Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is around about  4-10 hours long  (depending on difficulty). In that time you will be blown away fighting all kinds of brilliant enemies in spectacular style,  it's a tight action game whose campaign moves as quickly as its excellent combat.

With a boss battle on average every 45 minutes, you really are in some serious badass fights regularly. Traditional Metal Gear games have relied on the element of stealth, although this game does feature that, the main focus is melee combat. Combos gracefully fall together, with a combination of sword strikes, kicks and aerial attacks. The animation for these look stunning to say the least, I have never been this excited for a game like this which obviously had so much work put into it.

With unlockables you can easily get past that 4-10 hours and sink many more into the game. With a ton of moves, one of which answered one of my main problems, a dodge ability! Which I really enjoyed using.

Once Raiden slays enough cyborgs, he can enter the time-slowing Blade Mode and slice his sword in any direction, this will slice parts of enemies of in a jaw-dropping way. It also adds a new twist on the game in terms of strategy, slicing  weapons of cyborgs to leave them vulnerable, or slicing armour to reveal weak points.

This game's soundtrack is also one of the best I have heard in a game in a while, each boss theme is unique and makes fights even more awesome. Hands down the big winner for best soundtrack this year, simply put it's outstanding.

Other unlockables are available, in a way I love by defeating bosses you gain their weapon. The only thing is these weapons are rather bad, they replace some of your attaks and can restrict some combos.

The camera is the only real major problem that I have with the game, it seems to keep altering itself all the time in the worst possible moment. It can take away from combat and can actually get you killed from time to time. It is only a minor splinter in an otherwise fantastic game.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a brave move and certainly pays off, Raiden is finally back and more badass than ever. It's always entertaining, even if you are new to the franchise, I'm sure anybody can love this brilliant masterpiece. - 9/10

Gears of War Judgment Review!

Gears of War Judgement is certainly another Gears of War game. Created by People Can Fly, makers of Bulletstorm a fantastic game. It's a prequel to the first game with the player taking the role as fan favourite Baird, surely it's a recipe for success? Kinda.

To start the campaign has created an arcade feel to the campaign in the way of earning stars for your performance, these can be increased with the player using more creative ways of killing. The problem I have is the campaign is then split into sections because of this, the game truly suffers. It feels like I'm doing a series of challenges instead of trying to enjoy the game how I want. It also manages to put the momentum on hold every time you finish a section, at times I really struggled to become attached to the story at all. I really enjoyed Paduk though, his character did feel fleshed out. However the same can't be said about Sofia who I feel was the tag along woman in our squad who felt kinda left out at times in dialogue.

Judgment follows the tradition and treats its main villain poorly. General Karn's screen time is limited, his impact is barely felt, and his fight is kinda poor. He exists purely for the sake of a predictable and anticlimactic final boss fight. The squad AI is actually a bit better than previous games, I actually got saved from time to time and they actually killed the odd Locust.

Now onto multiplayer. It's a mixed bag really, I will start with what I liked. The attack-and-defend OverRun mode feels like an extension of  Beast Mode. Five COG soldiers do their best to keep incoming Locust from destroying their defenses and opening a new spawn point. If the Locust succeed, the COG fall back and try again until the timer runs out or their third and final base is destroyed. Then the roles are reversed.  The Locust classes add a variety of playstyles for people to play and learn to counter,  campaign-influenced skills for each COG character give it a distinctly Gears of War feel.

This mode is jut as fun as anything introduced in any previous Gears of War game. Now to the bad, the class system. For some reason every shooter now believes we need a Call of Duty style class system. Guns have been introduced and the weapon selection has changed for the worse, no longer can you have a shotgun and assault rifle. Options really feel limited and to say the worst, generic.

Final Verdict - 6.5/10 Overall Gears of War Judgment is a GOOD game, but it's far from brilliant. I praise games for trying to bring changes, but for the most part changes were made that were not needed. OverRun is a stroke of geniss and brings some really fun moments, especially with friends. But the campaign lacks any sort of badassness that the other Gears of War games had, making it he poorest campaign out of any Gears yet.

Art of Castlevania Lords of Shadow Video Review

Just a quick video I put together for a book I received from the very kind Titan Books! Feel free to check them out and my video review to see if it's something you want to own!

http://youtu.be/SWDMm4-Y3xM

Killzone Shadowfall Review

The Helghast look amazing, shame they can't shoot

PlayStation 4 launched with a decent line-up, many new IPs, but also a couple older ones. Killzone Shadowfall is a great game at showing just what the PlayStation 4 is capable of, however is it just that? A shiny new game with brilliant graphics but nothing else? That's what I'm here to discuss in this review.

