Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Review

North America Box Art
     Hi everyone and happy Wednesday, its been a couple weeks since my last post and I believe there's no better way to come back into the mix than with zombies.  So today I will be talking about Red Dead Redemption's fifth downloadable content pack; Undead Nightmare.  Developed by Rockstar San Diego, Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games, this awesome DLC was released on October 26, 2010.  Mixing the last days of the Old West with a zombie apocalypse, this kick-ass add on really gives you your money's worth.  As in the main game you play as the main protagonist, former out-law John Marston.  The year is 1911 and John has returned to his after a month spent away from home hunting down the outlaws he once called friends, the government has returned his family to him.  Now, with a bright future ahead of him, John tries to pick up the pieces of his ranch and keep on living.  Our story begins one stormy night when John is riding home from town on his carriage, he parks the carriage and puts the horses away.   It seems a normal evening as John talks to his son and wife about life.  Abigail asks where Uncle is, (the old farm
John rescuing a girl trapped in a house surrounded by the dead
hand), John replies that he is probably hunkered down somewhere dry until the storm passes.  Several hours later when everybody is asleep in their bed, Uncle bursts through John's bedroom, a zombie.  John and Abigail stir from their bed, John yells at Uncle to calm down and then proceeds to whack him over the head with a lamp, apparently knocking him unconscious.  John runs out of the bedroom telling Abigail that he's going to get his gun, he runs back from the barn with his double-barrel shotgun to find Uncle chasing Abigail, Uncle bites Abigail in the neck and then John shoots Uncle in the head.  He asks if she is alright, the response is that she doesn't feel so good.  John's sixteen year old son jack comes out, leaning over his mother to see if she is alright she jumps up and bites Jack.  John, understanding the situation runs back into the barn and grabs his lasso.
My personal favorite, War, he looks cool and sets zombies on fire
He comes out and hog-ties them both, leaves them in the main bedroom with food and sets off to find a cure.  Throughout the game, John will be journeying far and wide looking for a cure, encountering undead animals such as bears, cougars, wolfs and warthogs.  Mythical beasts will begin to appear across the vast landscape, creatures such as the Chupacabra, Sasquatch, and a Unicorn.  John also can break and ride the Four Horses of The Apocalypse; War, Famine, Pestilence and Death, each with their own unique effect on zombies; from blowing the undead's heads up to setting them on fire.  They all New equipment is introduced such as the torch replacing the knife or obtaining the blunderbuss, a weapon that basically vaporizes multiple zombies at once.  Phosphorous coating can be applied to bullets to set zombies on fire, useful if your accuracy is bad because the fire will kill the zombie.  Another thing is that the only way to kill the zombie is to destroy the brain; headshots only.  There is also zombie bait that
Now would be a good time to run like hell
attracts zombies and if you combine it with dynamite you get Boom Bait, explosive zombie-attractive bait = awesome. Activities like capturing wanted criminals has been replaced with finding missing people and clearing out gang hideouts of bandits has been replaced with clearing out graveyards. Money is no longer used, instead you will be paid in ammunition, bullets are scarce, so keep an eye on your supply. The player must also clear out towns in order for them to become safe zones in which they can sleep and fast travel.  The campfire allowed the player to fast travel if they set it up anywhere in the wilderness, but now, you can only travel from towns or outposts that have been cleared out.  Random attacks by bandits have been replaced with random zombie hordes trying to eat you.  World events, such as discovering campfires for storytelling have been replaced with encountering people eating human arms acting LIKE NOTHING IS WRONG, shotgun to the face, you see people eating human body parts, shotgun to the face.  You see total nuts feeding human flesh to there undead wife and sharing the meal with them, shotgun to the face.  The world has become dangerous, more dangerous than it was, the dead rising up and people going crazy.  Really awesome DLC, know you'll love it, ten bucks only.  Hope you have enjoyed this review and I will be back with another post next week.  Until next time. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
HD available for maximum expierence

