Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, and Rift developers Trion Worlds have decided to mark the date in a bizarre but wonderful way – mass marriage! That’s right, if you get married in Telara between 9am PST on February 14 to 9am PST on February 15, you will automatically be part of a world record attempt – for the most in game marriages in 24 hours.
If you take part you’ll get the exclusive in game title – “the Avowed” (changed from the originally announced “Tier of Knots”), but marriages of convenience will not be tolerated – you must remain married until the end of the event! Marriages are a fairly new feature in Rift, but those who have already tied the knot are encouraged to file for divorce so they can do it all over again!
If this whole marriage business is all a bit of an unknown, you can find more details on the process here. Trion Worlds have also released a new video specifically for the event, which you can watch below.
In this single-player shooter, veteran Major Fletcher is caught in a battle between two of mankind’s greatest enemies. With over-the-top action and a wide variety of weapons, Fletcher must battle his way through seemingly never-ending waves of mechanical foes which will lead him to discover that not everything is what it seems to be.
The free-to-play online fps, Crossfire: Europe, now has a new gameplay style: Biohazard mode.
In this new mode, the Black List terror organisation lost control of soldiers biochemically experimented on. Now these infected mutants are roaming in the secret Grand Canyon facility and the Global Risk counter-terrorist unit has dispatched a team to eliminate them.
Biohazard mode features four-player support and 18 new monster types. This mode rewards players that play cooperatively as players that do will receive the best rewards. The better the teamwork, the higher chances of the team surviving, which in turn means receiving exclusive items from prize crates after each wave tier.
The Guinness World Records book has it’s fair share of odd and random entries, but did you know there’s also a gaming version? Well the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition book is getting ready to release, and a survey conducted for it has just revealed a surprising ‘fact’ – Call of Duty Black Ops has the greatest videogame ending of all time.
Now this is according to a mere 13,519 voters, so isn’t exactly representative of the millions of gamers out there, but even so the outcome is more than a little debatable. Is this really the best conclusion to any video game in the entire history of gaming?
10. Heavy Rain
9. Final Fantasy VII
8. Metal Gear Solid 4
7. Portal
6. Red Dead Redemption
5. God of War
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Halo: Reach
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
You can check out the full top 50 for yourself here.
If you are super keen to get your hands on the demo for Mass Effect 3 (due for official release tomorrow) then get yourself over to Facebook pronto. Once there you can exchange your basic data and birthdate for access to the Mass Effect 3 app, which if you play through and win, will grant you an access code to either the demo or an avatar item in the form of the Normandy.
The game has been running for a few days now, so this is your last to chance to get hold of the demo before it’s released to the masses tomorrow. If you manage to mess up the game (decipher a simple code) then you’ll be locked out for a couple of hours – so be careful with those clicks.
Mass Effect 3 will be released in full on March 6, and the demo goes live for all tomorrow.
Kill List Studio: Film 4, Screen Yorkshire, Rook Films, UK Film Council Publisher: Madman Entertainment Format: Blu Ray (reviewed), DVD Release Date: January 11, 2012 Price: $39.95 (available here)
Overview:
Kill List is the second film by British director Ben Wheatley, following on from 2009’s Down Terrace. Co-written with his wife Amy Jump, the film is something of a genre mashup, taking in kitchen sink domestic drama, the one last job hitman movie, and, somewhat jarringly, occult horror. Comparisons have been made with horror classic The Wicker Man, and Kill List has found itself crowbarred into ‘cult independent classic’ status by many reviewers.
Story:
With numerous domestic arguments over a Jacuzzi and unbought toilet paper, the opening half hour of Kill List may have you wondering whether you’ve bought the right movie. Jay (Neil Maskell) is a British army vet, who having returned from a mysterious but mentally damaging job in Kiev, hasn’t worked for eight months. Tensions are high within the household and arguments between Jay and his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) are frequent and frightening for seven year old son Sammy.
