Tag: Multiplayer

Contra: Rogue Corps. It’s back… sort of

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Contra: Rogue Corps is the new twin stick third-person action game developed and published by ‘Konami‘. Contra: Rogue Corps is said to be coming out the 24th of September on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. Contra is a famous game that many enjoyed in the past. It’s back but with some changed. Let’s take a look. 

Now the action that you see in Contra: Rogue Corps takes place several years after the alien wars. Contra: Rogue Corps is all about a military… well former military group who makes their living and survival through being bounty hunters and finding treasure. They are located in what’s called the ‘damned city’. Now in a place like this survival ain’t an easy thing. 

You need fast reactions confirmed for Contra: Rogue Corps. If you take 12 years to turn around or your one of those adults who still can’t tell their left from their right then you’ll be dead. Now since this is Contra you already know it’s all about many weapons, funky ways of firing and bullets everywhere. Enemies are in abundance and they don’t stop coming. 

There is online multiplayer in Contra: Rogue Corps so bring in your friends and mow down all your enemies. Kill everything you see with the different characters. There’s Headcase who can turn his hand into a giant drill, Cultured who  looks like a alien with cybernetic augmentation. Killer who fused with an alien and now destroys without mercy. Cuddly who was a scientist but now a bear with guns. Don’t forget the ace pilot… Life-line from Apex Legends. Just joking but seriously Aero Pilot looks like a young Life-Line, before she joined the Apex Games.

Some people complain that Contra: Rogue Corps isn’t like the original Contra. The thing is people need to stop complaining. How about no Contra game at all. It’s still all about running, firing, destruction and numerous bullets. You can even jump on a missile and drive it yourself into a group of enemies and destroy everything. It doesn’t have to be a 2D game with the same type of enemies. There are different areas and fights going on in the Contra world. Things are different in different parts of the world. So yes, Contra is back, sort of but it’s still a contra game, get over it. There is some 2D action moments as well. Games need to change and try out new things to see what works.

We checked out some Contra: Rogue Corps gameplay and it’s basically what we expected from a Contra game. It’s crazy, over the top and there’s giant bosses too. Aliens are always crazy anyway. Just seems like simple fun, nothing deep or serious. Just blasting enemies for pleasure and fun. We aren’t a big fan of the graphics though. That needs to be improved. Other from that we think things look fine for now but we do need more information concerning the game.

Overall. Contra: Rogue Corps seems like a good game. It’s good for what it’s trying to do. We hope there is good gameplay depth to it and not just run around blasting stuff. The developers ‘Konami’ did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker don’t see a problem with it. Now Contra: Rogue Corps may have made some changed but one thing that doesn’t need changes is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Anthem is getting good. New stuff

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Anthem is the online multiplayer action role-playing game that had a good start but things started to go down hill due to a number of problems and expectations. Many voiced their opinions on the game and most gave negative feedback which is fair as some things needed to change. Now we at X35 Earthwalker do not listen to people like Angry Joe who at times don’t know what they are talking about and give bad reviews. No. We check things out and see for ourselves instead of jumping on the hate and hype train for views. Some new stuff has been added to Anthem and we are going to talk about them for a bit. Let’s take a look. 

The reason X35 Earthwalker stopped playing Anthem much was because there was nothing else really left to do and it became not fun anymore. This changed for us. There are new story based missions now. If you look up at the sky you will notice a large cataclysm. The big boss behind this one is Vara. She’s the sister of the Monitor and she’s also dangerous (the monitor is way better though). You will need the right gear and help to get into the cataclysm and therefore require help from allies and maybe even foes to get it done. You’ll encounter characters who you knew of but couldn’t interact with like Grandmaster Adam (he doesn’t deserve to be called a grandmaster) and even Dr Harken. It’s not clear what we will find in the cataclysm but we know Vara will be there. She won’t go down easy. 

Now there is a whole new game mode. Cataclysm: Echoes of Reality. In this mode players must zoom to the different cataclysm locations and destroy the crystals set up there to end the dangerous activities. The ways to open up the crystal for a clear shot is different for each one. For example one of them is just straight up co bat as in you must defeat the numerous enemies coming out of gates and then face a Fury guardian to get a key. In another you must interact and shut down 7 parts of a large mechanism to take down the field protecting the crystal. While the others are more puzzle based we will discuss this a bit later. When you want, you can go face Vara herself. So far this mode is fun.

Every enemy you kill gets you points. Every crystal you destroy gets you points. Concerning the stability let us explain. The moment you leave the starting area, you’ll notice the storm and your javelin will lose Stability. Staying in this storm will cause you to lose all Stability and you’ll die. There are safe bubbly areas throughout the map, as well as little blue orbs or items to pick up that increase Stability, but during an event the safe area will suddenly vanish. When that happens look for the yellow sphere normally in the air above the area, and shoot it. Once it explodes the safe zone comes back. Fighting in the unstable fields increase your score multiplier but being in the unstable fields for too long will cause great damage to your javelin. You have fixed inversions that change pretty much every week (more like 5 days). They are basically bonuses that work to your advantage like marksman rifles do more damage or when you have low health you do more damage and killing an enemy gives you shields etc. If you beat Vara your final score is doubled.

