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

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 

The Walking Dead Season 2 Announcement

   

Title Cover

     While I seldom post announcements, this is a special case.  Episode 1 of the Walking Dead Season 2 was released on Monday, December 16 of 2013.  I have been awaiting this with high anticipation since the conclusion of season 1, and the release of 400 Days.  Telltale has been working a few projects since the concluding of Season 1 including a game that I reviewed at a earlier date called the Wolf Among Us which takes place in the setting of the comics series Fables, but with their own little twist, but you may consult by review of that at a later time.  Lets play catch-up with the events of season 2.  ALERT SPOILERS: For those who have not played Episode 5, DO NOT READ THIS.  Unless you don't intend to play the game.  To read the blacked out text, highlight it and will be readable:

In episode 5 of season 1, after Lee was bitten by a zombie.  The player has two options, either cut off Lee's bitten arm or leave it be.  Regardless of what the player chooses, Lee WILL die.  This made me very sad.  Throughout episode 5, you are charged with rescuing Clementine from the Stranger who has captured her.  In the fast pace of turning events, Kenny (Lee's best buddy who's been through so much shit with Lee, including Kenny losing his son due to being bitten by a zombie, then Lee has to shoot him so Kenny didn't have to) sacrifices himself to save Ben, another guy in the group.  But it turns out that Ben impaled himself on a balcony that broke and fell as he tried to jump from it to a near-by rooftop to join the others.  Being surrounded on both sides of the alley by zombies, Kenny tells Lee to get out of there and save Clementine.  Lee tells Kenny he's not leaving him, but Lee is locked out of the ally and can only hopelessly watch as Kenny is surrounded by walkers.  Kenny stayed behind to shoot Ben to make sure he didn't suffer.  Eventually after fighting through large hordes of zombies to the hotel where Clementine is being held by the strange man.  After Lee finds the room where Clementine is being held, he talks to the stranger, fights the stranger, and then kills the stranger.  Lee opens the doors that exit the room, Lee comes face to face with a walker, who doesn't attack him, but walks by him towards Clementine.  Lee kills the zombie and then makes the relation that the walker didn't attack him because he had walker blood all over him.  Lee smears this on Clementine so the walkers outside do not attack her.  After doing this, they take to the streets, walking among the dead, unnoticed by the zombies.  Clementine sees her parents, now zombies, she freezes, Lee tries to get her to look away, but passes out from his infectious bite, which is killing him.  Clementine somehow drags a full grown man through a bunch of zombies into a jewelry shop where there safe.  Lee tells her that he was bitten and that she has to leave.  After a fight with a walker for his gun and keys, Clementine has to kill Lee.  I cried, tears were running down my face, the sad music playing, and then she shoots him.  The epilogue shows Clementine outside of Savannah by herself, she stops to rest for awhile and sees in the distance two figures walking on a hill.  They stop and look at her.  The season ends there. 

So in season 2, the story of Clementine will continue, for better or worse.  Also the choices you made in season 1 and 400 Days will cross over to this, so I hope you choose wisely.  I hope you all have enjoyed this announcement and I will be back next year with more reviews.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off with good cheer.

