a trail of terror-urine streaking down your trouser legs and other such archaic elements of the genre -as seen in every damn horror movie in existence- but they are there merely to complement the tension of the mental aspects. Dead Space’s hallucinations, its traumatic visions (those of Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole beset him with alarming frequency throughout the second title, for instance), demonstrate the effects of a Necromorph outbreak beyond the physical. To wit: they’ll pluck your sanity from your ear with gleeful abandon, caress it momentarily in a manner akin to a lonely pensioner with their cat Herbert, before trampling it into the muddy, muddy ground.
Assailing an average, non-military ‘everyman’ with these psyche-ravaging events makes our protagonist and his plight more relatable. Do we want another space marine, unfazed by the fact that hell’s anus has opened in the middle of his kitchen linoleum and spewed all manner of demon abominations RIGHT AT HIS FACE? We don’t. What we need, and what we have in Isaac Clarke, is a guy that proclaims, “Holy balls. This is, to be frank, rather an uncool situation just here. Have I just fouled my space underpants? Yes, yes I have.” Or something to that effect.
Most pertinently, though, his occupation dictates the manner of combat that we indulge in with Dead Space. The ‘pistol,’ with which we begin every game of the franchise, has been dubbed the plasma cutter. It is a reappropriated mining implement, firing streams of laser-esque plasma to penetrate mineral obstructions and to ‘dig.’ Nevertheless, in hazardous situations (for which ‘having you gonads bitten on by a zombie/alien/ungodly thing’ would, I’d venture, qualify) it can function as a rudimentary gun.
This notion of improvisation and opportunism prevails throughout. Other series stalwarts include the line gun (or, to use its technical moniker, the ‘im-82 handheld ore cutter line gun’), which -in Dead Space lore- was originally utilised for heavier-duty mining work than the plasma cutter. In our hands, it will dispatch opponents with a ludicrously lethal, wide beam-o-death. I’ll concede, the Dead Space trilogy has also granted us more conventional weaponry, such as the recurring military machine gun that is the pulse rifle, but these merely serve to complement the resourceful, scavenged air of your arsenal at large.
Further, it is the concept of brandishing cutting tools as opposed to bullets that enabled the games’ much-vaunted dismembering mechanic. Your hideous assailants, the necromorphs, cannot be dispensed by a simple headshot, as is often the wont of the genre. Instead, we must slice away their limbs by means of our laser beam-tinged equipment. It is, naturellement, rather a ghastly concept, to use rock-cutting tools to cleft the limbs from these ungodly marauding beasts, which is precisely why developer Visceral Games revels in it. Dead Space is renowned for its disconcertingly gore-drenched gameplay. It is exuberantly, excessively violent -rather akin to an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, with less cats being stabbed in the eyeball- and conventional gunplay alone would do little to facilitate this. Remember that day it rained BLOOD-LEAKING LIMBS? Isaac does. That’s every setpiece in the game, right there.
When a series exhorts us to stamp on the bodies of fallen foes to shatter body parts further (so as to accrue extra pick-ups from them) we can expect nothing less.
The most recent iteration, Dead Space 3, bestows a remarkable range of weapon customization upon us. Again utilising our man’s proclivity for engineering-ness, he can assemble parts that you have gathered into you own perfect demise-dealer. Convention has a place once more with such business as a shotgun, and you can fuse an upper and lower tool (serving as primary and secondary fire) to enable all manner of oddities. An acid-spewing machine gun AND a freezing force gun in the same weapon? Huzzah!
Introducing this capacity in the third game was a masterstroke on Visceral Games’ part. It demonstrates how wonderfully disparate the gunplay of the series is from other games. It renders Dead Space 3 infinitely more replayable than its predecessors. I’d venture, also, that these new mechanics demonstrate how effectively these absolutelyNOTa gun tools have been implemented. Working in tandem -in the most literal sense, they’re fused together in the same weapon- with coventional ballistics so seamlessly.