There is also new weapons and stuff for your javelin. Are you tired of receiving the same weapons as loot? Well we certainly are. There all new weapons now for players to get. They are literally all new as they don’t fire like any other weapon before it. The shard storm as shown above is a big blade slinger. It fires one big shot that travels through all enemies and hits enemies multiple times for big damage which is great against the scar enemies with big shields. The Bad Omen is a pulse accelerator that charges to fire a burst of energy projectiles. The Flashfire is a volt caster that fires a lightning attack that jumps from enemy to enemy. Jarra’s wrath is also a vol caster but fires a short range lighting arc. Razorwing is a blade slinger that launches a big blade that bounces between targets. Riza’a ripper is also a blade slinger that fires a barbed blade that once a target is it inflicts ongoing shrapnel damage. Also new are melee weapons. The javelins can now equip different melee weapons which have different effects. For example the colossus javelin can equip the Earthshaker which isoseismic glove that smashes into the ground to cause damage in a large area around you and releases a shockwave to hit enemies in front. The other weapon is the Meteor smash which is a flaming love that burns enemies around you in a large area that does very big burn damage.

Lastly that’s new is that you can now earn new in game currency called major and minor crystals which you can spend at the seasonal store to get cool new items, weapons, materials, animations, decal, wraps and stuff. You can also convert your minor crystals into major crystals and vice versa so this is useful depending on what you want to buy. The store changes pretty much every 6 days or something like that. So new stuff is constantly showing up. This does mean weekly updates are happening in Anthem. We’ve gotten awesome new weapons, looks, materials and customisations through this. If you are playing Anthem then you have to use this store. 

That’s pretty much all the new things that Anthem has. One big criticism we do have is that during the Echoes of Reality new players will have no idea where to go and what to do unless they are with some players who already know what to do. This happened to us at first. Unlike in the main story missions there isn’t an indicator that directs and shows players where to go until they are already near it. This means players could wander about or sit around waiting for a direction or confused. We figured out later that we can just use the map but that means your flying blind for a moment and certainly can’t use the map during combat. Even the areas that you are in doesn’t tell much at all on how to get to the crystal. You have to figure out the puzzles yourself. We didn’t know you needed the nodes to grant access to the node underwater and then two nodes outside to disable a field and then carry out all the nodes to then get to the stations outside while being attacked by enemies. More information and guidance is needed. Once you know though, it’s all easy.

Overall we are enjoying the new stuff that Anthem has going on and we are glad to see that the developers are getting a move on to make this game the big awesome game it has the potential to be. Fighting Vara is a fair and enjoyable battle. Her health isn’t too ridiculous and the battle is easy to understand. If you wanted to try Anthem then this is a much better time to actually do that. We hope the developers keep this up. We need more stuff like this. We are seeing a lot more players in the game and the community is as friendly as ever. Now Anthem might be doing better but it’s never going to be as good as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Gears 5. Tech Test thoughts

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Gears 5 is the latest instalment in Gears of War franchise. Gears had a Tech Test earlier and many gamers got to try it giving us a taste of what it to come. Now X35 Earthwalker himself tried it and off course has his own thoughts and opinions of the game. Now remember that the Tech Test isn’t the final release at all and more work will be done. It’s all in development still so keep that in mind. Let’s take a look.

The first thing we experienced in the Gears 5 Tech Test was the bootcamp which was the tutorial for the game which teaches players about aiming, shooting, handling grenades, roadie running, cover etc, all the gears of war stuff. The tutorial was done very well. It goes over the main mechanics and what you need to know in order to play and survive through the game. There’s some character based humour as we all know Baird is very sarcastic and got some jokes which works well with Del who can also be sarcastic, have jokes and like Baird likes and is good with technology. It’s good to see the relationships, connections and interactions between characters. Makes things relatable.  

The Bootcamp did show of the excellent graphics that Gears 5 is going to have. The whole area looked real good, the materials, lights and even the flying bot known as Dave looked detailed too. You can already tell that a lot of work is going into Gears 5. Even when you look at all the formations and environment in the distance it’s all detailed and does make you want to go over there and explore them, even if there aren’t any collectibles, just to take a look. The tutorial is too long though. There was a few combat instances that weren’t needed. Minor but still something.

Now the main meat is off course the multiplayer. The new things was revealed two weapons, a game mode and a few in game mechanics like kill cam replay mainly. The two new weapons in the Gears 5 Tech Test are the Talon auto pistol and Breaker Mace. The Talon auto pistol is basically a discount gorgon pistol. Yep. The talon has unbearably bad recoil and control. It’s damage is good though but what good is it if you can’t even control the thing when firing. This is coming from some who is a master with rifles including the heavy recoil retro lancer of Gears of War 3.

The breaker mace is a cool new melee weapon. Think of it like the energy sword from Halo in terms of you rush enemies or hide around corners and then hit them. If you land the hit then it’s normally a one shot kill. Like the beam sword you also sort of track the enemy when you start your swing if within range.  Even though there are multiple counters to this weapon and melee isn’t encourage at all in Gears of War nor is it successful, it still feels super good to get a kill with this weapon. The Breaker Mace execution is so far the best in the game. More on this later.

The new mode is arcade mode which is basically a regular team deathmatch except each player must select a character and each character has their own starting load outs, kill perk and weapons to unlock. As you kill you gain personal points which you can then spend to get weapons. For example Kait moves faster than everyone else on the Cog team and if she has 6 points then she can purchase a torque bow. 2 points for a Bolton and 4 for incendiary grenades. So everyone is trying to get kills to purchase the weapons they need for the fight. Sort of reminds us of ordinance drops in Halo 4.  

