First impressions on Fallout 4 reveal trailer:

Fallout 4 has been announced, with more information to be released at E3. All that is currently available to speculate on is the trailer, which seems to be full of hidden goodies and hints as to what may or may not happen in the upcoming sequel to Bethesda's Fallout 3. What might they reveal? Lets take a look.

We may be playing as someone who saw the bombs fall

The choice of music matches the feelings evoked by the flashbacks to the pre-war. "It's all over but the crying" neatly encapsulates the fears behind a nuclear war in the fifties. That once that button was pressed, it'd all be over but the crying, the pain, the tears, and the death. There would be no going back. Humanity and the earth would never be the same again.

The flashbacks also hint that perhaps we'll be playing as a character who was there in the Pre-war era. Of course it could just be showing how far humanity has fallen, but the flashbacks as well as the footage of people running to a Vault hint that your character could be there, as either a child or young adult. In fact there seems to be a child that the camera follows as if he was the main character.

If true this could mean that this could be the earliest after the bombs we would be seeing. While humanity is still reeling from such a sudden and destructive end. That or the vault, playing on Vault Tech's history of testing things on its inhabitants might mean that people were kept in some sort of stasis. Or it could be a story, told to your character and shown to you by being there yourself. Either way it gives a wonderful look at what it was like in that panicked moment where time seemed to stop.

It appears to be set in Boston

A still frame taken from the trailer shows a square that a few Boston gamers have claimed to be from Scollay Square, albeit in the aftermath of nuclear war.

Scollay Square in Fallout 4?

As well the monument to Paul Revere found in Boston.

The Statue of Paul Revere in the shadows

Even the Massachusetts State House, with it's golden dome makes an appearance.

The golden dome of the state house against the sun

This likely means we will be dealing with the Commonwealth and the 'Institute'. Players of Fallout 3 will recognize those names from the quest "The Replicated Man" where you're tasked with hunting down an android whom escaped to start their own life as a reference to Blade Runner. This means that androids could play a significant part in the story, or not be shown much at all, depending on if the previous speculation of it being fairly recently after the bombs fell is true or not. While the Commonwealth managed to escape relatively undamaged and therefore bounced back quicker than the rest of the US, the Institute is something more akin to the Big MT from New Vegas, where brilliant minds gathered to work on scientific discoveries. However unlike the Big MT, presumably they didn't all stuff their brains in a bunch of robots. You can be almost assured that they'll be mentioned or at least have some part in the story.

Like Skyrim, it will probably be an upgraded version of the Gamebryo engine.

Gamebyro has a very distinct walk cycle animation, and you can get a glimpse of that amidst all their rapid cuts to different scenes, At 1:51 you see a man walking to the left towards what looks like a bar or a cafe, with the sudden angular turn that fits into what we've seen from Gamebyro before. As well the walk cycle of the man with the coat and hat at 1:40. This means a variety of things including the potential for dual wielding weapons, though if that was a feature you'd think they'd have shown it off in the reveal trailer. Either way since it's releasing only on PS4, Xbox1, and PC there will no doubt be quite a few tweaks and additions, graphically and otherwise.

It might not have loading screens

Now this gets more into the realm of guesswork and speculation, but the scene with the dog walking in and out of the home without a transition could hint that we won't have to load interiors. If the game is going truly open world with no loading screens, which would only be made possible by the additional RAM in the current run of consoles, this might be a way to tease that without making promises they may have to renege on at a later date. Ultimately however, there is one major change that I feel is the most shocking and earth shattering thing on this list.

Spandex is back you guys!
                               

At the end, as the dog and presumably player character meet, you can tell that the player is not wearing the denim version of the vault suits from Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, The stretchy fabric with bumps along the seams suggest that it is in fact the return of the spandex vault suits from the original Fallout 1 & 2. Why this is changed cannot be certain. What this hints at in the future is unknown. Is this an alternative universe where denim was never invented? Is it just an oversight? Or is it a hint that we are in fact playing in a time closer to the original Fallout series than ever before? Who knows! But spandex is back and everyone can be happier for it.

