Blog Posts from "womblemaster's blog"

WombleMaster's Top 5 Video Game genres for online multiplayer

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:21:04 -0500

Once apon a time someone invented the internet. A short while after, someone invented online gaming. Praise them both, because without those two people you would still be doing some healthy nonsense like being outside. There are of course other forms of multiplayer gaming, such as split screen and taking turns, but unless you have a monster TV or don't mind going from being bored to being entertained 20 times an hour then online gaming is for you! Online gaming is such a huge part of video game culture these days, that its hard to buy a game and it not have some half arsed multiplayer tacked on just because its considered such an essential component to any video game.
There are genres that were founded around multiplayer and others that evolved and embraced it, but which one has used this amazing tool to the fullest? Which one has made you come back for more time and time again? Which genre have you burned more of your life away on? Which is the top video game genre, for multiplayer?

5) Driving

Driving game are special when it come to online play, in that they actual gameplay it's self hasn't seen much real change on the surface, but iit has added a lot of stuff to do while your not driving...
The best example I can give is Forza Motor Sports 3. In Forza 3 you have the ability to buy and sell cars to other gamers, compete in online tournaments, modify your cars in a thousand different ways, upload videos of you driving for other gamers to watch, etc etc etc.... There are so many things to do before you've even reached the track that you can sometimes lose track of the whole driving thing...

This all comes down to game designers trying to build more of a community around their games, in which players can interact in a multitude of ways without even coming anywhere near seeing a green light. Why? I hear you ask, well its simply because some of us don't actually have any real friends, therefore it is necessary to make ones we don't know to replace them. For the rest of us however, we are not always in the same place as our real friends, and so we need these other ones too.

There is nothing better than spending you time working at the singleplayer, winning race after race until you can finally buy the car you've been aiming for, winning some more races to buy all the upgrades the car needs, winning some more races to paint, customize and rebuild your car's body work and then finally taking it out online and.... realizing that your car is still ****, and you need to win some more races, brilliant!

4) MMORPG

Although im not a big fan, I can't ignore the huge impact that MMORPGs have had on the gaming community. Never have so many people hated their lives so much, that they have taken on an alternate personality in a virtual world and taken it so seriously (if you don't believe me check the comments lol).
For those of you that don't know MMORPG, stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game. This means that there is one huge world that is populated by thousands real human players that can interact and communicate with each other freely whilst also fighting monsters, completing quests and leveling up their characters. It's basically the online equivalent of people being extras in a Lord of the Rings film but paying to do it.

There is no doubt that MMORPGs have done a great deal for online gaming, and no doubt they will carry on strong for many years to come, turning more and more people into unemployed, square eyed, vampires. I don't know from personal experience but I'm given to understand that they can be quite addictive, but to be honest, i think i can find more fun in crack for 25 pounds a months.

3) Fighters

Fighting games haven't really changed since they first started out on arcade machines back in the 80's, and that's a good thing, no one likes having to pay a pound a go and having to be in the same place as your friends to play against them. Sure, going through the arcade mode on a fighter is plenty of fun and necessary if you want to unlock new characters, but no one buys a fighter to play by themselves. Gamers want to show off their skills and play against others. I can't imagine a Mortal Combat arcade machine that has only one analog stick, it would be pointless...

The most recent game that comes to mind when talking about fighters that use their multiplayer component to the fullest would have to be Street Fighter 4. As well as the free 'Championship mode' DLC, that allowed player to compete in online tournaments, the game uses a skill system quite similar to that of Halo 3. instead of just gaining experience points and ranking up based on how many fights you have won/participated in, you fight for 'ranking points'. You gain 'ranking points' for winning fights and lose them for being defeated. The more ranking points you have from winning fights, the harder your opponents will be, simple! Its a very simple yet effective mothod of grouping player into real skill based categories instead of ranking them based on how much they play the game.

2) Real Time Strategy

Although the RTS is a dying genre due to the fact they are a pain in the arse to control without a mouse and keyboard, they enjoyment of building impregnable fortresses and armies is still there. I've commented n previous blogs that there is nothing better then building a huge empire from scratch and then watching it burn to the ground, and this is still very much the case.

When it comes to RTSs the campaign can often be extremely entertaining, as well as a good way to train yourself for handling different situations. However, they are often very short, and can only hold your attention for a short period of time. Once finished (or bored of), most player move onto the skirmish mode that can keep even the hardest of the hardcore gamers entertained, but quite like with fighters, it doesn't matter how good the computer's AI is, its always more fun to play a friend.

1) First Person Shooters

The FPS genre is probably the fastest evolving genre to date, and no doubt, the games you spend the most time playing are these. "But why?" i hear you scream. Well, its quite simple. In a previous blog post (Womble Talk 5: "FPS games are all the same" but are they?) I talk about the fact that even though the basic idea behind each FPS is almost always the same, a game like Modern Warfare 2 can sell 4.5 million copies in the first day and a game like Unreal Tournament 3 can't do it in a lifetime. This is due to a stupid amount of polish and balancing, that's making the game as fair for both sides as possible while still allowing it to be challenging. This means that extremely balanced games such as Goldeneye and Halo 3, can be played repeatedly, and the only thing that will affect the scores is skill, and possibly whether or not someone is poking you with a pencil while your playing.

So what makes so many people play a game like Modern Warfare 2? (what? you thought I'd talk about a different game when talking about shooters?). As well as the extremely balanced multiplayer, Modern Warfare 2 uses a very elaborate unlock system were by you unlock new weapons, attachments and perks for leveling up and completing challanges. This system has been used countless times in other FPSs but it is very often difficult to integrate without making players that have better unlocks have the upper hand. In Modern Warfare 2, a bullet is a bullet, and unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger it only takes one of two to put me on the floor for good.

In conclusion, I've never had as much fun as I can have playing a good FPS online with anything else, period.

Thanks for reading, sorry its been such a long time since I've posted on SA but I'm back now, so expect much more!
Don't forget to rate and comment!

Womblemaster

Womblemaster's Top 10: Games to play before you die (5-1)

