GTA V Review

Hello Gamers

I think I want to do a review of GTA V, I haven’t yet told you all of my opinion of the game. First, I know you probably already have the game, this is for those of who do not have the game, and it’s completely awesome. Its graphics and script are unparalleled in open world non syfy gaming today. It’s beautifully creative and lifelike, down to its Facebook imitation with “lifeinvader”. The physics of the game have a great balance of realistic and nonrealistic. It neither takes from the game nor gives too much realism. This shown in the example of flipping cars with one button, and in how the jet skis can function on land, though at severely reduced speed.

Some bad things about the game: I smack into walls far too much when trying to climb them.

That’s…. basically all that’s bad with the game…

So, more good things. I really enjoy the car handling, in fact, I found out that in the streets near Michaels’s house, there are often Infurnus’s and Bullet’s just spawning, which go really fast, and are durable. Basically if they come in black they are the Batmobile. I also like the fitness aspect of GTA V, in biking and jogging how your character gets tired, how swimming is not fast, just like average every day middle aged men swim, and how lifelike the gamer really feels.

I won’t spoil any missions, but I will talk about Heists, now I’ve only done the first one in the game, but I think they’ll all follow suit. What I wanted to say about them is that they’re very well thought out, the game gives you choices from which way to rob the joint, to who you hire in your crew. The better the skills they have, the more they want, but if you train the ones with low skills (meaning just use them often) they’ll want the same percentage as always.

Another realistic thing about the game is its phone features, and the stock market. In game, with real in game money you can trade stocks in companies. This will put you in debt or bring you up to riches, remember kids, only bet what you can lose.

Would I recommend this game to my friends? Absolutely, you have to try it out for yourself, even if you don’t own it, play it. Play it on your friend’s computer, during work, when he or she’s out of the house. GTA V hit it on the money with this installment and I look forward to whatever they will do in the future. Remember Gamers

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 446

DC Universe

Hello Gamers!

Finally I have joined most of the adult gaming world. This past week I had finally downloaded GTA V, a bit late mind you, but I had a bit of trouble finding where my computer’s space kept going. I eventually found out that it was from an older game that I hadn’t done a blog on yet, which inspired me to make this blog.

The game in question was DC Universe Online, a fantastic big game by SOE. As the title may suggest, it is a game focusing around your heroic journey as a DC super hero or villain. You can choose to fight alongside Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for Justice, truth, and the American way (and yes, I still say “American way” because nobody ever told me that I had to be politically correct, I’m no politician.  Or you could join the Legion of Doom, fighting alongside Lex Luthor, Darkseid, and someone else I can’t remember…don’t judge, everyone chooses heroes first anyway.

This game, like many MMO’s like it lets you choose first your side, then gender, mentor (class), specific ability (weapon/defense method), and finally what everyone has a mental image of: their super suit (cue the Disney-Samuel L. Jackson moment in your head).

I’ve played this game quite a bit, and I have to say it’s the best game including both villains and heroes, standing behind the Arkham Series and sits in front of the Lego Batman series. The gameplay is quite easy to master, with a traditional quick bar and multiple abilities you can train helping you fight the good fight. I also have to say something about how great the armor and item system works. Items are very clearly separated by color, unlike some other games where it’s hard at just a glance to see what it is or if it’s valuable. Not here however, here you know immediately what’s what.

If you never see one opening trailer for the rest of your life, I urge you to see the trailer for this game. The story is very rich and I was on the edge of my seat, which believe it or not is not that common. My reaction to the trailer included surprise and aww as to how great the story concept really was for this game.

Would I recommend this game to my friends to play? I would say absolutely, you don’t need to play religiously, just go and play it; you can even play for free! And for you non-coms you might just learn something

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 431

Battlefront

Hello Gamers!

I have to tell you all about my excitement with the upcoming Battlefront game being released. Now one cannot compare Battlefront without also looking at the visual similarity of the new Star Wars movie coming out. So I predict that the game might include story or filler similar to the plot of the new movie. Battlefront the first in my opinion was a great game, and so was the second, but I have some reservations about the third, specifically how it looks like it may copy some other modern combat games in functionality and interface. This scares me, to think that we need any more a complicated interface for a game that owes its fun to simplicity. We can only hope that it will stay simple, or at least easy to learn. I also hope that it won’t become so story driven like those other modern games. I think with as much or a little more of story as the previous games will be ample.

One thing to look forward to is I hope that weapons will become somewhat like GTA V, where you can take them, and swap them with ncp’s. This could also work with armor, how armor is upgraded and sold.  This could provide a nice little choice element to the game. There is one downside to that theory though, if it is so, there might be the introduction of money into the game, which is the kind of over non simplicity I’m warning about. I don’t want anything like a micro economy in my galaxy; it will complicate the game too much. These games were meant for fun, not economy.

The last thing I’ll address is my hope for better vehicles in the game. Hopefully we get better vehicle speeds, larger maps to use these vehicles, and possibly better AI to command to get into transport ships like the ones in the movies.

I suggest we all look out for more trailers, and hopefully the game will live up to its predecessors, and remember gamers
Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 347

Simulator Games

Hello Gamers!

Today let’s talk about the saddest excuses for video games in the world: Simulator games based on the real world activities. They are buggy, most have no story or characters, no play value to begin with, and certainly no thought put in when they were being created and coded. I was watching Nerd Cubed play through “Airportsimulator” today, and, while laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my seat I thought about something. I thought “what if they were meant to be bad”. This thought intrigued me, because it seemed plausible. Games are always so fussed about during development that I think it could work as a good ironic joke.

Then I got to thinking about how stressful it must be for game developers. I mean, they get paid to predict what people will like, and like enough to pay through the nose to play their game. This is what makes me think that some game makers have either gone out of their gored, or decided to put a big prank on the valued member of Steam.

