BADatVIDEOGAMES.net – Page 2 – Opinions, Games and Nerdy Sh*t

WildStar Launch Trailer!

A colourful cast of amazing characters, and of course – a deep galactic secret that threatens us all. In some ways, it’s cliché – but in so many other ways it’s charming, witty and a heck of a good time.

Our first look at the big bad of the game, included at the end of that amazing trailer, appears to be a fellow simply titled as ‘The Entity’. Not a friendly looking bloke, but I look forward to learning more about his motivations. I know, I know – Following the plot in an MMO, damn I am a fool.

Learn more about WildStar at http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/

Mortal Kombat X Unveiled!

This is something I have been looking forward to ever since I managed to get my grubby little Australian hands on one of those ‘Banned’ copies of Mortal Kombat 9.

MK9 was maybe one of the best HD sequels to a franchise I have ever seen, with an amazing roster of classic characters, and some fun twists on old characters to give them a little new-age appeal – but the part of the game that I enjoyed the most was the fact that the game played like an interactive action movie. This incredibly corny plot would start to unfold, and every time there was a fight scene you’d be the guy throwing the punches. Sometimes the reason behind the fight scene would be so amazingly absurd (Johnny Cage is flirting with Sonya Blade! Sonya Blade will fight to defend her honor!) and the fact that you would spend 3 rounds shattering bones and destroying organs to settle a minor dispute was unironically awesome. So with the cinematic debut of Mortal Kombat 10 (or ‘X’, as the trailer above shows) we can absolutely expect more blood, and more drama as Australia considers whether or not it’s suitable for consumption by humans.

I have been excited to see how a sequel might iterate on this kind of format – but as always I am hesitant. For me the greatest flaw of the later Mortal Kombat sequels has been the apparent necessity to introduce new features, sometimes to the detriment to the gameplay experience. From the trailer above – though it is cinematic – we can see some basic things they appear to be adding to the gameplay. First being the interactive environment as we see Sub Zero beat Scorpion over the head with a tree branch. This doesn’t worry me greatly, NetherRealm were the developers of Injustice: Gods Among Us where interactive battle arenas were brilliant. The other thing we see return is the use of weapons – which never thrilled me in the older style Mortal Kombat games. Their implementation differed between titles, but usually they served as a sort of ‘stance’ that, when wielding your weapon, changed your characters move-set to suit. Something I praised about Mortal Kombat 9 was it’s simplicity in the face of complexity, the fighting system was easy enough to grasp and then fiendish enough to master – Will weapons skew this? Until further details are released we can’t be sure, but I will definitely be watching press on this one.

Oh, and as always – the music owns.

WildStar Plotz – Episode 2

Welcome back to WildStar Plotz – With a spotlight on what kind of sinister mechanical structures you can erect on your plot. The one in the video above looks like is powered by the dreams of children. But hey, whatever keeps your floating plot of land in the air, right? Full credit goes to KelpPlankton for creating this technological marvel – just don’t question his methods.

In this episode, we put a special focus on some advanced building techniques, including hidden light sources and prop clipping – plus a very subtle way to use an entire shipping container!

Batman: Arkham Knight Gameplay Trailer Spotted

The next generation of the Dark Knight looks positively electrifying – The developers have already mentioned that all cutscenes in the game are apparently rendered in-engine, so everything we see above – even the evidently scripted stuff – is in game. Rocksteady is putting the Unreal Engine to work, and it shows.

Just look at the level of detail in this screenshot, taken from the trailer – pay special attention to the neon scarecrow face on the building. Looks like the master of fear has big plans for the city of Gotham.

Arkham Knight is still slated for release on 14/10/2014

WildStar Plotz – Episode 1

Welcome to WildStar Plotz! An outlet for me to indulge my insatiable lust for all things creative in the WildStar housing system.

I have been playing the beta on and off over something close to a 12 month period, and though the MMO part of this charming space cowboy adventure game is dynamic and fun – It’s the housing that I keep coming back to. It’s a weird kind of Garrys Mod-esque method of building, where you take props and suspend them in 3D space until you find an arrangement that is aesthetically pleasing.

