Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing great. Today I'm going to be reviewing a game that revived the genre and became known to everyone. Mortal Kombat is a game that most kids my age had the luxury of playing in the arcade that went on to evolve into something greater. Starting out as a 2D arcade fighter, it kept true to its roots until after the second one. After that it went down hill with crappier gameplay and appearance. Since Mortal Combat X is out until April 2015, I will instead review the 2011 version, MK9. Now for storytime, so sit back and relax. In the beginning of time the six realms were created and the Elder Gods decreed that if one realm was to merge with the other, one would have to defeat that world's champions in ten consecutive mortal combat tournaments. Later in time, there is a buff guy that wears a skull helmet named Shao Kahn who is as powerful as a god and is leader of Outworld, a realm. He has set his sights on Earth realm and sends his emissary, Shang Tsung, to go wage the tournament against Earth realm. Since the tournaments begin, Raiden the God of Thunder had been guiding the champions of the Realm against Outworld's fighters. After nine losses to Outworld, Earth realm is on the edge of destruction. Raiden puts forward Liu Kang who defeats all the contestants and Shang Tsung himself, sending them packing. In order to save his life from his master's wrath, Shang Tsung that the tournament should be
Fight in progress, X-ray move used above
hosted in Outworld, so Shao Kahn can defeat them personally. Liu Kang beats everyone and punches a hole through Shao Kahn's chest and it kills him, but not really. Fast forward through some other games where people understandingly start to get lost, we come to a giant pyramid that everyone starts killing each other trying to get to the top. After everyone is dead, only Raiden and Shao Kahn remain.
Right before Shao Kahn kills Raiden, he sends a vague message to his past self saying "He must win". So basically Raiden comes to the understanding that he must do it all over again. So theres the story, the nice thing is that you can buy this game and you won't have missed anything at all. Combat is what you'd expect for a 2D fighting platform, you can punch and kick or mix for some varied combos. Each character has their own moves, you could play as the undead hellspawn ninja Scorpion or the four armed half-dragon Goro and many other characters. They all have moves unique to them, combos having different animations and effects. The combo bar is a new feature added in MK9, allowing combos to become more powerful or if the bar is charged fully the player can execute their x-ray move. This attack is extremely efficient and shows the interior damage being done, thus the name. A large feature of Mortal Kombat is the fatalitys, moves that can be used after your opponent is defeated to finish them off in a gruesome way. These vary from chopping them into many different pieces with swords to turning into a dragon and biting them in half. Gore to the max. Mortal Kombat is a game best shared with friends, like a gory version of Guitar Hero. Other than that, theres not much to say about it, great game though. Hope you all enjoyed and I will be back next week with another post. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. Today I'm going to be exploring one of the most imaginative games that isn't a medevil fantasy game. That game is Bioshock, an game best known for its plot twists and imagery thats developed and published by 2K Gmaes. Bioshock received critical praise for its atmosphere and storytelling, so without further pause I will begin. You are Jack, a man on a plane which crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. Jack being the only survivor, swims to a lighthouse that is strangely close to the wreckage. Jack goes inside the lighthouse and boards a submarine, which takes him to the amazing underwater city of Rapture. He arrives to find that Rapture is in chaos and fighting a civil war to top it off. This minute long video can explain things better than I can, so watch this unless you wish to be hopelessly confused. So now that you've watched that video, we can resume. From ADAM overdose, splicers are formed. They are people whose minds have been warped by plasmids, tonics that give genetic powers ranging from shooting lighting from your hands to releasing bees out of your arms to swarm enemies. So these plasmids made most the populace go crazy and try to kill Jack as soon as they see him. So Jack exits the submarine and hears the voice of Atlas over the radio, who asks Jack to help him and his family escape Rapture, and Jack can come with them, yay! So its up to Jack to fight his way through splicers and maniacs alike to escape Rapture. Unique in my eyes, Bioshock is carried both by its story and its gameplay. Since I cant talk about the story least I spoil anything, I will explore the gameplay. Coming out in 2007, this game is still graphically impressive by today's standards and still a marvel to admire.
