Shooters: forever and always!

Hey guys, its been a while since I last posted and all the things I promised to share in the past kinda died out due to my absence. Today I want to talk a bit about the popular gaming genre of SHOOTERS!

 

We all know that shooters have taken over in the gaming industry because many people enjoy being able to destroy anything in their path with weapons. Personally I enjoy my fair share of shooters but my love of the genre is slowly dying because there are so many shooters over-populating the gaming industry with nothing different from any other shooter because developers focus too much on realism. I get input from my friends on why they like certain games any a lot of them buy a shooter to play multiplayer online. Its actually quite obvious that shooters rely heavily on multiplayer to make a sale as the single player is usually the same crap over and over again, and not to mention that it has no longevity. Shooters only give buyers up to 6 hours of single player game time and then create a multiplayer experience to keep the player glued to their console or PC.

There are shooters I admire which are:     

• MW2
• Gears of war series
• Halo

There are others but these are the 3 I feel are my most admired games. Actually I came to like Halo quite recently because when I first played Halo 3 I thought it was the biggest load of whale piss to ever be created. The single player felt tedious and dull except for the last mission which actually made the game for me, the multiplayer was fun besides one small ( which actually killed the multiplayer for me ) problem- YOU CANT SPRINT!
You know how crap it is to be playing a gametype like oddball where you "run" at exactly the same speed as your opponent and cant catch up to them. However a while later a bunch of my close friends started playing Halo: reach which allowed players to bear certain armour abilities ( one of which is sprint ) and after many entertaining multiplayer games I decided to buy it. To me its the best Halo game because the single player is very fun to do and is a lot more cinematic. Another new feature in reach is being able to perform "assassinations" on enemies by using melee on an enemy from behind. The enemy dies instantly but is shown being killed in a short cutscene.

The next thing I want to discuss is difficulty in these shootersis difficulty.

Halo reach and MW2 are games in which difficulty is used properly according to me. To introduce this I would just like to say that in almost EVERY game with a difficulty level there is an achievement involved for completing said game on the highest difficulty. To me I think its a bit unfair that certain players will have an incomplete achievement list because they are not good enough to obtain the achievement. A games HARDEST difficulty should be a challenge to most players but there should be a well set up environment where even the worst player can think of a way to get through the game. In Gears of war 3 you get the hardest difficulty known as "Insane" which, unlike the previous Gears games, doesnt allow the player to be revived. At first I thought it was a fair challenge until I got to a part of the game where I was on top of a platform killing off enemies while hiding from a barge shooting rockets at me. Enemy melee kills you instantly, 3 shots from an enemy kills you and the barges rockets ( even splash damage ) kill you instantly. I actually rendered that part of the game impossible with one person playing. The best or perhaps only way to get through the game on "Insane" is to camp in a room while another player that is playing on an easier difficulty finishes the job.

After that I tried Black ops hardest difficulty "Veteran". I looked at the achievement list to see that you get achievements for completing certain stages on "Veteran" and another for completing the game on "Hardened" or "Veteran". However I rendered this game completely impossible to complete on Veteran" as in certain stages in order to progress you need to fight off waves of respawning enemies which kill you with 3 pistol bullets. I also noticed that the enemy AI all of a sudden ALWAYS knew where to find  me and how to kill me while my allies AI got reduced to almost nothing. I looked at the games flaws and actually think its one of the worst COD game ever. Its poorly structured, unfairly difficult and it tries to be more cinematic in gameplay which actually kills the game as you watch your character have his 10th near death experience as part of an in game cutscene.

Anyway, next on the agenda is achievements. All games these days have achievements and as far as shooters achievement lists go you will notice that they have achievements for completing the singlr player and more for the multiplayer. To be fair I must say that its actually fun to try obtain achievements for a shooter but heres what irritates me, not just in shooters but other games to, is DLCs. Developers create DLCs to deliver a better experience for that specific game, which also adds achievements to the list (which are usually inobtainable to someone that doesnt have the DLC) I once played Oblivion for days to finish every quest to unlock all the achievements. After I successfully unlocked all 50 achievements and got Oblivions name on my 100% complete list I realised a month later that it disappeared because Xbox live updated the games achievements even though I didnt have the DLC. Now theres 250 gamerscore worth of achievements that I will never get. Its basically saying that you must pay for achievements, which makes me really angry. Same happened with Gears of war, only this time they released DLC within the first 3 months of the games release and now theres 2 DLC which must be purchased to unlock every achievement.

I think that shooters are kind of a waste of money these days although I there will always be certain titles I cant help but buy. MW3 is next on my list because its single player is actually good. I will hopefully post on something again soon. Cheers

Charged with abduction: Videogame Damsels in Distress

Theres nothing better than a damsel in distress who needs saving. We are all most probably familiar with the term and the concept of a Damsel in distress, its when a female character is in desperate need of rescueing by a male protagonist. The first known appearance of this concept was Donkey Kong that featured a damsel in distress known as Pauline. Pauline hasn't in many games as a damsel in distress but instead the more iconic Princess Peach took over and has been the damsel in distress numerous times.

