Gaming Industry You're doing it wrong!

Disclaimer- This will be heavily opinionated. If this does not fit your opinion then I appreciate that but don't take it out on me.

So the gaming industry isn't in the best of shape currently. We've all seen it - EA voted worst company in America, The WarZ crisis and the hatred at CoD: Ghosts spawn system. It's my mission to try and see why this is happening. In my opinion, Developers and Publishers are doing a few things wrong.

  Firstly, there is a massive problem with, well I guess you could call it coping but it's not real copying. Companies are seeing an idea become popular and trying to replicate it in an attempt to earn money. So far we've seen it in zombie/apocalypse multiplayer survival games originating from DayZ mod of Arma 2. Honey Badgers (Imaged above) is an example of the type of game influenced by the success of the Angry Birds series. There has been countless MOBAs released from the success of DOTA 2 and League of Legends in recent years. It would be unfair to say all of these were because of the originals but a lot have been. When I review games it's the first thing I look for - Has this got any aspects that resemble that of another popular game and to what extent is it. Unfortunately, it's not just the small companies either. EA's new beta of Dawngate even had what appeared to be the same character movements from League of Legends itself with some design aspects of Infinite Crisis. The idea of the MOBA genre is to make money from the competitive scene, not just the characters in the game being sold. I get that there's a lot of games out there so it's hard to come up with unique ideas but I've done it and I'm not even paid to think up ideas. Get your research and idea generation departments replaced by gamers who know what they're on about.

  My second point is to do with creativity. Again and again we see sequels of popular games that aren't as good as everyone thought they would be but they still sell. A good example of this is Call of Duty: Ghosts. It bought very little new features to the series other than a few game modes, new guns etc. but nothing major. Yet still people paid a large amount of money for it and then complained. It happens every year, people buy the game and get angry at it then buy he next one the year after expecting something different. In business terms it's what is known as a "cash cow", it requires very little work and can be milked for money continuously. What companies should be doing is to reinvent things, make things different so that people gain interest, just something to set it apart from the last game. Assassins Creed must of realised that they needed something new from Ezio because 3 was so much better than the past titles. Bioshock Infinite went from Rapture to Columbus and it is winning a lot of Game of the Years. This is the kind of thing that companies should be doing. As I said before, hire gamers for research, because no corporate high level market analyst knows as much about gaming and games as a gamer.

  Think about that guys, and don't forget you can leave comments and opinions below.

 By Patrick (FromFearRises)

Dawngate Review

Another big publisher making a Free to Play MOBA

I have no idea what's going on with everyone thinking MOBA is a profitable game market. This time it's Electronic Arts (EA). Now I'm not sure who the development team behind it is as the link for "About Us" on the games sight takes you straight to EA's info page even though it is listed as Waystone Games, an indie looking team, on the site. As for the game, it is currently in closed beta stages with servers that aren't actually on all the time. As for the MOBA theme, the aim is to get through the enemy structures, into their base and destroy the main objective. In Dawngate there is however only two lanes, one top one bottom, with jungle camps and bushes in between, some sort of spirit wells and more jungles above, and the super neutral creep in the dead centre that takes a while to kill and grants a decent buff. It's the usual 5v5 teams with no option for bots and no ranked matches. The "Shapers" (characters you play as) are categorised in a way which I'm assuming ha something to do with their different powers/role but there is no tutorial or explanations as to what they do, only a pop-up telling you how to purchase "Shapers". Greedy EA.

The graphics have very limited optimisation and take up about a hair worth of an average CPU/GPU combo's memory. They are also fairly simplistic in nature and very bright and childish. As the MOBA scene is more of a more hardcore gamer habitat, not a place for childish looks. The Shapers themselves play out fairly fluently, with a 10 Shaper free to play cycle and a rather balanced system. It also has a neat feature of 3 "spells" that can be learnt at levels 1,11,20 (max. level). Another difference is that the main objective is a giant creature "see above" that throws out attacks and abilities to attacking minions and Shapers. Now here's where we run into our first problem. There is no mana or energy costs of any variety, so you can keeping on spamming those abilities all day. This removes the option for the game to have any form of eSports scene as it takes no skill to spam abilities and get a kill, which is where the MOBA genre becomes that highly profitable game that all these developers want. More problems, they seemed to have based some of their character movements directly from League of Legends, the abilities from all over the place, and most of the HUD and menus form Infinite Crisis. One of the Shapers floats the same way as Syndra, one like Graves and the item system even has similar icons to IC. 

