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Eurogamer Expo 2013 Gaming Expo Ticket Giveaway

Posted by Bodrul on 16/05/2013 – 10:52 pm

Filed under General, iOS games/Android, Multi Platform, PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PSP, retro, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged as Eurogamers, Expo

Eurogamers 2013 Gaming Expo Ticket Giveaway

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

sticking around is optional but welcome

Winners will be picked at the End of July.

RULES

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.

Good Luck to everyone that enters

WatchDogs Trailer + collector’s edition details

Posted by Bodrul on 29/04/2013 – 9:05 pm

Filed under Multi Platform, PC, Playstation 4, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged as Playstation 4, Ubisoft, watchdogs, wiiu, Xbox 360

WatchDogs

D1 SPECIAL EDITION

Product Description

You play as Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker and former thug, whose criminal past led to a violent family tragedy. Now on the hunt for those who hurt your family, you’ll be able to monitor and hack all who surround you by manipulating everything connected to the city’s network. Use the city of Chicago as your ultimate weapon and exact your own style of revenge

The Watch_Dogs special edition contains bonus in-game content: the Breakthrough Pack single player mission!

Digital bonus content

Breakthrough Pack – A secret gathering is underway. The Chicago Club is negotiating power with Corporate CEOs. The Club has hired scramblers to block surveillance devices. Drive around the city to find the scramblers and take them out. Retrieve all names from the meeting and upload their images to the world.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)
VEHICLE EXPERT PERK: Get free vehicles from your Underground Car Contact and earn discounts on select cars.

UPLAY EXCLUSIVE EDITION

Product Description

Exclusive edition available only on Uplay website!

The Watch_Dogs Uplay Exclusive Edition is dedicated to gamers who want to expand their gaming experience.

This edition has an impressive amount of additional content: it includes almost 1 hour of additional gameplay through 3 single player missions. Get the power of hacking and develop your special skills: you’ll be rewarded upon completion of the missions.

In addition, to make experience even more special, you’ll receive a dedicated steelbook™ offer. You’ll also have access to almost 60 minutes of additional gameplay thanks to 3 single player missions, and rewards upon completion of the missions.

Physical content

Exclusive Steelbook™
- Palace pack: A police raid is planned on the luxury palace of an Internet mogul. His impressive databanks have intimate details on thousands of people…including Aiden Pearce. Break inside, wipe the hard drives and escape before the raid begins.

Digital content

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

INVESTIGATION BONUS: Unlock more investigative opportunities inside the network databanks.
ATM HACK BOOST: Boost your cash rewards when hacking bank accounts.

Signature Shot: A biometrics weapon has been smuggled into Chicago for a captain of the Black Viceroys gang. The weapon only works with the first person who holds the gun.

Breach a stronghold, steal the package and be the first to hold the weapon.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission):

BLACK VICEROYS GANG COLOURS OUTFIT
BIOMETRIC ASSAULT RIFLE

Breakthrough Pack: A secret gathering is underway. The Chicago Club is negotiating power with Corporate CEOs. The Club has hired scramblers to block surveillance devices. Drive around the city to find the scramblers and take them out. Retrieve all names from the meeting and upload their images to the world.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

VEHICLE EXPERT PERK: Get free vehicles from your Underground Car Contact and earn discounts on select cars.

DEDSEC EDITION

Product Description

The Watch_Dogs DedSec Edition is the premium Collector’s Edition ideal for any fan wishing to immerse themselves in this hacker fantasy world!

In addition to the Watch_Dogs game, this edition contains a unique figurine of vigilante hero Aiden Pearce, steelbook, an artbook, a map of Chicago, the official soundtrack of the game, a set of 4 iconic character cards, a set of 3 collectible Watch_Dogs logo badges.

You’ll also have access to almost 60 minutes of additional gameplay thanks to 3 single player missions, and rewards upon completion of these missions.

Physical content

A 23cm Aiden Pearce Figurine
Steelbook™
DedSec Collector’s box
Watch_Dogs Artbook: artworks and illustrations that inspired the game
Original soundtrack of the game
Watch_Dogs map of Chicago
Set of 4 collectible cards: discover Watch_Dogs iconic characters through augmented reality
Set of 3 exclusive badges.

