Metro 2033

Metro 2033

Many of the modern American well-known game companies create poorly developed games without the decency or appeal that would be needed to entice several people. Because of this, a handful of nice games from other less popular companies never reach thousands of people. However, this game here did reach me- and though it still may remain not as well known as it should be, it is an amazing game and needs to be known. Today, I’ll be sharing with you my review on 4A games’ ‘Metro 2033’.
Set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of Moscow in the year 2033, all the last remaining Moscow cititizens moved into the large city’s metro tunnels, and over the many years turned it into a fortress; a home against the grim, bitter world lacking life, except for the foul mutants and demons that prowl through the land on the ground. The continous war between the humans and the Dark Ones, the mutants, was nearing an end. With the Dark Ones brutually murdering every human they found, and even lurking throughought the metro station, it was clear that humanity would perish if something was not done. In this game, you play as a twenty year old man named Artyom, who begins a long journey when his friend Hunter sends him on a mission which may decide which specie will win: The Dark Ones, or the humans.
This is a truly detailed, gloomy game with great graphics and a decent feel to it. It does not simply portray gore and screaming and slap it all in your face hoping you would feel something. While it does have lots of gore, it also has a feel of panic or fear. Never knowing what might be crawling in the shaddows, and not knowing wether the mutant that ate the corpse before you is still around is always the correct recipe for a perfect post-apocalyptic game. Oh, and did I mention to you that the game even goes into enough detail to require a gas mask at all times on the surface or in other certain locations? This may seem like an obvious feature, but several post apocalyptic games don’t have this.
The assortment of tools in this game are also really amazing. Like I mentioned, there is not only a gas mask which you have to careful with because it can crack in battle, but it requires air filters that can be bought in stores or found by scavenging. A flashlight and nightvision goggles are also there for you to use, and can each be powered up by pumping pressure into them manually. This is a post-aoycalyptic world- you don’t get high-tech technology.. These tools are a great feature that really help you out and make you feel as if you are actually battling in a bitter Moscow full of anxiety, and panic.

Trust your gas mask and weapon to protect you from the horrors of the ruins of Moscow.

Metro 2033 captures the feeling of desperatness, and has the player economise precious ammunition, and greatly rewards scavenging. Along every path you explore, there will be alot of spare supplies lying around, so you don’t just simply go through a straight path hoping that there will be some spare ammo lying around wherver you go. If you hear the click of your gun’s lack of ammo, then you know you shouldv’e economised ammunition or scavenged around more. Only the smart and strong survive in situations like this.
Apart from scavenging, you can also buy items at shops for a better chance of survival. The metro has several shops at stations, and the only currency used is shiny-pre war bullets that can be found lying around everywhere. Through the game, you will find several different types of weapons, with five main categories for guns: assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, a revolver, or just the good old fashion knife/throwing knife. These can also be bought through stores, and upgraded with attachments such as red dot sight, silencers, or attached knives.
It doesn’t even stop there. Apart from there being the constant need for survival on your mind while you play Metro 2033, there’s also other strange things that make you want to keep playing the game for answers: paranormal activity in several ‘haunted’ locations. There’s also the moments where you step into another universe with ‘The Dark Ones’ whispering something, trying to stop you from reaching a certain goal. But was it? What does this mean?

What is this new phenomenon..?

However, one slight let-down is that Metro 2033 most certainly is not a sandbox game. You don’t have the option to explore the vast ruins of Moscow wherever and whenever you please. The game simply rather makes you to go through particular paths to reach your goal location. Don’t go around expecting an expansive world like Fallout gave you. While this is a slight disappointment, it doesn’t add dull repetative locations. Each and every tunnel you explore has its own eery, and creepy feel to it with varied enemies. There’s also the option of wether you should pass through like a ninja using the shadows as your friend, or attack head on. Several other locations such as the vast ruins of the outside Moscow or pre-war buildings also wait for you to explore. You don’t also just simply do one thing in general such as advance forward, and kill everyone blindly. Every mission varies in size, feel, or even goal in general. This isn’t such a huge problem, but it would have been nice to be able to explore the areas you’ve been through again after beating the game.

Nope, you don’t just walk all the time and kill all hostiles.

This game has several required missions, as well as some optional ones that will make you feel good about yourself when completed, as well as give you karma. Throughout the game, you will get rewarded with karma points for every good thing you do such as avoiding an enemy’s death, or helping out someone in need. At the end of the game, based on the amount of karma points you get, you will either recieve the ‘bad’ ending, or the ‘good’ ending. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say both endings make sense and aren’t crummy and question-raising.
Alas, a game can’t be completly perfect. The better games usually have a handful of glitches, and this is one of those games. Sometimes, the correct action doesn’t happen when you hit the correct buttons, and in other times cutscenes don’t play through normally and require for you to load your last checkpoint. However, these aren’t huge problems and can easily be forgotten.
The final thing I would like to say about this game is just overall how I felt while playing it. It may have lasted me at least twenty hours on normal mode, but I most certainly do not regret buying it. Like I said, this isn’t a game with random violence and gore, hoping for you to be frightened by it. The atmosphere, the very feel itself of being in such a world- is just right for a great game.

After thinking over it, the glitches are minor, and the inability to explore freely after the game ends isn’t to bad either. This game is great enough to deserve five stars.

Don’t listen to the popular game reviewers such as IGN. This is an amazing game, and if you have an Xbox 360 or a Windows computer, then I definetly recommend getting Metro 2033. It not only lasts a decent amount of time, but it really puts the saying ‘The survival of the fittest’ into action. With a unique story based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s book Metro 2033, and even an option to play the game in Russian, Metro 2033 is a game you should definitely pick up.

