Show me the Vita!

Before I start this post on the epic handheld console that is the PS Vita, I would like to thank Tanky for covering for both myself and Titus whilst we were away. I'm sending virtual applause.

I was going to get this up last night, bit I was far too excited by the new addition to my console family to even think of writing a post. So, just over twenty four hours after purchasing the PS Vita, here's what I think about Sony's latest creation.

The PS Vita, or PSP2 as it is sometimes referred to, was released yesterday in Europe. It had taken a while for me to decide whether or not to pre-order the console, and so I only got 'round to it on Sunday but I was excited nonetheless. After picking it up from my local GAME I raced home and instantly unwrapped it, marvelling at its beauty. In my excitement, I took a while to figure out where my memory card went and where to insert the game, but I got there in the end...with some help. Sadly, the game I pre-ordered (Dungeon Hunter: Alliance) had not arrived in store and so I bought Wipeout 2048 instead so that I at least had something to play.

Once I had tapped in all the required details (PSN, etc.) I started playing Wipeout 2048 - a racing game set in what is now the not-so-distant future. My parents remember having this game on our PS1 all those years ago and were surprised to see  remake of it  - it was their favourite game. I have to say, it's brilliant. I thought Mario Kart on the 3DS and Wii was fun, but I hadn't yet come across this beast of a game. It's ruthless, the cars (or perhaps ships) are awesome and it's exciting as you do your best to at least finish in fifth place. I like futuristic racing games...they're awesome. So, a lot of yesterday was spent with me and my younger sister playing Wipeout 2048 in an attempt to beat each other...I always win...of course. The controls are pretty easy to get the hang of and there are some tracks where you're able to tilt the screen in order to steer the ship-car, which is pretty epic.

Deeply upset by the absence of Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, I decided to download the free trial from the PlayStation store and give it a go. Of course, they put strict limits on you - you started as a level six and could only reach level ten. I've played this game a hundred times before on my phone, and I don't believe the storyline has changed, but I still love it - a basic RPG without anything fancy. You choose one of three classes and get out there. I've only ever played as a warrior or a rogue and so gave the mage a chance this time 'round. Not sure if I like that class so much, he keeps getting killed. I found the controls to be a little irritating at times, especially having to tap the screen in order to activate my fairy powers rather than having an assigned button, but it's not a massive flaw.

The Welcome Park seemed to me a waste of time when I first turned my Vita on. However, I started playing with it last night and it's actually a lot of fun. They're really games to get you used to the controls, but I use them purely for the element of fun. There's one where you have to tilt the screen to move a skateboard so that you can dodge giant balls, another where the rear touch pad comes into use so that you can destroy numbers that are floating around. There is also a game where you speak into the microphone and create balls with that sound which will play on a loop - it's very odd. I haven't finished exploring the Welcome Park yet, but I know there's some stuff to to with Augmented Reality (where the console makes it looks like there's things crawling around your house), which is pretty cool.

The PS Vita is amazing, it's a revolutionary piece of handheld gaming. I would really recommend you get out there and buy one. Although, I would suggest getting the WiFi version over the 3G one, because there isn't much more you can do with the 3G and it just costs more money initially and in an additional contract. WiFi all the way!

Valhalla

Me and my PS Vita...fetching...

The skyrim that could have been...

So what would they do with such a task... well...here are some of the results.....

Goblins as a species, rather than dungeon dwelling vermin...

horse back fighting...

Cooler mounts...

Portal gate fast travel system..

DRAGON MOUNTS!!!....

Kinect voice activated shouts...

FAT GIANTS...

Werebears....

More realistic water effects...

the chance to become a flying Vampire Lord...

Spears...

Magic kill cams...

Adoption?

The chance to build your own house...

complete with SKELETON BUTLER..

season effects....

Season effects continued...

TO INFINITE AND BEYOND!

Bioshock Infinite, Is a game developed by Irrational Games using the Unreal engine 3, which has already won around 75 editorial awards at 2011's E3 awards (One of which was the Game Critics Awards’ Best of Show)

Columbia!

This FPS is set in 1912 and the player will assume the role of a former Pinkerton agent known as Booker Dewitt, A man who (faced with amounting debts) takes 'one last job' and has been sent aboard Columbia (large city on board a ship) to rescue a girl by the name of Elizabeth (A women who has been forcefully imprisoned there since birth. ll she knows about the world are her rooms and her jailer, a massive creature known as Songbird (A primitive looking Big Daddy with the ability to fly) Your character soon develops a relationship with the young woman and augments his abilities with hers in the hope that they may aid their escape from a city that is literally falling out of the sky.

