Tag: X35 Earthwalker

Bomberman battlefest is the bomb

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Bomberman live Battlefest is absolutely crazy. A lot of people have not heard of this game and that’s a shame as it’s something every Bomberman fan should have. Matter of fact this game is in our top 3 Bomberman games of all time. There is no story mode to this game. It’s all good ol fashion bomb blasting multiplayer. This game is the sequel to the successful ‘Bomberman live’. This game is an improvement in every way, literally… except for one thing. The main menu music in the sequel is not as good as the previous game. That’s it though. Seriously, the menu music in Bomber live’ made us want to jam along with the Bomberman and swing our arms in synchronized style. 

There are lots of stages to battle on. You can choose from a pier level, castle level, laser grid like level, volcano, desert, a tropical beach level and more. What’s better is that each level has a gimmick now which changes everything. It’s basically a special condition that stage alone has. For example the pier level’s gimmick is that the stage is no longer a traditional layout but split into 3-4 sections by gaps over water and you can only cross by bridges; however bomb blasts travel across gaps adding more things for players to remember and think about when battling it out. The castle level’s gimmick is that from time to time, a strong wind will blow across the battlefield from top to bottom, blowing out the fuse of all planted bombs, meaning they won’t blow up but can still be set off by other bombs. Crazy stuff like that. So if you are good enough, take the game to the next level with gimmicks. At times it makes things unpredictable and fun.

There is a lot of game types to play. Battle is the classic Bomberman mode we all know and love, where you have to be the last player standing by blowing up your enemies. Paint bomb, where you must use your bombs to change the floor tiles to your colour and be the player who has the most coloured tiles on the battlefield. Capture the crown, where you must grab the crown and hold it for as long as possible and if someone else has it then do what bombermen do best and blow them up to get it. Bankroll, which is the same as ‘battle’ except each player can collect money found in blocks, which can be used to purchase power ups at the start of each round. Then there are the team based game types as well like ‘capture the flag’ where your team must steal the enemies flag and bring it back to your own base. VIP, where each team has a very important person which you must protect at all times. If they die then your team loses. With all these modes, you could do all kinds of things like no gimmicks straight up skill matches, tournaments, team matches and more.

Battlefest truly is a battlefest as the game has more power ups than ever before. The traditional power ups like power bomb, piercing bomb (which is now called passer or pasture bomb, not sure), bomb kick, remote control bomb and power glove are all here but the bunch of new ones are what really shakes things up. Laser bomb is basically a laser trip wire bomb where the lasers reach all the way until hitting a solid surface and anyone who touches the line will set of the bomb. Cluster bomb, which explodes and releases three more bombs which all will explode in a certain pattern, making this bomb dangerous to enemies and if not careful the user as well. Rocket bomb is a rocket that flies in the direction the user was the facing when deployed and anyone in the way is stunned briefly but when it hits something solid it explodes like a regular bomb. Dangerous bomb is pretty much the most feared bomb as it explodes in a grid, not lines, and when bomb blast range is maximized these bombs cover almost half the battlefield! We know, it’s crazy! ‘Double it’ basically allows you to place a second bomb of whatever special bomb you have like rocket, cluster, laser and dangerous bomb. We have seen what horrors two maxed out dangerous bombs can do. It leaves nothing behind.

If that wasn’t enough the game also steps up the character customisation. There are more costumes available and you can mix up the head, face and body. So you can end up with a bear face, bee antennas and samurai armour body if you want. As you play, golden octagonal objects will appear, get them to unlock new items for customisation. Online multiplayer is still there; however single player is more entertaining a snow the bots are actually a challenge. When you set them to hard mode, they actually become a threat. They chase you down, mercilessly, set traps and dodge bombs very well. Fighting them will keep you busy, while fighting three at once is super hard. If you though 3 was bad then imagine facing 4. That’s right. Bomberman battlefest allows up to 8 players at once! You could put yourself on one team and then take on 4 hard mode bots and believe me, victory isn’t certain at all, or jump into a 8 way free for all and see who is king.

