The Guild Hall

Sometimes, after a long night of levelling, raiding and slaying countless Horde I sit back and think of what else I want to see in World of Warcraft. I think of little perks and massive changes...I think of...the Guild Hall. For those of you who have watched the internet series The Guild you may remember certain episodes featuring the introduction of the Guild Hall into the MMO that the characters in the series play. If you haven't seen it, then here's one episode below (it's less than 10 minutes long, fear not).

Ever since I watched season 4 of The Guild I have always wondered what WoW would be like with the introduction of Guild Halls to the game - places where guilds can meet, hang out, store items and customise the appearance of the hall to suit them. Of course, it would be a pretty big task and with the millions of people playing WoW it might be a little difficult, but there are other MMO's such as Runes of Magic that allow you to have your own home, and rumour has it that Elder Scrolls Online will be the same. Why not have a little haven where you can escape the deadly lag of Stormwind and the endless gold trolls on Trade Chat? Of course it would cost a fair bit of gold to actually craft a hall and the guild would have to be level 25 in order to unlock it in order to keep some order, but it would be well worth the effort.

It might be a big thing to ask, but if Blizzard did this I would be so happy - it might make up for the Pet Battles and various changes that are to come in Mists of Pandaria. What do you guys think - do you like the idea of a Guild Hall or are there other changes you want made to WoW?

Valhalla

LEAD THE REBELLION!

It's time to rebel, to rise up against the tyrannical King Logan - also known as your thin, pale and generally sickly looking brother. In Fable III it's all about rebellion and leading an army to restore Albion to its former glory. This is the story of a prince (or princess) and their journey to becoming the ruler of Albion.

You start out well enough - woken up by your butler, dressed in the clothing of your choice, it's all very relaxed and peaceful. You go and meet your girlfriend (or boyfriend) in the gardens, you fool around a bit and then suddenly your calm and easy life is shattered right before your eyes. There are protesters outside the palace, yelling about the cruelty of Logan and how he has changed over the past four years of his rule. It is then that you are called to the throne room where your brother forces you to choose - send a group of protesters for execution, or your love interest? It's a difficult choice, but it has to be made. Once you have decided who dies, your Mentor, Walter, informs you that you must escape the palace along with your butler, Jasper, and your dog.

You have to agree he looks pretty unwell.

Once you've escaped your journey begins. It is you who must gather the armies together to fight against your brother in order to repair the broken cities and civilisations that live in Albion. Starting from the mountains way to the East of the palace before moving down to the city you will earn the respect and following of the people of Albion. The game is filled with personal choices on what you do, choices that can make your character good, or turn them into evil future rulers. With every quest you do and the enemies that you kill you collect Guild Seals which allow you to buy new skills and emotes to use with NPC's and other players, as well as allowing you to unlock the gates on The Road to Rule - the road leading you to the palace. It's not a particularly long game, the storyline is very linear which allows you to complete the story pretty quickly. However, there are loads of side quests that you can do too, meaning that you can either take longer to complete the game or do them once you've finished.



The controls are pretty easy to get the hang of, it's nothing drastically different from every other games. It's a simple game to play which allows for relaxed gameplay. The co-op features are excellent - you can complete the whole game whilst playing with your friends, I did it on XBOX live. You can enter business contracts with your friends, allowing them to buy/rent properties in your game (you share the money earned), you can marry the other player and even have children with them. It's a lot of fun, especially with the different interactions that are available to you. I have to say it's on of the best forms of co-op - gaming can be so much more fun when you're playing with your mates.

The graphics aren't amazing quality, and I know it's a slightly older game being two years old, but they could have been better. Regardless, it doesn't take away from the great storyline. There may have been a few parts of the main story that I found a little disappointing, such as the length of certain battles during the game, but you can never have a perfect game. Despite the few flaws it is a fantastic story and allows for really great, enjoyable gameplay. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Fable III from your local game store. Partly because it's a great game, but also as rumour claims the next Fable game will allow you to merge your Fable III save with it - but more on that later, watch this space...

