tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30242539839429646132024-03-13T22:46:35.594-07:00Today in GamingNews and commentary from the video game industry.AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.comBlogger195125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-76759175983640838542014-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:002014-08-18T13:31:20.506-07:00Shadow of Mordor Season Pass<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/85VJdg9owWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>So, the amount of information that we got out of Monolith today was spartan at best. Basically, the season pass works like this: there's a challenge mode where you have to withstand waves of creeps, several unique story missions that will come out over time, a unique playable character, and invites to live events. The game comes out September 30 (in North America) and the season pass content is available on October 3rd.</p>
<h3>Other Stories</h3>
<ul>
<li>Habitat Gets Early-Access Upgrade
<li>Arena: Cyber Evolution Out Today on Steam Early Access
<li>Total War 2 Gets Female Troops (Daughters of Mars DLC)
<li>European Release Date for Fantasy Life on 3DS
<li>An Interview with Peter Molyneux on PocketGamer
</ul>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/08/som_seasonpass_copy2_eng.jpg" target=_blank>The Season Pass Reveal Infogram for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Godus/feature.asp?c=61069" target=_blank>Peter Molyneux Interview</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/16/6009823/daughters-of-mars-brings-women-warriors-to-total-war-rome-2" target=_blank>Details About Daughters of Mars on Polygon</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.spearheadgames.ca/language/en/" target=_blank>Spearhead Games Homepage (for info on ACE)</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-2530113761825712192014-03-15T21:34:00.001-07:002014-03-15T21:34:19.309-07:00Inside the Beta - Wildstar<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/to2f0rh3zZs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Wildstar is a new MMORPG scheduled to launch on June 3, 2014 in which I have been an active beta tester for about two months now.</p>
<p>Although they are just about to get wiped out, I currently have a level fifteen character that I've been playing for eighteen hours, a level eleven character that I've been playing for nine hours, and then a whole host of other characters that have been deleted over time -- bringing my total time with this game up to about fifty hours.</p>
<p>This past week the NDA dropped and now I've decided to do a video to talk about my impressions of my time in the beta.</p>
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<h3>What is Wildstar?</h3>
<p>To begin, Wildstar is a brand new IP that has been in development at Carbine Studios since 2005. Carbine was founded by a bunch of ex-Blizzard employees. The game is being published by NC Soft -- home of, among other IPs, Guild Wars 2.</p>
<p>This game revolves around the story of two warring factions that have descended upon a newly discovered planet called Nexus -- one faction that makes no bones about it's malicious hegemony and another that inflicts it's conquest in a more gentle and civilized manner.</p>
<p>You are a member of one of these two invading factions -- thawed out of your deep-space cryo-sleep and brought to the planet's surface to do the bidding of your clan.</p>
<p>In this game, there is a vast array of options to customize your character. You get to choose one of the two playable factions, six classes, seven races, and four so-called paths (which are sub-classifications that dictate your side quests and help you to customize the game based on whether you like to explore or crack skulls or whatever).</p>
<p>Every game starts on a tutorial spaceship and then moves to the planet proper. Like most MMOs, you must take the quests linearly and moving too far ahead will get you out-leveled in a hurry. But if you behave yourself, there are plenty of side quests to do and the NPCs you meet give you a nice cohesive and engaging storyline that keeps you coming back for more.</p>
<p>In addition to playing the game myself, I have been actively monitoring the YouTube videos that have been posted of end game content, raids, PvP matches, and dungeons. In addition, I am an avid listener of Cosmotronic and most of the other Wildstar podcasts and they have helped me to learn almost everything there is to know about this game.</p>
<p>So, let's talk about my beta experiences. When I evaluate an MMO, I have four criteria. They are: lore, interaction, combat, and exploration.</p>
<h3>Lore</h3>
<p>First off, the lore in this game is staggering. The vast amount of content that you get to read and experience is amazing. There is little voice acting, so you're going to be reading a lot and many YouTubers have complained openly the fact that the audio cues that play when you get into dialog don't match the dialog you're reading -- which can be jarring to some people.</p>
<p>As you move about the world, you will find literally hundreds of full-page descriptions of the history of the planet Nexus, the activities of your people and your enemies, as well as the pointless ramblings of the Skeech.
The planet, the ships, the uniforms, the NPCs, and the rest of the components that make up the setting of this game are top notch. </p>
<p>But, there's a problem.</p>
<p>In a game where the developers have spent thousands of hours building one of the most in-depth environments to play in, your character has literally zero story. In fact, the game is essentially a pinball machine where you as the ball are bounced around from one NPC to the next as a de facto mercenary who will do anything for anyone without opinion.</p>
<p>Now, you can (for the most part) ignore those quests you find objectionable, but there are no alternative options to bring you wealth or experience -- so you do so at your own peril.</p>
<p>You are an empty shirt that could be filled by any of a thousand empty shirts -- as evidenced by the opening cutscene where you are literally yanked from a company of hundreds of cryogenically-frozen bodies completely at random. And the game is always reminding you that Faction is King and you are a surf.</p>
<h3>Interaction</h3>
<p>In terms of interaction, I would highly recommended meeting with and then partying up with as many other players as is possible. I have played this game alone on Tuesday afternoons when the servers first come up and I have played on Saturday during a full-on beta stress test and I would advise you to always have other people on hand. </p>
<p>This game is achingly slow when you have no one else to back you up. In addition, because of certain technical limitations which come about as the result of online desync, you'll need the other people in your immediate area to cover you when the game decides to hit you with combat damage that you didn't see coming.</p>
<p>In addition, your character is constantly being pigeonholed. You can't change weapons, you can't mine if you're not a miner, you can't cut down a tree if you're not a tree guy, and your leveling is tied to your class so not every character can be buffed to run faster -- which sucks... hard.</p>
<p>And since we're on leveling up, whenever you happen to level you'll get this crazy animation celebrating your achievement -- even if you're in the middle of combat -- filling your screen with pop-ups and Guitar-Hero inspired graphics to drive you insane.</p>
<p>Then you have to quick clear it so you can save yourself from grim death, but you forget about it and then three levels later you realize that you have all these points to spend.</p>
<p>The level up process also introduces you to a plethora of new unlocks -- sometimes as many as a dozen at a pop -- almost all of which have to be activated at a robo-station that's nowhere near you.</p>
<p>The whole process needs a re-think.</p>
<p>But just to end on a positive note, I must take the time to rave about is the crafting system -- which is one of the most interesting and unpredictable that I've ever seen in an MMO. Assuming you have bought and or crafted the resources you need, you combine them as you might expect using recipes to create new products. But there's a catch!
<p>Sometimes the same recipe that you just used seconds ago will fail you the second time around due to the unpredictable nature of the crafting system. You also can experiment with some of the recipes you have to unlock bigger better recipes.</p>
<p>All told, it's one of my favorite parts of the game. I always look forward to the crafting station.</p>
<h3>Combat</h3>
<p>I touched on combat a little earlier, but I'd like to talk about it a little more deeply. First of all, the combat works on a ten-box hot-bar system combined with a visual telegraphing system that paints the enemy attacks on the ground with red fields to show you where their attacks are going to hit (sort of) and then fields of green to indicate your damage zones.</p>
<p>This is great for slow enemies because you can move out of the way or leap to the side to save yourself, but is less informative as the enemies grow in power and speed. In fact, most of your time in this game will be spent looking at the ground trying to counter your opponent's next strike, which is weird at first but you'll get used to it.</p>
<p>This mechanic can also be found in the PvP, raids, and dungeons.</p>
<p>Some enemies burrow underground and then pop up under you, so you wonder around surrounded by a big red circle trying to find safety while they flawlessly track your every movement from beneath your feet.</p>
<p>Your character has access to dozens of different types of attacks -- most of which come from their class and a few come from their path. They each offer unique benefits and drawbacks and all of the ones I unlocked were enjoyable.</p>
<p>But Wildstar's telegraph system isn't perfect.</p>
<p>Desyncronization is a problem for every MMO, but in my opinion is particularly problematic for Wildstar. When the signal running from your computer to the server and then back again begins to lag for some reason, your copy of the game will misrepresent where you actually are in the world. This results in you taking damage even though visually your screen is telling you that you're in a safe place.</p>
<p>When desync occurs, the telegraphs you clearly have avoided sometimes nab you and some of the telegraphs you send out miss their mark. This makes combat a problem for people with Internet issues and could limit the total number of people who will subscribe to the game. </p>
<p>But if you have a consistently great signal to your computer, just happen to live right next to the server farm, or are willing to turn off the telegraphs and play it the old fashioned way, then I think you'll enjoy the combat immensely.</p>
<h3>Exploration</h3>
<p>Finally, exploration is one of my favorite parts of any MMO and this world is chock full of things to see and do. You can boost this experience by choosing the explorer path (my personal favorite) -- thereby giving yourself tons of extra things to find while you're skirting the edges of the map.</p>
<p>Since you're going to be out there anyway, I would highly recommend combining the explorer path with the gathering and mining trades to turn exploration into a high-paying career and choosing the stalker class so you can explore heavily-guarded areas at will by entering into stealth will make you rich in no time.</p>
<p>You can climb to mountain peaks to set up spy cameras, plant your flag to claim territory for your faction, crawl down into valleys and scale jumping puzzles to find hidden treasure chests, and even discover caves and missions that other players can't even see and then invite them along to share the loot.</p>
<p>My love of exploration in Wildstar is limited by only two things. First, is that it's incredibly touchy. There are times when you're walking down a hill and then all of a sudden -- even though you haven't really changed speed -- you'll lose a thousand hit points because the game registered that you tripped over a rock while walking downhill.</p>
<p>The second is that moving around is heavily reliant on mounts. In the beta, the other testers and I were granted access to the highly-acclaimed hoverboard at level ten, but that mount won't be available in the final version of the game until much, much later.</p>
<p>And walking everywhere for the first fifteen levels sucks -- bad. In fact, these are some of the slowest characters that I have played with in any game in the history of my life. Compared to The Elder Scrolls Online, your badass Wildstar army brat sprints with the effectiveness of a four-pack-a-day smoker.</p>
<p>You'll actually find yourself memorizing the locations of all the speed-boost stations so you you can give yourself 38 minute respites from life as a turtle.</p>
<p>But if you can get past those two things -- which again, may change in beta -- if you're into exploration then this game is a must own.</p>
<h3>$60 Box, $15/month</h3>
<p>So that concludes my thoughts on the game based on my time in the beta, however I have one more concern and it is this: the price. This game is currently $60 to buy PLUS $15 a month after the first 30 days.</p>
<p>Everyone I've talked to about this has said the same thing -- well, that's standard for the industry. And they're right. It is.</p>
<p>SWTOR, WoW, and Elder Scrolls all have the same revenue system. But they're all established IPs. Elder Scrolls is marking it's 20-year-anniversary with it's launch, Star Wars has been around since the 1970s, and WoW launched a decade ago on the 10th anniversary of it's first game.</p>
<p>Each of these games launched with millions of fans brought in from a successful franchise.</p>
<p>Wildstar? Wildstar is brand new. There are a lot of people bragging about the lore and as well they should be. It's great. And if you love beautiful worlds, fun combat, and exploration then this game should be on your radar.</p>
<p>But MMORPG is two things -- it's an RPG... and it's an MMO. Carbine has brought the RPG in spades and I'm rooting for them 100% because I think they did a phenomenal job.</p>
<p>But they also have to bring the MMO. They have to get people on the servers -- by the hundreds of thousands. And I'm worried that $60 up front (a total of $90 for the first three months of gameplay, mind you) is going to scare people from buying into a game they've never seen or heard of before.</p>
<p>I posed the question to the guys and gals of the Wildstar podcast Cosmotronic and I think Mizpah said it best: in effect, if you divide the cost of playing by the number of hours of fun you'll have, MMOs in general are one of the best values you can buy. But not everyone gets that.</p>
<p>This game must have people. When no one else is around, this place is a ghost town and combat is a chore. If YouTuber support and fan-boy hype isn't enough to populate the servers the way they need to be populated, I worry about the fate of this title.</p>
<p>Will the game that prides itself on re-inventing the industry standards survive being sold at the industry standard? We'll see.</p>
AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-65162259937115861222014-01-05T11:36:00.002-08:002014-01-05T11:44:29.941-08:00Review - Driftmoon<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PeqR5flDv_0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:38 - Gameplay
<li>1:26 - Pros
<li>4:55 - Cons
<li>7:35 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>In this episode, I am four hours into an RPG game called Driftmoon. This is a game that actually came out back in February 2013 for the PC but only now at the start of the new year has it landed on Steam.</p>
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<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, I would consider Driftmoon to be an excellent game that combines some really funny humor with old-school top-down RPG mechanics.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Driftmoon is a role-playing game where you play the role of Insert Name Here, a wayward village son who returns home in response to an urgent message from his father -- only to find the entire citizenry of his village petrified by mysterious magic.</p>
<p>You must then search the village and strike out on quests -- piecing together the clues while defending yourself from enemies like spiders, skeletons, and a passive-aggressive clown.</p>
<p>Along the way, you'll pick up multiple companions -- each of whom has a backstory. And should you return to places you've already been before, you'll occasionally find extra content and new jokes that reward you for your thoroughness.</p>
<p>This game is the first developed by the husband and wife team behind Instant Kingdom -- a brand new video game developer based out of Jyväskylä, Finland.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Without question, my favorite part of the game is the humor. The storyline is great, the conversations between NPCs are entertaining, there are several references to movies and other video games, and I always found myself wanting to know more about the characters and the events in the story. And in a lot of games, you'll find all the heroes and NPCs very one-note as they're usually written by one person. Clearly someone spent a lot of time giving each character their own take on the world. That's worth applauding.
<li>While exploring, if you can see it, you can take it. If there's a pearl on the other side of a river, you simply click on it and you get it. The game doesn't force you to walk three minutes out of your way to a bridge just to pick up a pearl.
<li>The game has rekeybinding. I always point that out whenever I see it and it's always a plus.
<li>I enjoyed the music in this game. It reminds me of the music from Fable 2. It has a very Scottish/adventurer streak to it. I know musical taste is very subjective, but regardless it was well performed and nice.
<li>There is TONS -- let me say that again, TONS -- of lore in this game. If you enjoy reading all about every human being and their lives and their diaries and their important political papers, then you should seriously consider this game.
<li>Once you've been to a region, you can quick travel there in seconds using your world map -- even if you're just crossing from one side of the town you're in to the other. This cuts the amount of time you would normally have to play this game in half.
<li>I LOVE secret passageways in video games and there are MANY places in Driftwood where you can tap on a wall or pull on a torch to get to new places. Sometimes they are quite noticeable and not-so-secret, but other times they are hidden in a dark corner and you only rewarded with their secrets if you're really searching the room thoroughly.
<li>There are missions that can be won either by attacking the NPC directly or through dialog -- depending on how you want to play them. In fact, at the start of the game, you can choose your difficulty settings to alter whether you want the game as a whole to be more action-oriented or, conversely, more cerebral. Also, the higher you jack your intelligence rating, the more astute you become at winning through words.
<li>I've played many RPGs; in fact, it's my favorite genre. Without spoiling it for you, there are several truly creative loot items you will find along the way and how you use them can really make your game unique.
<li>When visiting a shopkeeper, he or she only has so much gold. Once the shopkeeper is poor, they can't buy anything else off of you. Little things like that make the story more real. Of course the shopkeeper doesn't have endless gold. If he did, he wouldn't be living in a dungeon, now would he?
<li>Finally, I love the companions. They are funny and the AI performs pretty good in fights. You can talk to them to get their backstory and they have emotions and mood swings. Unlike in other RPGs I've played, when my companions take a hit in combat I find myself apologizing to them.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>If story if my favorite part of the game, then one of the things that bothers me most is that, at times, there is a ton of text to read and some of it is useless adjectives that really don't need to be there.
<li>If you click on something that makes a sound effect (for instance, dragging a chair) and then immediately launch a dialog screen, the whole time you're reading the text the sound effect you just heard continues to play in the background over and over again. Depending on the sound effect, that can be quite annoying.
<li>One of the primary mechanics is that you have to move things to look under them to see if they are covering any cool loot -- a great mechanic. Some things (like petrified humans) are heavy and take a while to move and some things are light and can be hurled without a second thought. But there are a few things that take forever to move even though they are clearly lightweight -- specifically chairs. The developers need to find a chair and move it to the other side of the room, time themselves, and then incorporate that into their game.
<li>The game never crashed and I never got stuck, but that's not to say this game is perfectly polished. There are times where lights will pass through walls if you're standing in just the right way and will send you into darkness while illuminating whatever is on the other side of the wall. Also, the animations in this game are stiff -- which is not something you notice when the camera is far away but when you zoom in it's plainly obvious. These are minor cosmetic issues.
