Tag: single player

Conflict: Desert storm. An example co-op game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Desert storm is an action tactical third person shooter game developed by ‘Pivotal Games’ that came out in September 2002. In this game, you control the most feared special operations forces in the world: the elite British SAS or the US Delta Force squads. These teams consist of: Bradley (the leader), Foley (the sniper), Connors (the heavy weapons) and Jones (the combat engineer). The game takes place in the Persian gulf war.

This is a game that is from X35 Earthwalkers child hood. It’s a legendary game that he will never forget. The memories, the laughs, the struggles and more. It’s all there. There is literally no other game like this game for sure. Best to start of with the tutorial which by the way is amazingly done. This is how tutorials should be. Firstly a choice as to whether you want to take the tutorial or not and then explain and get into everything about the game. It takes you through positions, shooting, movement and more with assault courses, shooting ranges and special rooms. When you play the campaign you can switch between the four soldiers whenever you want. Each character has their own weapons and equipment so you must be smart about who you want to use for certain parts of the mission. For example it’s not best to use Foley, the sniper, when you are going into a building. You need medium to close range weapons in there.

Bradley has the assault rifle which also comes with a grenade launcher attachment meaning he is best medium range combat. He has a silence pistol so entering and clearing out buildings is second easiest for him. He has binoculars so scouting is what he can do also. He later gets access to special weapons too but more on that later. Foley has the sniper rifle so he can head shot and kill enemies from far away and because sniper rifles can zoom in, he can scout good as well. Connors has a light machine gun that can lay down lots of fire and damage at everything. Tanks are scared of him because of the powerful rocket launcher in his back pocket. Connors deals damage like no other. Jones has a silenced sub machine gun meaning he is the best at stealth and taking at enemies in buildings. The man also happens to have some mines, which he can use to cover certain doors or behind the team. It doesn’t stop there as in his pockets are also some C4 explosives which he can plant and then detonate with the trigger. He also has a shotgun making close range combat, like in buildings so easy. Combining all the skills and equipment of the team results in the fact that there isn’t a single situation these guys can’t handle.

Few times in the game there will be levels where your objective will be to destroy some really large or other specific targets and so for this, they equip Bradley with special equipment. The two that we remember are air strikes (the one that looks like a phone) and a laser designator. With the phone looking one, you could use it to call in air strikes on the location that you aimed at to destroy scud launchers, clear a large area of infantry or just to get a tank out of the way. These were limited. The laser designator didn’t have a limit but you couldn’t just use it anywhere. The most notable moment with the laser designator was when you had to use it to destroy a very large bridge. It can be used on tanks as well. With those stuff, you really do feel like you were special forces with exclusive equipment. 

If you play single player then you must use the command to make all your team mates follow you to have everyone moving at once. Depending on the situation, you may have to switch characters. Like the level that had the bridge, Foley was the best as you could snipe them and they can’t even hit you back. When a tank shows up, get everyone to a safe location, switch to Connors and blow up the tank with his rocket launcher. When you need to lock down an area or set traps with silence action then switch to Jones for his mines and C4. All the the characters have frag grenades, smoke grenades, medkits and a combat knife. The frag grenades worked exactly as you expect them to. The smoke grenades in this game is probably the best smoke grenades we have ever seen in a game in terms of effectiveness. Nothing could see you. The medkits recovered a lot of health and can be used to revive fallen troops. The combat knife is always exciting to use because if you sneak up behind an enemy and use it, it becomes a stealth kill execution. Another great feature about this game is that you can give weapons to teammates very easily and if a team mate is down, you can take things from them as well. So let’s say Foley is down but Bradley has run out of medkits then you can take a medkit from Foley to use on him and bring him back into the fight.

Multiplayer is literally the best way to play the game. This where all the memories for X35 Earthwalker himself comes from. He use to play this back when he was very young with his family. X35 Earthwalker would play Bradley, his sister would play Foley, his mum would play Connors and since it was three of them his sister got to control Jones as well. So much crazy adventures would take place. Times when getting new shiny weapons was more important than the fighting going on outside. They even created a ridiculous strategy to deal with tanks when out of rocket launchers. Jones would give his detonator to Foley. Foley would use smoke grenades to create a smokey path towards a tank, then Jones would run up to the tank with a C4 and plant one right next to the tank. Then try and make it far away or back to safety so that Foley can blow the tank up with a detonator. Sometimes Jones couldn’t get back we would have to blow up the tank with him but since when you lose health your body is always in one piece on the ground, we could just revive him with a medkit. How ridicolous is that? X35 Earthwalker and his family would split up and take strategic positions only to hear the screams of his sister being chased found and chased by the enemy so then everyone would run to her to help. It was so much fun. So much craziness and memories that it’s best explained through speaking and not writing.

There were a lot of levels and of a good length with clear and interesting objectives. One time you will be destroying scud launchers, the next time you have to eliminate a target and then next you have to do a rescue. The variety is good. The graphics and sounds were great for its time. The environments and level designs were nice to look at and the areas were different. The enemies are dangerous and numerous. There are infantry with rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns and even rocket launchers. There are anti air tanks, anti-infantry tanks and regular tanks of two types of armour. There is even a helicopter that attacks you. Fight in cities, buildings and off course deserts. Play by yourself or go full in with split screen four player.

Overall this game is awesome and will always be special to us regardless of time. The developers ‘Pivotal Games’ did an outstanding job with this game. It’s still available on steam as well but whatever you do… Don’t forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Candleman. A bright new game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Candleman is a new 3D Platformer game that’s said to come out today on the Xbox One although it has been said it may come to other platforms later. It was first released last year in the Chinese market though. This game was made by Chinese indie game studio ‘Spotlightor Interactive’. X35 Earthwalker himself saw this game and had nothing but good things to say about it. If you look at the game for 1 second then you may just skip past it. If you look at the game for 5 seconds, you might wonder what it is about but if you look at the game for ten seconds then you will discover the main game mechanic of the game which is just one of the cool things that make this game unique.

In Candleman you play a little candle who is on a journey to find the light but to do this. It must go into the darkness. From just looking and reading about this game, we can tell that the developers have put a message or meaning within the game, like a life lesson or something. So be on the look out for that. The game is very simple. You make your way through the very dark levels and avoid being outed or destroyed. That’s right. There are hazards and creatures that will make your journey a whole lot harder. There are crushing walls, twisting paths, ledges, water and more stuff. There are some flying ghost looking creatures which really do come after you.

The main game mechanic here is the candles ability to burn for 10 seconds which lights up the place a whole lot meaning you can actually see what is going on around you and what is right in front of you but just like with any other candle, the candle will melt. This is both good and bad because if you melt, you get closer to being nothing and therefore lose but the smaller you are, the higher you can jump, making some areas that you couldn’t reach before, accessible. The burning of the candle also protects you. For example those flying ghost things are repelled from your flame from when you light up, keeping those things away at all times.

The game looks absolutely beautiful. The graphics are up there with being excellent indeed. You feel this way with everything in the game. The levels look smooth and real nice. The environments look like they took a lot of work. The lighting is very well done indeed as it makes glowing objects and your own flames look realistic and quite powerful at times. The game is said to have challenging levels but with a fair difficulty curve.

Overall this game looks really cool. It’s a nice simple but fun game made very well. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what becomes of this game. The developers ‘Spotlightor Interactive’ did an excellent job with this game and we say keep it up. 