Published by Ubisoft on 08 September 2006
Developed by FromSoftware Inc
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Role-Playing
I’ve Seen this Before somewhere…
The story goes that over a thousand years ago, war broke out. No-One alive today knows why it begin, or what it was about. (probably due to civilization as they knew it being wiped of the face of the the earth). For whatever reason, At some point during this war one side decided to create a group of self-Aware robots known as golems. these golems would do exactly as commanded even after the person giving the orders died (Despite being Self-Aware), and so consequently destroyed the world.(Though I’m not sure why!)
One day they stopped, for no reason at all (presumably they got bored.)
The humans came out of hiding, swiftly built the land using enchantment, conveniently forgot about the All-Powerful Devil-golems they’d created and pretty much everything they knew up til then, except enchanting.
Now skip forwards a thousand years and our slightly whiny protagonist Atsuma and his awesome friend Mary-sue, I mean Toya (who is so amazing that he has his own fan club and his lover follows him everywhere he goes. ) are busy skipping school to illegally battle golems and generally enjoy the festival the town has going on to celebrate something.During these celebrations, the town is destroyed and our plucky heroes run off to investigate and accidentally awaken the Queen of Ice, A dark and ancient devil golem, where a severe clothing deficiency.
Now the entire world is in Danger and only our band of misfit heroes can save it…
Seem familiar?
It should as this is pretty much the plot to every JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) ever made. Even the robots aren’t exactly original.
All your base are… wait wrong game.
But just as poorly translated, a few times you will be given options and only be able to pick one because the rest mean nothing in English, it’s almost as if they used Google to translate it without actually checking what was being said.
Some of the Characters are fairly decent despite most being stereotypical of the genre, (the fanatically loyal knight, The wandering warrior princess, The self-obsessed reluctant hero… Etc… ) though they do develop and change throughout the story so at least that is a bonus.
The script is awful and uninspired. I can guarantee almost everyone will have, read, played or watched an incarnation of this story before. Characters will often expressly say how they feel instead of showing it as is the golden rule of storytelling. (though this could be because of the poor translation.) The English voice acting is terrible, emotionless and flat. ( the golems were never translated.) Fortunately there is an option to switch to the far superior Japanese voices. (possibly because I can’t understand them) and but at least they has some emotion in them.
Now for the good bit…
The gameplay is unfortunately very predictable and unless you are new to this particular sub-genre of gaming it holds no surprises. there is also a distinct lack of side-quests making it extremely linear. Which is a shame because it would have vastly improved both the game and it’s sales has they created more to do.
However the battle system is pretty cool and relatively unique. You take turns fighting and moving about a 3 x 4 grid and pick your attacks (much like final fantasy in layout) which have a limited range and require you to move your team around the board in order to do the maximum amount of damage. (simple right?)
One of the best things is the amount of golems you have access to, well over a hundred different options with their own unique abilities abilities and skills make customizing you team very fun and enjoyable allowing you to play in the style and with the strategies you prefer. Your characters are also very customizable with a great deal of skills and powers available. although unfortunately the golems are not.
If your feeling lazy or just want to get the battles over quickly it can also be auto fought. which is helpful later on when you are required to grind out levels to beat the final boss.
It does have a mutliplayer mode however I’ve never seen anyone online so I personally have no idea how it plays. I would assume it’s much like the battles in the actual game so if you do get a copy of this game it’s well worth a shot to try the online with a friend as they servers are empty.
Apart from the very last boss who requires hours of levelling up, the rest are very underwhelming you often only realise that you’ve just fought a boss feel when either an achievement unlocked or a wall of text has stalled you for ten minutes.
On the visual side of things. The game starts out beautiful then starts to get bad towards the end with textures and areas repeating themselves making it look like a bad port for the original Xbox and making it feel like it was rushed.