The rage meter shows just how frustrated you can get with this game. The highlighted level is the one this game gets. Here are the levels:

Level 1) It’s all cool. I like this game. Not angry in the slightest bit.

Level 2) This is slightly annoying…

Level 3) It’s getting out of hand…

Level 4) OKAY… Starting to get angry..

Level 5) Excuse me while I go and smash everyone in my lobby’s console. $#@$@$#@$@$!!@#!!(~((!)

2,000 hits = Giveaway

Have you noticed that the blog has just recently hit two thousand total hits? Well, I know I most certainly have and personally, I think that’s good news to see that my blog is gaining traffic. What started out as a simple idea grew into several hours of reviews for you to enjoy as much as I enjoyed writing them for you. I honestly had no idea that I would actually reach such an amount. Though it may not be much, it’s a big step. Maybe later on it’ll be five thousand views- then one day, ten thousand. But that is dozens or maybe even hundreds of reviews away, and maybe even with some game play of each game thrown in as well! Yes, I’ve been considering getting a Roxio Game Capture card, and if I decide to do so, you’ll get some HD game play along with each review. To make you readers enjoy this as much as I do, I’ve decided to host another small 100 Microsoft Point Giveaway.

   100 Microsoft Point Giveaway! To enter, all you have to is subscribe with your e-mail, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, leave a comment below. The winner will be contacted through his or her e-mail if he/she is following us and liked us. The contest ends on July 5th, 2012. Good luck! Also, I’ve decided to have even larger giveaway prizes when I reach certain points. Here they are!

Three thousand hits: 200 Microsoft Points

Five thousand hits: 400 Microsoft Points

Ten thousand hits: 800 Microsoft Points

*These will be given away only if the blog is still in my interests and I am actively writing on it.

Metro 2033

Tomorrow, I’ll begin writing a review on Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s  ‘Vietnam’ downloadable content. If you are tired of DLC reviews, then don’t worry- in a few days, you’ll be getting one on ‘Metro 2033’, a interesting post-apocalyptic game developed in Ukraine.

Grand Theft Auto IV [The Lost and Damned]

The Lost and Damned

Hey, welcome back! I’m glad that I finally got back to writing more reviews so that you can be able to know about what you are planning to purchase, or just to see what the game/DLC is like! I’ve been playing alot of Grand Theft Auto IV lately, so I  even got around to buying a downloadable add-on called ‘The Lost and Damned’. After playing it for a few hours, I’ve decided that I’ll kick back into business by reviewing it. Enjoy, and thank you once again for coming by.

The Lost and Damned

The Lost and Damned is a ten dollar downloadable content package that expands the game and allows you to play it as a different character with several new features, missions, and even game physics. This DLC has you playing as the vice president named Johnny of the infamous biker gang of Liberty City. It’s a great way to continue playing Grand Theft Auto IV once you’ve already beaten the original story as it contains several spoilers.

First off, the pack includes a decent amount of  new missions, side missions, and multiplayer game modes for you to play. The story lasts about 7-10 hours, and can extend longer if you decide to complete all the other side missions there are. You play mainly completing tasks to keep the gang alive such as selling drugs, stealing, killing and fighting against your primary rival, The Angels of Death. Apart from that, there are other action filled missions just for money- but don’t worry, although it may sound simple, you actually jump straight into the action just minutes after you begin  playing TLAD. Also, since you are part of a gang, a number of the missions will played alongside with your fellow ‘brothers’, which can be prove to be a great help if you raise their toughness, which can be done by completing missions with them. The story isn’t very appealing as the original one, but still proves to be a decent amount of fun to experience what it’s like to play from Johnny’s point of view since you even meet Niko in a mission where you played as him. Throughout the game, you may have heard of prison breaks and terrorist attacks, and here you get to be the one doing all those things. Awesome!

Secondly, it gives you great new feeling of playing the game. Rockstar decided to add a more rough feeling to the game, and slightly changed the way the game looks. It looks darker, and adds a slightly depressing feeling to the environment. This is very fitting since you are part of a infamous gang, and adds a complete new way of playing GTA IV.  Apart from that, the motorcycle physics have been greatly improved. While playing as Niko, the slightest hit in a motorcycle will send you flying dozens of feet into the air. However, in TLAD you’re glued to the seat in most times, and this makes riding the bikes such an advantage that you won’t ever want to drive a car, which is great because you are supposed to be a ‘biker for life’. Although you aren’t entirely immune to falling off your bike, the times that you are sent  flying into the air from bike crashing will be greatly reduced. Now ain’t that something?

Riding with your brothers for life down the streets is something you’ll be doing alot.

The next great thing that this content pack has to offer is the perks of being in a gang. Instead of being more of a lone wolf such as Niko was, you’ll have alot more perks in being part of a gang. Your friends can drive bikes to you when you are in need, you have  the ability to call them for support in some missions, and they can even sell you guns for discounted prices. You also have a gang clubhouse where you can do all the basic things such as save your game, watch television, get on the internet, or even hang out with other gang members in arm wresting, pool, or cards.

Of course, there’s also new toys such as the sawed of shotgun, automatic 9mm, automatic shotgun (awesomeness), or grenade launcher. It’s a shame that you can’t use these in the original story, but it’s still good to have it here. It feels great to ride roughly on your bike with the new awesome crash resistance while holding onto new weapons, and blasting them away at whoever and whatever you want. Not only that, but there are new radio stations, television shows, etc. There’s also a new air hockey game where you can play it against your gang brothers.

