Sunday 4 November 2012

Darth Vader in Kingdom Hearts?


With Disney recently buying Lucasfilms, and announcing that they plan on having Star Wars Episode VII to be on the big screen in 2015, lots of speculation has been floating around and come about for the future of the beloved Star Wars franchise. 

The first of the main two concerns being the Episode 7 film. Is it really worth making a new trilogy this late in the game, especially with what plot has been leaked? Could we really be interested in the future of Luke Skywalker, his sister Leia and Han Solo? Let's face it, the actors are a little weary and we'd probably have to get a new cast to play the characters. However, I hope this is in-fact a false rumor and instead I'm hoping the writers (would love to see Joss Whedon) dip a bit into the numerous amount of novels, and video-games. 

Could we handle another prequel trilogy but this time centered around the Sith Lord Revan? Maybe have a trilogy in the bad guy's POV for once. Focus more on the villain again, bring back the glorious memories of Lord Vader, and bring another Sith Lord to life. However, I feel deep down that with the so-called "success" of the Old Republic MMORPG that we can expect a film to be set during that time. This is all speculation and rumors, but who knows what will happen. There's a lot of source material to be used, it just needs to be done right, and let's be honest...the new trilogy isn't that great.

The iconic fight scene between Luke Skywalker, and his father Darth Vader.
Another thing fans have been curious about is if we'll get to see Star Wars characters in future iterations of their largest, and well known gaming franchise "Kingdom Hearts". There isn't a reason to doubt that in a future Kingdom Hearts game we'll see some memorable faces from the Star Wars universe. Darth Vader as a main villain would definitely put some interest back into the series, and could be great marketing strategy as well. Sell the game to Star Wars enthusiasts!

Sure, it would be a little weird to see Darth Vader strolling about with some Disney villains like Scar, or something but it could probably bring up some interesting stories. Besides, could you imagine two of the worlds most well known villains teamed up and taking on Sora and friends? Darth Vader & Sephiroth causing some serious damage. It could spell out some serious "nerd orgasms" for some fans of Kingdom Hearts, Star Wars, and Final Fantasy in general.


Tuesday 23 October 2012

TMSGamer's Top 10 Games Of This Generation

This kid explains my joy with these games on the list.
It's not often that a really stellar game comes out and appeals to me. I'm a really critical person in that aspect, and when a game gets me hooked I'll most likely fall in love with it. This list is essentially a combination of ten games that have really stood out in this generation of consoles (all console games), and let's be honest. This generation has had a lot stinkers. That's right, I'm looking at you GTA4 and Call Of Duty.

This post may be a little biased as I only own an Xbox 360, and never really purchased a Wii or PS3. Luckily, some of these titles are multiplatform. This list is in no specific order, be aware of that.

10. BioShock


It may surprise some people seeing BioShock on this list, but in all honesty it is probably one of the best 360 titles I have ever laid my hands on. It gave us some rather spooky elements, and some memorable moments in gaming "Would You Kindly?". Not to mention the Big Daddy's. These hulking suits of madness were a force to be reckoned with, and at times would essentially fuck your shit up. I went into Bioshock expecting a really mediocre, and cliched shooter but instead got one that appealed to me on all levels, and even scared me a bit too. It's a fantastic game, and is available on a variety of platforms. Pick it up if you haven't.

9. Dragon Age: Origins




Dragon Age: Origins is the epitome of everything I could ever want in an RPG, and it delivered everything so god damn well. DA:O was my Game Of The Year for 2009, and it's still one of my favorite games of all time to this day. I spent countless hours with this game, and even played through it multiple times. It was dark, bloody, violent, and had an amazing story backing the game up. It really spun a new perspective on this genre for me, and holds a very special place in my heart. I worked really hard to get a relationship with Morrigan, and give her my "meat", and in the end she leaves. It was kind of emotional, but everything was tied together well. Brilliant game, but then we got Dragon Age II which was a major stinker. Origins, is a gem and everyone who loves RPG's needs to play this before they die.

8. Gears Of War 2

I don't know if it was the countless hours of drunken gaming with friends, or how well rounded the story, and game felt as a whole. It was really cool to see more from the characters, and the developments in the Marcus & Dominic relationship, especially the culminating scene where Dom finally finds his wife, Maria. Very sad game, lots of sad moments and cool new characters. I also became very attached to the Carmine of this game. Benjamin was my most played character in the multiplayer modes, and the inclusion of the new Horde Mode didn't hurt either. I love this game so very much. Maybe I'm one of the few who preferred this one over Gears Of War 3.

7. Fallout 3




Let it be known that I never really liked Fallout 3 my first time playing the game, didn't get too far in and found it incredibly difficult. Being forced from my friends to buy it, and push through it, I did. I loved this game after giving it the chance, beat the game, and ended up buying all the DLC and loving those as well, well minus the Mothership Zeta. That one kind of fell flat for me, but everything else was solid in this game. Especially taking down all of the Super Mutant Behemoth's and the hilarious situation on the radio if you kill Three-Dog. Tons of insults getting tossed at you from his female replacement. This game was brilliant, and I had a bad habit of using the VATS system every-time I went to kill someone. Fun game, but be sure to put some time into it. It tends to have a slow paced start.

6. Dead Space

Dead Space, the game I was extremely skeptical about because I feared a shitty Doom 3 clone, and let's be honest. Doom 3 wasn't that great either. Dead Space turned out to be one of the most immersive horror titles I have ever played, and kept me on edge all while playing. I enjoyed every minute I spent with this game, and it helped spawn a love for the franchise as a whole. Bought Dead Space 2 on day one, and will be buying Dead Space 3 on day one. Dead Space became one of my favorite series of all time, and is to this day one of my favorite next gen titles. Nothing will change that. Bring on the Necromorphs!