And finally…
The achievements in this game are really easy to get as they are given for just playing through the story. One playthrough should net you a full 1000g although two at the end are miss able if you make the wrong choice. for those who really loved the game or just want to ramp up that high score the game is also available in Japanese and Korean and allows you to net a total of 2700G out of 3000G for this game (the Korean version is glitched and some achievements will not unlock). Provided of course you own an NTSC-J console.
Summary
It’s a below average JRPG with an interesting battle system and some initially interesting graphics. It’s fairly user friendly with a decent battle system, easy to pick up and play and would make a great introduction to JRPGs if you have never played one, however for those with a lot of experience with the genre will probably find it uninteresting and below par.
If you want me to review anything in particular just message me on the forums, (Tcio123) or through Xbox live (Nomstuff) If I have it then I will review it, if not then I’m afraid I can’t help you.
The longevity of a video game is an oft-maligned factor, and rightly so. With the ever-extortionate pricing of systems and titles, the canny player wants to be somewhat sure that their investment will pay dividends in terms of sustained entertainment. If they do not receive a prolonged barrage of fun-bullets straight to their delicate gonads -even the women- you can wager your wang -again, even the women- that the internet nerdsassins will disparage the game far and wide, even as they nurse a terrible rage-embolism and/or foul themselves in their outrage. WHERE IN THE NAME OF THE DEVIL’S DANGLING MAN-PLUMS DID MY MONEY GO, they’ll entreat. Or something to that effect.
And who wants that? No one, that’s who. To curtail this situation, developers would be advised to implement an expansive campaign/multiplayer component/both/whichever is appropriate to the title concerned. Let’s consider Resident Evil 6 (hold your nose, cork your buttocks, and tentatively approach it). Primarily regarded as a ghastly travesty from the depths of Satan’s underpants by players and critics alike, there was one element upon which Capcom did not scrimp: content. The latest iteration of Resident Evil is a vast prospect, with multiple scenarios, another to unlock, alternative characters that have a (slightly, I’ll concede) different journey through said campaign, an array of co-operative and competitive online modes… it’s a formidable undertaking.
As such, players with a penchant for its action-tastic shenanigans will certainly get their money’s worth, in a manner that innumerable ‘superior’ titles could not achieve. It’s a meaty offering, indubitably, even if said meat does taste akin to that diseased horse found in the trenches of World War I in a puddle of urine, presumably stewed by ravening soldiers.
Most pertinently, artificial manners of extending games’ lifespans are common. The advent of achievements and PSN’s trophies has ushered in a brave new epoch of ludicrous, pointless and infuriating enough to drive us to punch our own eyeballs in the face tasks. These will run the gamut from the conventional (subsequent playthroughs on elevated difficulty levels and suchlike) to the remarkably demented (screw you, Gears of War 3 and your ‘Seriously 3.0′ task! Screw you always!). Oftentimes, there will be no in-game salutation to your challenge-accomplishing prowess. A meagre, superfluous logo of said title added to your completed games list is not, I’d venture, cause to burst into exuberant song and/or slide down banisters on your ass like Mary Poppins. This is often all that your trophy/achievement electronic wang-waving will yield.
Why, prithee, are we so beguiled by this very notion? Microsoft dubbing the fruit of the scheme ‘gamerscore’ is surely a contributing factor. If there’s anything us denizens of the virtual realm savor, it’s bolstering a score. In tandem with this, percentage bars and empty slots are a remarkable compulsion for many players. There’s a prevailing OCD-esque tendency to ‘exhaust’ every semblance of entertainment value from a game, like a vast… fun-sponge, if you will.
However outlandish an achievement or trophy may be, enterprising gamers will strive to vanquish it. With no real tangible reward for doing so, it becomes a fundamenal issue of pride and personal skill and/or tolerance for rage-inducing, tedious time-wastes. It’s an attitude rather akin to that of George Leigh Mallory, who partook in a doomed excursion to reach the summit of Mount Everest in the Twenties. What was his prompt response to the query WHY IN THE NAME OF SATAN’S SCROTUM WOULD YOU WANT TO ATTEMPT SUCH A DAMN FOOLHARDY THING? (This may -may- not be the precise question that he was posed, mark you.)