Joined by old colleague Gel and his new girlfriend for a dinner party, things inevitably flare up once again. Outraged by his wife serving gravy in a Pyrex jug and being told off for eating too much, Jay flips his lid and his dinner plate, souring the atmosphere and storming off to the garage. There he’s joined by the more mentally stable and genial Gel, who offers to bring him in on a job – a kill list.
As unlikely as it may seem, this middle aged and mumbly pair are actually hit men, and even more surprising, Shel knows it. Meanwhile Gel’s new girlfriend has taken a trip to the toilet, where she casually removes a mirror from the wall, carves an occult symbol on to the back of it and then carries on as normal.
And so the duo set off to strike the names from their list. As with the preceding scenes things are tense, and even though there are moments of black comedy to lighten the load, even these are tinged with a feeling of dread, or hint at the violence to come. Title cards dominate the screen with the identity of the next entry on the list, so after signing a contract in blood (hint hint) Gel and Jay set off to kill a priest. Things begin to unravel when the victim sincerely thanks Jay for his work, and the next victim only makes matters worse for Jay’s mental state.
The quiet menace of Kill List is punctuated with moments of intense and uncompromising violence. As Jay gradually unravels his kills become more disturbing, and the camera never cuts away. Comparisons with Drive are inevitable, but Kill List has none of that films style or glamour to detract from the horrific acts on screen – the film certainly surpasses Drive in it’s brutality. Despite the fact that Jay’s victims may be ‘bad people’ , there is never any illusion that the hitmen are ‘good’ – Jay is committing violent and sadistic murder. The fact that on the surface the two seem such ordinary men only adds to the impact – hit men are not glamourous, they are killers. This also demonstrates a point that Kill List makes many a time – you never know what evil seemingly normal people are capable of.
Gel provides more of an emotional tie for the audience than the psychotic Jay, but even he cannot ground the third act of the movie. Where Kill List has so far survived on a very real and serious reality, the finale throws that out the window and feels like a different film entirely. Moving into horror territory brings the dividing line between terrifying and stupid all too close, and for some Kill List will definitely cross it. The final twist is an obvious one that has appeared in another recent horror, and it leaves too many things unexplained to bring a satisfying end to events. Character motivations ago unexplained and it’s difficult to care about the eventual outcome. After the credits rolled on Kill List I just found myself with a bad taste in my mouth and not much else.
Audio and Visual:
Despite having a very simple, realistic visual style, Kill List is still very well shot. However jump cuts can make the tension feel forced, and the timing of the edits is jarring to the point of knocking you out of the experience. The music too feels a little asynchronous, particulalry during the first half of the action. It reflects the jumbling of genres in the film and really does feel like it doesn’t belong with what’s going on visually. When the kill list actually begins things come together into a more effective package, and the violent moments are incredibly effective in their execution – they are almost guaranteed to provoke some sort of physical reaction. Unfortunately some of the dialogue is very difficult to pick up on, a bad mix combines with some mumbly British accents to make subtitles a near necessity in certain scenes.
Extras:
Extras include three short interviews with cast and crew and a seven minute making of. Although the interviews are brief they allow the director, main cast (Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring) and producers to dig into the themes of the movie and it’s development history without falling into too much of a love fest. Director Ben Wheatley runs over the reasoning behind some of the creative decisions, and the two actors provide a bit more insight into what makes their characters tick. The making of is a compilation of un-narrated clips rather than a structured documentary, so don’t expect to gain any real insight into the process. Overall Kill List provides about fifteen minutes of extras that unfortunately won’t satisfy any fan who really wants to dig into the movie.
Overall:
Kill List is a film that will doubtlessly divide opinion. It’s well acted and at times incredibly tense, and the violence of the kills will stick in your head for a long time. It’s a quiet, slow burner of a movie that never fully explains itself. If you’re willing to think about it’s themes and characters then there is something to be mined from it, but the film itself falls short of being a satisfying experience, largely because of the ending. Horror fans sick of Hollywood style shlock should give Kill List a try – it’s as far removed from that as you can imagine.
Riot Games has just offered a short comic for their upcoming champion, Nautilus – the Titan of the Depths.
