[PC Game Review] Titanfall

TITANFALL
Platform: PC (Origin)
Released: 2014
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Publisher: EA
Buy on Origin

Titanfall is without a doubt one of the most anticipated games in a while. Not only is it made by the people who made some of the most renowned Call of Duty games, it's also seemingly a truly unique shooter that brings the genre forward and away from the Call of Duty style we've seen so far. Is it truly a game changer or is this a titanic fall?

Already having played the beta, I could tell Titanfall would be a pretty unique shooter that firmly establishes itself within the multiplayer shooter genre. The thing I looked forward to was to see how the full version would handle the story mode and how it would integrate the story into the multiplayer and how this would work out. The answer is that it simply doesn't. Rather quickly the story takes second stage to the action and the only story we get are brief map introductions and some radio chatter that is quite easily drowned out by battle noise and you're often too immersed in the action to pay attention to the paper thin story. Honestly, if you are looking for a game with a good story, look elsewhere. Titanfall in a way feels rather oldschool in how it handles it story mode and brings to mind such classic multiplayer shooters as Unreal Tournament and how its campaign similarly were just a series of multiplayer maps you played in succession. In Titanfall you can play these maps twice as both sides to unlock new Titans for the multiplayer mode and that is pretty much your only reason to play the story mode.

One good thing about titans, they explode. :P

However the multiplayer itself is definitely where Titanfall shines. I can wholeheartedly say I have never played any game like this and in an era of copycat Call of Duty inspired shooters, that's a tough claim to make. What sets Titanfall apart from its competition as far as gameplay goes is how seamless it blends mech combat and fast-paced on-foot sections. While other games like Blackout Retribution and Hawken have tried focusing on mech combat for a while and doing it well, Titanfall more or less perfects the transition between pilot and mech.

As a pilot you have much more freedom of movement and agility than ever before, and you're basically a special type of elite soldier on the field who can use your jetpack to get to higher places on the map as well as run on walls Mirror's Edge style. This freedom of movement frees you from being locked to the ground like in most other FPS's of today and makes the game feel almost oldschool in its movement style. It brings to mind classics like Quake and Unreal Tournament with their more vertical gameplay. While most shooters today have become almost entirely horizontal and locked to the ground, especially Call of Duty where vertical gameplay has been restricted to running into a building and finding a sniper spot, Titanfall is almost entirely vertical and the levels are designed to accommodate this.

C'mere!

The freedom of movement of course becomes restricted once you enter your titan which you can call in during a match after a certain cooldown period. Entering the titan is dead simple and thankfully, your mech is YOURS and nobody else can like come and snag it or anything as it has a protective shield. This makes you feel a lot more connected to your titan. When you're out of the titan, the AI takes over and you can use it like a partner on the field that helps you take out enemies, or you can enter it and control it yourself which also is a ton of fun. The controls for the titan are identical to your pilot controls in most ways and the titan feels deliciously agile as well. I was fearing it would feel clunky and kind of disorienting but Respawn has done a perfect job here making it feel like your pilot is ONE with the machine. On the battlefield you also have AI opponents known as grunts and spectres. While these pose little to no actual harm to you as they are mere fodder for your guns and don't really support you all that much, they add flair to the battle and make for good target practice for new players and makes it easier for them to get into the game.

The multiplayer features several game modes. You have regular Team Deathmatch (Attrition) where the goal is to get the most kills over the enemy team in the allotted time. Once the time runs out you get a special ending mode where the losing team has to reach an evacuation shuttle before the enemy team wipes them out completely. This is easily the most fun thing about Titanfall and adds a unique flair to the battles. The feeling when you successfully manage to evacuate a battle is amazing. I recommend most people to start out with Attrition if you have never played Titanfall before as it offers a very good introduction in a familiar and dead simple game mode. You also have Last Titan Standing which is a mode where you spawn in a Titan and the goal is to eliminate all Titans on the enemy team. Pretty simple and with no respawns, it is still a pretty fun mode to play. Hardpoint is pretty straightforward. Capture and hold 3 hardpoints on a map. The more hardpoints held, the faster your team wins. Capture the Flag is what it says on the tin. Go into the enemy base, get their flag and take it back to yours. Pilot Hunter is all about eliminating the enemy team pilots to reach the score limit. And finally Variety Pack is a mosh pit of all the different game modes, perfect if you want to play for a while and want some variety.

Pilots can still be pretty dangerous to titans. Especially if they have satchel charges.

As a pilot, in addition to the standard loadouts you start out with, you can customize your own Pilot and Titan loadouts after a while as you level up, giving you full reign over how you want to play since the more you unlock, the more freedom you have. I also love that you can choose which gender to make your pilot, something I've wanted in multiplayer shooters for a while. Another addition are Burn Cards. These are basically like the perks in Call of Duty except they are only good for one use and you can choose up to 3 cards to have for each match. They add a bit of extra to the gameplay and as you play you earn more of them so you never run out. They modify your abilities and weapons in various ways, some giving you unlimited cloaking, some giving you more powerful weapon variants, and it's always random which ones you get, making it a lot of fun to play just to see which cards you'll get. You get tactical abilities such as cloaking (making you somewhat invisible to other pilots and titans) and stims (enhancing your running speed), and a good variety of weapons, ranging from Assault Rifles, SMGs, Snipers and Shotguns to the very fun and unique smart pistol that automatically targets your enemies. You also have special anti-titan weapons specifically designed to make your pilot a real force to be reckoned with. The titan weapons range from Chainguns to rocket launchers and they also have tactical abilities like deflector shields and electric smoke.

Worth noting is how the game deals with hackers and cheaters. If you are caught cheating you can technically continue playing the game, however you are restricted to lobbies with other cheaters only in what the developers describe as the "Wimbledon of aimbots". In my opinion this is a really cool way of dealing with cheaters.

The graphics are really good and high res, and I actually went ahead and upgraded my PC graphics card just for this game since they require a bit of a strong gaming rig to fully experience the game how it's meant to be played. They have a bit of a Call of Duty style to them except a bit more futuristic and sci-fi. The sounds are also pretty good though the music is mostly forgetable and I usually have it muted.

The epilogue is often the most intense part of the battle as the losing team has to reach a dropship in time to evacuate while being hunted by the winning team.

All in all, Titanfall is a really good multiplayer shooter, in fact it's one of the best I've played in a long time. There was no problems with it on launch, the servers have always worked fine for me and the game is always fun to pick up and play and in a lot of ways I prefer it over Call of Duty. However, the downside is, well, this is all you get. There is little to no story and it takes a clear backseat to the gameplay, there's no DLC to speak of yet and so for a full price I find it hard to recommend this game due to the small amount of content you get. You get a variety of game modes and several good maps to play on sure, but that's all you get. If you can find it at around 20-30$ I would say definitely pick it up. Do I regret paying full price for it though? No, not really. The game is rock solid and a ton of fun and I don't mind paying full price for it at all, but I can see some people on a limited budget not wanting to pay full price for a kind of stripped down experience.

SUMMARY
STORY: 4/10
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
SOUND: 5/10
GRAPHICS: 8/10

FINAL SCORE: 7/10

PC Game Review: Alien Rage

ALIEN RAGE
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2013
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer/Publisher. CI Games
Buy on Steam

There are games out there that label themselves as expert games. Games you seek out for the challenge and sheer bragging rights of completing them. Alien Rage has put itself in that league, selling itself as a shooter with old school gameplay and difficulty. Does it hold up to its promises? Let's find out as I take a look at a game that almost make my top 10 games of 2013 list.

