The Walking Dead Episode 1 Review

The first episode of TellTale’s five episode The Walking Dead series has been released. Want to know if it’s worth the brains it’ll take to play? Read on to find out!

 

When TellTale announced it was working on a five episode The Walking Dead game I was very skeptical. Me being a die hard fan of anything The Walking Walking Dead, I was excited but wanted a Left 4 Dead or Dead Island style game. I’ve been a fan of their previous titles such as Sam and Max and the Back to the Future games but I didn’t really want “point and click” for this game. The more I thought about it though, I remembered The Walking Dead isn’t about just killing zombies it’s a great story and character driven drama with zombies showing up every once in awhile. So I decided to give it a try and with Playstation Plus subscribers getting the first two episodes for free there was no reason not to! Needless to say, TellTale more than delivered with great characters, gameplay, and a story that will have anyone, Walking Dead fan or not, craving more.

 

 

If you’ve played a TellTale title before you’ll be familiar with the gameplay. It’s the standard point and click system. You control a prompt with your right stick that lets you talk to people, interact with objects, or give people certain items, while controlling your character with the left stick. Occasionally, there will be quick-time events where you have to kick a zombie in the face, bust open a door, or whatever the certain situation requires. You’d have to be unconscious not to make it though.

 

 

Along with the familiar but fun gameplay you’re introduced to some very interesting characters. You start off in a cop car as a man named Lee, who has been convicted of murder. It’s not flat out said that he did it but enough hints are dropped for you to make your own conclusion. You’ll be introduced to a lot of new characters but there’s something really cool; the game is concurrent with the comic books. During episode one Rick is still in his coma and you see a few familiar faces. To find out whom you’ll have to play it yourself. You’ll have sort of expected characters introduced, like a journalist, a farmer, a go-to nerdy guy, but they all become very interesting and important to the story. I talked to everyone and chose new dialogue options whenever possible to find out more about them and their back story.

 

For a game that’s only a couple hours long, you’ll soon establish clear close relationships with people, whether if they’d shoot you with the chance or die for you. Personally, my favorite character is your surprising father/daughter relationship with Clementine. You save her (and she saves you) toward the beginning of the game. Her family is gone, and you’re left to take care of her, but for an eight year old, she’s managed to survive for days on her own. There’s an immediate sense of companionship you’ll have with her throughout the game, making decisions you’d think twice about with any other character. The way you act around people and some decisions you make will affect the way she sees you.

 

 

The icing on the cake of this game is the decisions you make. Taking sides on an argument, trusting someone, telling the truth, even saving one person over the other are decisions you’ll have to make throughout the game that will mold the outcome and make your playthrough something unique. There will be a little marker at the top left of the screen after you make a decision that’ll let you know whether someone will remember what you said or not. It doesn’t have much payoff in the first episode but I can see them becoming important in the later episodes when characters are dead/alive and how others act towards you. Hopefully, even the things you said in the first episode will stay with you through all five episodes.

 

It only being the first episode it obviously wasn’t very long. Took my barely over two hours, but for only $5 an episode ($20 for a season pass) it’s definitely worth it. TellTale definitely stayed true to the franchise and left me craving more. If you’re playing on the Playstation 3 you can still grab the first two episodes for free and see what the hype is about. If not I strongly recommend you atleast try the first episode out. You won’t be disappointed.


Final Score 9.0/10

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Hitman: Absolution – A Test of Faith

I’ll never forget the first time I was introduced to Agent 47.  I had just received my copy of The Official PlayStation Magazine with its monthly disc packed with previews and game demos.  There on the disc was a demo for a game titled Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.  I saw the stylishly dressed bald guy dual-wielding a pair of hand cannons and I was immediately intrigued.  The prospect of sneaking in to a highly guarded mansion, taking down a mob boss while rescuing a priest had me giddy with excitement.

Then I tried to play the demo.

Emphasis on “tried.”  It was a total mess.  The controls were not only WAY more complex than anything I was use to playing, the AI was absolutely brutal.  I knew right away that I was in way over my head and that there was absolutely no way I was getting over the learning curve.  I ejected the disc and went on to other things.

Or at least I attempted to.