The new mechanics do actually change some things about the gameplay. For starters the melee is no longer a generic swing at your opponent with the current holding weapon. It’s now a swing with a knife which finally gives those knives the gears carried around a use. So whether it’s a lancer or Gnasher you will swing a knife with one button. Gears 5 finally has kill cam replays. Remember when someone killed you but you don’t know how or thought that shot missed? Well now you can watch and see for yourself what happened according to the game. Lastly rifles and some other weapons like the Snub pistol can now headshot enemies! It took the developers long enough to do this. So if the enemy has received enough damage and you then land some shots on the head, they die instantly like a headshot. This makes rifles more lethal.  

Now we can easily tell that Gears 5 has had a lot of work put into it. The graphics are very good for what we have seen so far and that’s an excellent sign. The environment like the kids, water and lands around the training grounds are look so cool. Sounds are very good but some of the guns like the Lancer sound more on the weak side. Arcade mode is definitely going to be a hit with the players and many will have fun and great moments in them. These new mechanics show that new things are being tried and areas are being explored. Things do need be taken further though. Off course the weapons we mentioned much earlier isn’t all the new guns in Gears 5. We are just sticking to the Tech Test.

Now for the negatives of Gears 5. We have a lot. For starters Gears 5 is taking up after the multiplayer gameplay style of Gears of War 4. This is a mistake the Gears of war that had the best multiplayer gameplay was Gears of War 3. Even to this day there’s a good number of players who are still playing Gears of War 3. We even know of a mother of three children who tried Gears of war 4 multiplayer but instead went back to 3. The developers want a faster paced, quick everything multiplayer which isn’t the best for a Gears of War game. Gears of War is about taking cover, not dashing everywhere. Even the golden rule of the Cog is “take cover or die”. This highlights the other major issue of the game. Gears 5 based of the Tech Test has no actual counters to the Gnasher shotgun. That weapon has ruined the game for many players. It’s still the dominate weapon in the game. In Gears of War 3 even new players could play the multiplayer and stand a chance because there were weapons they can use to give them a fighting chance against a crazy wall bouncing Gnasher shotgun user. In Gears of War 4 we have seen new players try and then leave because they had no fun being completely destroyed every single match. We remember one player who stayed for four matches (Gears of War 4) in a row and tried their best only to get a heavy negative result in each match and until finally leaving. We know for a fact they aren’t coming back.

In Gears of War 3 you could use hammerburst, sawed off and the retro to counter and force Gnasher shotgun players to change their strategy. In Gears of War 4 Gnasher worshipping players kept complaining until their daddy (the developers) hushed them down bu removing retro lancers and making hammerbursts a power weapon. This is going to be the problem in Gears 5 and we can feel it. The developers need to learn from Gears of War Judgement which easily had the best weapon balancing of all the games. The rifles dominated at mid range AS THEY SHOULD! How is a shotgun beating rifles at mid range in Gears of War 3 and 4? HOW?! Halo understands… at mid range the shotgun pretty much does nothing and that’s a shotgun from the year 2557… the future. The Talon machine pistol is a discount gorgon pistol and it’s crazy recoil doesn’t help to stop the Gnasher. The enforcer feels better and seems more effective but doesn’t compare to the retro but just you wait, the Gnasher worshippers will complain about the enforcer and cry for nerfs. We have so much to say about this but we have to try and keep this short. Lastly Arcade mode suffers from players abusing the weapon system. X35 Earthwalker once entered late into a match that was horrible. The enemy team were all camping up in a high place on the Training grounds map. One player had a sniper and never moved from his spot. The other tea mates watched the entrances to his location. X35 did what he could and even destroyed half the team but couldn’t reach the sniper. X35’s team were clearly new at the game and kept going into cover and then standing up taking their time trying to aim at the sniper who would snipe all their heads off, getting multiple kills and continuously purchase snipers to keep going. Eventually three of the players had snipers and the whole team camped in their spot. Talk about lame. X35 Earthwalker left the match… Something needs to be done.

Overall we found Gears 5 multiplayer to be disappointing. It it stays the same or is like Gears of War 4 then we know it’s not going to be great. Changes are needed and the developers need to take into account that different experienced, skill and style players will be trying the game. From what we can see so far we are looking forward to Campaign, horde, Escape (new) and Map builder (new). Trust us when we say we are big Gears of War fans. We played every Gears of War game, beat every single one in insane difficulty concerning the campaign and found every collectible. We have made Gears of war videos on Bitchute and Youtube and even streamed the games but sadly we aren’t excited for this game. We are looking forward to it but not excited. When it comes out is when it comes out. The multiplayer we already know what time it is (how it’s going to go down). Don’t get us wrong, Gears 5 is a very good game. Looks great, works well, responsive controls, the mechanics work, the voices are good, new weapons modes and you can Cleary see that a whole lot of work went into developing this game. So overall it is a very good game. We are just disappointed with the multiplayer especially when we compare it to Gears of war which we enjoyed s much that us and many others are still playing after all these years. We even had more fun playing Gears of War judgement multiplayer over the Gears 5 tech test. Honest feedback is honest feedback. If you want to know more about what we think concerning Gears of War 3 then check out our previous blog post here and over here. So we do like the game and looking forward to it but not the multiplayer. 