 5. Dark Souls




I hopped into Dark Souls without playing Demons Souls, and was instantly blown away with the way the game presented itself and how god-damn hard it is. I have yet to beat this game, but it's just so addicting. I've developed an addiction to this game to where I'd get my ass kicked, but needed to destroy that boss/enemy. I'd die more times, get frustrated and shut the game off. Only to turn it back on and attempt to kick said bosses ass again. When you do succeed you feel great, and there's been many times where I'd shout out loud about my joy. Fun times, and frustrating times but the reward of doing good feels amazing.

4. Singularity


I'm very late to the ball on this game, but it's just so god-damn brilliant. I've only gotten the chance to touch this game, this year after countless suggestions from my friends to do so. Singularity feels like a love-child to Bioshock (which some people complain about) and something else I can't put my finger on. I love the feeling this game brings to the table, and the whole time-travel element is fucking awesome. There's nothing like weaving through a load of enemies with a shotgun, and aging the last guy into dust. The time-mechanics feel really well done, and good and everything just feels awesome. The tape players provide some background depth into the story, and that makes it enjoyable for me. I have a type of OCD for this kind of thing, and it's essentially my kryptonite trying to find these tape players. I need to recommend this game to my friends now, who have yet to play it.

3. Dead Space 2


It's not often I like a sequel more than the predecessor, but Dead Space 2 is just the case. It improved on everything I loved in the original game. It made Isaac seem more like a character, and the environments seemed way more terrifying, especially with some of the new enemies we get to encounter. It did have its mis-steps, but it was still a really awesome game. I may even be one of the few who actually enjoyed the multiplayer component. Dead Space 2 felt scarier than the previous title because it just felt more tense. Especially revisiting the USG Ishimura, that was by far the most spine-tingling experience I had with the game. Mainly because you don't see any enemies, and just hear weird sounds for half an hour. Tense game, terrifying moments. Loved it. Bring on Dead Space 3.

2. Mass Effect 2


The best game in the series by far, and one of my favorite games of all time. Mass Effect 2 had it all. A solid story-line, amazing writing, solid characters and stellar gun-play. There wasn't a thing I disliked about this game, and it was my Game Of The Year for 2010. There was just something about this title that made me fall in love with everything, and develop a huge man-crush on Thane on Garrus (well, the Garrus man-crush carried over from ME1). Just getting to see my crew again, and uncover the whole plot was exciting. Plus, that final mission was so god damn intense and awesome. Emotions flowed seeing some people die due to my poor choices. Love this game!

1. Mortal Kombat


Remember, these lists are in no specific order. Mortal Kombat did something very astounding, and that was renew my love for the fighting game genre, and Mortal Kombat for that matter. Seeing the game go back to its roots made me extremely happy as a fan, and the countless hours of time sunk into playing this game would probably be a good indicator of how much I enjoyed it. Learning combos, and defeating people felt so good because I've always been rubbish at fighting games. Then, the addition of the King Of The Hill mode was just purely awesome. There was nothing like getting 8 friends together and trash-talking, cracking jokes, and having a good time while fighting. It was also nice to be able to spectate the fights as your Xbox Live avatar, and rate the fight at the end from 0-10. A lot of us would be dicks and give our friends a 1, or 2 for an extremely epic fight. We did it very few times, and it always caused laughs. I truly, truly love this game. This could be because it brought back glorious memories of my child-hood.










Thursday 11 October 2012

Primal Carnage: Beta Impressions


Walking through the jungle, the only sound you hear is the steady rhythm of your heart. Then bam, eaten by a dinosaur.
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Primal Carnage is a video game developed by Lukewarm Media where players can take the role from one of five classes on two teams. First, you have the classic, and standard Human team which varies from the Commando. A large, muscular black man who wields a fairly large assault rifle that shoots grenades, and he just looks bad-ass. To the insane, and carnage causing Pyro who seems to be a (Scottish?) man dressed in some rather "unique" gear and wields a flamethrower with a chainsaw attachment. If you want bad-ass, he's got it.

Then we have the dinosaur team, and probably the team everyone loves playing because...well you can run around as a T-Rex and eat people. Who doesn't want to do that? Plus it feels pretty damn awesome. I haven't gotten a chance to touch most of the dinosaur classes, but I did mess around a bit with the Rex (of course) and the Velociraptor and have to say both have decent enough controls. I find the dinosaurs hard to control, and actually prefer playing as a human. Could just be me fumbling as I'm not really a person to play competitive/fps games on PC.

Hopefully they add some X360 controller support later on (or I might have bypassed it). I'd probably feel much more comfortable attempting the game, but it's still a blast. The game is currently only in the beta right now, and you can gain access by pre-ordering the game on Steam for $14.99

It can be quite a blast, and if you need more confirmation here's a video of me playing it and well..getting eaten a lot.


Friday 28 September 2012

Faceless (Slender: Source) IndieGogo






We've started an Indiegogo campaign for Faceless so we can provide a multitude of dedicated servers for the closed beta, and when we launch the full version of the mod in December. People who donate to the campaign will receive closed beta access, contributor status for our forums, the ability to have their face put on a poster, and even have themselves as a playable character in the future.

The donations would really help a lot, and allow us to make Faceless more accessible to the world and allow people to hop right into the mod and play without having to create their own servers all the time. It will be easier for everyone, and that's all we want to achieve with this campaign. Is to give the community a more solid experience with Faceless, and with the community surrounding it.

And remember, closed beta testers get to play with the development team.