Digital content

3 single payer missions: almost 60 minutes of additional gameplay

Palace Pack: A police raid is planned on the luxury palace of an Internet mogul. His impressive databanks have intimate details on thousands of people…including Aiden Pearce. Break inside, wipe the hard drives and escape before the raid begins.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

INVESTIGATION BONUS: Unlock more investigative opportunities inside the network databanks.
ATM HACK BOOST: Boost your cash rewards when hacking bank accounts.

Signature Shot: A biometrics weapon has been smuggled into Chicago for a captain of the Black Viceroys gang. The weapon only works for the first person who holds the gun.

Breach a stronghold, steal the package and be the first to hold the weapon.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

BLACK VICEROYS GANG COLOURS OUTFIT
BIOMETRIC ASSAULT RIFLE

Breakthrough Pack: A secret gathering is underway. The Chicago Club is negotiating power with Corporate CEOs. The Club has hired scramblers to block surveillance devices. Drive around the city to find the scramblers and take them out. Retrieve all names from the meeting and upload their images to the world.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

VEHICLE EXPERT PERK: Get free vehicles from your Underground Car Contact and earn discounts on select cars.

VIGILANTE EDITION

Product Description

The Watch_Dogs Vigilante Edition is dedicated to hard core fans who’d like to embody the hacker vigilante in real life! Thanks to the iconic cap and mask offered in this limited edition, you’ll feel just like a real modern day hero.

Also included in this edition: the Watch_Dogs official soundtrack and in-game bonus content: single player mission: Palace pack. Develop more hacking skills and unlock rewards.

Physical content

Vigilante Collector’s box
Aiden Pearce’s iconic cap
Aiden Pearce’s mask
Original soundtrack of the game

Digital content

Palace pack: A police raid is planned on the luxury palace of an Internet mogul. His impressive databanks have intimate details on thousands of people…including Aiden Pearce. Break inside, wipe the hard drives and escape before the raid begins.

Rewards (Unlocked upon completion of the ULC mission)

INVESTIGATION BONUS: Unlock more investigative opportunities inside the network databanks.
ATM HACK BOOST: Boost your cash rewards when hacking bank accounts.

Bioshock infinite

Posted by Bodrul on 26/03/2013 – 11:29 pm

Filed under Multi Platform, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Tagged as 2K, 2K Games, bioshock, Bioshock 2, Bioshock infinite, irrationalgames

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

Total score 9/10

Hogs of War: Because Warfare in the Animal Kingdom Isn’t Just for Worms

Posted by Chris Littlechild on 24/03/2013 – 3:07 pm

Filed under PC, Playstation 3
Tagged as Hogs of War, Infogrames, Playstation, Sony, Turn-Based Strategy

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.

Super Meat Boy – a tasty treat

Posted by Shiznit1991 on 21/02/2013 – 11:43 pm

Filed under General, Multi Platform, PC, Xbox 360
Tagged as 2D, fast, fun, meat, plat-form, Super Meat Boy, team

Developers Team Meat hand over control of our indie hero, “Super Meat Boy”, with eyes, ears and legs to give us a piece of cubed meat on a mission to save his damsel in-distress, “Bandage Girl”. An evil baby smartly dressed in a jar, appropriately named “Dr Fetus”, stars as his nemesis and captor of his damsel in distress (Sounds weird? Well I haven’t seen anyone question a certain super-fast blue hedgehog?). Armed with the speed to match Usain Bolt, you must run, jump, slide, rinse, and repeat multiple times through this timing based plat-former in an effort to save the love of our hero. Heard of this before? With the formula that seemingly every retro plat-former brings, Super Meat Boy adds some chaos amongst normality that we’re used to seeing in these types of games.

Firstly, I’ll begin with the graphics. Set in a 2D world the flat background compliments how it is meant to be played: in a typical retro platform fashion. There are multiple worlds to go through and with each environment there is its own style with various ways to bring about a fatality. With several worlds and multiple surroundings available, it comes with an array of different fatalities and formidable layouts for you to traverse, and subsequently annoy you with. The graphics are easy on the eye and they probably help nullify the anger that you shall no doubt feel whilst playing this game. That being said, the graphics are not what this game is about, that lies with the game play.
The game play consists of pure twitch thumb stick action. There is no other game where you shall hear the thumb stick hit the boundary more times; it is quite a fierce game on your nerves, emotions and the controller’s rubber. With the pace of the game, you may expect a slow response from the controller, but it’s actually quite amicable. The aim is to reach your goal at the end of each level, in the form of Bandage Girl, using your repository of skills: running, jumping and sliding down walls all whilst avoiding all things that could rip you apart, which are typically most things. With the inclusion of over 300 levels across both easy and hard worlds through the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ respectively, there is plenty to be occupied with.

