Jumat, 06 Juli 2012

Dead Space 2 Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing:



Dead Space 2 is a third - person, survival horror made by Visceral Games.
The game starts in the insane asylum, on some space station. The main character - Isaac  Clarke has no memory memory of the past three years. All he knows is, that there is a new outbreak of Necromorph - a kind of mutant that can only be killed, if you cut its limbs. The only thing you have to go by, is the questionable advice of Daina. And so the horror of Dead Space begins again. 


The gameplay provides a wide selection of ways to kill your enemies. First of, you have weapons, of course. They usually cut your target in some way and remember you are aiming for the limbs. Also you have the kinesis module, that is used to throw sharp objects and impale Necromorphs on walls. And finally you have melee attacks and the stasis module, which is used to slow down enemies.  




One interesting thing about the game, is that it doesn't have a clearly defined interface. All of the UI functions are holograms, made by your suit. This gives the game an interesting style and also better immersion.
The biggest improvement is the PC port. I never sensed any mouse exercises, or lag, or any of    the porting problems, that where in the first one.


To top it all of Dead Space 2 is a very atmospheric horror game, that doesn't inspire fear, like Amnesia, but in still managed  to get a few scares out of me. 

I hope you liked my review of Dead Space 2.
 If you did, please, comment and share with your friends.
  Have a nice day.

Selasa, 03 Juli 2012

Trine 2 Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing:



Trine 2 is a colorful, puzzle platformer, with various obstacles, that you have to overcome.
The story starts with the mysterious Trine - a magical artifact, that has the power to bind the souls, and destinies, of people to. The Trine seeks out the heroes from the first game - Amadeus , Pontius and Zoya. After the artifact "recruits" them - the adventure begins.





The Trine basically provides character switching, between the three heroes. As you probably guessed each hero is good and some task and bad at others. 
Zoya is a fast thief, she can jump the highest, out of the three characters. She also has a grappling hook and uses a bow for a weapon. Amadeus is a not so powerful Wizard. He can case boxes, planks and he can levitate things. And finally we have the brave knight Pontius. He uses melee weapons and is best at killing enemies and smashing walls down. 


To solve the physics puzzles, in single player, you have to use the best characters for the task, or combination of all three. There are no restrictions on how to solve the puzzles, as long as you can do it. 
In the three player multiplayer its a bit different, because each player controls one of the heroes and you must find a way, to get all of the characters to the end of the level.


One of the most impressive things about the game is the lighting engine. Doesn't matter, if the light is coming from the sun, the moon, or a torch, it looks beautiful. And that is the theme that is maintained threw the entire game - just beautiful. 
The only problem i found, is that sometimes you don't know what you have to do to solve a puzzle. But these cases are rear and you find the answer, after some trial and error.


To top it all of, Trine 2 is a beautiful game, with good puzzles, nice story and solid gameplay. 

I hope you liked my review of Trine 2.
 If you did, please, comment and share with your friends.
  Have a nice day.
Minggu, 01 Juli 2012

Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing:


Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes is the newest and funniest Lego game, to date.
The story starts with Joker escaping from Arkham, aided by Lex Luthor. So you must stop them by using different heroes from the DC universe.
There is a big change from previous Lego games. All of the characters talk. This makes for better jokes and ultimately a funnier game.




The game is mostly focused on solving puzzles, by using different suits for your super heroes. These puzzles are fun, varied and sometimes challenging. The combat is easy, like in previous Lego games, you just mash the attack key, until you kill all of the enemies. 
Boss battles on the other hand, are harder, because they are puzzles. In order to defeat a boss, you usually have to think outside the box, for every phase of the fight.
As always every levels has a lot of collectibles. In order to get all of them, you must complete every level multiple times, with different characters. 


But the game suffers from the usual Lego problems. Your AI partner is terrible, he mostly runs in to walls, fire, or just says in one place, like a idiot. That makes the game best, when played with a friend on local Co-Op, no online Co-Op unfortunately. The PC controls are even worst, then the AI. So even on PC its best to use a xbox controller.


To top it all of, Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes is very funny and fun game, best played in Co-Op.