I’ll more than likely do a proper write up at some point, but for now – Enjoy the video above and the screenshot below showcasing one structure that I created, with more videos to come in the future!

10 Days of WildStar Open Beta!

Open Beta is Live!

Do you want to experience the thrill of uncovering the secrets of planet Nexus? Get yourself over to the WildStar website now, to get started!

Dark Souls’ From Software bought by Kadokawa

A few days ago, word got out that Kadokawa will be buying From Software – the studio most known for games like Dark Souls and Armored Core. It is reported that Kadokawa is purchasing an 80 per cent share of From Software’s stock. Supposedly, this would benefit From Software and Kadokawa mutually – I on the other hand am not quite so convinced.

Kadokawa is a Japanese publishing company that has in the past published Manga and has only recently stepped into the world of gaming, publishing games for Suda51 such as Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead. Those games are great but are fundamentally Suda51 games and it felt like he had free reign in the development process. If that is the case, the Dark Souls franchise should still play and feel like a Souls game and who knows, maybe Kadokawa just plans to fund From Software and collect the profits.

However! What worries me the most is what if Kadokawa decides to do a Dark Souls manga or anime, which they have already done so for some of their IP, such as Demon’s Gaze. This is cause for concern for me because what made the story of the Souls game so interesting and engaging because it is shown to the player rather than told to the player, thus it leaves a lot open to interpretation – resulting in the Dark Souls community coming together to trade stories with each other of their understanding on the world, as if we were camping around a bonfire sharing stories. Which was essentially what Hidetaka Miyazaki was trying to recreate when he made both Dark Souls and Demons Souls. He loved the idea of people gathering and sharing stories which was spurred from his teenage years. Being a huge fan of western fantasy novels but growing up in Japan was hard for Miyazaki, as most of them were written in English and his own English skills were only average at best, so there were many parts of a novel he would not quite understand. So everyday he and his friends gathered to trade theories of what occurred and eventually while their versions of the story may have been completely different to what was written, it had become their own story and that was the atmosphere Miyazaki wanted to recreate with the Souls games. An atmosphere where the environment, location of items, item description, dialogue spoken by characters with their own agendas, and the music helps bring meaning into the game’s story – but could also be interpreted entirely differently.

If Kadokawa were to create Manga or Anime to help explain the story and lore of Dark Souls it could completely ruin that whole atmosphere and feel that Miyazaki succeed in bringing to us. I’m sure a Manga or Anime could work, if you were to only have characters set in the world and be very careful with your writing as to still be able to leave it open to interpretation, it could still work. Perhaps writing the story so that it only takes place from the perspective of the protagonist and never changes to other scenes of what other characters are plotting and avoiding having the antagonist show up and monologue their entire plan and reasoning. Who knows what Kadokawa has installed for From Software, but many times I have been disappointed by my favourite game studio after a year or two under the influence of businessmen without the same passion for games as the developers. Just take a look at Bioware or Blizzard, I pretty much now follow the developers and not the studio, as studios can be bought and internal staff replaced by different game developers with different mind set, goals and skills.

One could say all this worrying is for nothing as Miyazaki has already stepped down as lead designer and developer for Dark Souls 2 and any future instalments, now only taking a supervisory role and perhaps Dark Souls 2 has suffered for it. Only time will tell if From Software ends up like Bioware, Blizzard or Irrational Games where the lead designers packs up their bags and goes off to make games they love without having to appeal to a board of directors and investors.

With all that said and done, I shall return to enjoying the living the daylights of Dark Souls 2. For more information/different opinion on the buy out I recommend watching EpicNameBro’s video on the subject or just check out his Dark Souls 2 play/walk through.

inFAMOUS Second Sons Photo Mode is Neato

Seriously, it’s just damn cool. Of course, if you aren’t an inFAMOUS Second Son you are probably wondering what ‘Photo Mode’ is. The image above looks like some kind of promotional screenshot for the game – But it’s actually an in game screenshot authored using the utility. Photo Mode is an optional setting toggled within the games options that allows you to pause the game instantly, and retain full control of the games camera – while also gaining a slew of new options to help make the most of the moment. This includes camera position, depth of field, colour balance – the list goes on. You can stop the game and simply marvel at what is going on, then tweak until you have created digital art.