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:54:54 -0400

If you missed 10-6 here it is: http://screwattack.com/node/24930 Number 5. Super Ghouls and Ghosts (SNES Version) The traditional save the princess theme has been around for centuries in all forms of entertainment, whether it be books, films, or of course, video games. It seems like a pretty solid formula, otherwise it wouldn't have been used so many times in so many successful games. Super Ghouls and Ghosts brings you the classic fairy tale story backed up with more awesome gameplay than you can carry. If a person from the middle ages made a video game, this would be it. You want to fight zombies? You got it. You want to fight ogres? You got it. Want to fight dragons? You got it. If that same person from the past were to ask you what a platform game was then all you would have to do is pull this game off the shelf and they would no longer need an explanation. Ghouls and Ghosts is the definition of platform gaming with some of the best enemies, weapons and bosses in gaming, and that's why its the 5th game to play before you die. Number 4. Sim City 4 Ever wanted to run your own city? No, me neither... Too much paperwork. But what if there was a game that simulated the experience of being the mayor of your own city but cut out all the paperwork, planning and stress of failing? Well, Sim City 4 does just that. No objectives or goals except building your own town and watching it grow into a throbbing metropolis... or very often watching it turn into a huge slum full of rioting, pollution and boarded up houses. What the Sim City series has always excelled in is the 'Sim' part, and none so much as Sim City 4. Building a city if no easy job, so why should it be an easy game? Many games compromise realism to make themselves more accessible. This isn't always a bad thing, but when you find a game like Sim City that finds the perfect balance, it gives for a great experience. There is nothing more rewarding than getting past all your advisers and complaining residents to build the city of your polygon resident's dreams... Then cranking the taxes up and milking them for ever penny they have knowing that they are too happy in your town to ever leave. Number 3. Goldeneye My favorite Bond film but more importantly, my favorite N64 title. James Bond had never been so hot, and by the looks of the games that came after Goldeneye, never will be either. Few games on the Nintendo 64 used its controller's full potential like Goldeneye did. This game is so good that even today, gamers all over the world are begging Nintendo and Microsoft so stop fighting over the rights to the game so that it can be available for the virtual console and on Xbox Live! So why is this game held in such high regard? Well, as well as boasting one of the most solid singleplayer experiences ever, it also claims the most balanced multiplayer of its generation (unless you use that prick Odd Job). There is literally no end to the amount of time you can spend playing this game. Even 16 years after its release, I still get together with my friends and spend a few hours shooting each other with everything from handguns to rocket launchers. The game that single handedly put first person shooters on the map and influenced almost every FPS you play today. If it wasn't for Goldeneye there would probably not be a Halo, a Call of Duty or a Counter Strike. If that doesn't get it on the list then i don't know what will. Number 2. Super Mario World Platformers strike again, this time with the man that defines video games. When someone says video games, whats the first thing that pops into your head? Mario, right? (don't say Sonic all you Sega fanboys out there, your only lying to yourselves). The smoothest and simplest controls in the history of the Super Nintendo along with a huge variety of levels, enemies and world map, for me this is the best Mario game ever made and was always the first to be played on the Mario all stars cartridge. The fact that Super Mario World uses a 'realistic' world map, unlike the board game style map in Super Mario Bros 3, gives it a sense of travel and also makes you feel like you are advancing though the game a lot more than in previous games and with the addition of Yoshi the game is complete. When it comes to 2D side scrolling Mario games every new games only feels like an expansion with new levels, power ups and better graphics. Therefore the reason Super Mario World is number 2 and not another game from the seires sis because its the game that feels the most complete, and would you not have a 2D mario game on this list? Number 1. The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time Whatever gaming website or magazine you look at, if they have a greatest games of all time list, then either Final Fantasy 7 or Ocarina of Time are at the top. I'm a Zelda fanboy, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm even going to have the Hylian Crest tattooed on me as soon as i have some money. But as I've said in the past, I'm not blind... I'm a Zelda fanboy for a reason. Throughout the Nes and Snes era, the Zelda franchise pumped out great game after great game on both consoles and the Gameboy, then when the time came to jump to 3D, many fans worried that the series would be ruined like many others. Luckily, they couldn't have been more wrong. The N64 brought the Zelda universe to life in a way no one would have ever imagined possible, and we found out that Link was born in the wrong age of gaming. The thing that really made this game was the fact that after 10 or so hours of gameplay, the entire world that you had gotten so familiar with, drastically changed. After collecting the Kokiri's Emerald, the Goron's Ruby and the Zora's Sapphire, Link opens the door of time and is sealed inside for seven years. Once he awakes, you find not only a new Link, but also a new world. The dungeons in Ocarina of Time are huge, so is the world, but then you find that it essentially doubles in size when you become adult link and you jaw just drops. A story that takes place over seven years with more depth than your average Daren Brown novel, this is the game that you MUST play before you die. Thanks everyone for reading and remember to comment with your games to play before you die! Womblemaster

Womblemaster's Top 10: Games to play before you die (10-6)

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:39:06 -0400

Thats right, as Bill Bailey would say, "not while your still alive, BEFORE YOU DIE!". This list isn't the top ten greatest games of all time, nor is it my top ten favorite games. This list is the top ten games that will somehow change the way you look at something, whether it be life, your favorite TV show, or maybe just change your perspective the next time you pick up your controller/mouse/Wiimote, and that's why there, The Top 10 Games to play before you die... Number 10. Max Payne Do you remember when you were a child and you went out and watched your first action film? Remember seeing Schwarzenegger or Van Damme fly across a room in slow motion killing everything around him while dodging a thousand bullets? But most importantly, do you remember when you got home and ran around the house pretending to be some kind of secret agent or mercenary, ducking behind you sofa pretending to be shot at then diving out from behind it shooting your dad with your finger? At that time there was nothing you wanted to do more than live that character's part, and now you can. Set in the grimy streets of New York, you play Max Payne. An NYPD detective wrongly accused of murdering him wife and child, on a mission... for revenge. Sounds bad ass right? Now read it again like one of those voice over guys from film trailers. That aside, Max Payne, has a fantastic plot, great setting, and gameplay that will knock your socks off. It's all thanks to one game mechanic that makes the series, bullet time. The continually awesome slow motion dive, that allows you to jump into a room full of men with an Uzi in each hand, and clear it in seconds, as well as watching sniper bullets fly into enemies skulls from the bullets point of view and many other great moments both cinematic and in game. If you were ever a fan of action movies, this game will change you life, and that's why its number 10 Number 9. Rome Total War There's one thing that ever human being in the world wants. No not money, not fame, but power. Whether its the power to tell your boss to go f*ck himself, or the power to pull your little sister's pig tales. Everyone wants power, and Rome Total war does exactly that. It gives you a chance to have the greatest power of them all, the power to rule a country, an army, and the world. I can think of nothing more satisfying than looking over your empire after a 24 hour gaming spree and thinking of all the polygons you control. Although this is one of the major advantages of the game that rightfully gives it a place on this list there is another. There is another even more powerful emotion attached to this game, the feeling of helplessness. Seeing you troops flee from battle or you empire cave in on its self and feeling that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it may not be the most pleasant experience, but the fact that a game can make you feel this and actually make you feel depressed about it, earns it the spot of number 9. Number 8. Grand Theft Auto IV Seeing as 'Visit New York' is often very high on your average list of things to do before you die, I couldn't help but put 'Visit Liberty City' up there as well. There is no game that gives you the feel of being in a city as much as GTA IV, and seeing as I've yet to go New York, this is as close as I can get. Although this game was received badly by some of the series' fans seeing as it took a more series approach than previous games in the franchise, there is no doubting that it's a fantastic game on all levels. GTA IV has the best story of the series, you follow the story of Niko Bellic as he emigrates to the United States to make a name for himself. Make a name for himself he certainly does, just not with the type of people you or I would. Niko moves his way up the crime ladder all the way to working with the head of the Italian Mafia, meeting all sorts of characters that have more layers than an onion along the way. The reason this game makes number 8 on the list is both the living and breathing city that surrounds you in the game and the fact that it truly feels like an interactive 25 hour long movie. If you haven't already played this game, do it on your death bed before it's too late. Number 7. Half Life 2 No one, and I mean no one, uses physics like Valve. Sure, pretty much every next gen FPS uses physics so realistically fling boxes and corpses across the map but that's pretty much it. Only in Half Life 2 are physics used as a weapon. That weapon is the Gravity Gun. Look around you. See anything heavy? Then what are you waiting for? Use the Gravity Gun to throw it at the nearest Carbine solider. It's an extremely simple game mechanic that's great for combat but the real reason it earns Half Life 2 the title of 7th game you must play before you die is that its used to solve puzzles in the most rational way possible. Seeing as physics are put in games to provide realism, its logical that you should have problems to overcome in a realistic manner. The best example i can think of is on the canal stage in which you have to pile up breeze blocks to counter balance a see saw allowing you to reach a higher platform and thus proceed. If you were in this situation in real life, that is what you would do. You wouldn't run around looking for leavers to pull or buttons to press. AS far as games go Half Life 2 is the closest you get to realistic puzzle solving, and that's why its Number 7. Number 6. Need for Speed, Most Wanted There is nothing that sends adrenalin flying around you body faster than driving at 200mph with the police chasing you. So how better to do it than with your own customized car while in a street race with NOS. Need for Speed, Most Wanted, takes you to the fictional city of Rockport, a city full to the brim with heavy footed street racers and crash happy police. The story definitely isn't a very compelling aspect of the game, It's all about the police chases. The races are fun, and have a lot of replayability for when you want to go back with your full tuned super car, but once again this isn't the most compelling part of the game. Unlike any other Need for Speed game in the franchise, or any other game at all for that matter, Most Wanted gives you the option to go out and simply be chased by the police. I would literally go on for hours doing police chase after police chase simply because of how fun it was. Never has ramming cars at 200mph been so much fun, and that's why its number 6 on the list. Join me next time to finish the countdown with the remaining 5 top games to play before you die. Thanks for reading, and be sure to comment. I want to know what you would have as your top games and why. Womblemaster