The story in Alien Rage is paper thin and doesn't really have much impact on the game, basically giving you a setting, though the game itself is pretty much going from level to level in a linear fashion. I do like the writing though, as the use of humor and witty writing offsets the somewhat harsh difficulty of the game, giving you some relief between tense moments.

At first glance, you might look at the game and think "wait, that's not old school, this is Call of Duty with aliens". Well, that would be doing the game a disservice. Sure, it might have aiming down sights, it might have a 2 weapon limit and health regen. But the oldschool elements are there, just a bit subtle and requires you to actually play the game a bit to get them. The oldschool elements come in from the fact that the game gives you scores for skillshots, similar to Bulletstorm. The game also has a rather high difficulty which comes from the fact that the weapons are all really powerful and you aren't really that good at resisting them since the bad guys ALSO use those weapons.
That's why using skillshots and using your head as much as your gun is essential to surviving in this game and it requires that you do more than just shoot at the enemy. Sometimes ingenuity, awareness of your environment and timing can be more important. The fact the game does not have any mini-map and doesn't hold your hand in any way, shape or form means you have to rely on your senses and skills the entire time, which is where a lot of the more oldschool difficulty comes from.
Being limited to 2 weapons really doesn't have that much of an impact anyway since all of the weapons, as stated, are powerful and fit all situations. They just lend themselves to different play styles. I played through the entire game using almost exclusively the alien and human assault rifles. Even the boss fights were handled with those guns so what weapon you use doesn't matter all that much. Find a favourite and stick with it.

The game also has another modern element in that as you play and get scores, you level up, and each time you level up you gain a perk. Perks are, needless to say, modifiers that give you certain boosts that can benefit your playstyle and a lot of the fun comes from earning new perks, trying them out and finding the right combination. A little tip is that once you get the Mega Pistol perk, it makes the side arm pistol you have (which doesn't count as one of your 2 weapons btw) essentially the most powerful gun in the entire game and gives you a much needed edge over your enemies. Combined with other perks such as projectile damage bonus and Mega Health, it makes for a highly lethal combination that makes the brutal difficulty seem possible to overcome. I strongly suggest playing through the game on the easy difficulty to earn these perks before tackling the normal or hard difficulties. The mega pistol perk also makes it much more likely to get the achievement for completing the game using only the pistol.

All the weapons are also equipped with an alternate fire mode that uses up special ammunition that you can find in limited quantities around the levels. The alternate mode usually works as a grenade substitute as it usually leads to a lot of explosions. Keep in mind though that the enemies also have these alternate fire modes and will exploit them to kick your ass hard. The AI in this game is actually surprisingly impressive for a shooter and behave a lot like real players would. Another strategic tip is that if you have no other option but to shoot the enemies directly, aim for the head. Headshots are insanely OP in Alien Rage and can lead to a lot of easy kills, and you get bonus points for them.
The bosses all have their own techniques in how to take them down and figuring them out can take a while so prepare to be slaughtered a lot before you actually manage to take them down. Once you figure it out though it's sometimes astonishingly easy.

The level designs are fairly linear and save for searching for a few secret items there isn't much exploration possible which I think is fair considering the game is more of a linear arcady on-rails shooter for the most part, but for it to be truly oldschool they should've taken a cue from the recently released Shadow Warrior and give you secret locations and easter eggs to find. I don't know why so many game developers nowadays shy away from this. But that being said, the levels are fine and lend themselves to some pretty intense battle scenarios. I especially found it cool that the enemy can shoot through cover and even blow it apart so you are never truly safe in one spot for too long, forcing you to move from cover to cover a lot.

I haven't played much of the multiplayer but what I've played was pretty standard TDM fare. It doesn't really stand out all that much and I don't think this game is worth getting for the multiplayer. In fact it's near impossible to find people playing the game nowadays anyway as I think most people are playing the single player mode or are playing other and better multiplayer shooters that offer more variety. I would've loved a co-op mode or something here to really bring that oldschool arcade feel to it, so there's a bit of a missed opportunity there. All in all, the multiplayer feels pretty tacked on and could easily have been left out.

The graphics are absolutely one of the best things about the game. The game oozes style and I especially love the limited colour palette which for some reason reminds me a lot of early Amiga games in how it's focused very much on the contrasts of blue and orange, similar to a lot of 16bit games, which really does help give the game an oldschool style about it. The enemy designs are really cool and I especially like the huge boss designs that give them a true sense of menace. There's  a lot of subtle details in your field of view and the use of harsh lighting gives the game a dark and intense contrasting atmosphere which makes all the colours pop all the more. This game is absolutely gorgeous and definitely feels next gen when you play it. Despite looking this good it runs surprisingly well on my computer, even if at launch the game had some optimization issues.

The soundtrack is a bit lackluster in my opinion. It falls into the trap of trying to be a bit cinematic so it ends up being largely forgettable. It works well to compliment the constant action and I did enjoy the slightly electronic feel to it, but it just ended up being not memorable enough for me. Would've loved some driving techno or dubstep here to really push the action to the next level, and I think the devs should've gone for that personally. The voice acting is great however and brings a lot of the humor and wit out of the script, giving the protagonist a much needed personality that made him stand out a bit. I also loved the sound effects, all of them having a nice sound design to them. The game shows a lot of polish both in the sound and graphics department.

Alien Rage is a great shooter but hard to recommend if you only have a casual interest in shooters. It's definitely for you if you want a challenge and liked more oldschool arcady shooters such as Bulletstorm. It does try to find a true balance between the oldschool and modern game mechanics which might throw some people off if they expect it to be more like Half-Life or Quake. But for what it is, it's a great looking and awesome sounding experience that is fun while it lasts and the brutal difficulty makes the reward of completing it all that higher and I felt pretty f*cking good when I had completed it. But like I said, hard to recommend because this game does NOT hold your hand at all and REQUIRES you to THINK about how you play it and use the environment and your skills to survive.

SUMMARY
Story: 5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 8/10

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

Top 5 Anticipated Games of 2014

I was thinking of making a top 10 list but realized I am not really anticipating that many games this year. So here are the top 5 I am anticipating in 2014, plain and simple. Let's get to it!


5. WOLFENSTEIN: THE NEW ORDER

Set in an alternate 1960's, The New Order seems like pure Nazi-sploitation from the get-go and definitely has my attention. The game play also seems like ridiculously old school fun! Definitely excited for this game, not to mention pre-ordering it grants you beta access for Doom 4! I am intrigued by how you can interact with cover in this game and it seems like it's gonna be a fun FPS that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's pure exploitation and knows it.


4. BORDERLANDS 2 VITA

Definitely excited about this. Borderlands 2 is pretty much my favourite game of all time at the moment and having it on a handheld is going to be pretty awesome and was my reason for getting the PS Vita to begin with. And of course, being able to play it locally with anyone without the need for a PC LAN is also a good thing.


3. ALIEN: ISOLATION

 

With Aliens: Colonial Marines being such a flop for SEGA, let's hope they can set things straight with Isolation, which seems to harken more back to the first movie's space terror. So far it seems to be set as a straight up survival horror game, which arguably suits a game based on the first movie. Definitely excited to play this if it comes out on PC as well, so far it's stated to come out on XBox One and PS4.

