Assorted Awesome

Ouch. (Does it look real?)

A lot's been going on! With nice weather and chances to keep busy I'm relieved to be doing things. As you may or may not know, Dead Island Riptide, Star Trek, Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut, Lego City Undercover 3DS and Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen were released Friday. Dead Island with mixed reviews, mostly bad is causing people to look forward to other games being released. Thank god, because there are so many better ones this year! I can't wait for 'Beyond: Two Souls' (New video) and 'The Last of Us'. These are going to be masterpieces to be sure. I wore my AC hidden blade and waxed a cut in my arm for promotional reasons of course! It was cool because a rep was in-store for the day showing off AC4: Black Flag and we had to get as many people to pre-order as we could, that's why I wore my hidden blade.

Myself, Sophie and a few friends are all going to MCM in the London Excel at the end of May so we're getting hyped about that. Sophie and her friend Kayley are cosplaying to this event as Final Fantasy X characters: Yuna and Rikku. They're getting on well with their outfits and I'm busy making Yuna's staff If you haven't seen it yet, here it is! (See photo) It's not perfect, but it does the job and looks good! All it needs is a layer of clear lacquer to finish it off.

SOPHIE'S SISTER GOT A SKYHOOK, FOR REAL!! I mean we're all jealous, but at least I got to have a hold! So happy. It does look and feel fucking awesome when it spins.

The Square Enix online PC store has some sales so check it out! I may get FF7 for a fiver or Tomb Raider 1, 2 & 3 for £1.50! Just saying, it's worth it!

Also, if you like the show 'The Big Bang Theory', check out this artists re-interpretation of the cast as RPG characters! It's awesome.

Destiny

'The hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future.' That is the definition of destiny.

I can't wait for a story to grab me, take me on an epic adventure of endless tales and keep that grasp until it has finished with me. Until my fate, my reason of existence is satisfied. I want something where we all have our own individual purpose and can all work together towards one main goal. We owe it to ourselves to be part of something big.

I want to start afresh in a struggling world and make gold from dust, creating armor and smithing weapons. All of this can be achieved soon enough. Imagine - You’re at the Tower, a reinforced monolith that serves as your home. Here you can socialize, gear up, or group up and then aim for the stars – literally. Many other people mill about. Some you may know, some you may not. Some are making plans for adventure, but others may simply be watching the sunset.

This is Destiny, and we're all waiting for it.

Fire Emblem Awakening & Art Book

So my brother in-law Sam just got his Fire Emblem through the post today, a day early!! He also got the special edition art book! It's real cool because it was free with a pre-order. See, this is why you should pre-order people. Jealous much.

Bioshock Infinite 1999 Mode & General Tips

After finishing Infinite for the second time yesterday, and doing so on 1999 mode I feel like posting a few comments on here to spread the word! Take a read if you're in need of achievement help or just want to know about 1999 mode.


1999 mode is hard. No seriously, as stated before if you die and don't have enough money to come back
that's it! It sends you back to the menu, save deleted...gone forever! And you can't go back. So what you'll have to do is collect everything! Anything you find, click on it because you'll need the spare cash for any bits you come across. It also makes it easier if you're going for the 'Scavenger Hunt' achievement/trophy because it makes you save your cash, since you can't spend it on shit at the dollar bill vending machine. So save save save! There may be a few times in the game where you'll struggle if you're not great with guns, but be safe and take cover every time you're shield depletes (It's not rocket science!) :D

There's one part of the game where I seriously struggled when you're fighting 'whats-her-ghost-face' (No spoilers) three times near the end, because she spawns adds that will be brought back if killed. As you'd presume, just attack her head on and taking down the undead soldiers as they get in your way. CHARGE IS INCREDIBLY USEFUL!! Especially if you upgrade it twice because it increases damage, instantly recharges shield and makes you temporarily invulnerable, also there's a piece of gear that will make the enemy vulnerable if you melee. So charge, whack, shoot shoot shoot and the bitch will be half dead in seconds, rinse and repeat. But after a couple of tries if you're still not successful, you'll know the area and it's weapon tears, so if you fail you can quit without saving, upgrade one of them weapons to the max and continue effortlessly. Job done.

I still need to find all the Infusion bottles, Voxophones and telescopes for the sightseer achievement. This is troublesome because with the collectibles, if you know what ones you missed you'll have to go back to that point and continue the game from there in order to get the achievement. So lets say if you miss an infusion on the second chapter and one on the tenth, you have to load chapter 2 (or start a new game like in my case since there's no way I'm continuing on 1999) and play from there to get the missing bits, otherwise it won't count. It's easy to find out about the Voxophones and sightseer bits if you look for guides or have the awesome strategy book, but infusions are annoying.