The fact was that even though I was terrible at the demo, I found the concept fascinating.  This was the character I had been waiting to play for a long time.  So I went back, and I was still terrible.  But I went back again and this time, even though I was still terrible, I actually made it into the kitchen disguised as a delivery guy.  Then, I promptly took 2 steps in the wrong direction and all hell broke loose.  This scenario played out dozens of times and each time I got just the tiniest bit better. Long before the first time I made it through the level with the coveted Silent Assassin ranking I was hooked, and I knew that this was a series I would follow for as long as it was around.

Fast forward 10 years to the first release of info on the fifth game in the series.  I couldn’t be more excited.  Finally! A Hitman game on “next-gen” consoles.

Then I watched the trailer.

This is NOT Hitman! It’s way too action heavy!  Instinct mode?  Are you joking?  This looks like Splinter Cell: Conviction (which I enjoyed, but it wasn’t Hitman).  I/O Interactive, you broke my heart.  I suffered waiting through not one, but TWO, garbage Kane & Lynch games.  And for what?  For you to rip the very soul out of  the franchise that I love?  For you to bastardise a series so you can  dumb it down for the masses of mouth-breathing Call of Duty “bro” gamers?  To hell with this, I quit.

Or at least I attempted to.

I’d obviously been betrayed along with all the rest of the die-hard fans, but I just couldn’t believe it.  I searched every article I could find in hopes that I was wrong, but everything I read just sounded like the devs doing a song and dance to distract us from the atrocities they had committed against their fans.  I had all but given up hope and written the game off.  Then a friend told me about a sniper challenge mini-game that you could download if you pre-ordered the game. I figured “Why not?” I’d pre-order the game to get the code and then go back and then move the money to Borderlands 2.

Then I played it.

I figured that I’d try it once and then maybe watch some tv.  Two and a half hours later, I had to force myself to go to bed.   The Agent 47 that I hadn’t seen since 2006 was back and better than ever.  The defining moment came when I shot an elevator control box to open the doors and then made a member of the main target’s security force disappear down the elevator shaft. After dozens of replays I finally achieved Silent Assassin rank, but with the addition of a friends leaderboard, Silent Assassin is just the beginning.

I know that the latest trailer has sparked plenty of uproar, and people are jumping to all kinds of conclusions and continuing to rage about “the absence of stealth” and “too much action” but now I just shake my head and smile.  I’m confident that when the game launches it will be the naysayers, and not the devs, who will be seeking “Absolution.”

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COD: Black Ops 2 Revealed

Yes, you heard it. Activision and Treyarch have revealed the sequel to the highly anticipated, Call of Duty: Black Ops, it will not be set in the past, or present… But the future! 2025 to be exact…

Another interesting leak is that there will be a “Quadrotor” that both FPS Russia and In-game photos have shown, FPS Russia states “This is truly a weapon of the future and in the next 10 or 15 years, s**t is going to get very real, we’re talking about some pretty sophisticated warfare, and soldiers are going to need technology like this, to get above the combat…” He also wearing a T-Shirt saying “TACITUS” Which they have an image of the website also, so obviously, they got him to film this as a sneak peek!

There are more things that look awesome including a crawling tank, a dropship type of thing, actual flyable jets, as well as lots more including horseback?! We don’t know what that’s all about but it shows that Treyarch have spent their free time trying to redefine COD.

But the proof is in the pudding, COD: Black Ops 2 will be out on the 13th November, we will try to keep you updated.

 

 

 

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Ridge Racer: Unbounded Review

Ridge Racer: Unbounded, is like none of its predecessors, it has been overhauled and now has a fierce, rebellious feel to it. They have moved away from the clean-cut circuit racer that we all know Ride Racer as being and now it’s all about Rampaging through the city of Shatter Bay, this is what we have all been waiting for! In concept, this is a lot like Burnout Revenge, but it has a few more things up its sleeve than Revenge did.

The game itself is a very nice looking spectacle, the environments are well crafted, and the cars look good. There is no real storyline, you have a brief introduction at the start, explaining who “The Unbounded” are, and then you have a series of events and eventually you dominate the city and take it as your own, but who really needs a storyline on such a game?

The events consist of 5 event types; Domination Race – Destroy anything and anyone who gets in your way to win! Time Attack, Drift Attack, Frag Attack – Destroy a certain amount of cars in the allotted time, and plain old, no thrills, Racing, known as “Shindo Racing”. These are good and are very challenging, but sometimes it can be too hard and can get very annoying after a while.

