Tag: Xbox

Echo. Where actions have consequences

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Echo is a new third person science fiction adventure game developed by ‘Ultra Ultra’ coming out in March on the  Xbox One, PC and PS4. This game was made using ‘Unreal 4 engine’. Echo is definitely one of those games that stand out from the others. This is simply because of a very unique and interesting game mechanic. You may be able to guess it from the title of the game.

The echo game mechanic is pretty much the main and most interesting thing about this game. It’s the thing that will make gamers want to try it out. We at X35 Earthwalker always love unique games or games with unique mechnics or anything really. Basically in this world you control a girl called ‘En’. She is in special legendary place so far just called the ‘Palace’. The palace studies you and uses you to defeat you. That sentence wasn’t a typo it’s exactly what we said. The palace creates ‘Echoes’. Basically exact copies of you in everyway which can only do what you do. They even move and behave like you. In this game, the only true enemy is yourself.

We will explain it. The palace sort of goes through a cycle. It ‘reboots’ every few minutes which causes a black out. During this black out, you can continue to move through the palace however you like and all is well but after the black out. it’s all light in the palace and it’s there where the palace watches you. That’s right, the palace is sort of alive. After watching you, the Echoes it creates gets updated with your latest movements and actions. They learn or unlearn. The whole game is about you facing the consequences of your actions.

So basically If you run, the Echoes will have the ability to run as well. If you sneak, then next time, the Echoes will sneak around meaning they get the jump on you. If you shoot, then they have the ability to shoot as well and since they are an exact copy of you they can kill you just as fast as you can kill them. The game constantly makes a move based on what you do. Sort of like chess. So how will you play? Will you only make moves during the black out to avoid being detected at all (like a wimp) or will you also move during the day but face the consequences of your actions with adjusted Echoes that will come for you.

We don’t know too much about the story besides information concerning the palace and the main character ‘En’ and that you take and place certain light objects but other from that it’s pretty much, you have to wait and see. The graphics are alright but the animations are very good. The environment looks like details and time went into making it. From what we have seen, the game looks cool but sounds extremely cool.

Overall this game is unique and definitely worth checking out. X35 Earthwalker himself really wants to see how the community of gamers react and receive this game. The developers, ‘Ultra Ultra’ came up with something interesting here and we say good job.

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Death Squared. Puzzle action squared

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Death Squared is a new multiplayer puzzle game developed by ‘SMG Studio’, coming out ion February 14th for Xbox One, PC and PS4. Death Squared is a cooperative puzzle game for 1, 2 or 4 players where each player gets to control a squared shaped robot which needs to be guided to a matching colour-coded goal. This does sound easy but with puzzle games, it never is. There are traps and hazards which will destroy and kill your robot.

Straight away from looking at the game, We at X35 Earthwalker could tell that it’s fun and has some humour to it. We could tell that from the design of the robots. The robots may come in the four colours red, blue, green and yellow and have similiar looks but it’s the prints on their faces that gives it away. There are many prints. like an ‘X’, mustache, laughing face, cross bones, heart, tiger stripes and even a skull. It would be better if these robots have voices and actually talk to the players but we will see. The same faces can have different markings so customisation of the robots is there.

The entire level is made of squares and literally, there is a lot of details on the squares. Some squares have different markings, colours and coating. The graphics of the game is very good. The scenery looks like a giant section in a mechanical factory. It looks the the whole thing is like a simulation by a computer with square levels in an area surrounded by lots of space. The music is more like ambiance, just a simple tune in the background. This may be like this because the developers wants all the focus to be on communication between the players. 

X35 Earthwalker has checked out some of the levels already and he said, “The levels throw a lot of stuff in there for the players to think about. It actually causes players to stop, think and plan amongst each other, before continuing. Some levels have blocks that hologram squares which is tangible for the robots of different colour and move when the same coloured robot moves. There are levels where pieces and even rotating parts move as the robot of the same colour move. There are switches which activate spikes from the ground that destroy any robots on top of it. There are levels that have lasers that will destroy any robot that of a different colour that makes contact with it. There are even levels that combine all of this stuff together, creating crazy scenarios. I like what I see so far”. We agree.