My experience was very odd with this game. I planned to review it the week of launch. However I couldn't bring myself to finish the game, stopping after the second mission, thinking to myself I've seen this gameplay too much in other games, just another shooter. I decided to pick it up again after a couple months and try again. This time successfully finishing the game, I'm glad I did finish the game, it turned out to be an enjoyable experience. Not one that was ground-breaking, but still fun.

I won't lie, this game won't be remembered in a couple years as more games come out for the console. As Shadow Marshal Lucas Kellan, you’re tasked with keeping the peace between the Vektan natives and the Helghast refugees.  It's actually interesting, we get more of a view of the Helghast people and their views on the situation. It's interesting to see the almost justified reasons to hate the Vektan.

Level design is varied, with missions varying from open forests to large space ships. However, it feels like the first half of the game had more attention than the second half, as the game began to feel like a grind as I made my way through. Enemy AI is awful, I breezed through the game on hard as the AI reacted like a snail to my bullets. By the end, the enemy are pretty much all the same, with the odd robotic enemy thrown in.

The OWL, which is a little robotic buddy which can do a variation of things, attack, defence, zipline and stun. All of these are used with the PlayStation 4 touchpad, which is a great use of the new featured on the new controller.

Onto the multiplayer. Multiplayer is a mixed bag, the gameplay can be rather bland at time. Not being better than some of the existing multiplayer shooters out there. It feels tacked on, with very little innovation. It's a shame, multiplayer can be a saving factor for many shooters. With very little unlocks, my choices feel very light for how I can customise my loadouts.


Final veridict - 5.5 - Altogether, the game's not great, but I would say PlayStation 4 players should give it a try. Certainly Killzone Shadowfall is a great example of the potential of the PlayStation 4's power. However I feel like the game was rushed out for the console's release, which is certainly evident of the second half of the game.  With tacked on multiplayer which doesn't do anything new for the genre.

Outlast Review

Run. Just run.

So Outlast was released a couple days ago for the PlayStation 4 (Free to PS+ users). This was my first experience of the game, never really hearing or looking at anything about it.

 Survival horror has been a strange genre for games. Huge franchises such as, Dead Space and Resident Evil have gone down a more action based path. For the worse as some would see it. With games such as Evil Within and Alien: Isolation, the genre is making a comeback it seems.

Visually, this game's amazing, taking full advantage of the new console. he game's the first game from new developer Red Barrels. Who are co-founded by me rather big named developers.

To start, the game takes place in an asylum, an asylum which supposedly was closed, but secretly reopened. Playing as a journalist with an anonymous tip-off, it's your job to report on this.

Visually this game's great, taking full advantage of the pretty new PlayStation 4. The game is mostly in darkness, using a nice mechanic of a camera for night vision viewing. You can't fight, instead you hide and run. I played with a group of friends watching. A woman who was present, commented on the game being like watching a horror film, this coming from a woman who had little experience of video games like this. So already we can see the game is doing a great job of creating atmosphere and danger for us as the player. The tension and fear is incredible, as I found myself whimpering under a bed for a great portion of the game, as messed up maniacs searched the room for me.

However the game can be very repetitive at times, with chases going on obvious routes. Level design is rather linear, featuring a bit of backtracking from time to time. The game's short, finishing it in around 3 - 5 hours, depending on how much of a coward you are. The game lacks in areas, this is certainly true.

However, the game more than anything, does what it set out to do, scare the pants off you, and damn does it do it well. The scares are expertly crafted, occurring when you least expect it. Alongside brilliant sound design, this really is a horror game not to be missed.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10 - Despite Outlast's problems, the game's fantastic, I've not had this many scares from a game in a while, it's a refreshing experience from the more common genres of gaming.

Top 3 Games That Got Me Excited at E3

E3 was a rather bizarre event this year, with Microsoft being trashed by the public and Sony being declared the people's champion. But all that aside some brilliant games were shown at the event and these are 3 games that got me really excited!

