Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. I was watching the X Games recently, or at least something close to it. It made me remember the early days of console gaming when the big thing was racing games and Golden Eye. So thats what I grew up on, and with Microsoft releasing two free games every month to keep up with Sony. I recently downloaded Motocross Madness, a little dirtbike trick racing game with tricks and jumps, also including having your avatar as the biker. Also exclusive to Xbox 360. The game puts you down with a standard bike that you can upgrade as you win money in races, allowing you to make your bike go faster, handle better, and so on. The gameplay is quite simple; press the gas to go, brake to stop, and hybrid brake to drift. As you rise through the ranks you will unlock more tricks that allow you to gain xp, which fills your boost meter, allowing you to to faster for a period of time, allowing you to stay on top of your opponents. The amount of xp you are awarded depends on the difficulty of the trick, it also looks cooler mid-air. The amount of money you gain at the end of each race depends on the number of coins you collect and what position you finish in. The player can then spend this money on upgrades for their bike, buy new bikes, and special outfits. With each level surpassed, tricks with a greater effect are unlocked, some tracks are almost so hard to beat that you must boost almost the whole time. As mentioned earlier, the player gets to incorporate their avatar in to the game, which is a little animated version of you forged at your whim. The game has a number of areas ranging from the deserts of Egypt to the treacherous glaciers of Iceland. There are also open courses that allow you to mess around and explore the area while picking up collectibles. The dialogue is poorly written, making it very amusing. Overall I would call Motocross Madness a decent game, it does what its suppose to. However, I would not recommend buying it, if it is free, grab it. Hope you have enjoyed this post and I will be back next week. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing good. I know I'm pretty late to the bat for this one, since this is my first post in a few months I thought I'd write about probably one of the best games to hit the marketplace. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks, released in November 11, 2011, this game was met with great profits and many happy fans. It is a med-evil RPG style fantasy game that would be what England looked like in the Dark Ages if it had magic, dragons, cat people, and everything that moved wanted to kill you. Literally everything does, its scary. The Elder
Scrolls series, has one of the largest and expansive lore in the video game industry. So for those of you who have not played one of the games (God have mercy on your souls) I will provide a little bit of back story to whats going on as simply as I can.
Okay, Bethesda's last Elder Scrolls game was Oblivion, which took place 200 years prior to Skyrim. The only thing that need be known about Oblivion is that a bunch of powerful monsters emerge from the demotic plane of Oblivion led by Merunes Dagon, a god like being called Daedra who is looking to ruin every-ones day. He is defeated by Akatosh, leader of the Divines; the gods who created everything. Fast forward 200 years and travel across the continent of Tamriel to Skyrim. A frigid northern realm that is home to the human race known as Nords, yet under control by the crumpling Empire based out of Cryadil, where the last game took place. For some time the Empire fighting a civil war in Skyrim with the Nords, who believe their way of life is at risk. The player awakes in the back of a wagon bound in shackles on the way to his/her death with other prisoners including the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak. The Elder Scrolls Series has always been about choice, in the wagon, the only information you have about yourself is that you were trying to cross the border, so your back story is up to you. After arriving in Helgen, you notice the leader of Imperial troops in Skyrim, General Tullius is present. This does not bode well, the atmosphere intensified a roar sounds in the distance. You are unloaded off the wagon and the guard asks who you are. As mentioned earlier about choice, you the choice to choose between 10 unique races from the cat-like Khajiit, the reptile-like Argonians to the Orcs of the high mountains, a few
Cool picture of what Alduin looks like
different elves and humans are also in the mix. Depending on the race you choose, this will affect your starting stats such as sword skills or magic. Don't worry though, your skills will advance over time in every area. The game's environment also treats you differently depending on your race. Basically unless your a human, everyone is a racist f*ck to you, the High Elves think their better than everyone and your constantly the butt of all the racist jokes, you know, typical fantasy setting. Now you choose your race and watch a guy get decapitated and then your called up to the block. Just when your about to meet your end at the head of an ax, a giant black dragon swoops down and then every things on fire followed by everyone screaming for their lives. After running around trying not to be dragon chow, the guy who asked your name calls you over and cuts you loose. Some more running and then you reach a crossroad, you can go with the racist rebels or the guys who just tried to cut your head off. Whatever you choose, you fight a few guys, pick up some stuff and then emerge the only survivors, except that guy you didn't choose to go with. Then you make your way to Riverwood, where you say hi to the guys family who went with, loot every coin in the town and run to Whiterun to tell the Jarl that dragons are back after thousands of years. Everybody flips out and believes that only logical thing to do is send you, the messenger, to find out whats going on, yay logic. After a series of quests that take you to tombs to find out stuff about of dragons and almost dying several times because of
