The sun glinted off the top of the tanks, sand swirled lazily, birds tweeted in nearby trees. It was so beautiful, so calm, so un-planetside 2. If you have ever played this game, you will know it's bonkers. I was part of the Terran Republic, an imperialistic, controlling faction, and we were losing badly. Planetside 2 is marketed as an mmo fps but it is really just a huge shooter in the vein of battlefield, but much better. The map is huge and features different biomes to fight over. The maps are split into hexagonal sections that can be controlled by capturing the main base/checkpoint, and we were losing them quickly. We had been pushed back constantly and were still in retreat. Our army was all over the place and we were being compressed into the top left corner of the map. I was sprinting across a large grassy plain, along with about 10 of my silent comrades. We had a couple of vehicles and a tank and was hoping to save it from the advancing vanu swarm. However it was a long way back and their planes were bombing us left, right and center. We were going to die doon. So we decided to hold our gorund. Not our best idea. We lined up along the top of a nearby hill and dug in, preparing for the onslaught that was to come. We waited in nervous agony, hoping the Vanu may have gone another direction. But they were just taking their time. The first couple of Vanu appeared around the side of a cliff, riding quad bikes and 4x4s, then a seemingly infinite line of foot soldiers came sprinting our way. Our tank and big machine guns on smaller vehicles, instantly started firing. We teared straight through them, killing many in a few seconds. But that was just the beginning. Then their big guns rolled around the corner. They had about 10 tanks, and even more soldiers, 4x4s, quadbikes, and some command vehicles, meaning they could respawn right there. The command vehicles set up, and instantly players started swarming out of them. We were so dead. They rushed us, and we were caught between close machine gun fire, sniper rifle fire, and huge fucking tank shells landing on our heads. I ran screaming in circles, so confused , and blinded by numerous flash bangs and explosions. I ran into an opposing Vanu player, and just sprayed and prayed, luckily killing him. But it wasn't over more players were advancing towards me, and they even had a couple of MAX suits. I was soon back to screaming like an idiot, lobbing grenades around me in the hope they would slow down my impending doom. I'm not sure what happened next, i thing I blew myself up, but the screen went dark and my character was flung into the air, dead. We had lasted little more than 3 MINUTES. But this is what is addictive about this game, and I couldn't wait to get back to the insanity.
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Total War Attila is this weeks free weekend deal on Steam, and I've been trying it out over last couple of days. I have been a huge Total War fan for a long time, through it's ups and downs, bad games and good. The game has changed so much since the the original Shogun. From the way you moved around the campaign map to the mechanics in a battle. It is a fantastic series, bringing the depth, and turn based strategy from a 4x game and joining it with an exciting, intense rts game. The battles have never been beaten in scale. The ability to command thousands of troops is both empowering and scary. And to see an opposing army march towards you, makes the fear even stronger. There is nothing like going into battle against an army twice the size of yours, and having to really make every charge count. Attila still gives me that feeling. On top of that they have added brand new campaign mechanics and battle mechanics, such as the family/politics tree where you will have to control, help or possibly kill members of your family to stop them gaining too much power and opposing your reign, Game Of Thrones style. They also have migrating factions that never stay in one place, such as the Huns, who can't actually take control of a region, the only options being to sack it or raise it to the ground. This adds an amazing new playstyle, which forces you to stay on the move to keep your faction from going bankrupt. Armies can now change 'stances', for example migration stance which increases movement range, but all units will be tired in battle. This allows the migrating factions to turn there armies into camps, so they can gain food or people. My first play through, I played as the Huns. I decided to beeline towards the Western Roman Empire, one of the remnants of the once great Roman Empire. This meant nothing to me though, as I sweeped across the lands, a sea of destruction following, and the smell of fear in front of me. I loved playing as the Huns because of their horse based armies. There is nothing like carving a path through the enemies weak unmounted units. However this often comes at a cost if you're not careful. The other Kingdoms often learn, and start to deply hundreds of spear units, which are lethal to cavalry. I learnt this the hard way when are charged into battle against some Anteans, looking to steal their gold and reap the spoils of their land. Without thinking I pushed up, the grassy plains spread out around my giant army, the wind calm. My cavalry destroyed their archers, not even halting their charge, but ran straight into a wall of spears. My army was slaughtered and my general (who happened to be the leader of my tribe) was killed. After that, the rest of my tribe was hunted down and killed. It seems the Huns can destroy anyone, but if they are not played the right way the consequences are severe. Playing as the Huns forces you to move to survive, which I like, it's very different. I would recommend this game to anyone, and