Jack fighting a Big Daddy
Bioshock is an FPS at heart, throwing guns at you to create your own arsenal. Your weapons can be upgraded at Power to The People machines, which can only apply one upgrade per machine before they self combust for some reason. Many plasmids can be obtained throughout the game which give different powers, there are also different levels for each plasmid, which can rise up to level three becoming more powerful with each level. There are also Gene Tonics which affect the speed of the player, how fast they hack machines, what weapons do more damage and so forth. Both plasmids and gene tonics can be purchased at a Gatherers Garden machine with ADAM. Ah, ADAM, the stuff that makes the world go round, the thing everyone wants. This magical substance can only be obtained from Little Sisters (see video) who are guarded by Big Daddies, the toughest enemies in the game. They are giant armored creatures that were once men and have one purpose: protect their Little Sister to the last breath. Theres one on the cover, with the Little Sister in the backround. Once the Big Daddy is dealt with, the player can choose to save the Little Sister, turning her back into a child and receiving 80 ADAM. However if your a heartless bastard that wants the bad ending, you can harvest them for double ADAM but they will not survive. Besides, you get all the ADAM you need by saving them and it leaves a "I did the right thing" feeling, also plays a heartwarming tune when you save them. Theres also alot of plasmids and tonics that are useless, so you don't need double ADAM. Since there is many weapons, there are also many different ammo types such as anti-personal, armor-piercing and explosive rounds are effective against different enemies. Hacking is also a key part of the game, allowing Jack to hack turrets, open safes, and security cameras that spot enemies that call weaponized drones. This is done through a pipe mini game that is getting the water from one end of the square to the other. With masterful story telling and fun shoot 'em up gameplay, Bioshock is truly a unique game. I find it fun and enjoyable awesome game with a good replay value, I recommend it to anyone who has a pair of hands. I hope you all enjoyed and I will be back next week with another post. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing well. As of recent times I have been reviewing alot of small studio games (excluding Skyrim) along with some indie platforms. So today I'd thought I'd review a game I almost got around to reviewing last year but didn't. Assassin's Creed III is perhaps my favorite of the series and with the 7th one coming around the corner I'd thought I...oh whats that? Your confused that I'm reviewing the 3rd one when the seventh one is coming out? Well the answer is quiet simple...kind of. Also there are 12 other AC games I didn't know existed until recently and don't matter. The first game followed the adventures of Altair Ibn- La'Ahad (during the Third Crusade in what is now Turkey) on his quest for redemption because he killed some innocent, had his death faked then became awesome enough to replace the other 200 Assassins who he knew. The next three games follow the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze (during the Italian Renaissance during the 15th century into the 16th) on his quest for revenge at the death of his family, which then turn into building the Assassin brotherhood to its peak in Italy to battle the Templars (these guys that believe that humanity cannot be trusted with it's own freedom and must forced into submission, also these guys are sown into important roles in society to better manipulate it. It Ubisoft's Aluminati.) This takes him from Florence to Rome across the sea to Constantinople and back again. So thats a quick recap of the last games, with AC4 following after this one which has pirates, YARR. Now quick rundown on the story, read my version or watch this video, maybe both. So the Templars (the bad guys) and the Assassins (the good guys) have been fighting for hundred of years over having a free world devoid of tyrannical control or one controlled behind the shadows treating people like puppets. I'll let you match the options with their right partners. So the year is 2012 and the protagonist is Desmond Miles, a guy who is lucky enough to be a descendant of the most influential and important Assassins of all time. Desmond was raised in a solitary life to be an Assassin but ran
Cast of characters, no idea of the guy on the far right and Aveline isn't necessary to the story
away, years later in his 20s he is kidnapped by the mega corporation Abstergo, which is actually led by the Templars. They put Desmond in the Animus, a machine that allows one to relieve the life of their ancestors. After reliving a part of the life of Altair who redeems himself by killing nine high ranking Templars, he finds out theres a tenth Templar; his mentor. He fights his mentor and grabs this artifact that is really important, touching it and discovering the location of several Pieces of Eden, powerful artifacts left behind by the First Civilization like the one hes holding. These guys came before everyone else did, with a more powerful existing before the Sun wiped out all life on the Earth. They created many artifacts to stop the end of the world but it didn't work. Desmond is yanked back out of the Animus and is told he is of no further use to the Templars and is returned to his room. Certain rare people have this sixth sense called Eagle Vision that allows them to see things usually unseen. Desmond sees that Subject Sixteen, the guy before Desmond, played finger art with his blood on the walls which is pretty fucking deranged. Though that guy did go crazy and kill himself because the Animus was becoming reality for him. Thats right, the Animus will kill you if your over exposed, just like drugs. Although through long periods of time in the Animus Desmond can pick up on the bleeding effect, allowing him to learn the skills of his ancestors in a short time. Desmond is then rescued by Lucy, a double agent working within the Templars, but is actually an Assassin. She gets Desmond out of there and takes him to a safe house to meet Shawn, this British guy who you don't like, but then like and Rebecca this tech girl who you like and keep liking. Desmond hops in the Animus and dives into Ezio's memories. Some stuff happens, Ezio kills most the guys behind his family's murder, reunites the brotherhood and discovers a special vault beneath the Vatican which contains a message from Manirva, a First Civilization person, for Desmond in the future. WHHHAAAAA!!!