There are 30 infusion slots to spend on health, shield and salts. 24 Infusion bottles are available to collect and madame Lutece gives you that one for your shield near the beginning, so 25 all in all. If you have the season pass, that gives you access to 5 more infusion bottles! Meaning that'll help towards the achievement straight away and you don't have to get every one in the game, but if you do that'll make you fully upgraded with 10 on each.

Also if you're a massive fan or just want to spice up your box, there's alternate box art ready to print from Irrational Games' website here. Pretty awesome!! That's all for now so happy Bioshock-ing!

Can't get enough of this song!

Bioshock Infinite - Review

IT'S SO GOOOD!! I am so glad that my friend Toby and sister-in-law Jodie got me into Bioshock in the first place now, because this game is a legend. Irrational Games have done such an amazing job on this truly epic tale and I highly recommend to everyone! It doesn't matter if you haven't played 1 or 2, it's thoroughly enjoyable and needs more attention.

About:
First person steampunk styled action-RPG, full of loot, guns and vigor powers being able to throw fire or blast people into the air, you can't go wrong. Available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Released 26th March 2013. Thankfully this is only a single player game, with focus spent in the right place.

Story:
In the year 1912 you play as Booker DeWitt, the protagonist in Bioshock Infinite. A male contracted investigator for matters both private and public. Tough past, lumbered with dept and enough skill and personality to laugh in the face of danger, he is hired to find and bring a girl back to wipe away his dept. Mainly the entire game is set on Columbia, a floating paradise city in the sky. It really is Eden, so nice that you want to live there, forget about life and responsibilities, then live happily ever after. Sadly, this isn't the case.

You find the girl Elizabeth, locked up in a tower eager to explore the world (Especially Paris) and all it's glory. She thinks she is being freed and gives you all of her trust, this soon changes and....well I shouldn't say any more. Elizabeth is such an amazing character, full of personality and helpful at every point in the story. The dialogue between her and Booker is so well written you develop feelings for her, knowing how she feels minutes into meeting her. If you've seen this video, about how Elizabeth was created from 4 women to perfection, you'll know that she makes the game whole.

Gameplay:
Free roaming first person style is where it's at in current action-RPG's. So you literally experience what the main character sees and feels. In this case, it couldn't have been any better.
 
There's a decent variety of weaponry in Bioshock Infinite, from a one-shot kill shotgun to a 'Peppermill Crank gun' minigun style. You have so much choice going through the game that you won't know what to pick first! Gladly, there are many achievements/trophies given to people that like to experiment with all-sorts so you won't go dry of fun. You can hold 2 weapons at a time, swapping whenever you find another, switching between the 2 with a click of a button.

Like the other Bioshock games, this still has powers, but in Infinite they are called 'Vigors'. Like the weapons, you can hold 2 at once and swap between them but can choose what 2 you want available by holding down the swap button. They are all effective and are great to use in any event, some you use purely for battle, some for convenience. Each vigor has 2 functions, the first just uses it, the second (If you hold down the trigger) lets you lay a vigor trap so if anyone walks into it, boom.

So as you may have seen, heard or already know about Elizabeth's powers, you'll be pleased to hear that
she can use them in battle to help you out. At any point (If available) you can get her to open a tear on the battlefield, bringing forth an abundance of different weapons, health packs, automated turrets or sky-hooks for you to swing from. This can instantly turn the tide of battle as I've relied so much on this in certain places, wanting a little bit of time or just a distraction to regenerate my shield.


Upgrading is very simple. As you progress you will encounter a load of vending machines specifically designed to upgrade your weapons and vigors. You use your hard-earned (looted/stolen) cash to purchase numerous upgrades for each weapon and vigor, you'll want to upgrade your favourite's of each first. I just splashed out and went with whatever I felt like upgrading and it didn't turn out too good! When completing side-missions or scattered in the game you will encounter infusion bottles, that you can choose to upgrade your health, shield or salts. Go with shield if you're on a harder difficulty or don't like combat as this will make a crucial difference in battle. Health doesn't regenerate, but shields do.

It begins with 3 difficulty settings: easy, normal and hard. I had the game on normal difficulty on my first play-through and died quite a few times I have to admit. It's not that it's hard to kill people, but I did mess up some aspects of the upgrading systems therefor making an impact on my performance.

The graphics aren't 100%, but that doesn't matter, if you've played Bioshock 1 or 2 you'll know that they can pull off atmosphere better than anything else. The textures, colours, lighting and contrasts in every room and detail is amazing though, simple yet effective because it's not overwhelming.