“Because it is there!”
This, as I’m sure us gaming afficionados will all attest, says it all. Hypothetically, a Metal Gear Solid game may proffer the trophy ‘Close Shave’, for instance. To attain this, one must shave Solid Snake immediately upon gaining control of him. Whereupon, you must utilise ACTUAL ARCANE VOODOO to bring one of the stubbletastic hairs to sentient life, and complete the entire game as said beardy-bit. Obscene as this patently is, there’d be a great gaggle of online guides to achieving this feat, and gamers attempting it, had Hideo Kojima deigned to include such a concept.
Before the advent of gamerscore, trophies, and other assorted incentives, we opted to impose our own challenges. We still do. I am currently in the midst of an umpteenth run through Final Fantasy VIII, in which I successfully endeavoured to acquire the ultimate weapon, the Lion Heart blade, at the earliest eventuality possible. Doing so necessitated many hours of the infernal Triple Triad card game, and an equally strenuous slog against malevolent dragons which WOULD NOT GIVE ME THAT LAST GODDAMN ITEM (Hey, Grendels! My middle finger remains eternally raised in your direction!) These shenanigans were entirely optional, and self-imposed.
That shield is so shiny… I MUST HAVE IT!
Further, it is telling that I steadfastly insisted upon exacerbating the effort by acquiring the finest weaponry for the rest of my party at the same time. It is not a difficult game, per se, and you could merrily stab all the monstrous abominations that you face right in their scaly genitalssans ultimate weaponry. But would you?
It is a trope frequently found in the RPG genre. Everybody’s best equipment has a proclivity for being hidden SOMEWHERE IN AN OBSCURE CORNER OF THIS BIG-ASS WORLD MAP. Such wonderment cannot be purchased from an overweight shopkeeper that smells of garlic and body odor like everything else. That would be logical and convenient! Nuts to that! In lieu of any of that sort of business, you must traverse an underground labyrinth, wrestle a gaggle of furious Tyrannosaurus Rexs, locate the seventeen rings of power, and watch a couple of hours of Lifetime TV without vomiting outraged blood from your eyeballs. Only then shall the game deign to permit you to equip Excalibur: the Legendary Sword of Stabtacular Glory, Imbibed With a +11 Charm of Death-Inducement (Point Away From Face).
‘The Last of Us’ is an upcoming PlayStation exclusive that has been highly anticipated. To add to the excitement of the game (or dread at the thought of the amounts of money that PlayStation is trying to suck from you), PlayStation posted an article on their website today announcing the two tiers of Collector’s Editions that you may have the option of purchasing.
The ‘Survival Edition’ is set at $79.99. With this added $20, you will get a hardcover art book created by Dark horse along with the the first comic in a series that they are creating which will allow gamers to get a deeper look into Ellie’s life and who she is as a person. It is also stated on their website that the cover art for the game will be different than the standard retail version. Finally, upon purchase of the ‘Survival Edition’, gamers will be able to have full access to one of ‘The Last of Us”s DLC packs titled ‘Sights and Sounds’. This DLC pack contains the official game soundtrack, an exclusive PS3 theme, and PSN avatars of Winter Joel and Ellie. This is a fairly large amount of content for only an extra $20, but when thought of as a whole, $80 is a lot of money, and many gamers may not find it worth it.
If you’re thinking “$80? That’s not bad at all! I have all the money in the world to throw away!” then the ‘Post-Pandemic Edition’ may be more your style. This edition is retailing at $159.99. Is it worth the money? In this edition, you will receive all of the delicacies from the ‘Survival Edition’ plus a collectible 12″ statue of Joel and Ellie created by Project Triforce and two DLC packs. This Survival DLC Pack will offer a large amount of customizable options for Joel and Ellie along with Bonus XP and other bonuses to help you along in the game.
