Writing job for a website

I have a job writing for 6aming.com you should go check it out

This means this blog will become less frequent and also more personal in posts, weather its about games, warhammer of just random stuff.

but still check out 6aming.com, i currently have 2 articles up, a GOTY comparison and an article about MOBA gogo check it

Greedy Gamers?

As gamers we expect a lot from games but why is this?

This question came to me while I and a friend were talking about what game we should play next. We have played all the worthwhile MMOs and we are already avid players of MOBA games, so what else is there for a good multiplayer co-op experience?

As we do every so often we scour the internet for games that might spark our interests and allow us to sync hour after hour into a game and feel it was time well spent. Every time we do this we come out disappointed. When we look, the same suggestions are always apparent, MOBA games, MMOs and certain shooters. Now we do enjoy a good shooter from time to time but as I used to play a lot of shooters I find it hard for one to grab my attention and make me want to keep going back and playing consistently. This is where the problem lies, I have played all the games I want to play and the releases I get really excited for are very few and far between. So back to the point why do we expect so much? I think the answer to this is that we are so spoilt with games that it’s hard for us to appreciate what is out on the market already. I also think that games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft have become so popular when other developers make games they seem to use these games as their framework and this makes for a boring release, which is just COD or WOW re-skinned. 

Now I do understand that it isn’t easy to come up with constant new mechanics for games but I think MMOs are the worst for this, a game such as an MMO has such vast possibilities with the world, mechanics and its characters but it seems developers are too scared to venture out and try something new because it “isn’t WOW”. Now this has started to change these last couple of years with games such as Guild Wars 2 and Defiance which take the MMO formula and shake it up a little and this is what gamers want, because who doesn’t love playing with their mates in a massive open world with thousands of other players where your progression feels like it means something. 

During E3 they showed gameplay for two new MMO entries and I’m very excited for both games, they are Destiny and The Division. Destiny is being developed by Bungie (The studio that made halo) and its a Sci Fi style game very halo-esc but that’s ok because it looks awesome. When watching the game play I couldn’t help but notice it looked like borderland with talent trees, lots of loot and wide variety of events and enemies. Now this is a great thing because although it might be an FPS it still is using MMO aspects where each class has their own abilities and weapons types making them have a role in a group which is awesome. Next The Division is a Tom Clancy game based in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has shut the world down and people are forced to survive. This is your typical story but after seeing the gameplay I can see the great potential in the game, it reminds me of DayZ but with a massive budget this game could go far. In the game play you see a squad of players working together to complete a mission for some NPCs and gain some new loot and supply’s. The game is a Third person cover shooter which I think is a dynamic take on a MMO. After the mission is complete they walk outside to be confronted by another human group for some PVP, the gameplay ends there but this only makes my mind wonder and makes me this is this going to be like DayZ with open world PVP at any possible time. This would be amazing and is a game I know I would love to play and the fact it has NPC style missions as well doesn’t make it feel pointless after you have collected gear, like it does in DayZ. 

Maybe gamers aren’t greedy. Maybe its just they are seeing the same thing over and over again in games and they just want some innovation. Sometimes a rare gem comes along and blows everyone away but they are not as often as we would like. With next gen on the horizon and a slew of brand new games to play, maybe the industry will change and every game will come with its own form of innovation with makes me wants to play and not have my monthly moan about how there isn’t anything to play, we can only hope.

Spartacus Legends - Improvment Thoughts

So I have put quite a few hours into Spartacus over the last week and I am still loving the game, but as I’ve played more and more I have started to see where this game could have been a true gem if it had got a full scale release.  Let’s start with the combat system, at the moment it’s a one on one fighter. This gameplay style works but I was thinking, imagine if it was more of a third person fighter, think God of War. This would open up the game so much and let it be possible to have more than one gladiator in the area at once, allowing for team battles or just a free for all. I think this would have been amazing; also anther thing I think they missed out on with the game is environmental interaction. In the Spartacus TV series the gladiators sometimes use the environment to their advantage, whether its jump off it for a sword stab or just smashing your opponent into the wall, I just think this could have made the battles more interesting. 

Now as I explained in my review I think the ludas management this game has is awesome but with some work and a little more expansion it could be a game on its own. Maybe they could add gladiator trading, with other ludas’s and maybe the fame system would mean more than unlocking more fights, maybe it would mean other lanista’s would take notice of you and send assassins to kill your gladiators to spit your or stunt the growth of your ludas and other things of this nature. This would mean economy in the game would be more important deciding whether to spend your gold on more gladiators or better training or maybe spending it to accommodate a person of high favour in your villa to gain more favour in the games. I really think the gladiator management game could have been way more intense and also adding in other ludas owners would have been a great way to spice things up rather than fighting generic gladiator 1 or 2. Also a story mode could have been added it would have been so easy to be done maybe just convert the series into a game or even you make your own gladiator and follow his way through gladiator school set in the Spartacus world or follow Spartacus through the rebellion, I really think there is so many possibilities.