E-Tank

Slender 0.9: HE JUST STANDS THERE MENACINGLY

Slender 0.9 is a beta indie horror game based around the meme/creepy pasta known as the Slender Man. Sadly while the creators say it is in beta, it seems to be more in alpha. The game itself has a lot of potential that just isn't being used, and it needs a lot more polish. The skeleton of a great game is here somewhere, it just needs to be fleshed out more.

You find yourself entering a dark forest, hopping a fence and wandering around the dark and silent woods. your viewpoint is through a camcorder with a flashlight, aiming to find the pieces to someone's journal. Eight pages in total, and each one covered in the mad scribbling of someone being stalked by the Slender man.

There is no music until you find your first journal page, instead the forest is filled with the sounds one might hear in a dark forest in the middle of the night. Crickets chirping, birds tweeting, and your footsteps as you move through the underbrush of the forest. Once you pick up a journal page however you suddenly hear a soft dull drumming sound. Almost as if its your heart pounding in your ears as you keep having that strange feeling of being watched.

The Slender Man is an unearthly being who's presence distorts and twists reality, which is mostly shown in the various stories and blogs as static and problems with electronic devices. Keeping true to the stories your camcorder will emit static whenever the Slender Man is nearby, warning you to get to safety. He can and will kill you if you don't run away. His teleportation skills are clearly on display, as he only stands still as long as you're looking at him. Look at him too long however, and he'll simply grab you and that's all she wrote.

Your one goal is to find eight journal pages. You're never told what led you here, or why you need to find the pages. I'm hoping the story will be expanded upon when the game is fully released, and will be fleshed out properly. The mechanics serve their purpose, although the sprinting mechanic needs a bit more work. Instead of letting you sprint for a short while and then having to wait until you can run again, you can sprint for much longer but every time you sprint you lower your maximum stamina bar. Meaning if you run now, you won't be able to run away quite as far or fast next time. I can see where they were going with it but with the game having no way to recuperate your stamina bar, it gets annoying. You see the Slender Man, and wonder if you should run. If you run now, you might not be able to get away later once you've gotten further into the game. If you don't run now though, will he get you?

Now then, having said all the cold hard logic of it, I have to say I love this game. As a fan of the Slender blogs, of all the stories, all the creepy pastas, I love this game. They've taken some creepy places from some of the more famous slender blogs/ARGs and rebuilt them in the game. This ends up making you creep through them while hoping you won't turn around and find Mister Slim about to give you the wedgie of a life time. The game I'm seeing in my mind could be so much more than a 'find eight objects in the dark spooky forest' simulation with a bit of eldritch abomination thrown in to spice things up. I'm thinking about a video game written like a slender blog, maybe some ARG style puzzles with codes, hidden clips, and anyone could be an indoctrinated spy.

As it is now the game can be startling, even scary. The atmosphere is perfect, and the lack of a HUD, pause button, or even a main menu is very immersive. I myself haven't been able to complete the game because its scared the hell out of me. I was walking along a small building, looked like an abandoned bathroom. I saw the Slender Man peeking at me from around a wall, so I ducked inside. I finally peeked back out, trying to see if he was still there. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw he was gone...I wandered through the bathrooms, looking for a piece of the journal inside...Finding nothing, I turned and headed towards the exit. I turned a corner, only to find myself face to face with HIM! I literally screamed and in a panic tried to pause the game using the ESC button, which only shuts the game down.

The game itself can just be so much more, I only hope that the developers will take the time to flesh it out even more.

Slender can currently be downloaded for free from here.

Now excuse me, there's this strange tall man next to me. He won't shut up about the look on my face when he did that.

~E-Tank

Mass Effect 1: Blue Alien Space Babes.

Since we're all reeling from the monumental disappointment that is ME3's ending, I decided to perform a bit of a Mass Effect retrospective. The first Mass Effect was released in 2007 to great acclaim and fanfare, leaving the fans waiting impatiently for the next part in the epic trilogy. Chronicaling the adventures of Commander Shepard, an alliance soldier who will soon be making choices that affect the entire galaxy, and his choices will have consequences.

The character creation is incredibly complex, and while it comes with several pre-sets to work off of, it usually makes your character much more 'yours' to customize your Shepard from the ground up. Is he an older gentleman with wrinkles starting to crease his brow? Should he be torn up from his various fights with scars crisscrossing over his face? A fresh young soldier, his hair still cut in the military style and a youthful look? The choice is yours and the choices are many.