  Although at first I thought the game looked fairly promising, it turned out to be a disappointing rip-off of good games in a bid to earn some more money from the worst Game Publisher (and voted worst company in America) Electronic Arts. Looks like you just keep failing. 3/10

My Game of the Year

Best Shooter: Payday 2

While Payday 2 was not one of the big 2 FPS that came out this year, it did, in my opinion, bring a lot more to the table. Don't get me wrong I like Call of Duty and Battlefield, they don't bring anything that drastically different each year. However, Payday 2 hands down improved the original which was already an amazing game. The mechanics are good, the design is good and it had me playing for hours at a time. It also cost a fraction of the price that the big titles cost. All in all a great game. 

Best RPG: Bioshock Infinite

This is hardly a surprise to anyone who has played this game. Not only did this swap the underwater lands of Rapture for an interesting new design of a floating Columbia, but it brought in one of the best stories I've seen. It has some of the better combat mechanics, great graphics, hilarious glitches and short bursts of pure brilliance, it hands down beats other RPGs such as AC4. 

Best Action Game GTA V

The game everyone had been waiting for, and it turned out good. GTA V povided players with an impressive story, classic GTA online and actually gave players a benefit for their mistake.The only thing I can really fault on this game would be the lack of PC which from what I heard was not down to Rockstar. I've not played many action games this year, so this probably isn't everyone's idea of the best action game but it is mine.

Best Indie Game Paranautical Activity

The game no-one has heard of. I wrote a review on this game fairly early in my blogging career and I was blown away by what I found. A mix between Minecraft and Binding of Isaac is the perfect combination for a little indie game that can blow your socks off. Hours of pixel exploding fun.

Best Strategy Game Civilisation V

A late bloomer in the video game industry this year was Civilisation V, taking a more grown up approach to historical strategy. Civilisation provides the most fun, skilled and challenging experience of the development of humanity on the market. Well worth the hours it takes to win a game.

Best Acting Beyond Two Souls

Ah, everyone else thinks that The Last of Us has some amazing acting for a PS3 exclusive, but the other story based exclusive of the year is what had me hooked. The emotion portrayed by the actors behind this game made me feel like I was watching a highly interactive movie rather than playing a game. It even had me close to tears at one point. I was considering Last of Us but I guess this just took the biscuit for me. 

Best Story Bioshock Infinite

Anyone who has played this game understands why it needs no explanation. The plot twists, the character development, all of it just leads to the best story experience of 2013. I mean, Last of US story was pretty good but the ending just made me think "What? Why?" whereas Bioshock it was like "Holy mother of Jesus that was fantastic!". an obvious choice. Best Character Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite)

Maybe it's because of how incredibly useful she was in game (fetching ammo, money and health) or the fact she was one of the best developed characters I've seen. Either way I loved Elizabeth. The fact she comes back in DLC's as different forms of herself just adds to her character. She is also a key aspect to the story and the crazy inception that comes at the end. Great character in a great game.

Game of the Year Bioshock infinite

Whether it's due to the fact it won 3 of my choices or just how insanely awesome the game is, this is my personal Game of the Year of 2013. A great story, good acting, good mechanics, good characters, and good DLC, this game is the package.

Worst Game

Gravity Badgers, a really bad Angry Birds Space clone that costs a lot more. Blew my money on it as it looked promising but regret everything. My latest review pretty much explains this decision.

Gravity Badgers Review

Do you enjoy playing Angry Birds Space and want to pay more for a worse close?

Well here's your chance to get ripped off! Gravity badgers was recently added to the steam market place for a cheap £2.99 so I thought "Hm this has a good theme song, looks pretty nice, guess I'll pick it up."