Womblemaster's Reviews: The Legend of Zelda, The Minish Cap video review

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:11:53 -0400

Thanks for watching and remember to comment! Womblemater

Womble Talk 3: The truth behind what video games do to your mind.

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:31:28 -0400

Among most "intellectual" adults it's widely considered that video games are bad. They rot the brain, cause obesity and encourage violent behavior. But do they really? Well I'm just going to come out straight away and say that in my opinion they mos definitely have a lot to answer to in terms of obesity even with the help of... Wii... fit... yeah right... However as far as obesity is concerned you can be addicted to literature (which is considered a good trait), and be obese because you sit around all day reading books. I'm not trying to save video games or bash books on this topic. I do a lot of gaming and reading and I'm pretty sure I put on just as much weight if i sit on my arse all day and read or play games. When it comes to what video games do to your brain though its a lot harder to say whether they are good or bad. That's why i have to leave it to the pros and do some research, so here's what i came up with. The key difference that you must realize between something like watching television or reading a book and video games is that in video games you have an input on what happens. Already you are using your brain far more than if you were simply receiving information through a TV program or a book. Then we have to take into consideration the fact that your not just telling the character on screen to walk in a straight line by holding down one button, you are having to direct it in various directions and with often a large number of commands such as jump, reload, pick up etc. Therefore you are using even more parts of your brain to complete different tasks. In the real world direction and positioning yourself (as in knowing where you are) use a completly different part of your brain from the part used to identify an item on the floor and pick it up. The biggest part though is that games are about problem solving and therefore use the same part of your brain that you would use to solve a math problem. You probably think I'm talking about solving puzzles in games like Zelda Ocarina of Time but its alot more common than that. Say for example you find yourself in a room surrounded by enemies, you must find the easiest way to kill all the enemies around you using all the tools you have in the game and your surroundings. See, problem solving. Erik Hoftun, publisher of The Book of Games Volume 1 and 2 said: “All video games, and adventure games in particular, encourage scientific method of the purest kind. They follow the classic formula of trying something, failing, try something different, and figuring out what works,” Hoftun said. “In scientific terms: Develop hypothesis, test, prove or disprove, adjust hypothesis, test again. So if you want to develop small scientists, get the kids away from their passive book reading, and have them play video games.” James Paul Gee, Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said: “Better theories of learning are embedded in video games than many children in primary and secondary schools ever experience in the classroom. If schools want to engage their students in the same way as computer games, they need to drop their snobbish antipathy and begin learning from them instead.” So, maybe instead of looking at games as if they were things for children and of no more value to the mind than the latest Rambo film, they should learn from them and see that video games do help your mind. What about violence? Do video games make people violent? A lot of studies have concluded that they do but these are also "studies" that come from internet polls so they aren't what you could call reliable. However a large amount of independant studies have concluded that violent video games can have a negative effect on younger children. So lets look at that for a second. What these studies are saying is that if a 10 year old plays a game like GTA IV the chances are its going to have a negative effect on the child's mind. Hmm... so what is there to stop a 10 year old from playing violent games? Well, the big 18 stamp on the front for one thing (Rated R in the US). It's important that parents pay attention to these stamps when they buy games for their kids, THEY ARE THERE FOR A REASON! Paul Jackson, of Elspa (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers' Association) said: "The video game industry was too often blamed for everything from obesity to youth violence. It is just not true and it's not appropriate." A big question we must ask ourselves is why are video games being targeted so much when there are so many other mediums that regularly show nudity, violence and drug use, namely television. Why is it that video games have to take such a huge chunk of the responsibility when it is clear that they have such large educational value? Well its because you always need a scapegoat. Marline Manson and heavy metal were blamed for the shooting at Columbine High School, Comic books were blamed for violence in the 80s the list goes on and on all the way back to certain musical notes being banned by the church in the dark ages for causing heresy. There will always have to be a scapegoat, and at the moment its video games. But it will pass, and eventually people will realize the advantages of video games in the same way they realize the therapeutic and relaxing properties of music. Womblemaster.

Womble Talk 9: Sony and Microsoft jealousy.

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:01:48 -0400

Its now 7:30am and for some reason i feel like writing so here goes... For all you gamers that have been living on the moon for the past week, both Microsoft and Sony have announced at E3 that they will be releasing motion control peripherals for their latest consoles the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Clearly both companies have seen the success that Nintendo have had with the Wii, targeting casual gamers and in a sense creating a whole new audience. No doubt Microsoft and Sony wanted a piece of that pie and have taken a leap into the world of motion control/capture. Are they too late to join the market? Will their hardware match up to Nintendo's? In this blog I intend to address these points and more giving you my predictions on what the outcome of this console war will be now that two of the factions have acquired new weapons. First lets take a look at why both MS and Sony are so desperate to get into the casual gamer market. Here's a sales chart from early last year: As you can see (and incase you didn't already know) the Wii smashed the 360 and PS3 in terms of sales. This is because of its lack of 'real controller' make it more accessible to non-gamers or 'casual' gamers. As a result, even today it is near impossible to buy a Wii out of a shop in North America seeing as they go as fast as they come. Another side effect was that most 3rd parties either didn't know what to do with this radical new style of controls, or didn't want to have to make a large elaborate game that they would only be able to sell for one console, and therefore most of the Wii 3rd party games aren't worth the case there put in (unless your a 5 year old girl who like ponies...). The lack of decent games and apparent disregard for their previous fans caused Nintendo to lose dedicated fans who have sworn by their consoles for over a decade to the rivals. Now, the competition are getting their hands dirty and reaching deep into Nintendo's pockets. Just how well will they do? Lets start with the PS3: Any one who know me, know that until recently I've not been much of a PS3 fan. The price and lack of 1st party games that I actually wanted wasn't there until roughly when they released Killzone 2. However, looking at the approach they have taken with their motion control peripheral the PSI, I'm starting to like Sony more and more. Despite the low quality of their tech demos and the fact that the PSI was clearly in a very early stage of development, Sony managed to show off its potential extremely well. It's clearly a very powerful piece of hardware and Sony are doing a good job so far. They didn't come on stage with a tech demo of someone playing golf using the PSI nor did they show a 'for the whole family' video in which every one from you little sister to your granddad are playing it with half a ton of botox injected into their face and laughing gas being pumped into the room. Instead they talked about it in a way that would appeal to their 'core' audience and showed it off in a way that I hope would inspire developers to make real games for it. Now although Sony have take the more noble route and stuck with their fans, they haven't really made something that will appeal to the casual gamers. But in a way I think its a good idea in terms of marketing. If you consider that there is yet to be a price drop for the PS3, and most people that own a PS3 only have it because they were PS2 owners, the chances of Sony getting casual gamers to buy a PS3 and a peripheral when they could just get a Wii that even comes with the only game they really want anyway are slim. Xbox 360: Natal... So Microsoft simplify the idea Nintendo had 3 years ago and incredible amount by getting rid of the thing in your hand and simply putting a camera in front of you with... voice... recognition... I'll get back to that one in a bit... Microsoft wasn't ashamed to blatantly say that Natal was for the casual market, but seeing as the 360 has always and no doubt will continue to be a 'core' gamer's console, I'll let them off. The tech demos Microsoft showed where a girl with balls flying at her face (that's where your supposed to laugh), and painting, but the thing that really caught my eye was Milo. The thing about Milo is... it's bull****. I was watching Invisible Walls on Gametrailers yesterday and Shane Satterfield the host of the show talked about when he saw Milo behind closed doors. He stated that it was scripted, that Milo doesn't understand what your saying he just hears the pitch of your voice, and that there is some one behind a curtain controlling him. It would have been great Mr Molenuex, but I don't think we are quite there yet. As far was the 360 competing with the Wii for casual gamers, i think the same thing applies as with the PS3, why buy a console, then a peripheral and then a game when you can just get everything for less in one. So in conclusion, I think that Nintendo will no doubt still have the console wars buy the balls in 2009, but I'm still not buying one (until the next Zelda comes out of course). Never the less, I can't wait to see what Microsoft and Sony decide to do with their new hardware and I'm hoping that they can at the very least put a bit of a dent in Nintendo's sale figures. thanks for reading and remember to comment and rate! Womblemaster