The classes are pretty well defined, most of the differences coming down to how much the class dips into each of the three kinds of skills. Such as Biotics, the 'mage' of the setting. These skills will heavily influence how you fight, but generally you'll always have at least one weapon skill, even if its just a pistol.

The leveling system is incredibly confusing, demanding you choose between a multitude of bars that aren't very well defined. There are even three skills that ultimately do the exact same thing. Namely the hacking, electronics, and decrypting skills. Each skill allows you to open chests and devices that are locked, but each container requires a different of the three skills. So if you want to keep finding better equipment, either you need to take one of the classes that have all three of the skills, or make sure your party members have them.

The inventory system can also be a bit confusing, as you have a maximum number of items at one hundred and fifty. You fill this up faster than you'd think, as it covers every little piece of equipment. If you fill up on items and open a container with more stuff, you're forced to destroy it without knowing what exactly what you're destroying. It could be that super awesome rare item that can blow anything away in one shot! Too bad you have to destroy it because your inventory is full.

The story is well written, an epic space opera that follows the three chapter rule magnificently. The characters are well written and you get a real feeling for each character's hopes and dreams. From the quarian space Gypsy (or romani) Tali, to the brash rebellious turian Garrus Vakarian, to the brutish yet shockingly intelligent krogan Wrex. I'd only call the other human squadmates bland due to comparison. I'm sure they'd be interesting characters on their own, but when they have to be compared to the other companions there is no contest.

The mechanics are well done, having a unique overheating system in regards to gunfire. Through the lore, you basically have no need to ever reload, but as you fire, the gun will start to overheat. So you either fire in bursts, or blow through the entire heat meter, and stay in cover until it cools off. Generally burst fire works better, as you can still fire up until the heat meter maxes, but once its hit the red you have to wait for it to cool all the way down, but it makes for an interesting system beyond the generic reloading system.

Overall, Mass Effect is a wonderful game, taking chances and experimenting to try and mix things up. The story is nice, and fully contained, while allowing for expansions on the overall universe. For all the things I've complained about its a great trip to another universe, even if its in the same old Milky Way.

~ E-Tank

Mass Effect 3: A marvelous gourmet meal, until you reach the dessert.

The final part in the trilogy of Mass Effect, ME3 has been long awaited and speculated about. Bioware, being the coy little strumpet it is, has been very tight lipped about the story. Only dropping the occasional hint at a grand amazing finale that will be customized to every Shepard and every story.


“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…” ~ Mike Gamble, Associate Producer.

"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.


Mechanically, the game is wonderful. They found that magical sweet spot between Mass Effect one and two that brings both of the game's strengths together. You are able to customize your characters equipment in wonderfully diverse ways that also gives you a reason for exploring beyond looking at the beautiful set pieces. Finding upgrades that can be attached to your weapons is great fun, and adds a great bit of strategy. For example: A pistol melee stunner that is essentially a tazer duct taped to the underside of your pistol, makes it a much better close quarters weapon. Instead however you may opt to add the armor piercing modification, allowing your weapon to penetrate cover and do more damage to heavily armored enemies.

Each weapon has its own brand of potential upgrades, and each weapon is distinctive in its capabilities. Giving each weapon a personality all its own, and no weapon ever becomes truly obsolete. This is much harder than it sounds, as you feel the need to continually give the player bigger and better weapon as the game continues, but no weapon truly becomes useless as you play. It all comes down to what your style is. From the original generic Avenger rifle, dedicated solely to spewing lead at relativistic speeds in the general direction of the bad guys. To the Mattock, a semi-automatic rifle that vaguely resembles a P90 and is a mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Finally to the Talon, a pistol that functions as a shotgun instead of a highly accurate single shot. Each gun has its balances, its pros and its cons and experimentation is very much a part of the game, even going so far as to give you a shooting gallery to test out combinations.


The RPG elements are back adding in a bit more choice than in Mass Effect 2 in regards to what you want your character to be able to do. As well as not overwhelming the player with so many choices that ultimately boil down to having three different ways to do the exact same thing as in the first Mass Effect. Some would argue it is dumbed down, I would more suggest that its been streamlined. In the original Mass Effect 1 the skills aren't very distinct and many of them are redundant. Streamlining allows you to better understand what you can do and makes it much easier to understand.