You can support the mod here - http://www.indiegogo.com/officialfaceless?show_todos=true&a=1054001

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Resident Evil: Retribution | Review



For someone who is a fan of the Resident Evil franchise (not of late sadly) seeing the Resident Evil films could possibly be some of the worst kind of heart-ache we can experience as fans. The films have slowly been deteriorating since the second film, and we've now been given something that doesn't seem to be related at all to the franchise, and just slaps the name on there to make a few quick bucks, but I digress. Let's get to the review, shall we?

Warning, this review contains spoilers. Do not continue if you haven't seen the film, nor do you want it spoiled. 

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The film opens up with a gigantic slow-motion, reversal that lasts around 6 minutes and essentially explains what happens between the 4th and 5th films, it could be shorter than 6 minutes, or even longer. All I know was that it was a complete waste of time, and was possibly only added to the film to increase screen time. I could be wrong, but this film is plagued with pointless slow-mo and in the end it just feels like they didn't have enough footage, and decided to slap some slow motion bullshit onto almost everything.

In this horrible "intro" we see the after-match of what happens when Umbrella arrives. If you saw the previous film "Afterlife" you may remember the scene where Jill Valentine, and a bunch of Umbrella soldiers are flying towards the giant ship where Alice, and friends are. This "little" intro basically is used to explain some story, and explain what happens between the films. All I had to say was it felt pointless, and it served little to no purpose in my eyes.

I have a feeling Paul Anderson was sitting in the Director's chair and thought "How can I make this film longer. Oh, a pointless intro and we can slap my slow-mo craving cock all over it." Honestly, it's fucking annoying and just made me annoyed the entire time. I wanted to get to the actual film, not this horrible excuse for an intro.

The worst part? Alice taking out a helicopter from a few hundred feet with shotguns..loaded with coins. Yes, kids. Coins.

Alice using her shotguns loaded with coins.
Either way, after we deal with the annoying reversed, slow-mo bullshit we get the typical "My Name is Alice" speech we've gotten in the past couple of films, and honestly do we really need that speech at the beginning of every RE film now? We know you're Alice, we know you worked for Umbrella. I'm just really glad Paul Anderson didn't waste any of his "talent" writing anymore speeches, and cool/inspiring dialogue. Instead, we get the same boring, old speech about Milla's character saying her name is Alice.

That was sarcasm, if you couldn't catch it. Seriously though, fuck this intro. After the little speech we then get to watch the entire intro sequence, but not in reverse. That's right, we get to watch it normally. So add another few minutes onto that intro, and you eventually come out with a ten minute intro, that just feels bogged down, and purely made to make the film longer.

But come, on really? Making us watch the same sequence like that is completely boring. I was almost ready to leave the theater at this point, and we weren't even 20 minutes into the film.

The best part of this intro? Jill Valentine (played by the smoking Sienna Guillory) zip-lining down in a tigh-ass suit, and shooting off some guns. Probably the best part of the intro, and still the intro sucked ass.

Hot.

Then we get tossed into a rather confusing situation. Alice is in a home and seems to be living a normal life. She has a daughter named "Becky" who seems to be deaf, and she has a husband named Todd. Who is no other than a clone of the late/deceased "Carlos Olivera" (Oded Fehr). It shouldn't take the average person long to realize he's a clone, considering he was killed off in Extinction, and that this situation is not real, and could be part of Alice's subconscious.

This turns out to be false when their home is invaded by "zombies" (those bullshit zombies from Resident Evil 5) and kill Carlos/Todd and then pursue Alice, and Todd through-out the home. Eventually Alice kills two of the zombies, and tries escaping with her daughter, before getting Becky to hide as the now zombiefied Todd/Carlos attacks her. And as a typical/cliched "cliffhanger" it cuts to black.

My only complaint is how did they end up cloning Carlos? Paul Anderson stated in some interviews that the clones were cloned after the deaths of the characters. Here's my question. How the fuck could Umbrella clone Carlos when he was incinerated, leaving nothing of him left in Extinction? It would be impossible to clone him from that, and I highly doubt Umbrella was keeping DNA samples of everyone from the staff, etc. It clearly stated that they were cloned from their dead bodies.

Nice plot-hole.

Alice then wakes up, again in a strange facility and from the floor we instantly recognize it has something to do with Umbrella. A voice pops over the intercom and we realize it's Jill Valentine, and she starts asking Alice whom she works for, and apparently Alice is supposed to say Umbrella or suffer the consequences. I was expecting her to get injured, but all that happened was some high-frequency sounds that made her pass out. Kind of underwhelming. But, before you know it the power turns off and Alice escapes, wearing some really stupid outfit that has no purpose other than sex appeal.

Remember kids, in a survival situation make sure to pack your sexual clothing. Never know who may be watching. If I was in a zombie outbreak/ or any type of situation I wouldn't want someone running about in skimpy clothing.


Sex appeal clothing in-bound.

She escapes the room, and arrives in what appears to be Tokyo, and she breaks into a police car and magically finds a gun. That's convenient isn't it? Either way, she grabs the gun and out of no-where it begins pouring rain, and people begin walking about. Confused, Alice stands there surveying the situation before a zombiefied girl attacks a man, and then soon an entire horde of the undead is hot on Alice's tail.

A giant pair of doors open in-front of her, and we're graced with yet another slow-motion sequence of Alice running towards the doors, and dispatching the undead. She gets inside the building, we get a few minute break and then BAM, more zombies and another slow motion sequence as she begins fighting the horde of zombies.