The Division



 The Division was a really big shock to gamers, but right after this trailer was shown I was sold, I needed this game. The idea of an open world run down city which I'm allowed to explore with a squad of friends is brilliant. The constant dangers of opposing groups performing ambushes wherever you are is genius to me, it creates suspense and gameplay that will always keep you at attention.

The game also looks stunning, the graphics are beyond beautiful and I can tell this game will be a real winner for Ubisoft. Being a fan of many of the Tom Clancy games for their realism also helps. However I always saw Tom Clancy games as being a tad underappreciated with the rise of modern day shooters cluttering the market and leaving little room for games not considered as blockbuster like Call of Duty. Hopefully this will be the mark of an era of Tom Clancy.

Destiny

 

I grew up with Bungie delivering huge hits with the Halo franchise. Since then Bungie have departed and a part of me was sad to see them leave such an iconic franchise, however with the stream of news coming from Destiny I was more than happy that Bungie were allowed to move onto new things and create new ideas. The trailer and gameplay from E3 solidified my thoughts, the game is beautiful and I love what we have seen from this new universe Bungie has built. With Bungie saying the game will have a 10 year life cycle I am excited to see how this game progresses as time goes on. Bungie could potentially be sitting on a goldmine here.

 

The game of course visually looks incredible with a real futuristic feel. People are already comparing it to the gaming equivalent to the Star Wars franchise so already people are setting expectations high. If anybody can live up to the hype, it's Bungie.

 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

 

 

Metal Gear Solid has always been a franchise I've loved, the story, the characters, it all adds up to a brilliant experience overall. In the past Kojima has commented on the dark story that this game will have, certainly from the trailers we have seen the story really fills me with interest. Speculation has already begun of course, as with any Metal Gear Solid game, such as Eli being Liquid Snake.

 

 It's all exciting stuff and the idea of a open world Metal Gear Solid game is interesting, it will be interesting to see how exactly the game will work like this, what will populate the world to keep players interested? It's all questions I'm sure will be answered, but the mechanics shown and the gameplay we have seen all seem to be great additions to the gameplay, I can give nothing but praise to the genius that is Kojima.

Top 10 Games of This Console Generation

We have seen some brilliant games from this console generation, some games that stood out from the crowd and left many happy memories.

Number 10: Dead Space 1
Although I'm a huge fan of the rest of the series, Dead Space 1 created a terrifying new universe that had me jumping from start to finish. It was a game that set out to breath life into a genre which needed some love. Having rich atmosphere, the brilliant Necromorph threat and what I consider one of the greatest uses of sound in a game. The fact you were simply an engineer, Isaac Clarke, not your badass soldier we see too often today. Just a man and his tools fighting a terrifying threat. It's truly a science fiction horror that rivals the Alien films.

 

Number 9: Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect is the Star Trek or Star Wars of the games industry. Mass Effect 2 improved in every single area from it's first game in the trilogy, cleaning up the technical issues of the original and adding one of the strongest narratives I've ever seen. Choices feel like they had impact behind them and left me with regrets when I made a harsh decision, showing just how powerful this game actually is. With no spoilers about the end, the final mission is brilliant, so much emotion and narrative add up to a powerful and well deserved ending to the game, in no way underselling the many hours we had invested.

Number 8: Last of Us  
Last of Us certainly deserves that Naughty Dog name on the box, living up to the high standards set by their past games. A breath-taking story mixed with gritty and super realistic combat mechanics, all this lead to an unforgettable experience and one of the best of this generation. This may be one of the final memorable games that closes this chapter of this generation, ending it on a high note. Naughty Dog has taken past experiences and thrown in a new twist to their storytelling and gameplay, boy does it pay off big time.



Number 7: Grand Theft Auto 4
Grand Theft Auto V is getting close, we can't forget the fantastic game that is Grand Theft Auto 4. In the past Grand Theft Auto had a much less serious tone, with jetpacks and model planes. However this tale following Niko Bellic was much darker than anything we had seen from GTA. It provided an immersive world and loads of fantastic fun to be had. With 2 brilliant DLC expansions:The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned. There is plenty of content to be played.  However there was a bit too much bowling with Roman for us to handle which many gamers still love to laugh about today.

Number 6: The Orange Box

This game kept with Valve's tradition of giving the gamer one hell of an experience and bargain. With Half Life 2 and the brilliant episodes, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, there's a lot to play with here. Combining Valve's best games into one package was a brilliant move on their part and it's a shame we don't see such great packages like this from many other companies. Getting three incredible chapters of one the best single player first person shooter ever created, a unique puzzler, and an incredible multiplayer game has never been so satisfying.