Are you planning on getting any of these Collector’s Editions? What are your opinions? Let us know in the comments below!
Well guys less than a month till Assassins Creed 3 will be hitting the shelf’s and this year I am happy to say unlike the previous year’s Ubisoft have gone ahead and allowed players to play campaign mode at Eurogamers expo.
This was a great bonus as it allowed us to truly explore the game play of Assassins creed and test out the new engine of the game.
Previously we were only able to play Multiplayer aspect of the game and it didn’t really give the feel that you want from a new release.
this time around you got to see the new features in action and try them out.
So Thank you for that opportunity
Quick Recap on what Assassins Creed 3 is about,
you are Connor Kenway and you are torn between literally two worlds,
as you fight for what you believe to be the true cause, born into a family of Britain’s and Natives you had to choice which side you want to fight for, of course you picked Liberty and Freedom on the side of the Revolution.
Unlike previous Assassins Creed games where the A.I always seem to take it in turns to attack you, in Assassins creed 3 its more adapted where the A.I will attack together and with the introduction of Rifles a new type of combat system has been introduced,
Meaning you have to think on your feat this time
Meat Shield, when you have a group of men pointing their rifles at you and you really don’t have an option to run, what better way than to grab a soldier and use him to stop the bullets from touching you.
One great thing about this is it means no more running straight into the line of fire but more planned attack where you have to think about how you are going to take on a group of soldiers as fast and most effectively as possible.
Duel welding weapons, come on who doesn’t love this concept in games, only thing that came close to duel welding weapons in Assassins creed has been the two hidden blades but for full on combat their effectiveness wasn’t that great.
allowing Connor to use different weapons allows the user to use different combat methods to take on multiple enemy targets simultaneously and more effectively.
This is my Favourite and everyone will know why
The Hook and the Rope, sit in a tree or a building and go spear fishing for enemy targets as they walk past, throw and winch them up and leave them dangling.
what better way to kill an enemy target?
I Have left the best for Last, Open world got even more open with Conner being able to interact with more of the surroundings, this is notably being able to jump through the woods as this is set during the colonial period where it was mostly settlements and more forests.
This means you are able to climb up more areas then you have been in the previous games as the environment and times has changed considerably.
you get a better feeling for your surroundings as great work has been taken in the detailing from the texture of the environment to hunting wild animals, which I will have to hand to them they did a great job with as there is a large verity of wild animals to interact with.
One great thing about Assassins Creed 3, unlike its predecessors actually has more new features and it’s great to see Ubisoft develop such a great game.
Firstly a thanks to Ubisoft for sending me an early copy of the game.
Lets get Started
Story
The storyline for Ghost Recon isn’t that bad, it’s based on a scenario where Russian president has been overthrown by a genocide General with the help of splinter groups, his goal is to bring back Russia to its former glory.
As you start the game you are in pursuit of a weapons shipment from the south of America to the US mainland as part of Predator team.
who unknowingly fall fowl to Raven rocks trap when they come across a nuclear device which was destined for the mainland US.
after this incident and the loss of Predator team, you are tasked as Kozak with Hunter Team to find out who is supplying these weapons and their reasons behind it.
As you progress through the game you uncover more of what is really happening and what you must do to stop this from getting any worse than it really is.
Each Level uncovers new threats and new parts of the plot which builds up the bigger picture of what is happening in the game and what you must do to bring it all to an end.
but for those that play games for the storyline you have to remember Ghost Recon really isn’t built around the whole immerse yourself into the plot of things and more the game play and how you interact with the environment.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the storyline and it was great, simple and straight to the point
But as mentioned this game isn’t really a story orientated game.
