Halo 4 Review

The Halo series is an action packed and exciting saga, so does the newest title of this amazing line up live up to its predecessors? I believe so, with detailed visuals, an intricate and emotional storyline and respectable game play, 343 industry’s Halo 4 ticks all the boxes. Picking up where halo 3 left off, the epic saga of Master Chief continues as he faces more than just the physical threat of the covenant.

The Multiplayer

Halo 4, as with previous Halo titles contains the all admired multiplayer mode, dubbed ‘war games’. These games are generated as you and your fellow Spartans plug yourselves in for a realistic, but harmless combat situation where you are pitted to the death. New changes to the multiplayer system have introduced Load outs. This allows you to configure what you would like to go into combat with from a restricted choice of weapons and perks. Whilst receiving some criticism as to how it might turn Halo 4 into another Call of duty game, it kept its boundaries from the other popular franchise. Many new weapons were also introduced, including the storm rifle, rail gun and various promethean weapons which have been established by the newest race to the Halo franchise. Along with these saw the return of the battle rifle, DMR and other time-old Halo weapons.

Halo 4 also returned with new and old armour gadgets, allowing players to jet pack over objects, sprint at lightning speeds or even use x-ray vision. These have added complexity to combat, changing the way Spartans fight, but for the better or worse?

With these new upgrades to multiplayer comes a flashy new lobby screen, whilst slightly more confusing and frustrating at times it has a much nicer look and better integration. There are plenty of playlists to choose from, consisting of the classic slayer, capture the flag and oddball, with some new ones like dominion and Flood (Zombie) mode. Whilst hanging around in the lobby waiting to join a match you can set up your personalized load outs, configure your settings and customize your looks. Player customization has became an integral part of the halo series, switching up helmets and colours to get your personal look makes the game all that more special.

There are two general types of Halo 4 game modes, based on whether you’re trying to complete an objective or just straight out killing. I prefer both, which is offered in regicide. A player from each team is assigned king depending on how well they are playing, and each team must protect their own king, whilst trying to take out the other. This is great fun as you can mix up your play style from hiding away your king, to blasting the other team off the face of requiem.

Another playlist, slayer, tasks you with eliminating other players either as a team or Free For All. This can prove an interesting experience whether you are jumping in with friends chatting through your Xbox live party, meeting new people or perhaps even trolling. Whatever you are doing, there are many game modes to try with 343 industry’s enjoyable take on Halo’s multiplayer.

Another great aspect of what 343 has done with the game is the addition of Spartan Ops, an added feature that expands the Halo universe to more than just master chiefs story. Released by free DLC in season packages, it details the operations of Crimson team as they return to requiem 6 months after the end of the Halo 4 campaign. You are match made with a maximum of three other players for an awesome co-op experience. Unlike the campaign Spartan ops features more generic wave fighting, meaning you camp out most of the mission taking out hundreds of bad guys. These can be great fun to play with some mates, coordinate your defences, load up with some gear and see how many you can take down with you.

The Campaign

Once again, the story of John 117, the Master Chief, proved to be an engaging experience. Those who are familiar with the series have formed strong bonds with John and his AI Cortana, making the game an emotional tale as well as your standard FPS. This emotional side is strengthened by Cortana’s rampancy, a part of her AI stage of life where she literally thinks herself to death.

Beginning where you left of in Halo 3, aboard the UNSC Frigate Forward Until Dawn you make your way through the levels with sheer determination; what will happen next? Can I save Cortana? As you venture further into the game you will uncover more than you bargained for, revealing new races to the Halo universe as well as some old ones. The game brought a sheer sense of nostalgia as I remembered back to the original Halo games, the weapons, the characters and the epic legend of the Master Chief. No other franchise can capture that deeply instilled emotional bond with a veteran fan and that is what makes the Halo series so great.

Halo 4 registered high on my list of all time greats, including a genuinely interesting and compelling storyline, fun and exciting game play and a wide range of content choices, it is certainly a hot choice for game of the year. I look forward to further titles from 343 industries and to more Halo games, awarding Halo 4 with a mighty 9/10! Huzzah to Halo!

Infinity Blade 2 Review

The epic story of Siris is continued in the epic sequel to the original, Infinity Blade 2. With complex, captivating visuals, deep, meaningful gameplay and excellently written story, Infinity Blade 2 smashed my expectations and provided hours of fun on the quest to defeat the deathless beings. Epic games, the developer of the Infinity Blade series have obviously placed much effort towards making the game what it is, not some second rate effort to rip off their fans, but a well composed and genuine effort to make a good game. This game always mesmerized me and being wrapped in so many layers during the development its hard not to. But with all these graphics, sounds, story developments, concepts and ideas, Infinity blade 2 still pulls in on what’s important, the gameplay, a component that should be at heart of any and all games.