Continue reading “inFAMOUS Second Sons Photo Mode is Neato”

Marvel Heroes 2014: Team Up Madness!

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The Marvel Heroes content juggernaut just isn’t losing any steam.

In 2014 they promised so many new characters, new systems, new loot – You name it, there is some aspect of the game being worked on, or cooked up. ‘Team Ups’ were only implemented recently, functioning in a very similar sense to the ‘Mercenaries’ seen in games like Diablo II and III – they serve as an NPC combat companion. Their purpose doesn’t really necessitate further explanation – they are cut and dry combat pets. But in a game like Marvel Heroes, with it’s MASSIVE focus on established characters, they represent so much more.

When Marvel Heroes was first released, there was a huge buzz about characters in the game. At it’s release, the game sported a respectable roster of 21 characters ripped straight from the pages of Marvels history, and as of March 2014 it had swollen to 32 playable characters. Beyond this the game had over 100 characters present in it’s world, with villains ranging from the A-list, right down to solid D-listers (no sign of Paste Pot Pete yes, however). It was an impressive effort on Gazillions part – but even in the games infancy they were asking the players who they wanted next. It lead to some difficult discussions, with the developers having to address characters that could be hard – if not outright impossible – to implement into the game. I remember reading a thread on the Official forums, where one player expressed a huge interest in playing Janet van Dyne – a.k.a “The Wasp“. Now, here is a character known for her ability to both shrink, and grow in size (And possibly be the victim of domestic abuse, but let’s not go into that…) and the developer was quite right in explaining – Well, A character that becomes tiny poses quite a challenge from a gameplay perspective. Especially in a game with a very defined playstyle – the isometric, 3rd person view wouldn’t lend well to a character that can become insect sized without a great deal of tweaking to an established game view. As such, the words “Not likely” were used, and disappointment was had by those that enjoyed that particular character, and others that would sadly have the same kind of design issues that deserve the use of the word ‘problematic’.

But what does this have to do with Team Ups? Well, think of it as a way for Gazillion to really test their limits. I am sure they are brutally aware of the characters people are clamouring for, and in many ways they probably have at least a rough design document for those that don’t really pose a huge problem from a gameplay designers point of view. For ‘problem characters’ like The Wasp, team ups are a unique opportunity to road test how the character works within a gameplay environment without having to necessarily stress the conundrum of player control. A team up character has a limited amount of combat skills and attacks, meaning the pressure to fill 3 entire skill trees is not present – And being an NPC there is no requirements for their to be a range of unique loot items to pad out the characters stats. They can simply model/animate the character, find some flavourful abilities for them to use – and release. Definitely not belittling the amount of effort required to translate an established comic character in the world of Marvel Heroes, but I am sure we can all understand that if you are aiming to put a player in the driver seat, there are some very particular problems that need to be addressed and solved.

From a Gazillion perspective, you can then appreciate that they can use this as a litmus test for how the character is received. How thrilled are people to be fighting alongside this character? What kind of design hurdles would be involved to make the character a full fledged roster addition? Doomsaw himself has told us all that a character being released as a Team Up is in no way a sign that they wont be playable. And vice versa – One of the first team ups announced was ALREADY a playable character, your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man. And with the unique interactions you get from your team mate, it adds another level of characterisation to the in game characters and helps the game world grow. Who knows, maybe what they learn from creating ‘Team Up’ Wasp has lead to some new ideas to how they can possibly make her a proper playable character – It’s all unbridled potential.

Pictured above, they just today announced an ‘Advance Pack’ for Team Up heroes – giving people an opportunity to pre-purchase a huge range of Team Up characters that will eventually enter the game. If you are a fan of throwing money at your free2play games, it poses a particularly good opportunity to empty your wallet quickly, but for me it shows me a very promising release schedule for characters that I would love to play. She-Hulk? Sign me up, but please Gazillion – Give her some Lawyer powers. I’ll be waiting with my wallet ready.

