Tag: gaming

Dead Island: Epidemic— MOBA with a zombie twist

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Hey guys,

_dead_island_hauptbild3

My friend got into the closed beta for Dead Island Epidemic and he had several keys he could pass on to friends! Thanks Riz for sending me one of them 🙂

I had no idea they were releasing a Dead Island MOBA so when my friend said that he got a key for it I thought it was another standalone game like its past titles. I had played Dead Island before but not its sequel. I really liked the original game mostly because I could play as a Chinese lady whose father was from Hong Kong. It’s a bit silly but I felt somehow connected to her.

Let’s move on to Epidemic. Thinking about it I’m surprised that a zombie MOBA hasn’t been created yet! Zombie games are all the rage. In Epidemic we get to choose from several survivors (right now there are five to choose from). They each have different attack ranges and take on roles much like other MOBA games. There’s a guy who is better at close range and can tank, a girl who acts as a healer, and the rest can dish out damage but must stay at a comfortable distance away from the zombie mobs.

The workbench from the franchise that lets players craft their own weapons!

The workbench from the franchise that lets players craft their own weapons!

My thoughts? I think that it has got many elements that are reminiscent of the Dead Island franchise. You still get to craft your own weapons from blueprints and the art is quite similar, but you now get a bird’s eye view of everything. It’s interesting to get to always have a choice between a melee weapon and a gun since other MOBAs don’t give you that. It’s also a little different from other MOBAs since it’s not all about destroying the enemy’s base. Instead your team has to work together to complete objectives and get supplies. To compare it with something, I’d have to say its like a dominion game in League of Legends where you have to capture points. However you also have to fill up your truck with supplies and such while doing so.

Boomer? Is that you?

Boomer? Is that you?

In terms of enemies, if you’re playing the “horde mode” you’re facing hordes of zombies with special infected here and there. The special infected took a page from those in Left 4 Dead. I’m pretty sure I saw a boomer, a hunter and a smoker (though no smoke and coughing, just a tongue monster I suppose). I thought horde mode gets repetitive and boring. “Scavenger mode” is where you work together with your team against two other teams. The dynamics of making the game a 3 team versus is quite interesting. I’m used to just playing against one other team. What ends up happening is that you may be fighting at a capture point and you may team up momentarily with a third team to fight against one team. Then once that team is all dead it’s down to the two of you. Also, you’ve got to pay attention to your capture points. If two teams constantly fight against one another, the third team will be free to roam around and capture points. I thought this was quite an interesting twist to the usual MOBA.

Dead Island: Epidemic will be free to play on Steam but has yet to announce a release date. Since it still has to go through open beta, I wonder how long that will take. If you opt to buy one of its packages on Steam you get to play it right away (in its beta form). Overall I think the game was a little bland but it’s not done yet. They definitely need to spice things up a bit and I hope in the future there’s a few changes to address that.

– Karen

 

Black Desert character customization

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Hey guys,

I recently heard about Black Desert. My mind is blown. The character customization in that game is crazy. I remember several weeks ago when I thought ESO had great customization options… this really is sometime else. You want a tattoo on a specific spot on your character’s left thigh? You got it. You want your hair to sway slightly to the right? Sure. You want that glint in your eye to suggest that light is coming from above? Okay.

Give it a watch. It usually takes me a good while before I am ready for my character to exist in its virtual reality. I mean, think about it this way: for the next 50 hours, this is what my character is going to look like while I play. I have a friend who told me he spends at least three hours customizing his characters. Gosh knows how long it would take him in Black Desert. I am also pretty sure there will be people who just buys the game for its character customization screen. Avid machinima makers are probably drooling as we speak.

Black Desert‘s site is currently down because they are catching on fire with the world wide web. However, snooping around their Facebook page revealed that they are a Korean game. They have not yet selected an English client publisher, although a client is in development.

So I’m sure everyone’s question is: How slow will the game move since every. single. person’s. character is so uniquely different? It is basically like living in the real world where every face is different from one another! The developer Pearl Abyss has stated that they will be using their own “Black Desert” engine that is made for handling the fast rendering required for the game. The game will be free to play and is still currently in Beta. And since you and I are most likely reading this off a computer, the game will be released on Microsoft Windows.

It’s almost scary how much control you have over your own character.