Another great thing I have to say about ‘The Lost and Damned’ is that it has a new way of racing. In races, you will ride in bikes and will be able to knock other players on your left or right side with baseball bats. It’s always fun to race by and smack another player in the face right off their bike, right?

Finally, let’s cover the new multiplayer options. You still access multiplayer through your cell phone, but now you have a ‘Instant Play’ option where you can quickly hop into a game. There are also six new game modes. One is called “Witness protection”, a team based game mode where one squad plays at the Lost, and other as the N.O.O.S.E. who try to protect three witnesses as they make their way to the police station with evidence against the bikers, whose job is to kill them to make sure they don’t squeal. The next mode, “Own the City”, is a territorial game where each team attempts to gain as many territories in the city as possible. There is one problem, however: Each territory your team takes over has its own NPC characters that protect it while you’re off taking over another, so you can’t just steal an enemy’s territory while they’re away without a fight.

Looks like this Lone Wolf is in for a fight.

The third is is motorcycle racing as I described earlier, but in multiplayer. Fourth, is  “Lone Wolf Biker” where a player is the ‘lone wolf’ and has to survive as long as possible with all the other players charging to attempt to take him down. Kill the Lone Wolf, and you become the target. The longest player to survive as the Lone Wolf wins the game. In “Chopper vs. Chopper”, you play as either a pilot in a helicopter or the driver of a motorcycle. If you are the driver, you have to get to as many checkpoints throughout the city as possible, while the pilot simply has to take the biker down.

And finally, the sixth new game mode: “Club Business,” in which  everyone plays as a member of the Lost. Tasks will be announced, and everyone will rush to complete as many of them first in order to win. However, you will gain money by completing tasks and the team with the most cash will in the team-based version of this game mode.

Riding on your motorcycle with your new double barrel out. Lots of fun.

Overall, for ten dollars this is something you’ll want to get if you’re a fan of Grand Theft Auto four and have already played the original story. It feels great to be able to experience how to play as another character with a new gritty look to the city, and get the perks of being in a gang instead of being alone. Plus, when you throw in awesome new ways of riding the motorcycles and all the new things to see, hear, and do in the city, this is a DLC you  should pick up for only ten dollars. I’m having fun seeing the city in its new look, ride on my bike and smash into cars all I want and not fall off, or just play the new missions as the vice president of a vicious biker gang.

Con’s:

• The story isn’t as appealing as the original GTA IV story.

• You still occasionally fly of your bike from the slightest hits.

Pro’s:

• Six great new multiplayer gamemodes.

• New gritty look to the city as well as updated TV shows, websites, radio stations, etc

• New weapons and the great new bike physics

• Experience Johnny point of view in several missions and side tasks.

• New ways of racing, and new games such as air hockey, arm wrestling or cards.

Call of Duty: Black Ops [Rezurrection]

So far, the only thing I’ve ever reviewed was games. Even though there were many games reviewed, and many people got to scoop in information from my reviews, I think that it’s time that maybe I go in and review a few select DLC. Today, I’ll be reviewing Call of Duty: Black Op’s fourth and last DLC, ‘Rezurrection’.

Being the last DLC is probably the reason that Treyarch decided to make it something special, and different from all the others. Thus, they decided to not only include one completely new zombie map just like every other DLC, which was Moon, but to also include four remastered World at War maps, including ‘Nacht Der Untoten, Shi No Numa, Verruckt, and the all time favorite, Der Riese. I’ll start off by reviewing every single map in order of their release and then combining a conclusion to whether this DLC is worth the fifteen dollar pricetag on it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops- Rezurrection

To kick off our list is ‘Nacht Der Untoten’, the smallest, and first zombie map of the Call of Duty series. Originally in World at War, the map had no pack-a-punch, electricity, or perk-a-cola machines. It was known for its small, compact size in the creepy small ruined German building setting. Not only was there a downstairs area, there was an upstairs one where the player could scan incoming zombies and eliminate them in the foggy outside ruins before they come in. It provides a certain amount of older standard wall weapons, such as double barrel shotgun, rifles/sniper rifles, and assault rifles. There’s also one random box that doesn’t move (there is no teddy bear that moves the box). The map is great for quick, intense matches of zombies as it is tiny, and only has three unlock able doors/debris. Much to our despise, Treyarch didn’t even bother to add perks, except for one- Mule Kick. Nor did they include pack-a-punch or electricity. The map itself remains completely the same. There aren’t even any easter eggs, or dogs that provide max ammo. Still, it is a good, fun map.

Next off is ‘Shi No Numa’, the old Japanese swamp village. It’s a medium sized, unordinary zombie map with four different sections with their own huts you could head to. Each has its own special trap, and random perk-a-cola machine. The guns off the walls are of all nations, but mainly German, with favorites such as the ‘Trench gun’, and the ‘BAR’. There is no electricity, or pack-a-punch; however, there is a special zipline cart to let the player escape from the ground from the hundreds of zombie minions (there are no dogs), to the center/main building. This map is a pretty good one- there’s also several easter eggs hidden around the place.

Following that is ‘Verruckt’, a overrun, burned down sanatorium in Germany. It’s a rectangular shaped building, with a small courtyard in the center for the zombies only. The unique part of this map is that the spawn has a door that seperates two groups of players, and can only be opened once the power switch is turned on. The guns on the walls are mainly German, such as the ‘MP40’, but like always there are older World War II weapons of all nations. All of the perks are there, as well as several electrical traps to keep of waves of zombies.