In the comic we can see that there is a fermenting hatred forming in the undeath of the latest champion. Remembering his last moments only as a dream, Nautilus has forged these memories as a personal vengeance for those that left him for dead. The severed anchor symbolizes his broken connection with the living and offers his opponents the same deliverance to join in a similar suffering.
Personally, I think Nautilus would make more sense as a ranged DPS champion. I would reduce his movement speed seeing that he has a major amount of diving gear. If the anchor is truly his main weapon, I would extend the reach with a chain which would provide not only ranged damage but also have a radial effect. His ultimate will surely have something to do with embedded secrets in Davy Jones’ locker. Beware of the KRAKEN!
Here we are again, MasterAbbott is back for this week’s iOS Game Suggestions. If you missed out on last week’s suggestions, click on the links below and check what cool games you should be picking up for your iOS along with the introduction and disclaimer on how my suggestions work, as I’m not going through the same old intro every week. (suggestions 1 has the disclaimer)
What I’ve also introduced is video game play footage (if it’s possible) on some of the iOS games I’ve suggested, you can check this out at the bottom of the article. Currently video game play footage for this week’s suggestions is DARIUSBURST SP, Armed & Gorgeous, Grooh , 100 Trials and VR Mission. Check back in a few days there will be some more added. For now, if you jump into week 2 suggestions there are a few videos to check out.
Once again it’s been a great week on iTunes, so many amazing games were released, this week I’ve suggested well over my normal amount with a total of 17 great quality titles. As always for this week’s suggestions I’ve added a few old games into the mix as they certainly deserve a mention. But of course the focus is still on the newer titles that you should also take a look at to spend your hard earned iTunes cash / time on.
This week I’ve focused an both 99c games and titles over 99c as there were some awesome and unique games released. These titles are all well worth taking a look at. Now lets get down to business shall we.
For The Cheapskates – FREE GAMES
Mike Tyson: Main Event – Price : FREE – Publisher –Rock Live Inc. (Build your empire as a fighter by defeating opponents like DJ Pauly D, Mr. Chow and his friends in Bangkok, Nik Richie, the rock band All Time Low and of course, Iron Mike himself. Join the the RockLive network so the coins you earn save to the Liveboard of your city. Don’t let your friends beat you! .) runs on both iPhone & iPad. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Save TheSushi – Price : FREE – Publisher – Yogome. (The Evil Queen Ignorantia has stolen Yogome’s Golden Sushi! and you need to get it back! Help the heroes recover it, all you need to do is your multiplication super powers! WAIT WHAT! Yes… this is an educational game that’s not only fun but will teach the younger players their times tables. With 3 different play modes, 30 levels and badges to collect this might even be fun for grown ups as well!) runs on both iPhone & iPad. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
Dojo Madness – Price : FREE – Publisher – N3V Games (Dojo Madness plunges you fist first into a flurry of kung fu action! You must defend your Dojo by using lightening speed reflexes against the mighty Samurai Wolves of the west, the traitorous Turtles from the deep oceans in the south and the crushing Gorilla Gangs from the dark woodlands of the east. As these vicious foes surround you, you must use all your kung fu skills to defeat them. Your killer combos enhance you by harnessing supreme ninja warrior attacks that upgrade the longer your combos continue on. Your magic spiritual essences allows you to defeat your enemies with long range attacks. When trouble strikes, crouch into your Raccoon defence mode to rethink your strategy.) runs on both iPhone & iPad. GET IT NOW FOR FREE
For The Bargain Hunters – 99c Games
MASTERABBOTT’s 99c Game Pick Of The Week
The Lost City – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Fire Maple Games. ( The Lost City is a classic point and click adventure game, with beautiful graphics that will draw you into this mesmerizing adventure. With lots of items to collect and puzzles to solve along with an original soundtrack, The Lost City will keep you busy for hours on end as you attempt to discover the many secrets that the lost city has to offer.) – runs on both iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Game & Watch: Bank Robbers – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Octius Company Limited (The most classic game that will you will forget in your 70s-80s!
Three robbers has broken in the treasury of a big bank but they don’t know how to move out tons of money. Lets help the Robbers!! Catch the money which are thrown away from the bank and move them to the Robbers’ truck. Simple but exciting game! ) – runs on both iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
Raid Leader – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Crescent Moon Games. (Help save the land of Eldentir from the evil and corrupted demon Belfanor and his invading legion of monsters. You, as the Raid Leader must guide a small band of Heroes through Eldentir and face the demon King in the final battle. Knight – Strong and vigilant. The knight likes to stand where it hurts – face to face with his enemy. Hunter – Fast and agile, the Hunter packs a lethal bow and arrow. She likes to shoot demons in the back! Priest – Old and wise, healing is his speciality. In the heat of battle he has a few other tricks up his rather big sleeves. Encounter challenging boss fights. Collect gold and invest in dozens of unlockable abilities. Test your skills against the oncoming hordes of darkness. Are you prepared?. ) – runs on both iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
End Night – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Ben Falcone. (Days after a virus turns most of a small town into crazed killers, one man struggles to find a cure before it’s too late. Free roaming, open based gameplay – You decide where to go and what to do. Survive on a knife’s edge – loot weapons, ammo and resources to stay alive. Dynamic missions that change depending on your choices. Explore the town and find samples to create the vaccine. Split second decisions are the difference between life and death — Do I run or do i fight? Close range battles with infected enemies splatter blood and gore everywhere. ) – runs on iPad. BUY NOW
Lode Runner – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – Aleksey Eremenko. (Lode Runner is it an outstanding game, where gold treasures need to be collected in 100 levels. Up to 5 enemies try to make it hard for you. You can run, use the ladders, climb along the bars and collect treasures. As soon as you have collected all the boxes and up until now invisible ladders can appear. If you have reached the most upper line of the screen, you will get into the next level. You cannot jump, but you carry a weapon with you, with which you can dissolve the bricks for a certain time. No matter how far you will fall, you cannot get hurt. ) – runs on iPad. BUY NOW
Pop Corny – Price : $0.99 – Publisher – nlogn (His name is Corny… Pop Corny, and he loves popcorn! He has one dream, one goal, one vision… TO EAT ALL THE POP CORN IN THE WORLD!! Can you feed him enough to progress to the next level? But be careful as hunger takes over and Corny starts to black out! ) – runs on both iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
For The Millionaires – All games over $0.99
MASTERABBOTT’S Over 99c PICK OF THE WEEK
Dariusburst Second Prologue – Price : $11.49 (Publisher – TAITO Corporation (The shooting game classic has arrived! The DARIUS(SAGAIA) series made shooting game history with its unique atmosphere and sound design, and now the latest installment, DARIUSBURST, is available for iOS. Featuring fully optimized controls and added content. Based on the critically acclaimed handheld console game DARIUSBURST, this smartphone edition boasts intuitive, responsive controls optimised especially for touchscreens.) – runs on both iPhone and iPad. BUY NOW
The Tiny Bang Story HD – Price : $2.99 – Publisher – Colibri Games ( Life on Tiny Planet was calm and carefree until a great disaster occurred – Tiny Planet was hit by a meteor! The world fell apart and now its future depends only on you! Use your imagination and creativity: in order to restore Tiny Planet and help its inhabitants you will have to fix a variety of machines and mechanisms as well as solve puzzles in each of the five chapters of this game. Navigation is simple and intuitive. It doesn’t distract you from the witty brain teasers, and you will be able to fully immerse yourself in the unique atmosphere of the game..) runs on iPad. BUY NOW
Grooh – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – digiDingo (Grooh is a cute (and lazy?) monster that loves pineapples.
Today, Grooh decides to explore the abandoned “Feilong Castle”. There’s a huge dragon printed on the entrance door!! But most importantly, rumors say that there’s a secret treasure hidden there, and *who knows*, maybe it’s full of pineapples?
That’s why you, oh mighty player, should help Grooh to find the treasure!) runs on both iPhone and iPad. BUY NOW
BrainJewel – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – TribePlay (BrainJewel takes you on a puzzle fueled journey through the mysterious lands of ancient Egypt. Prove that you are the smartest in unique and addictive mini-games that test your wisdom and courage as you battle to uncover the secrets hidden in the eternal sands.) runs on both iPhone and iPad. BUY NOW
Armed & Gorgeous – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Digital Worlds (A thrilling hack ‘n’ slash-style game in which hoards of ignorant peasants, knights, and wizards wage war on a charming demoness in her own dungeon.
Exciting original comics await you at the end of every level! And with Ragdoll physics, fantastic animation, and comics-style graphics, you’ll never be bored! Conquer all the levels, beat all the bosses, reach the village and get revenge, gathering 11 types of weaponry and a variety of costumes for your heroine on the way!) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
BoxMan Rising – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Goorusoft (Dominated by gangs, the Boxman World is infested with disorder, crime and chaos. You’ve been training hard for a very long time. It’s finally time to get rid of them. However, the gangs won’t be that easy to deal with. Must get stronger, Must learn more skills, And I must be the world’s strongest fighter.) runs on iPhone & iPad. BUY NOW
VR Mission – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Sphinx Entertainment ( Your skills of Stealth, Intelligence, Bravery and full weapon knowledge will be putted to the ultimate test in this brand new stealth action packed real time strategy game as you lead an one man army into the very deep of the enemy’s heart, your failure is not acceptable. This title is similar to a pocket Metal Gear style game.) runs on both iPhone and iPad. BUY NOW
100 Trials – Price : $1.99 – Publisher – Fusion Reactions (Fight your way through hordes of monsters! Engage in fiendish combat puzzles on a quest to discover the truth behind the alleged death of the last wild demon. 100 Trials features: 100 levels using 4 unique playable characters, each with their own unique skills. 4 worlds with dozens of monsters and bosses.) runs on both iPhone and iPad. BUY NOW
There you have it folks, these games should keep you busy for quite some time. I’ll be back next week for another dose of iOS goodness, in the meantime if anyone would also like to suggest their own suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments section below, or join the discussion in the forums. Check out the link below :
Great Scott! Telltale Games’ Back to the Future: The Game – Episode 1: It’s About Time is currently free to download for iPad over at iTunes Store but only for a limited time. Meanwhile, the rest of the episodes are on sale for $2.99 each – that’s 55% off its original price of $6.99. Back to the Future: The Game continues the adventure of the films with Marty searching for Doc Brown in Hill Valley during the Depression Era.
The complete season of Back to the Future: The Game is available for iPad
Grand Slam Tennis 2 Publisher: EA Sports Developer: EA Canada Platforms: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), Playstation 3, Release Date: Out now! (14th in Europe) Price: $49.99 (USD) – Available Here
Overview:
With 2011 bringing us some of the best sporting games to date, Grand Slam Tennis 2 has got the ball rolling (no pun intended..) for 2012. Our expectations for EA Sports continues to grow to new heights as they keep managing to innovate and recreate sporting games year after year. Naturally, when we heard they had decided to share some love with Tennis games, we got quite excited to see how they would compete with the pretty formidable efforts that the Top Spin and Virtua Tennis series have provided for us. So does Grand Slam Tennis 2 find it’s place on our top shelf of sporting titles. or will it be collecting dust with the other flops? Keep on reading to find out.
Gameplay:
The big innovation that GST2 offers is it’s Total Racquet Control System, enabling players to play the game using nothing but the two analogue sticks of the remote. The system seems quite simple, just flicking the stick in a certain direction to play the shot you want, however it does take quite a bit of getting used to. You can alternatively choose to use a classic scheme of just buttons, and at first it will be very tempting to do so given the practice required for the Total controls, however if you can resist the urge and keep at it, you’ll find it quite rewarding as it makes gameplay very smooth. That being said however there are a few kinks in the controlling which causes the player to hit a shot that you ddn’t intend on doing, such as a slice instead of a top spin shot, and for net play the system sort of falls apart, so switching between buttons and sticks will probably be necessary.