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Some Epic Gears of War action

Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is a new card strategy game developed by ‘Fantasy Flight Interactive‘ and published by ‘Asmodee Digital‘. It is said that Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is coming out the 8th of August 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. There was already an PC early access but we don’t care. Let’s take a look.

Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is set off course in the world of Lord of the Rings. This game is straight forward and not much to explain except the details. It’s a hard strategy game so gamers should know what to expect. Collect cards, hopefully some powerful ones and build a deck. Use that deck to battle destroy your enemies and progress through the world. 

So basically the dark forces of Sauron are here and causing all kinds of trouble. Darkness and their evil is spreading. Off course heroes are needed. Players will also control and lead three heroes who are off course who are famous and the Lord of the Ring fans should know. Make your way through the campaigns but that won’t be easy. Expect Spiders, Orcs, Battle Uruks and much more. If you know the Lord of Rings universe then you should know what enemies and monsters to expect.  

Now from what we know, there’s quite a lot of strategy to this game. There’s off course lots of abilities and hero powers but there’s also your heroes will power, a fate pool, sphere of influence and more. All these must be taken into account when developing strategies and coming up with different ways to take down your enemies. So this isn’t straight forward simple steam roll gameplay. The situation and enemies must be taken into account, including the circumstances. 

We checked out some gameplay and it’s mainly what we though it would be. We like that features of the game and how the cards work is explained well. The arrows could have been better at pointing to things though. Remember that each hero has one o four spheres of influence: spirit, tactics, leadership and lore. They allow specific reinforcement cards in-game. Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is constantly being compared to Hearthstone with similar style in design and combat but that isn’t an issue for us here and as many games have similar styles but off course different games. Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is looking like a real story so far.

Overall, Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game is looking good so far. The graphics are good for what it’s about. The sounds and voices are very good. Again, instructions are gone well and this game does become straight forward to play. Heroes and units can be equipped and strengthened. The variety of enemies is big enough from what we can see. We just hope they get more creative and add more. The story gives the impression that you’re on a real adventure. The developers ‘Fantasy Flight Interactive’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open for Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game and see what it’s got. Now Lord of the Rings: Adventure card game may have a big adventure but nothings bigger than the ‘Earth Walk!’

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River City Girls. Saving the boys soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

River City Girls is a new actin brawler game developed by ‘WayForward‘ and ‘Arc System Works‘. River City Girls is said to be coming out the 5th of September 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. This game is suppose to be a whole lot of butt kicking. Let’s take a look. 

In the world River City Girls, two young ladies called ‘Kyoko and Misako’ where just going about their day when they learnt that their boyfriends got kidnapped. How they got kidnapped was serious business but typical. Basically the both of them were just strolling down the street when a van pulled up next to them and dudes jump put with bats, snatch up the two boyfriends and gave them a real beating. Bruises and all. Honestly they could have prevented that but seemed to caught off guard and slow to react. Also the guys who jumped them looked like police or security. Since they didn’t have a police van it’s safe to say it’s a group that dress up like officials or something like that. 

So what do young ladies like Kyoko and Misako do in City River Girls? They called the police and left it to the law… Just joking, they grab a bat, put on a knuckle duster and head out through the 6 regions of River City kicking all kinds of buttery themselves. Punches, kicks, throws, hurling objects and more. Now when you see the graphics style of the game and the gameplay, some gamers will be reminded of Scott Pilgrim vs the world: The game. They are both arcade style, olden time beat em up games. Very 16-bit looking with the health bar, money and score. This type of style can work very well. Scott pilgrim vs the world: the game certainly pulled it off, so River City Girls can too.

So yes, players must fight there way through. Enemies will show up and try to take you out. Just beat them up and keep it up. Games like this are straight forward and easy to understand and get on with. We are glad to hear that there is strategy to this game in terms of the combat. You can counter attacks which off course means timing is required to pull it off. There are different combos for players to use and master so variety seems to be present here. Off course there are special attacks and we hope they come in good variety too. What is different from Scott Pilgrim vs the world: The game is that there are side quests and the ability to recruit fallen enemies as allies in combat which is definitely awesome but how did the girls do that. Did the fallen foes respect how they got beat up and decided to join? 

Now in terms of music we know that River City Girls have synth-pop soundtracks which happens to feature Chipzel, Megan McDuffee, NateWantsToBattle and Christina Vee. Don’t know any of them. The game also is going for that fun comical kind of style too as there are anime like cutscenes and the intermissions have a manga style to it. From our experience we can tell that the boyfriends will be playable characters which will be an awesome move. Also you can buy items, gear and more in order to boost your characters stats. The first time we played Scott Pilgrim we didn’t know how to boost our stats. It was by accident so we are glad that River City Girls makes that more clear. 

We checked out some River City Girls gameplay and we saw quite a bit. The trailer does a good job. Cheerleaders are enemies, dudes who have Elvis hair, regular dudes in school uniform and the guys who have the same uniform as the guys who kidnapped the boyfriend. Fight in the streets, the arcade, school areas like the sports hall and more. One thing we noticed is that the game does look too easy right now. Scott Pilgrim vs the world: the game eventually got too easy and gamers ruined it by continuously spamming the special move with Scott making even the final boss a joke. So River City Girls needs to make sure the game is a challenge. 