2. WATCH_DOGS

 

Being a huge cyberpunk fan, this game caught my interest easily and I have already pre-ordered it. It basically puts you in the role of a hacker and gives you a lot of power to hack things and use that to your advantage rather than just shooting everything. It has me intrigued and I can't wait to play it.

1. TITANFALL

Already been hyped for this game since I saw the trailers and I've thoroughly played the beta of Titanfall and what can I say, I fucking love it! It's the most fresh and unique shooter I've played in a long time. Sure, it's going to be multiplayer only but that doesn't really bother me that much. The sheer fun I've had so far has me sold on this game and I am definitely getting it on launch.

So that's it for my top 5 anticipated games, some of them coming out already next month. Stay tuned for more reviews and gaming perspectives from yours truly, Alyxx. <3

Titanfall Beta Impressions

BETA IMPRESSIONS

Hello, guys!

This isn't really a review or anything so don't take it as such. This is just a quick little overview of the Titanfall Beta version I've played so far and my impressions of it. I will be writing a full game review later after the full version is out.

In short, Titanfall is just as awesome as I was expecting it to be. I had already been hyped by all the trailers of the game and it did not disappoint. The gameplay feels really fast paced and kind of like a mix between several game genres. As a pilot you're really agile and have a LOT of freedom of movement. The parkour elements really help give the game its own unique feel and makes you feel empowered in a way that games like Battlefield and Call of Duty never did. It's as if you had the parkour elements from Mirror's Edge but weren't restricted to using them exclusively. It's up to you as a player to judge when it is necessary to flee and when to face your enemies. It honestly reminds me a lot of Unreal Tournament or Tribes and other oldschool shooters in how much freedom you have in the game and you never feel like you are locked to the map layout like other shooters since you can climb buildings and run on walls as much as you can run inside buildings and hide if you want to.  Of course, it takes a bit of getting used to and I often fell into the trap of playing it more like Call of Duty, so I definitely need to play this game more to get into the groove of it.

Playing the Titans also feels extremely easy and smooth and it still feels like a FPS when you get into a Titan and feels like strapping on a heavier second skin. It never feels too clunky and responds very quickly to your movements which I appreciate. Once you get your own Titan, nobody else can take it or destroy it as it has a protective shield and it definitely feels like Christmas when you call one in. Its main weapon depends on which type of Titan you choose on the loadout screen, though they all share the same basic abilites and secondary weapon which is a multiple rocket launcher. You can dash in any direction and you have a shield that basically gathers any bullets or missiles fired at you from enemy Titans, and once you release the shield, you send the ammunition back at them, which feels like a more badass way of giving the finger to them.

Graphically the game looks really beautiful but, of course, being a Beta I found the game wasn't really optimized as I experienced a lot of lag if I used anything but the medium to low settings, and this might also be because it's a next gen game. It really does make me want to upgrade my hardware to be honest as I want to experience this game with everything maxed out. During training there wasn't much lag but don't let that deceive you as the matches themselves can be pretty intensive on your graphics hardware. On low settings it doesn't look as beautiful, it does look a bit grey and washed out in parts, but overall the gameplay made up for it.

Music isn't all that memorable, I turned it off in favour of a little Skrillex. The sounds though are really good, especially the gun sounds and all the little details in the voice acting and such.

You start out with about 2 default pilot classes, but unlock a third as you level up and eventually you can create your own custom classes (3 of them) all with different loadouts. There isn't much in the way of character appearance customization, other than choosing gender, though that's fine by me. Your general appearance is mostly decided by the game according to the loadout you are using. Pick a tactical weapon and you look more like an assassin. Pick a sniper rifle and you look like a sniper. It works very much like the Call of Duty games in that regard. 

The loadouts consist of a primary weapon that you use against other regular enemies. These range from an auto-targeting Smart Pistol to a Longbow Sniper Rifle and all of them offer unique advantages and feel really satisfying to use. I absolutely love the weapon designs and how they feel and that is always one of the most important things to me when playing a shooter. You also have a secondary weapon specifically designed to take out enemy Titans and my most used weapon for that purpose is the Sidewinder which is basically a full auto rocket launcher. It kinda reminds me of the Devastator from Duke Nukem which is never a bad thing. In addition to these weapons you can pick a third sidearm, usually a pistol. These are handy in a pinch if you accidentally burn all your ammo, but otherwise I never use them and instead try to pick up weapons from dead enemies. I will give them props for letting you use a full auto pistol right off the bat though. All of the weapons, excluding the sidearms, have weapon attachments like in Call of Duty and you unlock more of them as you level up. I definitely look forward to unlocking all of them and trying out different attachment combos as that is always a fun thing I do in Call of Duty. 

In addition to choosing what weapons you wanna use, you can also choose a tactical ability. These are basically little powers that have a cooldown and can come in handy during a heated match. The first one you get and will be using a lot is a cloaking device and while it makes you pretty much invisible to Titans, you can still be spotted by other pilots easily since you're not entirely invisible, just hard to see. You can also choose an ordnance, basically grenades or other throwable objects, like cats, midgets and Tom Cruise. You also have Tier Kits. These are basically perks and on higher levels I assume you get access to more of them. They affect your gameplay style in certain ways by enhancing certain aspects like giving you better parkour abilites or constantly displaying enemies on the minimap instead of only occasionally. What kits you use will be entirely up to you.

The titan loadouts, as far as I have played, are not customizable, though from what I can tell you get access to different Titans as you play. They all have different weapons but all share the same common traits.

In the beta I only had access to some multiplayer modes and not really the main game so I'll only be talking about those:

Attrition is basically a team deathmatch game where the goal is to kill everyone on the enemy team and get the highest score before the timer runs out, and feels the closest to a traditional multiplayer FPS. As you play you gain experience points that you use to level up, earning them from kills where headshots and other specialized damage earns you extra points, as well as completing certain challenges during gameplay. During the match a timer cools down to when you can call in your Titan and that's where the real fun begins. Going up against other Titans feels like a true match of skill and is a lot of fun. And once your Titan dies, you can just eject from it and jump on the enemy Titan and shoot into its head as an act of revenge. The gameplay here feels beautifully balanced and a LOT of fun. Once the timer runs out you get to play a bit of an epilogue where the winning team chases the losing team as they wait for an escape vehicle to pick them up. There are of course no respawns at this point and it's a nice way for the teams to earn extra points and test their survival skills and does feel really intense. I absolutely LOVE how this adds a unique flair to the game mode.

Hardpoint is basically domination where the point is to capture and hold all 3 hardpoints on a map and keep the enemy from taking over them. If you've played this mode in Call of Duty you'll feel right at home here and here the Titans aren't THAT useful but can act as giant guardians.

Last Titan Standing is a mode where everyone spawns as a Titan and the objective is to eliminate all Titans on the enemy team. While you do survive as a pilot if your Titan dies, if you die as a pilot there is no respawn so being careful and responsive is essential to surviving in this game mode. It definitely feels a lot like Last Man Standing from Call of Duty but with the Titanfall twist.