For those of you who don’t know, Airport simulator, like so many other simulators had problems. Physics engines were off, meaning that vehicles bounced off one another like they were bouncy balls. Planes landed as if they were “popping wheeleys” and so on.

A similar thing happened on farm simulator, where tractors had no physics when colliding with cars, seeds were wonky, and the game was just more of an ironic comedy twist on the lives of farmers. Another strange thought occurred to me, “who WANTS to play a game where you are a FARMER?????” I don’t know anyone who owns a computer that they also game on, who also wants an agrarian livelihood.

The only thing to do in that game worth any fun was finding other cars and bouncing into them, and that’s all I have to say to how horrid these games are, and may I suggest: keep your money and invest in better?

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 344

GTA V Tricks and fun things

Well, I’ve finally got GTA V, and I thought I’d let you in on some fun things to do while walking around Los Santos.

First fun thing to do with Franklin, who has the special ability of slow motion driving, is to go really fast down a street in a car, aiming for other cars. This is especially fun if you can get a car without adequate seatbelts so when on impact you go flying into other traffic. This is also fun if you use the invincibility cheat to keep yourself alive, otherwise you’re probably going to die in this stunt, costing you valuable money in-game. By the way, it’s a five thousand dollar bill to die in GTA V, thanks Obamacare.

Another fun thing to do, at least that I enjoy is to freak out someone walking on the streets with your car. What you do in this, is you drive as if you intend to hit and run, but with Franklin’s special ability you can swerve to miss at last second. This will prompt the computer running AI to make the pedestrian freak out and run, while this is a really dirty trick to do in rl, it’s perfectly fair game in GTA V.

When you’ve tired yourself with that, try to survive gas station explosions. What you need to do here, is first get a fast car, very fast. Then you get about a good half mile away from a gas station if possible, if not just far away to build up some speed. Then you just peel out and try to hit as fast as possible, if you need to, bail at last minute to see if you survive that instead.  I’m not sure if it’s possible to survive it or not, but it’s just so fun to do.

I hope to give you some tips on fun things to do with aircraft in the near future, as I have yet to go to the airport. And as always, if you have any requests on topics, or posts, comment and I’ll get to them.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count : 354

I finally have GTA V

Hello Gamers!

As I said earlier this week, I finally got GTA V, and I have to tell you that I absolutely love it.

I’d been waiting for this since it came out for pre order on Steam. And after many days of debugging my hard drive, scraping up as much space as I could get my hands on for the total sixty flipping 60000 Kb for the game. But I can tell you, it was worth it. There is nothing more hilarious of driving down a street as Franklin and being able to turn on your special ability to ram the very unsuspecting car coming toward you. I haven’t gotten to play much of this game, so this might not be my only post as of yet, this blog is mainly to alarm you to the future posts I plan to write about my shenanigans.

I guess I will talk a bit about the game, so if you want to experience it for yourself, go do that, but I’m just assuming everybody on the planet with a pulse has it now. I enjoyed how the game thrust you immediately into the story, I can’t speak for the games, but this was an intense opener. From robing a joint to well… robbing a joint, you won’t get bored or tired in the first ten minutes of the game. One of the many nice things about the game is how smoothly the camera handles, there is no calibration tech work to be done in the options before you can play properly, it glides like your mouse, both perfectly in sync.

The cars are fantastic in the physics, how they recoil once you smash it into a wall, and the best part is that you can flip them when they get stuck, where as you could not in earlier games (I hear).

The camera is another good thing going for the game, it follows you, and without it making very hard angles where you can’t see where you’re going, or who you’re trying to hit. I have every confidence that it will be a fine game once I get into it more, and I think I'll plan on converting some fun things to do. For instance I might talk about mount Chilliad or perhaps crashing plains into the freeway.I would usually recommend this game to anybody but add it is everyone shuts already have it so, it would be like telling you to get your flu vaccine after you had already gotten sick.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 424

Mario Kart

Hello Gamers

Let’s talk about Mario Kart Wii, the best game that is guaranteed to ruin your friendships if you choose the rainbow level. In this great game you return as the Mario brothers and their friends to race across the universe in head to head competition…to not get hit by the fracking blue shell the least. This game is awesome for the casual get togethers with friends, parties, and any other social forum where you want to show off your road rage skilzz.

This is a great game for variety and choice. You can choose motorcycles, carts, and cars. All have the same basic speed, but they all handle very differently. The motorcycle is my favorite choice, because of the maneuverability and what seems like a better turn rate than the cart or car.

You also have choice in what person you drive as, you can play from Mario or Luigi to Bowser or Wario. The choices are limitless.

Maps in the game are also very cool because of their hidden variety. Many maps have secret paths or ways to beat your opponent. Not to mention the weapons you could get from the boxes laid across the map. With a large assortment of possibilities including speed boosts to your vehicle, bananas to slip up your enemies, or simple shells to throw at your enemies.

I like this game because it was one that I had a passion for beating. For many weeks every night for about an hour and a half before bed I’d get on and play for completion, filling out my “driver’s license” by placing first in almost all of the races. It was my theory that if you always stuck close to the insides of turns (therefor going the shortest distance) and also staying in second until the final remaining seconds of the race then suddenly using everything I could to get the other driver off the road and winning the race. It was a great idea, and won me lots of races. Another way I did this was hoping for a shell weapon and saving it for when I got to second, and using it just before the finish line. This strategy kept me from being hit by blue shells all the time.

I’d really recommend this game to anyone who had roadrage they want  to take out in a safe environment.

Resistance is Futile.

Word Count: 402

Space Engineers

Hello Gamers!

Some of you have heard of Space Engineers, some of you haven’t. It’s a game like Minecraft with modern graphics, and that takes place in a foreign solar system where you, the engineer have freedom find a ship (if you need to fix it is dependent on the ship) fly it around and land on different bodies in the area.