Finish times make this game competitive; there is an award for speed, with a set goal time visible to beat for an ‘A+’ grade, as well as bandages to collect from challenging positions for you to try and obtain in certain areas in addition to completing the level. These bandages are used to unlock other characters from both: different games, and from the Super Meat Boy game, for example, you can control Alien Hominid and Bandage Girl with enough bandages collected. Each character has a unique ability and characteristics; Alien Hominid can fire his gun downwards to give you a propelled jump. This game has a perfect mix for those looking for a challenge and casual gamers. It also has boss battles, adding for extra difficulty which at times, can be quite challenging. I got stuck on one particular boss for a very long time; in fact I believe I rage quit it. A quite humorous inclusion (besides the cut-scenes), is the death montage visible once you complete a level. Each death is recorded and then played back to you once you complete the level. It’s a fairly mocking way of showing you your accomplishment, but it’s still a nice touch.

The games sound track blends fast paced, heavy, 8-bit like sounds in a concoction of Sonic and Metallica with both elements pulsing out to emphasize the game’s story and appearance. I’m a huge fan of what a game offers musically, with my favourites being the classics of Zelda and Super Mario (obviously) and this one may be up there now. “Super Meat Boy” gives something different to your listening pleasure. You can play the game and listen to the game consciously without being engulfed in the story which a lot of games miss out on. Unless there is a distinct part of the game where you can fully focus on the music, then most players miss the music in other games. With Super Meat Boy’s simplistic game play, you can both enjoy the game and listen to what it has to offer without losing out on anything. A link to the soundtrack can be found here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiki4UQEayw

What you find in this game is a gigantic mix of hatred and love. You can’t but help but fall in love with the game play the soundtrack and the characters plight and desperation to find his love and defeat the antagonist; but you grow to hate the amount of times you try to repeat a level doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. It’s not the games fault; there are no glitches to blame and every time it is your fault as nothing changes upon restart, making it even more annoying. The split second difference between success and failure is emphasized marvellously in this game and can truly test patience and control.

For me, I’m extremely glad I purchased this little indie game, despite how long it took me to finally decide that I should. For those who love Super Mario Bros, then you can relate both through the title and through certain elements of the game play and will most definitely not be disappointed but this is definitely taking the plat forming genre to a new level. I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a challenge as it’s one of the hardest games out there but it is also simple and fun for those not willing to pull out their hair. Any game with a leader board pushes players to go faster than their friends and this will continue to do so. It may not be on the level of participation and aggression in beating your friends as games such as the Trials franchise, but it will definitely leave you sneakily trying to top your friend’s speed score without them knowing.

Overall I would give it an 7/10, but this doesn’t reflect the need to purchase it, which is a definite 10 rating! At only a cheap price of 1200 points on the Xbox Live Arcade I can’t believe it took me so long to invest in this adrenaline pumping plat-former. This game is also available on PC, Mac, and Linux.

Little Inferno and ‘Digital Experiences’: They’re Video Games, Jim, But Not as We Know Them

Posted by Chris Littlechild on 15/02/2013 – 11:50 pm

Filed under Ios, iOS games/Android, PC, Wii
Tagged as Little Inferno, Tomorrow Corporation, Wii U, World of Goo

In today’s gamingsphere, accomplishment is paramount. As we’ve previously seen, if a game featured an Achievement for a month’s uninterrupted play with nary a pause for a bathroom break, there would be those enterprising gamers that acquired it, risking their bladders swelling until they exploded in a ghastly, macabre mess of urine and blood-leaking flesh fragments on their shagpile carpets.

Hard mode? Impossible mode? preposterous mode? Ultimate-Fighting-Champion-battle-against-humongous-movie-badass-Arnold-Schwarzenegger-with-an-arm-and-both-legs-tied-behind-your-back-armed-only-with-a-turd-stained-toilet-brush mode? All SHALL be conquered, paying no heed to the loss of sanity/vision/hours of daylight/minty-fresh body odour/significant others that may occur as a result.

Self-imposed feats of demented ninja cyborg gaming prowess are also common, completing x level utilising only x weapon and ad nauseum variants on that notion. As such, what is the protocol with ‘digital experiences,’ these odd little confections that don’t deign to offer achievements, trophies, coherent plots of any sort or even logical level systems? Are we to abandon our strenuous quest to bolster the ever-increasing size of our immense e-wieners? Are we reduced to taking photographs of ourselves giving the righteous middle finger and mailing them to developer HQs in our eternal chagrin? No. Because THAT would be crazy.

