Bastion Review

Let me clear something up for you guys before I dive into the review: I said a Lone Survivor review was coming soon, and it still is. It's just that, I get lost in that game too easily and walkthroughs are cheating... So, I finished Bastion first.

Bastion is a top-down-action-rpg-hack-and-slash-adventure game featuring "dynamic narration", created by the fine folks down at Supergiant Games. It came out last year during the XBLA "Summer of Arcade" and has since been ported to PC, Mac, Linux, and the Chrome browser.

When you start playing Bastion for the first time, you're greeted by the warm voice of a mysterious narrator, as if he's telling you a story that happened long in the past. Your character slowly fades into view, laying on a bed in the middle of a floating nowhere. As you get up and walk around, land starts flying into place beneath your feet. Your adventure through a Calamity-stricken world has just begun.

The story in Bastion is presented very stylistically, delivered to you by the one and only mysterious, disembodied voice of... well... who really knows? What's especially cool is how the narrator seems to have something to say about everything you do. Fall of a ledge for the first time? Get ready to hear "And then, he falls to his death.", proceeded by "I'm just foolin'!" as your body smacks right back into the ground it used to occupy, allowing you to continue. It's an awesome way to keep the player interested about everything they do, especially when the acting is so good. I can't say that I ever once thought any line of dialogue was cheesy or ham-fisted, which is pretty high praise. But, it's not just the way in which the story is presented in Bastion that makes one want to keep playing. No, it's also the story itself. Be prepared to endure a few interesting plot twists and turns that I honestly didn't see coming. I often found myself replaying some of the game's optional side-sequences that I kept failing over and over just so I could learn more about the backstory of some of the characters, and the ending is so well done it nearly had me in tears.

Bastion looks incredible. All of the artwork is hand-drawn (with the one exception of most of the enemies and characters, who have been pre-rendered with a cel-shaded look. Don't worry, they still look good!), and when viewed in 1080p it's simply astounding. All the environments are lush and unique, somehow making a post-apocalyptic world seem oddly inviting. I love the art style in Bastion, and to anyone who can't appreciate it, the only thing I can say is that you probably hate fun and puppies. Or maybe you just play too much Call of Duty.

Bastion's sound effects are okay, but they're nothing special. There's nothing to really brag about, but there's also nothing bad. Sure, some of the weapons sound a bit underpowered, and a few sounds can get repetitive at times, but really, it doesn't matter. What's here is well done.

The music in Bastion is pretty awesome. While it's mostly just background stuff to the action happening on screen, it's still pretty catchy, and it complements things very nicely. The tracks that really stand out, though are the few that contain vocals. They're so catchy I find myself singing them all the time, even when I'm not playing the game and when I'm not thinking about it. They weasel they're way into your head, and not in a bad way either. All of these songs are overwhelmingly emotional, especially "Mother, I'm Here", put to absolutely tear-jerking use during the game's ending sequence.

Finally, let's talk about the most important part of the game: how it plays. To answer it simply, it plays well. It's nothing ground-breaking, but it's fun to run around beating up bad guys with your awesome hardware, gathering XP and leveling up all the while. The game also manages to introduce weapons at a steady and constant pace, forcing you to constantly switch up your attack style, all the while rewarding you for your efforts with new materials to upgrade your existing equipment. This effectively keeps the game fresh, giving you opportunities to experiment with and upgrade all kinds of weaponry.

In terms of content, Bastion is a bit more lacking than some other titles. I managed to beat the game in roughly 7-8 hours my first time through, and I had completed every single bonus course and acquired every possible upgrade. There is some replay value in the fact that there are multiple endings, and of course, the game offers you the ability to start a "New Game+", allowing you to keep all XP and weaponry from previous playthroughs on a new playthrough. Coupled with this is an interesting "Score Attack" mode, where the goal is to accrue as high a score as possible by replaying through past areas quickly and skilfully, complete with leaderboards. Still, it would have been nice to have a bit more for $15.

All in all, Bastion is an awesome game with a great story, and I highly recommend it to anyone who plays games. Yes, even if you're a diehard COD player.

88/100

Lone Survivor Review Coming Shortly!

Lone Survivor is a 2D survival horror game made by Jason Byrne. It was released on the 23 of April this year, so hopefully that review is still relevant.

Anyways, just posting a heads up that yes, a review of this indie game is coming!