The story is well written, even though it occasionally dips into cheesy moments. The characters here are very consistent with what has been established prior, giving you the feel that this is much more than just a character in a video game. Making you feel that they are a real person with wants, dreams, and needs. The story is a grand epic of a tale that will suck you in and toy with your emotions like a toddler that enjoys throwing his things across the walls to see what kind of noises they make when they break.

When I heard about the addition of Multiplayer, I feared that it would be like many games where Multiplayer is thrown in. Basically taking attention away from the single player to appease people who want all games to be like Halo, whereas I buy games for their single player first and their multi-player aspects being a minor concern. Thankfully my fears were unjustified, as they did an amazing job. All multi-player games are co-op, using up to four players to fend off attackers and perform missions such as capturing targets, killing key enemies, or defending a certain area while data is uploaded. Its great fun, very well done, and I'd argue one of the best multiplayer games out there. Its a wonderful game, I'd wager its the best game I've played in a long time.

EXCEPT FOR THAT FREAKING STUPID IDIOTIC ENDING.

The writing takes a nose dive within the final five minutes of the game, the ending is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life. It doesn't manage to entirely taint the rest of the game, but the ending can't even really be called an ending. It just stops short of actually accomplishing anything. Even then, remember the quotes up above in this review? I'll direct you to one in particular, and bold the part that is a complete and utter lie.

"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.

There are essentially three endings. I won't spoil them, but I will say this. You have no feeling of accomplishment, what is answered is answered in a manner that will make you wonder what happened to the writers at the last minute. Was it that they just lost intrest? Was it that they didn't give a crap? Or was it more likely that they wanted to sell DLC?

Considering after you watch the writing equivillant to a soiled diaper the first thing you see is a "BUY OUR DLC" message, I'd wager its the last one. The ending has no substance, it might as well just be a generic 'You win' text scroll straight out of the NES days for all it accomplishes or how much of an impact it makes on you. Supposedly it is meant to cause 'speculation', which is among the worst ideas that Bioware could have had, considering how the only things the playerbase can use to fuel said speculation say that everything that Shepard did, everything you accomplished over three games and over a hundred hours of gameplay, is essentially undone.

I'm not going to bother writing an article explaining it as there are already countless articles debating it and explaining why everyone is so pissed off. I can only say that I personally prefer Angry Joe's list of reasons why the ending pisses everybody off. (Massive spoilers.)

There has been announced recently that EA will be releasing the 'Directors Cut' of ME3, possibly altering the 'Ending' so its an actual ending and not something spawned from the fevered dreams of a madman. Amazingly and potentially a sign that the apocalypse is nigh, it will be free. Hopefully this will repair the damage done to this game, and make it much better. I somewhat doubt it, as Bioware seems to have said that this ending is what they intended, and is even upset that the players didn't like it. My pessimism aside, we'll just have to wait and see.

UFO: Aftermath. This is a bug hunt! Game over man, Game over!

UFO: Aftermath.

The most famous tactical turn based squad game series has to be the UFO/X-Com series of games. Unfortunately the last released game of the franchise, X-Com Apocalypse, was not the financial success that
Microprose needed. Ultimately the company went under, and took the genre with it. For six years, we were without squad based tactical combat against aliens, until in 2003 when the game "UFO: Aftermath" was released.

Developed by ALTAR interactive and published by Cenega/Tri Synergy, the game is a spiritual successor to the UFO/X-com games. Taking charge of the defense of the planet you must guide humanity out of an apocalyptic scenario leading to the near extinction of all life on the planet. Defending Earth and its remaining human population from the alien invasion and whatever their sinister intentions may be.

The game starts with a soldier making his way to a nearby abandoned Army base, which serves as a tutorial to teach the basiscs of combat and issuing orders. There are some distinct changes from UFO/X-com, no longer strictly turn based, it functions on a 'planning' system. You can pause the game at any time, allowing you to give your soldiers orders. Once orders have been issued, unpausing sends them off to do as ordered to the best of their ability. The various tactical decisions are easy to grasp and have a distinct impact on the mechanics of the game. This allows you to react to different situations quickly and intuitively. Crouching increases accuracy but slows you down, running makes you go faster but is loud, and burst fire does more damage but is not as accurate as aimed fire.

