5 things that make a Gamer-Rage

I play a lot of games, right from that red hatted plumber to that ash covered fanatic who goes about killing Greek Gods, I have played a lot. Like any other gamer, I have had my moments of exquisite ecstasy and unrelenting rage. We gamers like to talk a lot of smack, most of it though is harmless, but sometimes, we are lucky we don't have a gun nearby, or a machete or a screw-driver. Read on to find out, what really makes a gamer violent. And if you ever hear your hubby or your bf cursing something about any of the below, its better you give them a wide berth.

Source: www.ragetoons.com

1. Escort Mission

Source: www.tvtropes.org

So you are playing Resident Evil. You have just started to feel good about yourself, those stupid zombies don't know whats hitting them, and you have a bunch load of lead stocked up just in case. That's when the game slaps on a harmless little girl, or an injured comrade, or a lost dog, or mini-boss from another level (who kicked your ass back then, but now seems to be afraid of the dark). Its upto you now, to take this sad excuse of a colored polygon from Point A to Point B. If he dies you lose, if he stays too far behind you lose, if you die; welll you get the picture. Suddenly the zombies who used to stick to you like cheese to nachos, avoid you like cats do water and try your companion on for size. It doesn't matter how big and bad-ass/ cute and harmless your buddy looks, enemies just prefer new meat, and for whatever reason your partner does too. What more they don't know how to defend themselves, they might have guns (they might as well have tooth-picks instead) but they don't know how to fight, how to take cover, how to freaking meele or just sprint away from danger (you think living in the center of an infected city might teach them a thing or two).Run too fast, and your quarry might stall and stand like a lost poodle on rainy day. Run too slow and you would find him jumping into un-cleared areas ready to take you down with him. They don't take directions too well either, how many times have you said "Not there you moron, the door is this way" or "Get out of my freaking way, I need to dive." or "Go to hell you mOfO....may you always rot in hell"

2. Reward System

Source: www.corpseruncomics.com

You are a level 132 Knight, wielding a lvl 121 katana, wearing a lvl 119 scottish quilt (rocking it btw) and using lvl 102 "Nemor's Ancient Deodric Spell Caster Aura" as your primary skill. You just defeated the entire undead army, grinding it out for an continuous 3 hours without flinching (you sofa now has a permanent puddle in the shape of your butt and the air reeks of your sweat). Many a times reaching to just 10 HP of your enormous health bar, it was hellish, it was bloody but it was awesome. The town rejoices, the mayor asks you to meet him and take your reward. You take a drink from your cooler (which isnt cool any longer) and press the A/X/Space to accept your award. What do you get: a lvl 23 Brass Armor, and the mayor say, "I am sure you will put it to good use". Damn sure I will...I will use it right up your....and then go on to level your town, and then maybe tea-bag on your temporarily dead bodies.

3. Cheap Bosses

www.newgrounds.com

You know what I am talking about. Tekken and MGS are famous for these. These bosses have huge health bar (which get re-filled once or twice depending upon how much the game wants to screw you). They have high damage and unblock-able combos (so if you haven't packed your health packs, we will see you at your last save). And remember that spell, which you tirelessly leveled up and now it takes 1000HP in one go, well you can't use that spell on him; no the spell/skill/weapon which has served you so well is next to useless against this behemoth (because this huge, sprawling creature who looks he can take you and then some is just one big Quick Time Event). Why you ask me, well Fork you that's why.

4. Restricted Movement

source: www.tumblr.com

The game designer is creating a map, and he thinks "Hmm-mm...I don't want the player to access this part of the map, what should I do?". After a while he goes like, "I know, I would create a small step that is about his waist height, and sucker can't jump; Problem Solved". So I can slay hundreds of minions, rip apart beast with my bare hands, drive a truck through an apocalyptic city, but can't jump onto a platform which is waist high. Yeah go figure!

5. Unlock-able Difficulty Levels

Source: www.xbox360achievements.org

Games have side missions, they have collectables, they have even have eastern eggs. But how do you really make a game re-playable, unlock-able difficulty levels that's how! The game doesn't care what your game-score is, or how long you have been playing video games, you need to prove it to the game by first beating it on a lower difficulty level, then unlocking a higher one, and then beating it on Insane/Heroic/Nightmare (whatever in-creative name they have come up with) all over again. And you know what the best part is, all these more difficulty levels have achievements/trophies attached to it, so if you want a perfect score, the game is guaranteed multiple playthroughs. The game lets you choose how you look, how you dress, how you speak, how you fight, but it doesn't let you choose how smart/stupid your enemies can be, unless of course you have beaten it once.

What else makes you cringe and cry, when you are playing a game. What makes you feel you want to find the guy who came up with the idea, and then punch him in the face, then in the gut, and then stomp all over him as writhes in pain on the ground and then drag him outside and run him over with your car, before spraying him with gas and then putting him on fire. Comment or I am coming for you.