This is the kind of game that will get you vex with your friends and family. Maybe your younger sibling accidently gets your robot killed because he moved when he wasn’t supposed to. Maybe your friend forgot that all this time they can move through any hologram squares that’s the same colour as they are, wasting many minutes. Or that one friend who decides to get his friends killed but tries to make it seem like it was an accident. This game starts of very fun but will quite quickly become a challenge and then a head scratching challenge. If you don’t have any temperance (self control) and long suffering (patience) then be careful as you don’t want to get too mad with friends and family. So think twice about this.

It has been said that there is a section in the game called the ‘Vault’ which has a bunch of levels that are only for the brave. We guess that these levels must all be very hard to complete to near impossible to solve. We hope there are some levels like that though because there are always gamers out there who won’t stop until they beat it. Those guys will have fun.

Overall this seems like a fun puzzle game that will keep you occupied for a good while. A lot of work has gone into it. The developers ‘SMG Studio’ did a good job with this game and we at X35 Earthwalker want to see what becomes of this game. Even so… You must not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Crypt of the NecroDancer. Got the moves?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

‘Crypt of the NecroDancer’ is a new action, indie, RPG game but also classed as a rhythm dungeon crawler, developed by ‘Brace Yourself Games’ coming to Xbox One 10th of February but was released on other platforms last year in February as well. Straight away the title of the game should straight up tell any gamer what this game contains. Dancing, music and dungeons. If that’s what you got also, then you are correct. In Crypt of the NecroDancer you control ‘Cadence’ who is the daughter of a famed treasure hunter that has gone missing. She goes off to look for him but accidentally falls into a crypt owned by the NecroDancer, who steals Cadence’s heart and forces her to challenge his minions to retrieve it. Now you are forced to fight through the dungeon but your actions tied to the beat of the music. You must beat the Necrodancer.

This game has a very friendly look to it. It reminds you of the old retro games with that pixel like graphic style. So straight away you want to try the game. The rules and controls of the game are simple. Move, attack and doge enemies in tune with the beat for the best success. There is lots of music and the game even said that it has an award winning sound track plus 4 remixes of a track. So you have options but it gets better. This game has a fantastic feature. It grants players the option to instead import custom music from their MP3 collection. So groove and play to your own tunes. Plus if you have a dance mat connected by USB then you can link it up and get your moves on. We at X35 Earthwalker encourage movement and exercise. There is two player co-op where each player has their own health but share the gold and spells. This means you can show off your moves to a buddy of yours.

The enemies in the game are all dancing. Who ever said skeletons can’t dance. Literally, everything in this crypt seems to be effected by the music and tunes. You can only move or attack if they do the action on the beat of the music. Everytime you get it on the beat boosts your scoring multiplier. You don’t automatically take damage for missing the beat but it does reset the scoring multiplier and you may end up in the path of an enemies attack. As you go through the game, you will find new items, armour, treasures and weapons to use to your advantage. There are lots of weapons in this game like: a dagger, broadsword (which can hit multiple enemies), whip, bow, flail, rifle and much more. All having their own range, damage and mechanics. Find the one that best suits you and your situation.

There is a nice range of enemies that all seem to know how to have a good time, with their dance moves. The dungeon is split into 4 zones which each have four levels. The first three levels always have many enemies, an exit to find and a mini boss for you to overcome but the last level has a big boss who wants you dead. The last mechanic that gamers should be aware of is that you want to complete the level before the song finishes otherwise you will be sent to the next level automatically but miss all the rewards you would get for completing the level. From what we have seen, the game seems quite fun and the whole rhythm mechanic is a nice touch to a dungeon crawler. Music is always enjoyable and impacts the experience of the game, plus having the option to choose our own music is great. The flow of the game is definitely changed according to the song but flows well nonetheless. This game isn’t for every gamer though as you do at times feel restricted to the music and if that annoys you then it’s not for you.

Overall it seems like a fun game but only for some types of gamers. The developers ‘Brace Yourself Games’ made something nice. Regardless… you must never forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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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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Gears of war Multiplayer Mechanics

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Gears of war 3 is still to this day one of our favourite games to play. Gears of war 3 is the game that all the other gears of war games need to learn from when it comes to multiplayer mechanics and gameplay. The games were all very good and we love them, it’s just that they either lack or missing some great things that gears of war 3 has. 

For example gears of war ultimate edition has the same feel and movements like gears of war 1 but refined. The movements are still and we feel that wall bouncing is much harder to perform unless you have your sensitivity set to maximum, which isn’t something everyone can handle. We never liked it at all. Since it was based on the first game there is only the ‘Curb stomp’ execution which will always be awesome by the way.

Gears of war judgement is one of my favourites. This game was hated by many fans but it’s because of their mentality. Gears of war judgement was the best at balancing the weapons for multiplayer. Short range weapons rule short range battles. Mid range weapons like rifles actually rule mid range battles. Gears of war 3’s gnasher shotgun was the most over powered. The damage was really high, combine that with the range and you have a weapon that everyone uses. That shotgun could beat rifles at mid range literally. It’s that powerful. Don’t get us started on how much worse the weapon is with a perfect active reload as it increases the range and damage of the weapon. In gears of war 3, the shotgun literally is the best weapon to have and use. When in doubt, equip your shotgun. We hated the shotgun always. In gears of war judgement you could actually defend yourself against shotgun users.

Gears of war 4 was the closest thing to the mechanics of gears 3. The gameplay is faster than 3 but feels a little more like ‘Ultimate edition’. The game, because of the faster gameplay, has less executions and less rivalry. The best thing about gears of war 4 is that everything feels closest to perfect, except for the fact that their is no real defense against the shotgun now. The ‘Retro lancer’ and ‘Sawed off’ are gone now. The replacement that any player can equip is the ‘Enforcer’ smg. This gun has really high rate of fire but has a small clip with low damage. This means that unless you catch someone out of cover, you aren’t really going to kill them. Gnasher users can easily pop shot them making the Enforcer useless. The hammerburst has been nerfed so much that there really is no reason to use it as the lancer has better damage and a bigger clip. X35 Earthwalker just uses it for fun but says you need the active reload as that makes it fire twice as fast meaning you can down any opponent really fast. In gears of war.

Gears of war 3 was the closest to being perfect for many reasons. The gameplay was at a great speed. If you stayed still for too long, be sure that someone will come up behind you with the shotgun and kill you. The pace was also not to fast to the point where you don’t have time for executions and targeting certain players. The weapons felt like they do the right amount of damage. You can easily tell the pros and cons of the 3 rifles and when they should be used. Off course the gnasher shotgun was still too powerful and the main issue of gears of war 3. If you can’t use it, then you are screwed. Simple as that. 

To compare Gears of war 3 had the best balance out of all of them. Gears of war judgement not having four weapons as usual changed how some players could play due to the lack of options. The fact that you could throw a grenade without changing weapons because of one button made combat in most cases faster than normal but more grenade happy than they were in gears of war 3. The frag grenade having the ability to stick to enemies just made it clear that the best frag in the game was the frag; however the different options did make matches interesting and only the best will use the other grenades. Judgement also had the ability for us to drop of ledges to areas below and climb over edges too. This forced players to be more aware as attacks could easily come from above, like someone dropping in with a ‘Scorcher’ flamethrower while in 3 you just had to look ahead and behind. Judgement had the best weapon balancing of them all meaning that everyone couldn’t just rush with shotguns all the time unlike 3 where everyone lives of that gun. Gears of war 4 made wall bouncing easier and feels easier to use the shotgun making it more beginner friendly. This means that everyone stands more of a chance in matches than with gears of war 3. The gameplay in 4 is faster than 3 which does lead to less rivalry and targeted playing while in gears of war 3 you are always looking for that one player. Ultimate edition just feels to stiff and the shotgun was hard to understand in terms of what it can do.