The match engine runs very smoothly, as you’d expect from an EA Sports’ title, with the roster players actually reflecting their real life counterparts in shot actions as well as tendencies, including the good ol’ jock pulling by Nadal (as seen in the picture below). What doesn’t work so well is the AI. This is ever-present in Career Mode more so than other modes in the game and I’ll explain why shortly. The game modes for Grand Slam Tennis are pretty standard, giving players the option to do exhibition matches, a career mode with your created player, online, as well as Grand Slams Classics, which features classic match ups from the last three decades as well as some fantasy match ups.
Career Mode, like both of its competitors, makes you create a player (male or female) in which you’ll build up from an amateur to the world number one. The creation options are pretty standard, nothing too flashy but adequate nonetheless, you can also import a picture of your choice as a Game Face through the EA Sports website. A small omission from the creation options is the ability to give your player the option to use a two-handed backhand (which Nadal also seems to be missing) which might seem miniscule to some but still detracts from the variety of playing styles.
Moving on from the creation part, Career Mode is pretty standard. You start out as ranked 100 in the world, yet for some reason you can still enter all the Grand Slams straight away. Not only that, but there is no adjustable difficulty setting in Career Mode but instead the difficulty increases as your player progresses. So what you’re left with, is an extremely easy first few years in which your player (who will have a rating somewhere in the 30s as opposed to the pros who are almost all between 70 and 85) can and in most cases will win all the grand slam tournaments you enter.
The biggest problem with this (aside from you easily dominating everyone you play) is that it just makes the Career Mode extremely tedious and pretty unsatisfying. The AI is simply not good enough given the quality we experience in other games (and especially EA Sports games for that matter). If you want a rally with the opponent to last more than 3 shots you have to hit the easiest shots possible for your opponent to hit back, and even then you can’t be guaranteed they won’t just swing and miss (or stand and miss). The AI in other modes (and in the latter stages of Career Mode) is actually OK, still pretty easy to beat most of the time but at least they put up a fight. Another issue, is the tournaments appear to be unseeded, meaning the top players will generally knock each other out in the first few rounds, leaving you to mainly come up against EA’s creations (roster fillers, or racket wielding chumps), until you reach the semis or even the finals. If you can put up with the repetition and boredom of the first few seasons of Career Mode, it can actually be reasonably enjoyable, but that being said, the repetition doesn’t really go away.
Grand Slam Classics is a pretty sweet additional mode, giving the game a bit more sustainability as you attempt to unlock extra match ups from previous decades and the fantasy match ups. Online as well is pretty well done, and is probably the biggest selling point for the game due to the lacking in AI ability.
Audio & Visuals:
The presentation of GST2 is really well done, with the majority of roster players sharing a very realistic likeness with their real life counterparts, in addition to the fully licenced courts also adding a lot to the experience of the game. The menu and layout of the game is also very intuitive and logical.
On the other hand, the audio for the game is pretty disappointing overall. I’m not sure what it is about tennis games but commentary and soundtracks never seem to be high on the importance list. Whilst obviously game-play is paramount, the extras really could help push the enjoyment of the game up. The soundtrack is basically non-existent, with a couple of looped tunes playing in the background and nothing more. Whilst it is nice to have commentary in a tennis game (something which Top Spin has never bothered with), the voices of Pat Cash and John McEnroe become very repetitive within your first few matches. Moreover, the commentators never really specifically refer to the players on court (namely the real pros), leaving them making very general comments on the match and not really offering too much (besides a fair bit of criticism from Pat Cash with every mistake you make).
Overall:
Despite my criticisms of the Career Mode and the AI, GST2 is arguably still the best tennis game available at the moment, solely due to the smoothness and responsiveness of the match engine. The roster is acceptable and is always nice to have some legends of the game amongst the current stars, although I still long for the day when a tennis game doesn’t need to include game-generated players. Grand Slam Tennis 2 may lack some creativity and hasn’t really stretched the world of tennis gaming by any means, it still is a solid and polished game, and most importantly offers a very promising platform for future growth.