Womble Talk 8: "Oh! Hi Sony, where have you been?"

Sun, 24 May 2009 22:51:48 -0400

In this current gaming generation I have been an Xbox 360 gamer. The 360 is the only console I own from this generation and i haven't regretted that choice once. There have been a few games on the Wii that I've wanted such as Mario galaxy and Super Smash Bros Brawn, but that only because all my previous consoles all the way back to the NES have been Nintendo and as such, I hold a lot of their franchises very close to my heart. Still, none of these games have yet to take me to a point where I feel like I must have a Wii (until the next console Zelda comes out...). No doubt as a lot of games out there can imagine, I've never really had the slightest desire to buy a PS3 seeing as most of the games you might actually want to play are also out on the Xbox 360 only with out the added advantage of the amazing Xbox Live. How ever it looks like things are finally changing, could this be Sony's long awaited comeback?... Just over two years after the PS3's European release (took your time Sony) I start seeing some of it's exclusives such as Killzone 2, Heavy Rain and Fat Princess to name a few, and think, "I want to play those games". It first started when Killzone 2 was released, I found that the game was visually stunning and simply looked like a lot of fun to play, and although this was the case, my mind was still very far from making me want to go out and buy a 290 Pound console (pound as in UK money, not weight). But now that more and more exclusives are coming to the black monolith, i feel as though the time is nigh to maybe invest in massive piece of black plastic... Wait wait wait, 290 POUNDS! I DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY! SONY ARE YOU CRAZY! Maybe we should look a little bit deeper in the Playstation's history to see if we can find something to make me want to buy one more. 1994 the PSX or the first Playstation is released. It's competitors Sega and Nintendo have the N64 and the Dreamcast for this generation. Although the contenders have a large fanbase, in terms of sales, Sony is king. Now why was this? Well, you don't have to be a genius to work it out. Basically, the Dreamcast had no games (hmm, who does that remind you of?) and seeing as a large amount of gamers are graphics ****** the N64 was a no sale too, not to mention that CD's cost considerably less than cartridges. This is why Nintendo and Sega consoles are considered more like gamer consoles where as the PSX and PS2 are more gaming for the masses considering the sheer quantity of cheap (and often terrible) games they had (before you Sony fanboys start laying into me think about it for a second, its more expensive to make games on cartridges so they are going to be more selective with the games they publish, and as a result less crap is going to get made). Sega is now out of the equation, but Nintendo is still going strong and I think the main reason that is, is because of its huge first party library of awesomeness. Nintendo has always been king when it comes to franchises and that keep its fans coming back for more and more of their favorite character's games. How many gamers do you think went out and bought a Wii simply because Mario was going to have games on it, despite of the motion controls, poor graphics and lack of good third party games? But anyway back to the Playstation, my point is that the Playstation has few hit franchises anymore and as such a smaller following than it's rival Nintendo. There were a few classics back in the day such as Crash Bandicoot and Tekken but both of these franchises aren't what they used to be and can't compete with the likes of Street fighter and Mario. As I stated earlier the PSX and PS2 had a large amount of successes because they was cheap and had a huge library of cheap games seeing as they used discs. So now that you have to remortgage your house to buy a PS3 they are dying. Show me a massive price drop and i will gladly go out and buy your latest console so I can play some of your newest exclusives. The PS3 has the potential to be great, its a nice piece of hardware but I'm not rich. So in conclusion I think that the PS3 is on the road to being a real contender in this console war they are only missing one key element. Thanks for reading, be sure to comment and rate! Womblemaster

Womble Talk 7: Bringing you games through JRPG's

Thu, 21 May 2009 14:33:59 -0400

About a year ago I was forced to play Final Fantasy VII by my housemate, a J-RPG fanatic and all around Japanese culture enthusiast. I had been into Japanese manga and anime for quite a while but I had never been into RPG's apart from the fantastic Diablo II. So the Final Fantasy series wasn't something I had ever wanted to play. I started playing and like most RPG's I was skeptical at first and it took me a while to get into, but after a while I slowly started to see the appeal. Leveling up your characters, learning their stories and the tactical battles. I had always been into first person shooters, strategy games and racing games such as Halo, Age of Empires and Need for Speed. These genres generally have little or no story and are orientated around gameplay so making the jump to a turn based game that's all about story was a hard move to make for me, and as you can imagine, i was pretty reluctant. So anyway, i played the game, liked it and moved on to the next J-RPG. This time it was Final Fantasy X, widely considered the best of the series and with good reason. The characters had deep stories and personalities, the story was full of unexpected twists and a brilliant leveling system was incorporated to boot. Every aspect of the game was great, except one... gameplay. That's when i noticed something, J-RPG's aren't really games, but interactive stories. Then i asked myself something, is it possible that because of the lack of actual gameplay in J-RPG's they may be used as a way to lure people into the 'casual gamer zone' in the same way the Wii did with Wii Sports? Think of it like this, a large part of J-RPG's is cutscenes and conversation like in a film, controls are real simple on the world map and turn based battles are also real simple in that they use menus. Even your Mum could play a J-RPG! But I think think there's a problem, length. Your average film will last around 80 mins and a J-RPG around 20 hours, most people don't have that sort of time to put into anything let alone a medium that they are going to be reluctant to get into to start with seeing as there is nothing that is considered nerdier than a combination of Japanese anime and video games. At this point many of you may be asking yourselves why bother trying to get non-gamers onto games? Well I'm sure we've all done it. We've all tried to make a friend or relative watch a film or play a game that they didn't want to because we held it in high regard, and as more and more people start gaming as a passtime the closer it comes to being seen as a legitimate art form, and that's something people need to see. I believe that one of the main elements that draws people to turn based RPG's is the strategy behind the combat. People have a great intrest in strategy, thats why they play chess and other boardgames. The idea of using your brain rather than skill to outsmart your opponent is something that will always interest people and if a concept that has been around since the middle ages has been able to captivate so many people why not introduce turn based combat as its big brother and that way, bring real hardcore gaming to the masses. Thanks for reading and be sure to rate and comment giving me your opinions on the subject. Womblemaster PS: This post is dedicated to my uncle Jean Luke Corbelet who died this morning.