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 6

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘The Brutal Bardic Battle’

Cold, Cold Heart Gameplay Footage Shown

Like ‘Expansions’ of old, I am loving storyline DLC being added to heavily narrative driven games. And with Arkham games, giving a villain their own DLC to be the focus of means you can really engross yourself in what makes them tick – Then enjoy punching them in the face.

Continue reading “Cold, Cold Heart Gameplay Footage Shown”

Finally! ‘Fortnite’ gets a spotlight!

Finally! People thought I was mad. I first saw Fortnite in detail was at San Diego Comic Con in 2012, I specifically checked out the panel and was delighted by what I saw. So, I arrived back in Australia buzzing with excitement – They had shown me video evidence of a game that looked like Minecraft had a baby with Team Fortress 2 and it had grown into a a sultry something with curves in all the right places. A game that focused on Building? Gathering resources? Battling monsters? Player advancement and a persistent world? Graphics that aren’t blocks and pixels? I couldn’t help but rave about it to my friends. Of course, this was during a time where I didn’t have a blog-ish website to catalog and record my video game crushes, so I instead reminded them constantly that the game was coming, and it looked AMAZING.

Continue reading “Finally! ‘Fortnite’ gets a spotlight!”

WildStar Mission – Save Outpost M-13!

Captain Milo needs your help! All aboard the Weary Traveler, we’re heading to M-13 to investigate some missing miners.

In this video we start (and complete) one of the amazing ‘Adventure’ style quests that WildStar offers, heading into space to figure out what happened on the mining asteroid ‘M-13’.

prototype plays: WWE 2K14 – 30 Years of Wrestlemania Part 22

The final chapter of prototype’s Wrestlemania Legacy ends at Wrestlemania 29, 2013’s marquee event.

In this final part, witness the epic confrontation between CM Punk and The Undertaker in the Wrestlemania mainstay: The Streak Match; the brutality between Brock Lesnar and Triple H in a career-threatening match and the rematch of all rematches between the WWE Champion The Rock and John Cena.

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 5

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘The Inn of the Giggling Donkey’

Marvel Heroes 2014: Taskmaster!

April 1st is a funny time of year. It can be cruel, it can be funny – and also critically NOT funny.

This year had a particularly cruel joke that left me a little disappointed – Taskmaster was announced as a ‘Playable Hero’ on the official Marvel heroes forums, alongside a playable Planet and a Hot Dog Vendor.

So why was I bummed to see Tasky in there? Well April 1st of course is a time of fools, and companies taking the mickey and announcing stuff that will sadly never be, Like Optimus Prime being playable in Respawn Entertainment’s ‘Titanfall’ or Blizzard releasing a Fighting Game that stars all of it’s greatest heroes. Some of the ideas sound like goofy fun, but understandably don’t actually get made. Here lies the cause of my bummed-outed-ness, Taskmaster was announced as a joke, when I felt he would be an amazing character to play. So imagine my surprise when it it turned out, that not only had I been April fooled once, but I had been DOUBLE FOOLED by the fact that not only was the announcement real, but he was released just a few short days later. What a beautiful gift.

So why is Taskmaster awesome? The guy is a living example of copy/paste. His ‘power’ is referred to as ‘photographic reflexes’ – meaning he can memorise, and perfectly reproduce the fighting style of anyone he observes in battle. This means that Taskmaster has sat down with videos of the worlds greatest combatants (People like Spiderman, Captain America, etc) and watched them to the point of mastering their styles. And it works – eventually he reaches a point where he has copied a persons fighting style so completely that he can actually pre-empt their next move in battle, giving him quite the upper hand. For weapons, he makes use of things that compliment the people he has observed, most commonly a Sword (Thanks Black Knight!), a Shield (Thanks Captain America!) and a Bow and Arrow (Thanks Hawkeye!). He can also make use of many different fire arms, and a whole slew of other weapons based on what he needs at the time – Guy has a system, and it works.

Now, you think that someone like this would set himself up as a super mega-villain, and work towards world domination – But that just isn’t his style. Instead? Taskmaster works as an instructor, and mercenary – His pursuit is that of the almighty dollar. He trains anyone who can afford his services, teaching them the greatest lessons money can buy – by basically giving people the chance to spar with legendary superheros and villains.