Number 5: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

MGS4 is the perfect ending to Solid Snake's story. It successfully ties in every games plot to create one of the most emotional and beautiful endings to a game ever. It answers the questions that had been set by previous games and provides one of the coolest final boss fights I can think of in this generation of consoles. The game has an attention to detail which is rarely seen by any industry, pulling everything off and producing a work of art in gaming.

Number 4: Uncharted 2
If there's one game that makes me want to own a PlayStation it's Uncharted 2, sadly I was forced to use my friend as a source to play this fantastic game.  At the core of Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure masterpiece. A game that provides a brilliant mix of narrative and action that Naughty Dog are well known for. A game that sends Indiana Jones home with his tale between his legs. What more can we say about this game? It's truly an adventure from start to finish, one that gamers should be ashamed of if they have not played it.

Number 3: Halo 3
The long awaited finale to the original trilogy of the story of Master Chief. The series that is seen as the flagship of Xbox. The series ended and left gamers both sad and happy. Sad because the trilogy was now over and Master Chief's story had been told (For now) and happy because gamers received the game that they wanted. A package so rich on content, with Forge allowing for creativity and creating some unforgettable moments with friends, a campaign which had so much brilliant moments it left us wanting more. But the biggest revolution from this game was the multiplayer experience, providing one of the most competitive shooters for gamers.

Number 2: Fallout 3
Nobody really knew what to expect from this game, it was a fresh take on the Fallout games. It turns out that this would become one of the most addictive and interesting games out there with a huge scale. It's a thrilling, all-consuming experience that will absorb you for weeks, with hours of new experiences. Having multiple playthroughs I can say, every time I play I discover something new and crazy, something that I need to tell my friends about. If you have not had a chance to explore the wasteland yet, you really are missing out on one hell of a fantastic ride. It's a game that gets better every minute and with 4 DLC packs for this game, them hundreds of hours already in the game are made even better.

Number 1: Skyrim
Bethesda successfully bag the top 2 spots. Some may not agree with me that Skyrim deserves this top spot. However never before has a single player game had me gripped and immersed like Skyrim. With over 600 hours played on Skyrim, to this day I still regularly turn on my Xbox 360 in search of new adventures. Bethesda really have a talent when it comes to creating a brilliant single player game. Anyone can pick this game up, both the casual and hardcore gamer, as you're free to play the game how you like. Skyrim is a charming game which never fails to make me smile as I discover ancient ruins or find a crazy talking dog (Yes the game has one). To people who have not played this game, I demand you go out and buy yourself a copy, I can guarantee that you will not be disappointed with what you buy. With 2 DLC packs furthering this experience, most notably the Dragonborn DLC, which in my opinion is one of the greatest pieces of DLC out there. I can not praise this game enough as it beyond epic. Despite minor technical flaws and rather funny voice acting, Skyrim holds up as a masterpiece.

Dead Space 3 Review

Dead Space 3 was met with some mixed feelings back when it was first shown at E3. Have these worries been adressed in the game? Does it live up to the high standards of the original 2 games? The game has certainly taken a turn from fright factors, it instead heads towards breathless entertainment. The campaign's story will grab you and involve you straight up to the final credits.

We are yet again put into the shoes of Isaac Clarke, this time to destroy the Necromorph origin, a Marker, on an icy planet called Tau Volantis.  Before you start, the game makes a decent attempt of filling in the back story through the use of a short cutscene which talks about the events of the previous 2 games for new players to the series.

Dead Space 3 still sounds brilliant, with gruesome noises such as the snapping of bones been clearly heard. It adds to the horror of the game as you hear silence being broken as a Necromorph smashes through a vent. With headphones it certainly provides a sense of horror and panic for the player, so if possible experience Dead Space 3 with a set of headphones.

Dead Space still keeps the focus on well-thought out shooting mechanics and strategic dismemberment of your Necremorph foes.  Once you reach the frozen planet, the game does seem much more open than previous titles. This shifts foxus away from constant suspense and more towards a more action-based experience. This is not bad though, we still get them moments of horror, but this time it feels like a blockbuster experience.  With a large portion of the game set in on an open planet rather than claustrophobic corridors, Dead Space 3 still manages to capture a wonderful sense of atmosphere. 