Valhalla

Guest Review: FFXIII

Well hey everybody it’s me, Faado, again - this time on a slightly older game all the way back from 2010. I would review a newer game but hey I’m rather skint so I’ll review what I have access to. And so today I give to you one of the most beautiful games I have ever played:

Final Fantasy XIII 

Epic battles, amazing worlds, great stories and fantastic music, these are just some of the things that I personally associate with the name Final Fantasy and this instalment in the legendary series doesn’t disappoint… for the most part. This instalment takes us to Cocoon, a shell world floating above the planet of Gran Pulse, in which millions of people live out their day-to-day lives with everything from energy to food provided for them by crystal beings called fal’cie. An almost Utopian world. Of course the peace of the world hides the fact that everyone living in Cocoon is terrified of Gran Pulse and everything that comes from there, especially the pulse fal’cie and their chosen l’cie, humans gifted with magic and assigned a task of ‘focus’ to complete with the promise of eternal life in crystal or being turned into rampant monsters if they do not complete their ‘focus’ in time. The story follows a group of Cocoon citizens who have been unwillingly turned into Pulse l’cie in their quest to deny their given focus of destroying Cocoon and instead free the people from the tyrannical rule of the Fal’cie, a task which will force them from their life long home to the dreaded Gran Pulse and back again before they have the strength and resolve needed to perform the task laid before them. 

As far as game play is concerned the world is, unfortunately for many fans of the series, fairly linear with very little room for open exploration, well for the most part anyway. The world doesn’t properly open up till quite late in the game but you should defiantly take advantage when it does. Some players on the other hand might prefer the linear game play as this means there is less chance of missing anything important and fewer tedious side quests (not to say that there are no side quests but they come in later). The battle system is an updated version of the active time battle used in the previous couple of games, but instead of waiting for the gauge to fill for your turn instead you stack a list of actions and when the gauge fills the character unleashes the stacked actions in one go. This gives combat a more dynamic feel than the rather static feel that came from many of the older titles. The nature of this ATB system means that you only control one character in battle while the others are controlled by the computer, now while this does mean that you are able to focus properly on what your leader is doing, you do have to rely on the computer controlled characters to do their job correctly, which as a credit to the development team they do the vast majority of the time. 

The new class system in XIII is the Paradigm system, which is interchangeable mid battle and is done so without much interruption to the flow of the battle. This allows you to be able to tailor your battle team for what you need when you need it which means you never have a useless team member. The levelling system for the paradigm classes is called crystogenesis with crystogen points gained from battles being spent to upgrade each class, which as more classes are unlocked for the each character allow the player to choose which classes to specialise in for each character, though they do have three main classes that will upgrade easier than the others based on the characters personalities. After each battle crystogen is given to all characters rather than just the ones your active party. This means that everyone levels up equally and you don’t have to keep swapping your team around to keep everyone balanced which was a great relief as with a full party of six people not everyone gets used (one person in particular for me). With this you might also find that if you are struggling with a specific part (say a difficult boss) then you can rearrange your team and go straight into battle again rather than having to go back to level people up.  

As far as the story goes in terms of gameplay, it is… disappointingly short, with you being able to move from one disc to the next in an afternoons worth of game play. This fact, for me personally, makes the linear world and lack of side quests all the more disappointing because it is very difficult to get as much play time out of each disc as you would like. The actual story of the game is not a bad one, with a group of heroes thrown together much more by chance than by choice, their struggle to come to terms with the fate that has befallen them and their decision whether to follow the task given them by the Fal’cie, or to defy their puppet masters and carve out their own destiny in a world where they are feared and hated by all. The characters are all quite well designed with each character having enough depth to make them feel believable without them turning into some depressing emo who looks on the bleak side of everything. Instead each hero has their own reasons for fighting and their own hopes that keep them going through the darkness, from the loving dad who just wants to see his child to the soldier looking for the next target to give their life meaning. Due to the lack of a primary protagonist the game often moves between different characters experiences which means that everyone gets their moments to show why they fight rather than just being stuck on one person all the time while the others stories happen on the sidelines. 

