This post brought to you by LG DoublePlay™. All opinions are 100% mine.
The cellphone industry is an ever expanding marketplace that is constantly rolling out new technology as soon as it becomes available. It should come as no surprise that LG is once again leading the way with innovation with the LG DoublePlay™ . Continue Reading
In another blow for it’s competition, and common sense, Apple have successfully filed a patent claim against HTC. The ruling states that HTC have until April 19, 2012 next year to modify their software or their phones will no longer be able to be sold within the United States.
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It would appear that Croteam, developers of Serious Sam 3: BFE, have decided that rather than use the traditional methods of DRM for their game on PC they would place a large scorpion/man beast instead. What happens next is an invincible beast constantly coming after you which no doubt turns the difficulty level of the game up a notch or three. This Youtube video shows all:
In September, Blizzard Entertainment began sending out closed Beta Testing invites for the highly anticipated Diablo III. While it seems there have been a rather limited number of these highly sought after beta invites, I have been fortunate enough to have a friend ( thanks again Mike!) who has been kind enough to allow me to watch him play the game in order to write this series of content previews for the GTN readers! Continue Reading
Bethesda Softworks have announced that the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be getting the Skyrim Creation Kit to enable modding of the game using the same tools used to create it. PC players will be able to download this software for free from January 2012. They will also be rolling out a new Wiki and videos to help modders get started.
Bethesda have been working closely with Valve to integrate the Steam Workshop into the Skyrim Creation Kit. Users will be able to submit, browse, rate and download mods through Steam all for free and at the push of a button.
This is fantastic news considering the huge amount of mods that have been released for Skyrim over the past 3 weeks and with the integration of the Steam Workshop we should start to see this service utilised across more games in the future.
For the full press release see here.
The Steam Workshop
“Contribute to the future of your favorite Steam games!”
The Steam Workshop is Valve’s latest addition to Steam and currently only works with Valve’s Team Fortress 2, where players can submit their own created items, like hats or other insignificant aesthetic bits, which Valve may add into the game. Users can also rate and review others items.
The scope of the workshop is the possibility of easier modding, which we will soon see with the Skyrim tools released in January, easier for the mod developers and easier for the players to download and use the mods. And we’re all very excited by it.
AJ & Akardo
Furries will destroy all!
Over the years games have lost all the fun through story, physics and all the things that are “quality”. There were times where a person could just sit down with their controller and screw around for the fun of it but this is not a common habit within games of the present. Now in these boring, sad times we must face the raging online gamers and stunning linear story lines. Thank Saints Row: The Third has come to save is with hilarious story, hilarious gameplay, hilarious physics!….oh did I mention it was hilarious? Continue Reading
Another one of my “one to watch” posts, this time a small indie freeware title, but one that looks to be having more effort put into it per team member than any of this year’s AAA titles…and Modern Warfare 3.
You see, this is why I love PC Gaming, there is no way this could ever be done on a console, the whole idea of being an open platform means that just about anything can, and indeed will, be made by bedroom coders and small studios. There are people who make things because they want to, not because it pays their wages or the shareholders dividends, but I digress, the drawbacks of capitalism in what is an artistic[1] industry are not what I am here to discuss. I am in fact here to tell you about Mane6’s upcoming game, My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic.
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After some serious convincing from a couple of friends ( and more than a few youtube videos) who have yet to steer me wrong when it comes to games, I was, once again, talked into another game.
Minecraft, the limitless game in which, you mine… and you craft. The concept is simple and you are only limited by two factors, your imagination and your time. While Minecraft is probably one of the least graphically advanced games we have seen in awhile, it has taken the world by storm. Continue Reading
SKYRIM – as I’m sure you are aware – is Bethesda’s latest entry to the Elder Scrolls series, taking the open-world and freedom from the previous titles and making it bigger and better than ever before in this epic adventure title, with dragons.
There won’t be any spoilers here, mostly because there is too much other stuff in Skyrim to talk about and, while the main story is interesting, you will likely get caught up doing something else. The general idea of the story is that dragons are returning at the same time that you have popped up, so you have to find out why. In Skyrim, you are dragonborn, meaning you were born with the soul of a dragon, and so you eat other dragon’s souls and use them to learn powerful dragon shouts. The more you complete of the main story, the more dragons will appear, and they won’t appear in the game until you do a small part of the main story which introduces you to the world, and you learn what your place is in it.