The message is a second solar flare is coming thats going to kill everyone, and they must find the answer the First Civilization left behind to save the world the second time around. Desmond hops out of the Animus, fights some Templars attacking the safe house, then fleeing to the Villa Auditore, Ezio's old villa, he hops back in to the Animus and back into Ezio's life. Ezio's villa is destroyed, the brotherhood is shattered and Ezio goes to Rome to reunite the Assassins and defeat the new threat. Some stuff happens, he kills the big baddie, and hides an Apple of Eden inside the Colosseum. Desmond and Co. heads there and finds the Apple which freezes everyone, Juno, another First Civilization person tells Desmond that Lucy was working for the Templars the whole time. WHHHHAAAAA!!!!!! The Apple possesses Desmond and makes him
Connor fighting some Redcoats
stab Lucy, she dies and Desmond goes into a coma from overexposure to the Animus. He wakes up in a virtual world and meets a version of Subject 16 he injected into the Animus before he offed himself. He tells Desmond that he was put into the Animus to save his life and that he must revisit the unseen years of Altair and Ezio to separate the two in his mind so he can wake up. Revelations happens and isn't really important other than at the end Ezio somehow sees Desmond and gives him everything he learned from the Apple of Eden also establishing a link back to reality. Also when Altair died he sealed himself inside this library with another Apple of Eden, which is for some reason glossed over. Desmond wakes up to find his dad standing over him telling him they found the place with the promise of saving the world. So they walk in, unlocking a door thats open with Ezios Apple. Finding ancient ruins with a wall of energy separating them from Earth's salvation. The ruins are putting out an Animus signal, which the gang acts upon and sends Desmond into the Animus. He takes on Haytham Kenway, an Assassin sent across the sea in 1754 with the artifact are heroes need to open up the "prevent apocalypse" door. He gets on the ship and arrives in America, bumping into Benjamin Franklin along the way. He meets Charles Lee and sets off to recruit and reunite members to his cause. While doing so, he disguises as a Redcoat to get into a camp of British soldiers led by a former friend, now enemy. In the act they take a slave caravan full of Native Americans. Upon arriving they set the natives free and Haytham sneaks his way through the camp to find the man there looking for isn't there.
Haytham and Kaniehti:io
Haytham asks Kaniehti:io, the leader of the Mohawk prisoners, if she recognizes the strange amulet he has. She says she will take Haythem to its source if he kills General Braddock, a man whos been killing the Natives in his quest for expansion. Also hes a former member of the order. He finds Braddock, chases him and Kaniehti:io tackles George Washington off his horse who is right next to Braddock. Haytham kills Braddock and takes his ring. Kaniehti:io takes Haytham to the source of the amulet, he finds out the amulet is not associated with this cave. Haytham goes back to Boston with his friends and decides Charles Lee has proven himself and puts the ring on his finger. Also through creative writing that avoided the subject until now, it turns out that Haytham and his friend are Templars. WHHAAAA!!! Years pass by and the player is now playing as Ratonhnhake:ton, the son of Haytham and Kaniehti:io. He is a young child living in his village and is playing games in the forest with his friends when he is attacked by Charles Lee. The two exchange words and Lee knocks out Ratonhnhake:ton.
He wakes to find his village burning and his mother trapped beneath a beam in a burning hut. He tries to save her, but cannot and she dies. Years later Ratonhnhake:ton is talking to the Elder of the Village about his mother, she reveals Lee was looking for an artifact and the village is there to protect that artifact. Ratonhnhake:ton picks up the sphere and is given a vision by the Juno that he must seek the Assassins in order to save his village. He sets out and finds Achilles, a retired assassin living at a homestead in the countryside. After some stubborn negotiating Achilles reluctantly agrees to train Ratonhnhake:ton. So they set to work and Achilles decides to call Ratonhnhake:ton Connor to make the settlers friendlier towards him. So the stage is set and Connor (Ratonhnhake:ton) will set out on his epic quest to save his people and fight a revolution to form a nation while witnessing many historical events. Like Assassin's Creed II, the game has three open world maps that you can rotate to at any time; Boston, New York and the Frontier. Several new features have been added to the game and some have been improved on.