Awesome Trailer

Doom Review

Cover Art for Doom

     Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, today I'm going to be reviewing one of the first FPS games to grace the earth, and its still good today, maybe not by graphics, but by gameplay.  That epic game is Doom.  First released on December 10, 1993 by id Software.  For all the FPS fans out there, you basically have this game to thank for the rise in popularity of the shooting genre.  This game sparked a revolution for its kind, greater titans like Half Life and Halo: Combat Evolved, but the big push came from DOOM.  Now then, lets set the scene for this ground breaking adventure.  While the protagonist is never named, he is simply called "Doomguy" by the community.  Though there is no cinematic opening or cut-scenes to direct the plot, there is instead a interactive system similar to Half Life, where the player lives the game.
     Anyway the game starts in the distant future a company known as the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) is the military's biggest contractor, also conducted top secret experiments in its waste disposal plants on Mars. Interdementional technology has given man the technology to stretch across the galaxy. This has yielded incredible results for the UAC, allow portals to connect Mar's two moons, Fobos and Demos.  While objects can pass through the portals without being harmed, the same cannot be said for humans, who become hostile after being sent through the portal, following that they explode.  Now talking about you, you are a marine who assaulted his superior officer for being ordered to fire on civilians.  As punishment, Doomguy has been stationed on Mars with absolutely nothing to do. But then suddenly the station receives a urgent distress call from Fobos saying the something hostile has come out of the portal and that Demos has disappeared from Mar's orbit altogether.  Being the only combat-ready team for millions of miles, it fall to your squad to investigate this distress beacon on Fobos.  After arriving at the station, you are put on lookout duty in the hanger in which you arrived.  Then suddenly you hear your squad mates being slaughtered over the radio by demons, yes, demons from hell.  It seems that the portal technology that UAC was using has opened a gateway to Hell.  Now it falls to you, to fight your way through demons to find out whats going on and to eliminate every enemy that stands in your way.  Also your squad took all the guns and left you with only a pistol, brilliant, eh?
     You will also be riding alone for this adventure. However, you will be armed with a large arsenal of weapons including the pistol, shotgun, mini-gun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, chainsaw and energy cannon.  While there are even more weapons Doomguy has at his disposal,it would take to long to name them all.  The games combat system revolves around fast movement and a faster trigger finger.  While encounter the often possibility of encountering many enemies at once, you will have to move fast around them while shooting at them, fun!  Throughout the world the player will find pickups including guns, ammo, armor, temporary power-ups, and most importantly, KEYS!  These red, blue, and yellow cards will allow the player to unlock certain colored doors, this is a huge concept displayed throughout the game and finding these cards is your only hope of unlocking these doors, without them you will not be able to progress throughout the level and overall game, so look harder.  Doom was a huge milestone when it came to the FPS genre, and even today we must thank it for making action gaming what it is today.  I hope you have enjoyed this post and I will be back next week.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.

While Doom never had its own trailer, this 

community made one was the only one I 

could find, you only need to watch the first 

two minutes to get the idea.

Also note that this has been slightly modernized

and is not the classic doom

Just Cause 2: Multiplayer Mod

  Today I don't have a game to review, but something more to add to a game.  What I'm trying to say is this is more of a announcement than a review.  So many months back a dedicated team of moders got together, took a awesome open world game that originally was a single player game and make it compatible for multiple people to play together.  May sound easy but this takes weeks or even months of converting to allow servers to run off the game's engine.  The modification has been under development since July of 2012, undergoing seventeen beta tests since its release.  Scattered throughout the this year and the last, the tests started out small, hidden and reserved for the teams IRC channel and twitter followers.  It slowly became more well known to the gaming community as it became public and after many beta tests it was a highly anticipated release with every beta test released until the community screamed for the completion of the mod.  Until finally a few days ago they announced the seventeenth and final beta test before the official release.  In preparation the creators are
giving out beta keys to download and play the mod on Steam as you would any Steam game, but you do need to have the actual game to play the mod, but don't worry, its worth it.  So the final beta test is taking place between December 7 to the 14th before they announce when the mod will officially be released for a permanent stay.  So great mod, really fun, and their are moments when I just go gut busting laughing at things in this mod.  I hope you leave here more informed than you came, take care and I will be back next Wednesday with a real post.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.

good times

PAYDAY 2 Review

  Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing well.  Today I'm reviewing a game that I think is truly unique experience in co-operative gaming.  Now I usually don't review sequels, but with this game other than the characters theirs not much plot to explain.  PAYDAY 2 returns with the four main protagonists Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf.  As you once again step into the shoes of these men, you have a simple goal: get into the bank, get the money and have your payday.  Or at least thats what it used to be, now there's so much more.  Jewelry stores, strip malls, gold deposits, and so many more heists than the last game.  More guns are now available with more attachments and color schemes, provided you are high enough level to unlock them, also have to have the money to purchase them.  Taking place in Washington D.C, the player has the ability to customize their character via a mask that can be edited to be awesome, provided you have the money, color scheme, material and design for the mask.  So anyway, your in D.C. linked in with something called Crime Net, a crime planning program that helps you choose jobs to hit with friends and hopefully make it back to your safe-house in one piece.  All provided by your best unseen friend BANE, the creator of Crime Net and mastermind of the criminal underworld. He will guild you through jobs via his associates, recommend the job best suited to your level and skill and guides you through the mission as it

