Monday 24 September 2012

Looking Back...:The Last Stand

I'm not a massive fan of computer gaming. Browser-based gaming has never been part of my gaming routine and has ceased to enthral me despite purchases of newer and better computers on my part with faster Internet connections, also. But, just like if you're not too keen on The Beatles, you have to respect it/them for their impact of their avenue of media. The Beatles revolutionised the way music turned out by creating (a) new genre(s). Browser gaming changed the way we spend/waste our time at school/work... And I respect it for that.

I first heard about The Last Stand (TLS) when I was shown it when I was round a friend's house.Having spent the night there for a sleepover, we were both tired and bloody bored, too. Having played a couple of games on his Xbox 360, he moved onto his computer and surfed the net for a bit. He then showed me TLS and I loved it. I don't know whether it was the fact that I was 11 or that I liked a bit of violence at the time but killing zombies appealed to me immediately and immensely.

The game is a third person shooter where you are behind "cover" and you have to kill zombies to stop them from reaching you and eating your brains (once the cover is destroyed then it's usually over as the zombies quickly descend upon you). The rest of the game is spent finding survivors to help you kill the zombies or looking for weapons. You can have up to seven survivors, including yourself, with the seventh survivor always brandishing a hunting rifle which can take out a zombie in one shot, so my advice would be to gather survivors as quickly as possible in your daylight hours so as to quickly obtain this asset.

In terms of weapons, there isn't a massive variety for your wall but it's big enough so as to keep you satisfied. There's standard pistols then it moves onto shotguns then machine guns with quirky weapons such as the chainsaw adding a little bit of "ommph".

To be honest, it's one of only a few browser games which I play occasionally. I have always adored it and my love affair has continued with The Last Stand 2 being released and 3 having its trailer on YouTube. It's free. The link's below. Have a go. :)

SkyrimAddict

The Last Stand -  http://armorgames.com/play/269/the-last-stand

Saturday 8 September 2012

Grand Theft Auto IV: A very late review... UPDATE

*As seen via other posts, I have "reviewed" GTA 4 despite only playing about six hours on it at the time. This post is an update for the review using the opinion I have gathered through rigorous playing*

I've played about 60% of story now and I have to say that it's top-notch stuff. The plots come thick and fast not depending on which person you choose to help/get employment from. And it's an interesting, grabbing story that makes you want to plow through it and see out Niko's adventure in Liberty City. A highlight was robbing a bank with the McRearys with the action, emotion and adrenaline of being chased by the cops, and other things besides, it makes you see through Niko's eyes... I even got to the point, after a six hour gaming session on this game, that I started thinking in Niko Bellic's voice. I'm not knocking it, the Russian accent is up there as one of the best, but it's alarming to think how attached you get to a fictional character.

An update of the game play includes that the buttons become second nature and do not feel unresponsive after playing it for such a long time. I am better at driving despite not being in complete control of the vehicle at all times... Yet the variety of cars is something that should definitely be commended (pick up trucks, family saloons, fire engines, police cars, ambulances, lorries, rubbish truck, convertibles, muscle cars and, obviously my favourites, sports cars) with the option to steal pretty much any vehicle... with a bit of an aversion due to the police liking to chase you for a few minutes if they see you committing the crime, leading to bumps, scrapes and (in extreme circumstances) the vehicle blowing up and killing anyone in a ten metre radius.

The array of weapons at my disposal soon increased after my last "review" and I had fun with automatic and semi-automatic machine guns, grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and, of course, my trusty pistol. Due to it's accuracy, the pistol has always been my favourite since I first compared it to other guns. It's also easy to find ammunition with most of the police officers using the same make of pistol (luckily enough). I still listen to Liberty Rock Radio with their classics but I may use other stations if I forget to change it to LRR when I commit grand theft auto.

The criticisms that I wrote in the last "review" were somewhat harsh to GTA IV; "the camera angles when driving are always too far or too near... A middle ground would be nice. You can die really easily which sucks at the start when you have to pay to get healed up. It's a bit unrealistic when you date girls and they say it's been an OK date despite the fact that you've totalled her car... Also, when I try to cross a bridge there's always a police barricade there and they always kill me as I go past... Is that normal for the start of the game?"

There are retorts to each one with driving getting easier due to the amount of time spent cruising around in vehicles plus the use of pressing B giving a cinematic look to driving. You can indeed die easily at the start of the game, but as it progresses you learn to buy/obtain body armour... Not to mention that the cover system allows you to not get shot as much *face palm*. The date/totalling car part is still true... But hey, it makes it a  bit easier to "hook up", as someone like me wouldn't say. And the police barricades are usually only there so that you unlock islands as the story progresses yet there are make-shift police barricades that are used in an attempt to stop you/slow you down during police chases, however these are not permanent.

And now for a final conclusion; 10/10 definitely. I couldn't rate it highly enough and even if I could, it probably wouldn't be enough. On a par with Skyrim too. And that's the highest honour I can bestow upon GTA IV.

SkyrimAddict

Monday 3 September 2012

Cool YouTube Users: officialxboxmag

I bought my first Xbox 360 magazine when I was first interested in Guitar Hero: World Tour. I bought the magazine with the glossy cover and Guitar Hero on the front despite the fact that it wasn't "official". I was, indeed, susceptible to anything that looked good so at the time I bought games depending on their trailers or cover art or what a friend owned. Then, about a year and a half after my first purchase, a member of my family offered to buy my magazine for me. Not knowing which one I usually purchased, they bought the Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) as it was the most expensive of the solely Xbox 360 magazines. Having read the magazine and used its disc, I was certain that I could only buy this magazine in the future months to come... And I still do.

As with most businesses/brands, they have their own Facebook and Twitter pages along with a very extensive website which is run by some top people (as is most of the things they do :S). The most recent of their uses of popular "social" websites is their use of YouTube.

Despite not having a lot of time to do YouTube videos (they have to work for their actual jobs), there is a large variety of videos that make up their uploaded videos section.In the last month or two it has, admittedly, been a lot about Minecraft due to the immense popularity of it on XBLA. However, even one game can bring about a diverse selection of different videos from an introduction, to gameplay to OXM Land which is basically their world and they let 100 people onto it to build whatever they want... The results are quite staggering and impressive.

That's not to say that it's just Minecraft. Their most popular videos have come from Matt Lees (AKA OXMJamSponge or "the guy with the weird hair-do") and his ability to make any game sound quite exciting. An example of this is Dragon's Dogma. Not an extremely successful game, by any means of imagination, but Matt has made introductions to different types of systems found in the video game including the Pawn system, level system and the different classes, though he's only shown us a few in his videos. :'(.

The most recent video of interest is a Star Wars 1313 gameplay video, with Matt asking someone from the development team about LucasArts' CGI effects team (which recently worked on The Avengers) while showing off the latest of gameplay shown by the developers. It looks really good, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be for the next generation of consoles. However, it's Matt being there that consoles any worries about it and I'm sure it will be great whichever generation it comes out in.

I've been subscribed for about seven months and I always look forward to seeing an OXM video pop up in the subscriber's box... Maybe you should too.

SkyrimAddict

Star Wars 1313 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbhcsrYnW1c
Dragon's Dogma - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8krHCKHDI&feature=relmfu
Minecraft introduction - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jt9dHr0Veo