Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth Revealed

In spaaaaaace V2.

Recently, Joystiq has posted a video trailer for a new Sid Meier's Civilization game, this one named Beyond Earth (video here). Anyone who is unfamiliar with the Civilization games, they are a series of turn based stratergy games where the player can play versus AI or other players, and the aim of the game is to win via Culture (making the people like you), which has ended mainly in the United Nations, through Global Domination caused by wiping all other players from the map or via Scientific Advancement into Space. As you can guess from the title, the game is set in space, where Earth has become so advanced that it is starting to kill the planet so they set out to form a new life elsewhere. As far as I can see from the screenshots (link here), the game will put you up against aliens rather than players, so whether it will be classic PvP racing to take control of this new planet, or maybe co-op in a bid to secure the planet from the aliens and colonise on it I do not know. However, it does look like a Civilization game, which I have enjoyed playing ever since Civilization Revolution, the most cartoon-esque title in the series. However the game turns out, it will likely be a lot of fun and I Will probably pick it up.

Titanfall Full game Review

The first Next-Gen FPS?

Titanfall is a First Person shooter created by Respawn Entertainment. Respawn is a team headed up by some of the ex-high up guys from Infinity Ward, creators of Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2. So we can safely say, they have experience in the First Person Shooter genre. However, this game obviously is different from a Call of Duty game because, well you can't just rip off other games and sell well (Companies really need to learn this). So what makes it different? Well for a start, there is no single player campaign. Ever played Brink (yes, the god of all games), well Titanfall does campaign the same kind of way that did, but a lot worse. When I started playing I was kind of excited, you play 9 "missions" which is basically a certain game mode, either Attrition or Hardpoint Domination, and I do not think victory dictates the outcome, but as you play through each you get some story plot and some plot in between games. The first nine missions are played from the Perspective of the IMC. A giant war between the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, a group who can be seen as the bad guys or the good guys, who are attempting to progress humanity through technological advancement (they created the titans originally) and the militia, a team who are trying to defeat the rule of the IMC. The IMC have been seen to be testing out their new Spectres (robotic soldiers) on innocent civilians. After the nine missions, you get the ending for the Militia campaign and receive the second of three titans to unlock, and are encouraged to play the IMC side. This is where the disappointment comes. The IMC side of the Campaign is essentially the same as the Militia side but a little different. This is why it is worse than brink, the campaign really is not enjoyable after the first 9 missions and really, the game would be better without the campaign feature in my opinion.

So o ther than the campaign, there is a lot of good gameplay. The Titans, rather than being a massively overpowered destructo-bot, is actually fairly well balanced. The only ones available at the start of the match are AI controlled and really don't last long and can offer a lot of free points and XP. For all the other Titans, they spawn on a three minute timer which can be lowered by killing enemies (AI or player). Once they are in, they can either be set to Gaurd or Follow, where it will stay in the area it is dropped and defend against any enemies or follow the pilot who called it in and defend, which is fairly useful, or pilot it yourself, which gives access to all of the features but leaves you open to enemy pilots jumping on your titan and killing it (as pictured above), which is by far my favourite thing to do. Pilots are also choice of anti-titan weapons so, although they can pretty much be one shot by titans, gives them a chance to fight back if they are distracted. The pilots themselves are all players, and run around the map with a primary, a secondary, anti titan weapons, ordnance (grenades and the like) and a set of perks with one active ability. They are also accompanied by AI controlled grunts (basically one shot of any gun and very little points or XP) and later Spectres which are tougher, grant more XP and can be hacked into your team. Pilots have a lot of manoeuvrability, with double jumps and parkour, as well as abilities which can turn them invisible (to bots, they still leave a kind of haze where the player is), or speed up and increase health regen - which is really good for out gun fighting enemies. The pilot combat is fairly balanced, but in my opinion there is one superior set up, with the Carbine and Sidewinder anti-titan gun, which wins against anything over mid range combat, which is what most of the battles which takes place are. The game has a Call of Duty style level up system to unlock new weapons and perks, with prestiges as well. This is a standard FPS style of gameplay.

