The End of The Line

To those who may be wondering: Yes this blog is no longer running.

I must apologise for the sudden end to the posts but unfortunately I do not have the time or inclination to keep it going. I originally started this blog in the beginning of 2010, along with a couple of friends as a fun project and then it developed into a basis for a portfolio.

While this blog has been a great experience and a massive boost to my writing unfortunately I have moved on from this. I am working on more serious and time consuming projects (Such as short films and novels) and I don't dedicate the same amount of time to playing games as I used to.

Unfortunately there is not much more that I can say on this topic other than if you are interested in what I am working on keep an eye out for me. Maybe one day my name will be all over Hollywood (A man can dream can't he?)

Thank you for your time and interest.

Muzaks! SemiSonic

SemiSonic was a trio of musicians who were biggest in the 90's. Their biggest hit and one of my personal favourites being "Secret Smile".

The group formed after the breakup of the lead singer's previous band in 1995.

In 2006 the band went on hiatus, with the aim of getting back to work in the near future, but unfortunately to date there has been no further music from them. Dan Wilson (lead singer) has said before that he would like to do more work with SemiSonic but his daily life keeps getting in the way.

It is quite unfortunate that this band haven't gotten back together as the few songs they released are actually really good. The lyrics are pretty deep and easy to understand and the meaning is clear in every song. The music is light and upbeat enough to counter the slightly darker lyrics too.

Even if you aren't paying attention to the lyrics themselves they are great songs to just relax to. I hope at some point in the future they will reform and release another great album or two.

They're Coming For Your Weeds!!

A game I recently purchased (again) is Plants Vs. Zombies. I originally had it on disk but lost it when I moved house. So a few days ago I bought it on Steam.

The premise of the game is there has been a zombie apocalypse and you must defend your house (and garden) from the undead threat using the power of... Plants... It is a typical Tower Defense game but made in a cartoony style that is meant to appeal to a younger audience. Despite it's childish appearance the game is actually fairly challenging and boasts a wide range of "towers" and zombies.

There are a huge number of mini-games as well as a puzzle and survival mode. The game also contains several achievements, and for the completionists among us it contains enough challenges to keep you playing for a long time.

There is another mode that might make you come back again and again, the Zen garden. There are random drops of the plants you use throughout the game which you can place in a garden. You have to water the plants, use bug spray on them and give them fertiliser to grow. It is a pretty "Zen" experience but not the most enthralling thing. It does however drop coins now and again so can help you afford some of the in-game items.

Muzaks! Linkin Park

A band that I continue to enjoy years after hearing their first album is Linkin Park.

Linkin Park is an American nu-metal/rap metal band from Agoura Hills California formed in 1996.

As LP have released new albums they have experimented with genres quite a bit, starting with nu-metal into rap-metal and mixing somewhat with electronica and alt rock. Their later albums are a lot gentler and orchestral to an extend while still maintaining their original sound and composition.

I find that with each album they release they try a completely new style, they are constantly evolving something a good band tends to do. LP get a lot of flak for the style of music (and more specifically this song) while people don't often praise them for the fluid nature of their music.

In the end LP have not been apologetic for writing songs about personal issues, political controversies or their unique style of music. And for this I have a huge amount of respect for them.

Three songs (other than the above) that I particularly enjoy are Hands Held High, Bleed It Out and Breaking The Habit.

Monday Night is right for fighting...

Monday Night Combat is a bit of a play on Monday Night Football. It is a third person FPS/Tower Defense game with some aspects of a MOBA game.

MNC is set in a game show style. You are part of a team of contestants that are fighting for cash prizes. This can be either against another team of "pros" where you attempt to destroy the other teams "moneyball" or in a co-op mode where you fight waves of mobs culminating in a battle with a final"jackbot" boss wave. There are a couple of commentators who now and again have some fantastic funny lines too.

The concept of the game is very good, there has never really been a game like this before. The nice thing about it is depending on what type of game you prefer you can play differently. If you are an FPS fan you can just go around using your weapons and ignoring the other elements and the same applies to the Tower Defense aspect.

However there are some issues, as this is supposed to be played primarily as a multi-player game
the single-player aspect is severely lacking. There is no option to use "bots" so you can't play the team vs team maps or get support in the co-op mode. The same issues apply to multi-player, often times teams will be unbalanced until enough people join to fill all the slots. There is also no match making system so you can find that highly skilled players will be facing new players lessening the enjoyment of both. There are also a couple of maps where if you can reach a certain spot you are untouchable while still being able to kill the opposing team.

Despite these few issues I really enjoyed playing MNC and I liked the concept. The game can be picked up for a fairly cheap price and would be worth the cost. However the developers are currently working on a new title called Super Monday Night Combat which will be a more well developed game and should hopefully iron out any of the issues from the first. In my opinion at this stage it would probably be more worthwhile waiting for SMNC to come out.

A Game of Fancy Chairs!

A Game Of Thrones: Genesis is (another) adaptation of the Ice and Fire series.

The game focuses a lot more on the underhanded diplomacy and political intrigue of kingdoms rather than the martial strength or entrenched castle sieges.

The concept creates a constantly shifting environment, you are never quite sure if that town or that unit are working for you or if they have been compromised. It means you constantly have to create new units to check on the old ones. It stops people from holing up and sitting back while building a military force like you can in other RTS as all of your units might have been bought off and when you attempt to attack another player you might find yourself on the wrong end of the sword.

The campaign follows the story of Warrior Queen Nymeria as she lands in Westeros and builds her empire. It introduces you to several characters that are a huge part of the history of Westeros. If you have read the books, this game will fill in some of the lore from beforehand.

This is a fantastic game for people who like to do things a little bit differently than conventional RTS games. You can't just batter down the doors of all your enemies, you have to think about your strategy, but not for too long or you might get caught out...

If you are a true fan of RTS you will appreciate this game and its complexities and it is well worth a look. If you are a fan of A Game Of Thrones then again, even just for lore, it is a good purchase.

The Safety Word Is Bananner!

I recently bought all the DLC for a fantastic(-ally successful) indie game called Magicka.

The story of the game is narrated by Vlad (Who is definitely NOT a vampire...) and the player character is lead through the world by him. You travel through all kinds are environments and encounter a huge variety of enemies (even a vampire!) in order to stop an ancient wizard from destroying the world.

You use a selection of elements, rather than a mana bar or spellbook, and these can be combined to produce a huge range of effects. You can collect books in the game that provide you with "Magicks" which are specific element combinations that have certain catastrophic effects.

You can have up to four players working co-operatively (Or more accurately TRY to work together) and there are also a few PVP maps where you can work out your frustration on each other. Friendly fire is always active throughout the game so it is quite easy to injure/kill your friends, or even yourself! Sometimes this is the best part of the game...

The game itself has a lot of references to other games, movies and general memes and the humour is fairly funny throughout. If you haven't played this game yet there is a demo available and I would advise playing that if nothing else. I feel that this game is worth the purchase but you will get the most enjoyment out of it if you have a few friends to play with.

The Living Island

A game I have played a lot of recently is Dead Island, it is a FPS/RPG hack and slash game.

You wake up after a rough night of partying to find that a zombie apocalypse has broken out on the island while you slept. You try to escape and run into a bunch of other survivors, they ask you to complete tasks (as you are the only person capable of... blah blah blah) in order to get off the island.

There are four main characters that you can play as, each with their own skills and weapon sets. A Throwing, Firearms, Blunt and Sharp expert.

The main draw of the game is the hack and slash elements. You can pick up most items and use them as melee weapons, now and again you enter firearm sections but the main focus is on the melee combat.

The game is quite enjoyable in short periods but the game is very very repetitive. I can only play it for about an hour at a time due to this. All the quests are very similar, the areas are only slightly different and the enemies, once encountered are constant from then on out.

Building Worlds Is Easy! Or not...

A long while ago (pretty much straight after it came out) I bought and played Terraria, At the time however other games piqued my interest more so it didn't get much playtime. After getting a chance to play the game (1.1 release) for a long period of time I have a better idea of how the game works.

Terraria is a 2D side scroller sandbox game, that features RPG elements and a lot of exploration. You start off with very basic tools and need to find materials to build a house and upgrade your items. All the while defending yourself from enemies that spawn. Simple, weak slimes during the day and harder skeletons and zombies at night. Once you have set up your own house the next challenge is to build houses so that NPCs can move in.

NPCs are used as shops that you can sell items to and some of them can sell some really useful items such as a mining helmet that provides a constant light.

Once you have constructed a base of sorts you must then adventure to find items enabling you to enter the Dungeon, the first challenge area of Terraria. You have to defeat a boss in order to enter the Dungeon which will grant you loot to upgrade your items. The next two areas in the game are The Corruption and Jungle (which can be found anywhere on the surface or underground), followed later on by The Hallow and The Underworld (the deepest layer of the game). The rule of thumb is "The deeper you go the harder it gets".