Unlike UFO/X-Com where your soldiers stats increased depending on what actions you took in combat, Aftermath's soldiers gain experience and level up. Every level you increase one of your soldier's attributes; Strength, agility, dexterity, willpower, intelligence, and perception. Which effects various skills. Having high perception would increase your marksmanship with long range weapons such as sniper rifles. While having high intelligence allows you to make more efficient use of your medkits. Better strength allows you to carry more, and agility lets you better handle a pistol or SMG. Skills can also be upgraded by training if your soldier meets the physical requirements. Training as a medic for example requires intelligence and dexterity, while a scout requires perception and agility.

You generally have fewer soldiers than in UFO/X-com, as you are only the commander of Pheonix squad, the spearhead squad who gets the most dangerous assignments, and are generally the first ones on the ground. You can delegate missions away to other squads, but in general it is less likely that they will succeed. Useful for when its a little mission that won't make much difference, not so useful when assaulting an enemy base or crashed UFO.

Like UFO/X-com you should expect to rack up deaths quickly, especially in the early game where battle sometimes comes down to spotting the enemy before they spot you. Proper use of resources will make it a bit easier to keep your soldiers alive and in the fight. Managing and balancing the amount of resources spent on military bases, research, and engineering factors heavily into the game, and each choice matters. Do you choose to begin an alien autopsy, to better understand these strange creatures attacking us? Do you begin researching the alien weapons and artifacts in the hope to better your squad's equipment? Or do you start building what you already have access to, to ensure every one of your squad members has the best equipment you currently posess? The choice is yours, and the fate of the world is in your hands. No pressure.

A wonderful strategic and tactial game, it can currently be purchased for six dollars off of Good Old Games, and I really couldn't think of a better price. The graphics are a bit dated, but are still pleasing to the eye. The music and sound effects are well done, even if the voices of your soldiers can be a bit cheesy and grating at times. Overall, its a marvelous game that'll have you planning out assaults, counter assaults, and infiltration missions for weeks.

E-Tank

P.s.
I highly recommend the Combo Mod. It tweaks items a bit, adds new enemies, new euipment, and so many new guns. Sooooo many guns.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Semper Fi.

Jagged Alliance, one of the best squad based strategy games out there, able to rub shoulders with games such as the X-Com series, has been sadly ignored for the past 13 years. The previous installment being Jagged Alliance 2, where a mercenary and his hired band of thugs, murderers, and psychopaths aid in the revolution of the fictional country of Alruco. You are able to purchase weapons, pay for insurance policies on your mercs, and even send flowers to the queen of Alruco. If only to watch her bitch-slap her hapless servant.

Fortunately, the Jagged Alliance series has returned with the latest title, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. This latest title brings back the fun of ordering around a mob of bloodthirsty mercenaries in the attempt to save the people of Alruco. The developers have worked to try to capture the same spirit of the original, and I feel they have succeeded. The mercenaries are varied and you'll have fun reading their background information and dossiers. Many of them have bonuses and penalties based around their psyche, for instance a model turned mercenary has a huge morale boost when fighting naked.

The types of weapons are varied including but not limited to pistols, SMGs, shotguns, rocket launchers, rifles, etc. Each character has his or her own skillset, mechanics can pick locks and repair guns, medics can inject morphine and use medkits, demo men can use C4 to blow open weakened walls to gain entrance. All can generally point a gun at something and pull the trigger until whatever is on the wrong end of it is dead, just tends to miss a lot more than the dedicated soldiers.

The interface is intuitive, the buttons often having a very clear definition of what they do, and if you have a question the game offers tooltips. The mechanics are very well put together, giving you all the information you need in a firefight, such as line of sight and a general idea where your merc will be shooting to help avoid friendly fire. My one complaint is that your mercs can't peek around a corner in order to fire from cover, but you can find the usual waist high barricades to duck behind in a pinch.

The graphics are beautiful, showing great detail that usually would not be needed in a strategy game like this. Gunfire shatters concrete, digs holes in ground, and of course puts holes in your enemies. Each bullet clearly shows an impact with effects depending on the terrain hit, helping you see how close, or how far away the shooter is to their target.