Der Riese, the overrun German factory.

The last remaining remastered World at War map is ‘Der Riese’, yet another German map, yet this time a factory somewhere in Berlin. This map is a favorite among many gamers, and I can see why. It is large, has three teleporters, all the perk-a-colas, and just about everything else that Black Ops zombie maps have. It has several doors to unlock, many German guns off the walls, and pack-a-punch. This map is great for co-op, and provides lots of fun zombie shooting throughout the many rooms and areas of the factory. Easter eggs show that it was overrun and then abandoned in panic. There’s even a dead hand on the power switch. It has dogs every six rounds, and then eventually the zombies and dogs mix together, creating a even greater co-op challenge.

Moon map’s small indoor field with gravity launchers.

And finally, the new Call of Duty: Black Ops map: Moon. It has a cool setting and idea for zombies- the moon. Not only is it that, but there’s is even a small little map back on Earth’s area 51, where you can play a minigame of running away from unlimited zombies until you have enough and step on the teleporter to moon. You are required to keep on a helmet at all times for oxygen, which muffles out the noise and introduces a new way of shooting zombies- that, and no gravity, which means higher jumping. The map is large, and has everything that the other up-to-date zombie maps have, including a new perk called ‘hacker’, which reduces the price of opening doors. There are no dogs, but has many stronger zombies. The guns on the walls are up-to-date, and there are even new, fiction ones such as you see in the picture above. It’s known for its hard challenges, and has a center field where you can jump on gravity launchers that shoot you up in the air. It’s not a great map compared to the others, but certainly does still provide fun.

Is this DLC pack worth it? Maybe not if you have already played the World at War maps. But if you haven’t, and are a zombie fan, this is the DLC pack for you. You can get Call of Duty: Black Op’s fourth map pack, Rezurrection, for only $14.99 from Black Op’s in-game store. I’ve decided to also include a small pro’s and con’s list to every DLC I review in the future, just like the games have their own rage meter. So, here they are:

Pro’s: 

• Four cool remastered zombie maps with new guns, perks, and easter eggs.
• A new zombie map, moon.
• Fitting zombie settings.
• More one-four player co-op/solo zombie slaying.

Con’s:

• Remastered maps aren’t remade to well; they barely changed in actual content.
• Maps are still a bit glitchy here and there.
• Little effort/ideas put into ‘remastering’ the maps.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2- Trailer/Leaked Info!

Yesterday, on May the 1st 2012, Treyarch released the official reveal trailer on the long anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. And, much to gamers’ surprise, it had a new unexpected campaign. It started off with Woods, who was thought to have died, talking and explaining how technology has become stronger over the many years, but people have become weaker, and were completely relying on their computers, drones, robots, missiles, and all other warfare devices that have been created to protect the people. But, then he asks an important question: What do we do when the enemies take over them? It then goes on to show how a huge battle is fought once again against their own technology to get everything back. It does look epic, but then again Modern Warfare 3’s trailer did to, but was it really? No. Being a big fan of Treyarch and not so much of Activision, I’ll still hope that Black Ops 2 will be as awesome as it looks like. I must admit though, it does sort of like a sci-fi game, more like Crysis style, meaning that the Call of Duty series are running out of ideas, and have already turned to futuristic shooters. Check it out for yourself, and tell me what you think in the comments. I’m not sure if I will buy it, but some of you guys might.

There’s also been some leaked info revealed on the official Call of Duty forums, but was later on removed by mods, meaning that the information was true and Treyarch/Activision doesn’t want people to know about it just in case it may lead them to think that the game will suck and they won’t be willing to buy it. But anyways, here’s some of that deleted info for you. This may be false info, but there is a 99.9% it is true.

Gamemodes:

– There will be a new gamemode called ‘Escort’, where there will be a V.I.P./president who will need to be escorted to a certain area of the map (there will be 2-3 areas depending on the map size), without getting killed. The enemy team will need to take him down. Seems like a fun idea. It will be slightly similar to ‘Search and Destroy’, so maybe the games were be more slow paces with no respawning, or maybe a limited  amount of rounds. Let’s hope there is a small time limit to keep it face-paced.

– Modern Warfare 3’s gamemodes called ‘Dropzone’ and ‘Kill Confirmed’ will be in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

– ‘Team Defender’ and ‘Infected’ will not be there.

Point Streaks/Killstreak:

– Bomb plant will be 2 points

– A Neutral flag is worth 1 point streak.

– Capturing an enemy flag is worth 2 points.

– A Flag assist capture is 1 point.

-The RC-XD will not be in Black Ops 2. This is a bit relaxing as I was constantly being killed by random toy cars. It was fun, but wasn’t when you were a victim of it.

– There will be a new Heat Vision killstreak reward. When you get enough kills, your player will put on an infrared scope on your primary gun, excluding shotguns. It will be able to see through some walls.

– Some kind of new care-package like killstreak, with 5  points needed but will include things such as ammo, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, a minigun, or body armor (hopefully only explosive resistant). The ammo in the new special killstreak might mean Scavenger will leave, but I certainly hope not.

Perks:

–  This is confusing, but the Specialist streak has been modified, and since it is not a point streak this is strange, but who knows- maybe it is in CoD 9.

– 2nd kill in Specialist gets you one (1) perk.

– 4th kill in Specialist will get you two (2) more perks.

– 6th kill will get you three (3) more perks.

– 8th kill will get you four (4) more perks.

– There will be a new perk called Speed which reduces the time it takes to ‘aim down the sight’.