-Karen

 

Sources (x) (x)

 

 

The Elder Scrolls Online beta testing

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Hey guys,

Did anyone else try out The Elder Scrolls Online? It’s still possible for you to snag a beta code somewhere and test it out! Their email reads:

“This is our final large-scale beta event before Early Access. Join us from Friday, March 14th at 12:00PM EDT until Sunday, March 16th at 11:59PM EDT”

Early Access means you pay the $60 now and get to play it a bit earlier than the rest. I have yet to preorder since I am still gauging whether I want to get into it. However, the beta is quite promising.

Proof that you're in beta

Proof that you’re in beta

I’ve been searching for a good MMORPG for a while, and I did want to move away from World of Warcraft. It seems like every time I want to get back into the MMO world, my only option is WoW. I’m hoping ESO will make the cut for a high quality, well developed, and player filled game. I guess I can’t exactly tell how the final version will feel, or how many people will ultimately pick up the game, but as of now, the game’s developer ZeniMax has announced that 5 million people signed up for beta. This does not translate to actual players when the game ultimately releases, but it is still encouraging.

I’ve really only spent about 2 hours in the game so far to get a feel of the world and its mechanics. What was interesting was that this is a lot more skillshot-based than WoW, but that also means that getting to dodge attacks were quite fun. The inventory system is quite simple, but I have heard that as the game progresses, customizing your character’s skills and such get quite complicated? What was annoying to me was the lack of a mini map. I found it disorienting and I kept losing my sense of direction. Apparently, they’re using the compass system that they originally used in Skyrim. Not having played Skyrim, I’m used to having a mini map to guide me (I mean, this was there way back in Runescape days!). Do. Not. Like. However, their justification is that this will encourage players to explore ares.

Character creation was quite fun. There’s a lot of customizable features– easily double that of WoW. I got to change everything from my gut size to how high I want my cheekbones. However, I must say that their characters are not as…aesthetically pleasing as some games. I think that a lot of work can be done on how the characters can look more polished. Reminds me a lot of Rockstar’s GTA 5 problem where it was nearly impossible to create an attractive female character. I suppose in the end I was satisfied with my elf.

Screenshot 2014-03-14 22.25.48

 

Anyways, as I said, it is a promising game. I’m really hoping that this will evolve to be something that can compete with WoW. I’m not too sure about its pricing scheme: $60 for the game itself, than a subscription fee of $15 each month. Basically the exact same as WoW. But think of it this way: you’re thinking of launching a new game in a market with an undisputed leader. I honestly think that they should sell the game at a one time cost, with future expansions costing an extra amount. Thoughts?

-Karen

Alice: Madness Returns— Dementedly awesome

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Hey all,

Caught in between classes and the many papers, projects and presentations that has lined my agenda. However, that makes this game I recently got perfect in terms of how I’m slowly going insane.

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to American McGee’s Alice. The premise of the story revolves around Alice having witnessed her family being killed in a  tragic fire. Having to face what she saw, and being the sole survivor, she is filled with the horrors that haunt her every day. In response, she escapes to a place she calls Wonderland, leading others in the real world to believe her mad. This game begins in 1875 and Alice is now 19. She has been released from the mental asylum, and is placed in an orphanage in Victorian London where Doctor Bumby watches over her. She’s getting better, but at the beginning of the game, she is sent to run an errand that accidentally leads her into Wonderland again, causing her to spiral down into her madness once again.

Now if you’re used to Disney’s version of Alice in Wonderland, you’ll be pleasantly (maybe) surprised. The beginning of the game is absolutely stunning.

alice

The first screen cap I took in game. Couldn’t help myself— it was ridiculously beautiful.

This is not at all to say that the rest of the game is not stunning. I have to say that one of the main things that sold this game for me was how nice the graphics were. You’re moved from the natural beauty that is Wonderland before it starts to crumble in Alice’s mind, to a Steampunk-esque version of the Mad Hatter’s place. There is more (I’m only through the first chapter of the game…actually I’m stuck there, but I’ll explain why a little later on) as the game progresses, and people have hinted to me that it gets more disturbing.

crying alice

Oh look. It’s a statue of me crying.

Screencap borrowed from (x) since I have not yet gotten here yet.

What stood out to me was that at the very beginning of the game you already feel a sense of unease. There are no jump scares in this game (at least not yet for me), but as you wander through the orphanage, you can’t help but be a bit nervous for what to expect at every turn that you make. Psychological horror is awesome.