Game play
this is where Ghost Recon gets top marks, one thing I loved about playing Ghost Recon has been how easy and fast you can adjust yourself to the new play style of the game.
Cover
Keeping your player safe and out of line of Fire is very important when you want to take out targets fast and effectively without being given extra holes to breath out of.
one thing which was a great touch and improvement was the combat HUD which allows you to select an area of the map you want to run to and duck behind before being shot.
the added touch of destructible environment was a great addition as well as it meant you can’t camp in one area for too long as you leave yourself exposed to enemy fire.
Synchronised Targeting
Single player or play with three of your friends, One great aspect of Ghost Recon has to be synchronised targeting of enemy forces and taking them out simultaneously without giving them a chance to see you coming.
This feature allows you to be more discreet when it comes to infiltrating objectives without having to fight your way through hordes of enemy combatants coming at you guns blazing.
You will find this feature of the game to be priceless and pretty much valued as you play through the levels as it makes it easier to complete mission objectives.
Be warned though if you have more than four hostile targets in the vicinity you will still set off an alert so target wisely and take your time.
Weapons Customization
The best part of every start of a mission, Ubisoft have made it so almost all aspects of the weapon
The closet I have seen to anything like this has to be Metal Gear solid 4 by Konami where you could change parts of your weapon to suit the mission and the environment you are going into.
Ubisoft have taken this and taken it a whole step further by allowing you to customise your weapons even further, not just cosmetics but you can customise things from the But to the which Trigger you want installed in the weapon.
Each customisation has an effect on the weapon which effects its performance and how well it does in the mission.
as you progress through the game (the better you score and challenges you unlock) the more weapons are at your disposable. Weapons can also be unlocked through guerrilla warfare which can be used in the campaign mode.
Assets /Equipment
During the campaign you are given equipment and gear which are vital to your mission, one of which is your trusty UAV Drone and unlike its predecessor from previous Ghost Recon games this one is smaller and more versatile platform.
UAV Drone
The drone can be used to scout out areas ahead of you and your team before you get spotted by hostile forces, by going into the drone mode you can also target enemy forces for synchronised killings by your team and in most cases yourself where you target a group of four hostile forces.
and the best thing about this little toy, its portable platform which you launch by hand and can carry around (no more large target in the sky for hostile forces).
Sensors
Great asset which allows you to see how many hostiles are in your vicinity, this feature also allows you to target hostiles for synchronised shootings with your team mates.
one great thing about the sensors is it gives you a target radios in which it is effective, this allows you to make the most of them by throwing them strategically in different areas to make most of the sensor range.
Augmented Camo
and finally the most Valuable asset you will get in your arsenal is the augmented Camo which allows you to blend into your surroundings.
(this is great for sneaking up behind your targets or getting to an objective without being seen) the only downside to this is that it’s not designed to be used while you are mobile but only when you are prone and motionless or moving very slowly.
so be prepared to take your time and enjoy the wonderful views the game has to offer.
Ubisoft have outdone themselves on this part and I congratulate them on that.
Combat
Combat in Ghost Recon is great as you have many ways to deal with threats,
Rambo (not in all scenarios allow this lol) in most Levels you can go in guns blazing and shoot everything up and get away with it.
Sam Fisher (go in quietly and take out targets without being seen)
Or finally be a damn pantheist and sneak past as many people as you can without alerting them to your present and only killing those that you can’t get past without being detected.
Controls
The controls for Ghost Recon haven’t changed that much from previous series and are simple and basic and only take a few minutes to learn if you are new to the series.
At the end of the day the game was great fun, the storyline wasn’t over the top and kept basic and simple.
its good to see Ubisoft focused more on the game play aspect of the game and made it more immersive for the player by allowing more interaction with the environment and how the player went about reaching objectives.
The dialogue between AI players wasn’t to shabby and the tone from the characters matched them greatly.
At the end of the day if you are still on the fence about this game, I urge you to at least Rent it out and see for yourself.