Elizabeth

 Columbia was built by the US government in the late 1800's and was said to have acted as a floating World's Fair ( Travelling every continent to brag about American ingenuity withing science), But, was later accused of being a 'Death Star' as it was secretly covered up that Columbia was packing heat (and I mean more heat than Detroit's gangland). Political issues caused the ship to secede from the US and now no-one knows how to find Columbia. 





Columbia has a series of Sky Lines (poles around the city) which were originally designed to ship cargo from area to area, But,  Now the  Vox pupuli (Latin for voice of the people - a group of protesters against the founders) led by daisy fitzroy i Have began using them in their attacks using a weapon like object known as a Sky Hook.

Bioshock : Infinite is currently still under development with the promise it will be released this year for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC (Sorry Nintendo gamers), Furthermore they have scrapped the ex positional and laggy multiplayer of Bioshock 2.

AND I THOUGHT RAPTURE WAS DARK, WELCOME TO REALITY, ITS EVEN DARKER!

Sovngarde

 I am sorry to break the news today that concept artist Adam Adamowicz (the designer behind Bethesda's huge role playing/ free roam games Fallout 3 and Skyrim) has passed away after battling with cancer recently.

As a small mark of appreciation of this amazing mans life and work, I would like to share with you (and everybody really, he's made that much of an impact), Some photos of this gaming savior and his talented feats in the gaming industry.

Now to walk you through the various accomplishments of this man... :)

Goblin Commander- Unleash the horde

Night caster - Defeat the Darkness

Night caster 2- Equinox

Elder scrolls 5 - Skyrim

First fully rendered vision of a dovahkiin  and a draon

The intricate designs of the dragon lettering

concept designs behind the meat of Skyrim

Adam in front of the many works of art he put into Fallout 3

Building design - Fallout 3

Creature Design - Fallout 3 

Fashion Design - Fallout 3

Robot Design - Fallout 3

Homemade Weapon Design - Fallout 3

Pipboy3000 Design - Fallout 3

Vault Suit Design - Fallout 3

Adam working on his designs

Thank you for reading and i think i speak for all of us when I say thank you Adam and we hope you rest in sovngarde dovahkiin!!!

FUS RO DAH!

Disappointment in Star Wars: The Old Republic

It was a sad day yesterday. It was the day when I found something very wrong about SWTOR, and something that made me feel incredibly annoyed. It's to do with PvP and how unfair it is.

So, yesterday I started up my laptop ready to play a bit of SWTOR and to perhaps get my starship back...finally. I logged on, prepared to fight some foul enemies and level my character up as I had progressed through the quest to get my ship back, but was now too low a level to get past a certain gang that were keeping Skavak from me. In order to annihilate them I had to level, and levelling meant killing a load of creepy people in order to gain some XP and credits (which I sorely needed).

PvP was so intense that even Mikal needed a rest.

As I was wandering around the RP server I play on, chatting with some other characters, talking about how sexy cyborgs are and so on, a player was telling me about the warzone they had just entered. Intrigued, I asked more about these warzones (I didn't bother reading the 'welcome to level 10 email SWTOR sent me) and how I could get there. The guy told me how to enter and I was quick to do so - the desire to earn XP was strong.

I had to queue for quite a while, but that didn't really bother me as I could kill whilst I waited. Yes, my cyborg is a killing machine. Eventually, I was asked to join the warzone and I accepted the invitation, wondering what could be waiting for me on the other side of the loading screen.

It seemed quite cool at first. The aim of the game is to get to the ball in the middle and capture it before the enemy does and to do so within the allotted time. It seemed like quite a cool concept. A load of NPC's sit around you in a sort of Colosseum as you battle each other. I was excited and couldn't wait until I was allowed in. As soon as it began I raced out and began to make my way to the ball in the middle. Then, I was stopped in my tracks. In front of me was a level 50 and a level 44, lightsabers in hand as they prepared to slaughter me. I was only level 12, it wasn't fair. I did what any decent gunslinger does, I ran.  I ran and I hid. I took a moment to scan over my team and saw that I was the lowest level there. It turns out that SWTOR had decided not to make PvP fair and so let any level battle in a warzone. It was wrong, very wrong. Incredibly unfair too. I had no enjoyment in that warzone. I fought as much as I could and died more often than I would have liked. The Sith won on the end, no surprise there considering they had nothing lower than level 40. As the window showing damage done etc came up, I was surprised to find that I was the fourth biggest damage dealer in the whole match. I had to look again as it couldn't possibly be correct - I hid for most of the match. The higher levels ended up dealing the least damage...it was strange indeed.