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World of Van Helsing:Deathtrap. Traps of death.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

In World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap there are a total of 25 different traps for the player to unlock and use. You initially start of with 4 traps: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar and Gun sentry.  You can unlock the others by fulfilling certain requirements like poison 600 enemies or inflict 15,000 fire damage and by completing a certain amount of levels. There are more traps though in the game known as special traps which only appear on certain levels. You cannot create them yourself. Many of these are truly traps of Death.

X35 Earthwalker has unlocked all the traps in the game and used them all and said, “Only 15 of the 25 traps are useful.” This is a big statement and while it is primarily due to his style of play, it’s also because of how they stack up against other traps, which is something we will talk about later. At the end of the day it is up to the player to figure which traps are good and useful to them and their style. Some of the traps just give out damage, while some cause effect damage while others are do no damage but just there to assist you in some way, some summon creatures to help you and some help you not mainly in damage but due to it’s unique effects.

As you should know the traps are split into five groups: Mystical ground, Mechanical ground, Mystical tower, Mechanical tower and Summoning. Let’s start with Mystical ground. The lava grill is a splash type trap that that deals continuous fire damage but once upgraded can set enemies on fire and even disorientate your enemies. Icicle field causes ice damage and slows the enemy down for 5 seconds but once upgraded, has a chance to freeze enemies for 5 seconds and make them more vulnerable to ice attacks. Stasis trap uses three stasis bubbles to trap and hold enemies in place for 5 seconds and deal good physical damage but once upgraded can hold them for longer and deal bigger damage. Abyss crater has a chance of instantly killing ‘horde’ and ‘normal’ enemies but those not killed instead just take damage but once upgraded can deal area of effect damage. The portal glyph is unique as it has a chance to send an enemy back some distance along the path they came from but once upgraded can deal damage also and make them more vulnerable to lightning attacks.

Now for Mechanical traps. Acid geyser is a piercing type trap that deals poison damage while making the enemies more vulnerable to physical attacks but once upgraded can afflict enemies with the poison status. Spear trap is a piercing type trap that simply impales enemies with spears dealing heavy physical damage but once upgraded able to poison enemies also. Essence trap is unique as it does no damage but enemies killed within its range generate more essence more normal and when upgraded they have a chance to stun enemies that step on it. Spring trap knocks enemies down, harming them and slowing them down but if an enemy is knocked of a ledge then it instantly dies but once upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire attacks. Tick mine Dispenser has a small chance to attach a bomb to an enemy and when that enemy dies the bomb explodes with heavy area of effect damage but once upgraded can set a space on fire. 

Now for Mystical towers. Lightning pillar is a piercing type trap that creates charges every 3 seconds which it uses to attack enemies at double the normal rate of fire but once upgraded can hit multiple enemies at once. Frost pillar is a concentrated type trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously damaging them and slowing them down but when upgraded can freeze enemies it hits. Phoenix pillar is a splash type trap that launches a fireball to deal area of effect fire damage and capable of knocking enemies down if deals 25% of enemies health worth of damage but once upgraded can ignite enemies. Enthropic pillar is a concentrated trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously harming them. 20% of the damage is returned to player or ally creatures as health but when upgraded has a chance to hit multiple enemies at once. Olympus pillar strikes an enemy with a thunderbolt that deals area of effect lightning damage after a 2 second delay of original place of target but once upgraded can reduce the delay.

Now for Mechanical towers. Gun sentry is a concentrated trap that fires at a enemy continually until it is out of range or dead but once upgraded can do area of effect damage and slow down enemies too. Razor launcher is a piercing trap that fires razor sharp discs through enemies hitting others behind them but when upgraded has a chance to fire multiple discs and increase the damage dealt to enemies behind original target. Blast furnace is a splash trap that shoots jets of flames in all four directions which also ignites enemies so they take damage over time but when upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire damage and increase burn damage. Voltaron coil electrocutes all enemies within range and the shock can jump to other targets, dishing out more damage but once upgraded can make the electric arcs jump more times. Cannon sentry is a splash trap that fires explosive shells and has high area of effect but once upgraded can have a faster rate of fire and faster shell speed.

Now for Summoning. Monster cage summons a werewolf (we think) that runs at near enemies and starts swinging at them. They have high health meaning they are good for stalling for time but once upgraded you can have 4 of them with a chance that a rare more powerful wolf will show up. Reanimator pit has a chance to summon a ghoulin when an enemy dies near or in the pit. This is good for areas where lots die there as you could get continuous monster summons, slowing down and stalling the enemy like no other but once upgraded the ghoulins can be stronger and stay around longer. Archer post summons up to 3 archers one by one who have great range and fire high damage arrows but once upgraded they have a chance to dodge none area of effect attacks, have more archers and their arrows do area of effect damage. Suicide swarm nest summons suicide spawns who run at enemies and attack them and when they die they explode dealing 1000 poison damage but once upgraded there is a chance of an instant respawn and greater range of explosion. Winter queen sigil summons a winter queen spirit that uses blizzard spells to deal ice damage to enemies at great range but once upgraded has reduced cool down for blizzard spell and increased damage.

X35 Earthwalker himself only seems to use: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar, Gun Sentry, Monster cage, Spear trap, Razor launcher, Stasis trap, Essence trap, Phoenix pillar, Blast furnace, Archer post, Enthropic pillar,Olympus pillar and Cannon sentry. Gun Sentry traps are best used in groups as when together they can shred anything to bits. If you have 3 Gun sentry traps that have maxed area of effect and damage, even horde type enemies will get owned. These are the traps that are good for almost any situation. The Acid geyser is best used in front of other traps that deal physical damage like Razor launcher or spear trap as the acid increases their vulnerability to physical damage. Matter of fact have a mercenary keep the enemy busy on top of a Acid geyser trap while Gun sentry traps continue to deliver the pain with increase physical vulnerability. When almost every time you see a spot for a Summoning trap, always build archers as they deliver fantastic damage from a good distance and once enemies get close they can stall for time buying you precious seconds. Olympus pillar has the largest range in the whole game and therefore can strike enemies from different paths and lanes with heavy area of effect damage meaning it’s good against boss enemies and horde. 

He doesn’t use the Icicle field because it delivers the lowest amount of damage of all towers and it doesn’t look like its slowing enemies down at all. The Stasis trap is superior in every way as it doesn’t slow down but keeps them in place and deals way more damage. Stasis > Icicle field. He doesn’t use the Frost pillar as it is inferior to the Enthropic pillar in most situations. It does less damage than Enthropic and it’s effect is not as useful as it doesn’t slow the enemy down by much visibly but the Enthropic actually heals the players and their allied units if nearby keeping you in the fight and able to bounce the beam unto multiple targets for more damage. Once upgraded though, the frost pillar becomes quite powerful and essential on one some levels. Enthropic pillar > Frost pillar (most of the time). He doesn’t use the Reanimator pit as it relies on others killing for it to activate and even then the activation is by chance and not guaranteed; furthermore the summoned monster after the chance is the weakest of all summoned monsters and deal the least damage. So not worth it. Any other summon monster would be useful almost all the time except the Winter queen sigil. He doesn’t use the Abyss crater as it has a low chance of instantly killing enemies with investing so much points in upgrading it. If it doesn’t kill, the damage it gives is really low. On top of that any enemies instantly killed do not give you any essence which you need in this game to build other traps. He doesn’t use spring trap as there are other traps that do better damage and at times the trap (depending on the location of the enemy) launches enemies forward a bit. It should only be used on narrow paths for a chance of knocking them off the edge. It’s not worth it. He doesn’t use Tick mine Dispenser as it has a really low chance of attaching a bomb to an enemy and that bomb is only useful if the enemy with the bomb is killed near others and the damage is not all that impressive when an upgraded Spear trap deals more damage and even poisons them. He doesn’t use the ‘Voltaron coil’ because it is either outclassed in damage or usefulness. It’s best against groups of enemies but the ‘blast furnace’ works better. Even with upgrades it seems like a waste of essence. The winter queen sigil trap is the worst thing ever. It does so little damage and takes too long to attack. Why is this even one of the last traps to unlock like it’s something special. Maybe he is using it wrong, we don’t know. Literally anything is better than this. Any summoning trap will do. Now ‘suicide swarm nest’ and ‘portal glyph’ aren’t bad, it’s that their use is so rare and limited that he hardly uses them. Mostly to show off or rarely, they are actually needed.