Let us venture, then, into the preposterous, endearing and macabre world of Little Inferno. This PC release steadfastly defies any attempt at being genre-defined (I’m going to tentatively dub it a ‘puzzle’ game, though this is a loose -loose enough to DROP RIGHT OFF- application of the term), presenting players with… a fireplace. You’ll accrue catalogues containing a fantastical multitude of mail-order items, from the conventional (stuffed toys, food, drink, household items) to the ludicrous (a phoenix egg, an actual, tangible ‘email,’ the no-longer-manly-and-sizable-enough-to-be-a-fully-fledged-planet-but-still-not-the-kind-of-thing-you-can-keep-in-your-kitchen-cupboard astral body Pluto). Your sole aim, your very raison d’etre, is to purchase an assortment of these items and burn them in the fireplace.

You are bereft of scoring systems and time limits, almost entirely unfettered by the ‘logic’ of the gamingverse as we know it. Our endeavours are buoyed along by only the vaguest of narratives: our protagonist (a small boy rarely seen due to the game’s first-person perspective) and his town are beset by a bizarre phenomenon: it has been snowing for as long as anybody can remember, it transpires, and is becoming ever-colder. It is fortuitous that the big ol’ global enterprise, Tomorrow Corporation, is in town, dispensing their ‘Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace.’ As a fleeting, Tim Burton-esque cutscene demonstrates, the master plan to curtail everybody’s popsicle-testicled frozen fate is to… burn things in the fire. A calling our tiny pyromaniac performs with gleeful vigor.

Beyond this tantalizing, fleeting glimpse, we must rely upon letters, brief missives that arrive alongside your fire-fodder (and, in turn, become just so much kindling once read). Oftentimes, these will constitute the psychotic warblings of your next door neighbour, Sugar Plumbs, as she burns toy tigers’ crotches and so forth in the same manner. She’ll leave maddening hints pertaining to the eternal snow, and the reasons for it, and allude to knowing other things that are never disclosed. Further messages will arrive from the weather man (he is, naturellement, orbiting this dystopian, frozen world in a balloon, as these guys are seemingly wont to do) and will intermittently report upon the precarious situation outside your window. Beyond these loons, a third character, Ms. Nancy, will lend less-than-insightful insights about the ‘Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace,’ working within the Tomorrow Corporation.

There is, I’ll concede, some semblance of progress and even collectibles to be found in the toon-tinged, macabre world of Little Inferno. Most pertinently, there is a ‘combo’ menu. (the only time, except when making purchases, that you won’t be staring into the bowels of that infernal fireplace with its creeptacular, unexplained WEIRD HEAD THING. Which incidentally, has its eyes shut, yet still has the capacity to glare into your soul with a righteous condemnation, as though you have a saucer of human eyelids on your kitchen and half a buttock under your pillow. STARE NOT, FOUL THING! RETURN UP SATAN’S ANUS FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!) Of some hundred-or so items proffered, certain selections will have a special effect when burnt simultaneously.

The menu will provide a clue and the number of objects (two to four), and it’s incumbent upon you to earn the ‘stamp’ on the menu that ensues. There are 99 of these, and they are perilously close to conventional puzzles by the unhinged standards of Little Inferno. Only half are a prerequisite to ending the game (certain thresholds of combos must be discovered before you acquire the next catalogue), and much poring over the humorous, cryptic clues and perusal of the catalogues will be required to find them all.

Those that have indulged in the developer’s much-vaunted World of Goo can attest to the find dichotomy of cute and creepy that these guys deliver with aplomb. As such, with the incessant allusions to something ghastly JUST ABOUT to be elucidated upon, Little Inferno demonstrates how absurdly compelling its comparatively aimless approach can be.

In summation, you won’t attaining ultra, mega, roaring off into the stratosphere on a rainbow of mighty gaming prowess scores here, or achieving anything per se. This is a whimsical, odd little confection, relentlessly addictive in ways that are quite astonishing. In other releases, you may expend several hours in your travails to conquer a ‘professional’ or ‘ballbuster’ or some such difficulty mode. Here, in the same time period, you may opt to painstakingly construct a fort from the building blocks, or spell out convoluted messages with the letter bricks. Is this a comparable ‘challenge?’ The seemingly-warranted pride of enthusiasts that have uploaded screenshots of such to Wii U’s Miiverse would suggest so.