Of course this means he swings between villain and anti-hero, working for organisations like S.H.I.E.L.D one day and then helping train up-and-coming villains the next. He goes where the money is, and from a comic perspective it means you get to read some amazing stories with a wide range of characters. His amazing power is not without cost however – The tragic side of being able to absorb such incredible knowledge so quickly is that he is fast to entirely forget sections of his life, including his wife – and possibly, his (might be) daughter.

Now Taskmaster was already in Marvel Heroes, appearing as a boss in one of the earlier chapters – and true to form he made use of several abilities already seen in the game, so the idea of him being made playable wasn’t much of a stretch. Most players introduction to him is the goofy advertisement shown above, promising that his course will give you the means to pursue your goals with the skills you require! A quick freeze frame of the video shows that just SOME of the fighting styles offered include, but are not limited to:

…So when the smug teacher was added to Marvel Heroes, the Gazillion guys did not disappoint. The guy is a beautiful mish-mash of copy/pasted abilities, tied together with some fun synergy to give him a unique – yet oddly familiar – playstyle. It’s funny how cherry picking fun abilities from several different established characters and watching them work together is a beautiful kind of laziness that you just can’t fault. It’s the kind of situation you have always found yourself in when playing different characters in a game, where you can’t but feel that Character X’s ability would work SO WELL with Character Y’s – no wonder they are on different characters.

DVlSNlG — Image courtesy of KelpPlankton, known squirrel apologist.

Now I will be honest, I am not here to break down his gameplay mechanics – I am not a person who should give advice on games that require min/maxing, and especially not on a character that is fresh off the assembly line – So I will not go into details on all his abilities. What I will say however, is that he is the best example of apparent laziness turned into glorious potential – a true amazing sum of many parts.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to figure out how I can learn ‘Chunky Monkey’ to defend my home in real life.

Team Fortress Comics #3

The third issue is out in this globe-spanning adventure!

Are you missing vital components to understand the pictured scenario above? Then maybe you should read Issue #1 and Issue #2!

prototype plays: WWE 2K14 – 30 Years of Wrestlemania Part 21

Wrestlemania 28 rolls around, and The Undertaker, unhappy with the ending of his match with Triple H last year (he had to be carried out, even after winning) wanted a rematch. For months, he taunted Triple H claiming that Shawn Michaels was better than him. Enraged by these comments, Triple H finally accepted The Undertaker’s challenge at WrestleMania XXVIII, saying that if “he [The Undertaker] wanted an end, they would go all the way”, and proposed that they would compete in a Hell in a Cell match.

Since the summer of 2011, Punk had successfully defended the WWE Championship numerous times, calling himself the “best wrestler in the world”. On the January 2, 2012 episode of Raw, Chris Jericho returned to WWE after over a year, and accused Punk in an in-ring segment of being a copycat of him, and that he (Punk) stole his proclamation of being the “best in the world”. While competing in the Raw Elimination Chamber match at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Jericho was knocked out by a kick to the head by Punk, rendering him unable to compete any further, and Punk went on to win that match. This incident further fueled Jericho’s animosity towards Punk, and both wrestlers expressed their desire to prove who is “the best in the world.”

The last match is the “Once in a lifetime” event, put in motion after The Rock’s actions at Wrestlemania (see the previous video). For a year, The Rock and Cena were at each other verbally, and on the May 2 episode of Raw celebrating the Rock’s birthday, Cena, whilst holding the WWE Championship, confronted the Rock and declared his intent to keep the title until their match. At Survivor Series in November 2011, Cena teamed with the Rock, and billed as “the most charismatic tag team”, defeated the Miz and R-Truth, collectively known as Awesome Truth. After the match, The Rock gave a Rock Bottom to Cena. As Cena did not hold the WWE Championship heading into WrestleMania, it wound up being a standard singles match.

prototype plays: WWE 2K14 – 30 Years of Wrestlemania Part 20

Wrestlemania 27 rolls around, and it’s time for another two matches. This one contains two title matches, the first for the World Heavyweight Championship between Edge and Alberto Del Rio

The second match on the card is something of a rarity – the Heel heading into this match ended up walking out as the champion, something that happens very rarely in the WWE at Wrestlemania

A Weekend in with Wildstar #1

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This past weekend, myself and several brave souls dared venture into the untamed experience that is the Wildstar closed beta. With only hilarious vignettes and promises that the ‘devs ARE listening’ preparing us, we plunged headlong into a world of bunny girls, laser guns and undead space zombies.