Do not be fooled. This is a game about a badger in space who is on a quest to rescue his crew mates and will face dangers along the way. However the game is really you launching a badger through space around gravity fields as seen in Angry Birds Space, you get to a worm hole and you're on to the next level. There is 3 golden blobs of God knows what which you can easily collect on your way to the wormhole to get a 3 star rating for that level. To free his comrades, this badger faces the worlds easiest boss battles that require less effort than downloading the game. After playing 25 levels in about 10 minutes, I soon realised that this game has the campaign time of 1 Skyrim main mission. Admittedly the levels do get harder later on but nothing that will use more braincells than first grade maths. 

The graphics are the only redeeming feature of this game. They accompany the same 2D art style as Angry Birds however the colour schemes are a lot nicer. As you can see from above it's clean and pretty, everything a 2D game should be. The cutscenes are either a comic style artwork show like that of Angry Birds or a small piece of dialogue similar to Metal Gear Solid but a little more high definition. The mechanics of the game are poor however. The gravity seems to work on a very basic system of push and pull. There is pipes that send you in a given direction and cubes that can send you in any direction of your choosing. There is no abilities as in ABS and no blocks to destroy etc. only a laser to pass through to unlock the wormhole. It is an indie game so I wasn't expecting the equivalent of a AAA title, but I played the original angry birds and it was better than this. It is a simplified clone that costs more money that's all I can really say about it. 2/10

Gaming News Fallout 4

Patrick Lacey

There was already speculation of a new Fallout game with the creation of this site: http://www.thesurvivor2299.com/It is believed that this is a teaser website to the reveal or release of a new Fallout game. However this site domain was not bought by the same account that the other Fallout sites are purchased by. So whether or not it is a teaser website or just a troll trying to annoy people who knows. It also has a pretty annoying beeping noise.
But why has the speculation suddenly peaked? Today Bethesda has purchased a trademark for the name "Fallout 4". Evidence here: http://esearch.oami.europa.eu/copla/trademark/data/012311734This was actually purchased by Bethesda, so either they are winding us up, stopping trolls from using their names or are actually in the development process of Fallout 4 we don't know. As of yet Bethesda themselves have not revealed anything so keep your heads up for a press statement. However, Erik Todd Dellums (the voice actor behind Three Dog, the radio host from Fallout 3) has been tweeting out some songs which sounds a lot like the style that Fallout uses on their radio stations under the hashtag #sharethelove #threedog and what looks like it could be in game introductions to the songs @ETDeelums. This has got Fallout fans across the globe hyped as earlier in the year he was believed to have been called in by Bethesda.Are you looking forward to this title? Believe the rumours or thin
Are you looking forward to this title? Believe the rumours or think it's just hype? Lave your opinions below.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

Activision had three developer teams on this, was it worth it?

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the latest game in the Call of Duty series. It was developed by Infinity Ward, Raven and Neversoft and published by Activision. The game is based around a group of legendary soldiers known as Ghosts (Ghost from MW2 anyone?) in a post nuclear war America (both North and South is involved). If you want to play this on PC, players will need 60GB of Hard Drive free for memory.

I'll start with the campaign. As a long term CoD player, I've played all campaigns from 2-Ghosts. In Ghosts, the main playable character is Logan, with aid from his brother Hesh and his father who has a deeper past than his sons initially realise. 15 years after a nuclear attack from the federation, a military force controlling all of South America, the USA government have built a wall to separate themselves from the south. However, the federation plans more attacks and they must be stopped, at all costs. I won't include any spoilers but there is plot twists all the way through (some predictable some not), even in the final moments. My after thoughts of the campaign itself was holy mother of Jesus. This is in my opinion, the best Call of Duty campaign I have ever played. It was not only an amazing story, but the mechanics have been so much more improved since previous titles. No more infinite spawn zones, you clear the area and push forward, as a game should be. There is many different routes to take, different techniques to use, it's everything I'd been hoping for. As for graphics, there is nothing exceptional about them, they are just good.