– There are two versions a perk can upgrade to, each requiring its own challenges. Once one of them is unlocked, the player can select that as his/hers perk pro. Once selected, the only way to chose the other option is to prestige.

Ranks:

– There will be 15 prestiges, with 50 ranks in every prestige.

– Every 2 prestiges, there is a 5 rank increase. This means that in the last prestige, there will be 90 levels.

Removed:

– No M.O.A.Bs/Nukes.

– No Last Stand/Second Chance.

– No more death streaks.

– There is no longer a flamethrower attachment.

– Aim assist for sniper rifles will be gone. There will be less sway.

– Your character’s look won’t be based on the perks you chose (see below for more info)

– There won’t be any more grenade launchers in hardcore mode. Only vehicle guided rocket launchers will be allowed as well. No more camping noobs with RPGs. Awesome!

Combat training:

– It will return in Black Ops 2.

– Its difficulty is no longer based on how long the bots take to start shooting.

– Bots now have an advanced A.I. system.

Other:

– Your chracter’s look will be a combination of all perks/killstreaks.

– Elite will be returning as Elite 2.0. Combat recording has been changed/renamed as ‘Elite Stats’. Specific lobbies for clan matches to level up clans, and clan tournaments will now be there. Sweet!

– Hardcore mode is focused on a bit more, so it will be a tad bit better.

I typed this all myself for you guys. I hope you find it useful. Feel free to use it, but please credit my blog with a link to it. It would help. Thanks.

The Walking Dead: Episode One: A New Day

The Walking Dead Xbox 360 Arcade Cover Art.

When it comes to zombie games, they’re usually mainly focused on weapons, and less about survival. However, this new four dollar game took out the guns and left a perfect zombie game focused on survival, and harsh decisions you must choose in order to survive. Today, I’ll be writing a review on the new Xbox 360 Arcade game called “The Walking Dead: Episode One: A New Day”.

This game is based on the graphic novel ‘The Walking Dead’, and is probably the reason its graphics are so cartoonish. However, just because it is so doesn’t mean it makes it less scary. In full honesty, the zombies are actually more detailed and frightening, making close zombie calls more intense, and realistic despite that zombies don’t exist and never will. The plot also is a bit more realistic apart from other games such as Resident Evil. The game begins with you, a 37 year old man named Lee, in a police car about to be taken out of Atlanta, the city you reside, and into jail for an unknown crime. The police officer starts a lively conversation, in which you will notice that you have many options to chose from as answer. After talking, the cop gets so into the discussion that he doesn’t even notice someone dark, dirty, bloody, and creepy on the road. You only manage to yell to him when it’s to late, and he swerves off the road. You then wake up, and get out of the car and begin your long journey of survival, in which you meet many people and nasty zombies. Roughly five minutes after the game starts, you’ll be introduced to its creepiness and heart pounding moments.

One thing that sets this game apart from most other zombie games is its freedom of player choice. As soon as the game begins, the player gets to choose one out of the two options which will affect how the whole story plays. Throughout the game, you will also have many dialogue to chose from, which based on how you speak will affect characters’ affection to you, the way you’re accepted, and even how the story is told and what happens in it. There is also many situations in which you must chose from, each choice with its own ups and downs. This is a feature that really caught my eye and convinced me to buy this game.

No gun? What do I do?

Another great thing that I really liked is that this isn’t just a game of mindless shooting and running from zombies. There are dozens of moments which will cause you to sit in fear as you slowly carry out your actions and see what happens afterwards. The player will also be introduced to many puzzles needed to be solved in order to escape certain places, which raises the fun and tension in several situations. To make it harder for more challenged players, there is an option to disable hints. I haven’t tried it, but I suppose it can add to a challenge.

Speaking of tense situations, this game has many. Apart from there being critical choices to be made regarding someone’s life, there are also many close calls in which you have to manually fight back. The majority of modern games will just tell you to press a button and your character will do all the actions needed to take out, but The Walking Dead takes it to a whole new level. When you are attacked, you have to manually aim toward the zombie, slowly crawling up to you, which scares you and makes you panic as if you were truly being tackled by an undead soldier, and then press the correct button for you to attack. Not only that, but to even add to more pressure you’ll have to sometimes find something to fight back, making the critical moment even more frightening. Are you scared yet? If not, then congratulations! You’re braver then me.

Oh no. Not good.

However, there is one thing I do not really like about this game. It’s that a lot of it is cut scenes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an awesome game, but it seems like you do to little and watch to much. If only you were allowed to do things yourself that they play in the cut scenes… But, that doesn’t really matter. It could also use multiplayer with game modes such as survival, but then again, that isn’t really necessary.

 

The Walking Dead: Episode one rating

With a mysterious storyline with many secrets and sad moments that you’ll uncover for yourself, a good eerie setting with many challenging puzzles and intense moments/surprises, AND with your own freedom to chose how the story will play, this game deserves 4 stars. ‘The Walking Dead: Episode One’ is extraordinary, it’s just that there are too many cut scenes. If you were allowed to play a bit more of the things in the game, than this would be a perfect game for every zombie fan.  This game is worth 400 Microsoft Points ($4), and I’ll be sure to buy all the other episodes when they come out (There will be five, this is the first).

The rage meter shows just how angry you can get with this game. The highlighted level is the one this game gets. Here are the levels:

Level 1) It’s all cool. I like this game. Not angry in the slightest bit.

Level 2) This is slightly annoying…

Level 3) It’s getting out of hand…

Level 4) OKAY… Starting to get angry..