However, this game looks very boring to me, and is a reason I didn’t buy it for myself. I mean no offense (of course), but I just don’t see the game’s appeal. It’s like an adventure by yourself and it’s just too Minecrafty for my taste. At least in Minecraft you have chickens for friends.

The only appeal I can see to the game is that you can fly in a space ship, and if you like to be dangerous, add a meteor shower to your simulation. In this mode you can set the environment to create meteors to shoot down from above toward your spawn point, giving you little chance to dodge, find and potentially fix a ship, and get your astromech out of there.

This game costs $25 on Steam download, and I can understand the price, great textures, physics, and interactive flight engines. I just couldn’t see myself investing that much after checking out Nerd3 playing it.

Now keep in mind, this was a while ago, maybe it’s gotten better by now? Maybe they’ve added in a story type arch in the open world sandbox like the famous Ender’s Portal in Minecraft. And if there is, well all I can hope for is that it’s good enough for me to want to invest $25 into it.

Until then, I’ll keep to my Snow biome thank you.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count 297

The Outfit

Hello Gamers

Today’s a bit different.

Today I am wandering into the realm of the X Box, as I am currently a bit dry as far as content goes for my pc gaming blogs. But don’t fear my gaming adventure tales never end. No, no, today we talk about The Outfit. This was a great game my friend Austin and I played as kids in his basement. The Outfit is a WWII third person shooter that works very well and is quite simple to learn. This is the first time I realized that I had a talent for sniping at very large distances.

One map in particular, as Austin and I took our five man groups up a hill, we had to take cover before we started climbing the hill, actually. But I remember ducking behind some barrels, and waiting to see from good real life mile bad guys heads poking up. Without hesitation, without thinking, I knew when they would stand up (they weren’t hard to predict, it seemed like whenever then were about to get up, their head would shuffle a bit to one side, then the other, then they would get up, as if they were looking to see if the coast was clear from the others.

We ended up taking the hill quickly, me giving sniper support while Austin rushed the hill taking out their heavier gun placements. We were a good team. The game had three characters, a sniper with choice of Molotov cocktails that would light the area it broke at for several seconds, perhaps a half a minute. Another character, often Austins’ favorite, a rocket launcher with a command pistol and standard grenades. The third, the one neither of us liked was one with a semi auto machine gun with some other gun. This character wasn’t good because he couldn’t provide much other than mowing down lots of enemies, which we never encountered anyway.

We realized soon in that mixed with my strategic location on the map and Austins’ heavy artillery we could overcome hordes of enemies and tanks.

The game had this one great “cheat”, I say “cheat” because it only seemed like it at first. We were kicking lots of butt on this one tank mission that involved calling in air strikes to destroy this tank, there was no other way the mission would let us beat it, and Austin and I thought that we accidentally hit a cheat because our money read “9999” and no further because that’s as high as the meter went. I got a little trigger happy with the air strike function, which I will tell you were not inexpensive. I think I got about ten in and then the money counter dropped like a bag of rocks. We figured out that it didn’t stop at “9999”, only that it said it did.

We nearly beat the game together, I think we gave it up eventually though; we were getting bored of it and called it good. I would seriously recommend it for anyone who likes games about war, shooting games, or if you just are getting into gaming and don’t really know what your style is. Thanks for reading.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count 539

Lego Star Wars Three

Hello Gamers!

Today will wrap up my Lego Star Wars series, ending with Lego Star Wars III, the clone wars, basically.

Now if you didn’t like the show Star Wars the Clone Wars, or the remake, or the movie remake, you may leave now…. Are they gone?....Good, we can get down to it then.

This video game, and the series behind it, have restored my faith in Star Wars so many times. Every fall since before I went into middle school it has kept me company at home, through thick and thin, no matter what on Friday night I could walk on my treadmill and relax while watching Star Wars the Clone Wars.

The game is exactly as good as the series, showing us the in depth battles we’ve always wanted, and somehow missed from the older video games.

IN this game, you can have all the fight you can take.  With new ways of Tower Defense, but on a three dimensional plane, you can fight the droids or clones with bases you capture yourself, and set up yourself.

You can play as anyone from the series, and are nearly limitless to what you can accomplish aboard your star cruiser.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 205 

Star Wars the Complete Saga

Hello Gamers!

Today I’d like to talk about Star Wars the complete saga!

The Complete saga is a mesh of the two before it, into one huge massive di-trilogy game, where anything is possible. Have the Emperor save himself from Count Dooku? Sure! Have Luke send his father on the path to becoming Lord Vader? Have at it. Not only can you have characters from different trilogies, you can have space battles and world battles with vehicles. This was the really cool part, not to mention every room had a special secret thing you could do in the center. Also, the outside of Mos Eisley never looked better! Large areas to mess around with, lawn mowers to move around with, and most importantly: the Legoville simulator located in the extra file. You can play as anyone, and go through a large scale town and blow things up, build things, destroy things, do whatever you like!

This game is by far my favorite game, from the characters to the advanced graphics; everything is awesome in this Lego world. 

When you’ve had enough messing about, you can always do fun, little extra missions like hide and seek, or I believe there were hunt missions available too, where you find a character in a level, then try to stop them any means necessary.

This is truly the ultimate game for those of you who love Star Wars games, and have a nostalgia for the older generation of gaming.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count 251

Lego Star Wars II

Hello Gamers!

Part 2 to my Lego Star Wars series will cover the second game, the prequel.

The Prequel game was twice as good as the first game, with even better game mechanics, and still great level design, you got to experience what happened before the Emperor came to power. This game brought us from little (soon to be orphan) Annie, to the powerful Lord Vader he will become.

This game follows suit with its predecessor, no talking, just visual story telling.
This game also had rare missions that weren’t used in the later Complete Saga, including the speeder chase from episode 2. I really liked this game because of the new atmosphere of Dex’s Diner, where as in the previous game you were limited to Mos Eisley Spaceport. The new game came with the same features as the one before it, althought I think it came with more extras and more cheats.