Overall, River City Girls seem like. good game for now but it hasn’t made us want to play it yet. It’s currently interesting, looks fun and seems we do want to know more about this game. We know there are gamers who will find this real cool and that’s good. The developers ‘WayForward’ and ‘Arc System Works’ have done a good job with this game. Now River City Girls may have butt kicking girls but nothing kicks butt more than… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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The Blackout Club. Lighting up soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

The Blackout Club is a new first person co-op horror game developed by ‘Question‘. The BlackOut Club is said to be coming out the 30th of July 2019 on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. From what we know it’s a co-op horror game and those are the hardest horror games to successfully make. Let’s take a look.

In the world of The Blackout Club. There’s a small modern town where a group of teenagers live. You, the players, are also a teenager. For some reason, every morning you wake up to find yourself covered in scratches or mud. You also have no memory of the night before. No, the isn’t because of alcohol. It gets worse, sometimes you can have no memory or recollection of whole days. They come to the conclusion that this isn’t sleep walking either. There are other teenagers just like you who are experiencing the same things. They group together becoming friends and forming a team or should we say club to figure out and look into what’s going on around here. 

The Blackout Club gets stranger as it doesn’t take long to figure out that right beneath your feet is a whole network of underground tunnels. It gets creepier though. You can at times here music from below. Is is beckoning the youngsters or is someone just having a rave down there. Turn up! We mean let’s be careful. After all when is the last time you lived somewhere that had underground tunnels and music being played? So the youngsters get second thoughts about investigating but last night, your best friend vanished. Also a group of adults wants to get rid of you all. You have to fight back now. If you want to expose them, then you’ll need evidence. So turn your cameras on and start recording. 

So yes, the idea of the game is simple. Work together with friends and others to investigate the tunnels, watch each others backs and gather evidence that proves what’s happening here to the whole world. The best way to do that is to use your cameras and phones to record what you find and any encounters. Do all this while avoiding getting captured and maybe even killed. So it’s all about teamwork here. 

There’s more than just the streets and the tunnels. There’s even the woods nearby, which can work for you or against you. It’s been made clear that the game is multiplayer so 1-4 players co-op is here. It’s also drop in and out style so you can just get reinforcements in easily and leave when you have to. The developers claim The Blackout Club has high replayability. That each mission is procedurally generated. So players can expect different experiences from other players each time. How the levels are generated are affected by your progression and character level. Other factors that are different will be environmental obstacles, enemy patrols and off course loot locations.

Now let’s talk about the enemies. They are a strange lot. We know they are adults. We know they are called The Shape. We know that if you draw too much attention to yourself, they will come after you. Worst of all is that The Shape can only be seen when you close your eyes. Wait what? What kind of adults are these. This is a problem. Players will need to watch out for each other even more. 

We checked out some gameplay and it’s sort of what we thought it would be like. It is quite a detailed world with areas to explore. The graphics could have been better, the sounds are good though. Not sure exactly how the close your eyes mechanic works but we will learn more in the future. You can use weapons like a teaser to get adults of you and even use a crossbow to fire tranquilliser darts too. There’s some levels of strategy to The Blackout Club. Multiple ways to handle different situations. You can also customise your character. Hair styles, new clothing, gestures. Levelling up will also grant access to ability upgrades and new expansion slots. We just have to make this clear. It’s a fact that horror games with multiple players aren’t scary. You have help and company gives confidence. What the Blackout Club is trying to do is a very hard thing. Diamondz L45 didn’t complete Dead Space because she found it scary but when X35 was present and giving advice she made it through levels. She would have zero fear if X35 was playing as well. We literally haven’t seen a co-op horror game that is actually scary at all. 

Overall The Blackout Club just seems like an alright game. Nothing makes us just want to play it and we have seen co-op meant to be scary games before and they never really work out that well at all. We hope to see more information concerning the Blackout Club to hopefully see more good stuff. The developers ‘Question’ have put quite a lot of thought into this game and it does show. Now The Blackout Club may have dangerous adults but those adults are a joke when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Fueled indeed

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is one of those games that many people have been waiting for. Even X35 Earthwalker himself was looking forward to the day when the Crash Team Racing remake would come out. It was described as a smashing blast from the past. If you did play Crash Team Racing in the past then you have to give this a try and see fro yourself… but what did we think? This is a nice review. Let’s take a look. 

Now straight from the start, original Crash Team Racing gamers will notice that the starting screen isn’t the same. In Nitro-Fueled, Crash comes up from off screen to grab the trophy while in the original he was always on screen within reach of the trophy but that’s just a bit of trivia for you (impressed yet?). Now straight from the main menu the game practically reveals all the modes and tracks it has to offer. Crash Team Racing Nitor-Fueled has all the original tracks plus the tracks from Crash Nitro Kart which was a smart move. We know for a fact that there will be no Crash Nitro Kart remake as Crash Team Racing was the more popular and succesful. Still was a great game though. Overall Nitro-Fueled has lots of content for players and the menu makes that clear. 

