So, Magicka. What is it?
Well despite looking like an old school action RPG it really isn’t. There is nothing in the way of the normal loot of RPGs and your character has all the power you need to complete the game when you finish the tutorial, the only thing you pick up along the way are additional Magicks (more on these later) and replacements for your weapon and staff which add small bonuses but nothing really game changing compared to your awesome power.
To celebrate the release of Total War: Shogun 2 we have put together a series of 4 videos which will be released each day up to the launch of the game on Tuesday 15th March 2011. These videos were recorded on a first play through of the demo and all commentary was recorded live at the time.
Part 3 is below which showcases off more of the campaign map. You can view part 4 here.
AJ
To celebrate the release of Total War: Shogun 2 we have put together a series of 4 videos which will be released each day up to the launch of the game on Tuesday 15th March 2011. These videos were recorded on a first play through of the demo and all commentary was recorded live at the time.
Part 2 is below which continues where we left off in part 1 after having just started the 3D battle. You can view part 3 here.
AJ
To celebrate the release of Total War: Shogun 2 we have put together a series of 4 videos which will be released each day up to the launch of the game on Tuesday 15th March 2011. These videos were recorded on a first play through of the demo and all commentary was recorded live at the time.
Part 1 is below and you can find part 2 here.
AJ
I have played through the Dragon Age 2 Demo in anticipation of the release of the game this Friday and you know what it is pretty good. Deciding to try something a little different to the normal selection of the Warrior class I decided to give the Rogue class a go. Especially with the rumours going round that it has been much improved upon since the first game and its expansion.
Incredibly Bioware have made the class a hell of a lot of fun to play. The amazing killing moves and the fluidity of the combat made every fight during the short demo incredibly fun and although you would think the class would be underpowered when compared to the likes of the Warrior and Mage it felt like it belonged there. As someone who feels compelled to play as the Warrior because of my play style I will have to think very hard about which class I choose to play as upon release of the game.
Along with the improved combat the new art direction is definately a lot better, it feels so much crisper than in Dragon Age Origins. The new dialogue is also much improved and seeing your character speak makes the conversations more involving, although the demo didn’t have a lot of dialogue what it did have seemed to work well. I very much look forward to seeing it in action in the full game but unfortunately because of the changes to the dialogue system being so similar to Mass Effect I can definately see some players put off by this. I think though that ifBioware have managed to implement it well in the game then they could easily put aside player’s fears.
I have put together a small video showing me playing as the Rogue and showing off some of the skills and powers that were granted to the player in the demo. You can view this below:
AJ
With Total War: Shogun 2’s release approaching I have gone back to playing Empire after a long stint away from the series. There were a number of issues with the game’s AI at launch and so Creative Assembly got to work on patching the game although not all issues have been addressed although they have stated that Shogun 2’s AI has been improved ten fold. I haven’t played Empire since before the major patches were implemented so any changes are all news to me but having started a new campaign it already appears that the AI has been much improved.
The thing I never encountered before took place about 5 turns into the game. Previously the Iroquis Confederacy captured the region of New York from my protectorates, the Thirteen Colonies, and so with a desire to expand my territory in the Americas I gathered up any spare troops from the Caribbean Islands. Putting together as many troops as I could in Britain I set them on a ship and set sail for the Americas. The idea being that once I had taken Albany I could reinforce the existing troops and continue my military campaign further inland.
(Here’s a link to the official Wizards website with a full deck list of all the Worldwake decks – Flyover is conveniently at the top – http://tinyurl.com/65ab8n5)
An ‘Intro Pack’ is a 41-card deck pre-constructed for play with friends. They generally come with 18 lands, two of which are non-basic, and the rest differ between creatures and other spells.
They also come with a foil rare and another rare, the foil in the Worldwake Flyover deck is Archon of Redemption. The other rare is Marshal’s Anthem, which we’ll talk about later.
Until Emeria is freed, he raises his sword in her name.
The first of several flying creatures, except the Archon is a great way of gaining life by just playing creatures, which is the point of this deck, to play creatures and fly straight over the opponent’s crap respective creatures.
Game fan art. Far too often it includes game characters with far less clothing than they would normally wear or it simply puts them in a compromising position with another game character. This is not good, and it can’t be a healthy mind who draws such things.
However, when you throw out the cartoon pornography, there are some very talented artists out there who have done wonderful pieces of art based on games they clearly love.
Here follows a selection of the best I have found, prepare to be blown away*;
On the 20th January 2011 Paradox Interactive held their press conference in New York and announced that since they started back in 2003 they have had a 1000% increase in their revenue. Whilst this doesn’t mean much in terms of turnover without actual numbers it does show how rapidly their company is growing and expanding. Incredible stuff as they mainly focus on the genres not normally touched by mainstream developers including simulation games and strategies with in depth historical accuracy.
Duke is coming:
2K have officially announced that Duke will be coming back to us on May 3rd in North America and May 6th internationally. In celebration of this announcement they have released a brand new trailer showing off more footage of the game including the monsters, women (including nudity), some insane killing moves and of course…the guns! It looks like a return to the classic shooting games of old which is absolutely fine by me and it has been mentioned that the campaign is three times the size of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s.
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