scenic view of how large the world is
your crappy gear. You get back to the people at Whiterun and fill them in on whats going on. Then you go with some guards to investigate a nearby dragon sighting. Which you then find the watchtower in ruin, dragon appears, you fight dragon, and dragon dies. The dragon suddenly bursts into flames with energy swirling around it that then wraps around the player. The dragon is now nothing but bones with the guards saying you are Dragonborn. You learn that you are the legendary individual with the body of a mortal and the soul of a dragon, Dragonborn, they come rarely every couple hundred years. The last one conquered all the known world, so you have alot to live up to You then hear a booming shout later in town and are then informed that the Greybeards, masters of the Voice; the powerful magic which dragons shout. They have summoned you and then you are on your way. The thing that makes you special is that others have to practice for years to shout one word of power, while you are naturally gifted. After walking up the largest mountain on the continent, you talk to the Greybeards who teach you a thing or two before telling you that you must stop Alduin, the World Eater from destroying the plane of existence you exist on. Also Alduin is the son of Akatosh, the Ruler of the Gods, so this won't be hard or anything. Why must you do this? Because it's your destiny, don't ask questions! I'll leave it from there involving the story and focus more on the gameplay. Skyrim improves alot on it's predecessors, adding a better skill learning tree, a more expansive world with more quest opportunities to be had and five quest lines that are awesome. Also, if you get the game on PC, you have the Steam Workshop and mod community at your fingertips, so that literally makes the game endless. The level up system is well balanced, gaining a skill point that you can spend on one of many different skill trees from destruction magic to smithing to one handed sword combat. These things will effect the quality of gear you can craft, how well you use that gear and how big of fire balls you can shoot from your hands. You also can upgrade of three player base traits every level. These are Health, it speaks for itself, Stamina, how long you can run, how effective your block is or how many power attacks you can use until you die of exhaustion.
The holds of Skyrim
Last there is Magik, which affects the amount of spells you can cast and the difficulty of the spell. The game also levels with you, so one area doesn't have enemies that are harmful as tissue paper being thrown at you while the other would be like being covered in honey while being chased by bears, and when I say bears, I mean dragons. None of that, the game is well leveled and all area's enemies get harder to fight, from men to trolls to dragons, things change. Next topic is the world. Cool thing about Skyrim, you will never run out of things to do. Even once you've beaten all the quest lines, all you have to do is pick a direction, start walking and you'll find something to do. You also have a really expansive world to work with, while Skyrim is only 14.8 square miles total, there are also hundreds of underground dungeons and place that technically don't even exist on the mortal plane of existence, like going to the afterlife. If you have this game on PC, you have the Steam Workshop and mod community which literally makes the game endless. Also mountains, lots of mountains to walk up with your horse. The combat is pretty straightforward, you swing sword at guy, also be sure to block, and then slicing him in half. Magic is the same, shoot flames at the guy until he's ash, although being a mage is pretty lame, as the spells are weak after you pass level 10 and master spells take to long to get while also using all of your Magik. The environment of the world changes as you go places. Such a ice frozen cities, marsh lands and sunny meadows are all places to go, and you can buy a house in the city of whatever climate is to your liking or with the Hearthfire DLC installed you can build your own. The best part of the game, other than the epic scenery and soundtrack, is the dragon language. The Dragonborn can learn up to twenty shouts, which have three words apiece, so thats sixty dungeons to walk through, so you'd better get moving. The DLCs add seven new shouts total, more tomb raiding, yay. These shouts do things like throw enemies off cliffs, freezes them in ice and summons storms to call down lighting to rain down on your foes. While there is much more to say about Skyrim, I warn you that this game will suck you in. Also another huge thing, which IS my favorite about The Elder Scrolls Games. THE LORE! Other than World of Warcraft, I can't think of a game with a more expansive story, THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN! My God, you could spend days learning all the backstory of the game's universe, but that doesn't mean you can't play the games, you will learn. The only thing that I do not like about Skyrim is that it can be buggy alot of the time, though it does make for some funny stories to tell your friends. I highly recommend it, you will get your money's worth out of this game. Thanks for reading, hoped you enjoyed and I will be back with another post next week. I now leave you with one of the coolest game trailer ever. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing well. Today I'm here with...another zombie game -_-. Okay, so I like this game because it adds more features to the growing zombie rules of how stuff goes down. That game is Contagion, its a zombie game, yay. Developed by Monochrome LLC and distributed by Steam. Released as an early access game on October 25, 2013 and fully released on April 11, 2014. Contagion follows the zombie genre as to be expected with the concept of the undead. You are one of eight survivors, each with their own unique backstory. With a few different game mode that take a new spin on the typical zombie FPS. The first game to talk about, which is my personal favorite, is Escape. In this game mode the idea is to complete a series of objectives in order to get to the evac copper, all while fighting your way through flesh eating corpses. These objectives include things like finding keys to open a door or finding certain switches to allow access to areas that were blocked somehow. Your cellphone is used to