So yeah, those are my impressions of Titanfall so far, at least the Beta. I honestly feel excited to play the full version now and will definitely pre-order it as soon as I can afford it. I can't wait to see it getting more optimized for lower end computers like mine and what DLC they have to offer and most of all, what the main campaign is like and how it will integrate this gameplay with a story and how the multiplayer and single player elements will merge. From what I've seen so far, Titanfall is a fresh and unique take on the FPS genre, nothing like anything I've played before even if it borrows elements from Call of Duty a lot. It definitely feels like more than just another CoD clone and for that reason I can't recommend it enough.

- Alyxx

Top 10 Sega Mega Drive Games (At the moment)

I am pretty much a fresh Sega fangirl and I have already gotten a nice Mega Drive library since a lot of games are very easy to come by, very affordable and easy to find complete in box. So here's a list of my top 10 Mega Drive games as of now. Keep in mind I might do an update on this list later when my library has grown, but these are my top 10 MD games at the moment.

 

10. ZERO TOLERANCE
There aren't many first person shooters on the Mega Drive, and so far this is the only one I have really played to any great length. Zero Tolerance is kind of a mix between Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, with a few unique twists. For instance, you can jump and crouch which is mostly useless but adds a bit of movement to the game, you also have some really cool guns although since your inventory space is limited you can't carry every single thing in the game and have to sometimes waste ammo to get a new weapon which adds a lot of thought and strategy to the game. The weapons themselves also have unique features, such as laser targeting. For the time this was a really ambitious game for a 16bit system and has some really impressive graphics. The game is divided into several episodes, kinda like Doom or Wolf3D but you keep your inventory items between episodes, which is pretty cool. The only bad thing I can say about it though is that the framerate is a bit low and the game therefore feels a bit slow as a result. I also thought the music was really bad and forgetable and I usually turn it off when playing the game. I also really wish the game had saves instead of having to use a password but other than that, this is a solid effort for the Mega Drive and a really impressive one at that. One thing I also wanna mention is that instead of the game having lives, you have several characters to play as, each with their own unique character strengths and backstories, giving the game kind of a roguelike feel as each life is a character and once they are all dead, the game is over.


 
9.MEGA BOMBERMAN

Of course a console isn't worth getting unless you have some real party games. Mega Bomberman is a perfect party game as up to 4 players can play simultaneously on the same screen by using a multitap adapter, offering some true classic Bomberman action. Bomberman is one of those classics that never get old and this is no exception. I also love that you have cute furry kangaroo-like animals to ride on that offer some extra abilities and protection. The basic goal of Bomberman, if you don't know already, is to kill all the enemies on the board using bombs, getting powerups that alter your gameplay in various ways along the way.








8. MICHAEL JACKSON'S MOONWALKER

I've heard a lot of people call this a bad game but... I have no idea how anyone could come to that judgement. Sure it is based on one of the most controversial pop stars of all time but as a game I think it's kinda awesome. I don't care what anyone says, Michael Jackson still is one of the coolest entertainers to have ever lived and turning his dance style and his overall coolness into a game is just an amazing concept in my opinion. In this game your primary goal is to rescue children kidnapped by the evil Joe Pesci from the movie, even though all of them are identical girls.
At your disposal you have Michael's magical dust that he throws at enemies to send them offscreen or you can challenge everyone to a dance-off, which of course the king of pop easily wins. Add a ton of classic Michael Jackson hits rendered gloriously in 16bit Mega Drive music form and you have one of the quirkiest and coolest games on the system in my opinion. Oh and he turns into a freakin' robot.

 


7. EARTHWORM JIM

Anyone growing up in the 90's remembers Earthworm Jim. The guy even had a cartoon made after him. And for a good reason, the Earthworm Jim game is one of the most solid platformers on the Mega Drive in my opinion. Not to mention it's filled with memorable characters such as Earthworm Jim himself, Peter Puppy, Princess Whatshername and Queen Slug-For-A-Butt (her original name is a LOT longer). While the game can be a bit difficult in parts it's all around a solid sidescrolling platformer shooter with lots of great humor and animation. The game was created by Doug TenNapel who later on made Earthworm Jim 2 as well as the criticially acclaimed claymation adventure game The Neverhood. Earthworm Jim remains one of the most fun games on the Mega Drive today in my opinon.

 




6. DRAGON'S FURY

Originally released as Devil's Crush, Dragon's Fury is probably the most badass pinball game I've ever played. It features really awesome imagery filled with demons, dragons (of course) and other satanic stuff. The soundtrack is equally badass and one of my favourite on the Mega Drive. Very rocking and fitting to the occult imagery on display. Of course the gameplay is also really solid and to this day this remains one of my favourite pinball games. I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a Mega Drive.
 
 
 
 
  
  
 


5. CASTLEVANIA: THE NEW GENERATION 
In the US this game was known as Castlevania Bloodlines but it was censored to remove most of the blood from the game and was renamed The New Generation in Europe. Still, the game remains largely the same and is just as much fun to play. It's classic Castlevania action and in my opinion one of the best Castlevania games out there (I think Super Castlevania IV is a tad bit overrated).
The graphics are really beautiful for the Mega and features some impressive scaling techniques and reflections. I also really like the music, it has some really good classic tunes in there.
Featuring some tough bosses and solid gameplay, it is a classic in every sense of the word and deserves a playthrough at least once though the price on eBay can be a bit high for the game atm.
  
4. ALISIA DRAGOON

This game was brought to my attention by Pat The NES Punk and I am really glad he did as normally he only reviews NES games (hence the name). It's easily one of the most underrated and overlooked games on the Mega Drive, featuring a pretty badass female heroine with a pet dragon who battles a ton of enemies by firing lasers from her hands (how cool is THAT?!). The graphics are some of the best on the Mega arguably, the music is also really good and makes really good use of the Mega Drive's capability. It's also one of the few games on the Mega with a female hero as far as I know and for that it gets a big plus in my book.





 
 
3. THE LION KING

The Lion King is easily one of my favourite Disney movies of all time and the game is also one of the best I've played on the Mega. It features pretty much all the scenes from the movie and you get to play as Simba from a young cub into a majestic adult. The graphics are amazing for the time and I really love the smooth animation on Simba. The same kind of smooth animation was also present in another Mega Drive Disney game, Aladdin though I like this game a bit more than Aladdin. The music is re-arranged versions of the movie's legendary score and it's really hard not to hum along to it when playing the game. My only criticism is that the game can get a bit difficult in certain stages though by being persistent and replaying them again and again, you get past them eventually. Easily worth a pickup if you're a fan of the movie as I am.
 
 
  



 
2. GAIARES

Gaiares (meaning literally Gaia Rescue, as in rescuing the Earth) is probably my favourite shmup of all time, let alone on the Mega Drive. While it was only released in Japan and the US, the US version is fully playable on a European system so importing it is no problem. The graphics are pretty awesome in my opinion and easily some of the best on the system, the music is also equally good with really good melodies and riffs that sticks in your mind for a good time after playing the game, especially the level 1 theme which I always hum along to when playing the game. The game has a pretty fair difficulty as well in comparison with a lot of other shmups from the time and seems to strike a really good balance as the game never feels unfair but rather relies on repetition to get good at it.
I pretty much learned about this game from Mark of Classic Game Room and I can see why he's such a fan of the game. It's an awesome shooter and like I said, one of my favourites of all time.
 