Bomberbattlefest live is awesome. This game is great for fun online matches and better for 4 player local play. This game has been out for 6 years I believe and it’s still bringing great entertainment and fun. You have no idea how many times we have laughed at our own silly deaths in this game. The developers ‘Pi Studios’ did a fantastic job. Try the very generous demo and see what you think. 

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Outland is outstanding

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
 

 

Outland was a game that we had our eyes on for a very long time. Years even. Outland was originally on the PC, Xbox and PS3. It’s a 2D dynamic platformer game. This game is awesome straight up. X35 Earthwalkeris currently playing the game and has nothing but good things to say about it. Basically you play a man who has the same destiny as a man from 20,000 years ago. Two powerful being called, ‘The sisters’, helped created everything but also wanted to destroy everything. They got imprisoned by the gods. The man from 20,000 years ago went to a place called ‘eternity’ to face them, wielding the powers of light and dark. Our character starts of with yellow/orange-ish lines all over his body which is the neutral colour in this game, meaning not light or dark. Things that are orange are neither light or dark. A bit further into the game you get to control that man from 20,000 years ago and there are some clear differences. The man has the ability to become pure light or dark (blue or red respectively). When light, light energy attacks can’t hurt him. When dark, dark energy attacks can’t hurt him either. Also he could only hurt light enemies when he is dark and vice versa. Up until that point we only faced neutral enemies. The next major difference is that our character stands in a ready to move position with hands by his side, while the man from 20,000 years ago stood like a boss, with arms folded everything. Bursting with confidence. Do we seriously get to become like this guy?

You travel through multiple areas. Starting with the ‘Jungle’, a lush quiet place filled with natural enemies like spiders and plants. Lovely looking level that prepares you for everything to come. Next is called ‘Origin’ where the player can reach all the other areas and the gate to where the Sisters are. The next area is the ‘Underworld’ where things are dark, dirty and not pleasant at all, filled with humanoid weapon wielding enemies and flying enemies that shoot light and dark energy. giant sized spiders we believe are found here as well. The next area is the ‘City’ and boy does it look like a grand city indeed. Ancient and super large. This place has multiple humanoid enemies, giant soldier enemies with large maces, flying enemies. This area has is also the start of tricky level design like moments when you have to switch between light and dark quickly while dodging energy and even while fighting. The next area is ‘The Sky’ and boy this is literally. You are high up in a snowy mountain and everything we have encountered before is here and worse. All enemies can come as either light or dark. Giant sized spiders and soldiers are back as well with a new enemy too. This level will frustrate players with how difficult the levels within this area are now. The last area is called ‘Eternity’. This place is where everything you come across and face is back and in full force: enemies, hard level designs, light & dark energies, giant enemies, and even mini bosses like that giant soldier with the sword and shield. Combine it all together with the fact that enemies can now change from light to talk after a few moments and you have ‘eternity’.

As you play through the game you come across power ups, which have to be bought using the coins you find and get for killing enemies, and abilities like a ground pound, smite and energy shield. As you collect them, you start to feel more and more like the man from 20,000 years ago and eventually you feel way more powerful than he was. Honestly at this point we feel over powered (OP) for sure. You get to create combos like  like to send an enemy  flying forwards, then uppercut an enemy in the air, then  jump up to slash and finish with a charge attack and if they are still alive then finish with a powerful energy beam. this game is creative and does it very well. The graphics in the game are excellent, the sound effects are relevant and on point. The scenery is well detailed and the music is great and perfect at setting the feel of the locations. My favourite music in the game is the one for boss battles. It really makes me feel that I am in an epic battle and believe me the battle are epic. The boss battles are my favourite part of the game. They are all powerful and large enemies. Each fight requires a specific way to beat them, encouraging strategy and all your abilities work on them also. The boss in the ‘Sky’ is X35 Earthwalker’s favourite and he even said that it was the most epic battle so far. Also each boss has an interesting background story which gets revealed after defeating them. If you want a rematch with the bosses then go to arcade mode and take them on again. Also the achievements for this game are not impossible ones and can all be done.