Defending against the Feds on a jewelry store heist

happens.  Another new feature, or at least a feature in development, is your safehouse.  This is your home away from homes, this is where you spend your downtime after the heist.  Your money, masks, and weapons are stored here,  The developers say that in later updates that the option to customize your safe-house and possibly share it with friends.  These are some of many new features introduced in this kick-ass sequel.  For those of you who have never played a PAYDAY game, I'll walk through the basics.  I'll talk about a bank heist, original and fun.  You begin across the street from the bank in a alleyway.  Depending on what apparel you chose to wear, for example heavy armor equals lots of protection while less visible armor offers less protection, but also a less likely possibility of being detected while in plain sight.  So if you have no armor on you could basically walk through the front door until you put your mask on, which triggers combat mode, meaning you can now shoot stuff and will be detected.  So before you enter the bank, you will have to grab a drill used to drill through the vault.  After you enter the bank, you have the option of taking care of security problems, like disabling security cameras, zip-ting guards, and jamming outgoing transmissions.  So after this you are drilling through the vault, this will take awhile so depending if you have tripped the alarm or not, you will fortify your position with planks you can find to board up windows.  You can also plant trip-mines, zip-tie civilians to serve as hostages that will b used to bargain with police if you are taken into custody.  After holding out for a while against SWAT teams or waiting peacefully, sipping tea waiting for the drill to finish, the doors will open and there will be THE VAULT, that thing full of millions of dollars in cash and gold.  So you will throw all this cash into bags that you will carry out and throw in the van, after all the bags are loaded into the back, get in the van and your done.  It sounds simple, but you got to waver through the large groups of enemies to get it gone.  Also, if any of the crew is captured, after loading the bags, the game will recommission you to a "escape" mission in which you hold out until the van arrives.  Other than that, there's not too much to it.  Although its hard to describe this game without writing a book.  So I'll just leave it at awesome game 9.4/10 in my opinion.  I hope you have all enjoyed this and I will be back in two weeks, Thanksgiving and all.  So until next time.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.

awesome trailer, recommend watching in fullscreen HD

Mirror's Edge Review

   

Mirror's Edge Cover

     Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your life is filled with happiness and puppies, lots of puppies.  Okay, so as mentioned in last weeks post, I will be reviewing possibly the best free-running game of the generation; Mirror's Edge.  Developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and produced by Electronic Arts, Mirror's Edge was released on November 12, 2008 on Xbox 360 & PS3, while it was released for PC on January 13, 2009.  The game received many awards but criticism was mainly focused at the short story and overall play time.  However the game introduced many new concepts to the parkour genre such as first person running along with a mix of combat and running, making it a unique experience among games.  The game also displays a new form of free running including sliding under barriers, tumbling, wall-running, and shimmying across ledges allowing a greater sense of movement along the roofs and occasionally streets.  One of the little things I loved about the game is that there is no heads up display, allowing a more realistic first person view.  The player can also see their arms and legs, instead of just being a floating head jumping over buildings. So the plot of the game is set in the nearby future in a dystopian city where the inhabits live in a peaceful crime free environment.  However, this peace is held up with that of government tyranny in which a militarized police force keeps the population in check via fear and force. 10 years prior to the game, a numerous amounts of highly populated riots were held against the government tyranny.  Faith was part of these riots when she was a little girl, her mother was killed by the police, commonly called "Blues". The riots were eventually ended by the Blues, but there were those who were condemned to death or prison if caught. You are Faith, a member of the Runners, those who deliver messages and packages across the city, employed by the criminally condemned who serve as their clients. The game starts out with a  introduction narrated by Faith explaining her identity and so forth.  After a quick training course, you run across the city, encountering Blues along the way and then deliver a package, followed by a escape away from the Blues.  While at Merc's headquarters (Merc is the man who arranges the Runner's contract and also trained Faith) there is a heavy audio traffic coming from a office building, that Faith's sister, Kate is in.  While trying to get a read on the situation, Merc pops back in from a contract he was running, Faith tells him to monitor her while she runs to the office building.  After running across town to the office building and encountering several Blues along the way, Faith enters the offices to find her sister in the large office of Tomas Pope, human rights activist fighting for more freedom in the oppressed city.  He is dead, and Kate was set up and will be framed for it.  You flee the office after a conversation with Kate and grabbing a piece of ripped paper supposedly from Pope's journal reading Icarus".  It is up to Faith to prove Kate innocent and find out what Project Icarus is.  Throughout the game the player will thrive to discover these secrets, aside from the main story there are also time trails that can be undertaken to test ones ability in their skills of free running.  I really enjoyed the game and would give it a 9.4 of 10.  Great game and I hear a second one is coming out within the next year or so.  I hope you all have enjoyed this review and I will be back next Wednesday with another post.  Until then, have fun.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.

Mirror's Edge Trailer, watch in 720 HD for full effect