I really think that you can play the game at any age, the replay value is stunning, and I hope you’ve liked my coverage on the pre-modern Lego games. And I an excited to see what will happen with the franchise with Battlefront coming out soon.
Resistance is Futile

Word Count 197

Lego Star Wars Part One

Hello nerds!

My first memory on my ps2 was playing a great game called Lego star wars. In this game you chronicle the original space epic following silent Luke. I think the appeal of this game was the revolutionary way you could choose your own saga after you beat a level, namely relaying it as many times as you want, with whomever you want to do it with, and with extras and cheats (who said cheaters never prosper?). This game was also cool for its silent element which Lego followed suit with until Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes.

In this game, you start with R2D2, C3PO and Princess Leah on the Tantive IV, and you progress by movie all the way through the downfall of the Empire, or more correctly, the Emperor. The game never seemed to end, in a good way though. I could entertain myself for hours playing that game. It had great level design, and great character development- all without the aforementioned no silence you always see in games today.

The stunning graphics, gameplay, Lego building, and extra missions make this game a must play in my book.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count 182

Seventh hour stretch

Hello Gamers!

Have you ever played a game for so long, that you decided that you would move onto another game for a couple of days, weeks, or months? Well, if you have, you’re probably not alone. In fact I’ve had this sensation many times before, especially with MMO’s.

I find that if you immerse yourself in one game too much, it can ruin your mood in and out of game. It could lead to you not feeling that happy in real life, but that seems a bit extreme, still. I’ve found that there is one great solution to this: Biking. A little fresh air never hurt when clearing your head of all the problems you have, and with nice sunlight and fresh air, how could you not come back with a better mood?

Sure, you could just buy more games, and alternate. This is another great choice, but me- I’m in love with the outside. When I get groggy with a game, and it’s still sunny out, I’ll go explore far away neighborhoods. I usually start with going to my school, which is around 1.5-2 miles away from my house, and can get there in about a half an hour. Then I move onto another school about three miles away, which takes me about an hour, and return home. This equates to about five miles. After about two hours of biking and breathing fresh air, pumping blood faster- I’m ready to get back to gaming.

Another solution, one that works better for the nighttime, is to go on a stretch break, go to your living space, or any space where you are comfortable and won’t knock anything down. All you need is about a fifteen minute stretch break. I’m not talking full on yoga, unless you’d prefer that, knock yourself out. Just stretch your legs, pull out of your hips, make yourself as tall as possible, do neck rolls, trunk twists, toe touches, anything your heart desires. The point of this is to also get your heart pumping and blood flowing. This will help, and some water or tea wouldn't hurt after this either.

I hope these tips have helped you for the next time you want to marathon a game for hours on end.

Resistance is futile

Word Count: 382

End of Week Blog/ Catch up

Hello Gamers

Today’s blog will be a little bit short, but it’s because I’ve run out of content for the week so far, so I’d like to just have a relaxing chat at you. I promise soon I shall have a gaming controller, so I can start playing more console oriented games like the Lego series I haven’t played in a while, including Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. I will also be looking for new internet games that I find noteworthy.  After my vacation I’ve discovered that I may be relying on bad days for blogging, as I like to bike in nicer whether. If blogs seem to not be coming at their usual unusual time, it’s because I think that the week will be too good to be cooped up in my office staring at a computer screen.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my other blogs this week, and we’ll see ya soon
Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 159

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

Hello Gamers!

Today I’ll talk about Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes.

In this game you return as billionaire Bruce Wayne, and alongside Robin and Superman you thwart the Jokers schemes and Luthor’s plots to overthrow Gotham. You play through stunning levels and great plot devices while achieving more and more characters, usually through gold bricks laid throughout Gotham. This game has a couple great features about it, first off- it’s big, I mean really big, I mean if you were to guide off of Wayne Towers towards the other edge of the map, Amusement mile it would take a good ten minutes, and that’s going pretty fast. Flying will get you there in about five minutes, if you’re quick. Another nice detail to the game is the villain unlock system, what happens when you want to unlock a villain, find a villain, fight him or her, and if you come out on top, you’ve earned the right to play as that character. This is a very nice way of unlocking them, apart from getting them from a level (which is moot because none of them are in many levels).

This game left a lot to be desired though, I found the other superheroes disappointing by just joining the game for the final three levels, and only having minor roles in the story. All you need the heroes for is to solve puzzles in the level. The game was big, but there didn’t seem like lots of story opportunities namely involving Gotham besides a building being exploded, and a climax chase in the streets. Nothing of that was spoiling anything if you haven’t played the game. Another point I’d like to raise is that I didn’t like how the villains were not used, or explained in the story. How did they appear in Gotham? Why they are there, and why stay? Was it Joker or Lex who brought them into Gotham like some Arkham City excuse? Whatever the answers, they aren’t in the game and I count that against them.

Quite honestly though, this game was very enjoyable, between its open world driving, flying, boating. And it’s ability to let your person fly, whether it be Superman or Sinestro, this game is worth the buy. The game is a very adequate follow up to the classic Lego Batman, and reflects the awesomeness of the producers of all Lego Games

Word Count: 401

Tips for Saving $$$

Hello Gamers!

I am now returned from break, and have great ideas for where this blog will go in the coming months, and I think I will start with something kind of new. I want to talk about my process for purchasing games, equipment, and other things a new gamer might need.

So first off, quite obviously one will need a way of playing the games he or she will be settling the national debt with by buying them. I would personally suggest the PlayStation gaming series, also I would suggest the Wii for our mini gamers, and the Computer to fall back on if your system should break down because you haven’t shut it down for fifty hours strait.

Second, I’d be nice if said gaming system had a way you could interact with it, as if the almighty gamer himself gave us the gift of transmitting what we want our game to do right into the box of some sort…Oh wait! It did! Via the game controller, mouse, or Creator given fingers we use on our Ds’s and Gameboys.