you should definitely download it this weekend. I am going away for a couple of weeks tomorrow so blogs might be a bit thin on the ground. I will try to keep them up, but they will be coming back everyday in a few weeks, so stay tuned for them. Thank you. I woke up with a urge for an adventure. Not a planned, linear, do what I tell you to do, adventure. No, an epic, long journey spanning huge expanses of land, form the cold north to the tropical south, from where the sun rises to where it sets. I have been watching a lot of Game Of Thrones recently, as you can probably tell, so what better game to play than Skyrim. I would play the Witcher but I don't have it yet. (What can you do?). Seeing as Skyrim was just £2 on the Steam Summer sale I decided to buy it. Now, everybody has played Skyrim but I had only owned it on console so I was excited to see it with better graphics and mods. With the implementation of Steam workshop, they are addictively easy to install so I got a whole bunch before I even started the game. I mainly got cosmetics, not mechanic changes, and they are all great mods, I've put them here: Birds and Flocks- Adds birds, bats etc in flocks that fly off when startled (not individual vanilla birds) Auto unequip arrows- Auto unequips arrows when bow is unequiped Akaviri Samurai Armor Run For Your Lives- People run inside when a dragon appears, not trying to fight it leave that for the professionals. Warchief Armor Faster Vanilla Horses- Makes the fat Nord horses a bit more speedy Horse Armor Sounds of Skyrim Wilds- Adds more in-depth, immersive wildlife sounds. When I completed the first mission, I immediately used the cheat console to level my character to Lvl 5 and add 1000 coins so I could buy myself a horse, and got to work. I started my adventure at Riverwood and rode down to Winterfell... I mean Winterhold (too much Game Of Thrones), bravely killing many wolves and bunnies along the way. Eventually I got to the city, and rested my weary legs at the tavern, where I ordered some good ol' fashioned, Nordic mead, and bought myself a bed for the night. I woke, ready for some more adventuring. I headed to the famous Skyforge and bought some armor and weaponry using legit- totally not cheated- money. I decided to get myself a mammoth tusk, because I had never slayed a mammoth before, so I headed toward the giants camp. I circled around it, trying to find a way I could lure a mammoth away from his fearsome herders. Nothing seemed to work, even running up to it and seeing if it would chase me, so I shot it with some arrows. However, this created a slight problem, namely the fact that now all the mammoths and giants were after me. So I ran, as fast as I could back to my trusty steed, and hopped on. I pulled out my great sword, and turned to face my enemies. Screaming a warcry I charged at them, my sword ready for the blood it would draw. I charged up a slash, and plunged my sword deep into the mammoths leg, and laughed as it reared up in terror. I AM THE MAMMOTH KILLER. Of course, it takes a lot more to kill a mammoth than that. I spun around and swung at me with its great tusks, catching me across the back. My horse was killed, and I was severely wounded. I stood up ready to fight to the last breath. I was surrounded by all the giants and mammoths. But I was out of luck. They plunged into me killing me in a few hits. The cold northern wind washed over me, the grass swayed gently in the wind. Maybe I would be better watching the heroes than to become one. Game of Thrones is so good! This is going to be a review of sorts, about graphics cards. Last week, my beloved Nvidia GTX 660 died in a sea of black screens and flashing lines. I had bought this card years ago and it has served me well, playing every game in ultra settings with more than 60 fps. But I knew something was wrong when the driver kept crashing in a few games. I tried deleting the old driver and installing the newest and even rolling back to previous driver. The problem persisted, so I left it as it only happened once in a while. However, one stormy night, last Thursday was the finishing move. I was playing a bit of Skyrim, happily adventuring my way through the lands, when the screen flashed black. It recovered so I continued to play, but a few seconds later it happened again, and again, and again. Then my whole computer crashed. I left it for the night, too tired to fix it. When the morning came, I got up early to spend the day fixing it, but everything I tried didn't work. I even resorted to reinstalling windows to see if there was a problem there. But still that didn't work. It had got so bad, my computer couldn't even turn on without the card crashing and locking up. On Saturday I through the towel in, and decided to buy a new card. I sang a goodbye song as I threw my card away, realising I now had to dish out another £200 for a new card. I got online and searched about, eventually falling for the GTX 980. This card is brilliant, a huge upgrade. Being the 900 series, it is based on the new maxwell architecture form Nvidia, and it is a beast of a card. I bought Gigabytes overclocked version, with windforce technology, so the cooling is better than ever. It boasts three fans and huge heat sinks all over it. The performance is top class, playing all my games on ultra over 100 fps. The card comes with a piece of software called Gigabyte guru which helps me keep track on it's temperature and the power it is giving out. It also allows me to fiddle with the overclocked settings, but as it is already overclocked I don't need to touch that. It is the best card I've had and I recommend it for anyone looking for a new card... and who also has £400 to drop :) P.S Now my PC is fixed I'll be blogging again, sorry for the dry couple of days.