Infinite is so well laid out that it is easy to navigate wherever you are, and once again not overwhelming so you can go to explore and not get lost. The layout of each map/level in the game is well designed to every detail so you don't run dry of health, ammo or money. There is always something going on, and never any 'filler'.

1999 Mode:
When you finish the game on any difficulty, you unlock 1999 mode. This is a reference to System Shock 2 released in 1999. It doesn't just appear on the menu if you haven't finished the story, you'll have to enter the good old Konami code then start new game with that difficulty. If you don't know what this mode is, it lets you play on a much more challenging difficulty and when you don't have enough funds to re-spawn, you'll be sent back to the main menu. A load of fun for hardcore gamers!

My Rating:
9.5

DLC?:
What can they add for DLC? Seriously I wouldn't even want to change a thing about the game. If they have to create more content, I hope it doesn't ruin anything. It says on the season pass description, it adds more areas, weapons and characters. So is it a stand alone add-on with another protagonist, or just more side missions for Booker? Who knows. All I know is that I'm extremely pleased with how it ended, because it got me thinking and fulfilled my expectations pleasantly.

Editions:
Available at the moment are the standard £40, Premium edition and The Ultimate Songbird edition. The Premium includes some in-game gear, 360 avatar costumes or PS3/PC theme, digital soundtrack, mini art-book, murder of crows keyring, mini-figure and lithograph for around £55. The Songbird edition comes with all of the above in a massive, wonderfully well designed box with a statue of Songbird (Obviously) for £110. I pre-ordered the Premium thinking about what awesome stuff you get with it, but went for a bundle with a headset on the day because of the value for money. Since this bird has flew to the top as one of my favourite games in all time, I am seriously considering the Songbird statue, if I can get my hands on one!!

Super Mario 3D Land 3DS - Review

If you have a 3DS and want a fun game to play whenever, wherever you are, this is a game for you. It sets you off as any Mario game would, Peach being stolen by ass Bowser is! Obviously, the hero isn't taking any of it nicely and sets out on a path of destruction stomping on every gomba and enemy on his way.


There are a handful of new enemies, well designed levels and original powers that you see in a completely different light, literally. The whole point of this game is the 3D capabilities, and most of the levels take advantage of this having coins and enemies where you would need to pinpoint in 3D to take down. Within each level has 3 large coins hidden somewhere waiting to be found, pretty fun if you're a completionist, but rather annoying at some points where you want to just get further. You will need to collect these anyway because at some points in the game, you need a certain amount of these to access the final level in each world.

The other cool feature this game uses in conjunction with the 3DS is the street pass gift. Whenever you street pass with a friend, whether or not they have Super Mario 3D Land it gives you a gift in-game to pick up when you next play. These will be stored in a box at one of Toads' houses, and will be a power-up to help you on your way through. Another little secret (well not really), is whenever you die a certain amount of times on the same level, the game will detect that you suck for any odd reason (i always played before going to bed so i became a zombie) and give you an ultimate raccoon suit, so you can fly through and smash anything on your way to beat the level.

With 8 worlds in total and roughly 6 playable levels in each, levels taking around 5-10 minutes each this game really doesn't take much to finish. But it's not about just saving Peach and finishing the game is it Nintendo? Nope, this has so much re-play value that you can keep this going forever and, well hopefully won't get bored! Once you beat Bowser, there is a whole other world you get access to with a slide down the old green pipe. Not really a spoiler, but you do get to play as Luigi if you carry on in this other world, swapping to Mario at any point in the menu.
 
I know it's a Mario game and isn't really aimed at the elder/hardcore audience, but my only problem with this title is that it's a bit short. Probably finishing the first round and saving Peach in under 3 hours. I guess this is Nintendo's intention as it leaves you with a void that needs to be filled with another Mario game, hence New Super Mario Bro's 2. It was fun while it lasted and not really worth the money

My Rating:
6.5/10

Bioshock Infinite Hype! & New Releases

Bioshock Infinite released tomorrow!! This is one game I really can't wait to play from all in 2013 so far. Steam and some stores around the UK will get it in around an hour and a half. Lucky. When I went in to work this morning I saw that we had all the editions in and had a look at the Songbird statue, so jealous! I've pre-ordered the premium edition and just can't wait to get my hands on it. I'll take some photos and post them here to show ya. One thing I really want if I like Infinite that much, is the Sky Hook replica, wish we had some in stock!

As previously said before, out Thursday are: Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, Lego City: Undercover & Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. So this week is doing quite well between all consoles!