Level 5) Excuse me while I go and smash everyone in my lobby’s console. $#@$@$#@$@$!!@#!!(~((!)

Gotham City Impostors

Multiplayer games are usually intense. They make you focus on winning and give your best shot at it and create lots of tension, but just because many games are like that didn’t stop Monolith Productions from creating a game that focused only on having fun- just forgetting about winning; only enjoying yourself in a first person shooter set in Gotham City with lots of funky new gadgets and weapons.

The game, as the name suggests, takes place in Gotham City and you play as a Joker/Batman wanna-be continuously battling against each other since Batman has decided to stop crime-fighting. Each team has their own base and ridiculous home-made costumes and weapons, which gives the player quite a strange but special selection of weapons to play his or her games. Apart from there being three multiplayer game-modes (two quite special), there is also singleplayer Challenges (Where you have over one hundred challenges to complete with different gadgets and objectives), and ‘Initiation’, where you are introduced to the game as one willing to join the Bats,  and they guide you in showing you how to use all the many gadgets, tools, and weapons the game has to offer.

Batman wanna-bes at their best!

Gotham City Impostors has five quite unusual maps with good graphics in multiplayer gaming fun with eight vs. eight player lobbies. You will see what I mean as soon as you play all the maps, which take place in iconic locations that ‘Batman’ or ‘Joker’ has something to do with, such as a carnival fair or a chemical factory. Spread throughout the map are things that make the gameplay even more unusual for a FPS including trampolines, or half pipes which, when with the appropriate tool, can take you around the map quite fast. There is also small little ‘health stations’, which heal the player when wounded  as the game plays with the good old fashioned percentage health.

Here you see a player armed with a regular shotgun in 'Fumigation'.

Gadgets and new different weapons are quite another jewel that Gotham City Impostors has to offer. Apart from there being funny looking standard weapons such as guns or rifles, there is also a selection of ‘home-made’ ones which are amazingly fun to play with. A great example is a weapon that uses sodas mixed with chemicals in a slingshot to create effective explosives. There’s also other weapons that have been made into not such serious ones, including grenades replaced with jack in the boxes and rocket launchers made of PVC Piping. Good other goodies include things such as the grappling hook (enables the player to shoot an anchor at a solid item and pull him or herself toward it), roller skates that let the player run faster and be able to ride on half pipes, or even glider wings which can be used to glide after jumping off of a high location.

Who doesn't like a funky Afro?

This game doesn’t only have great different features, it also has new styled regular game modes. Apart from there just being standard Team Death match, there is also ‘Psych Warfare‘, and ‘Fumigation‘. Each of these are based on the standard game modes, but have a new style of playing them.  In Psych Warfare, a capture the flag remake, you need to pick up a battery and go past enemy lines and turn it on. Then, you need to hold off foes until it fully charges. Once the battery is fully charged, your enemy will not be able to use weapons. However, in Fumigation (Domination style), there are three gas pumps that each need to be taken over by a team, and when this happens, the match ends with either the air filling with toxic gas (Jokerz) or Bats (Bats).

Customization is a big chunk, too. As all the first person shooters will let you customize your load out, this little game will let you customize your character look as well. This isn’t so important, but it’s a nice little add. The clothes and size of your character can be changed, which can play an important role in things such as I like to call them, ‘falcon punches’. This is actually an equipment that lets you hold your fists out while gliding and go full speed and hit someone with lots of damage.

Gotham City Impostors Rating

What do I think about this game? Well, only thing I know is that it’s a heck load of fun. No pressure, no worries- just ridiculous battles that can kill hours of your time. You can get Gotham City Impostors for only $15 in your console’s arcade section. Try the demo, it is one hour online and will show you just how fun the game it is. It takes a match or two to get used to, but once you have the hang of it get ready to have countless hours of fun. It deserves 5 stars.

New! The rage meter shows just how angry you can get with this game. The highlighted level is the one this game gets. Here are the levels:

Level 1) It’s all cool. I like this game. Not angry in the slightest bit.

Level 2) This is slightly annoying…

Level 3) It’s getting out of hand…

Level 4) OKAY… Starting to get angry..

Level 5) Excuse me while I go and smash everyone in my lobby’s console. $#@$@$#@$@$!!@#!!(~((!)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Hello guys. It has been quite a while since I last wrote a review, and I apologize for that. It’s not that easy to write reviews when you don’t have the time for it or just don’t really feel like creating one, but this time I have a valid excuse: I’ve been moving into a new home, which is alot of trouble. So I was very busy, but now I think I’m ready to write another review for you guys to enjoy. This time, it will be on a old racer ‘Need for Speed: Most Wanted’. Once again, I am sorry for your long wait.

This game is one of the older jewels that will never get old. I’ve been playing it for a while now and I must say, I’m enjoying it alot more than all the modern racers. This game was developed by EA and released in 2005, so it has slightly been forgotten. But after finding the old disc for it, I decided to give it a shot, and boy did I ever like it! This is a shining example of how old games aren’t always worse than newer ones.

Graphics don't really affect a great racing game!

Need for Speed: Most Wanted takes place in a setting of a virtual city ‘Rockport’, where you play as, as the name suggests, an illegal street racer. You challenge the leaders on the ‘Blacklist’ (top 15 most wanted racers) and eventually get into a final race which woulddecide who would get the first place throne. But unfortunately, your opponent, Razor, cheats and cuts out your oil, causing your car to turn off a few yards from the finish line. You then have to work your way back up on the blacklist in the game.