  


 
1. SONIC 3

Now for the number one spot, I knew it had to be a Sonic game. After all, Sonic was the mascot for the system and one of the big reasons I got myself a Mega Drive so I could play the Sonic games on the original console they were made for. Sonic 3 is actually the first Sonic game I played back in the day and I played it on PC of all things. In my opinion it is the best Sonic game and features really amazing graphics for the system, excellent music that easily outclasses anything I've played on the system and in general the game is just really good. I still haven't completed it though and should probably get to that at some point soon. But for now it remains my favourite Sonic game of all time, easily.








So that was my top 10 Mega Drive games. What are your favourites? Comment and share!
- Alyxx <3

PC Game Review: Call of Duty: Ghosts

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2013
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Buy on Steam

Despite being a massive Call of Duty fangirl, I honestly didn't feel much hype for this game when it was first announced. Looking at it, I expected it to be another modern warfare clone, which it sort of is but at the same time isn't. I mean, the reason I got into Black Ops II was the futuristic feel of it and I was very concerned Ghosts would not follow that trend. So is Ghosts a worthy new Call of Duty experience or are you better off not giving in to the hype and steering clear of this? Let's find out in my review of Call of Duty Ghosts. Since the game is split into three distinct modes, I'll basically split my review into three parts, each part covering each game mode, to cover as much ground as possible with the game and then cover generic stuff such as the overall graphics and sound quality. So far I have played it quite thoroughly and I believe I have a pretty good impression of it.

The campaign in Ghosts is pretty much what you can expect from a Call of Duty game, however in my opinion it's probably my favourite campaign so far as I surprisingly found the story really well written. Despite the story not having branching paths like BlOps2 did, I think it's a fairly decent story in its own right. It focuses on the Walker family of a father Elias Walker and his two sons, Logan and David "Hesh" Walker as they join the Ghosts, a group of elite soldiers who take on missions the regular army shun away from and their pursuit of an ex-Ghost member named Gabriel Rorke. Keeping the focus on the characters like this means the story is a lot easier to follow and also makes it a lot more relatable than earlier games as the bond between these characters really shines through to you as a player.

In the midst of all this, the space cannon ODIN, which is basically a kinetic bombardment device (this is actual technology being developed today making the game strangely foreshadowing), leaves several US cities in ruins and you have to navigate these ruins with your brother and your dog Riley for a bit of the game. In my opinion Riley is the real star of the game and I actually ended up really caring for him as he felt like a true member of the team, which I am thankful the game was able to convey.

The gameplay is pretty much standard Call of Duty fare. You go from setpiece to setpiece, blast out the opposition with your weapons of choice and that's pretty much it. The new twist is that during some missions you get to control and order Riley to help you out, which adds a bit of coolness and unique quality to the game that I honestly can't say any CoD I've played before this has. The atmosphere and feel of Ghosts is pretty unique and I can definitely say that while it still copies the core Call of Duty style, it feels like its own new sub IP. If Call of Duty is not your cup of tea this game is probably not gonna win you over in any way, but for what it is, it's a solid experience and I really enjoyed the campaign.

The multiplayer experience though is probably the most interesting part of the game as it is the most likely main reason people still buy Call of Duty games. That is, when I could get into it. You see, this is the first time I've ran into any kind of serious bug when it comes to the Call of Duty games. At first, I didn't have any squad points. I dunno why or how this happened, but I couldn't unlock the first soldier. That's right, this bug effectively locked me out of the multiplayer game entirely and I had to use a workaround I found on the net that was essentially me joining a friend in multiplayer and earning enough squad points to unlock my first soldier. Granted the workaround does mess up squad play massively and I can't get the full experience like I should have, but I can at least play the game now which is enough for me. I can still just join a friend if I want the full experience anyway, but still this was a rather aggravating ordeal for me and honestly one of the biggest signs this game was rushed to meet Activision's deadline of having a Call of Duty each year. Such a serious bug should've been caught in testing as it caused a TON of pain for not only me but hundreds of other Call of Duty gamers who had paid the full 60 bucks for the game. Hell if you take into consideration I even upgraded this game to Digital Deluxe edition after buying it, I paid 90 fucking bucks in total! That's a rather high price for a game and, while I do think I get what I am paying for, paying that much for an UNFINISHED product is a huge deal for me and I am sorely reminded of when I paid 90 bucks for the collector's edition of Aliens: Colonial Marines and getting a huge mess of a game, and despite me being a fan of ACM, it was NOT worth 90 bucks. But, that's at least the only really serious bug I've run into when it comes to Ghosts and anything else has been rather minor for me and not even worth mentioning. Overall the game does not feel as polished as earlier titles, especially compared to Black Ops II which was exceptionally enjoyable on PC, but it's still playable.

Anyway, when I actually got into multiplayer I of course was able to fully enjoy the new additions to the multiplayer in Ghosts. It's actually really substantially different from earlier games and there are a ton of changes that I think makes Ghosts not only the best Call of Duty multiplayer experience so far but also the most unique. I think they have really listened to the fans in this case and heard what we all wanted. To start off, the first change you will notice is that you have a squad now. Each soldier is fully customizable in terms of appearance and can have multiple loadouts each. The appearance customization is something I absolutely love as you can finally choose to play as a female, which to me is one of the biggest reasons I got Ghosts as I always wanted that option in Call of Duty. I always felt forced into the role of a faceless man when playing Call of Duty which granted I didn't mind but it would be nice to have the option at least to play as a female like in Blacklight Retribution. You can also get more customization options by completing in-game challenges so there is a lot of incentive to keep playing. You can also use your squad to play what's known as squad matches. These are basically online botmatches where you can earn actual XP and squad points, something you normally wouldn't do in botmatches in earlier CoD's. The bot AI is also surprisingly good in this game and I keep getting impressed by how much they resemble human players, which is very good since you use bots for training purposes and the more human-like they are, the better your training will be.

The second addition you might notice are the aforementioned squad points. You earn these by playing matches and use them to unlock stuff such as additional squad soldiers, and unlike earlier CoD's where you unlocked guns at specific levels, here you can access every gun in the game from the get-go provided you have the squad points to pay for them. I actually really like this system as naturally, if you play a custom game you have access to everything in the game and can try stuff out before playing in online matches and therefore can find out what weapon you prefer and what you wanna invest squad points in. You also use squad points to pay for weapon upgrades and just like the weapons themselves, none are locked to specific levels so if you want an attachment, you can get it if you have enough squad points. This is just a lot more convenient than having to grind a certain number of levels before getting the guns you want, not to mention it makes going prestige more fun as you don't have to re-grind every gun in the game like in earlier CoD's. Cosmetic stuff is locked by challenges however so not everything can be unlocked with squad points.

The third major addition to online matches are field orders. These come in the form of floating briefcase symbols that sometimes drop when you kill an enemy. Picking these up gives you a special objective to do, for instance killing the next enemy from behind or even teabagging him (yes, you can get rewarded for humiliating your enemies in this game XD). Successfully completing a field order grants you a care package. The positive aspect about field orders is that they give incentive to not camp as much and instead be active and run around a bit since if you stay in one place too much, you won't be able to pick up field orders.