Now comes the hard part, which pertains to both of those above, and likely to those below, as well. This is learning to know what’s worth buying, and what can wait (or go onto your Christmas list for Santa). No matter what, people have different ideas than mine, and I know that but, you are reading my blog, so here we go. When considering buying something now that I’m more money conscience, I think about a couple of factors, one being “Will I use this for enough time to equate to cost, for our math geeks -(time spent on it)x + Initial cost = Yes or no, if the number comes up in the positives, then I move onto whether it will help me play the game I’ve already spent, or vice versa, will it provide another game for me to spend time on controller.

Next we have the “will I buy the game?” question. It really depends, often I won’t buy a game unless I’ve seen many hours of (hopefully) unspoiled gameplay. This I find has saved me more money than I can count sheep at night, just because I knew what it would be like once I bought it. This is not at all unlike visiting a College, you know you want to attend school there, it’s your dream college. You go with your parents, spend a day looking at the shiny campus, and WHAP, you realize you hate it there. If you thought you just wasted a day there, never going to get that time back, think about all of the money you will save by not going to a college you hate! That same college you hated just a minute ago, saved you a bunch of money.

It’s very important that we realize that if we do some simple research behind things BEFORE we buy, we’ll save lots of money.

One last trick before I wrap it up, one thing I will leave you with that pertains to all of this: borrowing. You’ve all passed kindergarten, and I assume you learned that “sharing is caring” and all of that propaganda, but I realize that it’s the type that will inevitably lead you to ask a friend if you can borrow his game, or his controller, or his whatever. Not only can you decide if you want to go make the investment of your money by trying it out for yourself, you may even be able to buy it off of your friend if he or she no longer uses it. If you’re really lucky you might get it for free!

All of these tips I give with my blessing, hopping that you’ll all save a little money out there, and keep on gaming with it.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 656
Btw: here is a site i've used in the past http://store.valvesoftware.com/

Lego Batman The Videogame

Hello Gamers!

Today let’s talk about Lego Batman- the videogame

Batman as you may know is one of my guilty pleasures in life, and the same goes for Batman video games. This game is spectacular, from the animations to Steve Blum grunting- it’s truly the best you can get from a Lego game (until you can fly in the second one).  IN this game you get to be Batman, along with his many friends and something really special: the villains.

You not only get to play as batman fighting crime, you get to see the villains create the problems in a never before seen villain storyline all of its own. The villains are housed in Arkham Asylum, where you can visit using a terminal in the Batcave, where Batman works out of story mode. Both the Cave and The Asylum have many rooms to explore, and many things to discover, but most of all they’re both really cool to look at and enjoy, as we’ve never gotten a chance to explore inside of it (with the exception of Batman Arkham series). The Batcave isn’t the only place you can explore, however.

 You can also get a look of Stately Wayne Manor, which has its own puzzles and secrets to unlock throughout the game.
As the player, you get a rich and developed look at a unique storyline surrounding the Riddler, Penguin, and of course, the Joker. Each villain has their own gang and storyline or chapter if you will. As Batman, you have many suits at your disposal to help you solve puzzles in the game, each level. Some suits give you the ability to glide, some the ability to blow things in your way up, and others allow you to emit a high frequency pulse to break glass or to move plants out of your way.

As villains, you get to cause the trouble in Gotham, fighting off the police and Gordon, the police Commissioner. You can also use character creators to create your ultimate villain or hero, and you can test said character (like in all Lego games) in the levels you unlock by playing them. You can also find cheats on the web or in the game through buying them once you find them. This will come in handy for buying those big ticket items Batman and Joker really needs.

You also have a wide range of vehicles, from the Bat- bike to the Batmobile, you can test out your skills behind the wheel on many levels throughout each of the three chapters. You also have Bat- subs, Bat- Boats, Bat- copters, and Bat- Wings, not to mention Joker’s toys. You have an endless amount of potential through the vehicles and infinite choices that suits you, and your playstyle.

I would recommend Batman the Videogame to anyone who wants a nostalgic look at childhood, or simply as a good standalone game of its own. It’s the panicle of its time, and will bring anyone back to the age of childhood where the silly Batman, was the only Batman, thanks for reading.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count:519

Sick Day 2/ Learn to Fly walkthrough

Hello Nerds!

Today’s second installment from my sick ridden computer room will entail my personal strategy for Learn to fly 2.  I realize that some of you don’t like my breakthroughs, and for that I apologize, but it’s really the best I can do while fighting this bug. Here. WE. GO.

My strategy for flight on Learn To Fly 2 is simple – start a game long enough to earn bonus points, these are earned from achieving accolades in the game (such as longest flight, or highest flier) in which I first recommend you spend on your incline for the iceberg from which you thrust yourself off of. Then you can start a new game or continue from where you are it doesn't matter really, I just like to earn the height achievement to have more starting money. After that, I would invest all of my money into making the iceberg higher, then sleds and gliders, then boosts. You don’t have to spend any money on payloads, as you aren't really smashing anything yet.

Try to get as many achievements as you can, they give great money bonuses, which you should buy boosts with (or fuel for boosts). Once you buy a bobsled, then you should invest in your boosts, given that you have the second glider, you don’t need the 800 dollar one. Once you get enough money, and you've bought the bobsled, but the super light weight glider for 7500, and then the boost rocket that cost 9500 that’s also one shot, this combo has proven to get me the most money per turn.

Once you rack up bonus points get the omega designs, and once you have bought those in the bonus store, invest further points in lightweight-ness from the store, also fuel boost, money boost, and gravity.

You will get great results with this match up, especially with the omega gear on your side. I cant type anymore right now, I’ll get back to you later gamers!

Resistance is Futile: 333

Sick days/ Learn to Fly 2

Hello Nerds!