One thing I really like about this game is that it isn’t just all racing. Apart from just having to race your opponent and cross the finish line first like most of these games will force you to do, this game takes a break from that style. To beat a racer on the blacklist, you will have to do three things: one, race a couple of people in all different game types and win… Two: complete a certain amount of milestones (achievements you need to reach), and three: Gain enough bounty. After doing all this, you will be allowed to actually race your opponent and if you win you will beat him and carry on to the next racer on your list.  By winning, you also get two bonuses of your choices such as money, car parts, styles, or other small little goodies.

The three requirements to advance in the game are very fun to play through. My most favorite is probably the bounty, where you have to anger cops until it breaks out in a race, with more and more cops following you the longer you resist arrest. By doing things such as that, or breaking things along your way, your bounty will increase, which means more pressure but more fun as well. When cops become to larger in amount, there’s tons of ‘secret’ tunnels and roads to shake them off your back or even special things such as towers that collapse on them if you ride into them. Is this fun? Heck yeah. Getting bounty related achievements is usually one of the milestone’s objective, which often differ but nevertheless can be a great challenge.

Hot pursuits are fun... virtually!

And of course, the racing. The racing experience in this game is great. Sure, the graphics aren’t the best, but who cares? If graphics was all that made up a game it would suck pretty bad- but then again, that’s all Call of Duty is made of.. Anyways, back to the racing. Whatsets this game apart is its street like environment instead of boring old racetracks. There are many tunnels to ride through and second paths to choose, each with their own gates to bust and thus provides more choice for the player to ride on. This can be a great getaway from busy races with four people, or just a fun experience with only one. Instead of just one simple gamemode, there’s many different type you can choose from. My personal favorite is ‘tollbooth’, where you have to reach a tollbooth in a certain amount of time in order to proceed to the next. And of course, sometimes you’ll have some cops chasing you, which can be pretty intense but yet awesome- imagine four racers crashing through gates with cops following them. Do you like the idea? Well, then you’ll certainly like this racer. This game also has different rock/rap songs that plays throughout the game, which are pretty cool to listen to and fit the game style.

And if you want to take a break from the singleplayer, you could always race in multiplayer. I won’t go into detail into it because I haven’t really played it much, but from videos and other people’s opinions, it looks pretty good and will be another reason to add to the list of why you’ll enjoy this game.

An example race.

The cars you get can either be bought and then upgraded, or ‘taken’ from a racer by using a pink slip, a special marker you receive from beating someone on the blacklist. By earning money from winning races, you will be able to spend it on things such as new cars or upgrades for your vehicles in engines, look, and more to help you win more races. As you defeat blacklist racers, the shops will have more to offer for you. This is a familiar style in racing, but it’s only just
that part that is the same. To make up for that, here’s something that’s really cool in the game and makes it a bit funner to play: There’s rechargeable slow motion and turbo boost. Who doesn’t like that?

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Rating

Alright, time to review! Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a great racer that sets itself apart from others in its city environment with regular streets and alleyways as races. It has many new features such as boosts, slow motion, and many game modes. It can prove to be a great experience to play through, and it doesn’t have many glitches or bugs, only a few graphical ones so far. I think it deserves five stars. You can get it off of Amazon.com.

Rage meter] New! The rage meter shows just how angry you can get with this game. The highlighted level is the one this game gets. Here are the levels:

Level 1) It’s all cool. I like this game. Not angry in the slightest bit.

Level 2) This is slightly annoying…

Level 3) It’s getting out of hand…

Level 4) OKAY… Starting to get angry..

Level 5) Excuse me while I go and smash everyone in my lobby’s console. $#@$@$#@$@$!!@#!!(~((!)

We have a winner!

Alright guys, remember that 100 Microsoft Point code contest we hosted? Well, I finally decided to announce a winner. I’d like to personally say that I’m sorry for such a wait. I’ve been busy and the contest didn’t reach the minimal 5 people it needed to finish… I kept waiting for them, and now I’ve just decided that it’s enough of keeping you waiting. Sorry about that, and sorry about inactivity! I just moved into a new house last week and I didn’t have good internet available and was just busy- I might be so for a little longer, but hopefully tomorrow you’ll have a good new review. Thank you everyone for your continuous support. There will be more contests soon, so if you didn’t win check back daily and there just might be another contest! With all of that out of the way, congratulations to our winner picked through a random number generator:

 

ESM Kemist OFWG

The code was sent to his inbox. If he doesn’t claim it within 36 hours, it’s passed on to someone else… but I wouldn’t count to much on that. Please don’t unsubscribe if you didn’t win since if you do so your IP will be removed from future contests. We used  a reliable number generator that we tested many times. Also, I might get a Roxio and I will be able to record raw gameplay along with a review, so you will be able to see the in-game features without any disturbances such as voice or music. This is a possibility, but not a fact.

Blacklight: Tango Down

I thought I might switch from reviewing Indie Games and for once try out an arcade game. I browsed through the selection of games and picked a game that I could buy with a small budget of four hundred Microsoft Points. The game I chose, which looked pretty cool, was Blacklight: Tango Down. After playing it a little, I realized that it wasn’t at all what it looked like.

This game, for the cheap price of five dollars, offers players an experience with four player co-op missions as well as twelve multiplayer maps with up to sixteen players. It’s what you’d expect from a regular first person shooter. However, it did had some pretty neat things you could do in it that regular FPS wouldn’t have, such as sci-fi guns, UAV you can see in first person mode via your high tech war helmet, or even simply co-op campaign. The graphics in this game are great, too. Playing this game reminded me alot of Crysis 2, since this game was sent into a future world where things have gone ‘out of control’. Fallout reference? Not really, even though this game is two or three years old. So, at first glance this game seems to have it all. But, even though it has all of those gameplay options, just how good are they?