Stronghold Kingdoms, Freebie review.

Posted by Robert James on 23/01/2013 – 8:49 am

Filed under General, PC
Tagged as Kingdoms, MMo, PC, Review, Stronghold

In recent months Firefly has finished their game Stronghold kingdoms, an MMO with a twist. In the game you start with a single village, in a county of your choosing, and rise to power in what ever way you see fit. So how does this game compare to the cult legacy of the stronghold franchise? And in what way does it set itself apart from the rest?
When starting a game of Stronghold Kingdoms you are first required to choose a server to join, you can play on multiple servers but only boosts you pay for carry over. things carry over. I decided to join ‘world 6′, and I was soon greeted with a map of Great Britain and Ireland, even the Isle of Mann was there, being from Northern Ireland myself I thought it was only right to go for Ireland, only to realise that I could not start in my native northern counties, and my other start options were in the south of England and in Scotland, so to Mayo in the west of Ireland I go, I land in a lovely little place called “Bellavary” and instantly wonder if this is actually a real place, turns out after a quick google that it is ( well Ballyvary but props for trying at least) and I instantly feel all happy knowing that eventually all the little villages that I grew up around would also be on this map, I’m liking this already.

I just never stopped, addictive yet rage inducing.

I decided that in a game like stronghold kingdoms you have to give a few days for it to really get going, I also had some house-mates playing along ( two started before me, two after me) and we quickly realised that this was a game on the wrong platform. The mouse heavy game play and the fact that it has no RTS elements left from the Stronghold main series, you simply place and queue up buildings and research, leave it up in the background and go back to the social network of your choice, this is an iOS game, only it’s not, you cannot get this on any iOS or android platform, it currently only runs on windows only. I find this incredibly odd because not only do the game play mechanics strongly suit the mobile market, but so do the micro purchases.
Stronghold kingdoms is free to play, however, like all free to play games it needs to make money somewhere, it does this through allowing you to directly buy a currency called ‘Crowns’ you buy in staggered amounts with ( British pounds sterling) £3.22 buying you 60 crowns and £102.99 buying you 3150 crowns, you then spend these crowns on two different things, one of which is fine and simply allows you to be more lazy and the other allows you to ‘pay to win’. Premium tokens and Card packs are what you buy with your fake money, premium tokens allow you to stack buildings and research, meaning that you don’t have to come back on every couple of hours, It can automatically scout resources or sell excess, it can even train your peasants into troops while they show up and while you sleep, This is what I expect from a game like this, tokens that allow you to be a bit more lax and lazy in your approach, but don’t break the game, you don’t generate resources faster or gain more research points, just an extra couple of hours away. Card packs however are something infuriating to the extreme, unsurprisingly they give you cards, you can play them at any time without cost or limit, you can only buy packs and they cost between 8 to 10 crowns each, while some give you more resources and some extra troops, some make armies move 20 times as fast and some mean that you gain extra resources, they can seriously unbalance the game to the point where players who do not buy cards are just incapable of keeping up. Firefly tries to balance this by giving everyone cards slowly, however this also relies on buying crowns to get the most possible, when your check and balance need to be balanced you have yourself a pricing problem.
But then why is the game still going, bad pricing like this would punish most games and balance issues would cause rage quits everywhere, but they don’t, heck I’m complaining but I still have it up in the background even as I write this article. Why? The answer lies in in people, and how much we all love to screw each other over.

War, horrible yet so very colourful.

Shortly after starting I was contacted by the owner of my ‘parish’ – the market town to which my tiny village belonged- he made me his friend and we came to talking, he was a nice guy that provided me with troops to defend my tiny castle and stone to build my markets. Everything remained peaceful in Ireland until one day the English did what they are known to do in Ireland, invading and destroying every village that they find only to replace them with there own. Next thing I know me and my friends in our little faction are caught up in a storm and are about to be stomped. Only we aren’t, we survive. How? Well in stronghold Kingdoms you can do anything. Merchant, Mercenary and Monk they all have there roles, but I found my play style very different. I’m the spy, and my goodness is it fun! While we sit there in our tiny faction “feeding” the larger factions with resources and armies, I’m sending attack plans to there enemies. The best part is that no one suspects a thing, and why would they, being a spy is something that anyone can do, you don’t need to research the ability to message another player, and honestly, I’m just a little person with lots of monks and merchants why am I a danger? The game may be as unfair as a game at a carnival, but really that just makes it all the more enjoyable, when a peasant wipes out a knight because of my correctly relayed info I know that I’m making a direct change in the game, and that is something that you don’t see on many MMO’s let alone one so simple and easy to get into.
To conclude Stronghold Kingdoms is an unbalanced game with pay to win incorporated, It revolves around people being mean and aggressive, and it is so incredibly unique in how it evolves it’s own set of politics on every world I still think it’s worth a look. They have recently launched their English speaking world 7, The game is free, interesting, and challenging. I would recommend downloading it from their site, or Steam just to give it a go. This is a game for me but it won’t be for everyone. I guess some people are just not meant to rule.