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

North American Box Art
     Hello everyone and happy 2014, hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and a Happy New Year because we are back with another year of  blogs coming our way.  To kick this year off, I will be reviewing what has been arguably called one of the best games of all time.  That game is The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Probably my favorite Nintento game and what is called the best game in the series (opinionated statement), Twilight Princess has been praised for its gameplay, story and all around feeling that makes it a Zelda game.  Developed and published by Nintendo, the game was released on November 19, 2006 in North America.  Ever since Ocarina of Time came out in November 1998, fans had been praising the 3D aspect that was brought to once 2D series.  Twilight Princess introduced and reintroduced new things into the series, one that was highly anticipated by fans was a turn for realism, as seeing in prior games that seemed animated, this one seems more lifelike, also bringing back a older more favorable Link that fans preferred over the childish Link seen in past games.  Throughout the Zelda series Link has taken on multiple personas, and in Twilight Princess he takes on yet another awesome hero personality.
     Now to set the stage for whats to come.  This game and the rest of the Zelda series takes place in the mythical land of Hyrule, a land created by the three goddesses. Before they left this world, they sealed a
The Triforce
small portion of their power inside the Triforce, a magical power that could grant any desire.  However, one would have to posses an equal amount of all three things that make up the Triforce, Power, Wisdom, and Courage.  One who touches the Triforce without this balance will be given the piece that best represents their soul, while the other pieces would go to the two chosen by destiny.  You are Link, a farm hand in Ordon Village, living a happy simple life among the occupants of this small town.  Your day to day life consists of herding sheep, impressing and being idolized by the town's children with athletic and slingshot skills, all the while, more than likely having a crush on the mayor's daughter, Ilia.  One day you are herding sheep and hurt your horse, Ilia gets mad and takes Epona, your horse, away to the spring near the village to tend to her.  Before hand you are talking to the mayor about delivering a gift requested by the royal family of Hyrule, and you need your horse to get it to the castle in time.  So Link runs after Ilia when they are attacked by creatures on warthogs who kidnap Ilia and the children and knock Link unconscious.  Link wakes up and follows the path of destruction across a rope wood bridge to come across a wall of twilight inscribed with odd symbols.  Link is grabbed and pulled through by a shadow beast who releases him after the Triforce of Courage appears on his arm, turning him into a wolf instead of a spirit like the rest of beings who are trapped in the twilight, unaware of what is happening.
Midna on top of wolf Link
After transforming, Link passes out and is carried away by the shadow beast, waking up chained on the left leg.  A shadow imp like creature appears and offers to help him escape in exchange for his obedience to her, her name is Midna.  After fighting through, shadow beasts, monsters, and other things outside the prison Link gets into the Royal chamber of the castle to find Princess Zelda.  She explains that a Twili creature named Zant attacked the city and overwhelmed the guards. Zelda choose to surrender to ensure her people were not slaughtered by Zant, and thus Hyrule was blanketed in Twilight.  She tells Link the only way to restore light to the land is to restore the four light spirits of Hyrule.  So now Link must set out to restore the light to the land, defeat Zant, all while going in and out of Twilight and eventually finding the Master Sword, and becoming the Hero of Time he was destined to be.  Whew, there is so much lore surrounding this series that its crazy, that was only a little portion of what is to be said, but it would take me a few days to write down.  There are many tools you will also be using in your journey including the Hero's Bow, the Clawshot; a device that allows you to grapple onto objects.  The Wind Gale Boomerang that allows Link to hurl a little gust of wind that brings things back to him, bombs to blow things up and of course, his trusty sword and shield.  While there are many other toys and gadgets that Link takes on his adventure, they are many to name.  I would call this one of the greatest games of all time, truly bringing a unique experience to the gaming world instead of the same FPS shooter that releases annually these days (author looks over to Call of Duty, then quickly looks away).  I would probably give this game a 10/10, thats how much of a masterpiece this game.  Although, for those who buy, it does start slow for the first two hours, then it explodes with all sorts of awesome.  Point is, awesome game, looking forward to a modern remake (wink, wink, nudge Nintendo) I'm sure it will be awesome when it  happens.  I hope you have all enjoyed this post and I will be back on January 29, finals coming up and all.  Until next time, game on.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Watch in full-screen with 720hp on for maximum effect of awesomeness