Next up is going to be the graphics and oh… my… god! Now as I have already said the story for this game in rather short which might leave you thinking “hey the Xbox version of this is 3 discs so if the story’s short… whats all that space being taken up by? Ha ha ha, well let me tell you. All of that room, 3 DVD discs worth of space (well the majority of it anyway) is taken up by the graphical quality. It is certainly a credit to the data size of blu ray discs that this game is able to fit onto a single disc with the quality of the game. Due to the fact that the game was designed for the PS3 and the blu ray discs the game designers were able to use the Final Fantasy budget to make a game that is a benchmark as to what is possible for the modern era and the 3rd generation consoles. There are very few games in which the quality keeps you intrigued and even when they do quite often after a few hours play you stop really noticing. But two replays later and there are still moments when I simply stop and admire the sheer beauty, and not even just the cut scenes (which might I say are utterly amazing) but the normal in game graphics which make me fear for the for the future of live action cinematography.  

Now as far as the rating goes I’m going to give this game GGGGGGGg (7 ½/10). Over all it is a fairly good game with a good story, a good control scheme, a magnificent world and some of the best graphics I have ever seen. The only real problems in the game are the unsatisfactory length of the story, the linear nature of the majority of the game and Hope who is THE most useless character in history. And so if you’re a 3rd gen gamer and you want to see what is possible in terms of graphics and play quite a good game at the same time then this is the one for you. If on the other hand you’re your looking to play a good RPG then there are better choices out there than this particular title and it may leave you feeling a little disappointed. But no matter what it is your looking for, I would most defiantly recommend that people play this game at some point just for its sheer beauty.   

10 Best Game Intros

The intro to a game is probably one of the most important parts - it's what starts getting you involved in the story and gameplay, and there is nothing worse than a bad intro. Of all the games I have played there have been good and bad starts, and listed below are 10 of my favourite game intros with the video so you can watch them yourself. In no particular order, here we go.

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of The Lich King

2. Star Wars The Old Republic

3. Diablo III

4. Skyrim

5.  Halo

6. Baldur's Gate

I know it's old, but I still love it.

7. Batman Arkham City

8. Modern Warfare 3

There's something hypnotic and intriguing about it. 

9. Fable III

10. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

So there you have it, 10 of my favourite - and what I would consider the best - intros. Hope you've enjoyed this little update, tell us if you think there should be any other intros up here. 

Valhalla

Pokémon Black and White 2

I've said it before - whilst the Pokémon in Black and White were lacking creativity at best, the game really made me think about the morals of keeping Pokémon in tiny little balls and using them in fights for money. With this in mind it was with great interest that I delved deeper into the sequel of the most recent addition to the Pokémon saga...

According to my sources the  game is due for release in Japan later on this month, with us Europeans seeing is towards the end of August/early September. The story will begin two years after the end of the previous game and will be in the same region as before - the Unova region. A mysterious icecap has covered parts of the region, leading to new cities and gyms forming to replace the ones that have been captured. There are two new conformed gym leaders - one who appears to be a rockstar of some kind (I would assume he uses electric Pokémon) and another who seems to use water-types. It would appear that Team Plasma are still wandering around and will likely serve as the main villains again. You'll have a new rival and apparently new playable characters too - something which I find highly intriguing. It looks like you can play characters that aren't traditional looking Pokémon trainers. However, it's hard to say. Many of the routes have been altered or changed drastically, making the area a lot different to the previous game, most likely so that it does not appear repetitive. You will begin the game in an area of Unova that was previously unreachable - a town called Aspertia in the South West.

The Pokédex is different too. Instead of starting of with a regional Dex of 150-200 Pokémon there will be 300 available in the region - most of which are Pokémon from other regions such as Psyduck and Mareep. It is the largest local Dex yet - the National Dex is sure to be massive.

There is also a new minigame known as the Pokéwood in which you will participate in the filming of a movie. Seems like an interesting idea. There is also the Pokémon World Tournament which will allow you to battle gym members from previous versions of the game - leaders such as Brock and Misty (I was very pleased to hear this).

Have a quick look at some of the official gameplay - it was unavailable in English but it gives you a good idea.

It's said that it will be released on DS, so those of you fearing that Pokémon would only be on 3DS from now on you can let out the breath you've been holding for the past year or so. Looks like things are going to work.

Whilst there is little information on the game out there, what I have discovered has been incredibly exciting. Being a Pokémon fan from pretty much the beginning, I can see myself buying this game. I love the Pokémon games too much to say no.

Valhalla

8-bit Masterpiece

Those who know me would tell you that I hate Minecraft with a burning passion, that the idea makes me angry and the gameplay is confusing. I was a fool.