What will probably be the most controversial, especially to people who grew up playing the original Jagged Alliance 2 is the change from pure turn based strategy to a mixture of real time and turn based. The 'Plan and go' system allows you to pause the action, selecting mercs individually to tell them where to go, set way points, and tell them when to fire. You can set options to let it pause automatically, such as when spotting, or being spotted by an enemy. This lets you give orders without having to rely on your reflexes when your team is under fire.

I personally feel its a good thing because when you are simply rehashing the same game over and over again it quickly leads to stagnation. The developers held onto that original feeling and spirit of the Jagged Alliance games, and used new ideas and mechanics to give the players the best control they could give over their team.

I have not yet completed the game, as it only just came out. (I'm not /that/ good.) From what I have seen however, it is very much the remake that the original deserves and so much more.

The ultimate question, is it worth it? Yes, very much so. You can while away the hours with tactical planning, training militia, and selecting your weapons. The destruction and mayhem you can create is amazingly cathartic, and in the end you're leading a band of psychopaths across a country, cutting a bloody swathe through enemy soldiers.

Lock and load; it's time to overthrow a dictatorship.

E-Tank

(Edited by Nathan 'Miles' Davis)

Skyrim: You Rat Dragon Bastard.

Skyrim!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The latest entry in Bethesda Studios' award-winning Elder Scrolls series, is a freeform RPG with many of the pros and cons of Bethesda's games. Such as their genuinely beautiful worlds, their mediocre at best writing skills, or their belief that everyone has to be able to become the leader of every guild ever made. You explore, gain skills, adventure, dungeon crawl, do quests, meet interesting people and creatures, and kill them for profit.

The combat system is a major step up from their prior entry, Oblivion, Losing the floatiness and lack of impact from each blow, and gaining the ability to dual wield While you can use axes, swords, daggers, maces, and even spells in this way, you lose the protective ability to block. Additionally, weapon balance is better than ever, each type having slightly different damage and speed to give players an incentive to try new things.

The skills have been streamlined massively. All the weapons have now been condensed into archery, one handed, and two handed. Armorer has been changed into the more nebulous Smithing, and Mysticism as a category has been rolled somewhat into Conjuration.

Some of these perks include:
Get the key to a lock you have picked.
Never break a lock pick.
Able to bribe guards.
Decapitate enemies.
Zoom in and slow down time while aiming a bow.
Do 15x sneak attack damage with a dagger.
And many many more.

Another change is the removal of the Armorer skill in exchange for the new Smithing skill, which allows you to upgrade and craft new equipment, and even jewelry. The system is surprisingly fun, giving a real feeling of accomplishment for finding a rare ore out in the middle of nowhere.

Also new are the Shouts, an ancient draconic language capable of magical effects. From throwing a burst of force at them, to breathing fire or frost, or even calling down lightning on all who stand against you. You unlock them by killing a dragon and absorbing its soul, usually after a knock down drag out fight. My one complaint with these fights is they are more geared towards heavy armor and weapons users once the dragon is on the ground, while thieves and assassins are left to try and pepper the dragon with arrows while ducking in and out of cover.

Bethesda still hasn't yet gotten this writing thing down, as it is the weakest point of this game. The majority of missions, especially guild missions, are stuck within three potential answers.

"I'm doing this for the guild or my own personal honor."
"I'm doing this because I'm an asshole, or I'm doing it in spite of the fact that I'm an asshole."
"I'm doing this because I want to get paid."

Generally the responses are the same general non-commital "eh", meaning you can basically be nothing but an asshole to everyone in the guild and yet they'll treat you generally the same. Though I must stress, it is much better than Oblivion, where you weren't even the main character, or Fallout 3.

Now, rambling aside. Time to rate how much it is worth, in my opinion.


Currently on steam, you can purchase Skyrim for $60.00

I personally enjoy this game quite a lot, and with the modding community attached to it, it is easily worth sixty dollars. Though if you can't afford it, wait for a sale or the Game of the year edition.

~
E-Tank

First review: Terraria!