It was at this point when I had lost all hope for this film (hardly had any to begin with). I even annoyed a couple of annoying teen girls behind me too at this point in the film. I threw my hands up in the air, sighed and said "Really?". Not long after I was called an idiot, and told to shut up.

Either way, Alice quickly dispatches these zombies with some ridiculous back-flipping, acrobatic crap before continuing on to the next room, and being greeted with a bunch of dead people, and Ada Wong. One of the more interesting Resident Evil characters.


Ada Wong was portrayed poorly in the film. In the games we expect a character who always knows what she's doing, and to not exactly "care" much about others. In the film we get an emotional/seemingly timid character who ends up getting caught at the end of the film. It didn't feel one bit like Ada Wong, and it's the same feeling for Leon Kennedy, and Barry Burton in this film, but I won't discuss that till later. It just feels like they only added them for fan appeal, oh wait. That's the only reason, Paul Anderson even said so.

We soon find out that Ada is working for Albert Wesker, and that he survived the explosion from the previous film. He eventually says he needs the help of Alice because humanity is on the brink of extinction, and they need the ultimate weapon. So wait. Albert Wesker went from being a complete douche, and wanting to kill Alice to wanting to recruit Alice to his "good guy" cause and help eliminate the BOWs they unleashed when he was in control of Umbrella? That just seems fucking ridiculous. Plus the whole fact that the Red Queen has taken over Umbrella, and leaving Wesker powerless. Wasn't the Red Queen destroyed in the first film? Yes, she was. This makes no sense how she's in this new facility, and doing what she does. The Red Queen was based off of Charles Ashford's daughter, and he was the one who designed the program. Since he was killed in the second film, there's no way the Red Queen could of been re-built. PLOT HOLE.

Either way, Alice follows Ada through-out the facility and they start fighting off some of the bio-organic weapons (BOWs) and eventually they come to a rather quaint house where we saw Alice earlier with the Carlos clone, and we see a dead Alice lying on the ground, and we instantly realize it's a clone, which I think all the smart people realized right away. Alice moves on without any remorse, and goes up the stairs, dispatches a random zombie and her deaf "daughter" Becky comes running up to her and hugs her. Alice has no idea who she is, and Becky thinks it's her mom. Unaware of the corpse down-stairs.

Deaf-daughter Becky.
I'm just mildly confused at this, because for most of the film Becky believes Alice to be her mother, even though Becky herself is a clone and Ada explains the harsh reality that there's no point in having her tag along. And right after this whole sequence they go downstairs and are pretty much in the vicinity where the dead body of the Alice clone, whom Becky called her mother previously was. How could she not notice her dead "mother" lying on the floor? Fucking confuses me, but I guess they had some sort of plot/story to follow with Becky. No matter how painful it is to watch.

Then bam! Without a moment's notice a bunch of Umbrella goons are standing out-side the house, ready to kill Becky, Alice and Ada. In the group we get another Carlos Olivera, Rain Ocampo from the first film (who died in the end by getting shot in the head) and One. The guy who was chopped to pieces by the Red Queen's laser grid system in the first film. I'm still confused as to how they managed to clone someone who was reduced to cubed pieces of meat.

Either way, the group opens fire upon the house and attempts to kill the three "heroes". Ada Wong causes a diversion so Becky, and Alice can escape and we are then presented with the final hour or so of the film. As Alice, and Becky are moving about they meet up with Becky's teacher who also happens to be a clone of Rain, and has an anti-gun policy and proudly declares so before having a gun thrust into her hands by Alice. Alice leaves Becky with "Rain" and continues on her own to find Leon, Luther West, and Barry Burton. The team sent in to rescue them.

Oh look, it's Leon Kennedy. Wasn't like the character one bit.

Alice meets up with the "extraction" team in a mock-up of Russia after driving a pimped out car, and smashing it into a giant Licker which sends it sprawling into a building. She motions for the three men to get into the vehicle, and they drive off. All while being pursued by "intelligent zombies" whom are driving vehicles, and shooting guns. Leon, and Barry dispatch most of them, and then the giant Licker returns again and pursues them for a while through Moscow, before they collapse a tunnel and presumably kill it.

They get out of the vehicle and meet up again with Becky, and Good Rain and continue their adventure to get out of the facility because it's scheduled to explode and sink to the bottom of the ocean in about an hour's time. As the group continues forward, they come to the lift to get out of the facility and prepare to leave when the power shuts down, Becky is snared by the giant Licker we believed dead, as it also slashes at "good" Rain sending her sprawling into a concrete pillar, killing her but not before it also attacks Barry and wounding him pretty seriously.

Alice goes to pursue Becky, and Luther agrees to help but not before getting shot in the arm and then backing down to help Leon, and Barry to hold off the group of Umbrella Soldiers. The shoot-out continues for a while, and Barry tells Luther and Leon to leave. He states he's having too much fun. Leon, and Luther leave and Barry has a shoot-out with the group, gets shot by the soldiers and is presumably dead. We are then blessed with another glorious slow-motion scene of Barry's magnum falling as he grabs it, and kills One and then he himself finally being killed by the group of soldiers.

Giant Licker vs Pimp Mobile
Let me just say something about Mr. Kennedy in this film. Leon Kennedy is a good guy, and likes to save people. He's the complete opposite in this film, or that's what it seemed. In this film, Leon is a complete ass-hole, and told Alice she can't go save Becky because she's not worth it. The Leon I'm used to would do whatever it would take to save someone, and probably would of gone with Alice to help. Instead, he threw a hissy fit about Alice being too important. Not to mention he has a relationship with Ada Wong, and tries copping a feel at the end of the film. No. Just no.