Womble Talk 6: My plan for Nintendo to get their 'core' audience back.

Sat, 16 May 2009 20:03:16 -0400

Every gamer out there know that Nintendo has been rolling in cash since the launch of the Nintendo Wii thanks to the appeal it has for casual gamers and house wives. However they will shortly have a problem... Many serious gamers who grew up playing their NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube no doubt feel a special bond with the company that brought them Mario, Metroid and Donkey Kong. Well I personally do, but like a large majority of these aforementioned gamers I also feel betrayed by Satoru Iwata's cronies. As i already mentioned this is mainly attributed to the fact that Nintendo presently does little to for its old audience, concentrating instead on your mum, dad, grandma, and the fat kid next door instead of you. Because of this bond many gamers blindly rushed out on the 16th of November 2008 and bought a small white box and a matching stick. These innocent gamers rushed back home for a bit of a waggle and some virtual tennis. No doubt they liked it, (I luckily didn't buy one because I was broke at the time and later bought a 360) however time flew buy and slowly they started turning their Wiimotes on there sides and plugging in their GameCube controllers as they noticed that for real, non-casual games, swinging a stick around gets old real fast. The novelty wore off fast, and many realized the cheap gimmick they had been sold under the pretense of a "revolution in gaming". Now I get to my point. Slowly but surly, casual gamers are starting to come around as well. The novelty is wearing off, and people are starting to realize that its better exercise to go for a run for 20 minutes than act like a twat on a flat piece of plastic for an hour. They are starting to see that there really isn't that much of a difference between swinging your arms around and going to a bowling alley, besides doing it for real is definitely more fun. I said it before and I'll say it again, the novelty is wearing off... This is were Nintendo gets it in the arse. Their sales drop, no more casual gamers, no more money. What must they do? Nintendo finds themselves coming back to their Hardcore fans crying. So Nintendo, heres my plan for you to get get back your old audience: 1) Bring back the games that made you great. There's a crap ton of fantastic franchises that were on Nintendo consoles that seem to have recently disappeared. Nintendo hasn't been about 3rd party games since the SNES, and probably never will be again, so stick to what you know and bring back the games we loved! Tell you what Nintendo, I'll make you a list. Here are the games you must make sequels for. -Starfox 64/lylat wars Starfox adventures on the gameube was not a sequel. I got excited, I got hyped, I bought it and well... All I can say is don't ever do that again, if i wanted to see a video of Fox getting raped in the arse then i would have used the Internet. All we want is another game like the N64 game. please!! -Pilot Wings A brilliant and simple game for the N64 that hardcore games loved and would probably appeal to your beloved casual audience too seeing as its basically an over-the-top flight simulator. -Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Country 1 awesome, 2 awesome, 3 epic, Donkey Kong 64 awesome, Donkey... Konga...??? WTF WERE YOU THINKING? Give us another real DK game so that we can say we love monkeys again without people looking at us like we just escaped from the circus. -Kirby Where is the love? and how can you not love a giant pink ball? Kirby's last major title was on the N64 and we loved it. You want to keep your image as a child friendly console? make another awesome Kirby game! hes a pink ******* ball!!! -Metroid Ok, so Metroid Prime didn't sell too well, but that because it was already on the GameCube and once again, its not the sort of game a casual gamer would buy. But we loved it, you know we did. It was a brilliant jump to 3D for Samus and the DS version was great aswell, so why are you taking so long to give us more space bounty hunter greatness? -1080 Snowboarding The best snowboarding franchise by far and you've dropped it. The N64's 1080 was epic in every sense. The difficulty curve was just right, the tricks were hard to pull off and you could really feel the speed going downhill. Then you made 1080 Avalanche and it didn't sell too well because it was on the GameCube that wasn't a very popular console and it had to go up against the likes of SSX on Tour, but I loved it to bits and I still play it! Just dont make us use the Wii Fit board. 2) Non-Motion bundle. As I have already stated, the whole waving the stick around is nonsense and often feels tacked on, besides most real gamers prefer to just plug in a GameCube controller anyway. So, start selling a bundle that doesn't come with a Wiimote but with a revamped GameCube controller instead. That way more people will buy a Wii as a gaming console and not as a peripheral to the their TV like a cable box. 3) Proper online. Take a page out of Xbox Live's book. No more friend codes and forget about the whole TV idea. Make us be able to play virtual console games online, whats stopping you?. Just give us gamer tags and easy to use multiplayer. I know that Nintendo has always been the best when it comes to playing with friends in your living room, but that's in the past now. People don't want to have to travel to play games with people, we are too lazy! Online multiplayer is the way forwards and you know it Nintendo. 4) No more peripherals. As I'm sure you know, people that sit at home and play video games all day generally aren't very rich, quite the opposite infact. We don't want to have to go out and buy another piece of plastic to play one of your games. I know you have a long history of peripherals, dating all the way back to the NES, so why havent you learned your lessen yet?! Lets look at Shaun White's Snowboarding that needed the Wii Fit board, didn't sell too good, right? Thats because the kind of people that have Wii Fit don't play snowboarding games, and people that like playing snowboarding games don't like having to play large amounts of cash for a peripheral. 5) The most important point of all... DON'T MAKE THE NEXT ZELDA ON THE WII HAVE CELL SHADED LINK! He's very cute and it works on the DS but for a console Zelda, we need realistic Link. Thanks for reading and dont forget to comment and rate! Womblemaster

Womblamaster's revews: Red Faction video review

Fri, 15 May 2009 17:00:12 -0400

enjoy!

Fan made Screwattack banner

Thu, 07 May 2009 15:46:30 -0400

just spent about 20 mins making this because i was bored. tell me what you think Womblemaster

Womble Talk 5: "FPS games are all the same" but are they?