Next we move on to the multiplayer. Ghosts has brought in an array of new game modes for PvP games, including my two favourites Search and Rescue and Hunted. Search and Rescue is a combination of Search and Destroy and Kill Confirmed, meaning that when the player or enemy gets killed, they drop dog tags that can be collected by the opposing team to eliminate you from that round, or be collected by allies to recue you and bring you back in. Hunted starts you off with a pistol with 1 magazine of ammo, 2 throwing knives and a flash bang. Crates are dropped containing random weapons with 6 weapons per crate. The more kills you get the more points and perks you get. winning team is the first to 65 kills. The multiplayer has been vastly improved since MW3 or BO2, weapons are more balanced, there is more game modes and the class customisation is better. The only problem I faced was that it is harder to level up. In addition to PvP, Ghosts has an additional Squads mode. This is where you create a team of 5 AIs, customising their loadouts and your own soldier, then play against other AI or friend's squads. You can have your friends on your team or you can play up to 4 players vs waves of AI. These modes give you experience for your online games as well.

Next is the extinction game mode. This is Infinity Ward's attempt at countering zombies. Players play as a team of up to 4 people, each with their own specialisation (medic, tank etc.), verse alien creatures caused by the nuclear attacks. he aim is to destroy their hives and progress into the heart of their invasion and nuke them. Players gain money for killing aliens and destroying hives that can buy weapons/traps/the equivalent of killstreaks to help them in the fight. They also gain skill points by destroying hives and completing hive specific challenges to level up your pistol/specialisation/help that game. You level up based on enemies killed and progress through the game to unlock new specialisations and aids. This is an interesting concept that I think is better than zombies as it actually has an end goal. It is also very fun to play and well worth a try out.
  All in all I think that this is deffinately the best Call of Duty game in a long time, possibly ever. It does have some bugs/minor issues but nothing that is game ruining. Well worth the cost. 9/10.

Herathstone Heroes of Warcraft Beta Review

You all know Blizzard, the developers of the famous World of Warcraft, but do you know they are brining out a digital card game?

Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft is not an unheard of concept, but it implements easier to use features and well known characters from the World of Warcraft universe. Leroy Jenkins, Mad Bomber and even Deathwing make an appearance in all their glory. The story behind this as far as I can tell is that it is essentially a table top bar game in Azeroth (Judging by what is told by what little narrating there is). Then again, this type of game rarely has much of a back story, it's about the gameplay, the balancing and the experience. You play as one of nine characters, each with their own deck and special "hero ability", this is a 2 mana cost ability, often with a small amount of power but very useful. What separates this from other digital card games I've played is the use of mana crystals, gaining one per turn, rather than having to play (and have in your deck) cards that allow you to summon minions. The advantage of this is that it is not only simpler, but less luck of the draw style play. It also gives the game a fluency that I sorely missed when playing the most recent Magic game.

  As for the graphics, they are high quality, very pleasing on the eye and, most importantly, leagues above what would be it's main competitor, Magic. Take a look above, see how nice the design looks? Each little design in the corner of the board does different animations when clicked, one is even a catapult! The golden card on my side is animated which means not only does it look badass, it is badass. The game plays essentially the same as other games in the genre, but it just feels like that little bit extra has been put into it. It really feels like a game that should be played for hours. It has 4 game modes, vs AI, normal, ranked and arena. The only one which needs explaining is Arena - you pay £1.50 or 150 gold (earned by winning or doing daily quests) to get in. You assign a deck from 30 lots of 3 cards, choosing 1 card from each lot of 3. You then play PvP games until you either win 9 games or lose 3. You are assigned a set of 5 rewards depending on how many games you won. An interesting concept.
 

  Now for the bad things. This is a beta so there is a truck load of glitches (as pictured above, this is the smallest I've seen). However this will most likely be fixed before release. Another problem is hat packs and arena is quite expensive, especially since packs are the only way to gain none deck specific cards. The only other bad thing I can think of is the incredibly tiny amount of beta keys given out. You find yourself playing against either a pro or someone who has bought every card in the game. This will also be fixed when the game is released. 

 Overall I do like this game and it shows good promise for release. 8/10