Football manager 2013

Posted by Formy on 22/01/2013 – 8:46 pm

Filed under PC
Tagged as football manager, Sega, SI games

New football season is well underway, and of course, new Football manager has hit the stores. Long running series has established itself as the ultimate manager game on the market, and nobody can come even close. Let’s take a look at what SI games has prepared for us this year around. Most notable changes are definitely new play modes, that include Challenge mode and Classic mode, improved match day experience, better looking 3D match engine and improvements to overall performance and data layout.

First notable difference from last year’s game is the main menu. Even though it has a recognizable FM touch to it, you will immediately notice how polished and shiny it is. Once you load your game, it becomes obvious that changes to the UI are for the better. Everything seems more handy, and available. Whether you need to check on your training regime, find a new right back or change tactics. Managing your team is also more enjoyable experience now, as you will find helpful tools that will make picking your side and finding new recruits lot less time consuming. It’s all shown in convenient tables, and very detailed. The revamped interface looks great, feels great, and really adds up to overall game experience.

Another thing that catches the eye is new training layout. It has been rearranged, and now it shows in calender mode, that allows for better visibility and makes planning out your training more satisfying. You will see all the relevant information on a day to day basis, with training plan for each day clearly visible. Will you work on your teamwork or defensive positioning is entirely up to you. The difference does not feel so much when playing the classic mode, there it is only a matter of adjusting several sliders to fit the needs of your team. In career mode however, possibilities are ample, and it takes some time to get used to the new system. You can manually set up each training session to fit your playing style or let your assistant take care of it while you concentrate on the overall direction in which you want to go. There is of course individual training, where you can train your players for specific positions you would like them to play in.

Probably the biggest change to this year’s game is the implementation of Classic mode. It’s basically a standard game but without unnecessary details. It makes for much faster play, and considerably lowers the amount of time needed to actually finish a season. You are still responsible for all the mayor parts of team management i.e. transfers, wages, matches, training. To save time you will be relieved of some tedious actions like press conferences where media was breathing down your neck and most of the team talks, which become the responsibility of your assistants. If you are really in a rush there is an option to simulate matches in a matter of seconds, which can save quite some time. This will come in handy to everybody who likes the series but lacks sufficient time to play the regular career mode, and that is pretty much everyone who has a job and a family. Since i also fall in that category, i found this mode to my liking, even though i miss the intricacies of full career mode. However, i’m not overly confident that “hardcore” players will approve. They could see it as an assault on the integrity of the game, and resulting loss of detail. But, lets wait and reserve judgement for a later time.

Other mayor improvement is the introduction of Challenge mode, where players are pit against “worst case scenario” missions. Having played out one of them, namely “You can’t win anything with kids”, i can honestly say they are excruciatingly difficult. When you select a team to manage the game randomly creates several youngsters, in this case 18 year old kids, and instructs you to win a title with them. As you can imagine, the goal is exceedingly difficult to achieve, even with normal teams, let alone kids. To make it even more interesting, you cannot win the challenge if those youngsters haven’t played in most of your league matches. Jolly! There are number of other scenarios, where you are tasked to save a team from relegation (don’t expect a fair start), play out a season without loosing a single match (nearly impossible), and other goodies. Though they are very difficult, it is a welcome novelty from standard gameplay, if nothing but to break your routine between managing favorite clubs.