Let’s start with adventure mode which is the main meat of the game. It’s just as we remembered it. Four tracks per area, win a race and get a trophy then you can’t renter until you get the boss key of the area. Once all four tracks have been won, the boss will emerge and challenge you to a race. The animations for the bosses, their introduction is very well done. We were happy with them, especially Ripper Roo. It just showed how crazy he really is. If you are new to the game then you need to do some practicing on the area track and get some skills. You need to get your head checked if you think you can be a beginner and beat Ripper Roo. Then everything else played out just like the original. The remake was faithful to the original and the animations really added some new flavour and personality to the characters. Now let’s quickly talk about the graphics. The graphics are excellent. We remember the old looks of the levels and seeing the new looks were amazing. The best looking track has to be Coco park. They made that place look awesome like we want to visit that place, as long as there’s no racers nearby hurling bombs and homing missiles. By the way, how comes Coco has a whole major awesome park for herself, with statues of herself and more?

Many players like to jump straight into online modes. You know how these kids are these days, they beat Oxide and suddenly think they are fast. You can do online battle or race in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. The main thing is off course racing as that’s what most did with the original. Battle was fun but it’s very different from what you get in the adventure mode. Online matches are also the best way to earn wumpa coins. Average races and modes in adventure mode only offer from 80-20 coins. That’s lame as the items that actually matter cost a minimum of 1500. Winning an online match can get you 300, sometimes more and sometimes less. That’s a big difference. Even coming second can get you 165. The problem is winning though. If you suck, then you won’t make as much. Also online is where the real matches happen. X35 Earthwalker, the one true Earthwalker, the legendary soldier himself has dominated online. There are some players who are here to just have fun. There are some who want to win and rely more on items. There are those who think they are fast and get real salty and send messages when they lose. Lastly there are those who’ve got some speed. We’ve had some serious races but so far, no one better than X35 Earthwalker. So basically online is where the real action is at. It does take a bit too long to find a match and takes longer to actually start the match. 

The Grand Prix content that recently got added to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled brought in a bunch of new stuff that really reveals where the name nitro fuelled truly comes from. Sort of like a battle pass, players can earn nitro to fit up the meter to unlock rewards like vehicles skins, paint jobs, stickers and even new characters. What we were happy to see is the return of Chick and Stew from Crash Tag Team Racing. They are bringing the reports as never before, except Stew isn’t getting a new funky hat every time the camera comes back to him… what a shame… BRING BACK THE HATS! The gran prix also brings in new tracks never before seen. Whole new race tracks. Now we was going to list this next thing under everything bad about Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled but the Grand Prix saved the game. The Bandicoot girls are back. So happy to see them again. Ami, Megumi, Isabella, Liz and Tawna (Tawna wasn’t in CTR) are all here and ready to race. When we didn’t see them in the original release of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, introducing and applauding the victor of the races we were not happy. We remembered them so clearly and they were a part of the whole thing especially since each girl was assigned to a racing team. A different girl who show depending on the character that wins. Now they are back and geared up. It would have been better if they made it so that either by meeting certain conditions or whatever reason each of the girls who show up one by one challenging the player to a one on one like how Super smash bros Brawl did new unlockable characters. Off course make each of the girls have their own difficult going from easy to extremely hard. Just an idea.    

Now Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is definitely harder than we remember the original being. Definitely watch the above video to see what we mean. The difference between medium and hard difficulty is crazy. When we play medium, the A.I are too easy but when you play hard, the A.I are ridiculous. Remember that the gameplay video above is gameplay of X35 Earthwalker’s first ever races on the game, so was still rusty. Even getting the relics seems to be harder, we could be wrong but that was years ago. Well getting the sapphire and gold isn’t hard… it’s the platinums that all the noobs and beginners can only dream about (don’t get mad guys, just joking) but seriously they seem harder than we remember. Well not all tracks are created equally as some like Tiny arena allow for you to make it in with time to spare while others like N Gins lab has no forgiveness and require near perfect execution of crate smashing. The rematch with Oxide also seems a bit harder than before but once you get in front of him, he’s a complete push over. Fans and critics are divided understandably. Some say that it’s too hrs but that’s mainly coming from those who never played the original before. If you are new, then you really need to practice first. You won’t stand a chance against the real drivers who are online. They will do some bad stuff to you… stuff you can’t even talk about. Seriously we’ve seen players been left far behind the group simply because they are just learning. Online isn’t for learning. Then there are the layers who seem like they’ve been playing the original crash for the last 15 years, training for this remake… off course they say the game isn’t hard. So most the options come from Crash Team Racing history. 

Now let’s talk about what the remake did wrong or was not so good. We noticed that you have less control over your power slides in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. It feels harder to control. We just had to get use to it. We knew the remake wouldn’t be able to fully replicate the exact feeling of the original. The hit detection with walls and surfaces seem worse than in the original. We find ourselves during our first races colliding and being shown down by walls when it looks like we aren’t even touching it. Again this is something annoying but something you have to get use to. Even though they brought them back as race-able characters they still weren’t part of the original release of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to congratulate the winners. If Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is suppose to be a remake then include everything the original had… simple. They were a part of the game and everyone remembers them. They should have been there. They should have had a cinematic feature where you can rewatch the new cutscenes concerning the bosses as they were great and fun to watch. Beginner characters like Polar, Pura and Liz are discouraged as you get good at the game. Their low speed makes it too hard to compete with excellent racers using high speed characters like Tiny, Dingodile, Ami and Papu Papu. X35 Earthwalker was in an online match and faced a good Papu Papu racer. He was always slightly ahead to due to the difference in character top speed, not skill. In the next race when X35 changed to playing Crash he beat that Papu Papu player without any real problems. The problem is the character speed. The beginner characters are not fast enough. The characters should have no set stats but maybe the vehicles have stats but if they do that, then it’s not an exact remake. So either way beginner characters not valid for good players (that’s why they are called beginner). We don’t see them online (hardly). 