Released by indie game developer Re-Logic, Terraria as a game took a lot of inspiration from Minecraft, which in turn took its inspiration from Infiniminer. However, it is arguably deeper than Minecraft. Giving you goals to reach beyond simply just throwing you in a sandbox and saying "Build to your heart's content." I will admit, when I first was given it by a friend of mine (Thank you Chocolate Donuts), I expected it to be just that. A Minecraft ripoff in 2D. I was very very wrong.

It has a rather novel way of allowing you to visit other worlds. Each character is its own save, and you are able to enter any world you like with said character. This means you could bring your brand new created character into the world of someone who has been playing a long time. Or you can bring your older character with all his overpowered goodies to your friend's world to give him a helping hand.

After choosing the appearance and color of your hair, shirt, and pants. You are dropped into a randomly generated world of varying size. You can choose small, medium, and large. The smallest worlds are very compact, and while you can grow in strength quickly, you're also forced to confront more enemies and monsters in a shorter amount of time. You also pick your difficulty. Softcore, where you drop half of the money you're carrying at the time. Mediumcore, you drop everything you are carrying at the time. As well as Hardcore, if you die once, you are dead forever. The character is deleted, and s/he drops everything s/he had.

I will do my best to outline generally what you can expect from the game without spoiling anything. If I don't speak on something, assume I'm trying not to spoil.

Your character begins with two tools, a pickax and an ax. As well as one weapon, a short sword. These are more useful than you would imagine. The first few upgrades do little more than increase the speed at which the tool works, and how much damage the weapon does.

There is also an element of chance, as the majority of your crafted equipment will have a title assigned to it. This can run from very bad to very good. The worst being to my knowledge 'broken' and the best being 'legendary' or 'godlike'.

Even though the game is 2D, against Minecraft's 3D approach, the game itself offers a lot more crafting options. Unlike Minecraft however, you are given a guide who helps you learn how to survive, and how to build what you need. By speaking to him and placing ingredients into his hands, he'll tell you what can be made from it, and what else you require in the recipe.

                                 (The guide showing us what we can build with lumber)


Yes, there are other people in this world, and they offer varying skills, including a merchant, nurse, demolitions expert, and more. Attracting them requires two things. First, certain pre-requisites must be met. The merchant for instance requires you to have saved up at least fifty silver coins. After all if you don't have the money to spend, why should he come to you? They also require their own living space. Living spaces comprise of a building with walls, ceiling, and a floor. As well as furniture to liven the place up. You need a chair, table, light source, and door for it to be considered a proper residence. There are some items that do double duty as a table and as chairs, but they are harder to make, due to having rarer ingredients. If you want NPCs early, you're going to have to settle for sticking to generic wooden chairs and tables. At first, at least.

The NPC's have their own personalities which color their occupations. Many of them offer items for sale, and all will buy items from you, at a discount of course. Even if you are the only thing standing between them and a horrific demise, you get No Hero Discount. Oh yes, you have to buy, sell, and hunt down enemies. Fortunately the majority of them have the old RPG staple of somehow carrying money in their stomachs.

The monsters are much more varied than Minecraft. The starting enemies will be the slimes, a valuable source of flammable ooze to make torches, and make several normal objects into sticky variants. Such as sticky bombs and sticky glowsticks to make impromptu lights while deep underground. As night falls, zombies will rise from their graves with a hunger for the living. Floating eyeballs, optic nerves and blood vessels trailing behind them, swarm through the air. What a horrible night to have a curse. There are even boss creatures, that upon their death, drop rare items and ores all over the place. Be cautious however as these creatures are more dangerous than they usually appear.

Multiplayer is just marvelous, better built than Minecraft's. It functions on IPs, and doesn't have a server browser, but considering you generally are only going to play with 2-4 people on one server, this can be excused. There is very little lag, which makes this a wonderful game to play with friends.

For this review, I am going to rate the game based on the price point it is currently retailing at of this writing. The prices are in US($) Dollars.

As of this writing, the game can be purchased and downloaded in roughly 5-10 minutes off of steam, for $9.99. This includes all future patches, as there are no plans to my knowledge of any DLC with a price tag.

Honestly, for what you get, this price is a bit low. Knowing about it, and knowing how much fun I've had with it, I'd gladly pay up to fifteen dollars for this enjoyment. Twenty would be stretching it, but depending on how much you like playing with your friends, it'd easily be worth it.

~
E-Tank