So E3 is over. It has been a bundle of excitement for me. I'm going to talk about the three games I actually cared about: Star Wars Battlefront, Fallout 4 and No Mans Sky. These games have all had new gameplay reveals and they look fantastic, but there is some disappointment. I actually got a chance to play Battlefront at the VIP area of E3, and the gameplay is really well done, it is smooth, very fun and intense, and the sounds plus the looks makes it a very Star Wars feeling game, I actually felt like an imperial Stormtrooper, raiding the Rebel scum on Hoth. However, as I said there is some disappointment, for example, AT-ATs were on rails. They would march forward automatically, their weapons are playable, but this takes away the beauty of executing a detailed plan of attack in multiplayer, using these hulking machines. I was so excited to work together with my friends with a group of AT-ATs to wipe out the rebel scum. It also seems like weapons like rockets have to be picked up ina powerup scattered around the map. This, to me, takes away the depth of the game, it takes away the need to have a variety of classes to successfully win a battle. Ships, like Tie fighters, have to also be picked up in a powerup, which seems a little shallow and doesn't make it seem like you are fighting in an army. So for some this might not be the game you are looking for, but it was still one of the best games I've played, the combat is smooth, the battles are big, the feel is right and I am thoroughly looking forward to it's release. No Mans sky got about 3 minutes of gameplay shown at E3 and it is shaping up to be game of the century. The head of Hello Games, Sean Murray played some of No Mans Sky, a 3-minute gameplay bite, a taste of what you can do. He started off in a hanger, and jumped in his ship, launching himself into the heart of a battle. The battle looked great, with lasers flying around, capitol ships blasting away at each other, and fighters dipping and diving around taking out the opposition in intense dog fights. He then opens the map, and my jaw dropped. I had already seen the map in various other trailers, but the scale still boggled my mind. He reminded us as he zoomed out that each dot of light was a solar sytem, with space stations, planet sized planets, asteroids and a star. I can't tell how it works but the map navigation seems to work in a very 'organic' way, I can't put my finger on what it is, you'll have to see it yourself. They isn't any UI, or options on the map, it is just the camera flying about. He then warped out to a distant solar system, and my jaw dropped again as he arrived in a exquisite, colorful solar system, above a realistic, stunning planet. He flew down to the surface and got out, the world actually felt as if it was alive, as animals wandered about and vegetation swayed in the wind. He joked saying it wasn't the best planet he's been on, "But it isn't the worst". For the rest of the gameplay, he showed off the destructible environments. This game looks incredible, and I can't wait till it's released. I'm looking forward to new gameplay, and mechanics they will reveal, and of course when the release date is, which they promise will be announced soon. Now I'm off to try and quench my thirst for the most exciting game this century. (I'm not talking about Fallout today, but check out my news on it here or head to the news section):
Yesterday, on the 15th the multiplayer and co-op gameplay was just released for Star Wars Battlefront. This is a kind of up date on my pre-order problem blog from a few days ago. I said that we haven't actually seen any gameplay of Battlefront but they are still asking you to buy it, based on what they promise they are going to do. I still believe pr-ordering is stupid, but I was tempted to myself when I saw the footage. It looks amazing. I can tell this is going to be a great year for gaming. I havn't seen the co-op gameplay yet but the multiplayer is the only reason we play Dice games anyway. And it looks like a classic Battlefield game but in the Star Wars universe, beautiful.