Anyways, Alice finds Becky, rescues her and they end up in the cloning facility and Becky realizes that her real mother was a clone, and that Alice was the true Alice. Becky gets upset, and Alice says something about her being her real mother now before the Licker comes running in, Alice tosses down an explosive and they destroy the cloning facility and the Licker along with it.

The group then finally get to the surface before the entire facility floods, and they start driving off. Then, the ice breaks and an Umbrella Submarine surfaces revealing Jill Valentine, holding Ada Wong hostage and she's also with the bad Rain, and we learn that the clone Carlos had died when the facility flooded, with Jill making a get-a-way with Ada and Rain. Then, a fight ensues with Alice taking on Jill, and getting her ass kicked most of the fight, while Leon and Luther fight Rain who injects herself randomly with a Los Plagas parasite, which Leon identifies immediately. Instead of shooting her while she's injecting it, they just simply stand and watch.

Alice continues to get her ass kicked, and Rain punches Luther in the chest so hard it stops his heart, and kills him. Very anti-climatic and she also kicks Leon's ass, and prepares to kill him, but not before Alice rips off the thing on Jill's chest that was controlling her, destroys it and shoots Rain to get her attention. Rain then ensues on fighting Alice, which is probably the most boring fight ever, and disarms Alice. Jill wakes up and realizes she's no longer being controlled, and tosses the weapon to Alice. Rain does a little brag speech, and Alice shoots the ice underneath her and the smart zombies that swam to the surface pull Rain down below, and we see a swarm of hundreds, and hundreds of the zombies pulling her down and ripping her apart.

Then, the group leaves and it seems they don't even care that Luther had been killed. Totally makes no sense. On the way back in the helicopter, Leon tries coping a feel, Ada gives him a dirty look and Jill and Alice reconcile as friends once again.

Oh, you know. Just doing some Los Plagas here.

The group then arrives at the Whitehouse, and then move to the oval office and we expect to see the President, but instead we see Albert Wesker, who asks to see Alice alone. Thinking that someone was about to die, Wesker lunges towards Alice and injects her with the T-Virus, giving her all of her powers back, and explains that she's the last hope of the human race. He leads the group outside and informs us that this is the last stand of humanity and as the camera pans out we see a ton of zombies, and mutated creatures from Resident Evil games assaulting the city, with marines shooting, and dying in a ravaged land-scape.

Credits roll, and we instantly know they've set it up for yet another film. Can't really expect what the last film will be, other than more slow-motion effects, more crappy dialogue, and more stupid characters that aren't like their characters in the franchise at all. This movie was just a sack of dog-shit and from the stupid, nonsensical plot, and the annoying cast of characters there's really no place to forgive this film.

It shits on the Resident Evil franchise, and shouldn't even bear the name "Resident Evil" as it just feels like a horribly done action film set in the Resident Evil universe. Please get someone who's actually played the games to be the lead behind the film please, Mr. Anderson. It totally shows that you have no idea of any of the concepts of Resident Evil, and just decided to toss them into a film that made no sense, and was just complete ass.

Horrible film, and one of the worst I've seen in a long time. Retribution gets a 2.5 out of 10, and that's still generous.



Sunday 23 September 2012

Faceless: Minimal Teaser



So, we released a new trailer/teaser for Faceless. This one was done by Adam Sklar, and boy do I love it. Much more than mine in fact.

Faceless (Slender: Source) launches its beta in December where players will be able to explore three maps. Forest, Subway and the Hospital. With the full release coming in March 2013 where players will be able to make their own maps, and will be adding three other maps with the full release.

Thanks for all the support.

Friday 21 September 2012

Someone Decodes All Of Faceless (Slender: Source) ARG Videos


I came across a very nice surprise today while looking through videos of Faceless (Slender: Source). A user on YouTube by the name of "WhatIsItArgonian" had decoded all of the ARG videos that were made for the mod, to help reveal a little bit about the story.

What do we know? It's all about a boy named Daniel, and the videos are "diary" entries leading up to his apparent death. You can watch the video below, and I'm glad somebody decoded all of the videos. The videos were made by Adam Sklar, and they're pretty damn awesome.

We'll be releasing a new trailer as well on October 6th, as well as the beta is going to go from closed, to an open beta in December. Keep your eyes peeled. Again, thanks for all the support. Watch the decoded video below.

Enjoy the video guys!

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Stranded! - The Side Project

Ignore the crappy image I made for this article.


As shown in the above text please try and avoid how horrible that image is, it's kind of rushed and made for this article. Either way, I've decided to create a little side-project while Faceless (Slender: Source) is in production, and gives me something mess around with and what-not in my free time. So, what is Stranded! you may be asking? It's an island survival simulator that you'll be able to play online with friends, and down below are some details for what you can expect in the alpha release which should be released in a couple of months for the public, and hopefully for the press.