Connor hunting an Elk
The freerunning is smoother and looks nicer, also allowing natural things to be climbed like cliffs and jump between trees, something previously unseen in the series. In the scenario of being chased the player can side under a fence or even run through part of a structure to gain some distance. The counter system has improved allowing for failure instead of making you a one man army, making you have to press a counter button before than executing a counter attack that range from firing the pistol at the target to stick a bomb to them while throwing them at a group of enemies. During gun fire sequences enemies can be used as a body shield and finishing moves pack a satisfying punch as you duck and dodge your way through enemies. Guns appear in the form of muskets, the player can carry two pistol, firing up to four shots with the double barrel pistols. These weapons prove to be useful yet take long to reload, therefore not seeming to overpowered. A new stealth weapon is Connor's longbow which can be used to kill enemies silently. Another new feature added in AC3 is hunting, allowing another use for the bow. Through hunting, the player can acquire things that people want and sell pelts for money. Hunting can be direct with bow and musket or can happen when the player is not even present with the introduction of snares mixed with bait. A new crafting-trading system is added in which Connor can send pelts or make weapons, furniture, saddles and such things to sell. Doing this you load the goods up on a ship or wagon and sent it to a certain store or trading post, depending of the good to the certain trading post, you will be paid according to what that post wants. A religious convent will pay more for pelts than cannons and so forth. This will be the players primary source of income so they can purchase new weapons and ship upgrades, which are the most expensive things in the game.
Connor's Tomahawk, awesome
The crafting also allows the player to craft personal objects like swords and guns. This is quite useful as the best pistol is acquired through this system. The only flaw with this system is while naval missions are fun, there not necessary to the gameplay like in AC4 where being a pirate and owning a ship go hand in hand. Also the money you make mainly goes towards this, so once you've crafted all the upgrades, there is no motivation to make money, which is hard mind you. In my experience the easiest way to make money is to go to this little corner of the map and kill bears while waiting for more bears to show up. So after killing twenty bears, each which are killed which are killed through a three step quicktime event, you start to grow weary. The stuff that's hardest to make requires a craftsman of that skill to a certain degree. Certain characters throughout the world can be invited to stay at your homestead to make a life for themselves. You will come to bond with the inhabitants of your little piece of property and come to treat them as family. The gear you are given has no armor tacked on to it, forcing you to rely and your reflexes otherwise be scraped off a redcoat's boot. The weapons you are given follow a similar trend, in the sense there's no reason to buy new equipment because despite the stats applied to weapons they all stab things with equal force. Connor's arsenal consisted of his two hidden blades, a bad ass looking tomahawk that you will never get rid of because its bad ass.
Achilles explaining the ropedart to Connor
He also had a sword, two pistols, poison and a new weapon: the rope dart which allows Connor to hang enemies from trees and pull them down in the heat of battle. The assassin recruitment is back, although sadly with little use. Although the assassins can now use tactics such as sniping enemies from a distance, planting bombs and pretending to be the enemy. Forts are now added, the player can take Templar forts to further their influence so they can recruit assassins and be able to walk around without being tackled every twenty feet. The wanted system returns, if the player has committed crime, posters will be put up and heralds will yell about stuff you did, Connor can also visit a printing press to wipe the slate clean. In between trying to save the free world, Connor can play games like checkers, Bowls, Morris, and Fanorona. If you don't know what those are, look them up. The new dialogue system is interesting, allowing you to have conversations with people throughout the world. One that really blew my mind is that you have a drink with an assassin you recruited and find out Haytham killed his uncle before his eyes to get the magic amulet thing you're fighting for the whole game. Despite AC3 being my favorite of the games, even as the AC4 came out and was fun, the one thing that bothered me most was Connor. Despite being a major all around bad ass who has good moral premise and will always do the right thing, he is humorless. Its such a dramatic change to go from Ezio, smiley happy lady's man to Connor. He has his moments which make them special because of this. Overall as a game I'd give AC3 a solid 9 of 10. I 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 doing well. Most of the time when I'm looking to review a game and don't feel satisfied with what I'm doing I turn around and reach into the zombie bin, the very large container which is the zombie adaptations seen in video games. While alot of them are the same old shoot 'em up zombie game, there comes a special time when you find the diamond in the pile of rocks. For me, State of Decay is one of those diamonds. Developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Studios, this third person persistent open world stealth zombie-survival horror game was released fully on July 2, it is also a mouthful to explain. Set in a open world country valley with two towns, this games is loads of fun. State of Decay shows something that unseen in zombie games; it makes you build your world to survive. Based around established a safe haven from the hordes of undead and rescuing survivors to join your community. The story is generic and it is the gameplay that carries the title. You are camping at a lake when zombies attack and you need to find out whats going on, survive long enough to face the hordes and escape. The you find out that the valley is boarded up and the military has jumped ship. Another cool feature about the game is the concept of no second chances, you die, your dead. During the game, you take control of no one single character, as you want to level up all their stats so they can become the ultimate survivor. Also, a character's stamina will deteriorate over time if they do not get sleep. Back on the death system, if a character
