Sunday, November 10, 2013

Mini Review: Brutal Doom


Brutal Doom is a MOD the someone created for Doom 1 and 2 for the PC. This MOD adds a ton of new features to the games. Such as unique gun animations, updates textures to enemies, fire, and special effects. The game is unchanged from the original story but adds a more modern feel to Doom. You can zoom in with each gun as in scoping in, and each gun as a reload animation. The guns are updated as well. Each gone as a new texture to it and the pistol is now an assault rifle. Each gun has it's own unique animation and they all look incredible. Every monster in this MOD also has new some new animations to it. The gore is much more intense, hence the name. When you shoot and kill an enemy blood sprays everywhere and sticks to the walls and ceilings. The blood also drips off of the ceilings. The explosions looks really good as well and the glow from the barrels are great.

Brutal!

Brutal Doom also adds a ton of new options and difficulty settings. There are 7 different difficulty settings each have a challenge of their own. There are also other options as well to make it feel like a more modern FPS game. You can make it so you can look around and control the view with your mouse like in modern FPS game which is needed for Brutal Doom. You can even add a cross hair to your view to make it easier to aim. The features added to Brutal Doom is a great touch. I love running through the game with the shotgun and blasting them to bits. The shotgun animations are incredible and make you feel god like. This MOD does a fantastic job of keeping it "Doom" like. It does not change the story or gameplay. Just updates them. Fantastic MOD, I recommend it to all Doom fans. 

There is only one small minor problem with this MOD. When you reload your guns it does not tell you how much ammo is in the clip, only how much ammo you have left over after reloading your ammo clip and can get annoying at some parts. But it is a very minor thing and you get used to it right away. One other feature is executing. When you boot an enemy and go up to them with your fists you have a chance to perform an execution. These are brutal!

The flame effects and the assault rifle.

The MOD also offers an all new soundtrack. It is the same music from the Original Doom games but re done with a metal sound to it. It is truly incredible. You can also insult the enemies. From flipping them off your telling them to "F*ck off"!



Overall Rating:

8.5/10

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Pokemon X/Y

Console: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: RPG
Release Date: October 12th, 2013
Date Reviewed: November 10th, 2013

Gameplay:
Finally! A 3D styled Pokemon game. We have been waiting for this for a very long time. Pokemon X and Y and the newest instalment in the Pokemon series. The route they went with is a fantastic one! 3D Pokemon! Something everyone has wanted. The gameplay for X and Y is the exact same as the previous titles. Where you collect 8 badges and challenge the elite 4. Like with every other Pokemon game you also have a rival, and an antagonist. In X and Y it is Team Flare. These guys are basically trying to destroy all of Kalos to get rid of all the selfish people in the world, and yes it would effect the Pokemon as well. Basically there is this machine hiding underground in one of the towns. This machine was built 1000 years ago by a man. He originally used this machine to revive his lost Pokemon Floette who died during the war 1000 years ago. Once the man succeeded he was filled up with rage of what happened. So he turned this machine into a death machine essentially and wiped out a big chunk of the Kalos region in order to stop and war and get revenge. This resulted in killing innocent Pokemon. Floette was very sad at what she had saw and left the man. To this day he has no idea where she is and is very sad. I will not go into any more detail without spoiling it. 

The new Pokemon Starters.

X and Y has the same model that we still love to this date. The Kalos region has 68 brand new Pokemon for you to catch. As soon as you enter the world of Pokemon you notice a huge difference. Everything is in glorious 3D! You start out by picking one of the three Pokemon starters to adventure with you. There are three new starters and they are Froakie, Fennekin, and Chespin. When you pick your Pokemon your adventure begins. I love the transition between the badges. You don`t fight the first gym leader until your Pokemon are in their 20's. In this new 3D world there is a lot more areas to explore. Each battle is unique because the Pokemon now have animations as they are in 3D. The moves all also animated making it feel much more interactive. There are also a ton of Pokemon to catch right from the start. You can catch Pokemon from all previous generations. What I love most about this game is the exploration. Since the world map is a lot bigger than previous Pokemon games there are a lot more areas to explore. Probably one of the biggest features that I like the most is EXP Share. EXP share is now a key item. When you turn it on, the Pokemon that you are using will get the full amount of experience (not half) and all of your Pokemon in your party will get half of that experience. So levelling if much easier and quicker. 