The battle took place on Hoth, the only map anyone played on the previous Battlefront games, of course, because of the AT-ATs. Not only does it look like a battlefield game but it also looks like a battlefront game (confusing names!), as if they were mushed together in a gamers dream. It started with the player running through the original, underground rebel ice base, and coming to the entrance of a hanger. The sun glares outside, too bright to see anything. A succession of turbo-laser fire and explosion follows, an then a raid from some Imperials. The player then runs outside, to see a huge landscape covered with huge battles. AT-ATs and AT-ST roam around, troops from both sides charge at each other and tie fighters and x-wings dogfight over head, while a couple of Star Destroyers loom in the distance. The trailer is too long to explain all, but everything is dead on to the Star Wars theme, the sounds, the look, the fear as you notice the ground tremble and look up to find a AT-AT striding over you.
The footage showed gameplay from the AT-AT, the camera positioned- like the originals- above it's head, but switching to underneath when the player switched weapons. There was Snow Speeder gameplay, using the cable to trip up the walker, which switched to a nice exterior view like the originals, so you could easily see what your were doing. What is nice, is they seem to have kept a lot of gameplay mechanics from Battlefront 1 and 2, giving it a very nostalgic feel. One of the best moments was a first-person dogfight in a Tie fighter against an X-Wing, as the Tie chased the rebel through a succession of winding canyons, the dual lasers sputtering green plasma into the rear of the X-wing. The whole gameplay had a very Star Warsy feel and I think Battlefront fans will be very happy. That's all I can say for now, here's the trailer:
A couple of games, big games, are available to pre-order at the moment. Namely, Star Wars Battlefront, and Fallout 4. Both have been plastered all over steam and origin respectively, enticing the consumer to come and spend your hard earned cash on a game that isn't even out yet. Now of course I am insanely excited for both games as they are the return of two of my favorite franchises, but no gameplay had been released (actually Fallout 4 gameplay has just been revealed, check it out on my news page). This is a huge problem, as many people are paying for a game they don't know if they will enjoy. I haven't pre-ordered a game since Black ops 2, this is why: The pre-order deal was that I would get the game a couple of days before it was released. I was super excited to level up ahead of my friends, and show 'em how it's played. Of course, on the day it was meant to be at my house, no game, next day, no game, the next day, no game, THE NEXT DAY, no game. I was furious, as this was the day it was released. And to add insult to injury, I found out my friend had found the game £20 cheaper ,than what I payed for it, at a local game store. So, not only had he paid less, but he got to play the game before me. This is when I realised, it's not worth it. Don't bother pre-ordering, just buy it when it comes out, in-fact, wait a bit, read the reviews, watch youtube vids, to see if it is actually what you want. Don't fall into the trap, don't blindly hand your money over to these companies for a promise, they may or may not keep. But of course with EA, it doesn't matter, they're always fucking you in the ass.
18 QUINTILLION PLANETS Space sims are in this year. Hundreds seem to be flying out of the depths of deep space. From the indies of Limit Theory and Rodina to the huge, massively funded such as Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous. Personally I am waiting for one of the greatest looking games ever: No Mans sky. It is coming out later this year on PS4 and 2016 for PC, and it looks incredible. If you don't know what No Mans sky is, its probably the biggest game ever. It seems like the traditional, zip around shooty, tradey, explory space sim, until you land on a planet. Each planet is, well, planet sized. But wait! There's more! There are over 18 quintillion planets, in fact they think it may be infinite, and each planet is revolving around a sun in a beautiful solar system. How do they do this? Through procedural generation. Using a complex equation, each planet is generated according to the gas, materials and other objects on or near the planet. They even apply the same types of equations to the animals, trees, rocks, so nothing, not even the species of animal will be the same from planet to planet. Even ships use procedural generation, switching and adapting the modular parts so you will never have the same ships as someone else. The game is based around exploration, but you can trade or fight ( if you want you can wipe out an entire species!). The will be enemy ships, robots and they are hinting at a "malevolent force" in the galaxy. The game looks beautiful so you should check it out: My lust for planet exploration growing, I decided to play Rodina. This is a nice little indie game, with an pretty style and aesthetic, kind of cartoony. At the moment it is in early access so it is a bit limited but it still more than covers what it's worth. The story is a bit