After a generous portion of hours spent exploring the world and aiding each and every needy person that needed a favor, we emerged from the other side relatively unscathed. And what was the verdict? Perhaps it’s best to share as a group.

M0D3Rn: I found the most joy in my ability to deploy what was essentially a Dubstep rave at a moments notice, complete with laser shows. You’d *think* playing a class with a name like ‘Medic‘ would involve simply be administering triage with your friends over and over – But good lord, the hurting was exceptionally fun. The Medic’s weapons, named ‘Resonators’ resemble giant shock paddles, but in typical Sci-Fi fashion, they are actually massive laser dispensors. Combined with an AoE attack that both sounds like, and resembles a dubstep EQ meter, this meant that my average tussle involved me shoving a face full of laser in my opponent, while chilling out in my very own personal dance floor.

And the sounds, good lord – I mentioned that my AoE field sounded like dubstep? This is because it was a very earthy WUB-WUB-WUB when it was channeling. Combined with the pitched whine of my ‘Space Shock Paddles’ charging to fire what I could only describe as a laser shotgun, I felt like a certified badass. I mean sure, I got some healing abilities later… but pfft, There’s more fun in administering pain. The Hippocratic Oath is more of a loose suggestion on the surface of Nexus. And did I mention I was a bright red Rock Woman with a full head of foliage? Because I was. See below – I was sassy as hell.

Deploy Dubstep, indeed.

KidCharisma: Okay – picture this. A kitten, In a Onesie – eating a cupcake…with a baby bunny! Now my dearest BaVG User I know you are gazing off with a sparkle in your eye imagining this super cute overload asking yourself what this amazing image has to do with Wildstar? Well take that image, throw each ingredient into a Blender mix it up into a big Ol’Fashioned Cute Smoothie and My character in Wildstar is at least 6.4 times cuter!

Meet The Kidd; A cute, dark haired, green eyed, button nosed Aurin with large floppy ears and a set of big-ass dual blasters! I say dual blasters because I chose to play Spellslinger because who doesn’t want to be a cute Furry in a cowboy hat? Right? Now I won’t lie, when I finally met up with my group on our first weekend I was immediately struck by not just how huge the Granok are, but also just how very small an Aurin really is. I have basically lived with the fact that size is not everything forever and quickly learnt that my ‘toon’ knew this fact all too well. Be it straight up blasting suckas or standing back taking charged shots I just knew that come a few levels I was going to be a force not to be taking lightly.

I won’t go into depth with what it’s like to play as a spellslinger though as I strongly urge you to finish reading this article, leave a comment on just how cute my character sounds, THEN go and preorder this amazing game. Because at the end of weekend one – whether we were taking down bosses or grouping quests, Looting corpses or setting up a super cute home with owl clocks and oversized candles …only to have a Granok move in and throw down a dirty mattress on your floor, followed by some half full beer cans that he couldn’t even be bothered placing on the perfectly good counter I bought with all the gold I had made in two days…

…wait, where was I? Right, Yes – Whether you decide to do any of these things, the choice is entirely up to you! Wildstar is the first MMO that I can honestly say never felt like a grind, I could choose what I wanted to do at any point and that meant I wanted to do all of the things all of the time.

AaronLeigh: To deny Wildstar’s sense of humour as being anything short of brilliant is a pointless exercise and quite frankly makes you look a right fool. Never have I experienced true ‘laugh out loud’ moments from any game in it’s genre, it’s that good. My extremely limited attention span normally has a negative effect when it comes to playing a Massively Multiplayer game. The repetitive task of collecting “X” amount of that item or slaughtering “X” amount of whats-er-name’s often points me in the other direction. But Wildstar just does it right, ya know? It does what it does so well in fact that I plugged every possible minute I could into my virtual death machine this past weekend and let me tell you, I brought the pain. All of it.