As I spent the PvP match hiding and running I got not screens...but Mikal wanted to dance for you all...

Anyway, this has to be the biggest fault in SWTOR. I was really annoyed and I won't be participating in PvP for some time. Creators of SWTOR, please sort this out as it has really irritated me.

- Valhalla

Terraria?

Terraria

This Indie side scroller game is surprisingly popular. I lot of my friends play it and have recommended it to me despite my dislike for all games lame.

My first impression of it was ‘it’s basically a rubbish version of Mine Craft’. I asked one of my friends to tell me a bit about the game and going with my first impression he said it’s “comparable to the original Metroid. It’s kind of a cross between Metroid and Mine Craft.” From what I have seen you go around blowing stuff up in order to collect ores to make armour (seems kind of pointless to me). My friend however was exceedingly enthusiastic about it (each to their own) and so I did what any good blogger would do and decided to ask him some more questions.

First of all I enquired about his favourite aspects of the game and what he would change if he could. His original reply informed me that it is ‘a fun social game’. Which is not much to go on so I inquired further and ‘he-of-little-words’ informed that it was “just going out and trying to out-gear your mates” (If this is what gaming is turning into then things are getting bad).  Still I enquired further but I couldn’t get him to say anything critical about the game, he seemed to generally like it a lot although he does inform me that there is “not much of a story” and that the exciting part was getting “to progress, kill bosses and get rid of corruption” (such an original idea).

I think it is only fair that I give you some more information on the actual game and allow you to form your own opinions:

Terraria...

Aside from killing bosses and building castles what can you do? After you’ve invited your friends to live in your castle what is there to spike your interest? Explored all of the underground caverns? Collected wood, money and metal....make some armour. Build a new house. Destroy some people...get a bit of PVP action in.

When you die you get a message informing you that ‘you were slain’.

Dig deeper (literally) into a world of adventure and building stuff.

There are a lot of different biomes on this game, I suppose they thought it would be nice not to have to stare at exactly the same picture for hours on end, they were right, but there isn’t much you can do with a 2D (not just literally) game like this one. There is: The Hallow, Floating Islands, Meteorites, The Corruption, Dungeon, Underground Hallow, The Underworld and more.

Environments

Forest, Desert, Ocean, Hallowed Desert, Hallowed Ocean, Jungle.

The Hallow – unlocked once you have defeated the Wall of Flesh in the Underworld. Is used to counter the seed of corruption by spreading seeds or throwing holy water. Appears disturbingly cheerful with colourful trees and blue grass and a rainbow and a sun in the background.

Floating Islands – Appear in the sky. Usually made with a building of ore bricks and spawn the same creatures as the forest except for Harpies and Wyverne.

Meteorite – Make random appearances and can only be mined using a Gold pickaxe or better, Dynamite or Bombs. Player is informed when a meteorite crash-lands.

The Corruption – As afore mentioned in ‘The Hallow’. Evil that is formed randomly when a world is created. Corruption appears as purple grass and orange sky. Spawns high-level monsters. Hard to stop from spreading.

Dungeon – Many layers deep, can reach the underworld. Found opposite side of the world to the Jungle. Randomly formed from 1 of 3 dungeon bricks. Contains chest of rare items and decorative items.

Underground Hallow – Naturally forms as Hallow spreads to the underworld. Large amounts of Pearlstone Block. Monsters include: Chaos Elementals, Illuminant Bats, Illuminant Slime and Enchanted Swords, Mimics, Armoured Skeletons, Heavy Skeletons and Skeleton Archers.

The Underworld – Deepest Biome. Found below stone. Background is lava pattern. Contains underworld houses, chests, shadowchests, pots, Hellforges and potions. Stronger enemies – Fire Imps, Bone Serpents, Demons, Hellbats, Lava Slime, Hell Demons, Wall of Flesh (Boss).

Just a bit of information on the selection of areas to visit to intrigue you, I don't want to give away to much. Check it out and tell me what you think. 

Titus Proxima