Introducing Galactic~

Hey, guys! And girls! And others!

Galactic here, and from today on, I'll be a regular writer on this here blog!

About me... well, I'm a massive Pokemon fan, and I love to play RPG- styled games. I suck at FPS games, and as much as I love them, I suck at a lot of Platformers, too. Oh? You wanted to know about me other than games? Well, I'm a girl, if that says anything (no, I am not some kind of girl who pretends to know what she's on about, but actually is not a gamer at all), and I manga and anime, too (though they have nothing much to do in this blog).

I guess you'll be expecting reviews on old games (and new ones, too), and updates and stuff on a certain MMORPG that you'll find out soon enough. Expect a lot of Pokemon news and stuff, too, since I'm a massive Pokemon MasterFan.

For now, though, I bid you adieu.
Oh, and before I go.
Here's a little picture for you.


Yeah. Beat Red on Pokemon Silver with just a level 100 Shiny Rattata. That's how serious I am about Pokemon.

Cosmic Energy for the Win!
~Galactic

Our First Series!

Due to the recent development of Indie Horror Games, my team and I have decided to our blog's first series on Indie Supernatural Thriller Games!
Firstly, we look at upcoming games that are inspiring this new breed of gaming genre... (Please feel free to mention any other games below that you think should join this series)

First up, we have SLENDER, which is developed by Parsec Productions. (If you want you can read the review under this post)

What makes it Scary?
Zawmbie: The fact that there is no light apart from the torch, and that he can turn up right next to you put's you on the edge of your seat.

Zed: I love the noises and music, absolutely fantastic! The noises as you spot Slenderman in the forest really drive you to insanity. That is what makes it scary.

GandalfTheBlue: For me, it's the setting. A dark forest, and your defenseless child? No wonder why you as a player feel helpless to do anything but run. I screamed so much...

Our team gave it a 6/10 for playability, a 5/10 for graphics and a 15/10 for scariness...


Next up is Anna, an Indie horror game recently released from Italian designers. Beautifully rendered map, and an ingame AI computer that measures your actions and decides the next encounter based on those actions.

What makes it Scary:
Zawmbie: Well, judging by the videos, this 'AI' is incredibly smart. Also, the fact that it can create multiple things to scare you makes me want to play this game. However, the setting of a green, sunny day really twists my view, and I don't quite see it as scary as Slender.

Zed: Just to counter Zawmbies comment there, I believe that the setting of a nice sunny day is a technique used to hide the scariness underneath. Although it is risky, I think it works well with the setting. Whilst playing I actually did not wnat to go i9n the house because the daylight ept me feeling safe.

GandalfTheBlue: The image above scares me enough. But I'm going to side with Zawmbie on this one, that 'sunny dayz' feeling just doesn't work....

Zed: Shame on you!!!

The team gave it a rating of 4/10 for playability (the damned controls), an 8/10 for graphics and a 9/10 for scariness.

Finally on our post is Among The Sleep, a brand new game that has been declared to be released next year.  Some of you may have heard on the grapevine about how this game is making waves on the internet; we certainly did. (Please note because this game has not yet been released, we can only judge it off trailers + gameplay videos)

What makes it Scary?

Zawmbie: I believe that this game is going to like amnesia mixed with Rugrats. The defenslessness factor comes in again, like Slender, because you are a two year-old with monsters coming for you...

Zed: I tried throwing money at the screen to buy it, but it didn't work. :(
I am extremely excited about this game! The video scared me so much, and the idea about playing as a two year old is fantastic!!! This was me watching the video:
*First 10 seconds* Ok cool, oh look stairs
*After window sighting* NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
Like what Zawmbie said, this game makes you afraid simply because you can't defend yourself. There is no gun, or weapon, but only your will to proceed to the next room...
GAndalf The Blue: Wow, what a cool idea! This looked simply amazing as a game; and the environment reacting with shakes and ghosts makes me feel truly afraid. Definetley inspired from Amnesia, but with a twist... I will buy this game.

The team gave it a 6/10 for Graphics, an 7/10 for scariness and a 12/10 for originality!



Well, that's it! Next week, we take a look at the game that started it all: Amnesia, and discuss what these 'Thriller' games could hold for the future of PC games...

Link to Krillbites blog: http://krillbite.com/blog/
Trailer for Among The Sleep: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDQN_X5b-M

For Narniaaa!!!

"For Narnia!!!!" These are precisely the words I screamed as I begun the battle. My towers were ready, my forces stood strong, but the enemy approached like waves upon waves, obliterating my kingdom. I sat there, slumping in my seat, before I hit restart and begun the level again with fierce determination in my eyes...



Kingdom Rush has been an app that I have thouroughly enjoyed, and it brings me great pleasure to review this game. At first, I found the controls annoying and the gameplay a little dull, but if you just delve in a little bit more, you can find a real treasure of a game on the app store.

The app is a tower defense raider game, with various levels that follow a typical medieval story. There a multiple enemies, but not that many towers. Only four actually.
That's right, four towers to choose: barracks, archer tower, mage lair and bomb dispenser. Now, you may be thinking, "Four towers!? How gay" but I will stop you there good sir, as there is more then meets the eye.
My first arguement is that the developers, Ironhide Games Studio, have promised more towers. Great!
My second arguement is that these towers develop into 8 different specialty towers that look cool and
work great! This adds more units and more fun!

Even so, there are tower upgrades, hero's, and special 'God' abilities to turn the tide.

But, there is a downside... this game is hard! Like, seriously, take a rock, put it in concrete, then cover it with diamonds and then make it Chuck Norris's abs; it's almost as hard as that!!
I have spent many agonizing days having to restart endless battles, because in the end they overkill my units and I end up with butthurt >.> Not cool.
In other negative aspects, the monetary unit, gold, is extremely difficult to get in game. Defeating an enemy or summoning the next wave gets you more money, but in the end it's easily spent.