As this game was just F2P these thoughts are just wishes that I will most likely never see fulfilled and my heart will yearn to get a gladiator game that will never exist.

SPARTACUS Legends - Review

 

I read about this game a few months back and saw the trailer with its snippets of gameplay; obviously I was instantly crazed about this game and was in dire need to play it. I mean gladiators is a theme that I want more games to be made using, I loved Shadow of Rome, back on the PS2 and I also loved the part in fable where you have to compete in the area, I don’t know what it is about the setting of the arena and gladiator but I just love it.  The fact the game uses the Spartacus TV series IP is just a big 1+ for me, as I loved the TV series from begging to end and it had one of the greatest ending of a series I have ever seen, I was extremely sad to see it go.

Off the bat when loading up this game you can feel that it is using the Spartacus IP well, the sounds, the visuals and just the gritty look of the game really says, this is Spartacus. You start the game and you get one slave to train as a gladiator. My guy was a sword a shield user, at first all you have is your weapon and some dingy cloth for armour, but as you win battle you gain more coin and this allows you to buy better weapons and equipment. The setup of the game is cleaver it makes you feel like a lanista from the series owning your own set of gladiators and sending them to battle to gain glory and coin for you. You can recruit more gladiators as you gain more coin and fame, each gladiator has a different fighting style ranging from sword and shield to hard hitting hammers or even dual daggers. I found while using these different styles, that none of them are at a disadvantage to any others; the hammer guys are slow but powerful whereas the dagger guys are fast but do less damage. The main menu is a map of Capua (the city in which the game and series is set) there is different section where you can go and fight but at first many are locked because your ludas(your gladiator fighting school) must gain fame and coin to access the higher paying fights. So you start at the bottom beating the lower tier gladiators, eventually you will unlock a primus fight, which will be against a more renowned gladiator, when you win these primus fights you unlock perks for your gladiators to use that give little bonuses to sway a fight in your favour. One you gain enough fame you will unlock a boss battle and these battles use characters from the TV series as your opponent and they are extremely hard to defeat, but when you beat them you unlock them and can add them to your ludas to improve it (or so the game says).   

Now as this game is about the fights let’s talk about the game mechanics, the battles are fast a fluid and all the moves are recognisable for anybody who has watched the series from Gannicus’s jumping dual sword slash and even including my favourite move “the superman”.

 You have light attacks and heavy attacks, grabs and defensive breaks such as kicks or shield bashes. You can block and also roll and dodge. Using all these moves in combination makes for a fast paced energetic fight. At the moment I am using a dual sword user he is fast and aggressive and that how I like to play, on the constant attack, whereas if you use a sword and shield user he’s a little slower and more about jabbing your opponent and then running back. You really get the feel the developers did their research to see how the gladiators moved and used their weapons because you have to watch your opponent and take advantage of any mistakes or missteps. There is a health bar and a block bar, the block bar goes down as you use dodges or block an opponent, but when it empties you are defenceless and this is the perfect time to strike and really go to town on your opponent, but if you’re smart you can go on the assault when you bar is emptied and let it refill while your smash your opponent up.  One final thing about the fights there is a crowd metre and depending on how your gladiator looks and performs it goes up and if it full at the end of the fight you get to perform a killing blow such as severing an appendage from their body. This is where I think multiplayer would be amazing I haven’t tried it myself as I can’t seem to get a match but as the game is so heavily focused on psyching your opponent out and using their mistakes to your advantage I’m guessing it would be an amazing experience against a live opponent. 

I must touch on the big thing about this game and that is that its free 2 play, this game tackles it very well, there are two currencies in this game, gold and silver coin. Silver coins you gain in the game from winning fights and so on. Whereas you gain gold coins from only levelling your fame or buying them. The gold coins allow you to buy better weapons and equipment for your gladiators and also it allows you to get this stuff a lot earlier. So far though I have found you could play the whole game and not spend a penny. It would take a lot longer to complete all the fights as the coin values of the equipment and gladiators you need gets extremely high. I feel though that you could pick this game up play for a few hours and not play again for months. It’s just that kind of game, at its core it’s a fighting game with a sprinkling of gladiators. 

In conclusion I think Ubisoft have done a great job with this game and I think everybody should give it a try, there is near to no bugs and problems that I have found and for a free 2 play game there is nothing to moan about here. i advise everyone to play it as its free and something that shouldn’t be misses especially if you are a fan of the TV series.

The Last of Us Review

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Ok so The Last of Us, a game by naughty dog and what a game it is. When this game was first announced back at the VGA awards in 2011 I was instantly buzzing to know more about it. After watching all the gameplay videos and trailers countless times, the game was finally released and wow is just the beginning of what there is to be said about this game. 