Overall Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a very good game. Well remade and well designed. Besides the stuff we mentioned there isn’t anything wrong with this game. It’s faithful to the original. The characters and levels look very good. We have the option to switch between the new and old music so you can hear both whenever you pretty much want. The inclusion of the Crash Nitro Kart characters and race tracks was a good move too. We at X35 Earthwalker are overall happy with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. The developers ‘Beenox‘ have done a very good job with this game. Now Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled may be a good remake but what doesn’t need a remake is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

Some Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled gameplay

Fort Boyard. The challenge is soon here

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Fort Boyard is a new action party game developed by ‘Appeal Studio’ and published by ‘Microids‘. Fort Boyard is coming out the 27th of June 2019 on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. Fort Boyard is legendary but will this game be legendary? Let’s take a look.

If you don’t know anything about Fort Boyard, then shame on you. Shame on you. Come of your electronic device for a while, go sit in the corner of your room and think about what you’ve done for a while. Just joking. Fort Boyard is like Crystal Maze as it’s a show where real people compete and take on challenges, normally physical to hopefully win prizes. Sort of like Jungle Run. So friendly, all laughs, competition for prizes and aired on TV. Now Fort Boyard is getting it’s latest game.

So if you did a little research on Fort Boyard then you instantly know exactly what the game will be about, what it will offer and what it’s trying to recreate for players. Remember that Fort Boyard is also a party game so that means multiplayer. So like Mario Party, grab some friends and work together to get the gold. After all, those tigers don’t need it. Seriously what will tigers do with all that cash and gold?

There’s many activities and challenges in Fort Boyard. Gather all the keys and do your best. Honestly guys there isn’t that much we can really say about the game. Once you see it for yourself then you truly understand it all. There doesn’t appear to be secrets or anything it’s just a straight up action party game based on a TV show that many have watched. Here’s some additional information on the Fort Boyard game:

  • There are four playable characters
  • 4 collectible keys
  • There are some activities that can be unlocked through collecting clues
  • probably 12 activities in total
  • In multiplayer you can work together or play against each other

We checked out some gameplay and it definitely looks like a Nintendo game. Colourful, nice graphics and seems easy and straight to the point. There really isn’t much to say at all. There’s like a bull riding challenge, water surfing, ducking and jumping to evade getting hit and more. Just fun.

Overall Fort Boyard just seems like a fun action party game. If you like Fort Boyard or just want another game to play with friends or family then that’s what this does. Again, there isn’t much to say about this. It is literally what it is. The developers ‘Appeal studio’ did a good job with this game. Now Fort Boyard may have a game but what’s not a game is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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Minion Masters. The strategies are real

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Minion Masters as you should know already if you’ve been following X35 Earthwalker. If not then shame on you. Minion Masters is an online minion battle game where you use cards to build a deck and then battle against other opponents online. Now this does sound simple… because it is simple but there’s more to it. This game can get really strategic at times. 

There are different minion factions in Minion Masters. They are accursed, zen-chi, empyrean, crystal elf, puff, voidborne, outlander, script and slither. Now you could make things easier for yourself by making a deck with strictly cards of the same faction. This isn’t a bad thing and they normally work really well. Off course each faction has their own strong points and main focus. For example Zen-chi love electricity. Seriously, they are mostly about stunning enemies, making enemy minions and masters useless. Empyrean is more about having tough units and relying on strength to push through. Slither are just weird. They are all about variety by the looks of it.

Now what most players do is mix and match the different factions because all the factions have some powerful and really good cards. Many players, since most gamers don’t have skill but instead copy players who use follow the meta, like to use the Xiao long minion because it’s speed is good, it’s a flying minion so melee minions can’t hit it but most importantly if the opponent casts a spell while this minion is on the field then Xiao long gains frenzy, rage and a shield. So it’s very strong. Another popular card people use is the cleaver. Why? Simply because it’s very fast (speed 10) and hits super hard (300 damage) but it does cost 6 mana though. So yes, watch out these two cards especially. So let’s talk strategy though.

Now when building a deck, there is many things to take into account. Firstly is covering all main battle scenarios you will encounter on the battle field. Let’s go over some. You will need a minion that can act like a tank. A tank is basically something that can take all the hits and damage for the rest of the team. Basically a shield. So get a minion with high health like the blue or red golem. Get a ranged ground minion, which is a minion that stays on the ground but has ranged attacks like the Blastmancer because flying minions are a problem because melee minions can’t hit flying ones. You will also need flying minions too because obviously melee minions can’t hit them. A swarming unit is good to have like the scrat horde. These are good to use against slow hitting targets like the blue or red golems since it takes the slow goes a while to hit one. Those are the main things you need. We will talk about spells later.

So when you are playing matches you have to attack the enemy so don’t worry about sending some units out to fight but don’t send everything out all at once. In Minion Masters you need to pay attention to what your opponent is doing. Some opponents won’t send anything meaning they are probably doing one of two things: waiting for you to make a move to counter you or saving up for a big costly minion card. Do not let them sit and do that. The longer time your opponent has, the more time they have for planning. Countering is easy. If they send a flying minion like the dragon whelp then use ground ranged unit like the drone walker will always win that battle if nothing interferes. If they send a tank then use a swarming minion card like skeleton horde. So covering all main areas, countering enemies are all very important. Also when you counter enemies make sure you spend less than they spent. The script horde costs 3 while the blue golem costs 7. This means you win, not just the battle but the mana cost too.