<li>Finally, when two people are talking, sometimes the dialog boxes -- which float above their heads -- will overlap making neither readable. So far, it's only prevented me from reading jokes, but I'm worried I might miss a plot point or side quest clue in the future because my companion and I are talking at the same time.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>A lot of disappointing video game titles were launched in 2013 and even those that were the cream of the crop often times sacrificed a quality storyline in exchange for their experiments in game mechanics.</p>
<p>This game went the opposite direction, offering a simple and straight-forward, traditional RPG game with an engaging story and a sprinkling of quirky irreverence that makes this title a treat. </p>
<p>This one has me hooked and if you are the kind of person who loves to read lore in video games and fall in love with your characters, this title will not disappoint.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[WATCH] <a href="http://www.instantkingdom.com/driftmoon/" target=_blank>Instant Kingdom Home Page</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://www.gog.com/game/driftmoon" target=_blank>[GOG] Driftmoon</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/263380" target=_blank>[Steam] Driftmoon</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-68568644394151265362013-11-29T12:37:00.001-08:002013-11-29T12:39:57.772-08:00Review - Barbie Dreamhouse Party<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y8gFqtm8sDA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>1:00 - Gameplay
<li>2:05 - Pros
<li>3:25 - Cons
<li>5:55 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>In this episode, I have just finished a complete game of Barbie Dreamhouse Party on Steam. There's also a version for the WiiU which, to my knowledge, is an identical game.</p>
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<p>In total, I have played for two hours and before we begin, I am judging this game not on it's themes -- which are all about girlie Kardashian stuff that I don't understand -- but rather on it's quality as a video game. I have no way to know if a green emerald belt goes with a denim skirt.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: Barbie Dreamhouse Party may be a fun game for kids that you only see every once in a while, but has no longevity if you're buying it for a child of your own.</p>
<p>Is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Barbie Dreamhouse Party is a 3D party game consisting of nine minigames.</p>
<p>The plot of the game revolves around you -- playing as Barbie -- and three of Barbie's girlfriends at a get-together in the Dreamhouse. When one of the girls "accidentally" activates the home's security system, the entire house goes into lockdown and a robot that looks a lot like GLaDOS -- the antagonist from Portal -- comes and gives the girls challenges to unlock each of the rooms one-by-one.</p>
<p>In each room, you work together with your girlfriends to search the room looking for missing accessories and photographs. Once they are all found, you must then play against each other in a minigame. The winner of the minigame is given points and whoever has the most points at the end of the nine minigames is the winner.</p>
<p>The game was developed by Torus Games. Based in Australia, they specialize in branded titles, having just released games for movie titles like The Croods, Rise of the Guardians, and Madagascar 3.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Point blank: the minigames are fun and challenging. I enjoyed each of them and there's a nice variety of matchmaking, memory, and skill games.
<li>I would suggest that the AI actually fights to beat you, so at least in that regard this game isn't patronizing.
<li>There's a photo wall that consists of photographs you find while wondering about your house showing you and your girlfriends having fun. The photo wall is a great mechanic and a contribution to the longevity of the game, as you might want to play multiple times to collect all the photos.
<li>The music is great. It's very peppy and something that young women would respond to.
<li>The NPCs are interviewed after the minigames, during which they talk about things like "probiotic french vanilla yogurt", which is actually something I wasn't expecting. I like games that make young girls ask questions about the world around them.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>Number one complaint -- this game is short. I beat it in two hours. Now, you may say that I'm a video game veteran and the game is geared toward little kids. I'm not saying that the game is easy, I'm saying that the game only has nine mini-games, so after two hours you most certainly have played the entire game. It's not like you can play the game over again and maybe unlock some of the other minigames. That's it. Nine mini-games.
<li>As simple as this game is, there is a situation where sometimes your NPC girlfriends glitch out during the accessory-collection missions and stand around holding their accessory instead of putting it on the pedestal like they're supposed to. If you bump into them, they'll start moving again.
<li>Barbie has one white, one black, and one Hispanic friend. The voice actress for Raquel the Hispanic friend does fine as a voice actress, but I'm pretty sure she's not Hispanic.
<li>This game needs a difficulty selection. Beginner, medium, and difficult would really make this game customizable for the vastly different age ranges they're looking to cover.
<li>There are dozens of outfits to choose from, but the NPC girlfriends are programmed to wear the same stuff and often are displayed wearing the same exact outfits. I'm not a woman, but the one thing I know to be true is that in America, wearing the same outfit as your girlfriend is a bad thing no matter who you are.
<li>There are four doors in the mansion. One allows you to start the game and a second allows you to practice the mini-games after you unlock them. The final two doors show you the options and the credits -- and neither are worthy of their own room.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>A party game is supposed to have a vast variety of mini-games so that every time you play there's something different for you to experience. The gameplay -- even though the mini-games are familiar -- is unique because you don't know which mini-games are coming until they happen.</p>
<p>This game fails in that regard and doesn't have enough of anything else to warrant attention.</p>
<p>Regardless of how you feel about encouraging Kardashianism in our youth, the game itself is fun but brief. If you hope to entertain your child for longer than an afternoon, consider instead buying actual Barbies for the same price and let their imaginations do the work that Torus Games did not.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/251610/" target=_blank>Buy It on Steam</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-67178195551953107192013-11-25T15:52:00.001-08:002013-11-25T15:53:19.535-08:00Review - Redshirt <iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PH2hBgvGy3I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:48 - Gameplay
<li>2:05 - Pros
<li>4:47 - Cons
<li>7:22 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>In this episode, I am currently into the middle of my second game of Redshirt. That's about ten hours in total.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Redshirt is a challenging and unique concept with a penchant for leaving you on the horns of a dilemma and a countdown to oblivion that makes each decision -- even dinner with a friend -- a life or death one.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Redshirt is a sci-fi simulation game where you must use your Internet savvy to save your own life.
So here's the deal: you are living on a space station and have the good fortune to learn that something awful is about to happen to the station and it's time to leave.</p>
<p>However, instead of evacuating the entire station -- because it would require the head mucky-mucks to do some actual work -- the powers that be have decided that they would rather save themselves and anyone else important enough to care about and leave the plebs to their fate.</p>
<p>How republican of them.</p>
<p>But that's where you come in. You are a lowly janitor whose serendipitous knowledge of the situation leaves you in a unique position. You must improve your social, educational, and occupational standing at the station until you achieve a level worthy of being taken away.</p>
<p>Whether you decide to befriend an ambassador, become the personal assistant of the station chief, or simply sleep your way to salvation by becoming the lesbian life partner of a high-ranking cyborg is entirely up to you.
Redshirt was made by a company called Positech -- a U.K. based developer you may remember from my review of their political simulation game Democracy 3.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>There is a lot of humor in this game. It's subtle and really adds something. There are parody lyrics and vague-booking posts that are comical, but my favorite are the animations on the "day at work" screens that show people being shredded by a copier or burning off a limb while cleaning the outside of the station.
<li>The most important part of understanding this game is the timer. You have 160 days (read turns) to escape the station. Why? We're not quite sure yet. But getting off is key. This adds a huge amount of pressure on each decision. If you go to lunch with a friend, he or she will love you more, but it could ruin your Saturday of filing out paperwork to obtain your next career position. Finding the balance is key and that actually is quite challenging -- especially when you throw a demanding girlfriend into the mix.
<li>You can be gay, lesbian, into robots, into space squids, or date a bowl of jello if you so choose. There is bigotry among individual NPCs, but the programmers were cool with anything. That's commendable.
<li>The store in the game is hard to navigate, but the items you can buy are invaluable in pushing toward your goals. Some of the career requirements can only be achieved realistically by buying the items to level up key stats. At first I didn't like that, but now I love it because it lets you play the game differently each time by allowing you to buy different items to forge different paths.
<li>The "away missions" are a great mechanic. Basically, you're forced to go to the surface of some planet and some or all of the people with you die. And it's almost always the people you like; the bastards you know usually survive. They are then replaced by new people whom you can meet and befriend.
<li>The variety of events, items, and people are what really make this game replayable for a long time. It's never the same game twice. Sometimes you can meet a sugar daddy ambassador and he'll whisk you away to the rest of your life; other times, you'll have to buy a "ticket" off station and hope it's real. From space operas to floating golf, you're going to have a new narrative composed of a hundred different options.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The interface in this game is rough. There are important buttons nested within other important buttons and I find the ever looming presence of the Spacebook page to be distracting. I dream of someday being able to minimize that page.
<li>Also on the interface design, when you launch an event and you get to choose who you will invite, the game gives you a list of everyone in the station. That's fantastic. The problem is, when you go to make a Spacebook friend, you have this wonky "web" mechanic that is visually interesting when you first look at it but really hinders your ability to find new friends quickly. It was a poor design choice.
<li>If you start in the career mode, finding the next job you want to shoot for is quite easy. But if you click on one of the requirements of that job to see how you can improve yourself, you're taken out of the career mode. So it creates a situation where you have to click on the "career" button over and over again.
<li>Some of the events you can host have absurd buffs and debuffs for your character. For instance, if you go to eat at the burger place, you take a huge hit to your health. This is because the writers wanted you to feel bad about turning down veggies. They need to focus less on making political statements and more on creating a balanced system where each event boosts and lowers many stats to create more dynamic ways of playing the game. To those ends, having to eat to stay "healthy" is a boring idea. Why not shower to stay healthy? Why not include sex to make your girlfriend happy? This game would be better served with a little less minutia.
<li>There is a system that encourages you to accomplish certain achievements to earn a boost. If you don't like the goal they present to you, you can "buy" another random goal to replace it. That price rises sharply with each successive purchase. Even when you're first starting out, this system is worthless. Avoid it like the plague. The boosts it gives you are practically worthless and it isn't smart enough to give you credit, for instance, for a job it asks you to get that is now behind you on the career tree. If I'm Rank 4, I should get credit for the Rank 2 job I'm clearly not going to go back and get just for the boost.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>It may seem weird to buy a game whose sales pitch is, "Use a quasi-Facebook system to make people love you." But this game is more than that. It's a suspenseful game with an ever-present timer and a bevy of people all vying for your attention while you try to sneak in some personal time to get yourself to a rank that warrants your continued existence in the eyes of others.</p>
<p>Though decidedly camp and marred by a noisy interface, nonetheless this title is going to be fun for people who like games where leveling up is the key to victory -- and I happen to be one of them.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="https://www.facebook.com/redshirtgame" target=_blank>Redshirt on Facebook</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/247870/" target=_blank>Find it on Steam</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-52261603772719768392013-11-24T14:50:00.001-08:002013-11-24T15:08:37.809-08:00Review - Deadfall Adventures<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D1xBSMSf6C0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:48 - Gameplay
<li>1:55 - Pros
<li>4:59 - Cons
<li>13:01 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>In this episode, I have played ten hours of a brand new first-person action-adventure/puzzle game called Deadfall Adventures. This game is a combination of an Indiana Jones movie with a Laura Croft video game.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Deadfall Adventures is incredibly sloppy in it's execution, but despite that I found it to be challenging and lots of fun.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Deadfall Adventures follows around James Lee Quatermain -- the great-grandson of H. Rider Haggard's noted African explorer Allan Quartermain -- who is a rugged adventurer in his own right. He is hired by the beautiful archaeologist Jennifer Goodwin as she tries to beat Germany's up-and-coming Nazi party to the shattered pieces of an ancient artifact known as the Heart of Atlantis, which could potentially give the bad guys untold power.</p>
<p>I checked the math, by the way, and it is possible for James Quartermain to be the old man's great-grandson. Along the way, they are constantly running into trouble as they fumble and shoehorn their way toward their goal.</p>
<p>The game features an upgrade system based on the number of collectables you find and boasts dozens of puzzles that require you to use your wits in order to progress in the game.</p>
<p>It was developed by a company called The Farm 51 -- the same Poland-based company responsible for Painkiller Hell & Damnation and the 2006 title Time Ace. They also have connections to Two Worlds II (the better of the Two Worlds franchise) and the original Witcher game.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Without question, my favorite part of the game is the environment. This game is beautiful and wondering around looking for treasure is a blast. There are secret passageways, pitfalls, and other interesting things that make the environment part of the game. The level designers for this game should be given awards and pots filled with roses for saving this game from mediocrity.
<li>Collectables are objects that you pick up in almost every game in this genre. But, this game makes picking up collectables dangerous and potentially lethal in very creative ways -- which fits the Quartermain ethos perfectly.
<li>Since we're on the subject, Farm 51 stepped into giant shoes when they chose to relate their protagonist to Allan Quartermain -- a legendary novel character who was the inspiration for Indiana Jones. But the writers succeeded in creating a story that marries their unique and quirky plot to Haggard's original theme and style.
<li>The upgrade system is based on finding objects in the game and then "selling" them for upgrades to your character. But the game is still beatable even if you never upgrade. This makes the game expansive for people who like to search the nooks and crannies and still serves people who just want to speed run the game as fast as possible.
<li>And as for collectables, most of them are hidden behind puzzles. So it's not good enough for you to root around looking for them, you then have to earn them by using your brain.
<li>You have a flashlight that can kill zombies. That's a little weird. But, you can also use that flashlight to solve puzzles. That's a little awesome.
<li>The special effects in the game are well done and very subtle. Things like moonbeams through holes in walls, musty fog in the tombs, and the little puff of smoke coming off the end of your gun sell the realism of the game. There's even little frost clouds that come from the mouths of your companions as they speak in cold environments.
<li>Certain paths are rigged with booby traps and when you hit them you kick yourself for being an idiot but have a good laugh. They are all well camouflaged, so be careful where you step in this game.
<li>You have to shoot very carefully because you'll run out of bullets for your favorite gun (and you will have a favorite gun). You do have dual revolvers with unlimited bullets, but you really don't want to be going up against an army two cylinders at a time. Also, reload times are impressively long, making reloading your weapons a strategic part of the game.
<li>The game is long. You're going to get 24+ hours if you look around for all the side stuff or 12-18 hours if you speed run it.
<li>There's a small amount of parkour in the game; I love parkour.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>My number one complaint is that no matter where you go and behind every super-hard locked puzzle door there is a dead Nazi -- proving that the Nazis found another way to get around the puzzles so why shouldn't you. The fundamental part of the Allan Quartermain novels is that the bad guys were always one step behind, not filling the ancient temples with hundreds of empty wooden crates. You should have to puzzle your way into an area and then have to fight your way back out -- every time.
<li>The jump button controls everything, however if you rekeybind it, then the jump button isn't the spacebar. But the game doesn't adapt to this, leaving you in situations where you end up dead because the instructions on the screen are incorrect. The jump button is also the one you use to skip the cutscenes, but the game doesn't tell you that either.
<li>There are numerous unpolished features in the game, but chief among them are the character animations for the girl and the doctor -- which are a train wreck. She disappears at random and reappears by your side or sometimes ahead of you. She and the Doctor sometimes switch places for no reason. And the audio cues still launch even though you can't see her, so you're just listening to the wind tell you what a pig-headed moron you are. Also, even though you just left her taking cover, sometimes she teleports right behind you just after a battle with zombies causing you to accidentally shoot her in the face. Don't worry, though -- all friendlies are bulletproof.
<li>This game uses a checkpoint system. That's just universally bad and some of the checkpoints are very distantly spaced, which can be a huge problem if you die. These checkpoints almost always occur before a cutscene, so you have to load and then skip the cutscene over and over again each time you die. This is a classic rookie mistake from a company on it's third game.
<li>Sometimes when you reload while zoomed into your weapon, game glitches locking you in that view and you then have to switch weapons to get back to a normal view.
<li>Sometimes when you step on a rug, the audio that plays is the sound of a metal door being closed. Something else they could have found in a beta test.
<li>I find it fascinating that Quartermain can land an airplane on an unploughed runway without damage. He can also spend the night in a blizzard without freezing to death. What he can't do is sneak around the clearly-defined edges of a circular death-spear trap without getting shot in the face.
<li>The cutscenes are rough. They look like something out of 2006. The jaws of the characters just bob up and down and the audio occasionally keeps going after the sprites stop moving their mouths. Also, the voice acting for the primary characters is great and believable, but the supporting cast and the extras are clearly underpaid interns.
<li>As you're exploring the area, you will often get trapped in weird seams in the ground, between rocks, or against a wall. Avoid panicking. Simply look down at the ground and start smashing all the keys on your keyboard until you wriggle yourself free.
<li>The invisible walls in this game are so infuriating it makes me want to become more like HBO's Dexter. They're in the dumbest spots and were clearly the final result of a lazy programmer.