Even though there are these negatives, I still find it a fun game! Trust me, I have wasted many hours on this amazing game. Don't believe me that it's fun? Then read these reviews:

"Kingdom Rush is a beaut of a tower defense game, with new ideas that make it feel extremely polished and refined." Slidetoplay
                  
"This is easily one of the best tower defense games currently in the App Store." Gamezeebo
                  
"Kingdom Rush is an instant classic and is guaranteed to turn up on 2012 "best of" lists." IGN
                  
"Kingdom Rush can be filed in the thin folder marked -games that are pretty much perfect-." Jayisgames

I give this game a 5/5 for fun, a 3/5 for originality, a 4/5 for gameplay and a 3/5 for development. I like this app guys, it's a real beauty.

ZED

The Best of the Best...

2012 looks set to be quite a promising year for gamers, with massiv PC and Xbox platformers set to be relased around September to November. Some great titles include:

Dishonoured: Revenge solves EverythingCritics have described this stealth FPS as a mix between Assassins Creed and Bioshock. Recent trailers and gameplay reviews show a stealthy assassin with the ability to perform magic attacks, such as teleporting, freezing time and possessing animals in an open, steampunk world. Absolutely looking forward to this original title to see what promises they deliver.
Bethesda have announced that Dishonoured is set to be released on October 9th. Get ready for a full-on title....


WatchDogs: Anything can be hacked...
As it says with the slogan, watchdogs revolves around the modern day world, computer technology, and a 'disgruntled assassin' with the power of a city in his mobile phone. The trailer is interesting, based off certain statistics of illegal hacks, and follows a Open-world scenario, which is kind of like a copy of GTA. (Pssst, don't actually say it's a copy of GTA, or the fans will hunt you down)


Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U8KsQPIrY0

Blobs 2:
Not much to say, although it is a follow on from Blobs, and no doubt will continue the story. To stay in the loop, people call it a CoD Copy. Not too sure about it's promises, but looks set to be action-packed!




That's it so far! Look forward to some of these titles. Each has it's own little rewards!
ZED

iGet Ready For the Zombocalypse

Zombie Killing Gem of the App Store; that's what app enthusiasts are labelling this brand new zombocalypse FPS. Players take on the role of a survivalist amidst the zombie apocalypse; they are given a very simple but interesting story-line to follow.
What first caught my eye however, was the gravity field aspect. When you kill these Zeds, they don't just drop to the ground in a undignified, tedious way. No, developers have created multiple ways to finish them off, leaving the player with a giddy feeling that this game gives more then it first let on.

Imagine the players face as they experiment with multiple head shots, leg decapitaters and Zed bashing!

BOTTOM LINE: A Mob (enemy) in this game will react differently to each kill shot you give. Knock of its arms, and it will kick you in the shins (Which actually takes away a good ammount of health). Severe it's leg, and the zombie will shuffle after you till the final blow! It's this kind of authenticity that gamers want to feel; not just shoot the undead a couple of times and watch it fall down monotonously...
It's this kind of originality that put's other zombie shooters *cough* CoD Zombies *cough* in the online trash pile. Players want a humanizing effect of a game, and this app certainly delivers just that.

The developers of DEAD TRIGGER, Madfinger, have promised all this and more in their feature first game. Their continual updates have left buyers on the edge of their seats, asking for more! A pretty good deal for just 99c!

IN THE GAME:The opening menu of the game is a bird's eye view of the city, giving the player an RTS style genre. From there, the game allows you to selct missions in different area's of the map, which then determines
a) The number of zombies around AND
b) The setting of the game.

For example: Selecting a mission in the downtown area will put in a rustic, alleyway street, which might or might not be deserted. The 'levels' are linear-based, but allow open-fluid movement, meaning that you can move around and take different paths to a certain limit of that map. Clearly this game delivers more then asked for...


The gameplay is not that different from a regular Apple FPS. On the left side, the movement button. On the right: a trigger button, as well as iron sight and reload. The games ingenius interface allows users to customise the button style, to permit smooth play ability.


But, if there is a few things I can be a critic on, it would be this: Madfinger have allowed in-app purchases. This can be aggravating to a lot of buyers, as the currency model is based off the obtainable units (money) and purchased units (gold). To cut a long story short (and avoid the avid cursing), the games best suited weapons need to be purchased in order to kick some zombie ass.
Naturally, this got critics worried. But then came the final nail in the coffin...
Madfinger recently announced that the pressure their fans gave them about releasing a new app hindered the finished results in DEAD TRIGGER. Hence why the game has so many bugs, and currently only three NPC's. And just to rub salt into the wound, grammar Nazi's get a whole workload of sifting through error after error from various characters and plot-points in the game; a not so satisfying result for such a promising app. As for bug fixes and tweaks, Madfinger Games has managed to fix various issues in-game that reduced play-ability and interest.

However...

It's the next Dead Trigger update that you should really be excited about, though, for it will introduce the game's first survival arena, two new environments, two new flesh-eaters, and two fresh weapons (the chainsaw and boat motor). Oh, and iCloud support.

All in all, this game is brilliant. And it has potential to become memorable. I can agree with critics that this is a lesson to be learnt swiftly: don't rush into game development. That being said though, I give this game a 4/5 for graphics, 4/5 for story-line, 3/5 for development and a 5/5 for originality (compared to other zombie kill-em-up's on the App store). 


Buy this game guys; as you will not be disappointed...


ZED




RAWR I'M A ZOMBIE!!!