  • Four player co-op where you and three other friends can explore the vast island chain (three islands), look for supplies/food, and see how many days you can survive. Or, you can tackle the game solo and see how many days you'll be able to survive alone. 
  • Hunt animals for food. Every animal in the game will drop meat that players can cook to combat starvation and gain energy.  Also, some of the animals may drop other items which can be used to aid your survival. For example, chickens will drop feathers for fishing and some poisonous snakes will drop venom so you can make antidotes, or poison your weapons.
  • 2D top-down view, ensuring that even people with dated computers will be able to explore, and play this game. No insane hardware requirements here. Everyone will be able to enjoy Stranded!
  • Everything can pose a threat/kill you. Eating certain meat uncooked will give you food poisoning, and drinking certain types of water can make you will. Not to mention the different animals scattered around the islands that will be able to kill you.
  • 3 islands, each with their own benefits and risks. The first island will be the easiest to survive on, but yield the worst supplies, where as the other two islands are progressively better. With the third island being the hardest to survive on, but yield the best food and supplies.
  • Ocean exploration so players can gather seafood, and other sea-life for food and supply purposes. Yes, you'll be able to encounter sharks!
  • Achievements
  • Leaderboard System showing who's survived the longest (number of days). Your solo play also counts towards the leaderboard, as does playing with your friends.
  • Perma-death system where when your character dies you lose everything. Tools, weapons, food, gear, etc. You essentially start over as a new person on the first island. The co-operative game will work the same way.
  • Players will also need to survive the elements, this includes massive rain-storms, hurricanes, and more. Hurricanes will actually toss around debris such as fallen logs, etc which will be able to kill or injure players.
  • Free to play.
  • And more!
So, that's essentially what I'm working on for this game. There's been some basic programming done, and I've designed some of the basic vegetation you'll come across such as palm trees, and ferns. Not enough to show off yet, but it's a start. I'm going to estimate having the Alpha out around November. Either, way thanks for all the support towards Faceless (Slender: Source) and my development team Ethereal Entertainment.

Standed! has nothing to do with Faceless, or Ethereal Entertainment and is simply a solo project that I'm doing on the side. 

Tuesday 18 September 2012

So Long Sweet Prince: The Death Of Survival-Horror


Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
---
Alright, apologies for the "prayer" at the beginning of this post, but it coincides with the image. Survival-horror games are dying, and it's becoming quite the stale market. So, I've decided to write up a blog post about the matter, and provide quite a humorous image I made which is the tombstone showing the faces of "Leon Kenny", "Isaac Clarke" and "Heather Mason". Each reflecting their game franchises which have been steering a little bit away from their original premise, and not exactly being scary anymore (I still have hopes for Dead Space 3)!.

If you read my blog, and at-least follow it. You may have seen my impressions of the Resident Evil 6 demo that released to the public earlier today, and how it made me extremely upset with the direction the series has went. I don't want my "horror" games plagued with quick-time events, and horrible action sequences. What ever happened to the exploration in the classic RE games? I really miss that, and that formula was amazing. This new formula was brilliant in Resident Evil 4, but has just turned into complete dog-shit with the latest installment. If I could bet what my Most Disappointing game of this year would be, it may just be Resident Evil 6, but we'll see when the game releases. Hopefully, it's not dog-shit, but it's not looking too good.

It's quite true, Resident Evil. You've turned into dog-shit.


Our second head on the gravestone belongs to that of Isaac Clarke, everyone's favorite space-engineer from the Dead Space series. Dead Space brought a lot to the table, and provided a genuinely horrifying game in some instances, and some rather frustrating moments as well (that bullshit asteroid crap). Dead Space 2 wasn't as scary as the original, but it still had its moments and I may be one of the select few who actually enjoyed the multiplayer aspect of the game. Then, in early 2013 we'll be getting Dead Space 3, and lots of people are worried about that game, and that it may follow the same fate of Resident Evil and go completely action-oriented, which would sorta bum me out. However, I have high-hopes in Visceral Games and have a feeling they'll once again bring out a quality game with the latest Dead Space title. I for one think the co-op element will be fun, and besides. To all the people complaining, if you play it solo the "Carver" character won't follow you'll around. You'll just meet up once and a while, so calm yourselves.

Calm yourselves, and have faith. 
And we finally come to the last head on the gravestone, and it's the face of Heather Mason of Silent Hill fame. I found the Silent Hill series to be the most terrifying games I had ever played up until they started hitting the next generation of games, and we've been getting some quality dog-crap over the years. I don't what's wrong with the series as of right now, but there's just something missing from it. Maybe Silent Hill has out-lasted it's life, or as a concept it could be dated? There's a lot of issues with the new iterations of Silent Hill, and it's really hard to understand why. I had high hopes for both Homecoming, and Downpour which both turned out to be the worst games in the series, and for a massive fan of the series I don't count those games as existing. Even though Downpour was far superior to Homecoming, but still not good. It really hurts too, because back in the day Silent Hill was the master of all survival horror games.

Say goodbye to Pyramid-Head. This is shit-head.

However, the last good Silent Hill game I touched was on my PSP back before I sold it last year. This game was hard, spooky, and added something new to the series that actually made it exciting and interesting. If you have a PSP and haven't had the chance, please check out Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Definitely one of the best Silent Hill games in recent years, with the last good title being that one in-fact.
---
So, survival-horror is definitely a dying genre (in AAA standards) but it seems that the indie market is in full swing with bringing it back, and revitalizing some classical horror elements. Triple A horror may be dying, but indie horror is coming in full swings. It's definitely something I look forward to seeing more of.

Resident Evil 6 Demo - It's Just Awful


So, the Resident Evil 6 demo came out to the public today on XBL and PSN. Being a massive Resident Evil fan, I had to download the demo as soon as it came out, and immediately I was disappointed.

I'm going to clear something up first. The last Resident Evil game I truly enjoyed was Resident Evil 4, but possibly the remake of the first RE title more. I felt that the series took a huge nose-dive when Resident Evil 5 was release, and I found that game just to be utterly stupid, even though the co-op element redeemed it some-what, the smell of the shitty direction it was about to take was overwhelming all through-out the game.

Fast-forward to 2012 and we get Resident Evil 6 to be released on October 2nd for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. The demo for this game was brought out today for the public, and people have been diving into one of the most iconic game franchises of all time. However, I feel that Resident Evil 6 may be the worst game of the series, and quite possibly be the last thing that kills the entire franchise for me (the films weakened it quite a bit though). Resident Evil 6 just feels like it's taken the franchise people have grown to love, and tossed it into a completely different direction that doesn't make any sense.