For my Nexus dweller I chose to side with the Exiles as a Granok. You know, the rock dudes? He’s one tough S.O.B, cleverly named Roccardo (Rock Hard O’)… because I’m THAT punny. After decking out my walking talking landslide with a couple of shotgun-esk weapons and a pair of mechanical companions or “bots” I set out into the wonderful world of Nexus to explore everything it had to offer, which is surprisingly a lot. Everywhere I looked there was something new to kill, explore or collect. Minus a few (to be expected) disconnects and misplacing of my fellow ass-kickers the adventuring went as smoothly as you’d expect. If you’re considering picking up Wildstar once it’s released I’d highly recommend playing as an Engineer. Now let’s think about that word for a moment in the sense of a verb shall we?

Engineer [en-juh-neer] - verb
 - to design, construct or create using the techniques of engineering.

Yeah, well forget that noise. The Engineer class does anything but construct and is no stranger in the delicate art of DE-construction – or should I say DESTRUCTION! There is no stopping this unforgiving, intense, conjurer of hurt and if you disagree prepare to swallow an electrifying dose of correction.

Bring on next weekend.

Brocko: Jump Attack! WHIRLWIND! Hack, slash, dodge! Repeat! This is the life of a warrior in Wildstar. And its absolutely amazing fun. I had a ball running around the expansive landscape killing as much as I could. The Warrior story progresses in a very similar fashion to the other classes with the exception that the fights seemed a lot faster – there were still moments where I need that little helping hand from KidCharisma, AaronLeigh or M0D3Rn, but that’s what a MMO is all about playing with friends, right?

The warrior class is superbly met with the ‘soldier’ path, with the side quests being very battle based – with missions to protect little critters from slightly larger critters. Along side these missions come scavenger hunts to find and kill a particular kind of creature. Typical MMO kinds of things. But even though the style of gameplay doesn’t differ to much from the MMO recipe, the way that the warrior class and soldier path interact are great fun and makes a fantastic way to kill an hour …or 12.

…So in a nutshell, the 4 of us had a blast. Of course, we were playing as a group in a game whose genre is defined by the word ‘Multiplayer’, so perhaps Wildstar is a depressing void of misery when playing alone?

We sincerely doubt it.

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 4

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘Lord Mackeys Ginger Legion’

prototype plays: WWE 2K14 – 30 Years of Wrestlemania Part 19

It’s time for part 19 of the 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode in WWE 2K14 – this time coming to you from Wrestlemania 26 with three matches.

The first match-up is the battle of the North, between Chris Jericho and Edge; two Canadians who fight over the World Heavyweight Championship.

The second match, for the WWE Championship, is between Batista and John Cena; two superstars whose careers followed very similar paths up until this point. Both of them winning minor titles early in their careers, followed up by championship gold at Wrestlemania 21. During the lead up to this match, Batista taunted Cena, saying that the only thing Cena had not yet done was beat Batista.

The final match for this part is the Streak vs Career match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. Having had a match the previous year at Wrestlemania 25, Shawn Michaels didn’t feel that it was the right way to go out, and that he could beat The Undertaker. For months leading up the big event Michaels was persistent in trying to get The Undertaker to agree to the rematch, which he eventually did.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Gameplay Trailer Spotted

There are a lot of people who are saying that HD updates to games are lazy cash ins – But obviously they are looking at the wrong games.

In the amazing Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Gameplay Trailer posted on the Oddworld Inhabitants youtube channel, we see just how much work is being poured into the re-telling of the original classic, and it’s a LOT of work. Seeing the gameplay in action, we get a better idea as to how they are working to make the game (the original limited to ‘screen to screen’ gameplay) far more seamless, with amazing camera angles helping make the 2D game plane have true depth. The puzzles that we know and love will be back, but they will need some new thought to beat them this time around.

If you can’t view the video for whatever reason, just take a gander at this gruesome scene:
I can’t wait to feel Odd again.