Tue, 05 May 2009 23:16:46 -0400

Before i get started i want people to notice that FPS games are all the same is in quotation marks. its not my opinion, so don't flame! I'm a very big FPS gamer, I always have been and i love games of the FPS genre. Many gamers who don't like first person shooters will quite often give the the same reason as to why they dislike them, "FPS games are all the same". They will often tell you that "all you do is run around shooting things and acting like a muscle bound, steroid pumped dickhead" and in a way they would be right. It is true that in almost every FPS game you practically do the exact same thing. But hold on a minute, we must ask ourselves then, why are there so many FPS games being released every year? and why do they sell so well? Well, the truth is most of them don't sell well at all. only the big name flashy titles do, such as Halo, Call of Duty and Kill Zone 2. Unfortunately in my opinion, the highest selling game of all time (44.69m copies sold worldwide... I hate you now Nintendo). In terms of Xbox 350 game sales in North America we see that the Highest selling game in the consoles history is Halo 3 (no shocks there), selling 6.88 million copies. Next on the list at number 2 is Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare with 5.15 million copies sold. Then we go to Number 4 in the list, Call of Duty, World at War selling 3.83 million games in North America, right below GTA IV. Ok, so 3 of the 4 top selling Xbox 360 games are first person shooters, however to find the next FPS on the list we have to go all the way down to number 19 for Call of Duty 2 selling 1.79 million copies. Quite a large jump isn't it? If we go to the lower end of the sales spectrum we see its littered with mediocre FPS' for example number 188 is Unreal Tournament 3, following that at 189 is Farcry Instincts Predator. The highest selling first person shooter of all time (9.56m copies sold worldwide). So by the looks of it, there's must be more to FPS' than meets the eye, otherwise they would surly all be in the top part of the tables. Lets take a look into what are the basic elements of an FPS to see what we can find and see what makes a game like Halo 3 and a game like History Channels Civil War so different. Things that make up a first person shooter: 1) First person view 2) Guns 3) Large numbers of angry enemies 4) Near invincible main character As far as i can tell that's all... huh... I was sure I was going to come up with a bigger list. So maybe there FPS' aren't all the same? Sure they all have these 4 basic components but then again all Racing games have cars and tracks. Well except for off road games so they all only have cars. Well except for the ones that have bikes... or planes... or boats... but anyway I'm going off topic here a bit. Although all FPS games have these 4 components the things that make them unique must be the differences they have from one another. Like in Halo you fight aliens, use plasma grenades and drive vehicles, where as the Battle Field series is orientated around the game being like a battlefield an allowing you to be any kind of solider and driving anything. But wait a minute, then why is it that two practically identical games in terms of setting, vehicles and weapons like Medal of Honor, Allied Assault and Call of Duty can be so different to play? and frankly one be so much better than the other. Consider this, essentially all 2D platform games are all the same. you just run from one side of the screen to the other shooting or jumping on enemies and platforms. So what makes Mario Bros so different from A Nightmare on Elm St? Well, I think i may have an answer, and its fine tuning. Game designers spend months, even years making sure that every aspect of a game is well balanced and equal, that the controls are smooth and easy to play with, that the maps are well layed out, that the ranking system doesn't give the veterans too much of an advantage over the rookies etc etc. The list goes on... So my answer for all you FPS haters is simple, its not about drastic differences like it would be in most other genres, its about the little things that make games like Call of Duty 4 so fun to play and have you coming back for more and more... just wanted to put this pic in there somewhere lol Womblemaster

Womblemaster's Reviews: Turok 2 Seeds of Evil Review.

Sun, 03 May 2009 13:30:52 -0400

Turok 2 The Seeds Of Darkness - (n64/PC) Ok, so we know that Turok is one of those over-franchised games that has gone crazy down hill since this game but before the word Turok becomes synonymous with the word crap in the mouths of younger gamers lets take a little look at what made Turok 2, so great. We all know that First person shooter often have a pretty lame story that you can not know anything about even after having finished the game and still be content with the experience. This is no exception, infact I didn't know anything about the story until i read about it on Wikipedia to do this review even though I've completed the game countless times. But here goes anyway. You play as Joshua Fireseed, the new Turok, who randomly (as far as i can tell) appears through a portal to meet a rather sexy blue lady called Adon. She explains to Turok that he has been brought by the Elders of the Lost Land to defeat the evil alien Primagen. Primagen has been trapped in his crashed space ship by devices called Energy Totems and has send his goons to go and destroy them. So as expected Turok must travel to each of the Energy Totems to defend them and then finally defeat Primagen. First person shooters were very rare 2 console generations ago outside of PC gaming because of the lack of a mouse to aim with. Therefore most game relied on an auto aim system like the one in the classic Goldeneye. The thing that made Turok 2 so unique was its unique control scheme that took a while to get used to, but had many advantages for an FPS played on a controller wit only one analog stick. The reason it took so long to get used to was the fact that you no longer used the six axis analog stick for movement, but instead to aim. This gave you the same amount of freedom in terms of sight as a mouse. Movement was now controlled by the four C buttons on the right of the controller thus essentially making you swap your hands around from their usual functions. Turok 2 had an incredibly varied arsenal of weapons each one more and more exciting and fun to use. Some of the less powerful weapons were real world such as the pistol, shotgun and signature bow and arrow, but they all also had their own awesome futuristic versions. These were: the Mag 60 (pretty self-explanatory), the Shredder (a shotgun type weapon that would fire a round that would bounce off walls killing everything in its path, or a round that would explode into lots of little bouncy ones) and the Tech Bow (the same as the normal Bow except the arrow heads would explode after hitting their target). As well as these weapon improvements, plenty of other less realistic killing tools were available in the game, such as the plasma rifle, the PFM layer, the nuke and everyone's favorite... the Cerebral Bore. The Cerebral Bore would fire out a small homing round that would attach it's self to the head of your enemies, drill into their skull, and explode... A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!! The guns and controls weren't the only thing that were good in Turok 2, it also had 6 extremely elaborate and varied levels to fight your way through. You went to temples, swamps, destroyed cities, underground alien hives and even an alien space ship. Ever level had a strong eerie, dark and evil feel to it adding a lot tension and atmosphere to the game, some times scaring the crap out of you. Through out the levels you also had the option to complete side quests such as saving little girls and collecting talismans. finishing all the side quests would give you slightly different ending. At the end of each level you would be confronted by a boss of epic proportions. This game is hard as nails, but don't let that stop you from playing because you would be missing out on an epic game (but maybe use this: Bewareoblivionisathand hehe)

Womble Talk 2: The Ultimate Game

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:37:17 -0400

Some day, hopefully in the not too distant future, a game will be created that envelops every thing that is great in games and puts it into one disc thus making them all a standard in gamng. So lets take a look at what would make this master piece of ones and zeros. What the 'The Ultimate Game' would have. Firstly, what is one of the things that makes a game sell? Well one of the major elements is a unique attribute that only that game has. For example, the Red Faction series introduced us to Geo modding and the first truly destructible environments. If it hadn't been been for that it would have just been another half life style FPS, and that's what made it sell. Another example would be the GTA series. It gave us the first real time open world sandbox game in which you could roam around doing practically anything you liked, and that's what made it sell. This is a recurring pattern in games that sell well and these elements are often something that you would expect to be able to do/to happen in real life (if your a psycho). So to see what the Ultimate game would need I think were going to have to make a list. So lets start with the obvious: - Good graphics We don't want the game to look like crap because a lot of gamers are graphics ****** and simply won't buy the game if the characters look like the scientists from Half Life. - Controls well With most current generation games this is a given, if we were talking NES games it may be a different issue. However we want the gameplay to be smooth and easy like Master Chief on roller skates. - Well balanced Multiplayer Unlike Warhammer Battle March, the player must feel like skill is the only thing that decides if they win or lose, not how many trolls they have or who has unlocked the biggest gun. - Rank and level up system for Multiplayer Despite having no end, players like to think that they are achieving something when playing online. That is why you have rank systems and unlockables as you level up. This is what makes gamers keep coming back for more. - Good physics Now a standard in video games that was first truly used in Half Life 2, and shone off with the Gravity gun. Physics are essential so that you can effectively bounce a grenade off a wall and round a corner or see an enemy fly through the air after stepping on a land mine awesome... Ok, so that's the basics that pretty much any good game should have and as far as i can tell, at the moment we are talking about Call of Duty 4. Now we have to choose the elements of our 'Ultimate Game' that will make it ultimate. These are the unique elements that other games have that make them so great. - Tactical dismemberment As seen in the highly acclaimed survival horror ****-your-pants-athon that was Dead Space, the ability to blow your enemies arms and legs off is simply something that we can't do without. The first time I remember being able to do this was in Soldier of Fortune II, and boy did i love it. However unlike in Soldier of Fortune II we are talking about tactical dismemberment, this means being able to blow someones leg off and have them still be alive and attacking you from the ground... Hang on, isn't that a bit like last stand on Call of Duty? Damn it! - Creative item Combination Before you go on about how this has been done in hundreds of games let me explain. I don't mean combining a green herb with a red herb to make a stronger herb, I'm talking combining everyday items creatively into weapons. The only game i have seen do this is Alone in the Dark. In this game you could combine a large number of everyday items into weapons with a huge number of different variations. Example: Wrap a bottle of petrol in tape, make a hole in it with you knife, throw it at a zombie life the trail of petrol from the hole with your lighter, watch the bastard burn. - Destructive environments We've already touched on this with Red Faction but another game that simplified the rule was Battlefield Bad Company, in which you could blow up sections of walls to create a back door or remove your enemies cover. However I'm a lot more excited about Red Faction Guerrilla and having played the demo I know its going to be amazing. So blowing up everything you can see is a must have for our 'Ultimate Game'. So clearly there are a lot of great elements in games that would contribute to the 'Ultimate Game' but my post has gone on for long enough and we could probably have a list longer than Freddy Cruger's arm if we wrote them all down. That's why I'm going to leave it up to you to leave your own additions in the comment section. lets just hope the 'ultimate game comes sooner rather than later so that we can bask in its infinite glory, and don't worry, I'll be on Xbox live playing so I'll see you there. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment. Womblemaster