I apologize for my recent absence, and my lack of updates on where I've been. As some of you will know already that I was on leave due to school activates, one instance of which being finals week, but I assure you that I’m back on the horse.

I also apologize if these blogs aren't as good as they usually are, as I've taken ill, and right before break none the less.

So to start off this week’s blogs I thought I would bring you all up to speed, I've been on my couch for quite some time with a bit of a sore throat and a case of spring allergies. Before that, I was working hard on the beginning of a new trimester at my school, after passing all of my finals.

 I plan to write all of my blogs for the week today, as I am taking vacation starting at eight o’clock this morning and only have today to get the weeks’ work done. I will be departing Cedar Rapids on a charter bound for Florida, a twenty-three hour bus ride with band kids. Let me express my gratitude I am sick, I won’t be forced to talk to anyone. I hope that I regain my strength for Disney, as I think it shall take all of the strength I have.

To satisfy those of you who were expecting a review, I will review briefly a game that I love to play when I’m sick: Learn to Fly 2, a game on Kongregate about a distressed penguin wanting to fly. You slowly gain money through your flights to buy better equipment and slowly soar to the skies, defeating the stereotype that penguins cannot fly for good.

I like playing this game because unlike some other games, this one is very easy to pick up, and you don’t need to micromanage it, you just fly through it. After only a few flights you as the gamer can agree that this game is a nice little cool-down from the hectic norm.

See you later gamers and remember

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 355

Sim City 4: the Micromicromanagement game from hell

Hello Gamers!

I’m sure we’ve all at least heard of The Sims games, and today is the day I talk about one of the best and worst games ever: Sim City 4

I absolutely love this game for about an hour, and when my city becomes too big, I hate it.

It is a game for those of us who have never played it where you plot out areas for residential development, industrial parks, and business sectors. You then can plot out utilities, hospitals, fire and police stations, schools, libraries, basically everything your city needs to be a city.

You then wait for people to build houses, get jobs, go to work, and finally complain about absolutely everything.

I used to plot out everything before people got started building, but I’ve learned a trick: Don’t give them anything until they ask for it.

This way you avoid prematurely planning out every detail about your city, and you look like a decent mayor for it.

You can also create airports and seaports although it never seems like they bring in that much business.

It only takes about four or five in game months before your city is thriving and flourishing on its own.  I usually get around 1,000 people in my city before they begin to complain about things.

If you do follow my strategy of waiting, then you should be able to compensate for the demands of the people before they get too aufgepissed.

Once you have your city developed, you need to start planning cities in other plots of land to connect to your city of choice; otherwise you will fail…utterly.

This part of the game I found very realistic, and as a realist I liked it, but as the idiot I am I could not find a way to correctly hook up two cities. Sure I knew how to extend roads and railways, but nobody ever used them… I was really sad.

Once in a while I will pick the game back up, and try to perfect my strategy, but realistically it’s a crap shoot. I get on, play for about a day (irl) and then I leave from boredom.

So, when you’re mayor I recommend you listen to your council of advisors as best you can, otherwise your city… does something, I just don’t know what.

In fact, I don’t think the city does anything except lower your popularity, which might get you thrown out I don’t know.

Anyways it’s still a really good game, and I suggest that if your life needs some more micromicromanagement (you read me right), than this is the game for you!

See ya next time Gamers!

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 451

Sandbox 2

Hello Gamers!

I have to tell you all something fantastic!

Universe Sandbox2 (written as Sandbox squared) has a teaser trailer out on its homepage!!!!!

If you haven’t seen it yet watch it now! Are you back? Awesome, right?

The graphics are magnificent in my opinion, the music (if it will be in the game, which I think would be a great improvement on the first game) is gorgeous, and I know I will be buying it whenever I get on Steam next. 

It looks like we will be getting new planets to tinker around with, new planetary features to play with, namely the asteroids hitting earth AND THE Earth exploding!? This game looks well worth the wait and I am psyched out for it!

It looks like in the video, at the end we get to see the moon being formed around the Earth, which brings up questions in my head like “Is it a simulation that you can just watch, or is it that you can create planets a WAY cooler way now?” That of course is just one of many questions I have about the game, and I’m sure you have some too.

On its homepage it also has some brief examples of what’s new about it.

Some new items include the ability to smash bodies together at various speeds (I assume this is just an upgrade to the old system, as you could do this before as well). It also is introducing a Climate factor to planets, as seen in the video I assume you can now adjust temperatures of planets on your own, without moving the planet’s orbit distance. Terraforming is also new, and perhaps my favorite addition to your toolbox of awesome. Terraforming means changing the atmosphere of a planet, and it’s surface, and if Man of Steel taught us anything, it can be cool and dangerous at the same time- what more can we ask for?

You can also throw asteroids at planets (again, it’s not anything new), but the damage system appears to be new.  

There are many new features to Sandbox 2, and when I get the game and play through it a bit I’ll report back with my review.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 374

GTA V IS HERE!!!!!

Hello Gamers!

Today I’d like to announce something that I've been waiting for, for a long time now.

Steam is now offering GTA: V for pre- order, for $59.99 that includes one million in game cash, and three hundred dollars in online community gameplay. This will be available through the first of February, and I’d suggest if you haven’t already gotten it for various other console, and that is, you like the idea of a computer playing GTA: V.

I’m seriously considering buying the game, as I like to mess around in games like that. I’ve always found those games had a sense of freedom I couldn’t get from other games. I think that sense of freedom comes from the game’s sandbox quality – you can do anything you can imagine.

 Now, I know you might be wondering “Leif, why don’t you just play more Minecraft, or UniverseSandbox?” Well, the truth is those games are very fun, and are jam packed with freedom (so much so they could be the next symbols of freedom if we ever tire of the Bald Eagle), but they don’t have the kind of silly freedom I like. Silly freedom to me is like (how Nerdcubed describes jumping in front of cars) Carkour, or jumping out of a helicopter into another one, or stealing a plane just to smash it into other planes and so on and so on.