First and foremost, the most important part of Infinity Blade 2 is the gameplay which pure genius in concept and execution, albeit a little repetitive at times. Placing you right in with the swordplay, your swipes can deflect, dodge and block anything your opponent throws at you and if your skilled enough you can chain together powerful combos of attacks to deal huge damage. Your first aim as a player is to improve you dodge and parry reflexes, If you cant stay alive you can’t win right? Different enemy’s have different attack patterns and the key is to learn all of them, recognize the animations and prepare a defence, once you’ve got this down pack you can move onto striking back. Infinity Blades combat works in a ‘sort of’ turn based fight with seamless integration, meaning you have to block as many attacks as you can, than take your turn at dealing some damage. If you attack before your ‘turn’, than only a minute amount of damage is dealt. All these components piece nicely together to create an enjoyable experience. The combat does have a few flaws, with parry swipes missing for no reason and some bad lag at points, but overall the system is fairly clean of glitches and bugs. The one part of the gameplay that really ticks me off is the elemental damage, once you get a little deeper in the game these elemental additions to opponents render a shield virtually useless, forcing you to dodge and parry everything to stay alive. Why have a shield if it can’t block damage? This can be countered with elemental protection gems, but with such a diversity of elements, it is nearly impossible to protect against them all.

Whilst most of the equipment and titan models are just re textured versions of the first games, the layered and absorbing graphics help to draw you into the game and create a great IOS experience. The background is utterly jaw dropping, a fountain flows behind you as you take down a giant monster, ancient structures surround an arena as you take down a huge beast and a massive tower dominates the land, the centrepiece of the whole game. I still don’t understand why so much content was recycled from infinity blade 1, sword, shield and armour models where simply re-textured and given different attributes. With so much time on their hands for amazing graphics, it would have been nice to see some new models from epic games. The graphics are accompanied by some cleverly crafted sound effects, clangs and clashes come from everywhere as you fight it out neck and neck, you can hear the jingling of chain mail, the movement of hinges and the grunts as you lift your huge sword. The entire game can be intensified or calmed with on the dot music, matching the emotions of your character throughout the entire experience

Infinity Blade 2 is a complete game with few flaws drawing away from its awesomeness, with an equilibrium of enjoyable gameplay, graphics, sound and story. The game is surely worth the price and any gamer can expect hours upon hours of fun, this game is certainly not your typical old sidescroller or angry birds clone, its a genre in its own, something never before seen in IOS gaming.

Terra Incognita – RPG goes Retro style with this upcoming Game.

Terra Incognita is a forthcoming RPG that is heavily inspired by Retro games, an epic journey drawing concepts and ideas from games like Suikoden 2 and final fantasy. As is with many aspiring Indie projects, Terra Incognita began with kick-starter, asking but a meek €500. But typical kindness, generosity and delight to see a new indie project pop up accumulated to a total of €3,650, meaning Dan will be adding loads of extra content to the game. Drawing concepts and ideas from games like Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy, Terra Incognita is set to release December this year for PC, with later dates for Ouya, Android and Wii U.

1 - The combat system in early development.

Terra Incognita will consist of many different elements, with quests, dungeons and main and secondary storylines.

 Dan hinted in his kick-starter page that the game will include:

·         A gripping storyline 

·         A Vast World Map with lots of towns/cities/dungeons and more!

·         Tons of side-quests!

·         Items/ weapons/ equipment, Magic, Potions, Spells and more!

·         Lots of recruitable characters that are not story critical but can be used as battle party members!

·         Every character has their own special technique learning section. As well as learning Magic spells and other abilities.

·         Each party member’s statistics vary, depending on their class.  

·         Lots and lots of dungeon crawling, looting and monster hunting away from the main story, IF you're into that sort of thing (Of course you are!)

Character Sprites.

For a two man team a lot of effort has been and will be put into this game, I truly hope that Dan can meet his standards and produce for us an amazing Retro Inspired game which will take us back to the days of final fantasy and those other classic RPGs. If you’re feeling charitable donate or pre purchase the game from www.terraincognitarpg.net, and help this Indie Project be the best it can be. All the best to Dan with Terra Incognita, It’s great to see lots of interest in his game and with a bit of luck it will continue to grow into an epic game.

The Walking Dead Review: An Emotional Thriller From The Apocalypse

The Walking Dead, a popular comic and television series, got its game adaptation back in April 2012. Released in stages as episodes throughout the year, it finished up in November last year with its retail hard copy soon following.

The Walking Dead has its exciting, fast action moments as well as in depth dialogue where you get the constant feeling of anticipation, waiting for the moment when you’re going to have to make your move. You take the role of lee, a convicted murderer who is caught in the chaotic world of zombies, survivors and guns, lots of guns.

For those that have not entered The Walking Dead universe before, I will set the scene. The world has been struck by a deadly virus, spread through scratch or bite. First the victim contacts a malevolent fever, from which they quickly die, but soon after they begin to walk, searching for food and people to strip of their scrumptious body parts. This leaves the survivors to survive by any means possible, morals are out of the question for some.

