App Review No. 80 One More Line

Strong Points:
Great, retro graphics
Nice feel to it
Some drawing capabilities (if you like circles that is)
Addictive
Interesting point: lag changes the drawing you make - making it jagged etc.
Soundtrack is cool

Weak Points:
Hard to learn, harder to master
Only one mode
Frustrating
Can lag quite a bit
Can sometimes grapple the wrong circle
Buttons are not labelled very well
Amount deaths are displayed, plain to see, on the front page

Rating: 80%

First Impressions: Blacklight: Retribution

I got this game for the PS4 a couple of days ago on a whim because I was bored and it was free. While it was downloading I watched a few streams on the PlayStation service and was instantly reminded of Left for Dead and Call of Duty. This piqued my interest as I had been wanting to play a decent shooter on the PS4 for a while now (I'm just not that good at PC games), so I jumped in.

First Impressions: Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Game of the Year Edition

Besides being a contender for the 'Longest Game Title Ever Award' it is also a pretty good game. Think Starcraft II set in the Warhammer 40k universe and you're getting somewhere.

App Review No. 79 Save The Frog

Strong Points:
Addictive
Easy to learn, hard to master
Amazing music
Challenging
Lots of frogs
Graphics are nice for the game

Weak Points:
Frustrating
Other modes would be nice
Games played is displayed front and centre
Difficulty slope is quite steep
Frogs only seem to change colour

Rating: 86%

Rant No. 2 Team Fortress 2 Weapons

So the recent update for Team Fortress 2 came out and was one of the most anticipated updates: End of the Line. This was a community update that Valve agreed to back and introduce actual items and maps into the game. While I don't want to bring hate on the devs of End of the Line but it is a mix of Valve and them that managed to ruin the update.

The update was meant to add a new map cp_snowplow and some new weapons as well as cosmetics. The only problem was the fact that Valve took one look at cp_snowplow and stated that it was "too complex for new players"! That is too complex?! What on Earth about cp_steel, that is complex to players who are used to Team Fortresses map style. Also when it came to the items, one was added in the Love and War update and the others "were not to a high enough standard". This means that in the entire year we have only received 8 weapons. 8! That is utter rubbish. The leaked Spy vs Engineer update may be the only weapons we get the whole of next year. Oh and speaking about that update, after what we saw with EoL the new weapons could be a new pistol that is shared between them as well as a reskin of the wrench. Also, do Valve love demoman or just hate the other classes? 4 new weapons, for the demoman, in a year while only 8 weapons were added to TF2 this year. That is half of all the weapons made! Spy and Medic haven't received a weapon and Pyro, Engineer and Heavy have only received a single weapon that is shared between them. Why? Why not include the other weapons made specifically for this update? It would have worked and all this "were not to a high enough standard" s***. (Rage Mode activate) HAVE YOU F***ING SEEN THE CLASSIC OR EVEN THE DIRECT HIT THAT HAS A SCOPE ON IT THAT ISN'T EVEN USED. WHAT ABOUT THE EUREKA EFFECT THAT HAS THE TEXTURE OF A SKINNED WHALE WITH ADDED RED RINGS OF B*******?

I do see that Valve had some reasons to not release the maps and weapons, and at least we received some other new weapons for Christmas, but the most of the reasons were c***.

See Ya,

Martin

App Review No. 78 bit.BEAT

Strong Points:
Addictive
Nice electro music
Retro graphics
Interesting control scheme
Challenging

Weak Points:
Can get repetitive
Frustrating
Bugs - columns suddenly move very quickly up and down
Graphics can judder and get stuck

Leaderboards appear as a message box

Rating: 68%

First Impressions: The Last Of Us Remastered

I have heard many, many good things about this game. I was going to get it for the PS3 but when the remastered version came out, I thought I would wait until I got a PS4. So nearly two years late to the party, I got the game. I'm glad I came. From the mind-blowing graphics and animation to the amazing characters and voice acting and finally the heart-wrenching moments which will leave you staring at your TV for a while, just contemplating life. Don't worry no (except for some backround information) spoilers.

App Review No. 77 Pixel Gun 3D

Strong Points:
Good Minecraft like graphics and animations
Lots of weapons
Great campaign
Nice multiplayer
Survival is a great way to get coins
Cool skin changer
Lots of multiplayer modes

Weak Points:
Difficult to get coins in early game
Some lag in multiplayer games
Difficult to level up
Long loading times

Rating: 92%

Review No. 102 Planetside 2 - PC (12+)

Strong Points:
A variety of classes
Three factions to choose from
Four huge maps
Maps are huge
Massive battles are amazing to be in and watch
Lots of vehicles
Virtual Reality training is helpful
Good graphics
Great music
Instant action and respawning helps you get around

Weak Points:
Huge learning curve
Unbalanced
Long distances between battles (takes ages to get anywhere)
Anything except for huge battles can be boring
Weapons and class powers don't mix well (for some classes)
Instant action doesn't always get you instantly into the action

Rating: 86%

First Impressions: Bioshock

I got this game because of two factors. The first factor was the awesome reviews it had gotten and the general feedback of this game being immersive and atmospheric with a great story (which recent games have failed to do). However, I don't really like horror games too much, preferring comedies and this is when the second factor comes in to play. The Steam sale. I got Bioshock 1, 2 and Infinite for less than I would've paid for one of the games. With that I jumped in. Warning: slight spoilers.

First Impressions: Borderlands

Crash! The opening scene sees the unfortunate end to a Skag (a dog-like creature) as you ram into it at full speed. The next sequence introduces the cast of characters you can play as: Roland the Soldier, Mordecai the Hunter, Lilith the Siren, or Brick the Berserker. I chose Lilith because of her magical capabilities.

New Year's Resolutions Version 2.0

The time has come again for us to say goodbye to another incredible year for the blog and YouTube. With (at the time of writing) an amazing 34,564 views, 291 posts, 100 games reviews, 76 app reviews, 2 posts with over 2000 views each and some very tired, but happy writers with 1 post a day (bar Christmas and Boxing Day) for the month of December. We've had writers leave, join, return and each have written superb posts for the blog.

Video Game Character of the Month - January 2015 - Rayman - Rayman

Video Game Character of the Month

January 2015

Rayman
Rayman

Overview:
Ah Rayman, the limbless wonder. Just how can you survive, let alone function? Who knows? I'd ask him but I'm afraid he's sleeping and I'd have to waken Polokus as well which could cause a few problems. So, I'm afraid that I'll just have to go with what I've got. (Oh and I know this was meant to be a Christmas themed VGCOTM but, well, you try to find a Christmas themed character that deserves the award! Anyway, Rayman has certainly been in some Christmas themed levels, I'm sure).
A quick bit of info on Rayman: