Thursday, November 14, 2013

Zonaco your flesh is mine (Free update for Monaco) review

It's official they added zombies to my favorite multiplayer stealth game.


In this free update for Monaco there is now a option on the menu to change your game mode. If you switch it from classic to zombie, then your heist gets harder as you try to survive the apocalypse.


It also changes the dialogue before missions to zombie grunts. I would have liked it better if the whole story was reworked so we could have an awesome story about our criminals during an apocalypse, but hey winners can't be choosers.


This update also adds a new mini campaign of eight missions, which are all origin stories for each character, and just like the main campaign these can be played in zombie mode.


And finally, they have added a level editor which is surprisingly detailed, and gives you all the tools to make levels just as complex as the main game.




If you you've been waiting to buy Monaco, or haven't tried it yet, then you should get it now. This update adds so much new value to the base game of Monaco, it's awesome

Don't lose your head.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Minecraft (LEGOS) review


You know, it seems like there’s a lot of games that have “Craft” in the title. There’s Warcraft,


And Starcraft


and Arcade craft...



Okay maybe there isn’t that many games but I’m going to be looking at one of those “Craft” games today:


MINECRAFT!!!

Minecraft is BIG, I mean HUGE, both on the sales side and the gameplay side, and because of that Minecraft can be a really hard game to review, I mean there are so many reviewers out there who won’t touch this thing in fear of looking like fools, but I’m going to do it, so there!

For all those of you who have been living under rocks I am going ExPlaIN what MIneCrafT is. Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game where you mine for resources and use them to craft more tools, or you can let you’re creative side run wild. Oh I forgot it’s all made out of blocks like Legos. So this game is like if you were shrunk down to the size of you’re Legos and all of them came to life. And don’t lie and say you don’t have Legos, because I know!

Wait there are Minecraft Legos?


The Story:
Now this is kind of hard because Minecraft doesn’t really have a story, but I can piece together things to see if we can make any sense of it.

When you get into the game you wake up in the wilderness with only the cloths on your back. You realize that you will need to find a way to survive. You start by cutting down a tree, and decide to make planks. After you have a tool, you decide to take a look around, and try to find a source of food, because you will need it. Perhaps you’ve picked an apple or slaughtered a pig, and are happily munching on food. But now you realize that it is now midday, and you must find a shelter before night falls. You either start building a house out of dirt, or have found a cave that you can clean up. It will be getting dark soon and you will need some light if you want to continue working during the night. So you begin searching for a cave that has a deposit of coal. After you have found it, you start making your way back to your shelter as night falls. You think you know the way back, but hope your memory is as good as your hunger. Suddenly about fifty feet away, you see something that makes your skin crawl, you don’t know what that THING is but you don’t want to find out. You start running, and many more things start following you as you run back to your shelter. Finally you make it back and seal of the entrance. But what ever that was is still out there, and now you know that things come out at night.
(With the game being as open ended as it is, this is just a few of the thousands of things that might happen to you in Minecraft, or I just made up a ton of stuff.)

Gameplay:

Here is where this review gets hard, because this game is huge!!!! Minecraft has the potential to be one of the biggest games ever created.

And the landscape is vast!

There is no real goal in Minecraft, you can do pretty much whatever you want, which can probably turn some people away. It’s mostly just a game about making grand structures and letting your imagination run wild, while surviving the dark. The game becomes what you make of it, which makes playing in multiplayer fun by seeing what others have created.



But there is plenty of adventure and quests you make up to be had, whether it is searching for diamonds, or fighting to survive in the Nether (Hell.)

 DIAMONDS!


Both all of these things come back to the three most basic things you do in Minecraft, collecting blocks through mining, placing blocks, and crafting items.


The gameplay is very simple and addicting, but it can be daunting because of all the options.

Just be careful of monsters


Music and Presentation:

The presentation definitely confuses people, on the one had we have tons of people who say that the graphics are to “out of date,” 

Everyone hates old games.

And others who say that it looks like Legos, and of course everyone hates Legos.

Go away Legos, not even adults like you! >:(

In my opinion it’s simple, and that’s all it has to be.

The music is nice and calming, and conveys loneliness, although you can get more tracks from discs that drop, but are very rare.


The presentation and music both make the single player experience dark and lonely, which I do like because you do become really lonely in Minecraft.

The Verdict and Final Thoughts:

Minecraft is fun, but when you start out there isn’t really an in game tutorial for new players, and it can be hard just figuring out what to do. I do recommend this game, but it’s not as amazing as it could be, but there is so much to do. That’s why my rating for this game is an eight out of ten. It is an “Awesome Game.”

LEGOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

No-one has to die (Flash game) review

Well I didn't think I would be doing this, but No-one has to die surprised me. So I guess it's what I'm going to be reviewing today.

The Story:

You were delivering a package when the alarm went of. There is a fire in the building. But there are four other people in the building, the CEO of the company, two office workers, and the man who started the fire.


You happen to be in a control room of the building, and it is your job to save these people. But you can only save one of them in the end. Choose wisely.



The Gameplay:

At it's core No-one has to die is a really simple tile based puzzle game. You have control of all the locks, people, and water pumps in the building, and you have to save people by preventing them from burning alive, and drowning.


 It is so very simple, and it would seem like there isn't much too it, that is where you would be wrong. On each level of the game, one of the four characters must die.


 I'm not joking in order to proceed in the game, some one has to die. And to make matters worse, you have to choose between two characters. This is where the gameplay shines, you have to choose, and your choice has consequences on the story. But whats more interesting is that the title hints that maybe characters don't have to die.



Music and, Presentation:

This game is dark, I'm not going to lie about that. The presentation captures this perfectly with simple graphics and colors. Now the Music is AMAZING for a flash game. Whoever created the sound track has some serious talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgOCukfNHwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCCR0_4DO5g

Final Thoughts, and Verdict:

No-one has to die surprised me, with it's awesome story, gameplay twists, and Music. It is by far one of the best flash games I have played in a while. It's rather short, and it's free so you should check it out. No-one has to die gets a nine out of ten. It is a "Must Play" game.


Choose wisely.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

VVVVVV (Letter V six times) review

Final thoughts and Verdict:

VVVVVV is a fun little indie game that I enjoyed. It has good gameplay, fun cartoony 8-bit graphics, fantastic music, and a overall retro feel. I think my only grip I have with this game is how short it is, you can beat it in under 5 hours. That being said, I'm giving VVVVVV seven out of ten stars. It is a "Good game." If it had more content it might push it up to eight. This game only costs five dollars, so it is definitely worth buying.

Happy space faring!





















Oh okay! I'll will actually finish the review. But what more do you need?


The Story:

So we start out on this space ship, with these stick figure guys. And before anything else can happen, something goes wrong with the ship, and everybody teleports off.


But when Captain Viridian materializes he discovers that he and his crew have been separated. And to make matters worse the dimension they are in is unstable, and has messed up the ship. So as Captain you must find your missing crew members, and escape this dimension.

It's pretty straight forward. The plot isn't what you will be playing the game for, although you will get more details from computer terminals left behind by the people you used to inhabit this dimension, and the order in which you save crew members, but I'll get into that later.

Gameplay:

On the surface VVVVVV appears to be just like any other platformer, but that's thrown through a loop once you discover the main gameplay mechanic. Captain Viridian can't jump, instead he processes the unique ability to flip his gravity, making him fall upwards.


This is a pretty cool mechanic, but it can get frustrating when you come across one of the games many collectables, only to find that if you could jump it would save you time.
Dang it.

Most of the game takes place in a large over-world that leads to the games various "dungeons" that will lead to rescuing a crew member.

As I mentioned before there are many collectable orbs littered through out the many that can be easy to locate, but a pain to collect.

As for the dungeons, there are many spikes, and other obstacles, that want to wreck you. Luckily there are check points every ten feet or so, so that you can get right back into the action after you bite the dust. Every dungeon throws something new into the mix, from lines that make you bounce, to a dungeon that keeps scrolling upward. It is nice to see a game that can add one tweak to the gameplay, that helps keep it fresh.



Most of the game is based around timing, so if you are bad at this in games, you are probably going to dislike this game.



Music and Presentation:

The game looks like an old game from the Atari era, and gets the job done. It is a little simplistic, but that is where some of its charm lies. As for the music, I love it, it's generally really good. It can get annoying once some of the tracks loop of the hundredth time, but other than that it is good.



I now refer you back to the beginning, where I gave the game a score.

Happy Halloween btw.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

What over EIGHTY page views this month?!!

That's right folks, thanks to you there has been over eighty pages views in just the month of October.

Wow.

I have to thank you guys, because this is just amazing! I am really happy about this if you can't tell.

Wow.

Anyway thank you all for just checking my blog out.


On an unrelated note, I am planing on several new posts before the month ends so stay tuned.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Fantasy (Fire Emblem Review)

Well I've got a cold, so I guess I'm going to be reviewing Fire Emblem.


Fire Emblem is the seventh game in the fire emblem series. Why did they release the seventh game in the series as the first, you ask? Well to find that out, first we have to check out Super Smash bros. Melee.



Nintendo with their wisdom decided to include two characters from the Fire Emblem games: Marth, and Roy.

Marth is the first main character from the fire emblem game starring in the first and second games. Roy is the son of Eliwood who is one of the three main protagonists in Fire Emblem seven.


These two characters being included sparked interest in the Fire Emblem series. This and the fact that the Advance Wars games had received critical acclaim, prompted Nintendo to release Fire Emblem games internationally.

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So anyway this game was developed by Intelligent systems, the guys who made the Advance wars games, so if you've played those you may be in some familiar territory.


The Story:
So the story takes place on the continent of Elibe, where bad stuff is happening.  You take on the role of a Tactician (who's default name is Mark) who is found unconscious by a young woman named Lyn who lives on the plains of Sacae.


After Mark and Lyn are attacked by bandits and her home destroyed, Lyn decides to join Mark on a journey. A few days later they bump into a pair of knights, who reveal that Lyn is the grand daughter of the marquess of Caelin, and that her grandfather's brother Lundgren is trying to take control of the throne.


This is as far as I will go into the story as not to spoil things, just know that the story is very interesting and you will become invested in the well written characters.

Although the dialogue could be better.

Gameplay:
The game plays in some ways very similarly to the original Advance wars game, except in this instead of guns and tanks you have swords and axes. The map is divided into a grid of squares like a board game, depending on your different characters movement speed they may be able to traverse the varying terrain with a quick pace, it could also help if one of is riding a horse, Pegasus, or Wyvern.


There are also some RPG elements in this game, including the ability for your units to level up and gain higher stat values, and the fact that there are different unit classes such as Mage or Cavalry.


It may seem complicated and it can be, but all you really need to know at the beginning is the weapons triangle. The weapons triangle is basically a glorified game of rock, paper, scissors, where Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords. Knowing this will help you achieve victory, although your opponent may be able to beat you even when your weapon beats his. Like if his weapon is made of a stronger material, or if he is a higher level then you.


And there are units who don't follow the rules of the weapons triangle, like Archers and Shamans, but in the end everything is balanced in a way that will make the game fair and fun.

Well not always fair for you.

Now one thing that may turn new players away is the difficulty. Not only can the game be hard to learn, the main gimmick of the game can feel punishing. If at anytime one of your units is defeated in battle that unit cannot be used for the rest of the game, you will either have to start the level over or play without one of you favorite characters. And this can happen a lot, and when it does it can become so frustrating. I can't even count how many times I've had to restart a level because of this. Although looking at it from a different point of view it may be fun and welcoming to have added difficulty, it certainly is satisfying to beat a level that was giving you such a hard time earlier.


There is some multiplayer in this game but it's kinda meh. It would be much better if you could use a huge team of units and move around the map skillfully trying to kill of the other players team. But it does work that way.

Music and presentation:
The graphic in my opinion look great, your units seem to bounce to the music, and the fighting animations are flashy like they should be.



The Music is very good as well, but it can get old after a while. Good thing though there are a lot of different tracks. Here is one my favorite tracks.


Final Thoughts and Verdict:
All in all Fire Emblem is a very deep and fun game. It does have some problems like the fact that you may want to break you Gameboy after one of your favorite high level characters die, but it is very fun none the less. Fire Emblem gets nine out of ten stars! It is a "Must Play!" Game.


Have Fun!