Next big releases after Thursday are:

2nd April: 
Defiance - One game that not many people are hyped about but needs some attention since it's taking all of it's qualities from some of the best games! An online co-op/MMO style sci-fi game that you can create your own character in any style with any skills using guns. Borderlands style co-op with an MMO style character creation, Halo style vehicles in a game that reminds me of Quake to be honest.

19th April:
Injustice: Gods Among Us

Fire Emblem: Awakening - It's done extremely well in the states and I just can't wait to get my hands on this either. Nintendo are on a roll this year.

26th April:
Dead Island: Riptide - Same characters, different island with more story. You can't go wrong with smashing zombies with everything you can grab. I just hope that the engine's improved because it wasn't the best, even in the DLC's. One other thing that's a let down, even after loads of complaints, they still haven't added split-screen co-op. Sucks.

Star Trek - The Video Game.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - For those that haven't played the original Dragon's Dogma, now's your chance because this is includes the original game packed with loads of extras, weapons, areas and an option to swap to Japanese voices.

Assassin's Creed IV:
New news about Assassin's Creed IV: Black flag too. There are 2 new editions to be released - ACIV: Skull edition and Buccaneer edition available to pre-order on the GAME website!

That's it for now!

Tomb Raider - Review

Tomb Raider - 2013
Created by Crystal Dynamics
Published by Square Enix
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

This Tomb Raider is a complete reboot and origin story, depicting how Lara Croft became the 'Tomb Raider'. Surviving on her own, solving puzzles and using her initiative to do the right thing. Many have waited for a chance to be Lara again, here it is.

Story:
A young Lara (21) and her friends go on a journey to explore an island called Yamatai in search of mysteries, the boat Lara is on, the SS Endurance gets torn apart and shipwrecked during the night. Lara and her friends are stranded on an isolated and apparent uninhabitable island within the dragon's triangle off the coast of Japan (much like the Bermuda triangle). Trying to stay alive and find her friends she explores different parts of this island. This island was once ruled by a queen called Himiko, the 'Sun Queen', with powers to control the weather. There isn't much to say about the story as anything I tell will give away major plot points.

Gameplay:
There's a load action, rocks to climb, ropes to dangle from and a lot of ledges to cling to. Save points just happen (auto save) throughout the story and whenever you get to a camp which is nice, because playing the game without saving makes it so simple. Camps can fast travel to other major areas on the island. The hunting part of the game is good, because everything you kill, be it bird or boar you will gain experience, and it's no where near as important as in Assassins Creed 3 or Far Cry 3. It does seem a bit silly that you get more experience killing a rat, than a human though.

In the game you will gain access to a bow, pistol, machine gun and shotgun. They are not overpowered but will be realistic in the way you can get an instant kill with a headshot. The way you upgrade your weapons is also not too taxing, you scavenge for parts in any wooden box, container or chest you see giving you a currency-like amount to then spend on upgrades. Although it's simple to upgrade, how does she do it? Somehow scavenging useless things, even using your imagination I have no idea how Lara creates extended magazines and silencers for her pistol etc. I mean seriously, for an isolated island in the dragon's triangle, with constant deadly storms that smash any aircraft or boat near the island, where it hasn't been accessed in centuries, no way of getting resources. How?

With a tap of a button you can access Lara's survival instinct, making everything you see black and white apart from important objects and loot which is glowing gold. This feature is extremely helpful in certain circumstances because it will show you the pieces of the puzzle, and leaving the rest to you. Colours, graphics, motion capture, the lot are amazing. It plays really smoothly and is really easy to get used to.

Compared to other TR's:
Having played all of the other Tomb Raiders and seeing Lara in a different light this was, rather unexplainable. The action side of the game had escalated with awesome weapons that are given to you on your journey, especially the bow, but the game is completely lacking in story and imagination.

Achievements:
Throughout the game you will eventually get achievements linked to how well you are doing in terms of kills and upgrades. Apart from actually finishing the game, there are no other story achievements which was a bit of a let down, I wanted some kind of 'physical' acknowledged accomplishment. I'm also a bit annoyed that there are 15 multiplayer achievements, since I don't have XBL gold at the moment their inaccessible all together, lame.

Pros: 
Fun action sequences

When Lara gets a hold of a second pistol.. right at the end.

Cons:
Getting home and eager to play with family, we put the disc in, installed the update and got it roaring. Within an hour of playing the game, it froze the console completely. Apparently this has happened to a few people I know on the 360 version, so I think it'd be a bit better to play on PS3 or a decent PC. Not off to a good start. 

Seemingly Inconsistent - In one clip where a friend is in trouble and bleeding, Lara pulls out a bandage and wraps it around his limb. Where did she get this from? She didn't have it, it wasn't on the floor and he didn't have it either. 'kay..