Fun with friends
alert you of new objectives and the status of your teammates along with what there doing. The next gamemode is Extraction. Your goal in this gamemode is to find the unarmed civilians, secure their position and escort them to safety once help arrives, the player must ever aware of their ammo supply while staying hidden from large groups of the undead that you know will overwhelm you. The civilians will often leave ammo or weapons after they reach safety. Your smartphone is used as a GPS to find the civilians. You can also use a coin in this gamemode to distract zombies and then, if carrying a melee weapon stealth kill are possible, whopee. The last gamemode is Hunted, which is a player vs player variant which is exactly what is sounds like. The player must hunt down and eliminate other survivors while trying to survive themselves, so watch your shots otherwise you will be shot. In certain matches the player can become infected and turn into a zombie to fight survivors. The game also has a script I refer to as the Director. The Director randomly maps and places items in different locations, making every playthrough unique. With a multitude of weapons, some cools maps and characters, Contagion looks to have a promising future. I hope you have all enjoyed this post and I will be back next week with another review. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing well. Today I'm hoping into a fun little sidescrolling zombie action game called Dead Light. Developed by Tequila Works and published by Microsoft Studios, Dead Light is a 2012 survival horror for Xbox 360 Arcade and Windows. Made with the idea to mimic 1980's sidescrolling games that were widely popular for the time period. Dead Light takes place in 1986 Seattle, the story drops you into the shoes of Randell Wayne, a former park ranger who is intent on finding his family in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. With fairly decent graphics and a fun style of gameplay, Dead Light produces a fun experience that moves away from the traditional zombie game and moves towards a more free-running aspect through the simple layout of the game. Starting out you will have nothing but your hands and your quick wits. In certain abandoned building you will happen upon a fire axe the ideal melee weapon for killing zombies, right? Wrong. You are cursed with a low amount of stamina which you will want to use to jump and run. This is not a shoot 'em up unlimited ammo zombie game, this is about survival. While running, you can sometimes throw down bookcases to block the infected path, creating a moment of safety for the player to stop. At your top
Wayne fending off zombies on top of a truck
notch performance you can probably take on three zombies. After chopping up zombies for awhile you will find a revolver, which kill zombies with a quick shot to the head, allowing you to take on eighteen zombies with full ammo. Its very useful against large amounts of zombies, you only have so many shots and ammo is scarce. Manual reload is required, so when being rushed by the hordes who where attracted by the noise and your stuck reloading, think about the things you will do better with your next life. Half way through you acquire the slingshot, which fires a little lead ball that can be used to create distractions or break windows so a building becomes accessible. A gun you acquire near the end of the game is a survivor's essential firearm: the 12 gauge shotgun.
A unique form of cutscenes is used to run over major plot points
This reliable weapon holds five rounds plus ten more, able to blow multiple undead's heads off, this weapon packs a punch. While Wayne may be armed, the main idea of this game is to remove the zombie in front of you and keep on running. The story is told through the occasional cinematic cutscene created in a comic like format, also the main source of information is the dairy that Wayne carries that tell his story from the beginning of the epidemic to the present. He also voices his thought as you play as him, the dialogue is pretty laughable with him saying the same thing over and over again with minor tweaks. Wayne can also find collectibles to make up a smaller book of mementos consisting of peoples IDs and newspaper articles that allow the player to become more immersed in the story. I think Dead Light is a truly unique game for a zombie game with a high level of creativity and originality. Though it may be short, I beat it in about four hours, it was worth it. Try it today, you might like it. Thank you for reading and I will be back in two weeks. Until then, have fun. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. Sorry for my long leave of absence, but had plans for Spring break. A couple weeks back I reviewed a fun survival game called Rust that is still in Alpha. Though they are unrelated in genre, they both are still undergoing alpha stage construction, although Interstellar Marines looks graphically more impressive compared to Rust. Developed and published by a cool little indie game company called Zero Point Software that have worked super hard to make this game happen. Since Interstellar Marines is still in Alpha, little story has been released. In the future the United Nations has funded Project M, a top secret military program, where you as an elite soldier, have been picked to undergo training with your fellow marines. The overall goal of the project is to protect mankind from threats outside the solar system.