<li>You know those phrases NPCs kick out when you're in the middle of a firefight just because some nitwit at the dev thought that speaking was something that naturally happens during a gunfight? If I hear, "Still think I'm a rookie, Quartermain?" one more time, I'm going to get a passport and fly to Poland to kick some ass.
<li>Jennifer's eyes are red and they glow in the dark. I'm just sayin', that's weird.
<li>This isn't Farm 51's fault, but the Nazi's have an "X" on their arm instead of the Buddhist swastika they wore in real life. This is due to a German law outlawing the display of a swastika. I get that they're bound by law, but still it's goofy as hell.
<li>The game is filled with instances of doors closing without reason and cutscenes where James performs super-human feats. There are also gaping holes in the plot, like where I grabbed a hook and zoomed down an exploding mineshaft and ended up on the other end with both of my companions -- who were behind me when I grabbed the hook. Were they also on the hook? Were they just fast runners? Where did the Nazis in the empty tunnel behind me come from? There were no doors. These are the kinds of questions you will be facing if you take this game too seriously.
<li>Quartermain has a mystical notepad that will give you the solution to each puzzle -- albeit not clearly. This is a magical pad that somehow knows everything even when he's in a secret Russian mine. Conveniently, he also has Jack Sparrow's magical compass. Deus ex machina (MAKINA) anyone?
<li>There's a general inconsistency with this game. You can walk through some fences but not others. You can disarm some booby traps but not others. It's rare, but when it happens it usually means you have to waste three minutes of your life circumventing the mundane.
<li>Your inventory consists of one pair of handguns and one rifle. You can't carry two rifles even though they all have straps and this is a problem because one shotgun, one rifle, and one sniper rifle would REALLY come in handy in certain spots.
<li>Throughout the game, you are asked to grab hold of a rope and slide down it to get to lower levels. This is physically impossible as the friction from the rope would rip your fingers from their sockets. Also, if the only way to get on top of a cliff where the gate is was via rope, how did the Nazis get there? And why is there a gate? Did the entire platoon slide down the rope and then build the truck that drove through the gate?
<li>In one cutscene, the bad guy leaves and the rope to get up is clearly still there. Your character could just have climbed up the rope and saved himself the trouble of being captured by the Russians.
<li>This is one of those games where you can see that the next step is only 18 inches off the ground but you can't just step up -- you have to jump. Also, if the step is 20 inches off the ground, then it's unsurmountable and you'll have to find another way around. They need a climbing mechanic in this game to make it truly great.
<li>Bad guys will occasionally screw up and -- while taking cover -- end up shooting into the box they are hiding behind instead of around or over it. Other than that, though, the AI programming seems solid.
<li>Quartermain uses the word "sanguinity" to describe Jennifer during his dialog -- as if that's a perfectly normal word to bandy about in normal everyday conversation.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>It's nice to get a complete package when you buy a game. And anyone with even an ounce of professionalism would test their game thoroughly before sending it out. Farm 51 as a group failed at this, but inside of that company somewhere are quality people who made sure that their part in the game rocked.</p>
<p>What it lacks in polish this game makes up for with moxy and when you combine that with beautiful environments and a goofy, yet loveable set of characters, this game is over thirty hours of entertainment and I think it's a blast.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.deadfall-game.com/index.php" target=_blank>Deadfall Adventures Home Page</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/video/231330/2028438" target=_blank>[Steam] Deadfall Adventures Store Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-3668813073427687532013-11-16T09:02:00.002-08:002013-11-16T09:17:12.125-08:00Review - Contrast<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7Q8FwvgQkig" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:37 - Gameplay
<li>2:05 - Pros
<li>3:42 - Cons
<li>8:05 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>In this episode, I have finished the game Contrast in just over six hours. This game is all about plot and puzzles. Unlike most of my other reviews, the gameplay footage you are watching is only from the first ten minutes of the game to prevent spoilers.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, at the risk of being too pithy and without exaggeration, this is one of the best games that I have ever played. But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Contrast is a 3D puzzle solving game with a twist: the puzzles require you to assimilate with the shadows on the walls -- turning the game at key moments into a 2D platformer. You play as Dawn, the imaginary friend of a precocious little girl named Didi whose family life is, shall we say, less than optimal. </p>
<p>The plot of the game revolves around you following Didi around as she sneaks out of her bedroom at night to explore the world, assisting her past obstacles she cannot traverse on her own, and attempting to piece together the gritty happenings in her life.</p>
<p>The game is set in a beautiful but strange world that is gorgeous and reminiscent of the art deco style you would see in classic film noir movies.</p>
<p>Throughout the game, there are also so-called "luminaries", which are collectables you can pick up for fun. While most just require a little bit of exploration in back alleys and such, some require shadow-popping puzzle solving of their own.</p>
<p>You can also pick up items from around the world that give you more backstory into Didi and her family. Your enjoyment of this game will be doubled if you examine or read each of these items as you grab them.</p>
<p>This is the first game from Compulsion Games -- a collaboration of video game professionals in Montreal, Canada. Normally I'd have more to tell you about the developers, but their corporate Web site is so scatterbrained and poorly-designed that I'm not entirely sure it hasn't been "adjusted" by hackers.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>It's a close race between story and style in this game, but for me I think the story just edges out the win. It is, at once, both sweet and dark -- a tough combination. I won't spoil it for you, but in every conceivable aspect the plot does not end where it begins and THAT is hard to do properly.
<li>With that said, second place belongs to the art-deco, film noir setting of this game which is absolutely gorgeous. Exploring this world even to it's edges will feed you enough eye candy to fill a Halloween bucket.
<li>In the game, the word "chiaroscuro" appears. I won't tell you where because that's a spoiler. Chiaroscuro is an Italian word. It means "the interplay between light and shadow". That's a 2400 SAT word. When I saw that I was like, "Hahahahahaha, NICE!"
<li>The items and luminaries that you pick up are rarely in plain sight, encouraging you to explore the world.
<li>As you shift from shadows to real life and back again, there is a very subtle saturation shift between the vibrant colors of real life and the more washed look of the shadows. As weird as it sounds, it really adds something.
<li>The shadow-jump mechanic is amazing and well done. It defines the game and yet isn't gimmicky or ostentatious. It also add some interesting solutions to the puzzles. For instance, you can use your shadow-jump ability to circumvent locked doors by passing through windows while staying in the light.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>Dawn is referred to as an "acrobat" but she does nothing acrobatic other than jump. If she could roll or do splits or crawl through tight places or swing from pipe to pipe, it would really have made the puzzles amazing and would have filled out her character a little more. Also, just as a video game model, I found her to be stiff.
<li>The puzzles are challenging and fold in well with the story. However, only two of the puzzles have multiple ways to beat them. At each puzzle I tried alternative ways to accomplish the same thing and was rarely rewarded. I really think this game could have bordered on perfection had they offered multiple solutions to almost every puzzle.
<li>The game violates it's own rules by allowing Dawn to crash through wooden fences and other such barricades (not glass, though) with her dash mechanic. While rare, I would have preferred if these were instead handled with more shadow puzzles.
<li>There is one puzzle involving an ogre that was maddeningly difficult to beat. Also, the animation was broken when I played and the ogre remained on the screen even after I beat him, but that has since then been patched.
<li>This game is basically a story, so is very, very linear. You can't progress out of an area until you complete certain tasks and you are walking through basically a scripted movie. I personally had no problem with this, but I have seen some complaints on Steam about it so I figured I'd mention it.
<li>The world is 3D with 2D puzzles. As a result, to prevent you from solving certain puzzles in 3D, the developers threw up some invisible walls in certain places that are just aggravating. Most of the time, they are quite noticeable and make me sad because those were great opportunities to, again, offer multiple ways to beat puzzles.
<li>To interact with objects or puzzles, you have to press the "E" key. However, once inside the event or puzzle, it doesn't tell you to press "E" again to get back out even though the "backspace" key is the one you've been using for most of the game.
<li>You can't rekeybind.
<li>The options menus need a lot of work. I understand that you only have to deal with them for five minutes at the start of the game, but still they are unwieldy and odd.
<li>There are only certain ledges that you can grab. They are highlighted with a faint white glow. Sometimes the light from the puzzles obscures the glow of the grabbable pipes, making the next step in the puzzle more mysterious than it should be. This is more a problem at the start of the game than at the end. Also, there are many places where you would expect to be able to grab but can't -- which again I think is a missed opportunity.
<li>The only true technical flaws with the game are a tiny number of places where your character can get stuck or bugged out. Sometimes if you approach a wall at an odd angle you can swing the camera around to see no-mans land and Dawn will do a weird "falling" animation when standing on the ground. This is a minor note and mostly funny when it happens, but it's an oversight that should have been ironed out during beta testing.
<li>The game is only six hours long. Not only did I not mind but I thought it was commendable. However, I've seen some posts on Steam about it being too short, so I'll leave you to decide if $14.99 equals six hours of awesome storyline.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>There are precious few video games in this world that can keep you riveted to your screen with a story so engaging and vibrant that you can't stop playing. Nowadays, developers are more interested in their forums than they are in their own imaginations because it's easier to ski down a mountain than it is to climb up it.</p>
<p>Compulsion Games isn't wearing any skis and if they keep putting out games like Contrast they are going to quickly reach the summit of our industry. This game is a gem and worth every penny.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[STEAM] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/224460/" target=_blank>Buy Contrast on Steam</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://contrastgame.com/" target=_blank>Contrast Game Site</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.compulsiongames.com/" target=_blank>Compulsion Games Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-59594052069408494932013-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:002013-10-26T14:20:27.032-07:00Review - Path of Exile<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZrUlLPJpA10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:38 - Gameplay
<li>2:05 - Pros
<li>6:10 - Cons
<li>12:33 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>I am currently nine hours into a video game called Path of Exile. This game is broken into three acts, I am on the precipice of starting Act II.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Path of Exile is an excellent game that proudly reflects the quality you would expect from a title that was in development for seven years.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>To begin, Path of Exile is an on-line free-to-play RPG where you play as a criminal castaway -- left to rot on an enchanted island full of thousands of creeps which you must navigate in order to discover the secrets of the island.</p>
<p>The on-line aspect of the game allows you to band together with other players to explore areas and conquer bosses.
Sadly, there is no standalone version of the game, so you must have an Internet connection. </p>
<p>As in most RPGs, you must upgrade your character as you go along using the game's massive skill tree -- which contains about 1,300 nodes that alter various aspects of your characters performance.</p>
<p>The key to victory is to balance the need to fight two different types of enemies -- massive hoards of creeps that pour in from all around you as well as single, mega-buffed bosses that can be found at the end of most locations.</p>
<p>You also have a plethora of weapons, upgrade gems, and armor to keep you preoccupied in between scripted revelations of a frankly very interesting plot that revolves around the deaths of many of the exiles who came before you.</p>
<p>This game was developed by Grinding Gear Games -- a company out of Auckland, New Zealand. If you've never heard of them, you shouldn't be surprised -- this is their first game. But don't let that fool you, Path of Exile is as polished and well thought out as any AAA title and a must play for RPG enthusiasts.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>For me, first and foremost before all other aspects of the game is the passive skill upgrade system which allows you to customize your character as you go along. The level of customization is staggering -- with a skill tree composed of some 1,300 nodes. The skill tree is a game unto itself, as you must navigate the tree very carefully without running out of skill points. It's glorious.
<li>The options menu is fantastic. It covers a wide variety of user interface settings that let you get pretty specific in terms of upgrading your HUD and when you roll over something it tells you what it does. There's also rekeybinding -- which is always a plus and a connection to Twitter just in case you have friends who would like to watch you play thirty hours of a video game.
<li>There are seven different classes in the game -- six that you can chose from initially and then a seventh class (called the Scion) that you can chose after you've beaten the game. Each of these classes has it's own location on the skill tree making each class unique in how you upgrade it. No class is pigeonholed in what it can do -- so if you prefer to have an archer that can summon totems, that's doable provided you're lucky enough to find the right spells.
<li>If you're an archer and you miss with your arrow, it may continue onward and strike the guy behind the one you were aiming at. Also, you can shoot through closed doors if they have holes in them.
<li>You can upgrade almost anything in the game, including you, the gems, the flasks, the weapons, the armor, and the spells. Half the time you spend in this game will be just standing around altering various things in your inventory. In fact, you can take the lowliest tree branch and carry it to the end of the game -- converting it along the way into a horror stick built for the most frightening witch you've ever seen.
<li>Along the way, you'll meet mysterious strangers like Piety of Theopolis that both advance the plot and keep you excited about what's up ahead.
<li>The lighting in this game is phenomenal. There are reflections, shadows cast onto the camera, and refractions of light in liquids like blood. There are even places where enemies approaching from off camera will cast a shadow letting you know they are there.
<li>The game appears to be about 30 hours in length -- a great amount of time for an RPG -- and has infinite replayability as the zones are procedurally generated making them new each time you play them and the skill tree means that you can even play the same class in multiple ways.
<li>When you complete a mission, you can choose from a variety of rewards -- further adding to the already vast number of customization options you have for your character.
<li>You can own a pet kiwi!
<li>Even if you leave the area, the bodies of the creeps and bosses you've slain remain where they are. They don't disappear. This is amazingly awesome as it helps you to identify places you've already been and navigate the area easier.
<li>The sound effects and the music are fantastic. The ambiance is forlorn. When you walk by birds, they squawk as they fly away. Ambient rain and ocean sounds. It's really well done.
<li>In the HUD, you can click on your hotkeys directly and swap out spells or attacks at will without having to pull up the options menu. This is actually very convenient and a nice touch.
<li>Finally, the world itself is just a gorgeous place. There's all kinds of vegetation and different biomes. Sometimes you're in sand. Other times you're in buildings. Sometimes it's raining. Other times it's a sunset. It's a great variety that keeps the path moving forward. Very fresh and interesting.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>Not that the game is complicated, but there's no help file. For people who aren't familiar with roll-playing games (RPGs), they might be in the dark a bit.
<li>Inventory tetris is a nice way to add challenge to the game, but it becomes repetitive after a while. I can't swear that they don't have backpacks, but any way to upgrade how much you could hold would be sweet.
<li>While you eventually become used to it, the isometric camera is a pain. If they could pull the camera back even a few feet, that would, in my opinion, improve the game immensely.
<li>When you start playing, they tell you that holding down "ALT" will allow you to see the objects in the area. What they fail to tell you is that by holding down "SHIFT", you can prevent yourself from running into a crowd of zombies should you misclick on an enemy you're trying to kill with a bow and arrow.
<li>The plot of the story is excellent, but it comes to you via voice over. So if you're deaf or have the voices turned off, your only other choice is to read the pop-up box. Sadly, the text scrolls in the pop-up box at an achingly slow speed. This is my chief complaint about the game, as most of these boxes occur right after a boss battle when you're all amped up with adrenaline and then you have to calm down to wait for the plot. I read incredibly fast; just give me the whole block of text.
<li>The standard keybindings are uncomfortable; expect to spend some time after the first act rekeybinding everything.
<li>The overlay map that you pull up to see where you are is often times very difficult to see. I'm a little biased because as a gamer I hate overlay maps, but this one is particularly difficult to use against the backdrop of their complex terrain.
<li>Though my love of the skill tree knows no bounds, if it was color coded so you could see the areas where the witch should focus or the duelist would be most at home, that would help new players. Also, there should be a way to click on the node you'd like to get to eventually and have a "ghost" path that shows you which nodes to buy in order to get there the fastest.
<li>When you start a new character, you can't use numbers in your name, so you couldn't be, for instance, Mike1 or Mike29292 -- which is going to cause problems if this game becomes popular.
<li>If you fail to click on a gem to upgrade it while playing -- perhaps because you were trying not to get hooked by a corrupt prison warden -- that gem will stop accumulating upgrade points until you finally remember to click the button. That's more a problem at the start of the game, but I wish they would fix that.
<li>The game is online only. This means it comes with the same trappings as all other online games. Lag causes the game to do odd things like display creeps that aren't there. If your connection craps out or your log out, a certain amount of your progress will be lost. There is no save button and the zones you visit are procedurally generated so if you do get booted and try to go back, the zone will be completely new and you'll have to start it again. Also, on day one they had some sever drop issues but I haven't seen anything since so I feel safe in saying that they seem to have fixed those problems. This stuff is the nature of the beast, but this game would be almost perfect if they had a standalone version.
<li>When they called the game Path of Exile, they weren't kidding. It's a path. I really wish there was more in the way of side quests and alternative plot decisions, but for the most part it's all about the primary path and the diversity comes from how you build your character.