She's climbing a majorly tall broadcasting transmitter, right. And as she climbs, thing are bending and snapping off as she gets higher and higher. When she reaches the top, where it should be the worst as it's subject to weather wear, it shouldn't even hold her but she pushes herself away from the tower on this tiny rusted crows nest, yet nothing happens. And here I thought this game was supposed to be extremely realistic.

Slightly glitchy at the moment. A few times while playing, Lara has froze or moved to another spot on the floor and people have found a glitch that makes her look as if she's not wearing a top!

Blobs in your face. ALL THE TIME. I mean they're not even blood splatters! Just random red, slightly opaque hexagons filling the screen when getting shot, injured or walking through blood pits etc. It gets really annoying and distracting. Like the photo but a tad more.

Characters. They're cool and all but without reading all the journals picked up on your way through, you don't really get to know them. I think this is needed improvement. I didn't feel attached to the characters so whenever something bad happened I wasn't upset.


My Rating:
7.5/10

Notes:
I really thought this reboot was going to be totally re-imagined, but with new publisher Square Enix (formerly Eidos) looking over Crystal Dynamics' back, I think it lacked majorly in the story department, as with most other recent Square Enix games. The game was fairly short considering there are optional tombs to explore, but another major thing lacking in the game, these small majority of tombs will only last around 5-10 minutes each. I finished the game within 7 hours at 78%, all I have left are the other couple of tombs, a few hidden items and 1 upgrade on 2 of the 4 weapons. The game is said to take around 13 hours if you want to gather everything and play a bit of multiplayer too, but ended up a short for me because I skipped a few cut-scenes I had seen earlier on in the day.

If you are considering purchasing Tomb Raider, please do so on PS3. The multiplayer is free, graphics ever-so-slightly better and the game is (Apparently) less glitchy making the game a bit more enjoyable.

The Quiet Before The Storm

New big releases out:

22nd (Friday) - Gears of War: Judgement (360), The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (360, PS3 & WiiU) & Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS & WiiU).

26th (Tuesday) - Bioshock Infinite (360, PS3 & PC)

28th (Thursday) - Luigi's Mansion 2 Dark Moon (3DS)

I'm sure there are many people waiting for each of these games, but I'm most excited about Bioshock and Luigi's Mansion 2! Seriously can't wait. I put off the first Bioshock because I tend to stay away from blockbuster games apart from massive titles like Halo, when I changed my mind and gave it a chance I mentally slapped my old self. Bioshock 2 was a slight let down, fun for an hour then bland and lacking imagination. Things changed, Infinite seems totally re-mastered with a new perspective, a great colour palette and epic story.

It's been near 11 years since Luigi's Mansion on the GameCube! That long! I just hope that team Nintendo have put that time and the 3DS' capabilities to good use. By the looks of the vids so far, they have.

This week will be a good one!



Other news:

If you're a fan of the epic Square Soft, creator's of the old Final Fantasy games 1 through 10, good news! If you didn't know, Square Enix are releasing a HD re-make of Final Fantasy 10 and Kingdom Hearts. FF10 HD will be on PS3 and Vita, KH 1.5 ReMIX will be on PS3 alone. There are a few bonuses with the HD re-makes: FF10 includes 10-2 on the PS3 disc and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 will have the final mix version of the game, Re: Chain of Memories and a collection of HD remastered cinematic scenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.


There's some new news for Elder Scrolls: Online. On release it will play as a first person, which is awesome, just what I wanted when Oblivion was released!

The creator's of Bastion (SuperGiant Games), an arcade game on 360 have created a new game called Transistor. It look awesome.


If I had to make a game, the style and gamplay will be alot like this.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Review

I have yet to write a bad review and have a rant, but now is not the time. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a vast, colourful and engulfing game. Created by 38 Studios & Big Huge Games, 2 truly epic companies that have now gone bust, upsetting because of how awesome this game is. Upon completion (Finally), I feel complied to write my thoughts to let everyone know that this is a must play.

Story:
The story begins by telling you a short lore of the game, followed by a couple of gnomes carrying a covered corpse on a stretcher. They're jabbering on and for some reason want to give this corpse a name...'kay? (If you've played the game or demo, you'll know). Next, they want to take a look at this said body. Pulling back the cover, it brings you to a screen where you get to edit your character, picking between 4 races (2 types of humans, light elves and dark elves) with a good selection of hair and faces. The customization is very pleasing, selecting presets and altering them as you will.