Football manager 2013 is a totally new game, radically different from previous editions. It brings new freshness into the series, especially for new players and weekend gamers. Whether you are a seasoned veteran of FM or a new player you will find this game appealing and enjoyable experience. New modes are fun to play, and add to replay value of the game. Overall game experience has improved significantly, with mayor revamp of match day experience, more detailed player & staff information and completely new training regime. If you still feel wanting, there is always multiplayer mode, where you can challenge your friends and colleagues to prove your prowess as a manager. My score on this game is 8.8/10

Good: new play modes – especially Classic mode; good design; improvements in 3D matches (although there is still room for more); more detailed and easy to use player & staff information screens; polished menus and new user interface

Bad: takes up too much free time; sluggish performance on some machines

Steam and nvidia Join the Party

Posted by Bodrul on 18/01/2013 – 9:08 pm

Filed under General, PC
Tagged as Handheld, Nvidia, portable, Steam

Steam and nvidia Join the Party

So steam along with Nvidia have joined the console market, one must ask is it really appropriate for them to join the market with what they are going to provide?

so lets break this down into different parts and talk about the individual parties and what they will be providing.

Lets start with Steam and “Piston”
Firstly as great as the concept is for allowing their consumers to hook up their console to their TV, wait there a moment.

Its already been done with other consoles like Playstation, Xbox 360 and all other Game Manufacturers out there, so this seems a lot like Onlive with their on demand service of streaming games to their console or through the PC.

Now most websites are predicting that this will harm Game manufacturers, this is utterly nonsense as proven by how badly Onlive have done and back then leading industry figures were bragging about how this technology would change the face of gaming and to be frank that was the worst test of judgment I have seen or read.

As Most people who play Games on steam, I have a accustomed to building my PC to last a long time and to be able to upgrade the components to run the latest games which are launched to their maximum performance.

Now with Piston it would just be like any other console, apart from lacking the optical bays
it does have the advantage of being upgradable with the latest parts, Steam have also made it so you can send your older working parts back when upgrading to get some credit in return to use on purchases.

Unlike Onlive which was a on demand PC gaming which you basically rented the games for life (Well while it was being streamed)

the Steam Piston Stores your games on its hard drive allowing you to play from the console in which are from your steam library.

So it’s a shrunk down version of a PC and its more aimed at casual gamers and not really at us hardcore gamers which like Performance and power.

Now we know the casual Gamers like social games which are interactive and pretty much laid back and easy to play, something that can be done in groups.

This is where I see the problem with Piston.

* Majority of Steam users who purchase through steam do so in Bulk during steam sales, so accumulate a vast library which can run into hundreds or even couple of terabytes of data storage,
now you can argue that they can always uninstall and install games they want to play, which is a fair point.

*As the steam console is upgradable and is as I said from my view mostly aimed at Casual gamers,
I find it hard to see anyone that just plays casually taking the Piston apart and upgrading it.

*Its aimed at the wrong market, I say this as the market has been flooded with consoles over the years and as a company Steam should stick with what it is good at, this is selling games through its portal to end users.

I don’t mean to be that person, but I don’t see this as a viable console which will replace the consoles on the market which already cover almost all areas for casual gaming.

*The only people I can see purchasing this console are those that would like the ability to take their gaming from their Bedrooms, Office to the Living room.

One thing that I really hope they have sorted for people who purchase this is the licensing of games, as the account will need to verified each time a user signs into a different place,
Hopefully they will have a system in place where you can have different consoles assigned to your account.

This would get rid of having to verify yourself each time you sign into your PC or your Piston.

So end of the Day it’s something I wouldn’t really purchase and for the following reasons

*Lack of Hard drive space
*Lack of Power
*Lack of Optical Bays (not that big deal as serial can be used to obtain game)
*Aimed at wrong Market

Pros
*its small for what it provides
*Allows Users to play their steam Library other then PC

And Now we come to Project Shield

Nvidia entrance to the Gaming Market.

Now we all know Nvidia as the giant which provides companies and users with Graphics cards which allow us to even play the games we have on hard drives.
Now one must ask is why? why would they enter a market which they practically run with their high end graphics cards.

Their entrance is a handheld device with the most Powerful portable Chip on the market, the TEGRA 4 (Custom 72-core NVIDIA GeForce® GPUQuad-core A15 CPU)

Its designed what looks like a Xbox 360 controller with a small monitor stuck on, which is quite a good thing from one point of view as the 360 controller is pretty much sweet and most comfortable to use.

The Screen is touch screen and the console itself is android, which means it’s pretty much an open system allowing more applications to be released for it, Game wise I am sceptical as I don’t see many Major gaming industry leading designers and producers making Games for the Android platform as they make their Bread and butter from companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

So at the end of the day I can only see Indi developers mostly releasing games for this console, only when it and that’s a Big If, it Lifts off and they get the audience and people take this console seriously do I see the Big Boys on the block coming along and producing Titles which are compatible with this console or solely for this console.