Remember back in the days of the old RE titles where us gamers actually were nervous, and frightened playing the games? Especially Resident Evil 2. That game was utterly terrifying, and would constantly have me on the edge of my seat, and the series seemed to keep it's "horror" elements up until about Resident Evil 4, and then we got RE 5 which totally swung the game into a new, and shitty direction.



Now, I can't judge the final product of what RE6 will be on release from this demo, because it's short, clunky and doesn't exactly give much on a game-play level (if you count mindless running around and shooting a game, I don't). Plus, you're given three campaigns which brings Chris Redfield, and Leon Kennedy back, where as in the third campaign you're playing as Albert Wesker's son, and Sherry Birkin (their fathers started the whole outbreak in Raccoon City), and let's be honest here. The campaigns, and story elements presented in the demo are plan boring, and completely not fun. However, where Chris and Jake's (I think that's his name) campaigns fail, Leon's totally picks up the slack and at-least provides a somewhat enjoyable experience.

If you hate the new style of enemies in the franchise since RE4, then Leon's campaign will probably be the one for you, as it seems to be focused on the enemies we all know too well from the classic RE games. The actual zombies, not the mindless/savage townsfolk. Actual undead, and as a classic RE fan this made me happy. Either way, check out the demo for yourself and don't let my over-critical opinion sway your decision.

You may enjoy the demo, I just thought it was dog-shit. Ah well, expect a review of the game when it releases in October. Who knows, my views might change, but it's doubtful.

Friday 14 September 2012

Slender: Source Devs Take Suggestions Into Account, and rename mod Faceless


So, I recently changed the name of Slender: Source to the Operator, due to suggestions from the development team. Unknown to myself the name had actually been copyrighted by Marble Hornets and we've yet again been forced to change the name of the mod again, which frustrates me beyond no end and kind of makes me want to stab someone, with my Slendy tentacles.

Either way, the new name if "Faceless" and we aren't budging from that name. It describes Slenderman, and you know details the fact of him having no face. I do apologize for the name changes, as it really hurts me but the community didn't like the name "The Operator" and I want to provide for the community.

From here on in, Slender: Source will be named "Faceless".

Slender: Source being renamed to "The Operator"


Keep calm, the image above doesn't mean we're canceling Slender: Source, we're just renaming it to "The Operator" which is just another name for the Slenderman, and it ties in with the story we're doing for the game since in the ARG videos, that's what he is referenced as.

The main reason we're doing the name change is free any confusion people are having think we're partnered with Mark J. Hadley in creating Slender: The Eight Pages, or if he's helping us with "Slender: Source". Our games are completely different, and the name change should help free up the confusion.

Plus, with the Source title in the mod we could have a rough time getting Greenlit so hence the name change there as well. Plus, Slender: Source was a lazy, and boring name. I much prefer "The Operator" more. Keep a look out, as in the next few days we'll be changing the name, and images on ModDB, and the Steam Greenlight page to reflect the change.

Still though, please show your support and vote for us! It means a lot.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92917473 - Slender: Source/ The Operator Greenlight

Monday 27 August 2012

Horror Mod "Inquietude" Looks All Kinds of Amazing


I don't usually get all giddy when I see a horror mod on ModDB. You really need to capture my attention, and give me something that looks brilliant and feels brilliant all at the same time. Inquietude does just that. Now, the mod hasn't been released and won't be until Q2 in 2013, so it's still a ways away from getting into our grubby hands. But, I remain excited.

Sadly, I don't know too much about the mod other than the fact that it looks straight up horrifying, and from what's been shown I can probably say it'll be one of the best experiences we'll have next year.


It definitely feels like it's going to do things right, and I definitely feel like I'm gonna get scared playing this mod. As I've mentioned I don't usually get this excited about a mod, but this one just looks like the horror perfection I've wanted for such a long time. Especially since I was kinda disappointed with Grey, and Cry Of Fear. It seems like Inquietude is going to rectify all of that, and make me one happy horror fan.


Mod Of The Year material? I think so. It looks like mods will have a little competition next year over on MODDB. Inquietude looks like all kinds of fantastic. I eagerly away the release date.



Saturday 25 August 2012

Meet The Victims - The Characters Of Slender: Source






Making characters for a video game is probably my favorite part of the development process. Getting the entire team together and coming up with ideas of what the people/creatures you meet will look like. Definitely an interesting process, and even though some ideas get shot down, I still enjoy it.

So, as some of you may know we have a total of 4 characters planned for Slender: Source. Each with their own personality, looks, etc. The cool thing is that we have given them each a back-story and past, and it helps explain why Slenderman is following them, and killing them. He likes to track down the 'fucked-up' people so to speak, and each of our characters is fucked up in their own little way.

We've only finished the model for one of them, but here's the characters we'll be having in Slender: Source upon release. We may have more playable characters in the future, but who knows.


(This is Richard. Please ignore the silly moves he's doing. It was testing out his rigging)

Richard () - The all around, normal dude of the group. Richard is a pretty nice guy and doesn't
try getting in on anyone's issues. However, driving home one night he got into a car accident which
killed his younger sister, and he had to watch her pass on. So, sometimes he'll suffer from incidents/nightmares where he believes she still talks to him.

Adam () - Adam is the brains of the group, and the nervous guy. He suffers from a severe case of anxiety. He's the youngest of the group at the ripe age of 15. Adam is from the United Kingdom,but was transferred over to the United States for some special high-school program.