<li>There are times where you'll enter a new area and find yourself standing in a massive crowd of creeps. That's a bad thing because then you end up dead. There should always be a landing point even if it's immediately followed by chaos so players can get oriented.
<li>Finally, the only technical problem I had in the game was in attempting to use certain upgrade gems. Sometimes the gem tells me it can be used on unequipped magical items, but when I attempt to use it nothing happens and I get an error message. I don't know if it's a bug or I'm doing something wrong or if my shield is so upgraded that it's run out of room for more awesomeness, but I need someone to fix it.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>Often in RPG games, there is a shallowness in each aspect of play -- plot, upgrades, weapons, so on -- that while they may be successful together, each will fall to pieces upon closer inspection.</p>
<p>This game is deep on every level and it creates an experience that is incredibly fun and exciting. This game is free, but I personally will be investing in several of the items I found in their store not only because I want desperately to own a pet kiwi but also because I want Grinding Gear Games to make more of everything. </p>
<p>When it comes to nerd porn, the passive skill upgrade system is absolutely masterbatory. For that reason alone I recommend this game. But from the sheer scope of weapons to the engaging three-act plot, this free to play offering will simply blow your mind. </p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.pathofexile.com" target=_blank>Path of Exile</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-13561063829027142232013-10-18T17:14:00.001-07:002013-10-18T17:24:09.783-07:00Review - Democracy 3<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E8owx4AWUOU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:50 - Gameplay
<li>2:42 - Pros
<li>6:09 - Cons
<li>9:24 - Final Thoughts
</ul>
<p>I have spent about eight hours with the Steam version of a game called Democracy 3 -- a simulation game where you are prime minister of a country and need to negotiate the pitfalls of politics while simultaneously monitoring your electorate to make sure you don't lose the next election.</p>
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<p>I thought Democracy 3 was a well thought out and fairly well executed simulation game that was a lot of fun and perfect for people who enjoy politics and want to see what it's like to battle the multi-headed monster that his republican governance.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>To begin, Democracy 3 is basically a massive database with a graphical user interface over the top of it. Your job is to manipulate various sliders and choose from available policies to push your economy and government in a positive direction -- keeping in mind that market crashes and random events could tank your popularity at any time.</p>
<p>This game was developed by Positech -- the house responsible for Gratuitous Space Battles. It is, without question, a game for those who fancy themselves future politicians or simply have strong feelings on legalized creationism.</p>
<p>In my five playthroughs, I won re-election twice and was murdered by the Catholic Church for openly supporting prostitutes once -- thus becoming the first Australian Prime Minister to ever meet foul play and the first of the same since Harold Holt -- the idiot who went swimming with a bad arm -- to die while in office.</p>
<p>This game is a bit overwhelming when you first look at it, but once you digest the tons of icons they throw at you, you'll figure out that you can mostly avoid those and focus on the menu bar at the top of the screen.</p>
<p>This game has no victory condition; you can't win. The object of the game is to keep going in your position for as long as possible before you are unelected or assassinated by zealots.</p>
<p>You can pick up a copy of this game on GOG.com, Steam, or buy it direct from their Web site. They also have announced that the game is going to be significantly moddable -- which made me happy because you can only play as one of six different Anglo-Saxon countries and I was really hoping to try to survive a fortnight as Chief Warlord of Somalia. Hopefully with modding, that will be possible.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Despite the barrage of icons on the main screen, I enjoyed the menu bar at the top and all of the subsequent windows that pop up along the way. They were very well done and really helped me keep track of those areas in my government that required attention. Again, when I played the game, I pretty much ignored the shotgun blast of icons and just focused on using the menus.
<li>There's no plot or scripted gameplay or anything like that; this is basically a database game and as such you have to use your imagination. I did, however, enjoy the few times where a random event would occur and come illustrated with a photo and funny sound effect to help sell it. For instance, when you get the "stress epidemic" event, there's a photo of a guy lying on a floor in an office screaming. It's pretty funny.
<li>The game is all about manipulating numbers by accumulating political capital via your loyal cabinet ministers and then spending that capital on new laws, tweaks to existing laws, or removing laws -- all to make one or more of your constituents happy. The crux of the game is all about the balancing act required to make everyone happy simultaneously while learning that just because something is right doesn't mean the Catholic Church won't kill you for it.
<li>The game is -- to a point -- based on real world countries. They did a fairly good job (with one or two exceptions) of staying true to (for instance) Australian themes despite the fact that the actual political machine was hardly represented.
<li>Short of a few misspellings and missing headshots, I found no game-breaking bugs. Given how often this year I've had to wait for a patch to do a review, we're going to call that a huge plus.
<li>The music is just very generic patriotic fare, however the sound effects add a little bit of humor to the game. So I thought that was nice.
<li>In terms of replayability, I couldn't see playing each nation more than six or seven times. I would assume that it would get boring after a while. With that being said, with five nations to choose from and the promise of possible mods in the future, this title could have some staying power. Also, getting every one of the policies in place would take a master statesman and some serious luck to avoid a horrific career-ending tragedy like a horny elder statesman. So if you were a perfectionist, you'll have days and days of this one ahead of you.
<li>At the start of each term, you get a huge amount of political capital. This is very realistic and really makes you acutely aware of how poor you are in the future once people are tired of you.
<li>All of the policies and laws that I enacted -- with the exception of legalizing drugs -- were almost perfect in their realistic effects on the various constituencies that I had to balance. I think they did an excellent job with the civics buried under the numbers.
<li>Even though I wish they were larger in scale, I thought the random events were a nice break to the monotony and a good way to prevent the game from becoming formulaic.
<li>Successfully solving the problems facing your country can force you to adopt some very complex strategies. For instance, I appeased my capitalists in one game by raising the minimum drinking age to 21. What can I tell you, it worked?
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>Some of the iconography in the game is sketchy. When you look at the pictures on the icons, you're not always sure what's going on and when you roll over the button, it transforms the screen which can be distracting. I find it best to avoid the dozens of icons on the main screen like the plague.
<li>The settings menu is basically a glorified audio panel. They could have done a little better at, for instance, offering ways to manipulate the user interface and such.
<li>There is no back button in key places, which forces you to exit out of a window that's three deep in an interface tree and then try to find what you were just looking at again by starting over. That's the only really annoying part of the game that found myself complaining about regularly.
<li>The illustrations in the focus group area don't match the data you're reading. I found multiple instances where a male 60-year-old shrimp-boat captain named "Caitlyn" told me I was doing a good job. And old man named Caitlyn: not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just a little surprising is all.
<li>In my first game, I was assassinated eight turns in because I backed legalized prostitution. That's a little too convenient. I understand they were trying to make a point about extremists, but it's a little too easy for the 55 members of a radical convenient store cabal to end the life of the Prime Minister of Australia.
<li>Even in the most repressive of dictatorships, mandatory voting only nets about 93% of the voting public. In this game, every human soul shows up at the polls without fail if you have that law enacted.
<li>Your cabinet is worthless. They offer you only the raw political points you need to get things done and nothing more. They do have some sort of nebulous effect on certain constituencies, but they offer you no feedback, help, advice, or sway. You can't send them to do anything and they only seem to sit around taking a paycheck while slowing learning to hate you despite your 82% approval rating. This is the one part of the game that is 100% unrealistic.
<li>When you first start a game, the statistics windows are filled with empty stats, so it's as if you just started the country yesterday. That's immersion breaking. Also, your popularity rating (even though you were theoretically just elected) is zero and you have to climb from there. So too is your political base completely devoid of people even if you use the real-life political party names that the game suggests.
<li>Finally, your political party makes no demands of you, they simply follow your whims without question. You can make the Labour Party of Australia embrace prostitution without question or ship the girls off to an island somewhere. They support you regardless and frankly I think I should get some feedback either way.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>In my second game, I was one click away from my second election with a 73% approval rating and a 100% approval from the environmental lobby. In my next turn (not term -- turn), a small fishing boat was sunk by Somali pirates killing five on board and my approval rating fell to 19% and I lost in a landslide that would make even Alf Landon feel sorry for me. The environmentalists came in at 53% -- the only constituent group that I carried.</p>
<p>Even so, I loaded up my next game within seconds because I love politics, I love finding ways to get my platform accepted by the masses, and I loved what Positech did in building this game. </p>
<p>If, like me, you have a secret, dark, nerdy spot in your heart for numbers or a hankering to demand justice for hookers and stoners, this game is absolutely for you.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/register.php" target=_blank>Links to Steam, GOG, and Positech</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/" target=_blank>Democracy 3 Home Page</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/mods.html" target=_blank>Democracy 3 Mods</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-49632957868142424932013-08-08T18:42:00.000-07:002013-08-08T18:42:20.890-07:00Review - Beatbuddy<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nTpjWIJLQas" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I spent four hours playing a game called Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians -- a 2D side-scrolling adventure game where you play as a blobby sea creature on a journey through a music-filled underwater world looking for your sister Harmony.</p>
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<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Beatbuddy did a fantastic job of combining traditional side-scrolling action with their delicious blend of club-inspired music. Overall, the game was fun and clearly something that would appeal to both kids and adults.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>Since this game isn't terribly complex, this will be one of the shorter reviews I ever do. Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians is a side-scroller in the flavor of Trine -- but with no gravity as you are living in an underwater realm.</p>
<p>Your job is to navigate the labrythian maze of the world both in and out of a diving-bell-esk craft, simultaneously avoiding the dangerous spiky sea creatures that live on the walls, their dangerously acidic bubbles, and the occasional deep sea monster that looks to make you it's lunch. All this while using the beat of the background music to amplify your movements.</p>
<p>Along the way you meet new friends, pick up allies, and eavesdrop on enemy troops to gain valuable intel.</p>
<p>You're going up against Prince Maestro -- a dilettante and aspiring dictator who is looking to hoard and control the music of the world in order to enslave it's inhabitants. His vivacious speaking style and personality are a threat and you must save your fellow citizens (despite their brainwashed adoration) from Maestro's dastardly plans.</p>
<p>The game was developed by Threaks -- a new development house whose only other release, Hermes-Run, was less inspired.</p>
<p>Without question, the plot and characters in this story are entertaining for both adults and kids, which makes this title a great gift for anyone. </p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>When you stand idle for about a minute or so, Beatbuddy does a cute little dance to the music.
<li>The music in this game in phenominal. Just to jack up the interest level, there are two versions of each song -- one for when you're outside of your diving bell and one for when you're inside. All told, my favorite part of the game was advancing to the next level to see what the next song was.
<li>Bouncing is a big part of this game. There are trampolines that you can rotate and -- when aligned properly -- they will glow as if light is shining from trampoline-to-trampoline like mirrors. It's a really cleaver mechanic that helps make sure you have the puzzle solved correctly.
<li>When you're injured, the music dampens as if your ears are clogged. I thought that was cool.
<li>At the end of a level, you get a score, your time, and a readout of how many things you could have gotten and how many things you actually did get. This makes for good replayability later as you can try to better both your time and your thoroughness.
<li>As you play, there are save points everywhere. You never have to replay more than three minutes if you die. Huge fan!
<li>Though the story is cryptic, there is a lot of good humor written into the plot. There are these two bumbling guards who keep giving you all kinds of secrets as you go along. I have to admit, it's pretty funny in spots.
<li>The game breaks up the monotony of traveling through a maze by adding in boss battles and what are essentially mini-games where you can earn bonus crystals.
<li>As you play, you unlock a lot of extras -- which include funny photos of the devs in their office. I like behind-the-scenes stuff like that.
<li>The aspect ratio includes not only super-high resolution monitors, but also 640x480 for older computers. That was an unexpected plus.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>As a side-scroller, position is everything in solving certain puzzles. There are (albeit rare) times in this game where the shadowy foreground elements that give it a 3D-like visual style block your view of your character. Whether intentional or accidental, interfering with my game with a blurry column or seaweed is annoying. Now, with that being said, I exempt any situation where they used the foreground to hide secret caches of gems and such -- which they did quite well.
<li>The story is nice, but it comes in pieces. You get almost nothing at the beginning, but by the end you have pieced it all together. It's very Super Mario Bros in that way. While as a games veteran I didn't have an issue with this, if you're the kind of person who cares about impetus, you'll have to wait until level two or three to start to see the whole picture come together.
<li>On several occasions, I was so focused on dodging bubbles and bad guys that I didn't realize I had doubled-back and gone in a circle. They could use some signs here and there to keep you on the right track.
<li>The menu screens and the end screens are retna-burning pure white monstrosities that cause physical pain after staring into the darkness of an ocean for 45 minutes.
<li>I took issue with the camera in this game. There are times where it zooms in for effect in order to either a) highlight an animation or plot point you're involved in, or b) to limit what you can see to increase drama. This was annoying when it happened because when you're being chased by a giant fish you expect to be able to see everything you could see before.
<li>On a related note, when you move quickly in one direction, sometimes the camera doesn't pan fast enough to keep up with you, leaving you on the edge of the screen unable to see any of the bad guys you're about to plow into.
<li>When you change levels, you lose all the crystals you have been collecting. This is important because crystals represent hit points in this game, so you suddenly become vulnerable again at the start of a new level for no particular reason.
<li>I played this game with a mouse. While movement is difficult, it's supposed to be that way -- it's part of the game's design. With that being said, there's a huge warning in the options menu telling you that if you play with the keyboard, there may be an issue with ghosting. Long story short: if you don't like mouse games and don't own a game pad, then you should expect issues when playing this game with a keyboard.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>I'm not a huge side-scrolling fan, but it's clear that a lot of time and effort was put into this game in order to make it a fun and challenging mix of puzzles and pop.</p>
<p>I like this game a lot, would recommend it to anyone, and I am looking forward to seeing what the next title is from the freaks at Threaks.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/231040/" target=_blank>[Steam] Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.beatbuddy.com" target=_blank>The Beatbuddy Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-85733356308403811272013-08-04T16:14:00.000-07:002013-08-05T09:30:19.520-07:00Review - Face Noir<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Ztp6iKROYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I just completed a brand new video game called Face Noir -- a film-noir inspired point-and-click game where you play a private detective who becomes mixed up in a web of lies, kidnapping, murder, and deceit.</p>
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<p>I am, in my regular life, a film noir aficionado so my interest and expectations in this game are high due to the fact that it has a very specific set of criteria to live up to.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Face Noir did a very good job of giving me the noir-style storyline I was hoping for complete with twists and turns, but was not a total success do to the introduction of certain supernatural elements that felt a bit contrived. Overall, the game was interesting -- with puzzles that tested my skills and characters that (while numerous) I cared about deeply.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>Face Noir is a point-and-click drama where you play as Jack Del Nero -- a detective hired to track down the daughter of a wealthy client. You go about obtaining a photograph of said daughter engaged in hanky-panky with a greasy pervert who is pretending to be a movie producer.</p>
<p>Low and behold -- that's just a tutorial.</p>
<p>Upon completing your assignment, you return home and go to bed only to be awoken in the middle of the night by a telephone call. The mysterious voice on the phone invites you to the docks and this begins a new and sorted path that leaves you wanted by the police, the mob, and another even more mysterious organization.</p>
<p>The game was developed by Mad Orange -- a brand new design house established in Italy. I will tell you that there are several very minor Italian-to-English translation issues with this game, but nothing so awful that it wrecks the experience. I'll discuss those in a bit.</p>
<p>For right now, it's important to understand what film noir is -- in order to appreciate that Face Noir is at once both an homage as well as a twist on the classic movie genre. A great movie to watch before playing this game would be The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Touch of Evil, Thieves' Highway, and other noir classics are also good, but there are a lot of very smooth references to the Bogie/Bacall flick incorporated into this game that you'll miss if you haven't seen it.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>The music in this game is a series of fantastic jazz pieces that are very subtle but ramp up at just the right moments to add ambiance.
<li>True to film noir style, you are an anti-hero. You drink, you don't pay your tabs, you don't care about anyone other than yourself. You really don't like yourself at the start of the game, but as you go along you grow and become a better person. I liked that a lot.
<li>The "P" key is a shortcut that puts an icon over everything that's clickable. Unlike other games of the genre, these hotspots are very clear and last long enough to view them all.
<li>When you right-click, that changes up the options of your cursor for when you left click. For instance, when you want to switch from look to speak, you just right click once. This worked well and made the game faster.
<li>My favorite part of the game was when you had to connect the dots between two snippets of information you heard earlier to formulate a new question that you could then ask an NPC. This is a great mechanic that was done really well.
<li>There are many references to old film noir movies. For instance, Jack's cigarettes are called "Old Marlowes" -- a tribute to Bogart's private detective character in The Big Sleep. There are others, but I'll let you figure them out.
<li>One of my favorite parts of the game is the shaded objects that appear in the foreground that essentially frame the scene with shadows. That was very noir.