With constant strong blizzards you never really know what is ahead, even in an open world, an enemy can be a couple feet in front and you won't know till it's too late.  Scenery is stunning with huge variations in every chapter, each giving their own sense of danger.

But perhaps the most blatant statement of  an intent to focus on action comes is with the new co-op mode. The second player takes the role of John Carver, a hardened soldier. Co-op is certainly fun and probably the most amazing thing is the changes in the story with co-op, it will make you want to play a second time to see the changes.

Dead Space 3 has taken in some new features to help with the action style, rolling is one. Isaac can now roll out of the way of attacks, but it feels very clunky and unreliable at times and proves hard to roll out of the way of incoming attacks. The cover system, although it works, does seem a little underwhelming and could do with improvement to help combat feel more epic against the marines.

Probably the best new feature is weapon crafting, a much bigger improvement from the former simple weapon upgrades. You can now mix and match weapons together to create the ultimate killing machine, the pieces are available throughout the campaign or crafted with resources. This certainly adds more replayability to the game as players will want to collect and build the ultimate Isaac.

For anyone who was worried about Dead Space 3, you really are worrying over nothing. Dead Space 3 still lives up to the high standards set by the first 2 games and delivers on every level, the move away from horror was not as obvious as I thought, I still found myself getting scared by a surprise Necromorph attack. If you look past the very minor problems of the cover system and rolling, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best sci-fi shooters of all time and a game of the year contender. Dead Space 3 gets a solid 9.5/10, a must buy for any gamer.

My Game,Film and Television Show of The Year!

This year has been a great year for all three of these, but some certainly rised up and took their rightful spot this year.

 To start with I will choose my favourite game, I have got to say that it was a really tough choice. I enjoyed so many games but probably Telltale's The Walking Dead was my favourite. Never before has a game got me so involved in its story, even to the point it has put every film this year to shame with such a breathtaking story. With characters so well acted it is hard not to become emotionally attached to them, we can also expect season 2 next year which I honestly cannot wait for.

Favourite film probably has to be Batman The Dark Knight Rises, many people say that it was not as good as the previous film. I would agree as Heath Ledger was amazing but Tom Hardy did a fantastic job with Bane, although it was not as good it was still an outstanding film and if you have not watched it please go buy it on DVD! It is a shame that this trilogy is over but we can now look forward to the new Man of Steel film, which hopefully shall bring Superman back as one of the best superheroes!

Last but not least, favourite television show of the year. Some brilliant shows have been on this year but The Walking Dead for me has by far blown me away the most. With the highest cable TV figures of all time fans are loving season 3, with the mid-season break I find myself rather bored as I have an empty hour every week. I must say though that they have really stepped up this year and have delivered a brilliant piece of television every week!

So that's it sorry if I rushed it a little really busy right now! But expect some reviews and updates coming shortly!

The Walking Dead Episode 4: Around Every Corner Review!

Telltale Games has yet again raised the bar for The Walking Dead game series, Episode 4: Around Every Corner does what a good pre-finale episode should do, set up the most intense cliffhanger I have seen in a while.

Episode 4 takes place around 12 hours after Episode 3, the survivors arrive in Savannah and ready to make that final journey to find a boat and get the hell out. Events take the group on yet another adventure though.

This episode actually does not focus so much on the voice we heard on the walkie talkie at end of episode 3, instead the focus is the mystery behind the Crawford group who we learn are pretty evil people. This episode offers the finest conversations between Clementine and Lee, it is weird how every episode makes you love Clementine more and more (did not think this was possible)

This episode had  really nice gun scenes in which Lee would go into first-person perspective, these moments really felt badass and handled much better than the Episode 3 gun scene; the gun scenes felt like my shots made in impact in terms of if I mess up it may cost lives.

Ben gets some really awesome moments which had me wanting to kill him, but in the end I realised what he did was all a huge mistake. Telltale Games did a great job with this sudden change of heart for me just like they did with Kenny in the past episodes.

Voice acting is at its best yet again, Clementine well on her way to winning character of the year, we feel the emotion coming out of the characters and straight into our cold heart.

Yet again this episode suffers from the slight lip syncing and screen loading in intense scenes, but this is forgivable as it really does not take away from the overall experience.

We can tell by the final statistics that our choices really have made a huge impact on the finale, I feel regret in some decisions I made this is not a bad thing as it means I'm invested in the rich story.