I hope you liked my review of Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes.
 If you did, please, comment and share with your friends.
  Have a nice day. 
templates-office.com 2, bat, batman, computer, DC, game, games, heroes, lego, man, pc, review, reviews, super, Superheroes, two
Kamis, 28 Juni 2012

And here it is...

Next to summer, soccer and relocation pains and aches here is one of the main reason for the lack of new tutorials lately:
Wild Surf - a mobile devices game that started as a 'quick one day job' and turned into a full blown game development and a lot of fun creating the art.

"You are a few taps away from your next dream vacation. It's an endless summer here in Paradise Island with year-round sun and great surf everyday. Grab your favorite surfboard and catch some waves. Just be sure to avoid the hungry sharks on your ride into surfing heaven.

It's the best fun you had on the beach without getting sand on your device. Collect shells as you surf to spend in Joe's shop on new surfers, boards and power ups. If you don't like shopping, why not try your luck in the Surf Arcade and try to win power up and bonuses? Just watch out for these nasty seagulls, they are always after your shells."



We hope you will enjoy the game, join us on Facebook for in game giveaways, secret codes and tips.

Game is available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/app/wild-surf/id521631290?mt=8
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eatingmyhat.wildsur.

Coming Soon to Amazon.

I hope you enjoy the game as much as I did doing the art for it.
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Artist Monolog IV

Day 34
Five weeks and he is still around… I figured that the only way out of it was to have a look at what he wanted me to do. I even tried to convince myself that for sure it wasn’t that bad and I could get away with some basic art suggestions (“use red”). Again, I was wrong, what I saw was something like that…

image

image 
 
Day 35
I couldn’t sleep that night (he was under my windows all night asking “so how was it?”, “did you like it?”, “cool ha?”, “told you it is cool”, “call me?”, “I’m sure he liked it”).

Terrible as it was, something did click. I don’t know if it was the challenge, a mental breakdown or compassion for a lost soul (and hair) – but I decided to make a couple of images… and than a couple more, with a one or two additions; and a few hundred images later we finally had Wild Surf.

image


 
In order to satisfy the most likely request 'more babes on the beach' here's one of the ingame comics:

image
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Rabu, 27 Juni 2012

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut DLC Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today is a special DLC review:


After the release of Mass Effect 3, a lot of people where very disappointed, about the ending. So Bioware where forced to make a new one and it is called Extended Cut.
All of the changes are made are in the last mission. Before you get to the Citadel you may notice several new cinematics. They show parts of the space fighting, the ground battles, but more importantly they fill several gaps, that where in the original story.




However most of the changes come after, you get to the Catalyst, aka. the Ghost Child. This time you can talk more and get some new information. After you little chat - you have to chose one of four endings.
The cutscenes show pictures of the future, all of which depend on the choices you made previously. Also each ending is narrated by a different characters, who tells you more about the things to come.


To top it all off the new endings are much better and they fix the major plot holes. So if you liked the original endings, you will love this. And if you hated them, you will probably like the new once.

I hope you liked my review of Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut.
 If you did, please, comment and share with your friends.
  Have a nice day. 
Selasa, 26 Juni 2012

Plants vs. Zombies Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing:


Plants vs. Zombies is a game game developed by Pop Cap. So its packed full of content, compelling, waist of time, like most of Pop Cap's titles.  
The story is very basic. The zombies are coming to eat your brain, so you defend your house ... with the best weapon known to man - plants. 




The gameplay is very unique and very addicting. Basically your yard is a five lanes zombie highway, if any zombie gets to your house, you lose. In order to prevent that, you plant different kinds of plants - some that kill zombies from a distance, some that slow them down. Every plant has a sun cost and you get sun from sunflowers. 
The game gets very strategical in the final levels, due to the very large selection of plants and the many zombie types. 


If you don't like the champing missions, you can play one of the many mini games, like "Whack a zombie", "Wall-nut bowling" and my favorite "Portal Combat".
All of this sounds grate, but the game has one very big problem from PC. there are not hot keys from the pants, so you must use only the mouse and that gets very chaotic, very fast.  

So to top it all off Plants vs. Zombies is a great game, if you just want listen to some music, or get some rest, or generally its one of the best games to waist your time.