Overall all Ultimate edition was the worse for us as it still has the mechanics and gameplay of gears of war 1. Ultimate edition also had the most weirdest damage for weapons making them unreliable. Judgement has the best weapon damage balancing but was overall just too different from what we are use to; however it is our second favourite multiplayer of all the gears of war because all the weapons are actually useful and the gnasher wasn’t the only thing to use. Gears of war 4 did an excellent job at balancing all aspects but in order to please majority of the gears fans, they made the gnasher the best weapon in the game again and left no counters to the weapons meaning you must learn the ways of the gnasher or be gnashed (whatever that means). Gears of war 3 has the right pace and the best tension in matches which makes all the difference. The rifles are still effective, also there are counters to the gnasher shotgun so if you can’t wall bounce and kill then you can rely on other weapons to stand up to them. Gears of war 3 is our favourite and we believe has the best multiplayer mechanics. Time to do executions and the boom shot is nice and explosive. We believe Judgement did the best for what it is but it was most enjoyable with gears of war 3. This is just our opinion after all but whether opinion or not… you must never 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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Halo wars 2 Blitz beta – Strategic approach

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

The Halo wars 2 Blitz beta is continuing until the 30th of January. In case you didn’t know. Halo wars 2 is a halo RTS (Real time strategy) game that will be coming out on the 21st of February. So far the beta has been played by the Earthwalkers, especially X35 Himself and they all agree that the game so far is excellent with so many positives and little negatives. The beta is free and should just get it to at least try it.

Now Halo wars 2 is going for a more strategic approach to game play now. Much more than the prequel. In the prequel most people would get tanks with wolverines and that was pretty much it but in halo wars 2, you need keep an eye on your opponent, think fast, react fast and have strategies. Blitz is fast paced and requires you to use your cards wisely. Don’t just use a card just because it is there, especially if it is an ability card or a unit with special abilities. Then again, don’t hold on to cards that you don’t need at the time. There are many ways to go about this. First of all, there shouldn’t be any cards in your deck that you find not useful or wouldn’t use. Have cards that you know will come in handy or counter a certain situation on the battlefield. If you desperately need a card or need to get rid of a card, you can ‘cycle’ a card for a small cost of 5 energy. This most likely will be worth it but never cycle too much because small costs combined make a big cost. If you have unit card and don’t need it yet and it doesn’t cost much then just summon it in your base and leave it there for now. It’s always better to have an army in blitz so don’t cycle cheap cards.

You deck should always have cheap cost cards and high cost cards. Cheap cards because then you can have an army quite quickly and summon when needed like to collect energy for example. Big cost cards as they are the powerful units. If you are going to have too much of one, then make sure it too much of cheap as then you can have a easy to build large army. You deck should also have at least 1 or two ability cards like the ‘archer missiles’ or ‘cloak’. Abilities allow you to reveal your leader characters true powers which can make all the difference in a match once used effectively. You deck should also have a legendary unit to bring the pain. Each character leader has their own legendary unit. Atriox’s is ‘Atriox’s chosen’. Captain Cutter has ‘Spartan Jerome-092’. These units are powerful and very expensive. They almost make any battle in your favour but you must protect them. They aren’t invincible. We have seen players get excited about legendary units that they drop one in the middle of an enemy army and expects them to kill everything, instead just gets their legendary dead. It’s a waste. Have them lead a fight and when they take too much damage then return them to your base to get them healed up. There is no excuse, they even have shields so keep them alive.