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Sub Rosa

Sub Rosa is a multiplayer FPS that was made in seven days. It is more realistic than Call Of Duty in my opinion.
1. When you walk over guns the ammo doesn't magically jump into your gun
2. Your team mates don't have special shields which your bullets can't get through
3. If you have two of the same guns, ammo doesn't jump into one of the guns
4. Magic names don't appear above your heads
5. Shooting yourself in the foot kills you
6. Once you die you are dead for the rest of the round

Unless Call of Duty is about Magic, this game is more realistic. The link to the game is below http://7dfps.org/?projects=sub-rosa

Meet the Pyro

For all the Team Fortress people out there, the long a waited meet the Pyro has just released today, at the Team Fortress official site here http://www.teamfortress.com/ they have also released the software that makes the "meet the ..." series. Sadly it doesn't tell us what is the Pyro but it is entertaining just like the rest of the "meet the ..."s. This is a big day since it is the latest of the series and the longest to make I think. Valve, why are you so amazing yet take so much time to make things.

Psychonauts Review

I just finished Psychonauts just in time! I'll introduce it, it is an amazing third person adventure thingy platformer about psychics. It does many things really well, the music doesn't distract but adds to the environment and the general feel of the game. The plot is as obvious of a string that leads to a ball of tangled mess. I'm not saying it is messy, I'm saying that you don't expect some parts of the story. The maps feel large and so big you have trouble finding the collectibles. The boss battles are engaging and interesting, every single boss needs you to use a different skill that you learn in a different way. The skills are fun to use but some are very stiff. The telekinesis is hard to use quickly so bosses that you need to use it on stand still like they know you need time to kill them. The menu and the level formats are a new take. You simply don't select the mind you enter but you must enter a mind using the psycho-portal then enter the mind selection once you use their mind to travel to others you can explore. There is so much to say about it but I don't feel like taking up all your time.

It is a funny, heavy and light atmosphere, humorous, vast game where you can get hours of gameplay depending on how well you play it. 100/100 flaming milk delivery men who sparkle

Pokemon BW 1: Your First Pokemon!

Welcome to the Unova Region! On your journey, you will meet countless Pokemon, and battle Trainers to become stronger than ever before, and even learn something about yourself. So, let's jump into the world of Pokemon!

Nuvema Town & Your Starter Pokemon


What Pokemon to Expect in BW1:


Snivy-------------------------------Only One


Tepig------------------------------Only One


Oshawott------------------------Only One


Items We Receive:

Xtransciever--------------------Only One


                                


When you first begin the game, you will be asked the basic questions, such as gender and name. The gender of your character has no impact whatsoever on the story, and neither does your name. The only differences are cosmetic.

After that, you wil find yourself in your room with your rival, Cheren, who is complaining about Bianca, your other rival, being late to recieve your starter Pokemon. After that is sorted, you will get the chance to choose.


If you are resetting to get a starter of a specific gender, or a shiny starter, save your game here.


As always, you get to pick from three types--Fire, Water and Grass. The Fire-type, Tepig, is a decent tank that will eventually evolve into the Fire/Fighting-type Emboar, although it is pretty lackluster until you get to level 15, and learn Flame Charge. The Grass-type, Snivy is a difficult starter to raise, learning its first decent move, Leaf Blade, at level 32. The Water-type, Oshawott is, in my opinion, the easiest of the Unova starters to use. You won't be at a serious type disadvantage until the fourth gym battle, as opposed to Snivy, who's weak to the third, sixth and seventh gym leaders.

All in all, if you're going for results, choose Tepig, if you're going for simplicity, choose Oshawott, and if you're feeling like a challenge, choose Snivy.

For the purpose of this walkthrough, I will be referring to "your starter" as Oshawott, Dewott and Samurott, because that is what I chose. It makes no difference, because the only Pokemon that change depending on your starter are the Striaton Gym Leader's elemental monkey and your rivals' elemental monkey and starter.

 You will then be forced into a battle with Bianca, who has chosen the Pokemon that is at a type disadvantage to yours. At this point, however, it is not really a deciding factor. The deciding factors are actually who gets a critical hit, if anyone, and who uses Tail Whip, or Leer, is Snivy's case. The best strategy is to just use Tackle.

Then, Cheren will heal yours and Bianca's Pokemon, and then challenge you. The battle is exactly the same, except Cheren has the Pokemon that is at an advantage to yours, type-wise. The same strategy is useful for this battle too.

When you go downstairs, your rivals will talk to your mom for a bit, then leave. Cheren is headed to the Juniper Research Lab, and Bianca is headed home. At this point, your mom will give you your Xtransciever (pronounced "cross-transciever", in my video walkthrough that I will be uploading over the summer, you will hear me pronounce that incorrectly, along with Cheren's name many, MANY times). So, without anything else, it's time to head out to the Research Lab to recieve our Pokedex... In the next part!