Now on to what I did not like about this game: it’s buggy. I am currently stuck in the last part of the first chapter because I cannot get my freaking umbrella open to act as a shield. It turns out that I will have to go through my configuration files in my computer to fix this. I also had issues with getting the mouse that pops up when you open the options screen to go away. I ended up with three cursors on my screen as I played the game. I had to restart the whole thing in order to make it disappear. Since this game is about three years old, I’m sure there won’t be any updates to deal with these issues, so if you do get this game, know that this is what you’re getting yourself into. It’s not horribly hard to fix, but it does mess with your game experience since you will have to exit the game in order to fix what is wrong.

Additionally, if you’re very into fighting (I guess I like it, but I understand that not every single game has to be focused on solely that), Alice is quite limited in those terms. The Vorpal blade that she uses is her main attack, and her swinging it is quite straightforward. You press your left moue button. There are a few more side weapons, such a pepper grinder that can be used as a ranged gun, and bombs, but they’re not as prominent.

Overall, I’m pretty excited to squeeze some more time out of studying and invest it into Alice: Madness Returns!

-Karen

Borderlands 2 Review– A.K.A Where did all my time go?

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Hey y’all,

I made one of the dumbest decisions one week before reading break (which is essentially Spring Break for university students in UBC) and bought Borderlands 2. The week before break is usually when everything is due– papers, midterms, presentations, you name it.

Anyway, I remember logging in and promising myself that I would play for 30 minutes. A very reasonable break duration, right? I finally logged off to hastily finish the rest of my course work three or so hours later.

What I like most about Borderlands 2 is how funny it is. I have not played the first game in the franchise, but I heard its storyline is not as well developed. I also bought the Mechromancer Pack along with the game, meaning I got to play as Gaige and controller her murderous robot Deathtrap. Gaige is a cool female character who is steampunk-esque in her attire (added coolness in my books). She built Deathtrap for a school science fair, but her opponent, Marcy, stole her blueprints and bribed the judges causing Gaige to come in third. However, when Marcy shoved Gaige, Deathtrap identified her as a hostile and killed her. Gaige then went to Pandora to evade arrest. Pretty neat backstory I’d say.

gaige

The reason why my short break turned into a uber long one was because of the storyline as explored through quests.

**Mid-game spoiler**
I was doing the Rising Action quest and I logged in during my “30 minute break” to finish it up and hand it in. Once I submitted the quest, in which I insert a new power core to generate energy for the rebel base called Sanctuary, I was notified that it had all been a trap. Now the inhabitants of Sanctuary were under attack because the corrupted power core hacked through the power shield that was protecting the city. However, there are other heroes in the story (Lilith, for those of you who have played Borderlands, returns as a NPC), and they manage to teleport the entire city into the sky, but accidentally leaves you behind by accident.

Reading the quest description...

Some of the quest descriptions in this game…

This basically meant I had to find my way back to Sanctuary. Which took me about three hours. I was so desperate to get back to the safe zone for rebels and log out there instead of anywhere else. I was quite attached, you see. I felt bad for drastically changing life in Sanctuary, and causing probably a few deaths to civilians in the process. I had to find my way home. In other words, I was hooked.
***End of mid-game spoilers**

Borderlands 2 revolves around the gamer playing one of the six playable characters on Pandora (4 without DLCs). You are a vault hunter, which means you have unique abilities. For example, my character Gaige can control a death machine in the form of Deathtrap as a Mechromancer. Maya, another character, is a siren, which means she can suspend enemies on another dimension. This allows her to do crowd control.

Unfortunately for you, as a vault hunter, the villain Handsome Jack (who is a brilliant villain by the way) is on the lookout for you. His aim is simple: kill you. Vault hunter interferes with his business of gathering the mineral Eridium and ruling the world so he must get rid of you. And everyone else in the city of Sanctuary who are basically the last of the resistance on Pandora.

handsome jack

This is a roleplaying, FPS game. If you’re looking for something fun, I would recommend this. You play this solo, so I sometimes get bored of it for that reason (you can invite a friends for a co-op mode though if they also have the game), but I take a break and I find myself missing it. Very funny, interesting characters (even their NPCs such as Moxxi and Tiny Tina! Google them up, they’re really cool. I may do a post in the future just to explore the characters in Borderlands!), and great storyline. Not to mention, they broke the world record for the most number of weapons in a game: 17,750,000.

-Karen