Games like Universe Sandbox and Minecraft are great, but with GTA: V there is so many other things to do. For example, you can’t do much in Minecraft except build, mine, destroy, hunt, kill, and hike. And in Sandbox, all you can really do is smash planets together, which I tell you does get old if not left alone for a while.

GTA five will allow me to do all of those things (except mine and build) but do them with weapons and have chases. And it will let me escape from the monotony of car chases with no real thrill of being killed (as in Need for Speed your driver is a God).

Need for Speed: Most wanted showed me the thrill of a good chase, cop cars coming after ya, but there was always a sense of restriction in those chases. I think adding weapons might just solve the problem I had.

I’m not sure if I want the game yet, but at least I have some time to think it over, and I hope that I’ve informed those of you who have not been on steam, or simply not heard of it from your friends.

Enjoy GTA: V for the computer

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 444

Prison Architect

Hellllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Gamers!

Are you reaaaaaaadaaayyyyyy?

Today is the day I talk about Prison Architect!!!!!

Now you may wonder why it’s called Prison Architect, well you’d be right to ask!

Prison Architect is a very fun, very complex game about what it would be like to run a prison. You are in charge of designing your prison, hiring staff, making sure prisoners are fed by hiring cooks, make sure they can shower, and sleep, and have free time, and the list goes on and on.

You literally get dropped out in the middle of nowhere, with eight workers, and some supplies to begin your journey to becoming the greatest prison owner/operator your prisoners have ever known.

You can get grants for completing little tasks, which I’d highly recommend for beginning a new game, as some grants give you up to thirty thousand dollars! These tasks are pretty easy, too. The “administration” grant just says to hire a warden, research finance and psychology, and have two office rooms. It’s not a lot, trust me. Others might include building a med centre, or a kitchen.

Once you begin, I’d recommend getting an office built first, with the exception of some paving stone so that your workers can move faster getting to where they need to be.

After creating your first office, hire a warden to research whatever you need.

Build then a utilities room for power and water, making a kitchen and canteen, and a holding cell for incoming prisoners.

Once that is done, you can build showers, or start off on building your cells.

In this game, as it is in FTL, the pause button is your life, use it.

Plan out lots of things ahead of time, so that no time is wasted, you want to have your prisoners be happy so they don’t revolt against you.

My policy on prison guards is having as many as you need, no more. This is usually about ten for your first 16 prisoners. Prisoners will arrive every twenty-four hours, and they come in eights. You can of course elect to stop the receiving of prisoners, given that you didn’t click the “continuous prisoners” box in the beginning.  

Once you have a few prisoners, I’d recommend lengthening the free time in exchange for fewer lockups, I think this will make the prisoners more happy but I haven’t absolutely cheeked that fact.

I've also found that once you have the basic tier one workers researched you can research grounds keeping and janitors that will really help your prison look better. You can assign prisoners to do this job, once you've researched the “prison labor” box.

Don’t forget to build a staff room for your workers who get tired, they don’t have to be big as only about three or four get tired at a time (given  your prison is small). Workers such as your warden will not research anything if tired.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to try different layouts, make your prison unique.

We’ll see ya later Gamers

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 507

Universe Sandbox

Hello Gamers!

Today I’ll be giving you my thoughts on Universe Sandbox.

This is a little physics game about space and astronomical bodies and such that is really fun to dick about with. Have you ever wondered what it would look like if the earth was three times its normal size compared to the moon? Or if the sun would just go away to see what all other planets would do? Or whatever your brain thinks of? Well this is the game for you.

This game allows you to do so many wonderful things with… well anything you can think of. You can adjust gravity, time, size, weight, orbit time- basically whatever it takes to destroy pluto in funny ways!

Nothing can compare to the sheer size of this game, there are so many different simulations to open up. Some examples are

Earth and Moon

Solar System

Death Star orbiting Endor

Distant Stars

And some that are just for fun simulations

Tea cups in space

Size ratios

And I’m sure there are more to come, because the game offers a simulation creator, in which you can do everything you could before, but you now have a blank canvas to go all Picasso on (or Van Gogh, if ya like that sort of thing).

Universal Sandbox is on steam, and I think I picked it up for about ten dollars, like many of their good games are, if you’re just looking for the cheap entertainment of once in a while dicking about.

I’d highly recommend this game to friends, and really anyone who likes realistic physics and space games, where you can do the things you’ve always wondered about.

I think I’ve talked about this game enough, and if you’re not convinced (and I think I’m going to do this quite often from now on, link a great YouTuber I follow *and you should, too) to help me show how great this game is.

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 329 

Battlefront II

Hello Gamers!

Today, Battlefront II. 

This was absolutely my childhood pastime; it was battlefront every snow day, every weekend, and every rainy summer day when my friends would come over to play inside. 

And I hope you go pick it up (it's only like ten dollars on steam) and experience it for yourself- if not for me, than for yourself.

After my PS2 could no longer read video games, I moved on to the Wii, along with came other games that I will also review in the future (such as the Lego Star Wars series, various Mario games, and possibly others I can’t remember now) when I get to it.

If there was ever a game that you needed no previous background in gaming, and Star Wars, I think this was it. You don’t even need to know any of the species, just how to aim a blaster and throw grenades.

The game does get a bit wonky in voiceovers- even on steam, when playing, in the middle of a sentence the game sometimes repeats parts, and sometimes the audio is a bit fuzzy, but the gameplay is the most solid I’ve ever seen in a game from that era.

The game is also very inclusive about the timeline of Star Wars, and what I mean is, it takes us from the beginning of the Clone Wars, to the battle of battle of Yavin 4, to the construction of the second Death Star. I really enjoy the story telling, the perspective of the 501^st, and what it was like for them. All too often we hear about the Jedis’ perspective  of the war, but never the Clones.