The perk system sort of mixes elements from both MW3 and BO2 in that each perk takes up a certain number of slots in your loadout and you can either use several minor perks or few strong ones. Most of the perks come from MW3 but there are some new ones as well. Ghosts also brings back the Assault, Support and Specialist killstreak packages from MW3 which I absolutely love as I always prefer playing Specialist and not overly relying on killstreaks to win a game. Support package also offers more incentive to be a team player and if you wanna know more about how these killstreak packages work, you should check out my MW3 review.

The third game mode is Extinction. If you've played Black Ops Zombies you know what to expect as it is pretty much the same thing. It's a single map (you get more if you buy the DLC packs) where you fight off increasing waves of aliens using weapons you find on the map. You earn money by killing aliens and spend this money however you wish on weapons and traps in the map. It's a fun co-op experience that can give you a short burst of intense action if you've finished the campaign and need a break from competitive multiplayer. I don't particurarily care for Extiniction myself but it is fun to play in short bursts with one or more friends. I strongly recommend getting a party of full 4 players as the mode gets pretty intense after a while. Some of the fun comes from playing as different classes, each with their own perks and playstyles. I have only played weapon specialist so far but might try out the other ones. I guess that's one of the reasons I don't care for the mode as I don't like class-based multiplayer at all usually since it feels a bit restrictive.

Overall the graphics in Call of Duty: Ghosts are pretty gorgeous despite the engine starting to show its age at this point compared to more graphics-intensive games. Everything is really well animated, especially Riley the dog who really does feel very alive in the game, essential to how much of a relationship you build with him. The ruins are full of atmosphere and I especially love the setpieces under water and in space where everything feels like you are actually in space or actually under water. Hell, the devs even went as far as giving the fish a rudimentary AI to keep them from swimming in repetitive patterns which I think is pretty awesome. I also like how the multiplayer maps has architecture that crumbles in front of you and some maps can change the layout entirely during a match, which I always find really cool. There is a very good colour balance too, and while it does get a bit grey and brown in places, it's not to the extent Modern Warfare 1-3 was. I've heard of people experience some glitches though, and unless you set the Image Quality to Extra specifically, the effective resolution will be 720p maximum even if you set the resolution to higher. I would guess this is to make the game run more smoothly but I got it running smoothly by setting the image quality to Extra and just not maxing out the texture or shadow quality.

Sound-wise I love the muffled sounds in space and underwater and the attention to detail when it comes to the ambience and atmosphere. I've heard people compare the gun sounds to N64 quality, though I don't honestly feel they are that bad. They get the job done and sound okay to me and do have a bit of punch to them. Not a fan of the music though. I'm sure Eminem did a fine job with the end credits song, it just isn't my taste at all and I would take Skrillex from Black Ops 2 over it any day. And overall the soundtrack felt very forgetable which for me has been a common problem with Call of Duty so far but it's to be expected I suppose.

SUMMARY
Story: 8/10
Despite a bit of a cheesy cliffhanger and some rather fantastical "Michael Bay" moments, the story is surprisingly enjoyable and I found the characters and dialogue really well written for a Call of Duty game. A huge improvement over previous iterations.
Gameplay: 8/10
Aside from a very annoying multiplayer bug, the gameplay is pretty solid. The campaign gives you exactly what you want from a Call of Duty title and the multiplayer adds enough to make the game feel like its own thing and improves on most of my problems with earlier iterations. Overall the multiplayer is a lot of fun, considering all the additions and changes that I frankly believe are for the better. I especially love that the maps in Ghosts feel a lot more open and not as tight and cramped as earlier Call of Duty games. They can feel a bit overwhelming at first but the more I played them, they more they've grown on me. And if you get tired of hackers and other cheaters or just want some training, squad mode gives you the opportunity to play botmatches and still feel like you earn XP from it which I believe you should. The Extinction mode feels a bit too class-based for my taste and not much fun if you only play it alone or with a friend, though it can be fun in bursts. I look forward to seeing new maps being added in DLC's.
Graphics: 8/10
While the engine still is showing a bit of age and the game won't blow your mind, this is a pretty good looking title.
Sound: 6/10
Sound is pretty average, it gets the job done. The voice acting is pretty good and suits the story. Though I don't care much for the boring soundtrack.

Overall Score: 8/10

Don't get me wrong, Call of Duty: Ghosts is a massively fun experience and if you're a CoD fan like me, you owe it to yourself to get it. However, if you're not, this is probably not going to win you over.

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: MURI

MURI
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2013
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Remar Games
Publisher: Ludosity
Buy on Steam

Unlike most gamers who grew up with consoles such as the NES, Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo, I really grew up as a PC gamer and DOS EGA games was my bread and butter for a long time, especially since my dad had a ton of shareware games on his PC when I grew up. My favourite of these was without a doubt Duke Nukem, a platformer from Apogee, which we nowadays know as 3D Realms. It was honestly the first game I remember playing and since then I've been playing these kind of oldschool platformers at least once every week and I always have fun with them because of not only nostalgia but because there is such a unique feel about them that you didn't find in console games at the time. Just look at something like Commander Keen and compare it to Super Mario Bros., there is a huge notable difference in how it controls, looks and sounds.

MURI is a game made in the style of these early EGA platformers, especially the ones from Apogee such as the aforementioned Duke Nukem though it also borrows slightly from games like Metroid, especially with how alien everything looks and the fact you play some kind of female space hunter. I picked it up the moment I saw the trailer which I absolutely loved since it had a wonderful sense of humor about it and made the game seem very authentic. And that's the keyword here, authenticity.

You see, this game is made with an almost painstaking attention to looking, sounding AND feeling like an actual DOS EGA game and you can see this from the fact all the graphics are using the classic EGA 16 colour palette and are even made in the 320x200 resolution that was commonly used back in the early 90's. Not only that but the animation is made using 16 frames per second which may sound like very little and that's because most games back in the day didn't really have smooth animation and it was one of the idiosyncrasies of DOS games. You CAN choose 32 frames per second IF you are not comfortable with this but I think that ruins the authentic feel of the game completely so I would avoid it if you want this game to remain true to its influences. I also like that there is a slight Lovecraftian feel to the final episode and the enemies in it which gives this game a rather unique vibe to it that I like.

The same can be said about the sound which consists entirely of PC speaker effects. Although they aren't actually PC speaker sounds, they are definitely made to sound as authentic as possible. The game does get very silent a lot of the time though and I really wish it had more sounds to it, such as a simple jumping sound or walking sound which I think would make it feel a lot more like an old DOS game. There's also barely any music in this game aside from the title screen so that would certainly be welcome. I wish this game had a full AdLib soundtrack like Duke Nukem 2 but... you might as well put on some early 90's rock for authenticity's sake. I personally put on the Afterburner album by ZZ Top from 1988.

The controls are also really similar to a lot of early DOS platformers, especially with how you use the Ctrl and Alt keys to shoot and jump respectively although you are free to also use Z and X which I recommend if you play on Windows 8 since Ctrl + Alt does some weird shit there. for some reason.  The jumping is also a little bit weird at first since the longer you hold the button the higher you jump and if you let go you instantly fall back down so it feels like you have not much real gravity to the jumping though you'll get used to this very quickly. The gameplay should feel fairly familiar to you if you've played any Apogee platformers and revolves mostly around destroying forcefield generators to progress through the level and reach the exit and it's about as simple as it can get, although one interesting factor is that the game keeps track of how many items and enemies are left on the level and if you get everything, you get a 100% bonus and the game even tells you when you've gotten 100% completion which to me is a great addition since it keeps my OCD at peace.