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 3

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘Move along sir.’

prototype plays: WWE 2K14 – 30 Years of Wrestlemania Part 18

prototype kicks off Wrestlemania 25 with a match for the World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, Edge and the Big Show. The second match from this event was between Triple H and Randy Orton for the WWE Championship after a bitter rivalry.

5 Coolest Respawn Mechanics

For as long as videogames had some method to murder you, they also gave you the option to respawn. And as technology progressed, so too did both the methods of murdering and respawning become more complex and interesting. But really the thing that truly started to become unique in execution, was how a game developer would implement their unique spin on respawn mechanics. From early days where you’d fall down a bottomless pit, and after a quick screen deducted a point from your total lives, you’d be plonked back at the last check point you passed – to multiplayer games where you’d see a brief kill-cam of your embarrassing death before materialising at a random point of the map.

Continue reading “5 Coolest Respawn Mechanics”

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 2

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘Assisting Tweek’

M0D3Rn Plays: South Park: The Stick of Truth Part 1

The intrepid tale of Douchebag the Mage.

In this episode: ‘The Adventure Begins!’

prototype plays: Freedom Cry part 6

prototype takes on the end of Freedom Cry in part 6 of the series.

Batman: Arkham Knight Revealed

The rumors of Rocksteady making a true ‘Next Gen’ Arkham game have paid off, with the huge announcement of ‘Arkham Knight’ finally gracing the eyes and ears of gamers everywhere – Being proudly shown off as the next hot cover for Game Informer magazine, it clues us in that the Arkham series is making a large step into next gen- and the Batmobile is no longer going to be a cutscene prop.

As far as rumors go, it was a fairly solid one – Rocksteady closed their doors to public attention shortly after Arkham City smashed it’s release expectations, much like Willy Wonkas chocolate factory. And people expected great things – many people murmured about another superhero game, thanks to one accidental tweet from the talented voice actor of Batman media, Kevin Conroy, pictured:

…Doesn’t leave much to the imagination, does it? So people expected their next game to feature the dark knight in some way, whether he was going to be joined by other super powered friends – Or have another jaunt into the streets of Gotham.

Familiar villainous faces return, such as The Penguin, Harley Quinn and Two Face, and a chilling voice over in the trailer all but confirms Scarecrow playing a huge part. It’s fantastic to see Two Face return, his ‘role’ in Arkham City was so minor is might as well have been a cameo – And a character like that has so much potential to tell a good story. Harley Quinn also has the added surprise of being offered as a preorder DLC incentive, where she will appear as a playable character – perhaps in challenge rooms? Only time will tell.

A short list of what we know so far:

The game features no Multiplayer
There will be 3 Islands, making the map 5 times the size of Arkham City
Streets are wider to accommodate the Batmobile, which is an integrated part of the game (much like gliding or the grapnel gun)
Buildings are taller!
‘Next Gen’ graphics means you can see individual raindrops run down Batman’s cape and suit
Gliding improved for longer glides
The game is set one year after the events of Arkham City
The balance of criminal power is Arkham has shifted since the death of The Joker
Batman starts with the game his Arkham City suit, but quickly transitions into a hi-tech, armored suit
Gotham has been evacuated and only criminals remain
All villain voice actors have reprised their roles, Kevin Conroy returns as Batman
Up to 50 Enemies on screen at once
Line launcher can be fired in mid-air to create a line between two buildings and instant perch point – All ‘quickfire’ gadgets can be used during flight, in fact
A new counter attack that will throw a thug into another enemy
Batman can summon the Batmobile to drive to him remotely
Batmobile can shoot ‘EMP missiles’ that will immobilize vehicle targets without harming occupants
Batman can eject from the Batmobile at full speed into a glide (as seen in the trailer above)
“Arkham Knight” is actually the name of Batman’s main antagonist in the game
Riddler challenges now include deadly races (Unsurprisingly!)
Oracle now exists in-game and can be visited! Say hello to Barbara Gordon.
Batman can now chain stealth takedowns together, up to 3 times.
The game apparently has NO Loading screens!

Arkham Knight is slated for release on 14/10/2014 – Let’s hope it stays on track!

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