Like many other people, I didn’t bother following the main story for a while and only came back to it so I could kill the first storyline dragon so more would start popping up. After you leave the obligatory opening sequence, you can follow one of two people from two factions, one from the Imperial army, and one from the rebel Stormcloaks. So, completely oblivion to the helpful people, I walked off in a different direction in search of epic loot! Although the loot isn’t really that interesting at this level, you won’t mind, because it’s fun to adventure and make your own story. This is what makes the open-world RPG a great genre, and Bethesda does it best, time and time again.
The Elder Scrolls is a series that drags you into the game with immersion and lore. If you get into it, you’re going to really get into it. However, if you’re not that into the series (assumedly because you’re in some sort of cult that is against video-games. And puppies), then you are probably still going to be able to find yourself having fun in the world. The combat is fun and exciting with the dual-wielding mechanics, being able to quickly swap between magic and weapons and mixing between them for a unique fighting style. Overall, the main problem with the game is the UI, which many people and critics have been complaining about. It is good, with scrolling down the menus to find the right category and then choosing an item, but it sometimes doesn’t work when you click rather than scroll or if your mouse is hovering over one option and you try scrolling to another. This is unfortunate and can be very annoying when you want to choose one dialogue option, and the game picks another over a technical fault, however it is better than the usual ‘press I and click’.
What really sells the Elder Scrolls games (and Skyrim in particular) is the open-world and freedom you get. There’s a main story, which isn’t overly long itself and is as you would expect, a set chain of quests that take you from A to B, to do all sorts of things which, while interesting, you could be doing a whole lot more in the world. As well as the main quests, you also have four guilds for different types of character, not something new to the Elder Scrolls, but they do succeed in keeping it fresh.
In Skyrim, the Fighters Guild from Oblivion has been renamed the Companions, and the Mages Guild is now the College of Winterhold. While name changes may not seem that big, it does make a difference with gameplay, especially with the Mages Guild as it is no longer a guild, it’s a school. Each of these ‘guilds’ have their own chain of quests, as well as their own group of people that you will become familiar with and that you can help out with their own things. As well as the guilds, you have misc. quests, which are all over the place. You can walk into a new town and, chances are, the first person you talk to will have a quest that needs doing. Bethesda said that they stopped counting how long the game really was after they were going well past 300-hours, and I never thought this would be too over-exaggerated, but after playing the game, you can be sure that it’s not exaggerated.
Skyrim is truly as good as the hype that has been building up to it. It’s a massive world with a reasonable storyline and so much to do outside of the main quests that you won’t care if you finish it, because you can find plenty more reasons to keep playing. Plus, the gameplay is fun, with lots of interesting loot and items to play with, decent enough mechanics for creating your own items when the crap you find isn’t good enough, and when you’ve finished messing around with saving the world and whatnot you can take a break from adventuring and settle down, get married.
Akardo
Not only is this statement in the interest of the survival of the human race, but it’s also the name of a really fun game that came out a few weeks ago by developers, Robot Entertainment.
You play an apprentice War Mage, cocky and big-headed, tasked to defend the rifts at all costs, and soon you’re one of the only ones left. Orcs Must Die! is an action-packed strategy game where onslaughts of Orcs are trying to attack the rifts, and you have to stop them with a variety of deadly, dangerous and humorous traps.
There are many traps and weapons to choose from, which makes the game harder to play as it’s difficult to make that choice. One of your Eight slots is saved for a crossbow which you have to take every time, which is a great weapon for dispatching the Orcs yourself, though there’s also a Bladestaff, which is the melee weapon you could take with you as well as the crossbow. The other slots are used with magic and traps, which range from darts and spikes, to fire and springs; throwing, burning, and slowing the Orcs, Kobolds, and Ogres before they reach the precious rifts.
It is kind of a tower-defence game, but one with you running around in third-person to help kill the enemies. You can choose a barricade to fill one of your slots, to help create a path the enemy will have to take, or just get deadly things like the Floor Spikes. You can also upgrade each of the items which do different things, for example, the Floor Spikes will get a poison which slows enemies, and the Dart Walls will get increased range, but you only get a certain amount of upgrades as you pay for them with the skulls you get from completing levels, with the amount depending on how well you did per level, with a maximum of five skulls each level.
Many critics have received Orcs Must Die! with good praise, and I shall be no different. It’s a great, fun game, with attractive quirky graphics, and a variety of choice. The campaign also isn’t too short, and they have already released the first bit of DLC: Artifacts of Power. This DLC is only £1.99 on steam, but it only gives you four new weapons/traps, so it isn’t exactly a must-have, but it still adds to the experience.
Orcs Must Die! is available now on Steam at £11.99, has 27 achievements, and there is also a demo available on STEAM which gives you access to a few levels as a great taste to the game, go download it now.
Akardo
Gaming and Tech Network 