Let’s start off with the main thing at hand with this game and it is that it’s not a nice game, its hard and harsh and it doesn’t care about your feelings it will rip your face off and it doesn’t matter because that what this game and its world is all about. 

The relationship between Joel and Elle is the star of the show, with the game mechanics and environment while superb put aside the game wouldn’t feel as alive without these two. It starts with Joel just being in complete control of the twos relationship but turns into them actually needing each other on the journey. As I played through the game I could feel the two bonding but then Joel would put up a wall even stating at one point that they aren’t father and daughter. Elle is a 14 year old who acts like an adult but at times you can see her revert to being a child, at one point she collects some comics and starts reading them and taking a real interest immersing herself with the characters the way a child does, after that she finds a nude mag and starts laughing about it with Joel showing she has some sort of maturity even at that age. Elle was born into this world 6 years after the outbreak of the infected and knows little of the world before and this is one of the strong suits of her character, she is always asking questions of Joel about the world before, one particular parts she sees a picture of a models and asks why she is so skinny when Joel tells her she chooses to be like that for looks Elle is shocked. Although acting like a child at time and an adult at others the world has hardened and desensitised her to all the killing and violence in the world as she is just another survivor like everybody doing what needs to be done to stay alive. Joel on the other hand has always been hard, since the day the infection started spreading. Joel doesn’t show much emotion throughout the game apart from the commitment to the journey with Elle. If he is confronted about his daughter or anything that makes him show any emotion he instantly blows it off. This does change though as the game goes on and he bonds with Elle showing he would do anything to protect and he kind of becomes a father figure. This bond even had me as the player raging at the screen with events that would unfold later in the game.

While scavenging the world and crossing from area to area you will see some beautiful environments and that’s what this game is its just beautiful everywhere you look there is intense detail whether it’s in a characters face or a corner in a room. Everywhere is beautiful and has character, I searched most rooms and building while playing this game and not once did I feel like it was just another copy and pasted place just to fill the environment. Along with Joel and Elle’s story you can discovers artifacts which are collectables along your journey. Some of them are notes and these give more life to the world, in the notes it will be another survivor writing about his journey so far but then late in the game you will find more notes about their journey surviving and even possible their body. Personally I loved this element of the game and I found myself looking in every possible place for more artifacts to further find more about the world I was in. during the main story's you will meet other characters and they are written so well even as a supporting cast that you start to care about them, even if your only with them for a little while. By the end of the game I cared so much for Elle and Joel I was on edge for everything that happened, I had learnt to this point how unforgiving the world was and I wasn’t ready to see these characters (which I had infested 16 hours into) go anywhere.

The world around these characters has a real taken back by nature feel, everything has fallen apart and there is greenery everywhere which makes for some nice background when moving through the world.

The mechanics in this game control perfectly as you would expect from naughty dog. The fact that they made uncharted is another reason I’m amazed at how different this game is. This game is not a run and gun shooter, it a journey that tells a story not just of Elle and Joel but of a whole world and like the walking dead TV series you get the sense that if they did a second game then it would be with different main characters somewhere else in the world because it’s just that expansive and the possibilities are endless. There are two great threats in this world one is the infected and one is other groups of humans who are usually called hunters. In a world like this other people are going to be scavenging for supply’s  just as much as everyone else, so you are going to run into them and most of them aren’t nice, they will attack you and also try and grab Elle to kill the both of you and take your stuff. You must work together with Elle to fend off these groups of hunters. The hunter’s work very well together adjusting their way of approaching a situation according to your actions. They will split up and find you and if they know you position they will try and flank you.  The hunters aren’t the only threat in the game there is also the infected who come in a variety of types which are runners that are fast and agile, Clickers who are extremely strong but can only see you by using sound and then there are bloaters which are so infected their whole body has been taken over by the fungus. Again like the hunters they have intelligence to adjust to your situation by moving closer if you make noise. This is where the combat system shines, stealth is your friend and ammo is scarce so you must use stealth and melee weapons as much as possible which adds a new dynamic to the game. There is an amazing crafting system which you use supplies such as tape and alcohol that you find on your travels to craft nail bombs, med packs and even Molotov cocktails. Also you can collect parts to improve your weapons at work benches but you don’t have a huge amount of parts so you must choose wisely which weapons you will upgrade.

This game isn’t about a story where there is an ending and then it’s all said and done, this game is a journey and something you need to experience. There are times I was shocked and times I felt sad and sympathetic for the characters in this world. I feel the game has been written and scripted so well that it almost feels like a film and a world has been created that is waiting to have more expansion made upon it.

In conclusion all I can say is this game is a masterpiece and Is definably in the running for game of the year candidate and possible the greatest game on the PS3