There was a boss added called "The wall of flesh" which unlocks "hard mode" for the game, all enemies are made harder while new enemies start appearing. This helps to add longevity and an extra layer of difficulty once you feel you've "beaten" the game.

I still haven't gotten so far into the game that I can beat the wall of flesh but as far as I am now I am really enjoying the game. Unlike Minecraft it is not purely creative, and has more of a purpose and unlike RPGs you can actually add to the world in your own way.
As an indie game it is fairly cheap and if it is the style of game you enjoy you would get quite a bit of time from it.

On the edge...

A game that received very little notice when it first came out is Brink. It is an objective based FPS.

The game is set around a militaristic/utopian city known as The Ark and there are two factions fighting within. One group The Security are attempting to maintain control and keep everyone within, while the other faction The Resistance are attempting to escape the city and live in freedom.

There is a loose storyline tying all of the missions and objectives together but it has no real impact upon the game itself. The game never changes much from one of two endings, one for each faction.

There are four class sets that you can play, Medic, Engineer, Operative and Soldier, as well as a general set of skills. Each class can perform specific tasks to complete objectives as well as helping the team in certain ways, such as healing and boosting damage.

The unique aspect to this game is the parkour. Depending on what body type you choose, you can leap over obstacles, climb walls and sprint. You would think it would be fairly clunky and un-usable but it actually flows quite well. With a combination of three key presses you can slide beneath enemies and then leap up onto a wall or rail and take them out from behind, the one problem being you have to be fast enough to press them at the right time...

The AI is quite intelligent, and by "quite intelligent" I mean it will kill you very easily if you don't watch out but most likely won't heal you... When your AI partners aren't spazzing out in the corner getting shot they usually do a fairly good job of assisting you but there are always issues when it comes to AI.

Overall this is yet another entertaining title under Bethesda's flag and with the sales right now well worth the purchase in my books. However if you don't like to play as part of a team or would rather be a one man army I'd say you won't enjoy it much, if at all...

The floor will kill you!

A fantastic coop game that I started playing is Killing Floor. It is a stand-alone game that is based on a mod of Unreal Tournament 04.

The player is set against waves of increasingly difficult and more numerous enemies culminating in a type of Boss wave. The more players in the game the more difficult the waves. Enemies can start spawning from pretty much anywhere and provides for a very tense environment while playing as you constantly have to watch your back.

Each player earns cash for a kill and this cash can be spent between waves at a shop that appears randomly on the map. That is provided you can reach it before the next wave starts.

There is also a sort of class system, you choose a "perk" at the beginning of the game which gives you specific benefits. You can level up these "perks" while using any of the other ones but you can only receive the benefits of one at a time.

The atmosphere is very tense and can be somewhat claustrophobic with the narrow tunnels and entrances and it is definitely best played with a few friends. There is also an active modding/map-making scene and a very active community. I think this is one well worth the purchase and you will get plenty of hours of enjoyment (or terror) out of it.

The tunnels are a dangerous place...

Metro 2033 does what Hellgate: London set out to do. It is a fantastic combination of FPS and Survival Horror.

The game is set in post-apocalyptic Russia, mostly within the metro tunnels. You, playing a character names Artyom, must make your way across Russia travelling through the metro tunnels and sometimes on the irradiated surface.

The game is very immersive by reducing the HUD elements and with some fantastic sound assets it really makes you feel like you are in the world. I found myself at times crouched down in real-life, while waiting for an enemy to pass in-game. The lack of a HUD is immersive without being a hindrance, in most cases, all the information you need is pretty much visual. You can see on your gun when ammo is running low and your flash light starts to get dimmer when the battery is running low.

There are some points in the game where you are involved in cut scenes. Usually these really pull you out of the game and are rather jarring but in Metro2033 they are done really well slipping easily from cut scene to gameplay and back again with no loading screens or sudden cuts from the action.
The only loading screens are between levels or missions and are all very short with a diary type entry, from Artyom, at each one.

One major aspect of the game is the fact that "military grade ammo" is currency, while also still being usable ammo. This means that if you find yourself running low on ammo you can "shoot money". This all helps to build the sense that scavenging is a necessity in this world and again helps with the immersion.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game with its dark atmosphere and terrifying sequences and while being scared to continue on at some points, really wanting to progress through the story. The world is fantastically immersive and well thought out and in my opinion well worth a play.