WombleMaster's reviews: Diddy Kong Racing video review

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:49:45 -0400

Here's my 3rd video review. I apologize for the sound quality, my mic sucks. As ever please post comments and rate. Thanks. Thanks for watching and please comment. Cheers Womblemaster

Womble Talk 1: Gaming without games

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:30:58 -0400

So i just wanted to spend a little time writing about what its like to be a broke arse gamer playing the same games over and over. I hope you enjoy this post and be sure to rate and leave comments, TA. Three months ago my life changed radically. I was living by myself in the UK when suddenly my landlord tells me that i havent been paying rent. I check my bank statements and sure enough, for some reason my rent hadn't been coming out of my account, why? I don't know. But anyway, with huge debts looming from all sides i did the honorable thing and left the country to live with my parents in France. Before leaving however, i was forced to sell a HUGE quantity of my games because i both needed the money to travel and because i simply coudnt carry them. Now i find myself with no job, no money and only my Xbox 360 and a handfull of games. Clearly i don't have any money to buy games so i find myself playing Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 over and over. Don't get me wrong, they are both great games (i wouldn't still be playing them if they weren't). But going from playing a new game every couple of weeks to continuously playing the same two over and over can be a bit of a *****. Or is it........? The truth is that like most gamers today, over the past few years i had become a bit of a gaming snob. This is mainly because of the huge choice of games that we are given and the amount of media and information we have surrounding the industry. Months before a game comes out you have access to pretty much anything about it. As a result we are incredibly picky and end up only buying/playing the most hyped and anticipated games, leaving all the other less advertised games slip between our fingers. Let my take you back to 1997. I was at the peak of my gaming life at the tender age of 8. i had my SNES and my N64 and gaming was my world. It was in my eyes, the golden age of gaming. Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, Diablo II, Tomb Raider II, and Quake II were released this year to name just a few classics. Gaming was epic! Other than buying N64 mag every week i had no idea what was happening in the industry outside of my living room, and it was good. N64 Mag issue 28. I had the good games, but I also had the not so good, and because of that i was able to appreciate the not so good games too because lets be honest... I'm not going to return a game until I've played it. We've all been there (except for some of the younger gamers on SA) and we reminisce and remember the good old days of the NES/SNES/PSX/Mega Drive or what ever you were playing. The question is, why were those days so good? Well, i think I have the answer. We played the crap games too, but we still liked them because we didn't necessarily know about all the good games that were out there too. Chameleon Twist 2, a really bad game that i enjoyed at the time. So this brings me back to my original point. I find myself with two brilliant games and i play them over and over. Last week however i find myself with a few Euros to spend but not enough to but a brand new top of the range game that i actually wanted to buy like resident evil 5 or street fighter 4. What to do I do? I buy i game i believe to be bellow average due to the reviews I read and videos i saw because I'm desperate to play something else and poor. I buy Kane and Lynch. Calm down calm down. I know everyone says it sucks, but just hear me out. Sure, i didn't enjoy it as much as some of the more celebrated games on the 360 but it wasn't that bad. My point is that just because a reviewer gives a game an average or bad score doesn't mean its a bad game... all it means is that its not as good as the classic games like Halo 3 and GTA 4 so give them a try from time to time and dont be a gaming snob. I'm not saying you should go out and pay full price for them but if you see them in a bargain bin a few months after release, don't dismiss them, give them a try! Thanks for reading, and once again be sure to comment and rate. WombleMaster

WombleMaster's reviews: Super Ghosts and Ghouls video review

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:04:53 -0400

Here is my second video review. Sorry for the wait. Once again i apologize for the sound quality, my mic sucks. Please leave some feedback and rate it! cheers WombleMaster

Womblemaster's reviews: Conker's bad fur day video review

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:46:25 -0400

i apologize about the sound quality but i my mic is ****. please eave some feedback. thanks womnlemaster

Pokemon Tactics and Theories

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:51:00 -0400

First off, i want to say that i used to love Pokemon... and in this blog post I will only be talking about the blue, red and yellow editions because like the old man that i am (only really 19) I dont like change! Now although i do own Pokemon silver, I haven't even finished it and I hate all the "new" Pokemon. In my school Pokemon was THE game. If you didn't own a Gameboy with one of the 3 Pokemon games you were a nobody. Every breaktime the playground would be littered with people staring into those tiny wonderful screens, trying to make the best squads they could or battling it out with friends over link cables. I don't like to brag (much) but I was the master. I was the first person in my school to beat the elite 4 and the first to catch mewtwo. Little did i know that the experience would go on for several more months until i had a full level 100 squad and even further after that. How was i so good? well I'm about to tell you... So, lets get started. As you all know Pokemon are divided into "types". These define what type of attacks they will learn, whether they are strong or weak against another type and where you are likely to catch them. these types are Normal Fire Water Plant Rock Dragon Electric Poison Flying Fighting Psychic Bug Ice Ground And Ghost Most Pokemon are easily identifiable but its good to learn what type they are if you don't know already. The most important thing when it comes to types is knowing what they are strong and weak against so you can have the upper hand on you opponent. So i have this nice little diagram curtsy of IGN: (Note 'Grass' is Plant type) # "+" (green) means the attack is effective and deals twice the damage # "-" (orange) means it is not effective and will only deal half the damage # "X" (red) means this attack can't hit that particular opponent type. Ok, Confused yet? well let me simplify this for you a little. The key is to use a strategic combination of types that are strong against a large amount of others. You must also take into account Pokemon that simply cannot hurt other types. To be completely honest if you simply use Ice, ghost, dragon, and the three key types fire, water and plant youve got it covered. so without further ado, here was my squad Venusaur Great pokemon for Plant type but don't bother teaching it anything else, make sure it has leach seed and some other strong plant type moves. Charizard Incredibly useful Pokemon. Give it beasty fire moves and fly to overcome a wide range of pokemon. Golduck Give it water and psychic moves, can also lear ice moves for a little bit more of an edge. Articuno \ The best of the few ice type pokemon, can also learn fly that is always a every useful move. Dragonite The best of the dragon type pokemon. learn some amazing moves such as hyper beam but can also learn as wide variety of water and fire moves making it a great multipurpose pokemon Gengar Teach it sleep and dreameater at all costs, make sure to also chuck in some psychic moves and remember that it can't be hurt by normal type moves. So the way you arrange your squad is ultimately up to you, and there are some other killer combinations out there, this is the one i found that worked for me. You can also use Mew who is by far one of the best Pokemon in the game seeing as he can learn any move, but you risk being called a hack and people not playing with you. The best way to get the ultimate squad is to have two copies of pokemon yellow and two gameboys so you can mix and match your pokemon and get all all important Gengar and Alakazam through trades (either that or have a dumb friend that willing to do it). hope you enjoyed my little pokemon tactics lesson Womblemaster