Overall, Episode 4 sets up for an epic finale to this amazing series, I cannot wait to play it! Episode 4 has maybe the most epic scenes yet and shows how The Walking Dead is not just a zombie story, but a story filled with emotion and it really is something special. If you have not played Telltale's The Walking Dead then this is the best time to start!

Final Verdict: 9.5/10
+Epic scenes
+Great way to end ready for finale giving a powerful cliffhanger
+Most interesting Clementine scenes yet
-Slight technical issues

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn - "Part 1" Review!

Episode 1 is available now, you can watch it on YouTube or the official Halo site, so go watch it before reading this review!

Bungie attempted to bring a live-action for Halo call Halo 3:Landfall, but with 343 they have been more ambitous in promoting Halo 4. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is an episodic webseries that acts as a prologue to Halo 4, but this first episode acts as much more than a promotion.

The budget for Forward Unto Dawn is very good you realise while you watch this, it is up to the quality of most shows shown on television. Some areas you are able to tell the divide between, digital and reality in the footage, but what do you expect for a webseries? The armour and scenery really give off that Halo vibe, you can tell the props really had some time put into them.

The main problem I had was that every single marine in this seems like they could not make it into the UNSC, I know that it is a training facility so they would be young, but none of them really give off a badass feeling like the marines in the Aliens film. They really have no qualities that you would expect to find from a soldier.

The episode takes place just before the war between humanity and the Covenant, in this time rebels are the only threat. It's a very good place to start with as newcomers of Halo who may watch this.

Right from the start we can tell who the main characters so far are, Tom Lasky played by Tom Green seems to be made out as the main character, with Chyler Silva who is played by Anna Popplewell who you may remember from Chronicles of Narnia. Nobody else in this first episode really stuck out that much, we still have plenty of time for the other characters to develop though. Green and Popplewell do good at being characters with determination and vunerability to their roles, unlike Master Chief who is made out to be a god among soldiers.

"part 1" really was a strong episode in introducing us into this webseries, the final cenes are the strongest as they develop our emotional attachment to the main two characters. I'm confident though that this opening episode shows that we are in for a real treat, this series has huge potential to be something special, not just a advertisement for Halo 4.

8/10
+Outstanding costumes andd set designs which give off that Halo feel
+Strong performances
-Secondary characters fail to stand out

Guild Wars 2 Review!

Guild Wars 2 is supposed to be a revolution for those already embedded in the massively multiplayer roleplaying world, ArenaNet is aiming for this and they may not be at that position, but it’s close. The main thing is no subscriptions are required, I love this because now I can leave and come back whenever I please.

Tweaks have been made wich really give the game a sense of pushing forward, everything I do gives me expirience crafting, gathering, dynamic events, killing, questing and exploring which may not be new but the way they do it with Vista points really encourages you to explore.

Dynamic events are a real nice feature, they have been seen before in Rift for example but vary much more with events to defend, collect and kill mostly, the most fun I have seen being killing a undead dragon! These kinds of things really bring the players together to help each other as they themself benefit. The little changes make a big difference such as anyone who attacks a target will get expirience, unlike World of Warcraft with its system of whoever gets first hit will gain the rewards, this stops them long waits for enemies to respawn just for the kill to be stolen.

Rather than forcing you to talk to NPCs for odd jobs, Guild Wars 2 has them standing out in the open, screaming their predicament for all to hear. Hearts appear on the game’s map; initially hollow, you can fill them by performing certain tasks for their owner without you ever having to click through a single dialogue box.

The game features five total races with eight proffesions to pick from, each having their own skills and abilities, the most interesting change is that the weapon you hold determines your skills; this allows for some real different playstyles from players.

Each race has its own unique story until around level 14, these then branch out on multiple ways that you can pick, they are all voice acted which really adds to the story also.

GW2 has a dodge – double-tap a direction – and it’s expected you’ll use it to avoid attacks before they connect in realtime. It’s not an action game, but it’s closer than the genre’s got before, so battles demand a new level of focus. The combat feels much more skill based, unlike other games in the genre you cannot just sit and wait, you will be moving a lot.

Particularly when combat is so tough. Bosses in the game’s dungeons – currently eight story-led runs through gauntlets of tough enemies each with some serious boss battles. PVP also is real nice with your standard PVP modes, but what shines is the world versus world versus server, which means in Guild Wars 2 server versus server vs server, sounds confusing right? It is frantic fun with constant large scale battles occuring, as armies of players try siege castles while the other server defends.