The graphics are pretty top-notch, with amazing weapon and world detail and not too hard system requirements. This is on the PC edition, the console editions seem to be hit pretty damn hard, but apparently do play better with better servers. The only problem with the graphics, the buildings seem to have similar colours all around, and can bug out a bit when flying around. So other than the slight unbalance in the combat, and the disappointing added extra campaign, the game is pretty good. Worth the price? I think so. The other thing people are complaining about is the matchmaking, as level 1s can be matched with 30+, but since there is little effect of being a higher level, it doesn't really batter. SO overall, it is a very good game and as a FPS god (played CoD since the second one), it has my approval.

Goat Simulator Review

The most realistic simulation game ever created?

Goat Simulator is a simulation game created by Coffee Stain Studios, creators of Sanctum 2. It is a game designed to show the life of a young goat in a field living out his life to the fullest. Except this goat is a little special and has headbutts that can blow up cars and a tongue which can drag boulders of death around the world. In reality, this game is about causing as much destruction as possible whilst also trying to find all the secrets in the map to gain bonus points. As of current, the game sets place in a relatively small town, but there is bigger towns that can be seen, though there is an invisible wall in the way. Whether the other towns will ever be used is unknown, as of yet there is no actual plans to expand the game world according to the game profile on steam. However, it is also linked with the Steam workshop. so there will be a hell of a lot of user based content able to be downloaded. There is no storyline as it is a highly unrealistic simulator about a goat. The graphics are pretty good, even if there is nothing exactly graphically complex about the world. There is a hell of a lot of bugs in the game, include the goat's neck glitching out whenever you use a ladder and actually most of the time. The developers have said "We're only eliminating the crash-bugs, everything else is hilarious and we're keeping it ." showing that this game is quite clearly not meant to be taken seriously.  However, it is a £7 game. For a game of that price, you would expect a fair bit of gameplay (considering that Angry Birds and the likes can provide days of gameplay on a phone for 99p), but gameplay is a thing that is highly lacking in the game. One aspect which tries to prolong the re-playability (if you could call it that) is a custom game mode where you can add speacial abilities earned by collecting the goat statues across the map and by completing the achievement based challenges. After about an hour or two though, you will get bored. Unless you are someone who really likes extremely buggy hilarity, it will only last an hour or so and then you will get bored and wonder why you ever paid that much for this. The thing is, it''s kind of a gimic of a game, not meant to be taken seriously. Unless Coffee Stain Studios expand the size of the map, it offers very little to players. Therefore, this game will probably join my collection of games that get played for an hour then left in the deep dark corner of the Steam Library.

Borderlands the PreSequel Announced!

In spaaaace.

(Image is not mine but was downloaded from the 2K website)

So yesterday, there was revealed rumours about a new Borderlands game that took place between the 2 current games. Today, those rumours have been confirmed as true. Borderlands the PreSequel will take place following the story of Handsome Jack on his journey to crazy ass psychopath in Borderlands 2. It will take place in none other than Pandora's moon, bringing in 4 new elements: 0 gravity, a "cyro" elemental effect, oxygen tanks/jetpacks and laser weaponry. It will also bring in 4 new playable characters. These are:

Athena, the Gladiator who made her début in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC for the first Borderlands game.(Her power is the only to be revealed which is a "Kinetic Aspis" - a sheild which will deal more damage back based on the damage it absorbs.

Wilhelm, The Enforcer - the first robot boss in the second game (although this time looking more like a human than a robot).

Nisha, The Lawbringer, the sheriff of Lynchwood in Borderlands 2 (No power disclosed).

And finally, and most importantly, Claptrap, The Fragtrap. Yes you can play as the almighty Claptrap. On the moon. With guns. (Not a freaking clue what his ability could be).

The game is set to release Fall this year on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and personally as a fan of the series, I Cannot wait. IT looks beautiful, hilarious and slightly insane. All information (and a video with some alpha footage) can be found here on the official 2k Games site. What is your opinions about the PreSequel? Pile of trash or the next stop on the hype train?