After creating your character and naming him/her, you find that the corpse is you! You're then dumped down a chute, landing on a pile of rotting bodies. Sounds like a great start to any story right?! (Sarcasm) Waking up, getting to terms with what's going on, you're then given control of your protagonist. It's a third person RPG much like Fable, so easy to control. There is a beginning section of the game, which will give you clothes and a selection of weapons, training you with a taster of every battle choice available - Sorcery (Mage), Might (Warrior) and Finesse (Thief). After this not too lengthy stage, you will be released into the wonderful woods, bursting with colour. This is where your journey begins.

Your character, being reborn is now a fate-less. You will be the 'one' who will change the world at his/her's will, causing chaos or being a saint is completely down to what you do from here on out. This isn't like your usual Fable-esque game, but more like one of Bethesda's titles where you will choose what you will want to become as the game progresses.

It has a very good leveling system because you don't have to be a set warrior or mage, you can decide whether you want to be a mixed solution of the above, mixing and matching as you please. It has talent trees that you follow, spending points in any one of them as you level. Reckoning is never boring, if you don't like what you play as or want a change, you can talk to the main character whom you meet early on and he will change your fate, causing you to re-spec (Resetting your talent points back to 0 and starting over on the talent trees). Once you get near to the end of the game you can re-spec and go for Jack of All Trades, quite awesome because it gives you a bit of everything to play with at a good strength, being able to wear anything and use everything as a weapon.

The map is huge, with over 30 smaller areas. Running around each area discovering everything possible would probably take around an hour and a half if you wanted to finish all side-quests available. Being a completionist I spent around 30 hours getting maybe around 35% through the game trying to do everything and every quest, this was tiresome because I wanted more story. I then went for the main story full speed ahead, completing it in half a day and being so pleased with what the story left me with! The good thing is, also like Bethesda's Skyrim etc. after you finish the main story-line you can continue playing after finishing it, being able to do much more than just exploring and finishing side-quests.

Crafting:
Very reminiscent of World of Warcraft and yet again, Skyrim. You collect materials on your journey from left right and center to use with the games' crafting system which will become very helpful. You can become a blacksmith, sagecrafter or an alchemist creating everything possible to equip and help your hero. Reckoning takes the idea of gems from WoW, so when you get to a certain level of skill, you can socket created or found gems into your armor and weapons to increase your stats. This is helpful and very easy to understand.

Battles:
As said earlier on, the battles play like a Fable, but more fluid. With your weapons of choices you will be able to blast through enemies with brute force, ranged weapons or sneak up behind them with critical damage. Potions at the ready from a click on the d-pad left or right, simple.You can also roll to escape being smashed to the ground by a giants' great hammer, but spending points in the Sorcery tree will give you an ability to 'Blink' (Teleport) away from an opponent, I love it.

Things To Keep You Entertained:
Owning a house, endlessly killing, changing your appearance mid-game, making fun of gnomes, rolling, running around naked (There's an achievement in it for ya), smashing every pot in sight through the whole game (Another achievement), hunting down lorestones (Stones around the map that give you a brief history lesson and a stat boost), crafting, achievement hunting, certain fun side-quests & being amused by the pretty colours!
Conclusion & Thoughts:
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an amazing game in every way. A great story-driven RPG with stunning colours and eye-pleasing graphics. It is so easy to pick up and get used to, so addictive you'll be on for hours and feels so familiar that you'll feel badass the second you find or create an awesome weapon.

It takes all the best from every game people love, backed with incredible concept art and music to create a masterpiece. If you're a fan of any titles mentioned above, give it a go. You won't be disappointed, this game doesn't need all the fancy distractions like multiplayer. I just want more of this!

They made two DLC's for Reckoning - The Legend of Dead Kel & Teeth of Naros for 800 MS points each on the marketplace along with some useless weapon and stat bonus packs. Totally worth getting according to IGN, but because of what happened to the company as stated earlier on, there will not be any other DLC's for Reckoning. Sad times.

My Rating:
9.5/10 - The colours gave me headaches.

Before 38 Studios & Big Huge Games dissipated, the teams were working on an MMO called Project Copernicus and it looked stunning:

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Review

Right, where to start?! Ni No Kuni is a PS3 exclusive port of a Japanese DS game, created by Level 5 (Professor Layton series and White Knight Chronicles) and scenes animated by the legendary Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle). It was release Feb 1st 2013, and right now not many people know of it! It's a light-hearted, charming and simple RPG with a lengthy plot and tons of re-play value.