In this game you are truly dependent on your traps and so you must know them very well. Check out each trap and try out each trap. Who knows, you may find a trap that X35 Earthwalker never uses to be one of the best in the game. 25 is a lot to work with and we haven’t even mentioned the ones that are specially placed on certain maps. Maybe next time. Now you can see whay some are truly traps of death. Have fun and off course… do not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Aaero. Coming to us with music soon.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

‘Aaero’ is a new musical rail-shooter game developed by ‘Mad Fellows’ coming out in February 2017 for Xbox one, PC (steam) and PS4. From what I can see of this game, it’s clear that this game places heavy emphasis on music. We mean music is like the whole point of the game. It’s all about the in game tracks and the songs but still a shooter which would remind you, in a way, of ‘Star fox’ with the flying and the shooting.

You control a small drone like ship and the main aim is to stay on some light trails, which we think are called ribbons. As you stay on the trail the music plays and the closer you are to it the better your score. It increases and becomes score multipliers. This is very clever as almost everyone loves music and many love games so why not combine them in a fun way but more attention on the music. We can imagine X35 Earthwalker bopping his head to the tunes while blasting enemies away. You can even destroy enemies in tune with the music, so you will have to become one with the beat but you don’t have to. The ship we control seems to attack mainly by a lock on system and then firing. The enemies seem to all be other small flying drones and ships but they have different designs to them, which is nice.

Music is even the key to defeating the bosses we have heard. It’s like the tunes will let you know when is the perfect time to attack, again you don’t have to do it that way but it’s a big clue and help. The bosses are large creatures that should do a good job at the getting the gamers excited and their attention, like a large sand worm like thing that borrows in and out of the ground, a giant squid like creature that can be seen trying to pull a space ship below water (why do they always do that?) and off course a giant spider which looks the meanest of the bunch we have seen so far. It chases you. We are guessing that they have certain weaknesses and once found, should be exploited to the beat.

The graphics looks lovely in this game. It’s just so nice to look at. It’s colourful and bright at times. The particles and lights all work very well and just add to the game. You can tell that a lot of time went into this game just from looking at the attention to detail. The environments are very nice to look at. The graphic style looks like that special kind of material that people can sculpt structures and images out off. You can see where areas were smoothed and which areas remained rough. The style works. The music, well what can we say. If the rest of the tunes are fun and entertaining like some of the ones we have heard already then it will be great indeed. Just wonder what other music and tunes they have in this game.

From what we know, the game is single player but since there is a whole scoring system, we can imagine people getting really competitive and trying to hit that high score. This game does seem like it’s more of a casual relaxing game than a difficult and challenging one. We hope there will be a challenge mode or something like that were there are many enemies which you must fight while still staying on the light trail to rack up the points. Forcing us to rely on our reflexes. That would be awesome. The level designs look very nice and it’s like it takes you for a ride through the place. Some levels look like a city, some are like tunnels or mines while some just look futuristic.

This game is interesting and taking a new turn with the whole musical approach. X35 Earthwalker himself says that he wants to see what becomes of this game. The developers ‘Mad Fellows’ did a great job with this game. We can see that they worked hard. Keep it up and look forward to what you plan to do next. This game is worth checking out and most important of all… Do not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Terraria. Not as cute as it looks.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Terraria is one of those games that are incredibly fun and excels at being exciting most of the time. Terraria is a 2D action-adventure sandbox video game. It was developed by ‘Re-Logic’ and released in 2011 for PC but consoles in 2013. Terraria is one of those games that you have to try, so get the free demo and see for yourself.

Now straight away from looking at the game, gamers may feel like this isn’t anything special at all but we at X35 Earthwalker always give games a chance before casting a verdict. It’s only when you get going in the world of Terraria that it reminds you so much of another game. Some people just call this a 2D Minecraft; however it is so much more. Sure you can mine, chop down trees, fight enemies, collect and build whatever you want but they aren’t the same, similar but not the same. Minecraft is centered around creativity and the gamers imagination while Terraria is more action, combat, survival and adventure. Terraria is far more brutal and has much more going on.

Since Terraria is 2D it means that mining in this game is no where near as annoying and frustrating as Minecraft. Have you ever spend numerous minutes and lots of time trying to find diamonds in Minecraft? Sometimes you may have excavated the entire area and nothing is there. In Terraria you can see everything around. You could be mining downwards and then see iron to the right, copper to the left or gold below you. All because it is 2D. It literally makes mining for resources so easy and more fun because you aren’t wasting time, you can see if something is there or not. You no longer have to worry about just digging down in a straight line as you can see whether there is lava below you or not. You can see when an enemy is approaching or an NPC in the distance or whatever. 

In Terraria you over time encounter different NPCs, which are basically other characters like you who visit you when you meet certain conditions and either visits temporarily or sell you things. Most NPCs live with you. That’s right, you have room mates here. The house that you built for yourself initially will be the house that the NPCs live in. Off course you can expand and built houses specifically for them. There are many NPCs like the guide, the merchant, the nurse, the old man, the arms dealer, the goblin tinkerer and much much more. Trust us on that. Each one are different from the other in terms of what they say, what they do and what they sell. So get as many NPCs as you can. They may have some powerful items for you or other rare stuff. Beware though as NPCs can be killed but don’t worry as they will come back. Multiple personalities and characters in Terraria.

There are so many items in Terraria that it is crazy. There are lots of furniture for you to build and decorate you houses with. Lots of chairs and the type of wood you use will change the look and style of it. Same with beds and tables. You can build a safe which prevents others from entering and taking your stuff just incase you invite other players. You can light up your place with lanterns, torches, chandeliers and even a camp fire (now that’s what we call options). There are even statues that can be found throughout the world of Terraria. The strange thing is that some actually have special abilities like the slime statue can create slimes. There is a total of 108 statues. Gotta catch em all! You can create weapon racks, item frames and even put up paintings. Why not build some benches, bathtub and even a toilet. This game has options and a half.

Accessories are the special items that you equip your character with. They grant wither just armour or special abilities. Accessories are immensely important and make all the difference in this game so make sure to spend some time searching for them. They can be dropped by monsters, pop out of smashed vases and most commonly found in chests. There are movement, informational, health/mana, combat, construction, vanity and much more. The ‘Aglet’ increases your movement speed. ‘Cloud in a bottle’ allows you to double jump. ‘Flipper’ allows you to swim in water instead of just sink to the very bottom (fatty). There are powerful accessories with mighty effect like the ‘Lucky horseshoe’ which negates all fall damage and the ‘Rocket boots’ which allow you to temporarily fly we believe for 1.6 seconds. Accessories can be combined together to form powerful ones like, for example, by combining the ‘Jellyfish diving gear’ and ‘Ice skates’  you get the ‘Artic diving gear’ which grants the ability to swim, greatly extends underwater breathing, provides light under water and extra mobility on ice. That’s some next level diving gear right there. Trust us when we say there are far more accessory with more effects, so go and find them as you will need them in the world of Terraria.