Yesterday, our anti-gamer invited me to his Minecraft server to try the game out. I was reluctant, but I gave it a go. I bought and downloaded Minecraft, thinking I had probably just wasted £16.95 of my hard-earned money. I was so wrong. So very, very wrong.

Minecraft is amazing. I've never been against 8-bit gaming, I just found the whole concept to be somewhat stupid. However, when the anti-gamer showed me the world he, Devinity and co had created my mind was changed. In Minecraft anything is possible, any structure can be built. It's just a world of possibility, limited only by your own imagination.

I said before that I found gameplay confusing. That was just me being a n00b. I just hadn't received the proper instruction. After around 15 minutes of me being generally n00bish, I got the hang of how to work the game and I was chopping down trees and crafting materials - it was fantastic. After killing Devinity's cows and getting my revenge on the anti-gamer for setting a load of monsters on me, I realized what I'd been missing out on every time I had declined a request to play Minecraft. It's a great social and creative game.

Not my creation - Fraps didn't save my screens. But it shows you what you can do. 

Once the multiplayer server had been turned off for the evening, I decided to go solo for a while and see what I could do with my new favourite game. I played for a couple of hours, messing around with the tools and materials, until I eventually built a house. It may not be the greatest house, but I was quite proud of myself. I built it on the cliff facing the sea for that scenic look and outside I built two pens - one for my pack of wolves and one to house my cow and sheep.

There are several game modes that the anti-gamer showed me during my lesson on how to play Minecraft, all of which were very interesting. Survival mode was terrifying - mainly because he released a whole bunch of monsters and set them on me. I decided that mode was a little much for now as I was killed instantly by the creepers and zombies that were mauling me. Creative mode was definitely better, being able to fly and such made travel easier, and the full inventory was useful, even if it did take from the fun of mining for materials. Of course, if you want to play for free then Classic is available - it just isn't updated anymore.

Minecraft is a great game, and I honestly don't know why I hated it so much before. You haven't gamed until you've sat down on Mincecraft. You can get it for PC and XBOX so don't hesitate, visit minecraft.net now.

There are those who were ashamed of me for converting to Minecraft, but I can only say they haven't yet seen the light. I found my newest addiction.

Valhalla

Bordering the pyschotic

It's every person dream to be in and alternate place void of rules and free to explore...

Throw in Eighty Gazillion guns..
A Duel Wielding, Gun toting lunatic..
A slightly MGS reminiscent ninja-esque , Sword swinger...
Yet another phasewalking, sneaky blue haired girl...
and a Sniper specialist and most gamers will be left assuming they'll wake up from this dream drooling on their favorite pokemon plushie anytime soon.
Well....
Gearbox has announced it, Gamer's have eaten every morsel of data about it up, I have passed out with excitment over it and well....

BORDERLANDS 2 WILL BE RELEASED IN 2012!

So yes, It is evident that this shooter/RPG's roleplaying elements were meagre at best  and wern't what really sold the game, But if your like most humans and prefer to shoot and never bother to even ask questions afterwards, Then this beautifully crafted game featuring Gearbox's unique form of cell-shaded/photo-realistic violence and action including more guns than a terrorists shed! ... Is probably right up your insanely well armed street!

Throw into the mix that they have now ventured beyond the desolate areas of Pandora which you grew tiresome of in there first endeavor to include glacial areas reminiscent of Iceland/Antarctica and area reflective of the Scottish Highlands ensuring you'll start every gaming session screaming FREEDOM!

So to get back to why your here, Borderlands 2 is set five years after you realised that the vault hunters of Pandora were chasing fairytales and the 'trasure' was more a bloodthirsty monster and Hyperion Corporation have now crawled out of the woodwork with leader Handsome Jack  who is striving to become ruler of Pandora.

Now featuring four new heroes who are now required to aide and fight alongside the original Brick, Lilith,   Roland and Mordecai. Who have all been hard done by as a result of Handsome Jacks new regime of gun manufacturing and slight psychotic dreams of grandeur.

The new heroes..
Salvador, The gunzerker...
Maya, The phasewalker...
zero, The sword-wielding ninja....
and
Axton, The sniper expert.

With a promise of more bullet spraying mayhem...

I SHALL SEE YOU IN PANDORA!!