Nathan () - Nathan is the jock/asshole of the group. He treats most of the group like crap, and thinks of himself as a bad-ass. He was negelected from his parents, and was abandoned at the age of 6. However, he was adopted by a hardcore Christian family and rebeled. He swears a lot, and is just an all around jack-ass. He's 21 and still in school because he keeps being held back.

Amy () - Amy is pretty much the school's bicycle. She is called a "whore" and doesn't have the best reputation, and was a victim of rape which she became pregnant. She aborted the child, and now
constantly does cocaine to forget all of her woes, but has OD'd on multiple occasions to the point of almost dying.
---
So, as you can see each character has their own share of woes and horrible events from their past. It's been a fun process writing their backgrounds, and developing each of them as a character. There's nothing like seeing one of your creations come to life.


Friday 24 August 2012

The New Slenderman - Slender: Source Take On The Slenderman






Everytime we put something new into Slender: Source my hands get shaky, and I constantly worry if people will take it well, and enjoy it once the release comes around. It's pretty tough making a mod, and I've been told by countless people that making a game for commercial sale is a little bit easier and that gives me hope for when we finish Slender: Source.

Anyways, let's talk about the Slenderman for a second and my issues with how he was portrayed in Slender by Parsec Productions.




This doesn't exactly shout fear at me. He just looks like a kid
molded a bunch of clay together. Makes me sad, the Unity engine has made some gorgeous looking
models and games. I found it impossible to be scared of him after a few
play-throughs.

I might get some shit for it, but I'm not the only one with a little dislike for how Slenderman looked in Slender. And we've taken those people's opinions and we've made him look quite interesting for Slender: Source. I've got the concept art, and an early screenshot of his model below. Enjoy guys, because this is our take on the Slenderman, and what he'll look like in Slender: Source.

We hope you guys enjoy Slender: Source, and we hope this model appeals to you all. Again, it's currently a WIP and still has some work to be done to it. Just showing off what our Slenderman is gonna look like.



 

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Dead Space 3: Gamescom Preview






So, Visceral just showed off some stuff at Gamescom about Dead Space 3, and I'm not entirely sure why people are throwing it all under the bus already. We only got about 3 minutes of footage, and it honestly doesn't shout "This game sucks" out at me, but let's talk about what was shown.

First off, we're given this little hint at how players will be able to customize their own weapons.  Seems pretty cool, and I have nothing against this at all. People complaining that a chaingun with a grenade launcher attachment will take away from the horror, I don't see how. A weapon shouldn't change the experience at all. We still got some pretty large, bad-ass weapons in Dead Space before and the tension, and fright factor was still there. I'm not too worried about this, I still think they'll be able to toss out a good game. Dead Space, and Dead Space 2 were both very successful games in my opinion.

Then, we have one hell of an opening sequence which seems to show Isaac Clarke in an exploding space ship, leaping from his ship to grab his helmet in space. More people complaining about how this isn't realistic. Since when were space zombies, and exploding alien babies realistic? Honestly, I think Dead Space 3 will be fine, it may not be as amazing as Dead Space 2 but I'm sure it'll be a fine game. It is my most anticipated game of 2013, and I have high hopes for it.

Bring on the Necromorphs.

Friday 10 August 2012

The Source Engine: Plagued With Undead






The Source Engine, one of the most versatile game engines on the internet today. People have made some amazing experiences using that. For example, mods/games like Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike Source, No More Room In Hell, etc. There's a ton of good ideas but one thing that really bothers me about the engine is the over saturation of zombie mods/games. Sure, there's a couple gems in the bunch but it's when people start tossing these mods out, and not focusing on making them different/unique which really grinds my gears. There's a ton of potential with the Source Engine and people releasing the exact same "wave survival" mod about zombies is really...sad.

No More Room In Hell: The best zombie mod

Above we have No More Room In Hell, which is pretty much the best zombie mod you can experience on the Source Engine. For me, in past experiences everything else fails in comparison to this mod. It's not boring, and usually each play-through/round is different. Unlike your typical formula in most zombie mods, but I won't be naming any. Or at-least I don't think I will, but it is nice to tell people "Don't waste your time!"

Then, there's other mods that are really, really poor. The main reason for this is not adding anything new to the zombie genre, and using the same recycled mechanics we've seen with other wave based survival crap. For example, Situation Outbreak. That mod had a ton of potential, but their survival system felt weak, even though the idea of the in-game store worked, and was actually pretty cool. However, everything else didn't really jive with me since it was essentially the same mechanics we've seen in other "survival" modes, and really didn't do much to spice it up. I think the lack of servers is what killed this mod.


Situation Outbreak: It looked pretty, but didn't appeal.
 
Then, we have the mods that are just down-right terrible and feel like someone copied the entire code for another game, and re-released it as a textural update, and what-not. I really can't describe this next one, but it's by far the worst use of zombies I have ever seen in a mod, and totally shat on one of my favorite Source Mods of all time. Welcome to, Zombie Master: Black Edition. A mod designed by some kids that were fans of Zombie Master? I really don't know.
All I know is that Black Edition had the inclusion of blobs as enemies. Yes, blobs in a zombie game. They didn't fit, and felt completely useless. For me, it feels like they wanted to make a unique enemy but nobody knew how to develop 3D models and thus a blob was born. Plus, all enemies had a one hit kill which I think was meant for realism, but ended up just being tacky and frustrating.
 
Zombie Master Black Edition: Blobs...yeaaaah.
 
So, what do you guys think about how many zombie mods are being pushed out onto the Source Engine lately? Just now while writing this article I've came across three or four, I don't really remember. I'd really love to hear what others think, and I don't want to be the only guy shitting on this kind of thing.