You will have fun going through this game; however the story could have been told better as we don’t get much except at the beginning and after every boss fight. Other from that we honestly don’t really have a complaint against this game. We would also say that this game should have more music with more obvious differences between them. maybe more dramatic music for some levels though.  The developers ‘Housemarque’ did an excellent job. Many big reviews sites, like ign, game spot meta critic and eurogamer, and gamers all speak very highly of the game and rated it high. This game is awesome and definitely worth checking out.

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Gears of war 4 so far

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
 

 

Gears of war has always been a game loved by us for years. We have played the game since gears of war 1 and each release has made us happy. Gears of war 4 has made a big success and pleased many gear fans from campaign players, to horde players. Gears of war 4 was released October 11th 2016. The campaign was our least favourite of the game modes. This is not because of the fact that the ‘swarm’ aren’t as cool as the ‘locust’ at all. This is because we feel they could have done much more concerning the plot. You discover that the ‘locust’ (spoiler alert) didn’t really die but instead have been mutated into a new enemy. We felt that this new enemy which didn’t make a large impact. When the locust showed up they had the whole of humanities attention and really did rock the earth. The swarm felt like a private matter that literally a handful of soldiers was able to deal with. We didn’t get much action from the cog. We thought maybe the cog would tackle the swarm themselves and in the game we would see a scene where an army of ‘Deebee’ machine soldiers going up against the swarm in a big battle… but nope. Instead we see five robots fight a small group of swarm and that’s it. Gears of war 4 could have done more with all this. Also we felt that ‘Del’ was just the one liner, comical relief guy. He didn’t come of as significant really and really disappointed in that. Dom from earlier gears of war games was way more significant.

The mutiplayer is very good. The multiplayer game mechanics here feels like a mix between gears of war ultimate edition and gears of war 3. It would have been better if they kept it like gears of war 3. It seems harder to casually play the game types that you want as social is based on votes while match making is all ranked or versus bots. Again gears of war 3 felt better but we do see why they done it this way. This way game types that are less popular have a higher chance of being played. The shotgun once again feels like the only weapon to use in the game, especially once they nerfed the hammer burst. Now there isn’t really that much to help players counter the ‘gnasher’ shotgun. The ‘Enforcer’ smg is not good enough. The clip size is too small, if you miss a bit then you won’t have enough to down an enemy. In gears of war 3 you have the sawed off and retro lancer to help stop ‘gnasher’ shotgun worshippers in their tracks. Off course those ‘gnasher’ users complained everytime they died to one and the game developers removed them to please those gamers making this game less beginner friendly as new gamers will die all the time until they learn to use the ‘gnasher’. Judgement was the best at balancing weapons we believe as rifles were actually ruling the mid range battles (Like they should), after all they are rifles. From when a shotgun can beat a rifle at mid range shows there is something wrong. The executions of the weapons are back and there are some awesome ones, especially the ‘tri-shot’ execution. There seems to be less executions than ever before in gears of war 4.

Horde mode is back and better overall. As usual it’s up to 50 waves and they can get brutal real quick. The difficulty has been amped up. Many say that it is in fact too hard. Some can’t beat it on normal difficulty. X35 Earthwalker himself has completed fifty waves of horde on insane in gears of war 3 but explains that horde in gears of war 4 is more than a step up in difficulty. This is also due to the fact that getting fortifications is harder because of the new ‘fabricator’ system. In order to build anything, even caltrops, you need to collect fabrticator energy which you primarily collect from the dead bodies of enemies and secondly from completing wave challenges. The amount you get unless, you are the highest level scout, is so small that you must go many waves without anything which should not be the way to play horde. Horde is about having base and placing defences to help you survive the whole thing. Not going fifteen waves without anything because you really need to save. The bosses make the whole getting and keeping fortifications harder as two of the bosses make the whole process pointless. The ‘Snatcher’ and ‘Kestrel’ are the worst. The Snatcher can leap and just straight up charge right through everything and reach you within seconds. Kestrel just fires over cover and flies wherever it wants,bombing everything you ever held dear to you. In the higher difficulties these two almost means instant death. The horde class and skill system is good though as it adds more replay value and adds a new layer to horde. Upgrading skills is a real pain though as you need packs to get more skill cards but getting packs require golden coins which take long to get. It does become a grind.

