Monday 8 August 2011

Game Review 2#: Minecraft Pt. 1




  Hey everyone, I'm making a new review tonight.


   Tonight's review will be a rather long one and will be on one of the most popular games on the market right now; Minecraft. Oh yes Minecraft, Notch's wonderful  world of 16-Bit fun. If you aren't already nauseous with Minecraft fever or plain sick over how much attention this game has been getting, then feel free to continue reading this review. Aside from that, this game can actually be quite a bit of fun (who'd have guessed?) and I would definitely recommend buying it. It is certainly worth the now doubled price of 28$ Canadian.


   There must be thousands upon thousands of YouTube videos of people with too much time on their hands who have spent hundreds of hours creating to-scale models of the worlds most spectacular creations, and creations of their own.  These videos give you a very good idea on just how much fun- and how addicting this game can be. There's something for everyone, the adventurer, the architect, and the artist.


   So it's no surprise the game became as popular as it did. But whats the game about? You begin the game surrounded in a 16-Bit word inhabited by livestock and mountain ranges. All you have to begin with are the clothes on your back and your enthusiasm to create and destroy the wold around you.. There are sandy beaches, green valleys and towering mountains. Trees, flowers and reeds brighten the landscape and the playful sheep scatter before you as you explore. You will find everything is made of blocks, from the trees to the wandering cows around you. You can go wherever you please, since there no barriers, the further you go the further you will generate your map. In other worlds, this entire strange blocky world is yours.


   The first time you play Minecraft, there is a high chance you won't survive the first night as nasty things come out at night and it's rather easy to be killed. After your first death you'll probably want to start building a house to spend the night in, somewhere to hide between bouts of exploring and gathering materials to make tools and weapons. This will be your Minecraft fortress of solitude. (continued)

Game Review 2#: Minecraft Pt. 2


   To advance in the game however, you'll need to learn how to start creating tools, weapons, and armour. Things start simple enough with you punching a tree to excess, until you have collected a piece of wood. Turning that piece of wood into a tool, and so on. Eventually you'll learn how to make a multitude of different items by creating the recipe in a three by three grid that will allow you to create "recipes". But wood alone will not be enough, your going to have to make a pickaxe and start digging.


  More advanced blocks, like coal, iron, redstone and so on, require you to break earth, putting the "mine" in Minecraft. Eventually you will be able to build a furnace which will allow you to turn iron ore into iron, sand into glass and pork into a delicious, life-giving meal. This will be vital to creating some of the most fun aspects of the game. So you have spent hours digging for diamonds, collecting materials and your now completely decked out in full diamond with a bow and arrow just ready for adventure. But that's just the problem, there is nothing left, you have done it all. You may feel ripped off and violated for paying thirty dollars for a game with 10 hours of game play, but no worries.


   Punching trees and digging are only a fraction of the fun in Minecraft. With all that rock and dirt just piling up, you might be tempted to build a bigger and better fortress, and while your at maybe a roller coaster... This is where the addicting side of the game comes in. With all this open space, material, and imagination just waiting to be used one small project can become an extravagant masterpiece. You will probably at this point find yourself playing the game soley for the purpose of building structures and cities, finding yourself at 3a.m. building a 1:1 scale model of the starship enterprise. Sadly this is where the game ends, and becomes more of an open template to create.


   If I was to rate this game, I would give it a far rating of 6/10. Although the game can become very addicting, I don't quite feel it makes up for the apparent lack of game play the "game" has to offer. If we do not start to see some real game features like a leveling system and weapon/armour stats etc, then I feel Notch should simply make Minecraft a ten dollar program to build shit, focusing entirely on optimizing the building part of the game rather than an RPG.


   Well if you have made it this far, thanks for reading my rather long review of a game that has probably been reviewed one too many times. Take care and try to enjoy your Monday.

Saturday 6 August 2011

Pre-Release Discussion 1#: Diablo III

    Lately I have found myself surrounded in discussion of one game, Diablo III. For those who are unfamiliar with the Diablo series,  it's a fairly simple RPG as you explore dungeons, collect weapons and armour, and kill monsters to gain levels. Not a very unique game but certainly one that many people became hooked into from the start. But i'm not here to discuss the past, but rather the future of the Diablo series.