So yeah, not much else to say. If you have 4€ to spare and is looking for an authentic retro EGA platformer, then you can't go wrong with MURI. Aside from a few flaws about the game such as wishing it had a little more sound effects, there's not much wrong about it and I really have to commend the makers for making an authentic EGA platformer which you don't see that much of these days.

Final Score: 9/10

- Alyxx

Top 10 Games Of 2013

It's that time of the year again. The year is coming to an end and we have behind us a pretty eventful year in gaming. Not only are the next gen consoles coming out, further pushing the boundaries of graphical power and integrating new ways of playing games, but we are also seeing games on PC becoming more and more demanding and also, for some reason, a lot of oldschool games have come out this year, so undoubtedly this list is gonna have a lot of "oldschool" titles on it. So get ready for my top 10 games of 2013!

10. FAR CRY 3 - BLOOD DRAGON 

PC/PSN/XBLA - UbiSoft

 

If you could somehow throw the entire 80's pop culture into a blender, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is most likely what you'd end up getting. Being basically a standalone hack of Far Cry 3, but largely influenced by 80's action and sci-fi movies, Blood Dragon is a hell of a retro-futuristic first person shooter ride that keeps all the elements of Far Cry 3 intact, such as the exploration, looting and missions, but adds its own style to it and even improves on it in some aspects, such as removing the skilltrees and streamlining how you level up, and removing fall damage (one of my favourite aspects about it). It's only a shame the game is so short and doesn't have multiplayer as I would've loved a co-op option. Otherwise this is a must-have title for any self-respecting fan of 80's movies like RoboCop, Aliens, Terminator, Navy Seals and such.

9. BIOSHOCK INFINITE

PC/PS3/360 - 2K Games

While I have yet to play through Bioshock 1 and 2, I did play through Bioshock Infinite and you can read my full review of it here. While the gameplay felt a bit stale and not that satisfying, I did really enjoy the story in Bioshock Infinite and the graphics are at times jawdrop-inducing and I couldn't help but just stare at the game in awe at times. Definitely one of the more beautiful games to come out this year though it places pretty low on my list due to it not really being a game I plan on revisiting any time soon, but it's a fun ride while it lasts.

8. TOMB RAIDER

PC/PS3/360 - Eidos/Square Enix

To be honest I did not have the highest expectations for this reboot. Considering the franchise has been rebooted twice already (with Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider: Legends respectively) and even already remade with Tomb Raider: Anniversary, I was fairly certain that the new Tomb Raider would have to evolve the franchise and take it in a new direction in order to stay fresh. Thankfully, it did. The new Tomb Raider is a whole different story from the earlier games, no longer portraying Lara Croft as a larger-than-life image of feminine perfection, but rather as an innocent woman turned into a survivor, much like Far Cry 3, except I felt the story here was even more compelling. The emotional bond you build with Lara in this game makes it a lot more relatable than earlier games and is most likely going to please modern audiences a lot more. And the attention to detail is stunning, with how early in the game Lara expresses regret with a lot of her actions but slowly become more and more cold blooded and you even hear the enemies talk about her as she kills more and more of them. The story is still pretty fantastic too, with plenty of supernatural elements and not the most realistic game in the world, but for what it is, it's both an emotional and fun journey to take and I highly recommend it to both old fans of Tomb Raider who are looking for a new experience with the famous video game heroine, or people who have never played Tomb Raider before as this is a really good starting point. I truly hope they make this into a new franchise and begin work on a sequel because I really have high hopes for Lara now, this was a truly great experience and one I will remember. You can check out my full review of Tomb Raider here.

7. SHADOWRUN RETURNS

PC - Harebrained Schemes

I've recently gotten into Shadowrun the tabletop game as a way of getting into DND in a more interesting way and the setting is truly the thing that sold me on this game. The cyberpunk style is definitely very at home with me and when I heard a new PC game was coming out based on Shadowrun, I decided to try it out. Thankfully they did not repeat the mistake of making a Counter Strike influenced FPS, but rather a turnbased RPG in the vein of the classic Fallout games, and it fits the style a lot better. I personally love this game, I love the gameplay, the atmosphere and while the lack of voice acting can be a bit jarring for a lot of modern gamers, to me it reminds me a lot of the older days of RPG's where you'd make your own voices in your head playing the game. A pretty good RPG with a lot of potential for making your own modules and adventures for it, which is always fun.

6. KILLZONE MERCENARY

PS Vita - Sony Computer Entertainment

While my initial reason to get a PS Vita was the announced release of Borderlands 2 for the system, I was quite impressed with Killzone Mercenary, which in many ways has become the first true killer app for the handheld. The game is a rock solid first person shooter in the vein of Call of Duty and Battlefield, but with its own setting and style and it feels extremely arcady and fun to play as the sole point of the game is to gather as much money as possible from kills and missions in order to buy new gear and become the top dog of the mercs. I play it mostly for the single player and because I think it's a pretty fun shooter to play on the go, though the multiplayer is a lot of fun too if you have a decent Wi-Fi connection available. Extremely impressive graphics for a handheld and really good controls makes this a pretty good purchase for your Vita though the story isn't all that great, but then again, this isn't a game you'd play for the story.

5. SHADOW WARRIOR

PC - Devolver Digital
 

Shadow Warrior is one of those games from the 90's that kinda fell under the shadow (no pun intended) of its more famous cousins Quake and Duke Nukem 3D, but it was still a pretty big cult classic among oldschool shooter fans. Now the creators of Hard Reset (one of my favourite PC exclusive FPS's) have made a PC exclusive remake of this 90's cult classic FPS and while it retains a lot of the gameplay aspects from the original such as the swordplay, akimbo guns and settings, it expands on everything and pretty much makes everything a more enjoyable and deep experience. The story isn't all that great and the characters tend to be more on the forgetable side, though I found the new Lo Wang really grew on me as I played the game as he felt very down to earth and relatable and I kinda liked that, even when he gets all kinds of crazy powers I felt I could still relate to this guy and he could be someone I could possible hang out with and party with some day. The graphics are amazing and really show off the power of what a true PC exclusive game can do these days and the music is also really good with plenty of nods to the original game. Gameplay wise it feels like a mix between the original Shadow Warrior and Hard Reset since it retains similar skilltree options and weapon upgrades. I also really like the swordplay mechanics and a lot of the game is tailored to being a first person slasher rather than shooter, though the devs have intentionally left the game open to several playstyles which I applaud. A must-have if you're into oldschool shooters as the game is chock full of easter eggs and secrets, more than any modern game I've played.

4. ULTRATRON  

PC - PuppyGames

 

Some games you just install and never ever uninstall again because they are so addictive you keep coming back to them, even if you don't really play them for any lengthy periods of time. Ultratron is one of those games for me as it has that arcady quality that it's fun in small bursts and leaves me pretty satisfied in the end. The game is pretty much a modernized version of Robotron 2084 or Smash TV and is built around the same concept of eradicating all enemies on screen as quickly and efficiently as possible. The graphics are extremely charming and have a wonderful retro look to them that still feels quite modern at the same time, and the music and sound effects all fit the same retro style perfectly. It's a bit short on story but it's solid 2D shoot-em-up fun! If you're going to pick up a small but enjoyable game on Steam these days I'd say Ultratron is a must-have.