As a Handheld console the shield looks pretty sweet but as mentioned before it is entering a Market filled with Handheld consoles and even they are being replaced by Mobile phones like the Galaxy and Iphone as they can pretty much can be used as handheld games consoles as they are getting more powerful as the time passes, and in most cases pack more power and performance then the consoles themselves.

One reason I am sceptical about Nvidia coming into this market as a company which deals in components, I find it hard to believe they will do any better than the current leading Industry leaders in Handheld consoles who are losing ground to the rise of Free Mobile Games and the Use of mobiles as handheld consoles.
At the End of the day we have two great companies which specialize in different fields and provide different services to the end consumer.

They both have crossed this path and come into the same industry which is already flooded and suffering from decline due to tough competition and fall in sales.

So the Main Question or Questions must be asked

*How do they expect to Sell these devices on already flooded Market.
*How do they expect to survive against established companies which are struggling themselves with falling Sales.

Onlive Sold for Less than 5Million Dollars

Posted by Bodrul on 16/10/2012 – 7:51 pm

Filed under PC
Tagged as on demand, Onlive

Onlive Sold for Less than 5Million Dollars

A while ago I wrote an article about the end of Physical Gaming and the introduction of Digital Distribution and streaming service.

http://www.gamingrev.com/?p=1163

In it I wrote about different forms of on demand gaming and their benefits and downsides to them.

Quote from the article

“Onlive
With the Onlive demand service where you pay for the Game, you don’t really own a physical copy of the game and technically are paying just for the privilege of playing the game which is hosted on a server.

One good thing about this which comes to mind is you can almost play the game on any platform ranging from the humble Galaxy Tab to your PC.

downside to this is that it requires a decent internet connection 2MB being the minimum connection speed (since the graphics are processed on the servers at the end on their system, you computer can be simple and not designed for Gaming)

Which is great for people who can’t afford or want to build up a computer to play a couple of games which may interest them.

Onlive are good for a couple of things which I will admit others could learn from, for almost all games users get the chance to play a Game for 30min (not a demo but the whole game from start to finish) this allows the user to get a feel for the game and if they like it they then can rent it out for 3-day, 5-day or buy the right to play the game for Full Access.

there is also an option to go on a subscription plan and pay a flat out fee a month and play from a selection of games as much as you want.

So for Casual Gamers this is a great option as its almost no strings attached and you get to play the games whenever you like and pretty much anywhere in the world.

and for those that worry about piracy, with no physical copy to pirate it means the media is a bit more secure from being duplicated and sold on the black market.
You don’t have to worry about running out of space on your Hard drives or have to go through the process of having to uninstall some of your games from your collection to make way for your next game.

and Since the Onlive system uses its servers to store your game saves rather than a local file on your system, if the worst should happen and your computer should crash then you would be happy to know your hours of hard work are still safe.

Downsides to this in my view is the lack of a physical copy, in most cases you are paying full retail value for the game when it hits the market, so going to the shops or a retailers you could most likely pick up a Box version for much Less than that which is advertised on the market place for Onlive.

You are also at the fate of Onlive and if they think that is worth keeping the game on their servers if the demand for it should drop and not really be worth them to host anymore.

If you lose connection then you will lose the game (as in you can’t carry on playing as there is no local buffer or stored game partition on your system which the game will carry on running)

Onlive Gaming on Demand is good and Bad, as mentioned above it has its Pros and it Has its Cons. ”

Onlive had claimed to have over a million users, but in reality it only had over 1600 users on at the same time, which didn’t really make the firm profitable which did hit the original shareholders hard as a firm valued close to $2 billion dollars value plummeted, wiping out millions of pounds and dollars worth of shares in companies who had originally contributed to the service.

An example is BT who lost over 45Million pounds in investment.

In my Honest opinion Onlive had the right tools and could have made it work, it’s just the cost of the games and the thought of paying Retail price for a game which is basically like renting out a game.
something which isn’t great considering you can purchase the game from retail stores and have a physical copy.

If they had a better pricing model where the cost reflected the actual service then maybe it would have done somewhat better, who in their right mind would pay £40 to rent out a new game?.

end of the day I say rent as you are just purchasing the rights to play the game.

GamingRev

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Steam and nvidia Join the Party

Onlive Sold for Less than 5Million Dollars

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