Anyway, that's all for now, folks, and make sure to continue to view our blog regularly!

Khould

Update Time

Hello, all.

First off, I'd like to say thank you to the followers who have continued to stay with us, even though we haven't been posting much. I am here to say that I will be starting a written walkthrough of Pokemon Black and White. In these written walkthrough, I will release a section everyday. Also, details specific to Black or White will be in brackets, i.e. "Before you battle Reshiram [Zekrom], make sure you save your game." This allows me to write an accurate walkthrough of both games, while only playing one.

That is it.

Khould

Skull Girls Review

Hey, It's Ryan here again after a long time, but I'm finally going to talk about Toronto Comic Con! I didn't end up playing in that tournament, but I did get to play a bit of a game prior to it's release, and that game was Skull Girls! I'm really not going to have much to say about it, I'm not that into fighting games, and I didn't play it for very long. But what I did notice is that the game controlled quite like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the most recent fighting game I've played. It was likely run on the same engine, as game play felt rather similar, and flowed very well. There were a multitude of characters to choose from, and all had the common theme of being a girl... I think. They were all pretty cartoon-y, but I think that really gave the game something. Each character has it's own range of attacks, the strongest of which require complex button pressing. Each also has a special, again like MvC3. All in all, it wasn't bad, it flowed well, and the characters were very well designed. If you are into fighting games, you may want to check this one out. I would give it an over all 8/10.

Over 9000

Our viewer count has just passed 9000. It might be a little late but I've been playing Psychonauts! It is epic in so many ways. That is all for now.

Kid Icarus: Uprising Review! (Finally!)

Okay, so, it's taken awhile, but here's my review of Kid Icarus: Uprising! Just scroll to the bottom to get the final verdict if thee dost not desire to read mine words of knowledge.

It's been ages since the last Kid Icarus game. More than a decade, in fact. So you can imagine that many, many people were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Kid Icarus: Uprising this year. Indeed, I was one of those people. But did it let us down? No. No it did not.

To start off, let's talk about gameplay. The original Kid Icarus is famous for being notoriously difficult. Sakurai has found a great way of dealing with that pedigree when it comes to newbie players for this game. It's called the "intensity system". If you've been keeping up with the news, you'll know that this is a pretty damn cool system. You'll bet "hearts", the in-game currency, that you can complete courses at higher difficulties. When playing on these higher difficulties, you'll gain more hearts by killing enemies than you would on the default difficulty, and the treasures you get (powers, weapons, etc.) will be much more worth your while (that pathetic "Royal Blade" with no attributes and one star in ranged that you got on intensity 2.0? Yeah, that could've been a badass "Royal Blade" with poison damage, increased speed, better dodging, more firepower, and six stars in both ranged and melee slots on intensity 9.0!). Once you're in a level however, how does it play? While at first you'll be cursing the clunky aiming mechanics and the cramps you may be getting in your hand, you'll eventually get used to how the game controls. While it may take awhile, it's not a huge problem. The bigger problem here is the game's focus on ground levels as opposed to the aerial levels. Each level follows the same basic format; an aerial level and a ground level. About 90% of the time, the ground levels take much longer to complete. The problem? They're not as fun as the aerial levels. Sure, they're still a blast, they're just not as much of a blast. All in all, though, the game is entertaining through and through on the solo mission, and you'll definitely want to get into the multiplayer, but more on that later.

The game has some pretty nice graphics going for it. Character models look nice, there's quite a large variety of monsters, environments have a nice "sheen" to them, water refracts lights as it should. Everything looks nice, but it could look better. The big thing I noticed when travelling through some of the environments is the lack of filtering on any of the textures. This makes the lower resolution of certain texture much more apparent. While generally I like having a sharper image, when the textures don't boast ultra-high resolutions, it's just too noticeable. That being said, however, the game still looks pretty good. It's no Resident Evil: Revelations, but you know... it's "nice".

The sound is pretty good all in all. The sound effects are nice and can make it feel really satisfying when coupled with the shaking effect of the screen on melee hits, and the heart collection sound makes you feel like you're always getting somewhere. The voice acting is always good. There wasn't a single moment where I cringed and said "This is awful!", which, believe it or not, is something I say at least once when playing almost any game. Sure, it can be pretty cheesy sometimes, and characters seem to yammer on forever, but the comedy is generally pretty good, and there are some especially nice fourth-wall-breaking moments. Once again, it's very good, better than the efforts made on the graphics, but it's still nothing absolutely amazing.