Armour is even more far in depth than Minecraft. You start of with no armour at all and then aim for the wooden, copper, iron, silver and gold armour. There is much more armour out there with their own stats. To name some: Rich Mahogany, Boreal wood, Palm wood, Ebon wood, Shadewood, Eskimo, Angler, Cactus, Tin, Pumpkin, Lead, Tungsten, Platinum, Ninja, Bee, Jungle and even more. You can mix and match the armour like have a pumpkin helmet, tungsten body and wooden legs armour but having the whole set adds a bonus. For example if you equip the whole ‘Meteor’ armour your bonus is: +21% magic damage, space gun requires no mana to use and get a cool flame particles when moving for style. Obviously some armour are more powerful than others and you will move on to new armour as you progress. All of these armours can be built except for a few like the ‘Ninja’ armour is found from killing a certain enemy. Make sure to collect all the resources you can find when you can. If you see some gold then go straight for it as there will come a time where you will need gold, whether armour or items.

The biggest difference between ‘Terraria’ and ‘Minecraft’ and probably the coolest thing is the bosses in the game. Terraria has some terrifying bosses who show absolutely no mercy if you want to take them on. Each boss truly tests the might and skills of a ‘terrarian’ (a terraria player). They have large amounts of health, do heavy damage and chase you down. The first boss we encountered was the ‘Eye of Cthulhu’ which has two forms. In the first form it keeps some distance, releases smaller eye enemies (Servants of Cthulhu) to attack you and charges at you. Once his health falls below half way then it transforms into the second form where it charges more aggressively and quickly. There are many bosses and some can be spawned by fulfilling certain requirements or manually by items. We will most likely talk more about this in another blog.

Terraria is such a fun game to play with many objectives, tons of customise and accessory items, lots of different enemies, many biomes which change everything, many secrets and powerful mean bosses. This game is well thought out and very well done. The developers ‘Re-Logic, Engine Software, 505 Games’ all did a very excellent job here. This game is worth checking out. Just don’t forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Dead space 3 certainly wasn’t dead

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Dead Space 3 was one of those games that we were looking forward to. Dead space 3 was a science fiction survival horror third-person shooter game developed by ‘Visceral Games’, which came out February 5th and 8th. Now this game was known for scaring people. X35 Earthwalker has a friend who hasn’t passed the first level of Dead Space 1 to this day. This game even got an award for being one of the scariest games of the year we believe. The game had some good jump scares and didn’t make us play a weak and defenseless character who must run and hide all the time. Maybe one of the best things about this game is the creative idea behind the weapons in this game. Dead Space is probably best known for bringing a sort of new enemy for gamers to face and fear.

You play Isaac Clark, an engineer, who is incredibly unfortunate. Trust us, play the first two Dead Space games and you will understand what we mean. Now he is pretty much being forced into the action once again by two dudes who appear in his apartment and are quite aggressive. It turns out that many people are looking for him and it’s not for good reasons. Even worse, the ‘Necromorphs’ are back. These are the unique enemies of Dead space. You can guess what they are from the name. They are basically aliens that are formed from dead things, mainly humans. You will eventually end up on the frozen planet of Tau Volantis where the means to finally ending the Necromorphs is there. So like with the other two prequels, you must use your engineering skills to build weapons that destroy Necromorphs like it was art, use your engineer styled brain to fix things and most importantly, survive.

The Necromorphs are the most interesting thing about the game. Ever since the first Dead Space we always wanted to know and see all the different types of Necromorphs. First things first, all the Necromorphs are mean and will try to kill you. They are capable of showing up from almost any location because they love to use vents and spaces in rooms. They for some reason are incredibly hard to kill if you don’t dismember them. So make sure you have the means to cut or shoot of their arms, legs or other limbs. Lastly they are so persistent and one minded in trying to kill you that even when some are missing the lower half of their bodies, they are still alive and still trying to get you. Now that’s scary.

The Infector is a crawling bat like Necromorph enemy is the one who finds dead bodies and then slowly changes them into other Necromorphs. This one only attacks you when there is no bodies to infect. The most common one though is the humanoid one with scythes for arms called the Slasher. Get use to this guy as you will see them everywhere. They can come out of vents and even worse they can play dead. That’s right! Play dead! Like how do they even know how to do that? Do they even sleep? Many questions. So if you see a group of bodies be careful as you may get attacked as soon as you walk by. They will even sprint at you after a short period of time making you panic and some more. There are other humanoids ones who can spit and spray acid. The Lurker are ones that are small and move on walls and ceilings and shoot projectiles from it’s three tentacles from a distance. The ‘Leaper’ is one we hate so much. The bottom half of their body is now a tail like a scorpion. They are capable of closing the gap between you and them by running so fast and even leaping around, most of the time on you. ‘Swarms’ are those annoying little ones that die from anything but attempt to jump and latch onto you. Hate them but easy to deal with. There’s another one that is permanently attached to a wall called a ‘Guardian’ who releases ‘swarms’ and capable of instant killing you if you come near. There are are many more Necromorphs and each has to be dealt with different’y but dismembering them is the key for all so never forget that.

The game specialises in making you take the game slow and when you get to in to it then a jumpscare might just make you more trigger happy than ever before. Enemies can come from almost anywhere and because of this, you couldn’t just sprint through. Well we mean you could but you would most likely end up regretting it. When you are in a corridor a Necromorph could come crashing through the vent from the ceiling or crawl out of a space in the wall. If you sprint there are times when they fall on top of you, staggering you for a while. Most of the time when you enter a room, it gets locked down because of quarantine as enemies are nearby and you can’t leave until they are all gone. Rooms always have multiple spaces, vent and entrances all around so there isn’t really a “Safe” corner but some corners are safer than others. Since there is a wide range of Necromorphs normally many types will show up causing all kinds of chaos. For example you are set up in a corner when ‘Lurkers’ show up and fire at you from afar, so you aim to deal with them when a ‘Leaper’ or two shows up and rushes you done. You are now forced to move but can’t move to far as a ‘Exploder’ just appeared from a vent further down in that direction and so now you are trapped on getting leaped on and then exploded. Nice ending to the story. By the way Exploders are creeper thin creatures which will swing it’s incredibly swollen arm at you which explodes on contact. Basically stay away from at all times but if you shoot the glowy arm then it explodes by its self. Now that’s a good ending.

X35 Earthwalker’s favourite thing about the game is the weapons you now can have in the game. In the previous Dead Space games you have set weapons and could have multiple. They were creative and nice but they stayed how they were. In Dead Space 3 you can create your own weapons using certain frames, parts and attachments. The options are plentiful. There are 8 different parts of the weapon that you can change. After selecting a frame you can select your upper and lower tools. Pick from: Military engine, Pneumatic torch, Survey charge, Telemetry spike, Plasma core, Rip core and Tesla core. Just find these tools or build them. Each of these grant access to different types of weapons like bullets, shock waves, energy blasts, blades, and even fire. The attachments add little boosts to your weapon with different effects like the ‘Flame glaze’ adds fire damage to your projectiles. ‘Scope’ allows you to zoom in more. There are many more. The types of combinations you could make are crazy. You could make a sniper rifle shotgun by having your upper tool as the sniper rifle and then the lower tool is the shotgun. So kill from afar and if they get close you can blow a hole through them. You could create a plasma cutter force gun or a double machine gun, or a ice and flame thrower. That’s right it’s that crazy. Then you can improve the fire rate, damage, reload speed and clip size of your weapons by using circuits. Do this all at work benches. X35 Earthwalker created two ultimate weapons which he kept for the remainder of the game. We won’t give his secrets but one of them was a powerful almost always one shot sniper rifle with a flamethrower. The sniper had the ‘Full zoom scope’ we believe. What can you make? A chain gun that fires javelines? Tell us through twitter.