The gameplay itself is okay, however, the steering is a bit crude and the drifting can be very hard to handle, but with time, you get used to it. There are some more annoying points about it though, the Power boost that you use to generally frag others (although you can also frag them without) and destroy buildings and other destructables, has a very annoying camera, when you do destroy something or frag someone, it also slows down majorly a lot of the time, this can ruin your race or time trial and make you have to restart, also sometimes, it places you in the most annoying places which make you crash, as you can imagine, this gets very agitating!

The online play is ok, but nothing special, I do like the fact that you can compete to beat other people’s times they set on their City they created. The City Creation Tool itself is a good feature, there is nothing special about it, it is basically like a scalextric track set-up, you choose the pieces you want and build it, but you do need to bear in mind such things as tunnel entries and exits and other pieces like it, also there is a build limit, and this is a bit of a bummer, as you may not be able to build the track you want!

Concept8/10
Graphics8/10
Sound8/10
Playability5/10
Entertainment7/10
Replay6/10
6.7/10

Overall the game is brilliant, both in concept and in parts of the execution of it, but it can be VERY annoying, if you are willing to look over the flaws, it is a great game and very amusing.

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Innovation and Originality are something shooters have been missing lately

SOF Studios announced today they are currently developing “an Entertainment Industry first”  by using hand selected personnel from the world’s most elite Special Operations units.

On their new webpage, SOFs shares that the characters in their untitled Tactical Shooter will be profiled from actual Army Special Operations, Army Ranger, Army Special Force and Nave SEAL veterans.

We understand that more  about each member’s profile will be revealed in stages and there are hints of character visuals to be added as well.

Unlike the normal process that developers follow, SOFs is planning on offering an extremely high level of transparency as the project progresses.

The first step in this process is by encouraging shooter fans to head to their website and “Jump In” by filling out a profile questionnaire. This gives Gamers a personalized voice directly with the team at SOF Studios.

To help reach out to Shooter Fans, SOFs has built alliances with Long Standing Communities like The Sea Snipers, TheRealSocom.com and Urgent Fury as well as the up and coming Happy Thumbs Gaming YouTube Channel. It is alliances like this that will make this game very likely to be a truly Fan-Driven game.

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COD MW3 To Have 5 New Prestiges

When I first heard about this I was told that Robert Bowling had tweeted it. But I know that the readers here would want more info and clarity, so I dug some up for you! There is no word as to when the prestige levels will be added to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, but the new five levels will also raise the maximum console prestige level to 15 just like it did with the update patch that was made available for the PC version of the game not long ago. The emblems are pretty nice I must say:

We will report a follow-up when we learn anything else regarding this but I think it’s great! 😉

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The next generation of consoles. Do gamers want them yet?

Not too long ago there were rumors floating around the internet that the next generation of consoles would be announced and or released in 2012 (usually concerning the Xbox 720). These were quickly shot down by almost every level headed person with a keyboard but let’s sit and think for a second. What if these rumors had been true? I can tell you I would not have been a happy consumer. I am completely happy with the way console gaming is now!

 

You can say all you want that developers have “pushed each console to its limit” but this statement is almost completely graphics based. Do you think that in 2009 when Naughty Dog’s masterpiece “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” was released that they for a minute thought “we have done all we can for this system, now we need a new one?”  No they didn’t! They continued to see what they could do better and I honestly didn’t think the snow in Uncharted 2 could be topped but when I saw the massive desert in this year’s sequel “Uncharted3: Drake’s Deception” they once again blew my mind. So I don’t think any developer thinks that they can’t continue to improve their games on the current generation of consoles.

Now let’s move to a financial standpoint. Microsoft is still selling a ton of 360’s and to release a new console now would do nothing but hurt them financially. Sure I cannot I am eagerly anticipating Microsoft to move to blu ray and to wow me with what their new console can do but for now I am content. I also heard rumors of a ps4 release (which are even more ridiculous than the 720 predictions) so let’s bring Sony into account. They have already promised that the playstation 3 will ave a 10 year life cycle of which we are only 5 years into. They also have had a major financial hit this year (an estimated 1.97 billion) from many things such as the network crashing and very poor 3D display and initial Vita sales (with the Vita already expected to have a price drop) a ps4 launch would no doubt put them in a worse financial state than they are right now. Also now away from the company’s I as a consumer would not buy one. I being a high school freshman do not have a great income and with me getting a vita, and the games that will be releasing next year I wouldn’t be able to drop $600 on a shiny new console. Plus launch titles of consoles are typically not very good so most likely I’d just be using the initial backwards compatability feature.