 I hope you liked my review of Plants vs. Zombies.
If you did please comment and share with your friends.
  Have a nice day.
templates-office.com cap, computer, game, games. review, pc, plants, pop, review, strategy, vs, zombies

PayPal Pains...

It was just a matter of time before it happened. I had a long conversation with my friends at deep blue apps (where I am illustrating a lot of the templates) and they had a whole avalanche of paypal disputes. Even my knocking on wood didn't help and today I had my first dispute on a BlockBuddies bundle - strange enough by a customer heavily shopping at deep blue apps as well (and disputing those purchases as well).


You don't get any information from paypal as to why the order has been disputed, so at first I thought ok... there is a kid shopping around with grandma's credit card. I was willing to just let it go and take the hit. After finding out there is a lot more purchases at deep blue apps I kind of changed my attitude.


It might be a sign of the times that everything is considered to be free and when you have a way to 'trick' someone out of his pay you should do so. The main flaw in this logic is the fact that things like this turn me off doing more art and tutorials. Why bother with something that makes me a little bit of pocket money (not talking about the fun I have doing it - but I would have that as well if I wouldn't publish them in this blog)? I might as well sit back and enjoy the summer, sun and pool.


Thanks to all who are supporting me and help me keep the faith in humanity and shame on those who think that it's ok to rip me off just because they can.


Sorry about this rant. I just had to let of some steam.  
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Sabtu, 23 Juni 2012

Shadow Era Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing a TCG:


Shadow Era is a free to play, browser based, trading card game, with a some unique ideas.
The rules are pretty simple, with some similarities to other TCG's. The terrain has several fields. The first is for your allies, the monsters you summon. The second is for support cards like spells and weapons and the third is for your Hero. The Hero is the most important card in your deck, because his race and class determines, which cards you can use.




Depending on the race, of the Hero, your allies will be either Human Allys or Shadow Allys. The class  determines what support cards you can use. But there are some cards, that can be used by anyone, regardless of his race and class.
The goal of the game, is to kill the enemy hero, using your arsenal of spells and army of allies. Those are the rules in a nut shell, there are a bit more complex, but this is a review, not a rule book.


There are two ways to get cards. The first is to buy booster packs, using crystals. You can get crystals by buying them with real money, or by leveling up you character. The second way is to buy individual cards, using gold. You get gold is by selling cards, or by winning matches.


This game, unfortunately, has some problems. The biggest one is the massive lag, you get when playing multiplayer. Fortunately this is not a FPS, so the only downside is longer matches and chat lag. Other problems include interface bugs and unbalanced cards, but they are too annoying.
To top it all of Shadow Era is a really good, free to play,  trading card game.  

 I hope you liked my review of Shadow Era .
If you did please comment and share with your friends.
Have a nice day.
templates-office.com browser, card, computer, era, game, games. review, pc, review, shadow, TCG, trading
Kamis, 21 Juni 2012

Rock of Ages Review

Hi, my name is Nik and today i am reviewing:



Rock of Ages is one of the weirdest and funniest game i have ever seen. 
You start as Sisyphus, who is rolling his bolder up the hill for an eternity, just like the Greek myth goes. One day  Sisyphus is like "screw this, i am getting out of here", so he uses his bolder to brake the door of the underworld and escapes. After that you and your bolder go on a rocking journey through history, rolling over anyone that stands in your way.




The gameplay is abstract as hell. Your control Sisyphus's bolder and you must smash the opponent's gate, before he brakes your's. When you ram the bolder at the enemy's gate, you must wait, until a new bolder is constructed. In that time you build defenses, in order to slow down, or destroy the opponent's bolder. Simple idea, but very addicting and enjoyable.


The funniest thing about the game, is the journey through the age. On it you encounter a lot of historical figures, like  Aristotle, Louis XIV, Napoleon and many more. All of the cinematics are riddled with references from movies, games and popular stories.


To top it all of Rock of Ages is a rocking experience, with rock-solid gameplay, that will rock your world.

I hope you liked my review of Rock of Ages .
If you did please comment and share with your friends.
 Have a nice day.
templates-office.com abstract, ages, computer, funny, game, games, of, pc, review, reviews, rock