The gameplay was smooth, flows and easy to use. The way the jump scares work were good most of the time. The amount of panic and pressure the Necromorphs gave players is realistic and how it should feel. The action and combat was fun and when you had your powerful weapons, you felt like a boss but a careful boss. The story was interesting and of a great length so you can’t call the story short. One awesome feature that Dead space 3 has is the fact that you can do the whole story with a friend who plays ‘Carver’. You get scared or own the Necromorphs together. You could watch each others backs and heal each other. You don’t know how satisfying it is to finally take on and kill that giant stupid spider like Necromorph thing which does nothing but cause you problems throughout the game. Man we hate that thing. The graphics and the attention to detail is a bigger improvement over the the prequels and looked nice for its time. This game is worth playing with a friend even now. The developers ‘Visceral Games’ did a really great job with this game. We really like Dead space.

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Warhammer 40000: Space Marines. War indeed.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines is another game from X35 Earthwalkers past that he has recently begone playing again. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines is an action third person shooter video game that was released, we believe, September 6th 2011 for Xbox 360, PC and PS3. This game is part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and was developed by ‘Relic’. In this game you play Captain Titus, a space marine of the ‘Ultramarines’. A soldier who is well seasoned and a veteran of many battles already.

From when you start the game, you see a conversation by a screen with text. It finally mentions that they are sending the Ultramarines. You then get to see three Ultramarines preparing to start a mission. From the moment you see them you can tell that these guys aren’t your average troopers. They are big, well armoured, fearless from the looks of it and that they get the job done. They jump of a ship and literally land right into the action, aboard a large battle ship commanded by Orks. A giant war is going on between the humans and the orcs. Basically a huge horde of Orks has invaded an Imperial Forge World called ‘Graia’. Only an the power of an ultramarine will make a difference here. The humans are being slaughtered and backed into corners. Straight from the tutorial you could see what kind of game this was and it was exciting from the beginning. When you first start slashing up those horrible Orks with your combat knife you felt like a unstoppable monster. The shooting felt real good as the bullets look like they hit very hard, almost like explosive rounds but when you do your first execution of an enemy after stunning them, you just want to do more.

You have a rechargeable shield which we believe is best for protecting you against gun fire. Once the shield is down, your health starts to take the hit but if you want to regain health then you have to execute an enemy in brutal fashion. The main problem we see with this is that you have to know when to execute as even while you are executing, the enemy can still attack and harm you meaning if too low on health, you could die in the process of an execution which we hate. It is realistic if you think about it. Would you just stand a wait for your enemy to finish of your ally in style before attacking. No! We’d pop that guy in the head but it’s a video game and we prefer fun majority of the time. The melee system in the game is what really caught our attention as we are use to shooter games were you have the simple one click melee where you hit with your gun or fist and that’s it. As a space marine it’s very different. It’s Prince of Persia or Dante’s inferno with the combos. You can do the simple repeated melee strike where each hit does more damage than the last or you can mix it up producing powerful kicks, charges and even a ground pound stomp like attack which sends enemies flying back in cool slow motion action. The combos and moves also change depending on the melee weapon you have.

There are options for when it comes to killing your enemies. You are firstly introduced to the combat knife but soon later you will come across the ‘Chainsword’ a sword with chainsaw abilities. There is also the ‘Power axe’ which cuts throw metal and anything really with ease. Scariest of all is the ‘Thunder hammer’ which is a heavy and powerful hammer that utilises a power field. It makes you feel like ‘Tartarus’ from Halo 2, smashing everything and everyone. If an enemy walks past, you smash them. If an enemy is chewing gum, you smash them. If an enemy even looks at you wrong, you better believe you smash them. It’s that simple. Pick your weapon wisely for the fight as they do have their strong points and draw backs. The guns will remind you of ‘Gears of war’ with the d-pad to select weapons and how they feel, which is definitely a good thing. You start of with the ‘Bolt pistol’ which fires heavy rounds into the enemy but aim for the head for that extra damage. The ‘Bolter’ which is the standard assault weapon for space marines, firing explosive kinetic rounds in automatic fashion. The ‘Plasma cannon’ is the gun you use when something big needs to be put down quickly. There are much more weapons including a sniper rifle one as well. You can hold four at a time so have fun.

The Orks are the main enemies of the game and they are quite the enemy indeed. Orks are fearless, cocky and aggressive. There are two types of Orks to deal with: ranged and melee. At the start of the game you will encounter very small ones that rush you in numbers to bring you down. They normally work alongside the bigger, main Orks which rush you to strike you with heavy hits. They are good at making themselves a harder target as they dry to side step out of your line of fire as they make their approach. There are bigger Orks that carry a large club like weapon and will charge you down and try to beat you death with it. They take a lot of shots but you get rewarded with a brutal execution to finish them with in the end. The Orks with guns keep their distance and fire constantly at you with very good accuracy. They may show up from high places with the elevation advantage. Who said that all Orks are stupid. They are good at killing in this game. Eventually you will come across even more Orks or creatures that are used by the Orks, one of which is a little dog like creature that reminds us of the ‘Slogs’ from ‘Abes Oddysee’. They have explosives attacked to them and they will run at you, get close and go boom. Smart gamers will shoot them when they are near to the enemy to give them a nasty surprise. Never forget that the enemy is merciless and very aggressive. They will charge you, surround you and beat you to death and on harder difficulties that becomes a realistic threat indeed.

The graphics of the game were very nice for it’s time. The battlefields all look worn torn and nicely designed. The voice acting was very good and the sounds are definitely appropriate. Effort went into this game and it shows. I would say that the main downside to the game was that it didn’t have the best story. I’m sure it makes more sense to the fans of Warhammer 40,000 who know exactly where this game takes place in the timeline but from within the game it was not as awesome but still interesting at times. The gameplay was fast, action packed and bloody.

We haven’t had the chance to play the multiplayer as when we got the game it was long after when it was released, as a result there isn’t anyone on multiplayer anymore, which is a shame. The game was said to have very good multiplayer though with multiple game modes.You could either be a Space Marine squad or Chaos Space Marine and battle it out in 8 vs 8 matches. You could unlock new weapons and armor to customize your space marine. There were three classes: Devastator, Assault, and Tactical. Each functioning quite differently from each other. Must have been very chaotic.

Overall Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines was a great game and still very fun to play at times. We believe ‘Relic’ did a great job with the game. Controlling a space marine is fun.

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Minecraft. There’s lots to do

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Minecraft is absolutely popular and we’re sure that every gamer has heard of it by now. It’s the world made of blocks. Now this game straight away is for some gamers and not for some. Many say that this game is boring and that there is nothing to do. In a way, this was true; however Minecraft relies on the players imagination and creativity. It’s originally for the creative. We at X35 Earthwalker know that there is much do.