The game also has great bonus features for after you beat the main story in their “Galactic Conquest”, where you can choose your preferred time period, and team for that matter. You can choose to be CIS or Republic during the Clone Wars, or you can fight the Empire as the Rebellion. Your objective, like the name suggests, is to capture all enemy planets in the Galaxy, and to destroy (or fend off invading) ships of the enemy’s fleet. Once you do this, you’re done and can move onto other campaigns, or instant actions, or XY&Z.

The point is, you have so much freedom in this game, which is why I picked it up on Steam once the idea came to me, and it is by far the best ten dollars I’ve spent there.

See ya ‘round Gamers

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 421

FTL:Faster Than Light

Hello Gamers!

Today (again, as promised,) I will be talking about FTL: Faster Than Light

This game… I have to say... Is sweet… I’ve spent hours on this game, and every minute has been great. The graphics make the game look like a cross between an old Nintendo arcade games, mixed with modern 1080p. What sets this game apart from so many others, is that there really is no plot- no set characters, ship names, and you have the freedom to go wherever you want to go within the confines of the map.

I did kind of lie about the plot, there is one. Your ship carries vital information that the Federation needs, but beyond that and your goal of reaching federation space- the game is endlessly open world.

Even the leveling system is unlike so many others, which all require grinding hours and hours to get to the next “level”. In this game however, you simply buy upgrades. And unlike Cookie Clicker, the prices do not go up exponentially.

Another thing that I like about this game is the crew. You can rename them to be whatever you want, place them at any station on your ship, and kill them if you so choose. It’s a weird crew system that I haven’t seen before.

The game is also unique in its ship control system. If say your ship is above a star, and a solar flare starts a fire on your ship, you can put it out in two different ways. One way is to send a person in to extinguish by hand. What I do (and I hope you do as well) is to activate the doors leading to space and all doors until you reach the fire. This will on the down side deplete your oxygen in those rooms, but it regenerates pretty fast (based on how much you’ve leveled up your oxygen room). Your ship also uses fuel to travel, which is another perk that wasn’t in many space games I’ve ever played. You get fuel from stores, or from destroying enemy ships. If you do what I do, you don’t go to the stores for fuel, just repairs to your ship, and rely to get all of your fuel from distressed and enemy ships.

When you destroy an enemy’s vessel (or in the occasion that they surrender to you) you could get fuel, money, parts, weapons, drones, or crewmembers, all of which are useful.

The game (as far as I know) doesn’t end, you simply keep going from sector to sector, but I’ve then again only made it to the first boss, perfecting my play/ upgrade priorities to create a ship that can beat the boss.

That’s it for this one gamers, write me back if there’s a game you would like me to review, otherwise catch ya next time

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 481

Steam sale!

Hello Gamers!

I know it's kind of late, and it's already gone, but I'd like to talk about the sale Steam just had for new year’s. 

It was phenomenal!

60% off here 80% off there!

I bought some games that I'd never played before, and my favorite nostalgia filled game from childhood: Star WarsBattlefront II. So be expecting reviews on the following games:

Prison Architect: Where you design and micromanage a prison (or in my case just lose all of the prisoners because of lack of jail doors)

Just Cause II: Where you attempt to overthrow an evil government in Asia 

FTL: Faster Than Light: Where you decide to be a good person and die trying, or be a dick and die trying (either way, you die).

Well I know that one was short, but that's all I wanted to say so catch ya later Gamers

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 152

Corporation Inc Strategy

Hello Gamers!

As promised I’m here today with my strategy guide to Corporation inc!

This will outline how to get started, how to arrange offices, workers, and how to become a millionaire in only a week!

First off, freeze the game by clicking the freeze button, then place down three offices, starting at your far left, these have to be placed wall to wall.

Secondly, hire four workers in the first office, get achievement.

Third, hire two IT guys, get achievement. If you start the game with bugged computers that your two IT guys can’t manage, start a new game because it’s not that bad from the start

At this point you should have enough money for another office, by the way you haven’t started the game yet, and you should still be on freeze mode.

Place another office *usually I like to place it down far enough away that I can put a bathroom between the two, to do this just click the bathroom to place without actually doing it to see how much space it takes, than finding a marker in the ground to guide off of to place your next office. You will now have exactly $2600 left, buy four supervisors and place in the office you’ve just placed than begin the game by selecting the freeze button to take it offline.

Wait until however long it takes to buy another office. You will get popups that tell you that you need to hire janitors; this will make your workers unhappy if there is a lot of rubbish accumulated. It’s really a matter of preference, I like to buy another office and hire workers well before my first janitor, but you can buy them if you wish, and I’d place them in the third office to your right, after the workers and the IT guys. NOTE: every office in this design has one type of worker stationed in it; don’t mix your workers into different offices. This will mess up everything I’m trying to tell you.

After your next office of workers, wait to buy another one, place it wall to wall with your second office of workers, hire the workers, and probably fill the other two IT positions, and then if you haven’t done so, hire all the janitors you need.

Here’s where the fun begins.

Buy two more offices, wall to wall taking up the rest of your horizontal space. Then hire TWO researchers, you can do more if you want, but it will be hard to keep up then. Save your money to hire four accountants in the unused office, pausing the game the millisecond you reach that worker to fill them in. You should next be researching the deluxe office, or at least nothing matters until then. When you buy the deluxe offices on all of your workers’ offices, also buy it for the Accountant’s office.

After you research the advanced office, buy that for all of the workers’ offices. Plan out your other office perks according to whomever is stationed there i.e. IT workshops only for IT offices and so on.

From here on, do whatever you like, if you follow this pattern of development and planning accordingly, you’ll be far richer than if you just sat there making one dollar a button push

I really enjoyed divulging my strategy for this game, and I think I will do more.

If you liked it too, tell me and I’ll definitely do more in the future

Resistance is Futile

Word Count: 589