Surveying the area is always a good idea
dies, then that character is dead permanently and you will be thrown into another character, if none are available, then the game will restart. The characters have many skills to level such as gun skills, cardio, and fighting skills, these skills will level through their use. Each area comes with new opportunities, from clearing infestations, helping survivors, scavenging for supplies and establishing outposts where you can restock (different from home base). Targets can be marked by climbing up cell towers or high viewpoints. After getting a good view of your surroundings, you can explore to find food, weapons, medicine and ammo, all of which you will need to maintain your community. The game takes familiar concepts of zombie games like the scarcity of ammo and guns, not to take on hordes of zombies, also stay stealthy whenever possible. The player has a large number of melee weapons and guns st there disposal that can be found throughout the map. Most of the world is farmlands with small areas of interest such as towns, road stops and farmhouses, just to name a few. Your character can carry a certain number of items until they are encumbered and will be exhausted easily. Influence is earned through depositing items into the safe for other survivors to use, this also affects the gear you may withdraw to use. Gear also becomes damaged over time, with a workshop your cars and weapons can be repaired overnight. Supplies which you use differ from supplies that are needed for home base. This means guns and ammo will be used by the survivors when put in the safe while rucksacks of medicine are needed to keep everyone healthy, food keeps everyone from starving and the most precious resource is ammo which is used to fight the zombies.
Run..
Materials are also collected so buildings can be built, upheld in good condition and so forth. Rucksacks can be "broken" open to get a few things of morphine or bullets for personal use, however this is unwise as it is a waste of supplies. Home base is where you retire to drop of rucksacks, switch survivors and the place where you feel safer than anywhere else. There are over five home base locations to chose from that offer different advantages while possibly accommodating more space for people. Gardens, bedrooms, workshops, medical bays, libraries, and extra storage are some of the expansions offered to make your home base more secure and better equipped for attacks. A variety of cars are offered with different durability and speed allowing you to traverse the terrain easier while allowing gear and rucksacks to be stored in the trunk. Each day is two hours long realtime, one hour for day and one for night. The enemies are zombies, who run at you and are dangerous in groups and best taken on with a gun. There are also mutated zombies that make the game challenging at times, the massive hordes were hard enough, but to then add in zombies that are twice your size and can tackle you dead while others are the size of a truck make is a pain in the neck sometimes. What is amusing to me is there are multiple of these truck sized Juggernauts in this small valley where men of eight feet are common. Anyway, same rules, destroy the brain
Melee fighting
and the corpse wont move anymore, except the fucking Juggernaut zombies that take two clips from a M16 to kill, I mean fuck, ammo is scarce enough as it is without this shit. While I'm on the subject, why not discuss the game's flaws for reference for the sequel. One of the HUGE flaws of the game is the looting system, the idea is to collect supplies to survive, however once you loot a building, it's empty, the end. While this plays great into realism, the question is: what happens once I've looted everything? The answer is your screwed, boxed in a little valley with finite resources and repetitive rescue quests just keep coming. Here an example. I was played as my best leveled character, who could take on ten zombies face first and shoot a nickel midair a hundred yards away. So hes tired and needs rest, I drive to home base a few blocks away and switch to a different character of much lesser skill and set out. Five minutes later I'm looting a house when I hear a distress beacon from a few houses down. So I race down towards to beacon to find my number one cornered by three zombies. WHAT. THE. FUCK. The game treats all characters the same, so they only have power when your playing them. It takes away the "I'm the only guy who does anything around here" feeling because your everyone and then gives it back with this. It doesn't help you have to do this kind of mission over and over again so your survivor who you've invested time in doesn't die. Also it takes away the main things that make the apocalypse the apocalypse: the other survivors that will shoot you dead for a can of beans. Every human encountered wants to share tea and cakes with you, and even give you freaking sports cars! Theres no greater danger than the hordes that never make it to your home because of the minefield you built. Overall, its the gameplay that carries State of Decay, and I like it despite its flaws and bugs. It makes you do what a survivor would really do in the case of the apocalypse. Good game that I would recommend to any survivalist or zombie lover. Hope you enjoyed this review and I will be back in two weeks. Until then, have fun. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
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.
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