Bandits, walkers, the sane and the insane, survivors and the dead, The Walking Dead makes for a thrilling and emotionally intense game. The detail into not only the comic like graphics, but also the story continues to amaze and that is why it is a smash hit throughout the industry. This point and click adventure truly expands the boundaries of the genre, more of an interactive movie in itself. If you haven’t tried it out yet, head over to the app store and try out the first episode for free, the Walking Dead is something that you must experience.

Robot Unicorn Attack! - A fiery death awaits you!

Attack Of The Robot Unicorns

In a quirky, intense yet somewhat relaxing take on an insane childhood dream, Adult Swim creates one of the strangest games out there. Jumping and smashing your way through a rainbow pixie land you accumulate score as you try to avoid the inevitable fiery death, certainly worth the typical app store fee.

Although glitchy with its random generation which allows many exploits and awkward moments, the game in essence is great. Two simple controls, relaxing and comedic music make this an entertaining and insane game. 

Also included is leader board features for you hardcore arcaders out there, lets make this game a classic eh?!

Help!

The two play styles I use playing Robot Unicorn Attack are 'high flyer' mode, in which I jump and sprint as high as possible to stay away from the dangers of the ground, and 'low flyer' when I stay on the ground as much as possible and use my reflexes. Some tips for getting extra points is simultaneously collecting pixies, smashing as many stars as possible and staying alive of course!

Rating- 9999999999999999999/30

Graphics-999999

Enjoyment-9999999

Controls-9999999

Adult Swim Website - Game can be found for free (PC only) here.

Kingdom Rush - Finally, A Tower Defence Game Worth Playing.

Kingdom rush is a flashy cartoon tower defence game by some awesome developers at Ironhide Game Studios, and published by Armour Games, a much loved gaming website.

 These two great studios have brought forth this amazing game, Kingdom Rush.

This game is simple but intriguing, the cushy graphics and voice acting mixed with enjoyable game play allow hours and hours of tower defence fun.

Game play consists of four basic towers, which can be than upgraded to create more powerful and specialized structures as you defend you kingdom against evil baddies. Whilst being orientated towards strategy, the game still appeals to the average gamer with its easy learning curve. 

 Here's a quick run-down of the towers and their specific uses.

Its effortless and intuitive controls allow easy playing that will keep you hooked much longer than you could anticipate. Challenging, great looking and fun filled this could quiet possibly be the best flash game ever.

Its about 99c on the app store, so get it now and start saving the kingdom!

Rating: 39/40

Graphics-10
Enjoyment-9
Content-10
Controls-10

Link Dump -

Guides to individual levels - http://www.kingdomrush.com/strategy.php

Community forum (Help, Guides, ect.) - http://www.ironhidegames.com/forums/

Plenty of guides on this youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/WyvStudios/videos?view=0

Osmos - Absorb Or Be Absorbed

//Needs to be fine tuned but formatting was annoying so another time perhaps.

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” – Welcome to the world of Osmos, absorb, or be absorbed in the world of motes as you embark on an enthralling odyssey. Offering 8 styles of game play, an ‘adventure’ like mode and multiplayer, Osmos is your first stop when looking to fill up the day and relax yourself.

Categorizing Osmos is a difficult job, it has some fast action moments, but there is a component of strategy and you simply can’t leave out the overwhelming sense of discovery and adventure. Osmos is all of these things, which is why it fetched Ipad Game Of The Year 2010. 

The game mechanics of Osmos open up a whole new style of gameplay, after grasping the concept of energy and physics you can fine tune your play style to match your personality. Are you an agressive player, absorbing at a fast pace, or are you patient, always calculating the angle of attack? Each play style has its own advantages and disadvantages, aggressively absorbing what you can will shrink you fast but you will absorb much faster. But playing carefully will test the patience of even the most tolerant players.


Style Of Game play -
Osmos includes various individual style in which the game can be played, here is a list of them and brief description.



Ambient -
In ambient, all other particles are simply floating around, making easy targets to absorb.





Antimatter -
Antimatter levels have special types of 'antimatter' particles, if you try to absorb these you shrink. Literal anti particles.








Impasse -

Impasse involves all other particles tightly packed and static; until you start moving them of course.

Repulsor -
Repulsor levels have a particle(s) that repel you and everything else, these particles can be tricky to absorb.






Sentient -
Sentient levels include another, special particle. This particle is like you, sentient and moving. Kind of like an osmos version of a 1 v 1 face off.





Solar -
These levels involve a new force, gravitational pull. You and all the other particles are being pushed around in a big circle around the large object in the middle. This can make movement tricky.





Warped chaos -
These levels are chaotic. Multiple particles with gravitational pull are in the game, and they mess with everything you had been taught about Osmos up to this point




Epicycles -
 This is yet another strange mission, the pull of the various objects causes bizarre loops in your course and sends you in all directions. It took a long time for me to master this one.

The Final Judgement

Rating:37 /40
Graphics-10
Enjoyment-9
Content-8
Controls-10