In this game the objective is pretty much whatever you want it to be. Do you want to build a house? Do you want to build a ship? Do you want to build a underground base or a tree top hideout? It’s up to you. When you start your own world you will have a map and nothing else. You could get wood from trees and then turn that wood into tools like pick axes and axes to get cobble stone and more wood. Then with the cobble stone you could make stronger tools and get coal. Then turn some wood into sticks and combine with coal for some torches. Use the cobble stone to make a sword. Then build a furnace using the cobble stone. Go digging underground and eventually you’ll find some iron ore. Then put that in your furnace and smelt it by using your coal as fuel. Now with iron, you can make stronger tools and even make armour. You see what we mean? As you take action, you will discover and find new things. Then those new things will bring about new ideas, in which the player will then take action and the cycle repeats in a way. The game is literally dependent on the player.

We remember our first moments playing Minecraft and boy was that fun and exciting. The most memorable moment was how scary the game could be when you was accidentally caught some distance from your safe home or shelter and it was turning night time. This was bad as at night is when all the monsters of the game show up. You see, during the day there are many A.I called ‘Mobs’, like cows, pigs, chickens, wolves and more. Most don’t hurt you and aren’t capable of harming you but at night, aggressive mobs spawn and they don’t think twice about attacking you. Such Mobs include ‘Spiders’, which can even climb walls and more to get to you, ‘Zombies’, which just brainlessly (get it?) walks towards you, ‘Skeleton’ which fires arrows at you rather accurately if you ask us, ‘Creepers’ which has to be the most famous thing in Minecraft. Creepers are mean creatures that chase you down and when near you they will explode in an attempt to take you with them to the grave. There are some more mobs though like the ‘Enderman’ who can teleport but when you only have a stone sword and no armour and then you see these enemies appear everywhere, making horrible noises and chasing you down, trying to kill you in the middle of the night, it can get scary. It’s too dark to see your way and don’t get us started on the infamous sound you hear when a Creeper is near and about to blow up.

There are 3 game modes in Minecraft: Survival, creative and story. Survival is the traditional mode of Minecraft where you must work for everything, you must mine everything and get everything yourself. Creation is where you get unlimited of everything in the game and therefore can solely focus on building whatever you want. Story mode (which isn’t free) is an episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure where your choice and actions effect the story. Now X35 Earthwalker only plays ‘Survival’ mode as he believes it’s the main and proper way to play. Survival is the main game mode but ‘Creative’ mode became incredibly popular since it allowed players to build whatever they wanted with ease. It should also be mentioned that you can fly in Creative mode and do weird stuff like summon mobs and whatever you want. Be sure to try our all three and see what’s your favourite.

This is where some gamers get bored. They finally have all diamond armour and all diamond equipment including a sword. They have a big fort like house and a farm area for the cattle. They now wonder what do they do next. It;s up to you. We have seen many crazy and cool inventions. X35 Earthwalker created many things in his world. He created a giant fortress house protected by two huge walls. First wall is made of dirt while the outer wall is made of cobble stone. Underneath the fortress is his largest mines system in his world. He digged it out so far, lighted it up and placed ladders, doors and even a mine cart system within. Next two the fort is a glass pool raised in the air and lighted by glow stones. On the other side is a snow shelter (made from 100% snow). At front of the house is a redstone gate system operated by levers. Further up in front of the house is a large Igloo with a pool inside lighted by torches. In the center of the pool is an opening that leads down. If followed you come to a secret undreground netherworld temple with lava and everything. In the back of the world is X35 Earthwalker’s summer house, made of stone and decorated blocks with a unique underwater glass tunnel system. He even built a sky rail to take people from the fortress to the summer house. Probably his greatest creation is his sky village. A whole village built in the air over the sea.. He even built a giant hedge maze.

Our friends have built some crazy stuff as well. The point is that there is literally so much to do in this game. In another world we even built a giant lookout tower of pure stone. Thanks to updates the game survival mode got a main objective. The player must first locate a stronghold. This is where the end portal can be found. In order to find this strong hold, which is underground, you will need the help of an ‘Eye of ender’ to find it. Once inside and the portal is located, you must activate it by using 12 Eyes of ender. Once activated hop in to head to ‘The End’. There you will found lots of ‘Endermen’ and the feared ‘Ender dragon’. Lately, since December 19th there was another update which included so much stuff. Such things like:

New blocks: Chorus Flower, Chorus Plant, Dragon Head, End Gateway, End Rod, Purpur Block, Purpur Pillar, Purpur Stairs, Purpur Slab.

New items: Chorus Fruit, Popped Chorus Fruit, Dragon’s Breath, Elytra, End Crystal, Lingering Potion, Water Splash Potion, Potion of Luck, Tipped Arrow, Boats made from Spruce, Birch, Jungle, Acacia, and Dark Oak.

New mobs: Shulker, Stray, Husk, and Skeleton Trap Horses.

Updates to terrain generation:

Added new Tutorial world.

Added Elytra, which let you glide around the world when you are wearing them. Jump while falling to start gliding.

Boats are now controlled differently and can have multiple passengers.

Brewing now requires Blaze Powder as fuel for the Brewing Stand.

Updated crafting interface to allow crafting Firework Stars and Fireworks.

Villages now generate naturally in the Taiga biome.

Added Amplified Terrain option.

Added Fallout Mashup Pack trial.

Thanks to this update there has been new inventions battles and explorations for players. You could even try to take on the Nether and it’s Nether fortress’s which have dangerous mobs. The Nether has always been a notorious place. Other than from looking scary, there is fire everywhere, huge cliffs and drops, dangerous enemies like the zombie pigmen and the ‘Ghast’ which shoots fireballs which explode and set things on fire. Scary fact though. If a Ghast lands an attack on the nether portal you used to get there, it shuts the portal down, so make sure to keep your flint & steel on you at all times. Otherwise you may end up trapped in the Nether.

As you can see, it all comes down to what kind of adventure do you make for yourself. Are you going to explore random generated ruins in the desert or search the oceans? If you want more then you can always check out minecraftmaps to play some maps created by the community, anything from adventure to parkour to survival maps. There are even some horror maps. Minecraft has truly expanded. So now there is lots to do. Go build something. The developers, ‘Mojang’ truly made an interesting game. 

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World of Van Helsing:Deathtrap. The strategies are real

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

If you haven’t been playing world of Van Helsing: Deathtrap yet, then shame on you. Seriously, this is a great game and wonderfully done. Now one thing that is for certain is that this game is built quite heavily around strategies and timing. That’s what you would expect from a tower defense action RPG but this game does it exceptionally well. We decided to share some information, tips and strategies from X35 Earthwalker, the master strategist himself.

Firstly the main thing is what character class did you select, as this does effect almost everything. If you selected ‘Sorceress’ then know that you have the ability to attack multiple lanes at once and hit enemies hard from a distance with powerful magic attacks. If you selected ‘Mercenary’ then you can literally get up and personal with the hordes themselves and slow them down with brute force. If you selected ‘Marksman’ then you can get everywhere very easily with high mobility and gun down hordes at a distance keeping you safe. Now all three are powerful and useful in there own way. 