of a mystery at the moment but all I know is... actually I have no idea... I was lost in the games incredible scenery for most of it. You go around doing missions and picking up parts for your ship, your ONE ship. You don't change ships but you can modify the layout of the interior to make it yours, adding beds, toilets, scanners etc. The dogfighting is amazing, using the mouse to turn and the WASD to strafe. But that isn't the highlight! The planets are all realistically scaled, which you can get out and walk about meaning it would take months to circumnavigate it. It is amazing to stand on a mountain, and watch the sun rise, and they are so big the distance looks like a static bit map background. There is nothing like dogfighting high in the sky, shooting an enemy down and watching them fall, trailing smoke all the way to the barren surface. As No Man's Sky is still on the horizon, and you are looking for a fun, huge space/planet exploration game, check out Rodina. Now, back to shooting womp rats, NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS. BOOM!! A IED exploded billowing black smoke into the clouded sky. Bullets suddenly whipped, and zipped past me. "MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN" I heard over the radio. I froze, looking around, but quickly dropped and rolled behind a conveniently placed rock. Looking into the beautifully rendered sun, I noticed silhouettes sprinting across the hills, firing down into the valley. I was crouching behind my captain, waiting for his orders, taking pot shots hoping for a hit. Click, click, crunch, crunch. The gravel crumbled under the feet of team bravo zero. Weapons swayed lazily from the hip of the soldiers. A haze of heart raised from the sandy hills in the distance. All was quiet, all was still. I constantly searched the surroundings for any signs of movement, anything that was out of place. Something was wrong though, and subconsciously I gripped my mouse harder. I was getting claustrophobic as the hills closed in. A flash blinded me, the world turning a bright white. When it cleared I looked down to notice a bloody mess, my captain. The frighteningly realistic sound of firing guns continued around me. Under the suppressive fire my view turned blurry with all the dust and debris bouncing into my eyes. I realised there was no more chatter on the radio, and all the bullets seemed to be aimed at me. Looking around answered the mystery, my squad were spread around me, all of them lifeless. I cringed, knowing i couldn't survive much longer, but I wasn't going to give up yet! I waited for a gap in the seemingly endless stream of lead. NOW, I sprinted out of cover down towards the village thinking I could make it.
But this is Arma 2, not COD Before I knew it I was sprawled on the floor, from a volley of incredibly realistic, accurately place shots. I wasn't dead, but I couldn't move, and I watched as the ambushers strolled casually in my direction and proceeded to plant a bullet in my skull. (Restarts mission for the 100th time) Shots fired around me. Engine vapor zigzagged overhead. My ship bang and whirled, the games fantastic sounds adding to the excitement. I was in the middle of a war-zone, screaming my head off as players dodged, rolled and spun in an attempt to prevent damage. I was new to this, so I was constantly holding my breath, to the point of black out :( After I had picked myself off the floor and crawled onto my chair I realized my ship (and, presumably, my poor pilot) had vaporized into a shower of metal, smoke and... a little guts. Luckily I had enough credits to afford the insurance, so i was up and running quickly. I love this game! If you don't know what ED is, here's a quick summery: ED is a spaceship simulator... but don't recoil in horror at the word 'simulator', I know the word brings to mind shit graphics, gameplay and actually no realism at all. ED is incredible, and you can play with a controller, like i do, keyboard or joystick. Generally joystick is best, but it plays very well with a controller. Anyway... this game is a sandbox, you can do literally anything, as long as it relates to trading, shooting or exploration. So pretty much a normal space sim. However, unlike Eve, the X series etc, it has 400 billion star systems!!!! WHAT? you are probably saying (or not because the game has been out awhile). Yes, the game is set in a life-size milky way galaxy!!! This has never really been attempted but it seems to be the big thing at the moment, like with No Mans Sky. It is not possible to land on any planets but it is speculated that will be available later. But is fun enough without it. I was happy to glide gracefully through the stunning galaxy, sightseeing nebulas, stars and planets. It is even possible to fly down and dart around a planets rings, which are rendered in stunning detail. I'm not going to talk about it anymore, as it is a game you really have to check out yourself. Now, time to head ba ck to that battle, and with the wisdom of Han, Never tell me the odds! |
AuthorHi. My name is Ben and I am a passionate gamer and writer looking to fill the world with great gaming news and my experiences and play throughs of games. Categories
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