Ability cards have one time use abilities that must be used strategically. You can’t afford to waste them or miss. For example a very strategic and powerful ability is the ‘MAC Blast’ card which allows you to “Launch a high damage slug to blast a target area”. This is a card you can activate, then aim and then fire. Use this to destroy that one pesky target that maybe is out of reach of your units that sit on a hill, like ‘Blisterbacks’ or ‘Kodiaks’. You could also just use this to damage and destroy a group of enemy units that have bundled up together. You could use your army to drive them into a corner and then fire the MAC gun. Do not use this on the ‘Condor’ or ‘Scarab’ as those super units are only temporary and will die eventually. Save it for the right situation. When you have powerful ability cards like ‘Boundless Fury’ and ‘MAC Blast’ you have to decide whether it’s better to use them or summon units because they have high costs and you could normally have 3 or two units instead. It’s up to you to know and judge the situation you are in to know what action you should take.

Some units are enhanced versions of the originals like ‘Ironclad Hunters’. They fight and attack in the same way but come with extra abilities. The abilities so far are: Guard, Blast, Detect, Rush, Reflect, Cloak, Rally, Shock, Shield, Support and Siphon. Guard means this unit will absorb all the damage your other units would have took, protecting them. Blast means that when they die a small circle area is glowing, soon an explosion will happen there damaging everything within. Detect means that unit can see and reveal nearby cloaked units. Rush means that unit is not effected by fatigue when summoned and can therefore fight at full strength straight away. Reflect means that unit returns half of the damage they take back onto an enemy unit. Cloak means when the unit is deployed (summoned) it is cloaked for 90 seconds it can’t be targeted but can still fight and move freely. Rally means that unit increases the damage  your ally units nearby can do. Shock means that unit reduces the armour of nearby enemy units making them weaker. Shield means that unit has a rechargeable shield like spartans in halo, the shield takes the hits before the health does and recharges when out of battle. Support means this unit doesn’t fight at all but instead can do things like heal units, protect or other cool effects. Siphon means that unit gains health equal to the damage it gives, sucking the life out of your enemies. These abilities are important and make huge differences in a match, so make sure to know them all and have some in your deck.

In every Blitz match you have to make collecting the energy drops a top priority. Sure they don’t seem to add much at all to your energy but it increases your energy rate. You have an automatic energy rate and the more energy you collect that rate increases much faster meaning you get to use your cards faster. Controlling the zones is important but not as important as the energy as control zones come and go throughout a match but with a higher energy rate than your opponent, you could summon legendary units and build armies much faster than your enemies and a bigger stronger army is what matters in halo wars 2, especially Blitz. Get the energy, even if it means the enemy gets 50 points ahead of you because they control to zones. There is time for a come back.

Each character leader is different and have access to certain cards that the others don’t get. Some leaders are more support type while others seem as more assault types; however all are powerful and dangerous enough to destroy the other in a fight. It comes down to the player, their armies and strategies which are all dependent on the leader. The ‘Ship master’ can start of with three ghosts, who aren’t the strongest units around but their speed cannot be matched so you can use them to zoom and beat your enemies to the energy drops. ‘Anders’ starts of with probably the strongest combination of units with two cyclops, two marines and a wolverine. That means she can counter air, vehicles and give infantry a fight. This means you could go straight for a control zone and most likely beat anyone who challenges you. Atriox has access to the ‘Eradication’ ability which literally destroys everything so it can be the move that turns the tide of a battle. ‘Isabel’ has the MAC Blast and lock down scorpion which weakens enemy units and her special units keep the enemy guessing. ‘Decimus’ has multiple siphon units and if you can keep them alive they become a real threat and hard to kill but abilities allow destroying the enemy much easier. ‘Captain Cutter’ has strong starting units and has powerful abilities making him a heavy assault type leader. You must check out the units that they have and the abilities to know what to do. The ‘Ship master’ has cloaking and steal abilities while ‘Atriox’ has the more straight forward approach and heavy abilities.

So firstly learn the character leaders and know their units and abilities. Quickly secure at least one control zone and then aim for the energy drops. Build an army. Do not let half your army get destroyed under no circumstances. Always bring your units back to base to get them healed up. Don’t over extend and do more than you nee to do. If you have the bigger army and have at least two of the zones then don’t over extend and risk units.

Now all that’s left to do is go into matches and practice. Have fun and don’t 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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