Story:
If you didn't know, it's a single player game but awesome if you play it with others, as I did with my wife. It starts with a young 13 year old boy, Oliver in his home town of Motorville. I don't want to give away too much as you'll all have to play the game! But I'm sure you would've already found this out by now, his mother dies. This is a major plot point in which Oliver gets taken into another world, Ni No Kuni. Lead by his tiny companion Mr Drippy: King of the fairies, you adventure deep into this unknown and wonderful world exploring every inch of colourful awesomeness. Oliver is a wizard, being able to cast spells with his stick-wand and spell book, The Wizard's Companion. This book will be practically empty as you start the game, but as you progress you will be able to restore the pages one by one, gaining knowledge and spells. You'll meet loads of new and different characters on the way, my favorite being King Tom, the cat ruler of his kingdom Ding Dong Dell. Everyone calls him 'His Meowjesty', genius.

Through the game, you will meet a few main people having their own problems who will eventually join you on your quest. The game starts off simple and gets really good with loads of things to do, but probably about half of the way in, it dips and adds a load of 'filler'- time where you get to do whatever you want and not much story-wise happens. This soon picks up and gets better, so hold in there as the ending is what you're playing the game for. During the times where you get to socialize with townspeople, you'll find that all around the world, there are people with broken hearts, where the Dark Djinn Shadar has stolen a piece of their heart that you'll have to restore. Each individual's story is unique and interesting, so be sure to explore in towns and the world map!

Familiars:
In the world of Ni No Kuni there are creatures born from the emotion of a persons soul, these are called familiars. You will encounter so many of these creatures in your journey that you won't know what to expect. You will shortly gain a spell to form one of your own familiar, helping you with everything that Oliver can't do in battle. You will be able to tame these creatures and 'metamorph' them into stronger versions, no, not Pokemon. My favourite is a cat, named Sir Purr, pirate lord. Ha, just look at him!

Battles:
The battles aren't random, which most of you'll remember since other games (Old style Final Fantasy's) used them all the time. In Ni No Kuni you will see familiars roaming around on the world map and in dungeons alike. It depends on your characters/familiars' levels whether these roaming beings will charge straight into you or run away screaming. Upon starting battle it's fairly simple, each character in your group gets three familiars of your choice, and you can choose who you want to control. What I like about the battles are:

• You don't feel restricted - You can run around, attack and cast spells without being glued to a spot.

• You can choose your own play style - Since you are allowed to pick the familiars, you can decide on spells, defense or all out attack.

• They're often, but not all the time - This has been a pet hate in most other games. There's more to the story telling and gameplay than fighting!

If you control Oliver himself, you will learn multiple spells throughout the story which will help in every aspect of the game. The good thing is - since there are so many, they don't spring them on you all at once, they gradually give them to you with a chance to understand what they do and how to use them. This will make you feel like a right wizard yourself when you'll be blasting through them like nobody's business!

Save Points:
Not so interesting, but necessary. As this isn't your usual game that auto saves every 2-5 minutes, you'll want to know that there are many instances in which you will have to play for at least 15-30 minutes without saving. This didn't bother us RPG veterans, but may be annoying for some. Other than that, you will be able to press start and save at any given point in towns and on the world map!

Graphics & Animation:
The rendering and quality of the game is amazing and colourful, with a great frame rate and literally no loading time. Attractive and appealing comparing to a vast majority of other games today. Most of the story will be told with in-game graphics, and just like other great RPG's of our time it's filled with text that you'll have to read. I'd say about a third of the game you'll actually hear the characters talk with subtitles and clips which is plain awesome, since we loved Drippy's accent and some of the things they say!

What you all want to know is; how often to we get to watch good old Japanese animation? At major plot points like right at the start, leading up to events and obviously a couple of times at the end, this is where it'll grab your attention and feel like more than a game. Taking up roughly an hour of animation, it fits in nicely without being spoiled and/or boring, I just wish there was a bit more of it.

Should You Get Ni No Kuni?:
Definitely, if you own a PS3 and even remotely like RGP's, Ni No Kuni won't let you down. It's a well told, perfectly laid out game with loads of fun errands to do, amazing music, land to explore and characters that you'll love.

The main story will, on average take up just under 40 hours. But!.. If you get to that point and want more, you would've got a quarter of the trophies so there are tons of errands and extras to satisfy your needs. Post-game hours will clock up an additional 40-60 hours depending on your style of gameplay, totally worth the platinum though! This is one game all PS3 owners need, and one that made me proud. Get it here.

My Rating:
8.5/10

The Usual 1AM Update

SO it's been a while since i've blogged, but i'm going through all my to-do list and it's BIG.

EA's SimCity was apparently a huge disaster, causing loaads of people to not connect to a server to even play the game! So EA have thought of a way to say sorry. They cannot simply refund people until the server issue is fixed, they have said that people that bought the game will be able to download a free game of their choice on PC from the EA catalogue. This Im sure wont be appealing to the hardcore gamers since there's not much available.