Minion Masters is like Boom Beach in a sense that maths is useful and makes a difference here. Back to the blue golem script horde example. The blue golem hits an enemy every 2 seconds. Scrat horde summons 10 scrats. This means the golem will take 20 seconds to kill all the scrats by its self. Take into account also that the blue golem has 700 health and each scrat does 10 damage per second. This means the script horde can in theory kill the blue golem in 7 seconds but more like 8-9 seconds since the blue golem is still killing scrats. So scratch horde wins. So use maths to find the best counters for each minion. Then you can get even more technical. The cleaver does 300 damage every 5 seconds. You can help the cleaver get multiple attacks on a target or master simply by using spells or other minions to support the cleaver or distract it’s attackers. Now briefly about spells since they are easy to understand. Each spell is different. Some like the fireball do straight up damage while others like the chain lightning will stun enemies while doing less damage. Some spells like toll of the dead will summon a minion. There’s lots you can do with them.  

Last of all we encourage players to use their creativity and skill to create good or creative decks and do well in matches. Do not be the type of players that have no talent or skill at all so they go with whatever cheap strategies they can find and copy from others to desperately win matches. One for example is using the storm bringer master and having, multiple crossbow guild cards. They set them up in the back of their field and if you try to send a minion to stop them, they have the divine warrior who has a shield to delay, or even beat whatever you send, wasting your mana. It’s pathetic, lame and requires no skill. X35 Earthwalker himself has the cards to do this but he doesn’t. We have standards. We repeat, don’t be lame and pathetic as no one will respect you. The developers, ‘BetaDwarf‘ need to nerf this card. Either reduce the health of the guild, reduce the spawn rate of the minions coming out for example.

There’s a lot you can do in this game. Minion Masters make it sure that there are multiple strategies and approaches you can come up with. Many like to have a strong tank unit and have it being healed by the priestess. Others use the all flying minions decks meaning if you have no anti air at all then you are in serious trouble.

For more information check out the link below:

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Riverbond. On it’s way

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Riverbond is a new hack and slash dungeon crawler game developed and published by ‘Cococucumber’. Riverbond is said to be coming out in the third quarter of 2019 on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. A game like this looks very welcoming but we all know it can’t be that innocent and safe. Let’s take a look.

The story in Riverbond is quite interesting. Players head out on a journey, which takes place down a river. Get it? This isn’t an ordinary trip. It’s an enchanted river and the lands are continually shifting and moving. The world is collapsing and so there isn’t much time. Player must also rebuild the passage that goes to the great beyond. Whatever that is. So players have to save the world by the looks of it by figuring out what’s happening and the solution has to do with the great beyond. Interesting but still simple.

Now Riverbond takes place in a voxel world. What’s a voxel world?… well… A voxel represents a value on a a grid. It’s all 3D though. Think of it as cubes placed together. So if Riverbond has a voxel world, basically the style of the game is all cubes. The lands are made from cubes, the characters, and the water is designed in a cube style. It’s easier to understand when you see the game yourself. When you do however; the first things or should we say game that comes to mind is… Minecraft. The world world and characters and stuff is basically cubes. Blocky. 

This style obviously gets attention and when done right and with the right colours, can look really good. Even better is the fact that the voxel world in Riverbond is destructible. So be careful of what you destroy. There is real time physics s don’t think for one moment that the block will just stay in the air. Gravity is at work. There are 8 worlds and each off course is different and have their own threats and obstacles. Speaking of threats, since it’s a hack and slash, expect lots of combat, many enemies and lots to slow you down. There are even bosses as well. The developers have described them as deadly but cute. 

There is said to her over 50 different weapons and guns. Good to see that there is some variety to the combat. Long ranged combat and off course close range slashing. Best of all though is that Riverbond is multiplayer. That’s right, 1-4 local. So not only can you invite friends and family over to play, you don’t have to save the game and go to the menu to bring them in. It’s drop in, drop out style meaning they just have to hit start and they jump in where you are. That’s an excellent option. Great job developers. That’s what we like to see. Riverbond about to get some action from gamers.

We checked out some Riverbond gameplay and it’s what we expected based on the games description. You run around as a small character wielding large weapons and fighting through the many enemies. There are different skins for players to unlock like the shovel knight skin. Big enemies that have dangerous attacks, you can destroy structures and pillars, knock down bridges, smash through trees and much more. The co-op multiplayer looks fun as you can all team up against enemies and turn the tables thanks to the extra back up. We hope Riverbond has a means to make the game difficult even when there’s four players attacking enemies. We wonder if the game is difficult at all.

Overall Riverbond does so far look like another little fun game. Nothing huge and complicated at all. It seems like another game that we can get friends to quickly play and have a laugh and fight together. The graphics are very good for it’s style. The level design is good too and shows good creativity. We like the variety of enemies from pigs and crocodiles to golems (we think it’s golems). We like what we see. The developers ‘Cococucumber’ have done a very good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what Riverbond has to offer gamers. Now Riverbond may have a collapsing world but even that isn’t as serious as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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