Games that feature Damsels in distress are Conan: Where you find topless women chained up and you have to rescue them, and doing so gives you extra bonuses in the game. Batman Vengeance: an old title in which you have to rescue a tied up damsel named Mary Flynn as part of the story. Wild wild Train: An Iphone app where you operate train systems and at certain stages have to rescue Damsels on the train tracks. There are still plenty more games with the Damsel in distress concept but not many are renown for this concept.

Betty Bux from Wild wild Train

The idea of a Damsel in distress in games is by far one of my favourite concepts and I strongly believe that there should be more of this idea in new gaming ideas. In some games like Fable 3 or Bulletstorm you get an achievement for rescuing a damsel in distress but however they dont pull off the whole damsel in distress thing well. This is because in Fable you rescue a cardboard figure as part of a dungeons and dragons rip-off and in Bulletstorm the person you rescue didnt seem to be in much danger to begin with.

One game however featured a similar idea towards the Damsel in distress idea but instead of being the hero and having to rescue anyone in distress, you got the chance to Kidnap anyone you wanted by the means of a lasso. The game Im refering to is Red Dead Redemption one of Rockstars best games and one of my ALL TIME favourite games. The whole idea of a lasso and being to hogtie any victim you wanted was just an awesome idea in gaming. To add to this you also get an achievement for commiting a classic peril to a hogtied woman, all you have to do is place a hogtied woman on the train tracks and watch her get run over by a train.

I think game developers should create more games with Damsels in distress, and they should do it properly like Red dead redemption did.

Mortal Kombat 9 Review and Tier list

Well fighting games aren't really my favourite genre in gaming but there are certain titles that know how to draw me in. My all time favourite fighting game is the latest Mortal Kombat game (referred to as Mortal Kombat 9 to avoid confusion). Often me and my friend "CoalTrain" argue on which fighting game is the best but I still think MK9 is the best fighting game made so far.

Mortal Kombat is a fighting game that anyone can enjoy (unless your parents don't like uneccessary violence or big breasted female fighters.) and quickly grasp. Fatalities are fun to pull off so you can laugh at your opponents death but sometimes can be rather disturbing and grotesque. The blood and gore in some of the moves are rather uneccessary and the x-ray moves can be quite brutal. The game has a reasonably quick pace that anyone can adapt to.

Mortal Kombat has a vast variety of characters to choose from, each with their own special fighting style and moves. Here is the the games Tier list below:

SubZero's X-ray move

TOP TIER:

1. Shang Tsung

2. Raiden

3. Kung Lao

4. Nightwolf

5.Johnny Cage

6. Ermac

7. Smoke

MID TIER:

Battle between Kitana and Cyrax

8. Kabal

9. Liu Knag

10. Kano

11. Kitana

12. Mileena

13. Reptile

14.Sindel

15. Scorpion

16. Sonya Blade

17. Stryker

18. SubZero

LOW TIER:

19. Jax

20. Jade

21. Cyrax

22. Noob

23. Sektor

ABSOLUTE CRAP TIER:

24. Baraka

25. Kratos (PS3 exclusive because he appears in God of War which is developed exclusively for the PS3)

26. Sheeva

27. Quan Chi

28. Cyber sub Zero

This Tier list excludes all DLC characters like Skarlet and Kenchi.

Reptile using his Fatality

The game offers tag battles which allows players to play 2 on a team and 4 in total. It has a tower mode which are a series of challenges which players can acomplish for gold to buy items in the Krypt. Their is a training mode which teaches players the basics and how to pull off their fatalities when in battle. There is also a ladder mode in which players will fight a ladder of enemies to end up fighting Shao Khan. When ladder mode is beaten with a certain character you will unlock thier story ending.

Mortal Kombat also features an in depth story mode which revolves around the fate of Earth-realm and what must be done to ensure its victory. Players will play with each character in story mode to see what role the play in the story.

 The games graphics are up to standard and the playability is amazing so my final verdict is...

              89%

This game is a serious must play and is one of my favourite fighting games of all time.

Thanks for reading, will keep you posted. PEACE People.

A new age of Darkness begins: Dark Souls Preview

Dark Souls is upcoming videogame developed by From Software. Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to the game Demon Souls which made exclusively for Playstation. Demon Souls is renown for its INSANE difficulty.

Dark Souls is no different in difficulty so the player is expected to die quite often in this game. Dark Souls will focus on Dungeon exploring and tension and fear when players encounter enemies in  the game. It will take place in an open dark fantasy world environment where players will fight using many different weapon types and strategies to survive in this dark realm.



Thats right, you do have to defeat that.



Dark Souls offers new spells, weapons and classes to give players a better game experience. The game is also said to be significantly HARDER with an increase in enemies and difficult encounters. The game is filled with brutal traps, deadly enemies and boss fights, and bad assery to keep you pulling out your hair with happiness. The game will offer different variations and aspects of the game with 2 possible endings.