3. DmC: DEVIL MAY CRY

PC/PS3/360 - Capcom

While I've never really been into the Devil May Cry games, mostly because nearly all of them have been PlayStation exclusive so far and not really my thing, DmC did catch my attention because it seemed a lot darker and grittier than the other games so far and the new Dante appeals to me more because he has that irresistable bad boy charm about him that just makes fangirls like me go wild. I also really loved the hellish style of the game and felt really drawn towards it. Another reason is the soundtrack, which is done by none other than Noisia and the Norwegian group Combichrist, both giving the game a unique atmosphere that I absolutely love. The story is also really good and I really felt this game drew me into the story more than the older games ever did, and I especially love the plot about demons corrupting Earth using soft drinks and propaganda to subversively influence the population. Definitely one of my favourite games this year, even though I still have yet to finish it. While the game may piss off fans of the older games, to me this is definitely the best and most attractive game in the franchise.

2. CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS

PC/PS3/360/PS4/XBox One/Wii U - Activision

It should probably not come as a big surprise to my followers that I'm a pretty huge Call of Duty fan. I loved Modern Warfare 3, loved Black Ops II and Ghosts is no exception. While I still have to write a full review of this game, so far I absolutely love it. The campaign features a lot of epic setpieces, such as putting you in space and has some pretty tense underwater segments too. And it has to be said that Riley the Dog is one of the additions to this game that is the true star of the game. His lifelike animation and behavior really made him feel alive and like a true companion. Multiplayer wise they do a lot of things I've wanted for a long time, such as finally being able to customize how I appear in the game and even choose my gender (finally!), which to me is a pretty major addition to the franchise. While I initially didn't find it as enjoyable as Black Ops II the game is growing on me more and more and I truly enjoy the new maps, the graphics and the co-op mode as well feels really satisfying to play as I have a thing for aliens (never got into the zombies as much). Keep in mind though that a lot of people have reported problems with the PC version so the game seems pretty particular about the hardware you run it on, so make sure to check the requirements and making sure your PC meets them, though the game runs just fine on my rig. While it won't really impress anyone on a purely graphics level, gameplay wise this is the true nextgen Call of Duty we've been waiting for.

1. SAINTS ROW IV

PC/360/PS3 - Deep Silver

To be honest, up until this game I had never really felt much interest in the Saints Row games as GTA had really put me off on the whole urban sandbox style of games. However, when I played Saints Row IV I realized it was a whole different thing than anything I had played before in that genre. Mixing in a ton of references to stuff like Matrix, They Live and even adding superpowers to the mix, this game also really tickled all my gaming fetishes, such as character customization (complete with a sex appeal slider which should be mandatory in all games with character customization in my opinion...  ;) ), akimbo pistols AND SMGs, as well as the whole open world style of gameplay that I've come to really enjoy, this game just satisfies everything I love about games and it REFUSES to take itself seriously for a second. I love the humor, I love the over-the-top action and all in all this has to be my favourite game for 2013 and one i plan on playing way into 2014 and beyond! It even convinced me to get Saints Row the Third which I'm currently playing through and I really feel I've missed out on a lot with these games as they are a lot more enjoyable than GTA to me. If you're like me and love games with humor, character customization, co-op and akimbo guns, then get Saints Row IV and Saints Row the Third as both games compliment each other perfectly. You can read more in my review of the game here.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES
PC/PS3/360/Wii U - Sega

As much as I personally love this game for its level design, characters, sound, music and graphics, I can definitely agree that on launch this game was an outright disaster and while the worst AI bugs and problems have since been patched, the launch of this game still left quite a sour taste in a lot of gamers' mouths and mine too for a while. However I still largely enjoy the game and still play it a lot with friends. I definitely don't think it's as bad as people say it is, especially with recent patches, but yeah, it's obvious why this didn't make my list. But I feel it deserves a mention as I personally enjoy it a lot. You can read my full review of the game here.

ALIEN RAGE

PC/PS3/360 - CI Games

Phew, lots of Alien games coming out this year. Either way, the reasons I didn't list this game are several and I am still planning on writing a full review on it at some point. The game is f*cking hard and it is hard for me to recommend this to any casual gamers out there as it's more for hardcore gamers who want a true challenge. The game will kick your ass pretty hard and that's one of the reasons I love it. It forces you to think about how you play the game and you can't just stroll through it and it doesn't hold your hand like a lot of modern shooters tend to do. Though this is also one of the game's main selling points. The graphics are really good though and I definitely enjoy the oldschool arcade feel of the game. But yeah, like I said, it is hard as F*CK so be warned.

So yeah, that's it for this year's top 10 games. Hope to see you again next year, hopefully with a fresh new list!

- Alyxx

My rant on the Internet and people in general

Hello!

While more reviews are coming up (Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut and Call of Duty: Ghosts are definitely on my to-do list), for now I just wanna share a little article on how I feel about people on the internet in general.

Lately a lot of things have annoyed me more than usual and what I've seen just can't be ignored and I just need to vent a bit. People on the internet are so immature! I mean lately YouTube changed their commenting system to use Google+ and instead of looking at this from a constructive perspective and how it improves the commenting system by allowing longer comments and making it easier to share your opinions and also moderating comments, people IMMEDIATELY assume an enormously negative opinion towards the new system and their solution is to SPAM comment sections with nonsense because they think it will change something. It's like watching a child throw a tantrum because the parents rearranges the living room. Grow the FUCK UP! I am aware there are problems with it, I am aware not everyone wants to use Google+ but why? Google+ is free, it's not like they force you to pay any money for it (in which case I would completely understand your reaction) so why this incredible hate towards Google+? Instead of spamming videos for people who doesn't deserve this you should send feedback to Google and be mature about how you go about voicing your opinion. You're acting like spoiled brats and no offense, I find it fucking disgusting...

Is it really so hard to be constructive and tell Google "okay, I see what you're trying to do, and here's how you can improve it"? Instead we're going "NOOOO, GOOGLE SUCKS, THE NEW SYSTEM SUCKS, WE'RE GONNA GO SPAM THE COMMENT SECTIONS NOW CAUSE THAT IS GONNA WORK!!!" No it's not, ALL it fucking does is show how immature you guys are and seriously, encouraging people to be trolls and spammers is to me just pathetic.

On another but related note, lately I was playing Call of Duty Ghosts and ran into a pretty severe bug that kept me from unlocking my first soldier in multiplayer so I was effectively locked out of it until I could work around the bug. Of course I was looking for help about it and it was near damn impossible to find actual help because EVERYWHERE I see people being so fucking whiny about the game. Seriously? The FOV gives you motion sickness? No offense but if that is the case you're a fucking pussy. And you complain about the graphics? Why?! The gameplay is always what matters and just because the game isn't in 1080p this is somehow a reason to go apeshit over it. While I do understand these issues can be annoyances, I don't understand why people waste their time going on the internet and act like fucking whiny brats about it instead of looking at the positive aspects about the game and what makes it worth playing. Instead they go around blaming the game and the creators because they aren't used to the maps and strategies of other people, saying the game is broken and hacked. Yes, I do know there are actual hackers but just because you suck gives you no reason to blame the game for it, you fucking asshole.

So yeah, those are my two cents and just a little rant that I needed. I respect people's opinions as long as they don't shove it down my throat.

Alyxx out