Guild Wars 2 is a few brushstrokes short of a masterpiece, then, but ArenaNet has succeeded in trying to paint over the worst of the genre’s cracks. Only problem I had was that no trade system exists, I don't mean auction house kind but between two players,the only way is to send mail this can lead to many problems as you may know.

This aside, the game is amazing for only $60 or £40 roughly you will get at least 100 hours of gameplay from this masterpiece, for that price I have to tell you to buy this game!

10/10
+100 or even more hours of fun
+Combat system
+Class variety
+Expirience system
+No subscription
+Fun PVP
-No trade system

Bad Piggies Review!

From the creators of Angry Birds, Rovio has kicked off a new franchise in the Angry Birds universe with Bad Piggies. It switches you over to the side of the pigs, with a very different style of gameplay compared to Angry Birds


Rather than asking you to kill pigs, you have to transport them safely to a certain location. You do this by creating a pig-housing contraption out of boxes, balloons, wheels, engines, fans and other such bits and bobs. The game much like Angry Birds is all about the physics, you must predict how your various creations will work for getting the piggies to safety.

 

The game will start simple with easy levels and not many gadgets to pick from, eventually you will gain a variety of gadgets, at this point the game will begin to really challenge the player to find out how to do the level.

 

Bad Piggies feels much less casual than Angry Birds did, so maybe it won't be a game you will pick up and play on a bus ride home, but it remains addictive. The game can be frustrating though at times due to some real tricky levels, don't let this put you off though so much fun can be had with this game!

 

 

 

The game features 60 levels, starting quite simple, all the way to levels which will make you use your brain. The game also features sandbox to let you go wild with creations also adding some fun once you finish every level. The game has plenty of potential to expand with more levels in the future, so expect some interesting features later on

 

8/10

+Creative

+Fun

+Requires thinking

-Can prove to be frustrating sometimes

 





The Walking Dead Game: Episode 3 Review!

 

The Walking Dead has yet again added another medal to the list, episode 3 shows just why The Walking Dead is the fastest rising franchise in the past couple of years.

The first two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Game slowly introduced players to a twisted world filled with zombies and crazies that forced us to make tough decisions based on how we thought our version of Lee would take these various scenarios. These different decisions that we have had to made in Episodes 1 and 2 have been able to give us a general outline of a “good and bad” way to do things. Episode 3 takes all of those defined lines and blurs them completely.

The more I play The Walking Dead: The Game, the more I feel my humanity slip away. I now feel like I make my choices on survival, they still are painful for me to make but I justify it by saying "I do this for Clementine".

As Lee, we see our group through some seriously screwed up and emotional moments, as well as a whole bunch of conversations and light gameplay problem solving. We see the most emotional scenes yet, my eyes teared up a few times but I remained strong!

We get introduced to more characters who add some interesting story and bring in some freshness to the game. It’s a harrowing fact but one that you won’t escape in a zombie-survival situation, the longer you survive often times will lead to fewer things to live for.

The game still suffers from the minor frame drops again, this time it was not as bad as usual though. This factor though is not a huge problem, if you have not purchased this game series yet now is the best time. If you love a strong story then this is for you, this game puts heavy rain to shame in terms of story.

9.5/10
+ Great emotional scenes
+Entertaining story
+Tough choices
-Frame rate drops

Double Dragon: Neon Review!

Way Forward brings a HD remake of a popular side-scrolling beat em up, in Double Dragon: Neon. Taking the original story and infusing new levels and features. This game made me remember the fun I had on the classic Double Dragon games many long years ago. From the start, there is no doubt that Way Forward has put in some serious care in reflecting the source material in this remake.

For those new to the Double Dragon universe, the story revolve in rescuing Marian, the love interest of both playable characters, from a gang that has kidnapped her. This game was made to play with a buddy with countless fun little combo moves you can make with each other, it really brings back old school beat-em up action; In a modern gaming world filled with countless shooters it really is a nice chance to sit back and relax.

The sound is what made this game for me, every single unlockable move has its own song and some did make me smile; The music also has a very 80's feel which fits into the background perfectly in a very 80's feeling world.