   What to expect from Diablo 3: A graphically enhanced, Diablo 2 with the option to essentially "buy" your avatar by paying real world money to buy in-game items from other players. You might be thinking, well why should I care: how does this affect me? Whether you are paying cash for items, or simply trying to play the game normally this WILL have a very negative affect on your gaming. I'll take blizzards trademark MMORPG, World of Warcraft as an example. In WoW, the selling of gold or items for real world money is against the game rules, although still on any given day you can expect your favorite farming or grinding spot to be PACKED with gold farmers, all playing for the sole purpose of making money. Now imagine how bad the problem will be on a game where selling items for real world money is not only legal, but ENCOURAGED.

   So should I buy the game?  A question iv'e been asked more times than i'd prefer, but one that I can feel confident in answering when I say; no. I'm not here to babysit people into what games to buy and not to buy, but unless you are a die-hard fan of the series, I have to encourage everyone NOT to purchase this game just to stop any further encouragement towards Blizzard that this is a good idea. Once they see the revenue this brings in, there not going to think twice about doing it to there next game. At that, I must add one last note... that if you do buy this game, as it is very likely I will end up buying it too, that you do not make use of the legal real world trading as it is simply a game ruining feature.

-Take my words with a grain of salt because that is all they are, my words, my opinion. I say this simply because I know there are alot of Diablo fans who won't be too thrilled with what I have to say in this blog.

Game Review 1# Fallout: New Vegas

    Hey everybody, this is my new review & rating of the game Fallout: New Vegas. Fallout NV was the sequel to 2008 game of the year Fallout 3. As the name suggests, this game takes place in a post-apocolyptic Vegas and the surrounding Mojave wasteland. Unlike the Capitol wasteland of Fallout 3, the Mojave offers a much brighter sky and is a lot more vibrant than the dark, lonely setting of Fallout 3.

   As you start the game, you will find that you were a courier delivering a Platinum Chip. But at some point in your journey, you had been shot and left for dead. You awake in a doctors house, who had managed to save your life, but you will find that your memory is completely gone. This is where the charector custimization comes in. If you are not familiar with the fallout game engine, you can fully design your charecters facial features, attributes, and skills. This is when the real game starts.

   So your going to need to gain some levels if your going to survive in the Mojave wasteland, and you will need to find yourself guns and armour.. Lucky for us, it seems everyone we encounter during our adventure has some form of firearm/melee weapon, which makes aquiring and maintaining your weapon cache fairly easy. All weapons and armour in this game degrade during use, and must be repaired by an NPC for a fee, or via the Repair skill.

    When you make your way into the Mojave, you will encounter insects and animals mutated from radiation, like the notorious Rad Roach. During your exploration, you'll come across many side quests and people who depending on your actions, can either make you gain or lose "reputation" with the particular group. As you further your adventure, you will eventually be given a choice to join a "side" in the upcoming battle for hoover damn. Each side has different quests and gear, which can make playing the game again after you have finished it an entirely different experience.

   This being my favorite game of all time, my rating of it is probably a tad biased. But regardless I would give this game a solid 9.5/10 just because there is always room for improvement.

Thanks for reading and if you have a suggestion for the next game review, please feel free to leave it in the comments!

MMORPG Review #1: Runescape

   As this is my first game review, I felt it should be on (in my opinion) the original MMO- RuneScape. This is meant to be an introduction to the game, as the game itself has much more than could be put into a single post. I will be posting up-to-date reviews on the latest Runescape updates, because I am currently playing the game myself.

   RuneScape is one of the only download-free browser based MMORPGs.  In January, RuneScape celebrated it's 10th anniversary, making it the longest running MMORPG in history. For a game to last so long, it has to be fun and more importantly, have enough game content for you to play it for a decade! So you may be thinking, what seperates it from the other MMO's available? When you start off your adventure you can expect to be hooked into questing, fighting monsters, and training your skills for days on end. Unlike most games where your focused on killing monsters to gain levels for your avatar, in the world of Runescape you will be training up to 25 skills from woodcutting and fishing, to skills like summoning and dungeoneering on top of your avatar's "combat" level.

   One of the most appealing aspects of Runescape is the fact that the free content of the game is enough to play for months, maybe even years until you are ready to buy a "Membership" giving you access to a vastly larger game. Although the game isn't completely free once you are a member, it is still a great deal at 5 dollars a month, compared to the 15$+ other comparable games like World of Warcraft charge monthly.

Overall I would consider this game too big for simple /10 rating, but if I had to I would give it a 8.5/10 as far as MMORPG's are concerned.

Friday 5 August 2011

Who is The Gamer Daily?

I'm just your average gamer with a less-than-average past time, making game reviews.

What to expect from my blog:
 -Game strategies, walkthroughs.
 -Reviews, reviews, and more reviews!
 -My honest opinion on the latest gaming-related news.