<li>Little known fact, in noir you get a lot of catch phrases and unique elements that set heroes apart from everyone else. There's some of that here, too. For instance, Jacks catch phrase is "dannazione" -- which means "Damn it all to Hell" in Italian.
<li>This game taught me that the proper name for Russian nesting dolls is "Matryoshka". Any time a game teaches me something, that's a pro.
<li>I like the use of still illustrations during the cut scenes. I think they were very well drawn and very well used.
<li>I like that Jack has some very funny quips when you click on various objects that can't be opened about how he's not about to go around opening every damn thing he sees.
<li>Jack's relationship with the cab driver is great comedy. I enjoyed that a lot.
<li>Some of the mini-games have a skip button if you don't want to take the time to do them. I actually wished they had done that for all the puzzles since I was there more for the story than I was for the puzzles.
<li>The game features flashbacks. These events occur immediately after a cool animation of a clock spinning backward. I thought that was well done.
<li>The game ends the same way it begins; this is a film technique that works well in games and I wish that more game developers would apply such film practices to their games.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>Other than anti-aliasing, there are no graphics settings for this game. Above all else, there is no way to change the aspect ratio, so sadly the video you are watching looks ridiculous because I couldn't change it over to 1280x720. You can also turn off and on shadows and subtitles, but overall it's a bad sign when you have more audio options than video options.
<li>The developers are from Italy, so there are many instances where things don't translate correctly from Italian to English. Also, the game takes place on March 27, 1934 in New York City. This is an actual date and time and it presents problems when you compare it ot what's happening in the game. For-instance, in the game they are talking about how there is about to be an election. Elections in America run in November. And, as a matter of fact, the mayor on that date was Fiorello La Guardia -- one of the greatest mayors in the history of America. There's a reason his name is on an airport. Now I get that there's a cultural and a language difference and some of these things I can forgive, but you're not allowed to replace icons with fake mayors. Just a little bit of research could have made this a great game rather than just a good game.
<li>When you use the radio to listen to music, you find the one and only channel for music is on the FM dial; to wit, music was played on the AM dial originally because it was cheaper. It wasn't until two decades later that Jack would have found music on the FM dial. In fact, Edwin Armstrong -- the guy who made FM feasible -- didn't do so until about six months after the events of the game, so the FM setting on the radio wouldn't even have existed at the time. There are several items like this that exist in the game. If you're into historical accuracy, this game is going to bother you.
<li>There is very little emotion in the voice acting; in my opinion, it seems fairly obvious that they were reading from scripts. Also, the lips of the characters just kind of dribble up and down and don't really match what you're listening to.
<li>The game starts with a five minute movie. While the information in that movie is important in order to understand the ending of the game, there were other ways they could have dealt with that exposition.
<li>So, this one is a bit confusing in terms of what they were actually going for. There are references made to the actress "Vivian Leight" [sic] at the start of the game. Now, either they were referring to the actual actress Vivian Leigh -- who didn't start her acting career until 1935 (and even then, she was on stage not film) -- and thus both misspelled and mispronounced her name, or, they invented an actress with a similar name and it's just an absurd creative choice. Either way, it was immersion breaking.
<li>Any time you want to look at something, you have to walk over to it first. That is ragingly annoying. If I can see it, just tell me what it is. I shouldn't have to plant myself in front of an advertisement to read it.
<li>A lot of times, when you end a conversation, the dialog option reads, "I have nothing more to say to you." When you click on it, Jack actually says, "I have nothing more to say to you." and then the NPC responds. That shows the youth of this particular development house.
<li>There's an autosave slot in your "Load Game" menu, but the game doesn't seem to use it and I didn't see anything in the options that you would click on to activate it. So that was weird.
<li>Sometimes the written directions that were on the screen during minigames were cut off. That was sloppy and sometimes made the minigame harder than it should have been.
<li>Like many games of this genre, some of the puzzle solutions are simply absurd. You can repair a cut telephone line with a candy wrapper and I bought information from a guy after spending a half-an-hour manufacturing fake booze bottles. However, while annoying they were rare.
<li>The game tells you at one point that Jack doesn't like to go down dark alleys. About twenty minutes later, not only do you walk down the exact same dark alley, but it turns out you're walking down said alley because that's where your apartment building is.
<li>There's a door locked with a card reader; that is completely absurd.
<li>There are a host of nitpicks that I have. In the police station, when you look at the assignment board all of the "N"s are backwards. Also, on Sean MacClain's passport, he's listed as 5' 20" instead of 6' 8". And for my last bit of nit picking, when you pay your landlord and check your inventory, it says you only have five dollars left but you're holding a ten.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>It would be quite easy to garble the plot of a game when you at once try to combine a classic movie genre with your own personal storyline and then mix in a supernatural twist. In fact, if you were to ask me to try to do the same, I would probably decline such an offer.</p>
<p>While not all the puzzles are perfect and I needed to consult a walkthrough guide twice to finish the game, for the most part this game was a success. The plot worked for me, the characters were realistic, and I was more than happy to overlook the weathered graphics and historical inaccuracies to get to the end.</p>
<p>Is it right for you? Well, only you can decide that. Hopefully this review will help.</p>
<p>If you have any questions that I didn't answer, leave them in the comments below and I will do what I can.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.postudios.com/products/face-noir" target=_blank>Buy Face Noir</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.madorange.it/games/face_noir/index.php?lang=en" target=_blank>Face Noir on Mad Orange</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-54318547701165673902013-07-28T12:32:00.002-07:002013-07-28T12:45:07.542-07:00Review - CastleStorm<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uzfDnqVZbEg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I am eight hours into a video game called CastleStorm -- a brand new castle-demolition physics game that first came out on XBOX Live, but I waited to play it when it came out for PC. And now it's out on Steam!</p>
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<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, CastleStorm is a fun and humorous game that uses multiple gameplay mechanics to mix up what could easily have been a very monotonous game into something special.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>To begin, CastleStorm is a physics game where you play as a medieval knight whose job is to rescue his kingdom from a band of Norse Vikings who are looking to abscond with your King's sacred crystal. The plot is full of twists, turns, comedy, and wit in between heaping helpings of castle-smashing action.</p>
<p>The game was developed by Zen Studios -- the house responsible for the Pinball FX series which you may have seen on my channel. They also developed Planet Minigolf for the PS3 and Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the DS. </p>
<p>Knowing that their primary focus has been on their pinball franchises, I give them a little bit of leeway, but at the same time I needed this game to show me something unique because it's competing against any number of free-to-play browser-based offerings from the same genre.</p>
<p>This game delivered on those expectations. The game adds several unique elements that make it stand out from it's rivals. You can teleport yourself onto the field of battle and play the game (albeit temporarily) as a 2D side-scrolling hack and slash. You can also send forth foot soldiers, archers, and griffins to distract the enemy while you turn his castle into gravel using huge boulders and exploding sheep.</p>
<p>In an emergency, you can use divine powers to clear the battlefield.</p>
<p>In my playthrough, I tried each of the game's four modes:</p>
<ul>
<li>campaign (the standard linear plot that does have some side quests)
<li>skirmish (pick an unlocked map and play without plot)
<li>survival (defend against endless waves as long as you can)
<li>hero survival (your hero character in an arena fighting endless waves of bad guys in hand-to-hand style)
</ul>
<p>The game takes you through several environments, each with it's own visual appeal and -- more importantly -- it's own tricky way of forcing you to alter your strategy. Whether it be floating rocks that interfere with your projectiles or huge cliffs that force you to cross your fingers and lob up Hail Marys, monotony never rears it's ugly head. The game is always fresh.</p>
<p>Finally, the success in this game comes in different forms. Destroying the enemy castle is not always the best or fastest option. Sometimes just taking the enemy's flag is the best play. This freedom of gameplay lends itself to vast replayability -- another reason this game is worth the investment.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>The comedy in this game is fantastic -- by far my favorite part of the game. There are a lot of running gags, some ribald bathroom humor -- in one case involving an actual bathroom -- and some whimsical quips from your arch rival. It's cute and well-scripted and for this reason alone I would consider recommending this game. Some parents may be concerned that the off-color jokes border on the risque, but I personally would have no problem letting my kids play this game and I would encourage them to play the game first and then decide.
<li>The characters are well written. You end up rooting for and against all the right people and each has their own style and identity.
<li>The mix of side-scrolling action, ballistic physics, and resource management give you multiple ways to play and multiple ways to win.
<li>You can stick to the main plot exclusively if you want to play through as quickly as possible -- or -- you can do some mildly-challenging side missions if you want to pick up some extra gold.
<li>Check out the background during lulls in the battle; you'll be amazed at some of the funny stuff that's happening back there.
<li>If you hit an enemy with a spiky cannonball and it doesn't kill him outright, it remains stuck in him as he wonders around. Same is true of arrows.
<li>Some of the capture the flag missions are crazy intense, requiring a lot of highly-accurate shots.
<li>You can upgrade your projectiles and soliders above level 6, but it comes at great sacrifice as the gold required to make that happen increases dramatically. This forces you to use multiple tools to win the day.
<li>The loading screens are brief and contain some very helpful hints.
<li>There's friendly fire, meaning you need to focus on where you're aiming and sometimes you have to make an amazing shot just above your guy's head to save his life.
<li>While you are bombing his castle, your enemy is returning the favor. While crossing paths in mid-air, it is possible for projectiles to crash into each other. Also, when he sends out eagles to attack your guys, you can shoot them out of the sky if you're good enough.
<li>When you play the "Skirmish" game mode, you'll find the difficulty level adapts to your level so you're not bored wasting time with waves of level-one enemies.
<li>You can re-keybind. That's always a pro whenever I see it in a game.
<li>There are boss battles -- which you would think wouldn't work in a physics game, but they totally do.
<li>In "Campaign" mode, the castle will be automatically maintained for you if you decide not to noddle around with the castle editor.
<li>The cutscenes are funny, but if the humor doesn't work for you or you've seen it before, they are all skippable.
<li>There's a surprise twist in the middle of "Campaign" mode that I won't spoil, but I enjoyed it.
<li>The animations on the castle damage -- especially the damage done to the castle gates -- are very realistic. Objects crumble and crack to indicate how close they are to demolition and gates "start to give way" as you pound them.
<li>This game encourages you to challenge yourself but it never really forces it upon you. I like that a lot!
<li>Some equipment upgrades are better than others, so read everything. If you choose poorly, future levels can become quite difficult. In addition, the level design and the circumstances of the battles can require you to either change your strategy or keep the same strategy and just slug it out. It's your choice, but you're rewarded for flexibility.
<li>Throwing garbage at rabid turkeys never gets old. I could do just that for like an hour.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>My biggest complaint with this game is the castle editor. You have the chance to customize the castle you enter battle with -- hiding important rooms behind thick walls and gates. The problem is, the interface is excruciating and the feedback you get requires you to remember what all the rooms do. I avoided the editor whenever I could. However, you can't avoid the editor entirely -- as which soldiers are available during battle is tied directly to which barracks you have built into your castle. So to get your favorite soldiers onto the field, you'll have to fight with the editor.
<li>The sound of a yelping dog is grating -- especially for people who own dogs. Whenever you shoot a wolf -- which I object to because wolves have been irresponsibly demonized by profiteers whose fear-mongering have endangered countless ecosystems -- it makes a VERY realistic dying dog noise that is unpleasant.
<li>On the last patch, my autosave disappeared -- a loss of about three hours worth of gameplay time. Luckily I love the game, so I didn't mind starting over and it was a pre-launch build so it may have been a one-time thing, but I figured I'd mention it.
<li>I don't like the flying Griffins. They are overpowered and as far as I can tell are not effected by friendly fire.
<li>The voice acting for the Freia character is way overacted. It breaks the immersion every time you get a headshot -- which for me was quite often. However, Zen was cleaver in not adding voice overs for the dialog. You can read at your own pace and give them the voices you think they should have. They do make grunts and stuff, but they are mostly well-timed to add to the humor.
<li>You can control the zoom on the battlefield using the keyboard, but you can never get a full view of everything. It would be nice if you could pull back all the way. This is especially true when bombarding the castle with lob shots because you can't position your mouse and see the enemy castle at the same time with a lob shot.
<li>As weird as it sounds, I was disappointed by the castle physics. A lot of times, debris simply disappears and many times you'll destroy something and it will fall in unrealistic ways. But, rare are the times you can ignore the battlefield long enough to watch the crumbling, so it's not something you would notice unless you're looking for it.
<li>The game contains a female viking in a furry bikini who lives in a sub-zero arctic wonderland. Seriously, people. Can't we just have a viking that happens to be a girl, not a girl who happens to be a viking?
<li>In the multiplayer game, you can choose to be either Kingdom or Norse. There is no random. This means that if everyone picks Kingdom (a.k.a. the good guys), then we all just sit there waiting for someone else to pick Norse. It and what side your castle is on should both be randomized.
<li>Just like most games, there are small bugs they'll have to patch out. For instance, the "How to Play" area is missing a next button, so you can't scroll through all the help screens properly. It's all just little stuff, though. The game itself is solid.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>With games like this, it's very easy to say, "You know, I can get a game like this for free on any one of a hundred flash sites. Why should I pay for one?" So you need the developers to step to the plate and show you something special.</p>
<p>This game cracks a home run that lands in the parking lot behind the stadium. I didn't think I could be so enthralled by a casual physics game, but that's because this game stopped being casual when it took the most basic of physics-based genres and turned it on it's head, providing a fabulous and entertaining title full of twists and turns.</p>
<p>I'm going to be playing this one for a while, but is it right for you? Well, only you can decide that. Hopefully this video will help. If you have any questions I didn't answer, leave them in the comments below and I'll answer them if I can.</p>
<p>Also, if you found this review helpful, please consider checking out my advertisers if they have something you'd like to see. Thanks for reading this review and I'll see you next time. :)</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/241410/" target=_blank>[Steam] CastleStorm</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.zenstudios.com/" target=_blank>Zen Studios Homepage</a>
</ul>
AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-69839722281517871322013-07-25T16:53:00.000-07:002013-07-25T17:04:24.671-07:00Review - The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief, Eye of the Sphinx[EMBED]
<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OrTpSCyq1fE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I just spent six hours with part one of a brand new video game called The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief -- a point-and-click whodunit game that just came out three days ago on Steam.</p>
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<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, chapter one of The Raven -- a.k.a. the Eye of the Sphinx -- was fantastic and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the second chapter later this summer. In fact, this game ends with a behemoth of a cliff hanger.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What Is It?</h3>
<p>The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief will be a three-part point-and-click title that embroils you deep in the lives of people intimately involved in the investigation and capture of a world-renown jewel thief known as The Raven.</p>
<p>Some time before the events of the game, The Raven was being investigated by a French inspector known as Nicolas Legrand -- an investigation that concluded when Legrand shot The Raven while chasing him through Paris. For this, Legrand received international acclaim -- yet he never feels comfortable with the way things ended.</p>
<p>Now, the world is once again fixated on the criminal underworld as a copycat criminal has stolen a priceless jewel from a British museum.</p>
<p>In this episode, you play as a Swiss constable who is assigned to help guard a train bound for Venice. In the wake of this Raven-esk copycat crime, the famed Nicholas Legrande himself guards a second and equally valuable gemstone as it is transported aboard your train for a special exhibition at a museum in Egypt.</p>
<p>The game was developed by KING Art and distributed by Nordic Games. I haven't played any of their other titles, but KING did publish The Critter Chronicles.</p>
<p>If you're not into cutscenes and storyline, this game is not for you. Some of the cutscenes run several minutes, but they're never preachy or overly full of exposition.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>The musical score is wonderful. At no time did I find it annoying and The Raven is one of the few games I've ever played where I didn't even turn down the volume of the background music. Adding to that, the voice over work was flawless. Everyone was absolutely believable and well cast for their parts. Aces across the board.
<li>The diary is well designed and full of good details and no spoilers.
<li>All the hot spots disappear after you are finished with them.
<li>There's a very quick mini tutorial at the beginning, however you can skip it if you so choose.
<li>The game is chock full of suspects and the needle of suspicion shifts back and forth between them quite often. This makes the game even more consuming as you find yourself regretting your earlier suspicions only to acquire them again within the hour.
<li>Your job is to help solve a crime, so the "puzzles" don't ever really feel gamey or artificial. They blend well into the storyline.
<li>There are a handful of mini-games that break up the point-and-click nature of the game, some of which are very unique and creative.
<li>Graphically, it's a mixed bag. Some sprites and models were designed better than others. But what I can say is that atmospherically speaking, the game looks gorgeous. There are reflections in glass and in hardwood floors. The ocean looks real and there are a lot of little nuanced touches in closeups.