The worry is that the game is really hard to play by yourself, unless you have a friend you really will not enjoy this game as much as you could; What make it harder is if you die you must restart the level, which is really frustrating to do. Unless you are hardcore for Double Dragon then you may want to avoid until you find someone to play with.

6.5/10
+ Beautiful update graphically
+ Great Sound
- Forced to have a friend

Borderlands 2 Review!

I remember the fun I had in the first Borderlands, constant fun with friends shouting at each other over who gets weapons and celebrating when we defeated a boss and a spray of loot went in our faces. Yet again Borderlands 2 brings them moments back in an even bigger way!

The huge feature which I love in this game are guns, some people unfamiliar with Borderlands may think I'm a moron right now considering the game is a shooter; What you may not know is Borderlands has million of guns, you will never find a player with the same gun as you, the joy from finding a overpowered gun such as a submachine gun with fire damage, 100 bullets in a magazine,a fire rate which will fire half a magazine in a blink of an eye and a satisfying sound when I shoot this baby. It is a great feeling to show off your new gun to your friends, if they don't agree you can duel them to find out who has the better guns.

The highlight is the multiplayer. Two people can play on the same split screen, but four (online) players will have the most fun, with four classes to pick from you can mix and match playstyles to create a badass team together with each class adding something to the table.

Each class feels much more like the Borderlands 1 characters but on steroids bringing wacky abilities with them;  There's Salvador, the Gunzerker, a raging slab of muscle whose special powers is dual-wielding weapons. There's Maya, the Siren, who is able to project a forcefield around enemies and haul them out of cover. There's Axton, the Commando, who can deploy a machinegun turret with a barrel that can swivel in a 360 degree arch. Finally, there's Zero, The Assassin, whose powers involve turning invisible in order to slide up close to enemies and then dismembering them with a katana.

The skill tree you can tell has been really worked on for this game, at low level they provide small stat changes but higher up they can completely change how a character ability works such as Maya being able to revive people.

The world of Pandora is much more varied now compared to Borderlands 1 with new areas such as snow covered landscapes far as the eye can see, the interesting part is areas from the first are still in the game but have changed due to the storyline; Hyperion have taken over Pandora and are now trying to take complete control over everybody on the planet.

Handsome Jack is the main villian which players will soon find is extremely funny while also being a total jerk, this is by far my favourite villian this year in a videogame as I found myself chuckling now and again to his rather childish yet weirdly funny jokes.

the player finds themselves joining up with a rebel movement – led by the four characters from the original game, they want to stop Handsome Jack from unleashing a true evil on Pandora. The plot is used mainly to hold together a constant insane fight with insane weapons while adding a dash of humour to the mix, it is a great combination.

Alongside their skills, the player also has a list of Badass Challenges to complete – these can be from simple things such as pistol kills all the way to killing a real badass boss. These challenges give badass points for the player, these can upgrade stats which actually go across all your characters.

It's also worth noting that it's best to play this game only with players who you trust to work as a team, hogging loot can be a real pain and has caused arguments in the game. The game lacks a loot system which is needed as greedy players will steal everything; a simple loot system such as the system seen in World of Warcraft should of been implemented.

This aside the loot really is awesome, unlike the first game you can really tell a gun manufacturer  apart, such as the Bandit manufacturer which have huge magazines or the Jakobs which have huge power but are single shot guns. This is a really nice feel as you can tell you will sucked into the game with all its vast loot.

Now to the last feature being the awesome graphic style, the world makes you feel like you stumbled into a comic book, it is beautiful and also helps give the humour of the game a nice warm place in players hearts. It gives this shooter character unlike the countless bland looking shooters we are used to today.

Altogether to put it bluntly, Pandora feels even bigger and more badass than it did in the first Borderlands. If you have not played the first game then this is your chance to try something spectacular! Simply put this game is awesome and well worth a buy

9.5/10

+ Bigger and more badass

+ Awesome new variety of guns to find

+ Better classes

+ Beautiful scenery

- Lack of group loot system



Welcome!

Welcome to Two and a Half Penguins! On this blog we will be posting reviews for TV, movies, books, comics and games! Let us introduce ourselves!

Heather is a book maniac and a real lover of love films! William loves any animation film you chuck at him, he also runs the popular A113Animation blog, so go check that out! I'm Jonathan I love videogames and I also love a good action film! I'm also a Walking Dead maniac and own my own (not so popular) The Walking Dead blog!

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- Jonathan