Pokemon Y Legendary

X and Y offers a ton of new features such as a way to interact with your Pokemon one on one. You need to use this if you want to evolve Eevee into Sylveon. If you use this on your Pokemon it will increase their happiness, and other stats. If they are maxed out that Pokemon will get bonuses such as more exp per battle, chance to get rid off status's like poison and sleep on it's own. Another cool feature is new new Wi-Fi features. When you are at home and say have a lot of friend on your 3DS using the friend code system. You can turn on the Wi-Fi within the game and immediately begin interacting with all of your friends. You can give a shout out, edit your personal profile so they can all see, view their videos, battle, trade, and even voice chat with them. On top of that you will see passerby's. This means when someone in the world is in the exact same location you are, you are able to see them and trade, battle, or interact with them. The other spot is for you acquaintances. You get these people on your list if you trade or battle someone randomly in the world or use the wonder trade system. The Wonder trade system is fantastic. You put up a random Pokemon and it will randomly find someone in the world to trade with. Now you both do not know what Pokemon you each put up for trade. So you don't ever know what you will get. They did the same thing with the battle spot option. Battle a random person around the world. 

Another cool option to use is the trainer. You can train your Pokemon by playing games with them. There is a different game for each stat. If you successfully complete these games your Pokemon will get a small stat increase as well as an item. You can even win stones. This is basically an easy way of EV training. With X and Y you can finally customise your personal trainer. You can give them hats, accessories, facial hair, and new clothing. Each clothing store has it's own unique items that you can buy to customise your trainer. It has a lot of different options. With all of the new things added you will be easily putting 100 hours into this game if not more. A brand new feature added to X and Y are Mega Evolutions. There are 26 Pokemon that can use this new feature. In order to use it you much have their mega stone. These are activated during battles and only last for the duration of each battle. Each mega evolution has it's own unique look and gets a nice stat increase to help turn the battle around. 

Some of the Mega Evolutions!

They are adding a new feature which comes out on December 27th, 2013. It is called Pokemon Box. It is a paid service but only costs $5 per year. What it does is stores your Pokemon onto a server so you never lose them. With this you can transfer pokemon from Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heartgold, Soulsilver, Black, White, Black 2, and White 2 into this storage system. This will allow you to then transfer them into your X and Y versions of the game. They also included this because X and Y have a limited amount of storage space in game for your Pokemon. There is roughly 13 boxes, so if you want to catch them all you might want to buy this service. Overall there is so much to do and explore in the Kalos region. You can even ride Pokemon like Gogoat or Rhyhorn! You also get a pair of roller bladed which automatically activates when you use your joystiq. Lots to do and is to much to do that I can't fit it all in my review.

Graphics:
As I said earlier X and Y are now in glorious 3D. It runs very smoothly with no frame issues. As soon as you leave your house into the Kalos region it plays a little cut scene which is perfectly done because it gives you the sense of the 3D. All of the battles are in 3D. All Pokemon are 3D animated and every move has it's own unique animation as well. Every time you walk into a new area it is different. You can see the lush and colourful environments and even see the grass blowing with the wind. The fly and surf animations look incredible as well. There are a lot of cut scenes in the game as well. They are all very well done and look incredible to watch. Even using the 3D option on the 3DS makes the game pop out. I can't say much more without you experiencing it for yourself. 

Pokemon in 3D!

Sound:
The soundtrack is great in X and Y. The Pokemon centres have new music. The soundtrack for this game is great and you can tell a lot of time was put into it. The battle sounds are great when you use a move and the Pokemon cries are all awesome. My personal favourite is when you battle a Pikachu. Pikachu will do it's cry from the show "Pika!". One of my favourites has always been the battle music when you are fighting legendaries, or the final person in the Elite 4. Again, they are pure awesome. 

Conclusion:
X and Y are here. These games are fantastic. There is so much to do, so much to experience. So much nostalgia. Any fan of Pokemon or RPG games in general will love this game. It is a must buy. Go experience this great new world of Pokemon. Go catch those legendaries. Gotta catch em' all!