Cool graphics, guns, and everything! What's the catch?

First off, campaign. The ‘campaign’ is slightly different from most games since it can be played with up to four people. With a few lengthy missions, it can be a fun experience to play with other people., but as I said, it’s alot harder. Why? Because this game has extremely few checkpoints, and also doesn’t have regular FPS health. It has health that you’d expect from games such as old fashion Legend of Zelda. You start out with 175% health, and slowly after each shot you get fewer health permanently. Is this good in a first person shooter? No, not really. They did add cheap health packs where you can regain health, but that proves to be a very huge disadvantage. You can also play the missions with your choice of guns  that you unlock through multiplayer gameplay (just like other games).. Apart from just shooting everything, sometimes this game will ask for small mini games that don’t seem to belong, but either way they can sometimes be fun or frustrating. In trial mode, you’re only allowed to play through one mission, but through unlock you get all of them unlocked… Which, is slightly disappointing since it removes the need to play through the first ones to get to the last ones. Why did ‘Zombie’, the developer, do this? Who knows. Co-op campaign is a fun experience to have, but many things in it could be improved.

A perfect day to spawnkill.

And off course, who could forget multiplayer, such a big part that is pretty much the only thing people play. Many maps, many players, many things to customize. However, just because there’s lots of things to eat from the buffet doesn’t mean all of the food is tasty. This is the same way that games work. All of the maps are quite small, which packs the enemies together and makes this game very fast-paced. There are different gun types to choose from, such as Assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, you name it. Guns are unlocked with each level you gain, and can be edited by their look, emblem, or the attachments. But, one massive flaw that is a grave error to put in a game is to give newbies awful guns. This is how this game is. Players that have played longer get stronger weapons than newer ones. This convinces many people to quit- bad move, developer. Nevertheless if you ignore that and somehow manage to level up, your guns will become stronger and the game will be much easier to play. This puts lots more pressure on new people, and it in general isn’t a good thing. Also, since each player gets UAV he/she can use for a limited time through the player’s helmet, every single enemy can be seen. This can be a good thing, but it’s a huge tool for campers. It tells campers when people are coming or to get ready. Not only campers, but spawn killers. This game is a spawn killer heaven. Each map is medium sized, and each team has one spawn point: their base. While there are some sentry guns to kill enemies that come, people love to sit in corners next to people’s bases to shoot them. Not only is this the best way to win, it’s sometimes the only way to win since the maps are so small and there is no other place to get kills from. When people come and try to kill them, they simply run to a health pack and refill their health. When they run out of ammo, they do the same with a ammo supply crate. Is this a cool add? Yes. Is it a fair add? No, not at all! People think it’s a great ‘tactic’ to camp near health crates and just shoot everyone that comes, then get their health refilled. Since the game has a terrible health limit, if you make it out of a mini fight with another player alive you’re more than likely gonna get killed by one bullet in a few seconds since your health is so low. The developers may have tried to make this game special, but most players will hate them for this. I’m one of them.

Also, this game seems to encourage camping or spawn killing. There are so many perfect places in the map for spawn killing or camping that it’s not even funny. It’s as if the developers actually planned out places for that. Not only do they make it easy for these people to make it to the top, they actually help out and reward gamers to do so. There are dozens of corners or crates to hide in and easily be unseen in the maps. That’s probably a reason that such a UAV was made, but it’s not worth it since the campers can use it to a even worse point, too. They can even throw ‘stun grenades’ that block people’s camera and make their UAV/screen helmet ‘reboot’ or ‘scramble’. This, like most other things in this game, is used for people to protect themselves from campers and such, but it’s alot easier and more convenient for cheaters to use this.

The king of the world!

Just keep in mind, if you’re lucky enough to get in a lobby with legit gamers, it’s the funnest thing in the world. It makes the game such a great experience. It’s not the game, it’s mainly the players- but the developers clearly didn’t really consider the possibility of gamers like this playing. The developers could have changed the game to make it so much better, but clearly they didn’t. That’s a big flaw, but when the downs aren’t there in a lobby, this game is great and an awesome way to take a break from intense games such as CallofDuty or Battlefield. The game is good, but it’s just that you always have to plan it out for spawnkillers and campers… Which Zombie did not do whatsoever. Only  a tad bit, with a sentry at your spawnpoint, which doesn’t really help that much.

Altogether, this game isn’t worth it unless you plan on strictly playing co-op or spawn killing. Sure, graphics are good, there’s lots of guns or game modes, but it’s simply not worth it when the quality of the gameplay itself is just so low. No, it’s not because I can’t beat anyone, because I can- I’ve won quite a few matches. This game is even worse in some ways than End of Days, but with twice the price. However, if you still want to play this game and make your heart rip out for beating so hard, then go ahead, no one is stopping you. You can get it from the Arcade marketplace on your console for about five dollars. Here’s my rating:

3 stars! Nothing better.

Rage meter] New! The rage meter shows just how angry you can get with this game. The highlighted level  is the one this game gets. Here are the levels:

 Level 1) It’s all cool. I like this game. Not angry in the slightest bit.

  Level 2) This is slightly annoying…

  Level 3) It’s getting out of hand…

  Level 4) OKAY… Starting to get angry..

  Level 5) Excuse me while I go and smash everyone in my lobby’s console. $#@$@$#@$@$!!@#!!(~((!)