Overall the whole game is great and having a lot of fun killing, executing and receiving hate mail from online gamers. Just add options to counter the gnasher, create an free add on to the campaign, give more gold coins per horde and multiplayer matches and readjust the fabricator system in horde and the game will be multiple steps better. The devlopers, ‘The Coalition’ has done a great job.

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Halo 5 Monitor’s bounty update

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

The halo 5 ‘Monitor’s bounty’ came out on the 8th of December 2016. The big update on halo 5 is so far excellent. ‘343 Industries’ has done a lot of things right with this one indeed. Let’s start with the Warzone updates. The fact that they finally added difficulty modes that we can choose for Warzone firefight makes a big difference. There is now ‘heroic’, ‘legendary’ and the terrifying ‘mythic’ firefight modes. ‘Heroic’ is much easier and allows for casual games in your fight against both covenant and Prometheans alike. ‘Legandary’ is the mode we all know and love. Mythic is the mode that spartans have learnt to fear. It’s basically legendary but they have added some skulls from campaign mode into this, which makes all the difference here. In round one of firefight the skull tough luck is activated which means that all enemies will continually dodge grenades and don’t run away. Round two has tough luck and black eye which means that your shields never recharge until you melee an enemy (good luck doing that on legendary). Round three has tough luck, black eye and thunderstorm which means that all enemies have been upgraded. For example casual blue elites get promoted to red or above elites which have more shields and at times better weapons. Round four has the previous skulls plus catch which means that the enemies are now grenade happy, constantly using grenades. Round 5 has all the previous skulls plus mythic which increases the health of all the enemies, including the bosses!

We must say though that mythic firefight is really hard and creates a good challenge. Two team mates and I had tanks (one of them was a Hannibal scorpion) and were hitting the grunt mech boss hard and it was doing very little. Most likely because of the mythic skull. X35 Earthwalkers first attempt at this was a fail.

We was also very glad to see the grenade launcher from halo reach show up to warzone. This weapon makes handling those vehicles easier as when you hold the trigger and then let go, it becomes an emp grenade disabling all vehicles it hits. This weapon is also great for harassing enemy bases as you can bounce shots around corners to hit hiding Spartans who think they can recharge their shields. Not gonna happen. The second tier grenade launcher aka ‘Pro pipe’ is really cool and it adds more skill to the weapon. It has an enhanced bounce trajectory. Basically the grenade bounces towards enemies after hitting a wall or the ground. The sentinel beam from halo 3 is something I wanted for a long time in Warzone and it’s finally here, dishing out laser burns and death. I hope they bring a level 2 and 3 tier sentinel beam as the current one just makes enemies panic (as it should).

There is now also the Oni and Hannibal wasps (tier 2 & 3 wasp vehicles) which so far the most popular things that I see in the skies of Warzone matches. They aren’t too tough and just add more variety to the game. The designs look very nice, easy to identify them and there upgraded weapons look deadly enough. We like them, especially destroying them. We haven’t tried the anti-air wraith yet but seen it in action a bit. I hope the fuel rod shots home in on air. It looks vicious though and truly hope that it can clear the skies.

The update also brought in character voices like the monitor, grunt and buck from halo Odst. Basically when you have spartan Palmer doing announcements like a base has been captured or a boss appear, you can unlock and choose what voice you want. It’s a nice addition and idea (personally I just want the monitor voice).

They split up the game modes in arena into two groups: social and ranked. This makes things better, especially for newer players. Both have different types of game modes. So go take a look.

I must say though that even with all these added features and improvements they forgot to make the one thing that is truly needed.  A feature that allows us to sell multiple req cards at once instead of one by one which gets annoying as it is long. Please can this get changed.

Overall we are happy with this big update and want to see more in time. Keep up the good work 343 Industries, you are doing a great job. For more information check out the link below:

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