Possible future weapons
Therefore, the player is armed with a machine gun that fires a form of "stun round" that shocks the player like a tazer, rendering them unconscious. For the classical FPS player, don't fret, this game operates in the same way any other shooter, headshots equal more damage, time your shots accordingly and aim down the sights. So basically the only differences are that your not actually killing the opposing team, just incapacitating them. Also theres only one gun so far, but the developers promise more content to come including guns, maps, and a campaign. The player would be surprised that all they need is one gun, though I'm gonna lie that I would like a sidearm for when I run out of ammo. Other than that, it's a nice return to the classic FPS and is fun with friends. I would recommend it for any gamer, it is currently available for purchase through Steam. Anyone considering buying this game had better do it now, as more content and features are added, the price will go up. The game is awesome and shows much potential to come. I hope you enjoyed this review and I will be back next week with another post. Until then, have fun. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. This review is going to be a little short on account of the game containing very little to talk about. Today I am reviewing a fun little indie called Super Hexagon. Created by Terry Cavanagh as independent minimal action game with the sole purpose to dodge the outlines of certain shapes that are closing in on you. The game was released for Windows on November 27, 2012, it is also on mobile devices. The game is synced to an awesome soundtrack which speeds up as the player moves further into the never ending shapes closing in on them. With a certain amount of time that must be completed to overcome each "stage". For example, you start by making a line, which then makes a square, then a pentagon and so forth. With each amount of time bypassed the stage becomes harder and harder, until upon reaching hexagon, the player beats the stage, this take copious amount of time and quick reflexes to achieve this task. There are three stages, Hexagon, Hexagoner, and Hexagonest, each increasingly difficult with different songs. Its fun, tricky and puts your reflexes to the test. Hope you enjoyed this post and I will be back to my regular thing next week. Until then, have fun. Also, its kind of hard to explain the concept of the game in the way I did, so for a understandable explanation, watch the video.
This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope you had a happy weekend. Today's review is all about survival. No zombies, no natural disasters, no demons, just you, the outdoors and your fellow man. In Rust you must craft, create and salvage in order to survive. Released on December 11, 2013 for PC, this adventure survival game was developed and published by Facepunch Studios. What started as a clone for Day Z, an open world zombie survival game evolved with crafting, hunting and building shelters. While Rust is still in Alpha, it shows much potential. In Rust, there is no story, only the incentive to survive. You can hop on one of many servers, starting only with a rock, a torch and a few bandages. Using the rock you can break up materials used for crafting, which you can then use to create things like axes, which can be
A makeshift revolver
used for chopping trees or killing wildlife for food. The player also starts with a certain amount of blueprints, which give crafting recipes to the player. However, if they can remember the recipe, and craft the item, it will automatically add the recipe to the book. Items are repaired at crafting tables, things like bows, makeshift guns, and melee weapons will deteriorate over time. You can make fires, which are used to stay warm when night falls, the player can improve their chances of survival by building a shelter to keep your property stored and can be modified to defend against other players or animals. A constant supply of food must be maintained in order not to starve to death. Caution is advised when hunting animals though, as you may not always encounter deer or wild pigs, but bears and wolfs. Its times like that when its nice to have a gun, though it is not easy to find metal to produce these weapons with. On most servers you will see buildings farther off, citys that are ravaged by radiation, indicating the reason that you are surviving and living in the woods is because of a past nuclear war of some sort. In these cities are weapons and blueprints, holding the promise of power at a dangerous cost, while the player can be exposed to radiation, there is a limit before you die or die slowly over time from radiation poisoning. So swift feet allows you to stay alive, because if you die you lose all your gear and have to start over again, a concept inspired by Minecraft. You can also choose to join players, work together to build large structures or you can live the live of a nomad, its all optional in Rust. While the game is only in Alpha, it is fun and looks to have a very bright future ahead of it. Hope you have enjoyed this review and I will be back next week with another review. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