<li>This episode ends with a cliffhanger of epic proportions. I was so astounded that by the time I remembered to pick my jaw up off the floor, my mouth had run out of spit. At first I was actually surprised because of how short it seemed, but I had to remind myself that this was part one of a triad of games. This chapter lasted me six hours meaning the game as a whole should be in the neighborhood of 18 hours -- in my humble opinion, well worth the investment.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>There are times when the voices and the animations don't sink up. Occasionally, the character will say something like, "there's no one in there" and then open the door to see if there's anyone in there. There are also times where he'll do a pre-scripted double-take but because you clicked on the dialog to move everything along, he's just moving for no reason. All of this is rare, but you will notice it from time-to-time.
<li>Moving about can be a little complicated depending upon how cramped the quarters are. Also, once in motion you can't change direction until your character lands at his spot. This can be annoying at times.
<li>So, when I first got this game, it had some game-crashing glitches that revolved around clicking on things while walking. However, earlier today there was a patch and immediately afterward I tested the same spots and found them to be fixed. So, while I think it's important to mention it, the game is fully playable. But just to be safe, be sure to save your game after a major development or a particularly lengthy interrogation.
<li>At the end of the episode, you'll receive a "score" -- which seems to have no bearing on anything and looks like it was added as an afterthought. The only way it could be valuable is if it included not only how many secrets you did find but also how many secrets you didn't find. Sadly, it doesn't -- so it's just a seemingly arbitrary number.
<li>Finally, I did notice at the end that in the "extras" section under soundtrack, one of the songs from the game can be clicked on but doesn't actually play anything.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>While some fans of point-and-click adventure games may cringe at the linear and less than creative puzzles of an offering that sits on the border between game and interactive movie, without question the storyline, plot, characters, and settings make this a must-play title for those of you who enjoy whodunit mysteries.</p>
<p>I fully plan to play the other two and will do videos for them accordingly when they come out. The second episode -- Ancestry of Lies -- is scheduled for Tuesday, August 27, 2013 and the third -- A Murder of Ravens -- will be out at the end of September. I'm also considering doing a final spoiler review after I've played all three.</p>
<p>But should you buy this title? Well, only you can decide that. Hopefully this video will help. </p>
<p>However, let me leave you with this. From now until next Tuesday, July 30, 2013, this game is on sale on Steam at 10% off. And, like I said earlier, after the update they made this morning, it appears as if all the bugs have been worked out.</p>
<p>If you have any questions I didn't answer, leave them in the comments below and I will answer what I can.</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/233370/" target=_blank>[Steam] The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://kingart-games.com/" target=_blank>KING Art Home Page</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.nordicgames.at/" target=_blank>Nordic Games Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-42899624941893531952013-07-05T06:56:00.002-07:002013-08-05T08:21:45.010-07:00Review - Soldier Front 2<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vDuOiTBzkhQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I spent my entire Fourth of July with a video game called Soldier Front 2 -- a first-person shooter I found on Steam.</p>
<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: in this case, Soldier Front 2 has some harsh and unpleasant interface issues that combine with an overpowered sniper rifle mechanic to create a poor showing by modern FPS standards.
But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
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<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>To begin, Soldier Front 2 is a free-to-play FPS title that's available on Steam and the Aeria network. The game was developed by Dragonfly -- an Asian game house that specializes in FPS. They have multiple titles including Karma, QuakeWars, Soldier of Fortune, and VAAN Online. They started out making standard PC games back in the 90s, but then they transitioned to all on-line stuff.</p>
<p>So by that metric, I expect a lot more out of this title simply because the designers are quite seasoned with this genre.</p>
<p>This game is a standard FPS title, where you play as one of the members of a military squad fighting against members of another military squad. In fact, the whole game is team vs. team, I didn't see a single free-for-all match.</p>
<p>This game is heavily invested in microtransactions. You can't buy sunglasses for your character, you have to rent them for seven days. Everything is pushing you to buy newer, better stuff in the store. It's really sad.</p>
<p>Apparently, this is a sequel, but I have zero knowledge of the original game, so I'm judging this title solely on it's merits.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Game is fast, frames-per-second in the 200s. I was especially impressed with what appeared to be zero lag time. The graphics and gameplay are designed to minimize any lag. In fact, the graphics aren't amazing but they do the job.
<li>In games like this, field of view can be an issue. However, in this case, I had no problems with my ability to see everything. However, I will admit that there is no FOV slider.
<li>The maps are fantastic; they are fun, have special places where you can have some nice firefights, and they're small to keep the action going.
<li>The game modes are pretty standard stuff, except for shatter mode which allows you to play inside of a glass-floored arena. You can shoot the glass out from under your opponents instead of shooting them directly to send them plummeting to a lower level or the spiky floor below. However, there are huge trampolines below as well, so you have a slim chance of popping back up if you aim yourself right.
<li>When setting up a game, you can password protect your room and make sure only your clanmates can join you.
<li>I love the double KO -- which is where you and an enemy shoot at the same time and kill each other. This should be in every FPS title from now until the end of time.
<li>There's no aim assist. You hear that COD? No aim assist!
<li>Infinite replayability, as you might expect from an FPS.
<li>The location finder was done really well. It's easy to locate your guys, see which direction they are looking, and whether they are engaged with an enemy or not.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The interface is absolutely nauseating. Poorly designed is an understatement. Rebinding was a nightmare as I had to zero-out all the currently set keybindings and then reset them. Then, there's a secret keybinding pop-up that is hidden down the bottom because the designers were so attached to their design that they didn't consider whether it was good or not.
<li>The help menus were a bunch of arrows, one of which points from the word "store" to a button clearly labeled as "store". We get it. You want us to spend money. How about you give us a help menu and we'll consider it.
<li>Setting the game to 1280x720 only changes the actual match window and does nothing to your menu -- which is locked in some ridiculous aspect ratio.
<li>The avatar icons you have to choose from include a teddy bear and a lollypop -- clearly not top choices for a military-themed offering.
<li>You can see people's feet through walls, making it easy to kill them.
<li>While I applaud the fact that you can shoot through walls, the designers took it a bit too far and let you shoot through mountains and other clearly bulletproof obstructions. You can usually pick up a free kill just by blindly peppering the walls in the direction of the enemies.
<li>There are a lot of times where you'll get hung up on a flat surface because of a tiny corner you never see coming.
<li>There are many places where you spawn into a firefight. In fact, as you're spawning, you light up a bright white color just to make sure that the enemy sees you real good.
<li>Most FPS games don't have female soldiers. That's crap. In this game, you can play as a female (you have to buy the skin), but she's dressed in bright red and wearing pumps. This is actually worse than if she was simply missing. Just once I'd like to see a decent female option in a first-person shooter.
<li>The sniper rifles have a cone of aim that rivals a howitzer. I have seen dozens of replays of me dying from dudes who were quick-scoping and not even coming close. It's the single worst part of the game. It's not that they're quick-scoping (which is reserved for talentless hacks), but it's that they are missing but getting credit from the game. It's horrific.
<li>You can't go prone, even with a sniper rifle.
<li>Occasionally, when you respawn after dying, the game is frozen and you have to tap escape to get the controls to work. I'm not sure what that's all about.
<li>You can pay for bullets (or earn them by playing long enough) that are more damaging than regular bullets. I can't tell you the number of times I went 1v1 and had the drop on the guy only to be killed when he spun around and killed me with a quick burst.
<li>There's no limit to the number of buffs you can buy as long as you're willing to spend real cash to make it happen. In one match, a guy on my team when 56 kills, 1 death and his bullets were at least twice as powerful as everyone else's.
<li>If you have one type of grenade in your inventory, it can only be placed in one of your three builds. So if you switch builds, you won't have that grenade.
<li>Can't run while taking fire or reloading.
<li>The game has a regularly scheduled message asking if you've purchased anything in the store. This appears over the action at inopportune times and fills up your team chat at others.
<li>There's no voice chat; it's all text.
<li>If your guy is in a doorway, you can't get buy him.
<li>If you're in a window sniping and an enemy comes in behind you, you can't jump out the windows.
<li>In seizure mode, if you are shot while carrying the briefcase, at first it stays where you were, but it will reset itself after about 30 seconds. That's just stupid.
<li>I saw that a guy got stranded on a window-washer platform on the side of a building and had no way out but to commit suicide.
<li>The machine guns are deadly accurate from hundreds of yards away. I had no problem gunning down people on the other side of town. It's really bad, though this is something they can easily fix with a patch.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>While the free-to-play model gives you a very liberal license in my book, there's only so much I'm willing to forgive.</p>
<p>In the end, this game offers a standard and capable (albeit vanilla) FPS experience wrapped in a crappy interface. </p>
<p>The constant calling of attention to the store and their clearly sexist attitude toward women in combat are glaring and annoying. While I did have a blast playing the shatter level Funhouse, in terms of FPSs, the rest of the game was just more of the same.</p>
<p>Sadly, for me, this game was a pass, but is it right for you? Well, only you can decide that. Hopefully this video will help. If you have any questions I didn't answer, leave them in the comments below and I'll see what I can do.</p>
<ul>
<li>[FREE] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/239660/" target=_blank>[Steam] Soldier Front 2</a>
<li>[FREE] <a href="http://soldierfront2.aeriagames.com/" target=_blank>[Aeria] Soldier Front 2</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.dragonflygame.com/eng/Home/Home.aspx" target=_blank>Dragonfly Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-11826224921851419232013-06-28T21:03:00.000-07:002013-06-28T21:03:23.339-07:00Review - Jack Keane 2<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C1tF50B4APw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I am six hours into a brand new video game called Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within, which just came out on Steam today. Before we begin, this game is a sequel and you should know that I did not play Keane #1, so I'm judging this game not as a sequel, but as it's own thing.</p>
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<p>In this series, you never have to wait for my opinion: the beginning of Jack Keane 2 was fantastic and the characters have absolutely made this game an enjoyable experience.</p>
<p>But as I approach the middle, it's starting to lose it's edge. I find the graphics to be fantastic and the story makes me laugh, but the bugs and the loose ends in the plot are really starting to wear down my enthusiasm.</p>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within is a 3D point and click adventure title. In it, you play as Jack Keane, an Alan Quartermaine-esk adventurer who meets a mysterious shaman while incarcerated in a Chinese prison. The shaman informs Jack of a mystical treasure, but hides the specifics in Jack's subconscious mind and then dies before he has a chance to clarify.</p>
<p>Along the way, Jack picks up other companions who follow him into adventure and danger while looking for the shaman's treasure. His chief companion is Amanda -- the <i>histoire d'amour</i> from the first game. She saves Jack from the prison and then serves as navigator aboard Jack's ship. That is until Jack meets another beautiful woman who he invites on board.</p>
<p>This game is about fun, adventure, treasure, and self exploration, as Jack must search not only the real world but his own consciousness and memories to find the treasure he seeks. The game tackles not only a group's quest for treasure, but also one man's battle with commitment and his own inner demons.</p>
<p>The game was developed by Deck 13 -- the house that brought you not only the original Jack Keane but also the 3D necromancer-conspiracy title Venetica -- which you might have played on the PS3 or 360.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>The characters are fantastic. I have a genuine and deep interest in seeing how their story develops. Even the bad guys make you curious.
<li>You play the game in both a dream world and the real world of Jack Keane. That may sound contrived, but it's done really well. Many of the plot points revolve around solving puzzles in Jack's subconscious to help him become a better person as well as a wealthy treasure hunter.
<li>Most of the puzzles are fun and have challenging solutions -- though finding the parts to fit the puzzle can be daunting. For instance, at the start of the game, the bone you need to get the lighter is out on the ledge below the bombers window. That one took me about twenty minutes to find and was a huge pain. But things like that are a rarity.
<li>Unlike most point-and-click adventures which require you to use mouse clicks to get around, Keane 2 lets you use WASD. This is done very well and made the game much more enjoyable.
<li>The background music is great; very adventurous and it really sells the action-oriented side of the game.
<li>The jokes in this game are so funny. I am always looking forward to what Jack was going to say next. Some of the puzzles contribute to the whimsy, as you sometimes have to provoke people into throwing their clothing or appease a gorilla to solve the puzzle. The really funny stuff is the side banter between your companions. They take turns of first being at each others throats and then helping each other out of jams. I really think the writers did a good job overall in writing believable quips to break up the action.
<li>The tension between Jack and Amanda is well developed and you really find yourself at times rooting for and then at other times rooting against their amorphous relationship.
<li>There's a fighting mechanic in which you have to select cards to determine your defensive and offensive maneuvers. I enjoyed this a lot and wished there had been more of it. Every offensive maneuver has a defensive maneuver that counters it. The key to winning a fight is to remember what stops what.
<li>Your dialog options can change the relationship standing between Jack and his companions. In fact, when you make the choice, you'll see a little icon come up telling you that you have gone up in estimation for one character and down for the other. This happens most often with the two ladies in your crew. I am a huge fan of this game mechanic in any game, as it adds a good deal of replayability because it makes you want to play the game again but making different choices to see what new content the alternate choices get you.
<li>Only one of the puzzles involving multiple components had a specific order (and if you permit the spoiler, it was packing a cannon, in which you have to put the powder in first). I hate puzzle games where you have all but one component but because that component is first in the computer code, you can't do anything until you find it. As far as I can tell, this game does not have such limits.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The voice acting can be brutal at times and then fine the next. Often, the voices don't match the emphasis in the captions. This is particularly noticeable when it's Jack doing the talking.
<li>The camera is locked and changes location frequently as you move from one room to another. Sometimes, this is agonizingly annoying. Often, when changing rooms, the WASD directions get screwed up, resulting in several occasions where pressing up to move to the next area resulted in an endless loop where as long as I held down the "W" key, I just kept switching back and forth between the two locations. Another beef I have with the camera is that sometimes it makes the jumping puzzles -- particularly those in Jack's subconscious -- very difficult. Even hopping on top of a crate can be ten times trickier than it should be because of the camera.
<li>Some of the dialog choices end the game. I don't mean it crashes, I mean the credits roll as a way of telling you that you made the wrong choice. I can't imagine a dumber mechanic. At one point, you have the opportunity to send your enemy away with a worthless piece of a map in exchange for many thousands of dollars that could be used to fund your quest for treasure. If you try this tactic, the game ends because Jack apparently isn't that kind of guy. I was pissed I couldn't trick a billionaire out of a couple hundred grand. THAT seems like something Jack would do. HELL, that's something I would do. And since the bad guy takes the piece when he leaves anyway -- and we all saw that coming (especially now because I told you it's coming) -- that makes it even worse.
<li>After you find the second piece of the map, the plot starts to get a little out of control. There are more and more loose ends as you go along and one considerable jump cut where you're suddenly someplace else and you get tracked down by your enemies on the other side of the Earth without any explanation of how that could happen. You also are confronted with the possibility of death and at the last second, the guy who could clearly have you killed simply walks away. It's all very weird, but I haven't finished the game, so I can't swear that it won't resolve itself in the end.
<li>This game is actually quite buggy at launch. At one point while standing on a dock, Jack disappeared and I had to reload from a previous save. At another time, I was fooling around at a cave entrance and I fell through the world. My final glitch was when I couldn't figure out how to kill a massive, carnivorous plant, I decided to go back up to the surface using the dialog shortcut they provided and the game crashed. I'm sure these things will get patched out over time, but they're only adding to my concerns.
<li>There are a series of minor physics issues that I had. At one point Jack stands directly behind a cannon as it's being fired; an act that should have killed him instantly. At the same time, all the other people standing right next to him seem completely oblivious to the fact that he just set off a piece of artillery. These are some of the loose ends that I'm talking about that start to creep up more and more in the later stages of the game. And since we're talking about it, you cannot scare bats with the flash bulb on a camera; bats are blind they navigate via sonar. Stuff like that bugs me.
<li>You can only talk to companions when you are standing right in front of them; occasionally, this means that after clicking on a companion to start a conversation, you have to wait for Jack to walk around to their front.