Overall Score:

9.5/10

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Grand Theft Auto V

Console: Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: Third-Person Action
Release Date: September 17th, 2013
Date Reviewed: November 10th, 2013

Gameplay:
Grand Theft Auto V is the fifth instalment for the GTA series. GTA V is the biggest video game launch of all time, shattering records. Within three days of the game being available, they made $1 billion in sales. GTA is a series that is very popular and strikes a lot of controversy with parents. GTA V takes place in the city of Los Santos, where the player controls three unique characters. Each character has their own story and own mission you can unlock in order to progress their story. Each character is easily switched to on the fly. What I did like about this feature is whenever you switched to one of the character you controlled, they can be in the middle of the most random events. You could be playing with Michael and decide you want to switch over to Trevor to do some of his missions. When you switch to Trevor he could be laying on a train track in his underwear, hung over. It is always different when you switch too one of the three. The city of Los Santos is huge. There are a lot of mission, side missions, events, clothing stores, jobs to earn money, sports, etc.... to do within the city. The possibilities never end it seems, there is always something to do which I do give credit GTA V for. GTA V, personally was a let down. The last two GTA titles have been very boring to me, with IV being the worse of the two. Yes, there is a lot of things to do but it gets repetitive, boring, and uneventful. I admit when I first put in this game I was excited to play it. I thought that Rockstar would finally fix their mistakes from the fourth GTA. At first I was having fun doing the missions, side missions, races, and exploration. I did everything I possibly could before completing the mane game. I was wrong.

The Los Santos Map.

I feel as they lost their roots. My all time favourite was GTA III and San Andreas. I loved those two games a lot. Every since the fourth game I have been very disappointed in the series. Yes, there are a couple of things I did enjoy about the game. GTA V has a lot of humour as it always has. Each character has a unique story to them and you feel as you can relate to them or feel apart of their story. GTA V does a lot of things to make you feel attached to the characters. After the first few missions in the main campaign it feels very bland and repetitive. I was excited to do my first heist and plan it out. I could either go in smart, or loud and dumb. I wish they gave you more options for each big heist. You pick how you want to execute it and then you hire a few people to help you out. The better that character is you hire the more of the cut they get resulting in less money for you overall. I tried to find something in GTA V that would suck me and and hopefully change my opinion of the game. You can customise your character with tons of clothing, accessories and tatoos. You can fully customise your cars, buy a garage, and even properties. You can play darts, golf or even arm wrestle. If that is not your cup of tea then go do some racing. It can be on the streets of Los Santos, dirt biking or quading in the outdoors or even race on Sea-doos. You can even do a triathlon where you race on foot, on a bike, or do both!

Graphics:
The graphics in this game are outstanding. Each character is very unique with their own style. The animations for all characters, even the thousands of NPC's are very well done. There are a few very unrealistic animations when you get hit or die in the game. They look for cheesy and lame. Another thing I appreciate is the fact that most of the NPC's look different. Considering there are thousands of NPC's just walking around in the game amazes me. The weather effects are outstanding, weather it be raining, storming, or even sunny. The weather system is very realistic and well done. When you are near the ocean the tide rises and lowers as well. The night time visuals are colorful and full of life. The physics are unrealistic in the game but that's what you can expect from any GTA game in the series. There are also a few graphical errors in the game as well but you can expect that because of how big the game is. Overall, it is a beautiful game and should be taken notice.

Beautiful outdoors.

Sound:
The soundtrack in GTA V is huge. Like in previous titles you have a choice to choose between several radio stations while driving around in Los Santos. I was disappointed that there was no metal radio station in the game. I personally am a huge fan of metal. There is almost every other genre of music, even 90's pop which was exciting and my personal favourite. The voice acting is top notch. Like I said earlier, each character has their own unique feel to them and the voice acting makes it much more true of a statement. Every possible sound in the game is the real thing. From swimming, walking on the beach, running, biking, racing, and especially the cars all sound incredible. You can tell a lot of time was put into this area as well as the graphics. When I was playing the game I very rarely found some sound glitches like skipping while driving. This was very rare and again is expected in this type of game. Overall, great sound.

Los Santos.

Conclusion:
My conclusion for this game is overall I did not like the gameplay. I enjoyed and appreciated the sound and the graphics with the game. I even enjoyed the story telling and how each character felt unique. I even grew attached to Trevor. He is a psycho path but hilarious at the same time. I know they spent $270 million to make this a great experience for everybody, and you can tell. I just think it had the same problem with GTA IV. It felt to repetitive, boring, and bland in some cases. Some of the main missions I hated doing with a passion and it really annoyed me that is was part of the main missions because I wasn't able to skip it like most of them. If you're a fan of the GTA series then you will enjoy this game. I am a fan of the series but the last two were both let downs. It is over hyped and the review scores are way to high. If possible try to rent or borrow the game before dropping $60 on this game. 

Overal Score:

6/10

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