The games Role-playing will feature something called "Oaths" which the player will undertake with certain religious factions in order to obtain some useful equipment such as a sword. The Oath then determines the players position or allegiance in the game world. The Oaths are hidden at the start of the game which encourages players to explore the game world and uncover them so players can find their own faction at the right moment for gaining allegiance at their own pace (There are also rare Oaths for the player to uncover). The game will feature a multiplayer system which will include player vs. player and an all new co-op system. It is said the world of Dark Souls has more than 20 areas to explore in the game, an area being a place you enter and the name of the place is revealed on screen (for those who have played God of War, you should know what I'm talking about). There are also bonus areas that can be discovered which have no impact on the games main storyline.

There are 3 status effects in the game known as Poison, Bleed and Curse. Curse is the worst stat and stat point allocation can't be reversed. There are more than 60 spells and miracles and players have the option to weapon forge which can add certain elemental effects.

Dark Souls has a lot of content and is looking to be one wickedly wild game experience, despite Dark Souls difficulty it seems to be a great must play. My friend pre-ordered this game and is looking forward  to playing it on day 1. Peace everyone.

Marcus, its your father: Gears of War 3 preview

Theres not much time left until the official release of Gears of War 3. If you read my previous post you will know that I have already ordered myself a copy of the Limited edition and am waiting eagerly to claim it.



Anya Stroud

For those "special" people who don't know about Gears of war please let me explain: Gears of war is a third-person shooter video game developed by epic games and published by microsoft. Gears of war 3 will be the final installment of the current story arc and is exclusive to Xbox 360. For those of you who know what I'm talking about let me explain. Gears of war 3 is set 18 months after the fall of Jacinto (which was the conclusion to Gears of War 2) on the island of Vectes where the remnant of Jacinto moved to rebuild. The game will feature a four player co-op for the first time in the series and will resume the control of the main protagonist Marcus Fenix but will at certain parts of the game take control of other characters. The will also feature new characters such as Anya Stroud, Samantha Byrne, Jace Stratton etc. In addition to these new characters is Clayton Carmine brother of Ben and Anthony from the previous 2 games. For those who played any previous Gears of war you should know that both Ben and Anthony died. To decide on the fate of Clayton Carmine Epic games hosted a voting campaign to let us decide if Carmine should live or die by means of avatar item purchases. 2 Avatar shirts were released for purchase, 1 with the words: Carmine must die another one saying: Save Carmine. We will see the outcome of the votes in Gears of war 3.



Clayton Carmine



Gears of war is probably one of my all time favorite third person shooters for the Xbox 360 and Gears of war 3 is going to raise the bar in the series once again. Gears of war 3 has made over one million pre-orders and is currently one of the most anticipated games of 2011. The games is said to have an awesome multiplayer variety such as beast mode and horde 2.0. Horde 2.0 is the new version of horde mode from Gears of war 2 but instead is to be far more strategic. Players will find an area to hold as their command post and battle powerful waves of locust horde. Players earn money for kills which can be used to build or upgrade defense or even buy back in if the player is killed. Also every tenth wave players will have to battle a locust boss which can be either a bersker, brumak etc. There will be other multiplayer choices nut horde 2.0 is probably one of most anticipated amongst the various multiplayer types.

The single player is to be longer than the previous 2 games and is to have a far deeper storyline which will answer the majority of question in the game. The game will feature a level up system which will allow you to gain XP for playing the game (XP can also be gained through single player campaign) this allows players to reach higher ranks and earn achievements asscosiated with the level up system.
In all fairness this game is looking to be really bad ass.

To conclude I would just like to state that this game is looking to be one of the best games of 2011. I will post a review after I claim my Limited edition, which is probably 2 weeks or so. But you dont need a review to know the game is going to be good, because it Gears of war. Peace people!

                                                                                    

Gaming:New beginnings...

This is my first ever blog post and it is my introduction to what I will be posting in the future from now on.

For starters I am a very passionate gamer which is an interest I share with one of my good friends

 XCoalTrainZA who inspired me to write this blog. He has started his own blog series and one of his recently added post can be viewed at Persona FTW. Anyway let me continue. Gaming is one of my most enjoyable interests besides Hockey but in most cases I find it difficult to live my gaming interest out to its full potential. Frequently games are TOO expensive to get hold of, and living in South Africa makes the situation a whole lot worse. I recently pre-ordered Gears of War 3: Limited Edition which cost me R700,00 (which is actually cheap for a limited edition) and will probably be one of my only games until Christmas time. Price is just one factor which influences my gaming, another is time. Its hard to find the time to actually sit down, relax and enjoy a videogame with or without friends. The only time I get to actually play games is if I find myself free on a weekend. In my blog series I will focus on many different games and announcements happening around the world and will TRY to give a little input on games I have played to keep everyone happy. My friend  XCoalTrainZA will post on similar items as me but will include Anime and other exciting news. I will also keep you posted on other items such as movies. This is just an introduction of what is to come so keep your eyes on my profile. Cheers!