My Top 10 N64 games

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:56:39 -0400

This is my Top 10 list of games for what i consider one of the best consoles of all time. Now as ever, remember that this is my list. I don't expect you to agree with it and i don't care. Write your own list. 10- Mario Kart 64 One of the best racing games of all time. A game that has kept the same formula since its predecessor on the Snes, all the way up to the current Wii version. Who doesn't want to drive around as your favorite Mario character at 50mph launching shells, bananas, boxes and all kinds of crazy stuff at 3 of your friends on some of the weirdest tracks known to man. Mario Kart 64 excelled in its single player GP with increasing difficulties that allowed players of all skill ranges to enjoy this game to the fullest while also providing a real challenge. Though where this game is at its best, is in the multiplayer. Up to 4 friends racing like mad for the number one spot, or battling it out in the epic battle mode. This game is awesome. 9- Super Mario 64 The first game I ever owned on a console and still the best 3D Mario game EVER! There were doubts in lots of people's minds as regarding the success of putting Mario in 3D, but damn did Nintendo to a good job of it. Super Mario 64 had everything that previous Mario titles on the Snes had and more. Not only did you have an amazing variety of levels, moves, enemies and power ups, but the controls but the game responded beautifully along with amazing camera control that was made pretty much standard for all platform games on the N64. 8- Conker's bad fur day Now I know this is a game that most people wouldn't necessarily have in their Top 10 (no doubt not above Mario 64 anyway), but like i said, its my list so go ahead and *****... I didn't actually play Conker's bad fur day until quite a few years after it came out for the simple reason that i was too young for my parents to want to buy me it and couldn't find a copy by myself. But in a way its a good thing because if i had, i probably wouldn't have understood half the jokes in there anyway. Conker is an adult game. Now I don't say this because i think that the material would be offensive for young children, i simply think that the game would be wasted on them. Now onto the game. How many games do you know in which you have to throw toilet paper into the mouth of a giant operatic poo to proceed? Or feed a cow prune juice so that is can **** its guts out so you can get a favor from some dung beetles? Or how about get so drunk that you have to piss on some men made of rock so they can finish a path for you rabbit girlfriend to escape from weasel mafiosos? enough said? There was also a port to the Xbox so if you haven't tried this game out pick t up and give it a go. 7- Diddy Kong Racing This game is a perfect example of the way Mario Kart 64 has influenced racing game. Diddy Kong Racing does everything that Mario Kart does and more. you still had the wacky style of racing with weird weapons and levels, but it managed to take it to the next level by adding planes, hovercrafts and bosses and could get incredibly difficult (i hate that ******* walrus). You were given 3 types of items: boosts, missiles and traps. Each with their own 3 levels of power, having 3 types of balloons through which to pick up the different types of weapons also added a strategy element to the game and a whole new level of fun. 6- Super Smash Bros I'm not sure if i even have to talk about this game... ITS SUPER SMASH BROS!!! YOU CAN BEAT PEOPLE UP WITH FREAKING KIRBY! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT??? 5- Turok 2 Turok 2 was every little boys dream, it bad crazy bad ass weapons, dinosaurs, hot blue chicks, etc etc. The first FPS i ever played with real noticeable gore. I couldn't think of anything cooler at 10 than blowing a big hole through the middle of a dinosaur and seeing the blood pore through his few remaining ribs. This game also did the thing that all FPS games need incredibly well, guns. no doubt if the army were to hire some of the designers at Acclaim wars would be alot shorter. who would thnk of a gun that burrows into someones skull before exploding (i could talk for hours about the guns in this game so just check the armory). As well as kick arse action and amazing futuristic weapons Turok 2 had a very alternative control scheme that took a little getting used to, but it was easy to see the benefits once you got it. instead of using the joy stick to walk, this was now for aiming and the C buttons were used for movement quite like most modern console shooter (just the other way round he he...). 4- Banjo Twooie Now if your a younger gamer, and weren't around during the N64's glory days, don't think that Rare is a bad company because of the games they have made recently, and don't think that Banjos always been as bad as nuts and bolts. This is where 3D platform gaming is at. Its difficult to explain why this game is better than other 3D platform games if yo haven't played it. Its just the fantastic character, creative levels, great humor and there always being another move or powerup round the corner to learn. No doubt your wondering why I chose Banjo Twooie instead of the original and that is because like other games i have mentioned in this list, it has everything that the original had and more. As well as more moves and character, it constantly pounds you with comical references to the first game and continues the story. 3- Starfox 64/Lylat Wars Having laid down the blue prints for Lylat Wars on the Snes with Starwing/Starfox using the Super FX chip, Nntendo went ahead and gave us the full polished version on the N64, and damn did we love it! I bought Lylat Wars for the free Rumble Pak, and I'm very glad I did. This game turned out to be one of the most enjoyable games on the N64, it was just fun to play! and what more do you want from a game? It had alternate paths (that could be a bastard to find), epic boss battles, the always cool 'all range mode', and of course the multiplayer. Me and my friends would play the multiplayer solidly for DAYS. It gave us some of the best dog fights in flying game history, and there's nothing more satisfying that dodging a locked on B bomb with a back flip and and then blowing your friend wings off and then shooting him down. AWESOME! 2- Goldeneye The game that brought first person shooters to the console and told game designers to this day how they should be. If it wasn't for Goldeneye you wouldn't be playing Halo or Call of Duty. Surly that's worth something? A fantastic story driven single player experience with increasing difficulty and near impossibility at time (Control on 00 Agent, hate that ****). Goldeneye also added more difficulty through cheat acquisition, using cheats no longer meant that you were a noob, it meant that you had the skills to get them in the first place, and trust me, if you have the invincibility or invisibility cheat, your pro. Of course like all good FPS games where Goldeneye excelled was the multiplayer. Incredibly well balanced game, great maps and game types (except if you use Oddjob). My personal favorite was license to kill in which its one shot kill, with pistols. It turns each match into a sort of quick draw game which is just a hell of a lot of fun. If you haven't played this game (which i doubt) DO! 1- The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time This was the first time we had seen Link in 3D, with a much stronger story line but still keeping his huge arsenal of weapons and epic temples and maps. But I'm not here to compare Ocarina of Time to its predecessors, I'm here to tell you why I believe its the best N64 game of all time, and a game i hold very close to my heart. This game is like reading an epic book with a controller. You start with Link as an innocent child in Kokiri, a small village inhabited only by kids with fairies that never grow old. Link however, doesn't have a fairy. One day the fairy Navi comes to him and the adventure begins. You will take Link all around the vast land of Hyrule and also into adulthood, and back. The game requires you to go from child to adult and back several times to solve all the different puzzles and quests throughout the land, acquiring more and more weapons and skills along the way. Meeting all different types of characters and species as you go. The game also incorporated a great lock on system combined with great combat and more and more interesting and challenging enemies. Now don't even get me started on the bosses, each one is a puzzle. You have to work out how to defeat the boss using your various weapons and then put it into practice to defeat the bastards. Basically there's so such stuff in this game i could go on for pages and pages and pages, so I'm just gonna say play it if you haven't already, and you'll see why its number 1 on my list. Thanks for reading my Top 10, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism you can offer but don't just "its ****" because if thats what you want to say i couldnt care less about your opinion. Thanks WombleMaster

just some of my drawings

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:12:41 -0400

would appreciate as much feed back as possible. thanks

just a bit of stuff i did on photoshop while bored

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:04:18 -0400

more to come no doubt