Let's talk replayability, and believe me when I say there is a lot of it. There are hundreds and hundreds of unlockables, and I simply cannot tell you how awesome it feels to overcome a particularly nasty level on a high intensity, only to see those unlock screens bursting open to reveal the content you just won. It's so great, and there's so much to do. While it's a blast replaying old SOLO levels for more items, hearts, and unlocks, it's much more fun to jump online with a few friends and just start beating the shit out of each other. It's also fun when teaming up with random opponents, although I unfortunately found a lack of challenge as most people are not very good it seems. You'll quickly start racking up kills and unlocking even more goodies and maps as you play online, as well, so that's another plus. Weapons and hearts can also be won online, so look forward to that. All in all, there's a ton of content for you to sink your teeth into here, and you'll want to experience every bit of it.

In conclusion, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a great game with it's own fair share of annoying little problems. But the gameplay and unlockables definitely counter any problems one may experience here. This is a must-have game for anyone with a Nintendo 3DS.

Graphics: 80/100
Sound: 83/100
Gameplay: 90/100
Replayability: 95/100

Overall: 91/100


Oh, yeah, and happy 200th post everyone! Go out and celebrate. :)

You Are Minecraft!

As I'm sure many of you know, there's something very awesome happening. It's been going on for a while now, in fact. And yes, I did indeed participate in it. I'm talking about "You Are Minecraft", the absolutely gigantic Minecraft server in which you build a huge model of your skin to forever be basked in. And admired. And appreciated. And enjoyed. All of those things are happening to mine right now, I tell you.

If you want to enjoy some "You Are Minecraft" good times, simply go to youareminecraft.com to offer support (and maybe donate if you're a good person!), and connect to server.YouAreMinecraft.com in your Minecraft multiplayer menu to make your own avatar. Once you're in, just type /start in the chat and the game will give you your model building area.

Just thought I'd share a few screenies with you guys, while I'm here. There were quite a few awesome statues near where I built mine, and I felt quite inferior in comparison. I didn't get screenies of them all (as most were only half done but coming very close to being totally amazing), but anyways, here the shots I took of the ones that were actually done! (Remember, you can right click on a picture and select the "open in new tab" feature to view it's full size...)

This one is my Minecraft Avatar Statue, from an angle that's to the right.

      This is also my Minecraft Avatar Statue, next to my actual Minecraft Guy.

And this one's Portal, which was made by kajen1. This is totally badass.

Minecraft Giant Creeper Head with a Sword

So, this is part of my minecraft city in the ocean. Sorry about the vines but yes, this is a giant creeper head with a diamond sword in it. I couldn't think of any other way to hate creepers by building their head and a sword stabbing it in a enormous scale.

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

Left 4 Dead 2 is made by valve, an independent gaming company. The genre is the first person zombie shooter which may not seem very original but it is to me. I want to keep this short so, the graphics are good but not too good but that may be from my computer (neon zombies don't scare me). The special zombies, especially the tanks, put in a good fight so that it's challenging but not dangerous since there are multiple every where. The gameplay is smooth and fluent with classic fps controls for the computer. The sound track matches the environment and the scene very well and the environments are never the same from campaign to campaign. The enemies, like the witch, add a sense of horror since you know there is one around and you just know you will bump into because you are in the dark. The zombies also spawn randomly thanks to the AI director so every play through is different. The weapons are various and has the valve charm for the melee weapons. The gamemodes are entertaining and for-filling for example, mutation, the gamemode this changes every week so you have something to do when it updates. It also supports user data so there are more hours of fun.

In short, the environment differs from everywhere, enemies add a sense of suspense, every play through is different, gamemodes are amazing and there are a lot of weapons. This is totally worth the $19.99 if you have 3 friends who have or will have that game, willing to play with you.


80/100 pain pills (just because I can't find people to play with for expert.)
By the way, 200th post coming soon...

Toronto Comic Con

Why hello there.
It's Archaen here, I know it's still been a while since I posted, but whatever. Just posting to let you know I'll be at Toronto Comic Con with Rinzler both tomorrow and Sunday... and I'll be dressed as The Doctor. So... yeah, I'll post some nerdy pictures and stuff, some awesome cosplaying, and maybe even some pre-release game footage (Please don't shoot me copyright-type people)! Also, I might play a fighting game tournament, just to annoy people, 'cause I don't know how, so I spam the buttons and some how manage to win. So, yeah, that's a thing.

Kid Icarus: Uprising Review Imminent!

It's been a while since the game's release, but believe me, I have definitely been working my way through Kid Icarus: Uprising's vast amount of content in my spare time. The review should be up in the next few days (maybe even today! Woo!), so just be patient and believe me, it's coming!

We're not dead!