 

It is known that both developers are already working on their new consoles. They have been since the current ones launched. Though they will not be released this year I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a tech demo or some sort of blueprints this year. I think a release date will be announced in 2013 and the first of them will be released in 2014. Hey as long as I get to keep my trophies and gamerscore I’m fine. This gives developers plenty of time to continue to wow us on the consoles we’ve come to love these past few years and I hope 2012 is as great a year for gaming as 2011 was.

 

 

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Urgent Frequency Ep. 91 – The 2011 VGA Preview Episode

After a year of major game releases, the game industry & gamers from all over the world are set to pick the best of the best for the 2011 Video Game Awards.

Shane Bell (Urgent Fury CIO) & Doc (The Tester (Season 1) & Replay w/ Doc) join Commander Fury to preview a few of the categories & make their 2011 VGA picks.

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Warning: MW3 Modded Clan Tags, Will Get You Banned…

Story by: CritiKiL

Modded clan tags in Modern Warfare 3 are tags which have button icons in it, that make them considerably longer compared to what is permitted. A minor issue, yes, however Infinity Ward does not like any kind of exploit whatsoever, in their games. If you have got a modded clan tag, be sure to change it back to something suitable or risk a ban. Here is the official response on the Activison support forum regarding the MW3 clan tags:

“Using any kind of hack or exploit to put characters or graphics into your clan tag can result in a suspension or full ban. You may only use the default set of characters included in the user interface”

This is true for tags that are colored anything beyond the default colors, which also have been confirmed to be an exploit as well. Infinity Ward has stated that they will be evaluating the problem and that gamers who have got modded clan tags ought to be reported on sight. Guy Beahm of Sledgehammer games was asked if there would be an ETA for the fix, however due to this being so low-priority and undamaging to gameplay, there isn’t one.  So if you’re using these types of clan tags, remove them or run the risk of getting banned from the game.

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Battlefield: 3 Now ‘Banned’ in Iran…

Story by: CritiKiL

First the Lawsuit, and now This? ~ Iran has banned this video game in all of Iran, which is very popular here in the USA. In the picture above, it shows the US invading Iran. With the latest incident leading to the killings via Drone-airstrike by NATO, this video game is the first of expressions showing the countries unrest with what happened. Battlefield: 3 has been banned in that country because of it’s depictions of US armour and aircraft launching  assaults on and in the city of Tehran, according to an Iranian IT magazine today.

Tehran Highway: A nighttime map where players start off in the hills out side of the city and work their way in. Sounds a lot like Strike At Karkand. The map starts open, but ends “on a much more urban and tight note” with focus on infantry combat.

The game (EA’s current top-selling title), can be played as a solo campaign or as a group mission with up to 24 players online. The Iran scenario sees US forces fighting hostile militia near the Iraq-Iran border then moving on to Tehran under a looming nuclear threat. Intense gunfights are depicted in various military, industrial and urban locations in the capital, including Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar.

According to EA, 5 million copies of Battlefield: 3 were sold within just ‘one week’ of it hitting the market on October 25, 2011. The game is available on DVD-ROM and as for download from the Internet. EA has no resellers in Iran, but pirated copies of all major videogames and computer software are widely available worldwide. This is the first time an official ban on the game was reported, but some computer store owners said they had declined to stock the game  initially, anticipating a possible crackdown on it.

Iranian police overseeing public places “raided (some shops) and arrested owners for selling the game secretly” even before the ban became public, said by one anonymous store owner who did not want his name mentioned. The Fars news agency said the game had prompted an online protest by a group of Iranian youths. One group said in an online petition, with more than 5,000 signatories so far:

“We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical … (but) we believe the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran…”

Although Not noted in the petition as far as we know: ‘an Iranian leader in the game outright calls Americans terrorists’, in explaining the source of the struggle in the Launch trailer that I’ve attached to this story below. Whatever the outcome, it looks like this game won’t be accessible or played in that part of the world ever again, but that’s just my take on the given situation. Let us know what YOU THINK, by commenting on this story! Don’t forget to watch the video below:

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