The Sorceress hits hard with the lightning attack and starts of with a cool icebolt ability that allows the player to freeze a certain enemy in place, a ice global ability (Icy wind) which inflicts ice damage on everything and a ability (Transmutation charm) to select a trap and whenever it kills, you get increased essence. The Sorceress is a major multi tasker. You can be lightning zapping multiple enemies at once, as your main attack has a spread and chain effect, while keeping one enemy temporarily in place with your ice projectile, gaining increased mana thanks to a well placed trap and attacking everything on the map at the same time with her global ability. That’s awesome. Never forget that the main fighters is the traps. You are just the deciding factor in these battles but you must rely on your traps. Keep your distance at all times as the Sorceress literally bruises easily. A few slaps and you have to get out of there but make sure to leave a lightning attack to their face as you do. Since she is 100% dependent on her mana, make sure to firstly, spend some upgrade points in ‘Meditation’ which increase maximum mana. Second make sure to upgrade her lightning ability, especially in ‘Surge of power’ and ‘Thunderbolt’ to reduce cost of attack, increase how long enemies are stun for, increase range of attack and increase the chance of an instant kill. ‘Frost mastery’ upgrade for Icy wind is essential as you can then keep hitting everything around the map more frequently meaning you are everywhere at once. The best defense you can have it to upgrade the ‘Chaos armour’ ability which has a chance of forming a bubble of invulnerability for 2 seconds whenever you have been hit but as a Sorceress you are practicing to not get up close at all so this is optional. Basically your job is hurt enemies from everywhere and multi task as much as possible.

The Marksman is a long range fighter thanks to his two cross bows. He excels at effect damage, especially poison damage over time. Being a long range fighter and having low health (not as low as sorceress), means you have no reason to be near a monster. His main attack is ‘Shoot’ and you must spam this as much as possible. Do as much damage when you can. The ‘Poison streak’ ability which uses focus and allows you to launch a projectile that deals poison damage and poisons those enemies. ‘Essence trap sigil’ is the trap skill that makes all traps within 10 meters of the player generate more essence when they kill. Lastly ‘Domain of entropy’ is the world skill that causes all damage over time effects to deal increased damage. Straight away you can see that this character specialises in damage over time and poison. The Marksman relies heavily on traps at all times. He is more of a support role all the way. The very first thing to upgrade is your main means of attack, those cross bows. Invest some points in ‘Shoot’, ‘Splintering bolt’ and ‘poison bolt’. This will allow your Shoot attack to have AOE (area of effect) and poison damage which when upgraded makes a big difference. The marksman has a huge advantage over the other two classes. He has access to the ‘Mark of the craftsman’ passive ability straight away which reduces the construction cost of all traps. Make this one of your top priorities with upgrades. ‘Entropy Expertise’ is another top priority passive skill has it increases all damage over time effects of traps which is something this class specialises in. The game plan is to poison as much as you can with the ‘shoot’ and ‘poison streak’ and build traps that do damage over time effects and then activate ‘Domain of Entropy’ to bring intense suffering and death to everything that rises against you.

The ‘Mercenary’ is the big guy who ate all of his mum’s cooked foods to get strong. He battles it out it up close with the ‘Strike’ ability which is his main means of attack. It delivers heavy damage and grants rage with each hit. ‘Ghostly shape’ is an active ability that allows you to dash forwards at blinding speed, charging through all enemies dealing physical/ice damage. His trap boost active ability allows you to select a trap which then does significantly more damage for 8 seconds. ‘Touch of death’ is the world skill that afflicts all enemies with physical vulnerability for a short period of time. The ‘Mercenary’ has a huge advantage over the others, his health. He is a tank and therefore can use yourself to force your enemies to stand on certain traps, this is because when you are near enemies mostly stop moving and fight you. With that amount of health you won’t be dying any time soon and so they must stay on continuous damage traps. Firstly you must invest upgrade points in your main attack, so ‘Strike’ and ‘Paralyzing assault’ which makes your strikes have area of effect and a chance to stun enemies. You may next need to focus on ‘Touch of death’ to increase the damage that all physical attacks from both you and traps do to all enemies everywhere. Don’t invest upgrade points in ‘Ghastly shape’ as it tends to take you away from enemies which isn’t what the Mercenary is about, although it is very useful to use until replaced as you can use it to increase your mobility. Use it to catch up to certain monster who are trying to make a run for it or traverse the map like no other (keep an eye on your rage meter though. The strategy with the Mercenary is simple. Get up in everythings face and beat it in with ‘Strike’ but when things get activate ‘Touch of death’ and then select a physical damaging trap with ‘Trap boost’. It’s a devastating combination. Therefore it is rise to invest upgrade points in ‘Mechanical mayhem analysis’ which increases the amount of experience points you get from each mechanical trap kill.

Now the traps are the main thing about this game indeed. There are so many traps, we heard there are 25. Now knowing where to put these traps and when is so important. Never forget that no trap is completely useless but some traps are definitely better than others. Check out your traps map selection screen. You will notice that the traps have to be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions. Traps are split into 5 categories: Mystical ground, Mechanical ground, Mystical tower, Mechanical tower and summoning. Throughout the level are spots, marked, showing what type of tower can be built there so it pays to look at the map first before building to know where to put certain traps. Mechanical traps tend to do mostly physical damage but some do both physical and other element damage like the ‘Razor launcher’. Traps also have types of enemies that they are stronger or weaker against. For example the ‘Spear trap’ is effective against armoured enemies but weak versus horde enemies, this is because of the type of tower. That’s right the traps also have types. The towers are also split into types like: Concentrated, Piercing, Splash and nothing. Concentrated are good against ‘Giant’ enemies but weak against ‘armoured’. Piercing is good against ‘Armoured’ but weak against ‘Horde’. Splash is good against ‘Horde’ but weak against ”Giant’. Type-less traps are just general and work equally with all enemies. So you literally should check out and know each trap, what they are good against, when to use them and the upgrades they can get.

Regardless of what character you are, the ‘Gun sentry’ should be your all round traps that you can always rely on. They hit everything and deal great damage with very good range. Once upgraded they have area of effect and can slow down enemies. Best to use these in groups as that’s when they start to really shred enemies. This trap however can be truly power with the mercenary because if you build multiple in an area, they can deal focused physical damage on a certain enemy then the player can use trap boost to enhance the damage of one of them and also activate ‘Touch of death’ making the enemies receive more damage from physical attacks then lastly combine with your ‘Strike ability’. Trust us, nothing survives that. Not even bosses. The ‘Lightning pillar’ has terrible first impression as initially you would think it’s rubbish but once upgraded, it becomes a very effective trap. Always invest upgrade points in ‘Multi jolt’ and ‘Extra charge’ allowing the trap to have more charges to fire and the chance to hit multiple enemies at once. The ‘Acid geyser’ excellent with both the ‘Mercenary and ‘Marksman’ but better with the latter due to special abilities. The ‘Acid geyser’ deals poison damage to whatever enemy stands on it but once upgraded it can also poison enemies and deal damage over time. Best of all this trap also afflicts enemies with 30% vulnerability against physical attacks. This means that enemies struck by the ‘Mercenary’ and hot by the ‘Marksman’ will receive increased damage but since it does poison and damage over time the active abilities of the Marksman like ‘Domain of Entropy’ will increase the damage to it’s full potential. 