<li>Too often, the camera when it's on one of the busty ladies of this tale is literally pointed directly at their boobs to the exclusion of their heads -- even though they are actively speaking. It's hard to say if this is a camera glitch or a creative choice because I found another issue where a dude was speaking and the camera spins 360-degrees and comes back to his face for no particular reason. Any way you slice it, it borders on the misogynistic.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>So, final thoughts.</p>
<p>Point and click puzzle games can leave a bad taste in your mouth if their interface is poorly designed or the solutions to the puzzles are too obscure. So far, Jack Keane 2 has passed both of those tests.</p>
<p>This game shot out of the gate and was well on it's way to winning the race for my approval, but then it start to get a little gassed in the middle.</p>
<p>I don't know if it's going to have enough to make it to the end of the race, but it has made enough of an impression on me with it's humor and great story and interesting characters that I want to finish the game.</p>
<ul>
<li>[WATCH] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlHWfzCRL0" target=_blank>[YouTube] Jack Keane 2 Trailer</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/236970" target=_blank>[Steam] Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://deck13.com/com/index.html" target=_blank>Deck 13 Homepage</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-6964437694115370712013-06-26T14:00:00.000-07:002013-06-28T21:04:03.012-07:00Review - Pro Cycling Manager 2013<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NnxTPFc5xq0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>I have spent five days with a video game called Pro Cycling Manager 2013 -- a title I found on Steam. I enjoyed this game. As King of the Nerds, this game scratches several nerdy itches that creep up from time to time. I find it fun and unexpectedly addicting.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>But is it right for you? Well let's find out.</p>
<h3>What is it?</h3>
<p>To begin, Pro Cycling Manager 2013 is a combination of two different games. The first is a database management game where you take the roll of general manager of a professional cycling team. The second is a 3D cycling simulator where you take your riders into an actual race and fiddle with their racing style to earn points or win the race.</p>
<p>Cycling is a big thing in Europe and so it should come as no surprise that this game was published by Cyanide Studios -- a developer from France. What might surprise you is that Cyanide Studios is the same house that brought you Blood Bowl.</p>
<p>But if you think about it, while stylistically completely different, these two games are very similar in the way they combine database management with a sport simulator.</p>
<p>So, already we're talking about a game that's well suited for people who love cycling or love databases. At first, I was only the latter, but I've since then learned to appreciate the nuance and the strategy behind competitive cycling.</p>
<p>I will tell you that if you don't know how cycling works, it could be quite jarring when you first start the game. But you'll pick it up quite easily because it's not that complicated.</p>
<p>What's even better is that you'll begin to get to know your fake riders as you race with them. You'll know which guys can last till the end of the race and which ones are better suited to burn all their energy early to pick up mountain and speed points instead.</p>
<p>As team manager, you can then choose which guys you want to invest money in for training, which guys you want to sign for next season, and which guys you wouldn't mind parting ways with.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>The camera is always pointed at the ground -- which is a good thing because the game doesn't have to render the graphics in the background, which would cause most PCs to grind to a halt. It's a good way to solve the technical limitations of a game this complex.
<li>The game allows you to micromanage riders as they are racing. You can have them maintain their position in the pack, lead the pack, ride in a cycle, sacrifice themselves by using up their energy to save the other riders, etc.
<li>You have an e-mail box that will be your source of information for 90% of the game. This box is well built and always reminds you of when you have a scheduling conflict or if you forgot to do something important.
<li>When it rains -- which, as you might expect, is rare -- it really makes this game pop. The sheen on the blacktop and the way it changes the race and the world is awesome.
<li>The background music is ambient Ibiza music; something you would listen to in a high-end hotel lobby or a spa in Paris. I personally love it and it never distracts you while you're trying to race.
<li>No framerate drops -- even when recording.
<li>You could theoretically play this game forever, especially with the fantasy draft turned on at the start of the game because each time you would have a unique roster of people. And as the seasons pass, you're going to find new riders to join your crew. In addition, each season lasts for a long time if you do all the races yourself. Even if you use the simulation feature for all the races, it would still take you about a week to make it through an entire season.
<li>If you're good enough, you get to chose which national team you coach and that's like a bonus team you get to play with.
<li>The race tracks appear to be identical in elevation to their real-world counterparts. Now, are the cracks in the asphalt and building locations identical? No. Nor should they be. The focus is on the strategy of the race, not replicating the city of Amman, Jordan.
<li>After the race, if your guy wins you can watch him get kissed by two hot chicks on the podium. That's fun.
<li>You have to manage your water as well as your pacing in this game, which is very realistic and a challenge. If you get too close to the finish line and you don't have water, you won't be able to make the final sprint and it could cost you the game.
<li>While racing, you'll find the names of you riders on the road from time-to-time.
<li>There's a clear indication of where you are in relation to all the other riders. You know exactly how many seconds ahead you are and can plan accordingly.
<li>You can hold down the "control" key to select multiple riders and then command them as a separate group from the rest of your squad.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The riders often ride through one another or even worse -- because of their colliders -- interfere with one another even though you can visually see that the riders have plenty of room to maneuver.
<li>In terms of the databasing, there are some connections you wish were there that aren't, so there are times where -- as an example -- you'll have to press the back key to examine the map of the upcoming race or to see which of your guys is suited for hills and then press the forward key again to get back to the screen where you assign your guys bikes. The best workaround for that is to write a list on a piece of paper who is mountain and who is flat to make the game less annoying.
<li>The story is the weakest part of the game. You can create a storyline in your head about who your riders are and about their lives, but really there's not much about you as the manager. You basically are a faceless god to these people and you dictate where they go and if they eat this week or not.
<li>The game has several times where it renders the field improperly. I'm sure this will be fixed with a patch someday. I've often ridden through crowds of spectators that were accidentally drawn on the road and buildings that were misplaced. It happens, but it's only for a second so I can forgive them this one.
<li>The announcer is jilted, speaks like he's reading a book, and is annoyingly loud. Everything he says is "so exciting" and there's no color commentating. I turned that dude off halfway through Day 3.
<li>At the end of a race, the whole field slows down as the final rider crosses the line. I'm not entirely sure if that's a creative choice or if that's because my CPU has to crunch all the numbers of 100 riders all sprinting to the finish line at once. Either way, it's annoying.
<li>If you're not into racing, the races themselves could be considered a little formulaic. Also, you're going to be sitting there for a while as the riders peddle on. Some of these races take 20-30 minutes in real time to finish. Some people may find this repetitive, but that's simply the nature of the game.
<li>The AI in this game is very obedient. You can control the peloton quite easily using four guys while you rush the other four ahead to steal the points.
<li>There are times where it would be awesome just to instruct your one dude to follow the five non-teammates that are in front of him. However, that mechanic doesn't exist so you have to constantly monitor guys in the lead.
<li>I did some experiments and the power gel doesn't seem to do anything.
<li>When in relay mode, the game automatically puts you at the front of the peloton no matter what speed you're going. In my opinion, this is unrealistic.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>Simulation games often hide the databases they mask because that's considered by many to be a nerdy way to play games. This game is unabashedly open about working with numbers to determine who among your available races is best suited for a race.</p>
<p>For me, this was a game that I could easily play for a long time. The variety of riders you can pick up, the infinite number of possible future riders that come from scouting, and the dozens of unique races you can experience combine to create a very challenging and exciting game.</p>
<p>Is it a perfect game? No. The graphics are a little glitchy and there's some other annoyances, but nothing they can't fix in a patch. The game itself is solid and worth a look.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/219800/" target=_blank>[Steam] Pro Cycling Manager 2013</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-67222610922085755522013-06-19T12:01:00.001-07:002013-06-19T12:01:23.738-07:00Wednesday, June 19, 2013[EMBED]
<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TLt6IOpFS7c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:13 - Hotline Miami 2
<li>0:49 - Dark Matter Kickstarter/Greenlight
<li>1:30 - Thunder Wolves on XBLA, PSN
<li>2:19 - Deadfall Adventures New Screenshots
</ul>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[WATCH] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcIgabcx-9Q" target=_blank>[YouTube] Hotline Miami 2 Trailer</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/interwave/dark-matter-1" target=_blank>[Kickstarter] Dark Matter</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-31120308917731679522013-06-18T20:46:00.000-07:002013-06-19T12:01:33.702-07:00Tuesday, June 18, 2013[EMBED]
<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dCY_uXeiDrI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<ul>
<li>0:24 - Torchlight Free on GOG.com
<li>1:35 - Pool Nation on PSN Out June 25
<li>2:20 - Pinball FX 2 Gets a New Table Friday: Sorcerer's Lair
<li>3:23 - Mars: War Logs Gets New Audio
<li>5:52 - Hills of Glory 3D for Windows 8
</ul>
<hr>
<ul>
<li>[FREE] <a href="http://www.gog.com/gamecard/torchlight" target=_blank>[GOG] Torchlight</a>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://tinyurl.com/knpokvh" target=_blank>[Win] Hills of Glory 3D in Windows Store</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://uk.playstation.com/psn/games/detail/item582106/Pool-Nation/" target=_blank>[PSN] Pool Nation</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-31341402692920022972013-06-17T14:59:00.001-07:002013-06-17T15:16:12.856-07:00Review - Gunpoint<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UZ31AmXsCx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>What's crackin' people, AngelikMayhem here. Welcome to another edition of Neverplayed, the video series where I show you a brand new video game title that I've never played before.</p>
<p>Today, I've played a copy of Gunpoint, which is a 2D noir-style, spy-themed, action/puzzle game where you play the roll of a spy lost in a cold war between two rival gun manufacturers. </p>
<p>Normally, this would be the time when I told you which development house birthed this baby, but as it turns out this title is the brainchild of one guy: Tom Francis -- a games-industry writer from the UK.</p>
<p>Tom spent three years working on this project in GameMaker and he has finally launched it on Steam. Was it worth the effort? Let's find out.</p>
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<h3>Storyline</h3>
<p>One word describes the story: intrigue. You play the roll of a spy who becomes embroiled in a web of lies, deception, and blackmail that revolves around infidelity and industrial espionage. At any time, you can fight for any one of the factions or play all the sides against each other to make some cash.</p>
<p>From the outset, you are being used by everyone which limits your options but also gives you an unexpected position of power.</p>
<h3>The Game</h3>
<p>The largest portion of the game is dedicated to the story mode, though I was able to play with the level editor a bit to try to create my own puzzles.</p>
<p>In single player, you follow the story and allow yourself to be hired by various people to break into one of about a half-dozen locations in the town. Sometimes you're working for the gun guys. Sometimes you're working for the other gun guys. Occasionally, you're working for the cops.</p>
<p>The twists and turns are very interesting. Just like you don't mind replaying a hole on a golf course weeks later because every time they move the pin it changes the strategy of the hole, in this game you never really care that you're seeing the same locations over and over again because each time they are slightly altered by the story to keep them fresh.</p>
<p>After solving the puzzles to grant yourself full access to the building, hacking all the laptops, and purloining your target, you can escape from the area via the subway.</p>
<p>You're graded on your smooth technique and stealthy ability. Alert too many guards, and it can effect your final grade -- which can effect how much money you make.</p>
<h3>Settings/Menu/HUD</h3>
<p>The first time you sit down to play the game, it begins strangely with a flat menu option of what resolution you'd like to play at and then launches you immediately into the game. While novel, I ultimately didn't enjoy this. In this case, it just felt like it needed a main menu.</p>
<p>If you save and come back later, then you finally get a main menu. The sound options are lacking and things like rain effects aren't controlled by the sliders you think they should be.</p>
<p>I have to say that the weakest part of the game is the user interface, which is awkward and missing some key elements like rekeybinding.</p>
<h3>Mechanics/Units</h3>
<p>As a qualified games journalist, I noticed that the story doesn't necessarily gel with the mechanics. But they're fun nonetheless.</p>
<p>The chief game mechanic is your special pants. Hypertrousers allow you to survive falls from magnificent heights and launch yourself across a room. So your movements are based on clinging to walls, flinging yourself through closing doorways, and killing guards by tackling them out of windows.</p>
<p>The game allows you to play (and, in fact, grades you on playing) non-violently. You can punch out guards silently or avoid most of them all together by using distractions.</p>
<p>The game has upgrade features that allow you to change the rate at which your pants charge up and the distance that they will launch you. </p>
<p>You can also purchase additional spy toys that allow you to break through glass silently by pressing the left mouse button just before you crash through a window or -- if you're so inclined -- purchase a handgun if you don't mind getting your hands wet.</p>
<p>Finally, but most certainly not least, is the puzzling system. Throughout each level, there are doors that are locked and cameras that must be turned off. This game's defining mechanic is the rewiring system whereby you can reconnect the electronics of a building -- or multiple buildings -- to make switches on walls unlock doors and cameras in corners activate elevators. The changes you make to the building's wiring serve to distract guards and grant you access to areas that are otherwise off limits and the solutions you have to come up with are often challenging and intellectually rewarding. Without question, this part of the game is where the puzzling aspect comes into play and it is done well. Best part of the game.</p>
<h3>Graphics/Cutscene</h3>
<p>The game is a 2D game based in a very low-budget pixel art style -- as you might expect from a one-man development team. However, there's never a moment when you feel the graphics are lacking.</p>
<p>Everything is muted and very stylized and because you're not looking at tons of gore or fighting with cameras and geometry colliders, as the user you can just sit back and focus on the story and enjoy the game for what it is.</p>
<p>Now, there was a problem with the game camera when you switch between regular mode and rewiring mode, but this was a very small problem.</p>
<h3>Replayability</h3>
<p>The replayability of this game rests entirely on two things: your interest in replaying some of the levels to make different dialog and plot choices and the quality of the level editor which would allow you to build your own puzzles.</p>
<p>To the first, I would suggest that the story has many branching paths and replaying the game multiple times can be quite interesting. I finished the game in just under six hours, but had I spent time replaying the levels to unlock all the different options, I may well have spent double that amount of time to see it all.</p>
<p>In addition, the level editor theoretically allows you to build your own playable levels. However, in theory, how much fun can you have playing a level you know all about because you designed it. You'd have to play other people's levels. And there's not much there.</p>
<p>The game does record how long it takes you to finish each level, so you may want to try to beat your own times, but once you know the solution, beating your time is a hollow victory.</p>
<p>I would say that if you enjoy the story, you'll enjoy rooting out all the twists and turns and don't depend on the level editor for value.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Manipulating the environment with the rewiring mechanic is a ton of fun.
<li>The puzzles are challenging and rewarding.
<li>Six hours of fun for $10US is, in my opinion, well worth it.
<li>The tutorial is built into the game, making me feel like I wasn't in a tutorial at all. Very smooth.
<li>The game keeps a log of your interactions with each client so you don't lose track.
<li>If you stand next to a door when it opens, you'll be knocked over. If you're not fast enough, it will hit you again when it closes.
<li>Mechanics are limited by their color coding. Red items can only link to other red items, blue to blue, and so on. These limitations made the game sing.
<li>My dialog options had just the right amount of snark and they made me want to replay it again just to see what changes were in store had I gone another route.
<li>It's little, but when you switch modes, the music in the background switches. Such a little detail, but I really enjoyed that.
<li>I beat the game without killing anyone. That is something too rare in video games.
<li>The epic jazz-based soundtrack is phenomenal.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The level editor is very confusing and is very rigid in what it will allow. I found it to be frustrating and riddled with interface issues.
<li>I disagree with the fact that you can hack a guard's handgun. Objects that are wired into the building make sense; handguns do not. I refused to use that mechanic and finished the game without it.
<li>Moving the camera around using the arrow keys and then switching from regular mode to rewiring mode presented some minor annoyances. I had to fight the camera a little in the later levels, but nothing too awful.
<li>Because you can alter your upgrades at will, I got three achievements just by maxing out each of the upgrade option settings one by one in turn in about ten seconds. That made the achievement system feel cheap.
<li>No SFX volume controls.