Microsoft are being 'kind' to Mums this weekend and keeping the kids busy with FREE XBOX LIVE GOLD for the weekend! If you didn't know about this, get on it now because that's not the only thing they're offering. To further keep the kids and male partners glued to the TV's Microsoft have teamed with multiple game companies to give freebies just to play the games! If you play an hour of Halo 4 online, you'll get a free Spartan avatar costume, awesome. Games like Black Ops 2, Far Cry 3 etc. will get double experience over the weekend, further awesomeness. Square Enix launched a Tomb Raider competition too if anyone's interested.

For the release of Tomb Raider on Tuesday, which has been a HUGE success! (Some dislike it but that's only diehard fans that don't want changes ((Or smaller boobs)). Review-wise has done better than every other game released in the past 4 months including big hits like Dead Space 3, Ni No Kuni, Halo 4 or even Black Ops 2.

I've recently started playing Aion. An MMO somewhat recently gone free-to-play that it oh so much better than most MMO's i've played in my time. It's great fun, the character creation is better than any Bethesda game (Oblivion & Skyrim) and the world is lively enough to keep you playing for hours. Playing with friends in their guild makes it that much better! There will be a new update in a few months with a whole new area, quests and three new classes. Apart from the default warrior, scout, mage and priest there will be a gun wielder, ultimate tanker and a bard! If you're a fan of MMO's or just any RPG's and your computer can handle it, give it a go!

Bungie have been keeping up to date with everything Destiny released publicly. Read these articles. Sooooooo cannot wait. I just want Halo, with the explorability (It's a word now) of Skyrim in a Mass Effect universe with the social visits of random players like Journey. I Want. I got my pre-order the other day, along with my free poster too!

Speaking of Journey, my sister-in-law got and finished The Unfinished Swan yesterday. Great game, I loved the feel and emotion of the gameplay and it's story. She found a Journey easter egg which I had no idea about! You get near the end ish, look through a telescope at the moon and when it zooms right in, you see this.

Pretty awesome. I wish there were more easter eggs in games!


GearBox teased at a new character.

Steam are allowing pre-purchases for Bioshock Infinite. Also, if you pre-order in GAME or online, to get a copy on PC or PS3 you'll get a free download code for the first Bioshock.

GAME Hastings is dedicating a couple of awesome staff members to it's Facebook page, which is in dire need of love and attention. So like, follow and keep up to date with deals, competitions, tournaments etc.

WE FINISHED NI NO KUNI. Since I hadn't said yet. It's amazing. People's statements online are just awefull. I am currently writing a review for it which will be posted on IGN, GAME's website and other deserving places on the net to rectify it's current status.

Tired. Mothers day tomorrow. Will be a chilled day.

Destiny

So GAME are taking pre-orders for Destiny! Knowing Bungie (Creators of Halo) & after watching all the vids on Youtube I can't wait to see how the finished product will be. If you're not keeping up to date, Bungie have said that it will be on 360, PS3 and PS4 but no news about the new xbox. It's a £5 deposit but I'm gonna go trade in a game to afford it.

If you don't already know when you pre-order, you'll obviously get one put by for you (Since we're only allowed so much stock), double reward points and a free Destiny poster! There may be more exclusive content or freebies nearer the time of release, but for now i'll be happy with my free poster and knowing that i'm that one step closer to Destiny!

Watch this:




Keep up to date with Destiny & other gaming news at:
http://www.destinythegame.com/ - Official Destiny website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/GAMEhastings/387400121324522?ref=ts&fref=ts- GAME Hastings Facebook

https://twitter.com/GAMEhastings - Game Hastings Twitter

New 3DS XL Bundles

So i've got a bit of time while my Guild Wars 2 updates since I haven't been on it in a while. Checking out stuff I thought I may as well post an update. There's 2 new 3DS XL consoles on their way packaged with an install of either the new Monster Hunter or Fire Emblem games.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate:
A new, all black 3DS XL will be shipped with Monster Hunter pre-installed onto the console. This i'd actually love to see in person because I like the metallic look and feel of the XL's, I may even trade mine in to upgrade? Hmm.

The release date for this console and game is 22nd March. Nintendo will also be releasing the black XL on it's own shortly after.


Fire Emblem Awakening:
This will be exactly the same as the blue XL but will have a Fire Emblem design on the front. Because this is a limited edition the only way you'll get the console is to buy this package. Looks pretty sweet though!

Release date is 19th April. This game has been rated so high that this is one i'm not going to miss.




Both will be available in Game for £199.99. That's it for now! Have a good weekend y'all.