The enemies don’t require that much detailed talk because if you know your traps well and strategically place them, then regardless of the enemy you will most of the time come out on top. Enemies are also split into factions, types and classes (Not sure if those are the right names though). The factions are: undead, mechanical and mythical. what faction you will face is only dependent on the location of the level. No in game differences. The types are: Normal, giant, armoured and horde. The types you should be aware of already because of the traps and what their strengths and weaknesses are. If you remember the traps well then enemy types aren’t a problem. Giants are weak against concentrated because concentrated traps never leave their target until out of range and they are normally slow moving. Piercing traps are good against armoured because they have the ability to do regular damage through armour while others are reduced damage. Splash damage are good against horde because they can harm multiple enemies at once. Makes sense. Off course all enemies will be harmed and killed by any trap but some are effect only due to logical reasons. The classes are (first two aren’t official names): regular, champions and bosses. For example the ‘Lesovik’ is a simple enemy with 1100 health, damage is 145 and has the simple fire bolt ability which launches a bolt of fire at you. The ‘Lesovik champion’ has 14000 health, damage is 200 and does more damage to your gate. The ‘Forest demon’ is a bigger step up from the champion version and is a boss with 28000 health, damage is 250, does more damage to your gate and has the ability to summon other smaller monsters to rush for your gate. There are more powerful monsters like these.

The simple recipe for this game is to know your style and how to adapt it to the many situations you will find yourself in. Before you start a level check the map to see what enemies are coming and where they are coming from as that might just save your life. Wisely upgrade your character and focus more on skills that you need and suit what your character can really do. While playing keep your other eye on the mini map to keep track of what’s going on as some enemies will try to sneak past you into your gate. Don’t try to upgrade all traps. Only upgrade what you use and what you need. Better to have some powerful traps then many weak traps that can’t keep up with the enemies. Don’t worry if you upgraded wrong as there is an awesome feature to get back your upgrade points. Buy and craft the best items for your character. If you are playing with a friend then communicate at all times and use your abilities to the best. Last of all, it’s just a game so take it easy and have some fun while slaughtering monsters. Now get out there are save the world. 

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Supreme command with Supreme Commander 2

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Supreme commander 2 is a real time strategy (RTS) game that came out in March 2010, developed by ‘Gas Powered Games’. This game is one of our favourite RTS games and most likely the best one we have played. This game allows you to have complete control over your army and building. The name Supreme commander is definitely suitable here. The game features immensely large battles with a wide range of units for the player to use to their advantage. We still play this game to this day and X35 Earthwalker himself talks about how one mistake can cost you the entire match making it quite tense.

In the world of Supreme Commander 2 there are three factions: UEF, Illuminate and Cybran. The UEF are like the normal military with ranks, protocals and traditional units which look like modern day tanks. The Illuminate are more like an advanced energy based group that stick to themselves. The most peaceful. The Cybran look the most sci-fi and technologically advanced group with tube generated humans and even a mutated creature. In the campaign you get to control 3 different commanders who command, build and battle in an ACU (amoured command unit). A ACU is a giant mechanical machine that has loads of armour and one arm cannon. These things are rare on the battlefield since only commanders can use them. With the ACU you have complete control over everything from what you build, who builds and your army. The first part of the campaign is about the UEF and you control ‘Dominic Maddox’, who is UEF, and go through his story dealing with being on the run from your faction due to disobeying orders. The second part is about the Illuminate where you control ‘Thalia Kael’, who is Illuminate and start of by defending against an attack from Cybran forces. The third part is about the Cybran where you control Ivan ‘Brackman’ who ends up in an all out battle against a commander who has both Cybran and Illuminate units. The campaign in it’s self isn’t all that interesting to us but it did have it’s moments though with the connections between character and individual stories.

The main thing about this game is literally the multiplayer battle action. The wars in this game can be so large that you may lose track of certain aspects of the battle. Console versions of the game have a maximum unit cap at 200 while PC can have up to 500. Imagine having over 100 tanks to attack an enemy base while keeping your engineers building, while researching new units and creating an effective base layout all at once while defending against attacks and predicting all at the same time. It gets crazy and intense over time. There are three types of units in the game: land, air and sea. I’m sure gamers can guess what each are about but let us say this. Sea units like submarines and battle cruisers are very powerful and not to be ignored. A group of ships can destroy an enemy base by themselves. Each type has multiple different units. Some units are specialised as in they have one purpose only while some have multi functions like can do air dog fights while also performing as a gunship assaulting land units. You have units like the ‘P-shield’ which creates a shield that protects ally units from fire and artillery while others focuses only on shooting missiles out of the air. Specialised units are more powerful than multi task units at what they do. Each faction has their own units and experimentals so what faction you are and what faction your enemies are changes everything. 

Since there is so much types and many different units the amount of strategies One of the best things about this game is almost endless different situations you can find yourself in and endless different attack strategies you can throw at your opponent. As if watching the lands, sky and sea was bad enough, there is also experimental units that alone can wipe out your army. Experimentals are very large super units that have a lot of health, high damage and always earn attention. For example, the ‘fat boy 2’ has an ridiculously large range. When it look like you are a mile away the fat boy 2 can still hit that target, because of this they are one of the best at harassing your enemies and forcing them to make a quick move against you to save their bases. The ‘Cybranosaurus rex’ has incredibly large amounts of health and breaths fire on everything (except air), while launching mini explosives and missiles from it’s back. Then there’s the ‘Kraken’ which rules the seas with its tentacles which all fire lasers at anything and we mean anything not even air units are safe. It can dive under the water to protect its self from damage and attack many units at once. There are many experimentals so you can’t just really have one strategy and think it would work for the whole match. Boy are you wrong. If an air fortress shows up and then releases a multitude of gun ships, you might just die after all. However, nothing is more terrifying than seeing multiple ‘Monkey Lords’ approaching your base. Rumour has it that there is no stopping that

This is one of the main reasons that we felt this game was one of the best of it’s kind (Excluding all the hacking and glitch cheats) was because there were so many options on how to war. You could have over 100 hundred tanks swarm your enemies, bring slow certain doom to them by huge experimentals, bombard from the sea with your fleet of annoying ships, snipe the enemy commander with bomber ships from the sky, upgrade your ACU making it an unstoppable one man army machine, or just straight up nuke the enemy and everything they stand for. X35 Earthwalker even once created 5 nuke launchers and sent 25 nukes at an enemy base and their sub base. By the way, nothing was left. UEF are said to be more defensive and artillery based, Illuminate are said to be more rush and sniping based while Cybran are said to be more experimental hording based. Thanks to all this variety, scouting out what your enemy is doing regularly is so important, otherwise you will never know what will come next. Switching up strategies in this game is so easy and we love that. One minute your enemy comes with an army of air and after surviving that attack, you then find that you are being bombarded from the sea and if you don’t have defenses in place, then most of your base will be destroyed before you have suitable means to counter. Matter of fact you may get hit by an air force, seas force and some land experimentals but thanks to the options you can even survive and counter against that. This game has that many solutions and options. Never forget to scout. 

Matches would almost always be over an hour in length. The graphics were great for it’s time and the maps were a nice variety. You could do ‘free for all’ (FFA) on large or small maps or team battles. The two game modes, assassination and Supremacy make all the difference. In supremacy you have to destroy absolutely everything that belongs to the enemy players to defeat them and win the game but in assassination you only have to destroy the enemy ACU so sniping techniques are always going to be thrown at you, whether by a long chain of bombings from flying units, heavy fire from gun ships, teleporting units or the classical nuke. Strategies literally change up depending on the game mode. X35 Earthwalker does prefer assassination though as he believes the matches are shorter and feel more strategic when it comes to offence and defense.

Supreme Commander 2 really did do well at making the player feel like they had supreme command over their armies, ACU and even how and where they build, making this one of the best real time strategy games ever made in our opinion. ‘Gas Powered Games’ did an excellent job with this game.

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