<li>As to the puzzles in the game, I would have preferred more silent stealth action. There were too many times where I had no choice but to punch a guy in the face.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>To single-handedly put together a video game after three years is a monumental task and one that I'm sure Tom is quite proud of. As well he should be.</p>
<p>This game was a blast and the plot really had me on the edge of my seat at certain times. I had to weigh my options carefully and occasionally had to flat out take a break to decide which branching path was best.</p>
<p>The characters are fabulous and while I take issue with a few minor annoyances in terms of interface and camera controls, I would encourage all of you to have a look at this one. If you like puzzles combined with film-noir style detective/spy stories, you won't be disappointed.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/206190/" target=_blank>[Steam] Gunpoint</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.gunpointgame.com/" target=_blank>Gunpoint Home Page</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GunpointGame" target=_blank>[Facebook] Gunpoint</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-65055001010336300002013-06-07T14:02:00.000-07:002013-06-07T14:02:13.182-07:00Review - Cubetractor
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<p>Cubetractor is a new 8-bit-inspired action puzzle game from indie developer Ludochip. This company is just two dudes working together, but they've got almost a decade's worth of game design experience between them. So I had high expectations going into this review.</p>
<h3>Story</h3>
<p>In the game, you play as Endroi -- a robot that decides that life as a servant just isn't for him and he takes off on a grand adventure -- much to the chagrin of his designers who just want him to manage some cubes. </p>
<p>Instead, he strikes out into the world heroically accepting and overcoming challenges from the other robots.</p>
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<p>Luckily for him, Wultch and the Cubemaster forgot to install a self-destruct button. So they can only sit back and lament his disruptive behavior while praying that he'll screw up and smack himself in the head with a cube.</p>
<p>The storyline is delightful. You spend your time trying to liberate "imprisoned" batteries from their red meanies and setting up towers to destroy the enemy infrastructure.</p>
<h3>Settings/Menu/HUD</h3>
<p>As simple as you can get, which is a mixed blessing. I wish things like volume were on slider and while I recognize that this game was inspired by 8-bit design, there's no excuse for not including proper aspect ratio and game options in your settings menu.</p>
<p>In terms of difficulty, the game only has one setting.</p>
<p>Movement is based on the arrow keys and you only ever need the "x" key to remove your towers if you need the resources elsewhere and the spacebar to tractor your cubes.</p>
<h3>Mechanics and Units</h3>
<p>You spend most of your time pulling blocks together to form towers and barricades. That's the predominant game mechanic. </p>
<p>However, this is deceptively simple. You have to constantly be in motion -- avoiding bullets and tower blocks that will reduce your health if you get hit.</p>
<p>If you need a breather, there are strategically placed rocks to hide behind. However, remember that the timer is ticking away and if you want any achievements you better keep moving.</p>
<p>The game gives you easy guides to help you determine which blocks you're going to move even when across the board. These guides are simple and well designed.</p>
<h3>Graphics/Audio</h3>
<p>There are no cutscenes; only well-written whimsical dialog that gives you updates on Endroi's "waesome" life.
Graphically, the game is based on 8-bit design -- so it's very blocky and the audio is tinty and reminiscent of old NES games. But it works because the nature of the game is about moving objects across a grid without actually seeing the grid. The blocky style of the graphics helps make this intuitive.</p>
<h3>Gameplay</h3>
<p>Endroi's path to greatness is just that. You get a branching path at the start of each round that grants you access to what appears to be a total of 88 different levels.</p>
<p>If you want to skip the dialog, you can simply hit the "x" button. Bravo to Ludo! This feature comes in handy later if you want to replay the level.</p>
<p>Then, you're launched into the level and the timer starts. From there, you must avoid some creeps who you can easily outrun but will aggro you if you get too close. You also must avoid bullets from towers, any obstacles that are in the way, and the very blocks you're trying to manipulate -- as they are always flying straight at you until you move out of the way.</p>
<p>Sounds easy, right? Well, it's not. There's a lot going on all at once and each level is designed to put you into the crossfire of multiple elements.</p>
<p>Though only being at most four or five minutes in length -- the levels are hectic and they get your pulse pumping. And there are times where you see the level at the beginning and think, "Oh, this will be easy," and then it turns out you have to rethink your entire strategy later on because in theory your plans sounded great but in practice they were absurd.</p>
<h3>Replayability</h3>
<p>Replayability is going to be all about the timer. The game remembers your best time and then you can try to beat it later if you so desire. Also, there are various gold, silver, etc. achievements on each level that will challenge you to take no damage or collect all the batteries, or other such restrictions.</p>
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
The story was a blast. I was hooked on my little robot's life before we even finished the tutorial.
Gameplay is fast and tricky; this is not a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination and you're going to earn your way to the end.
Sometimes, the simplest solution is to pull five cubes into a tower. But because you are always thinking about building towers, some levels that take five minutes could take 30 seconds if you just think about them a little differently. I like that the game asks me to think smarter and not necessarily harder.
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
Yes, they are teaching you something, but none of the tutorial levels need to be called "tutorial".
Also, the naming convention of the levels is quite odd. I can see where trying to remember or tell your friend which level you were playing could be a problem.
I feel very strongly that there should be aspect ratios and other graphics options in the game. I recognize they were going for a retro feel, but as game developers they need to anticipate modern needs.
When you pull a cube and run behind it, you can run into it and it will harm you. You should be able to touch the cubes from behind as they're moving away from you.
</ul>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>Sometimes neophyte game designers use "retro" gaming as an excuse to create simplistic games using crappy graphics. I avoid such games like the plague.</p>
<p>This -- is not that kind of game.</p>
<p>This game was right up my alley: a little bit of nostalgia mixed with an engaging story and some tricky puzzles. I'm looking forward to playing more of this one and to future games from the duo at Ludo.</p>
<p>You can pick this game up on Steam and I would highly recommend it for anyone. This game is absolutely worth $10.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/235720/" target=_blank>[Steam]</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://facebook.com/ludochip" target=_blank>[Facebook] </a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.ludochip.com/" target=_blank>Ludochip Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-71030420953030198842013-06-04T12:04:00.002-07:002013-06-04T12:04:59.345-07:00Prequel Graphic Novel for The Raven<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-2co3nufRBU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Today in Gaming: Nordic Games -- publisher of the upcoming noir-style, cat-and-mouse adventure title The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief -- has released a brand new interactive graphic novel via their Web site to help generate interest in their upcoming launch.</p>
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<p>Peter Hercher -- Product Marketing Manager -- said that "an interactive graphic novel is the ideal way to introduce players to the main game in a way that is leisurely yet exciting so players can get a taste of what's to come."</p>
<p>And indeed you do. I enjoyed playing it earlier. It has a film-noir style combined with the graphical feel you would see in a movie like Ocean's 11 or Catch Me if You Can.</p>
<p>For those of you who have been looking forward to playing The Raven, the graphic novel is a prequel and you don't have to worry about any spoilers from the main game.</p>
<p>In fact, the majority of the graphic novel takes place about four years prior to the game, with a little teaser at the end to show off the style and graphics that you'll be seeing during gameplay.</p>
<p>This flash project is a great introduction to the hero: Nicolas Legrand -- a French detective with whom the Raven has taken a personal liking and a maniacal pleasure in torturing with his notes -- as well as to 1960s Paris -- a city enamored with the legend of the Raven and his brazen yet nuanced style.</p>
<p>The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief will be released in three chapters -- the first of which will arrive on XBOX LIVE and the Playstation Network on July 23rd. People who pre-order the entire package today -- all three episodes -- will get a 20% discount -- $19.99US. </p>
<p>The other two episodes of the game are scheduled to be released in August and September of 2013.</p>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.raven-game.com/ign-en/" target=_blank>The Raven: An Interactive Graphic Novel</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-85069404009507547132013-05-31T06:18:00.001-07:002013-05-31T06:18:18.759-07:00Opinion - A Tale of Two DotAs<p>Today in Gaming: What is the most interesting part of DotA? Is it your favorite hero? Is it perfecting the combination of items in your build? Is it the endless pursuit of a rampage?</p>
<p>For me, the most fascinating part of MOBAs are the players -- the quirky personalities on the other end of my headset. Unless you play with the same people every game, your DotA experience during any given match will be decided by the random link you have with nine other humans -- four of whom have been given the power to enrich or ruin your life for upwards of an hour.</p>
<p>At no time has this been more clear to me than last night at about 10pm when I sat down for two starkly different games of DotA 2.</p>
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<p>Both games were against "hard" bots. Just in case you don't play DotA, bot games are practice sessions where you get to test out your builds -- preset instructions for items and gameplay. They don't count at all. Keep that in the back of your mind.</p>
<ul>
<li>The first game I shall henceforth refer to as <i>The Win</i>
<li>The second game I shall henceforth refer to as <i>The Loss</i>
</ul>
<p>I played both games identically. I was jungling as Drow Ranger. Yes, yes, very unusual. Get over it.</p>
<p>I used the exact same build, maneuvers, and style. I use the ancients to steal friendly and enemy creep lines -- denying our enemies both gold and experience and leaving them hovering near our tower like helpless children. On rare occasions when I have just enough time to do it, I'll sneak behind and gank them just to add injury to insult. My eyes are always on that clock. I time my strikes perfectly to stack (?:53) and farm (?:47) the ancients for gold and then put together my master build.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: gametime - 49:58
<li>The Loss: gametime - 29:42
</ul>
<p>In The Win, I requested jungle without incident. I shared the top lane as Dire with a delightful chap who didn't know what jungling was but was very grateful when I told him in advance when I would be stealing his creeps. In The Loss, I shared bottom as Radiant with two guys who bickered endlessly over who would get last kills and told me to go to hell whenever I told them not to push because I was stealing their creeps. On two occasions, one of them entered the neutral camp to "steal them back". Since you can't do that, he was quite furious.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: final gold - 7,132<br>I completed my build, so I didn't need to spend any more.
<li>The Loss: final gold - 1,226
</ul>
<p>In both The Win and The Loss -- as I usually am during bot games -- I was ambivalent about the outcome and calmly played the game content to eye the clock and bide my time. I stole creeps until I was powerful enough to farm the jungle, and then I worked on that. During The Win, the guy on top was happy to be fed all those creeps on his own while I was busy in the jungle. During The Loss, I was reminded constantly about how I was lazy.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: 6 kills, 3 deaths, 3 assists
<li>The Loss: 2 kills, 1 deaths, 1 assists
</ul>
<p>I'm a sneaky player. I gank and take out towers when you're not looking. I kite enemies around the board wasting their time. That's just how I play. There are dozens of playing styles, I simply am not the type to run into a five-strong pile of angry robots to die in a blaze of glory. In The Win, I was praised for my style; in The Loss, I was vilified to a point but they really couldn't say anything because out of all of us, I'm the only one who wasn't feeding the bots.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: all enemy towers destroyed; we had all five of our base towers standing.
<li>The Loss: one guy killed the top tower, I killed three others; our middle was destroyed but our side paths were still intact at tier 2.
</ul>
<p>In The Win, my teammates struggled but I came to their aid whenever I could -- especially after I got my Boots of Travel. It was a blast and I deliberately refrained from destroying the enemy base despite my being fully built because we were having so much fun. In The Loss, everyone else on my team had seven deaths or more. One guy threw himself into the breach 15 times. It was around his seventh death that my teammates forgot about me and turned on each other -- screaming into the microphones and pounding into their keyboards angry rants about who was a cheater and who was just reported.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: Boots of Travel, Daedalus, Morbid Mask, Quarterstaff, Shadow Blade, and Mjollnir.
<li>The Loss: Boots of Speed, Crystalys, Morbid Mask, and Quarterstaff (3 "others").
</ul>
<p>I have played 156 hours of DotA according to my profile. During The Loss, something happened that I have never seen in all that time. After listening with utter glee for twenty minutes as my teammates told me that jungling would never work, as I turned the corner and began to dominate -- destroying all the towers of my lane and kiting enemy heroes allowing my guys to catch their breath, they began to shanghai the courier and drop my upgrades in various parts of our base.</p>
<p>So scared were they that they would be proven wrong that they actively sabotaged me. I'm pretty sure that I have never laughed so hard in my life.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: last hits - 319; XPM - 657; GPM - 518 (18% better than rest of team)
<li>The Loss: last hits - 125; XPM - 396; GPM - 306 (40% better than rest of team)
</ul>
<p>At the end of The Win, I was standing in front of the enemy spawn just racking people with electrified arrows as they valiantly tried to escape their prison. The other three (one guy bailed at 10:00) took out the ancient. In The Loss, I was standing in the enemy base 5-7 arrows away from demolishing their last bottom tower with a full army of creeps while my teammates stood in the back of the base screaming and all-CAPSing about which DotA heroes can and cannot single-handedly kill five enemies.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Win: level - 25; leading enemy level (Necrolyte) - 20
<li>The Loss: level - 12; leading enemy level (Lina) - 17
</ul>
<p>Two games. One and a half hours. Two vastly and dare I say completely different experiences. That, to me, is what makes games like DotA great. It's not the intricacies of the items or the slaying of Roshan -- yes, those things are nice. But for my money, the best part of the game is the infinite combination of human personalities all vying for victory against the most predictable robots in the history of gaming in matches that don't actually count for anything.</p>
<p>It's so delicious.</p>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-46974690685811385052013-05-30T16:44:00.000-07:002013-05-30T16:44:57.708-07:00IdleThumbs Launches New Podcast, Ends Use of Term MOBA<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1LjAKAkPeDCzwgNrXEkUjP6LAOpHCXHllJq513tYPyIFx3nM07Z735UZXsBx0uA6UmEVartTUFZZZUa6M_ULOsiYLN3LALauJ54lhwEO-Z1aBAs8vnVSriToPNHaiaz9hRoOb-_iuCeQ/s1600/2013_05_30_dotatoday.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img width="456" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1LjAKAkPeDCzwgNrXEkUjP6LAOpHCXHllJq513tYPyIFx3nM07Z735UZXsBx0uA6UmEVartTUFZZZUa6M_ULOsiYLN3LALauJ54lhwEO-Z1aBAs8vnVSriToPNHaiaz9hRoOb-_iuCeQ/s320/2013_05_30_dotatoday.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Today in Gaming: <b>DotA Today</b> is a new video game podcast for fans of the on-line third-person, demigod-smiting video game DotA 2 -- developed by Valve.</p>
<p>The podcast features two members of the illustrious IdleThumbs team -- Nick Breckon and Sean Vanaman -- discussing strategy within the world of DotA 2, their personal obsessions with bottling Tinker, and various upcoming marital milestones. The inaugural episode is poignantly entitled, "QOP top and POTM bottom".</p>
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<p>I spoke with Sean Vanaman -- a video game designer, writer, and developer from San Francisco, Ca, co-founder of Idle Thumbs, and funnier of the two -- about the most recent developments in the DotA community. Specifically, we talked at length about the (some would say) unsettling announcement that the term MOBA (which stands for multiplayer online battle arena) is no long acceptable when describing DotA, League of Legends, or any other present or future title from the same genre.</p>
<p>It's hard to determine from what source of authority Vanaman and Breckon draw upon to officially change the moniker, however, the term has changed nonetheless. The new title of the DotA/LOL genre will henceforth be the more-accurate LOMA -- an acronym for "lords management".</p>
<p>I have confirmed that searching for "lords management" in Google's search engine will take you to content about DotA. So the conversion has already begun -- though it could be decades before the standard is fully adopted.</p>
<p>I also contacted the United States Department of the Interior to find out what if any financial effect this will have on the pro-gaming industry or on the entertainment industry as a whole. As this announcement is "hot off the presses", they have not had the time to crunch the numbers and declined speculation.</p>
<p>Vanaman also went on to refer to their newest podcast as "the future of content" -- a slogan that is unclear as to whether the podcast will be the future of <i>all</i> content or only <i>DotA</i> content.</p>
<p>Be sure to stop by Today in Gaming regularly and I will keep you abreast of any and all backlash from the LOMA community against this new development. Just to clarify, it's important to note that any and all backlash should be <i>reported</i> to me, but <i>directed</i> at Idle Thumbs.</p>
<ul>
<li>[LISTEN] <a href="http://www.idlethumbs.net/dotatoday/" target=_blank>DotA Today</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.idlethumbs.net" target=_blank>Idle Thumbs Homepage</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.seanvanaman.com/" target=_blank>Sean Vanaman Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-49466780950654250862013-05-29T17:05:00.002-07:002013-05-29T17:05:31.123-07:00Gameplay - HARDWARE: Shipbreakers<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0kqNp1fZ9xQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Today in Gaming: Blackbird Interactive released the first gameplay trailer for their upcoming scavenger strategy game HARDWARE: Shipbreakers. As Blackbird is made up of several people from the Homeworld franchise, it should be of no surprise to anyone that the game has a very familiar look and gameplay style about it. It's a cool video, but the guy at the end seems oddly calm about the loss of his squad-mates.</p>
<ul>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.hardwarethegame.com" target=_blank>HARDWARE Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024253983942964613.post-43209612225720800172013-05-29T16:44:00.001-07:002013-05-29T16:44:48.166-07:00Launch - Wargame: AirLand Battle<iframe width="456" height="257" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IbXaAu6kgNc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Today in Gaming: for those of you jonesing for a new real-time strategy game, Wargame: AirLand Battle may be the one that quenches your thirst. Paris-based developer Eugen Systems is known for their passion in warfare games. Previous titles have included Act of War and Times of Conflict. This is the second release in their Wargame series; the first was called Wargame: European Escalation.</p>
<p>In this game you take direct control of over 800 different types of units, which -- using a card based system (aka, your deck) -- you then deploy and use to liquidate your enemy.</p>
<p>The game is currently $39.99US for everyone except for players of European Escalation -- there is currently a 25% loyalty discount for you if you order on Steam.</p>
<ul>
<li>[BUY] <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/222750" target=_blank>Steam</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WargameRTS" target=_blank>Facebook</a>
<li>[LINK] <a href="http://www.wargame-ab.com/" target=_blank>Home Page</a>
</ul>AngelikMayhemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633213412106398914noreply@blogger.com0