5 reasons why the PlayStation Conference Rocked

This is why you write about games. You write reviews, and walk-through to fill in the time, but the real reason that you write about gaming is so that you can tell the world what you think when something BIG happens. I saw the gaming community stand still. I saw Sony overload IGN, Machinima, and Youtube (their own live-stream didn't fare much better). I saw the official announcement of the PS-4.

So last night (i.e. 20th Feb 2013), Sony held a press conference in New York. Invites were sent out almost 20 days ago, mysteriously titled the Future Of PlayStation. No one was fooled however; everyone and their grandmother expected Sony to unveil the new Playstation. There were questions however, Sony had been known to shoot themselves in the foot before. What will the announcement be, will they change the controller, will they change the name. What games will come out, will we see any demos, why will the console be better, how will Sony sell their latest toy.

As it all went down, in hindsight it was fabulous. The live-stream began at 4 pm Eastern Time (or 11pm UK time) which meant it was 4:30 in the morning in India, and I had office the same day. I kept awake through the night however (a feat I have been ranting about, but have got no appreciation for), and watched in anticipation as Sony fired the first salvo in the 1st console war of this decade. Read on to find out why it was so good.

The official PS4 logo

1. They unveiled the PlayStation 4:

I was in 2 minds whether this shuould be my first or my last point. In hindsight, it seemed inevitable that Sony would announce anything else but. In anticipation however, with all that hype and all that pressure, I wouldn't have put it past them if they would have just put in a conference talking about next-gen and not actually announcing it. That would have been a sheer waste of hype and more importantly anticipation. I was so glad, it wasn't. It was not to push God Of War and Last Of Us, it wasn't to push the price drop in PS Vita, and it wasn't to push a new P.S.N.. True we did not get to see how the new console looked like, but perhaps the first time ever, Sony themeselves uttered the words "PlayStation 4", and just like that it was set in stone. There is a new console, its gonna come out in the holiday season this year, and its gonna be called "PlayStation 4".

The Dual Shock 4, Don't fix whats not broken

2. It's still Playstation:

I am so glad that it isn't called the "PlayStation Orbis" or whatever else that was doing the rounds on the internet. Its the next PlayStation, the PlayStation 4 or quite simply PS4. I am also glad that they haven't changed the Dual Shock Controller. Its still looks like the design that has served Sony so well, albeit with a few subtle changes (picture above). It just gives the feeling that Sony are confident and comfortable of the brand that they are extending. They have'nt thrown away years of accepted and recognised tradition for the sake of tailgating and hollow innovation. Anyone who has had a PlayStation before would be able to identify and feel familiar with it at once. It give the console a legacy, a history, a name to live up-to, and a consumer base too.

The button and the media, which will change the way we capture game-play

3. The Advent Of Sharing and Spectating:

When I first began writing game reviews, the first roadblock that I faced was that I didnt have actual footage to back me up. I had to rely on official trailers, or official gameplay video to complement my work, often unable to provide evidence of my experiences. If I wanted to do so, I needed to invest a bit extra, buy splitters, recording devices and what not to record my gameplay on my PC (not to mention I needed to find those parts first, which in India is a pain), all the while PC gamers were sneering their noses at me. Now all I need to do is press a button, and most recent of my gameplays will be uploaded to the internet in no time, I can even Live-Stream my games, and let others spectate me in real time. What this does is it takes the PC component out of the equation, you don't have to pause the game, or worry about video editing, all the tools are available at one central location, and there is no technical expertise you need to have.

The Holy Grail of RPG, Diablo finally hits the console

4. The Games:

It is easy to forget in the midst of the hop-hullah that no console becomes great without some great games. Sony opened the conference with KillZone: ShadowFall; the gameply footage of which they uploaded live during the event using the PS4; The game looked gorgeous. Watch_Dogs was on full display too, showing off the graphical might of the PS4 as it rendered Adam Pierce in drooling polygons. Bungie's new cross-platform project, Destiny was on display too, once again providing a sneak peek at Halo's creator next magnum opus. The game that took the cake for me however, was Blizzard's Diablo. From the moment Blizzard's name appeared on the screen, I started mumbling Diablo 3 repeatedly (it was scary, creepy and pathetic all at the same time). This for me was the wow moment of the conference, to get my all-time favorite franchise onto my all time favorite gaming brand was huge, even if no one in attendance made a sound, my heart just gave Sony and Blizzard a huge ovation. Find the complete list of the games announed for the PS4 below:

Title	Publisher/Developer
Deep Down (working title)	Capcom
Destiny	Bungie
Diablo III	Blizzard Entertainment
Driveclub	Evolution Studios
Final Fantasy (TBA)	Square Enix
Infamous: Second Son	Sucker Punch Productions
Killzone: Shadow Fall	Guerrilla Games
Knack	SCE Japan Studio
Watch Dogs	Ubisoft Montreal
The Witness	Jonathan Blow

The companies which are set to make games for the PS4

5. There was no bad news:

There was no price announced, and hence it gave no opportunity to people to haggle and complaint how over-priced the machine was. The console itself was not unveiled, perhaps saving it for the E3 later this year. This again saved the company from Troll Wars between early adopters and traditionalists. There were rumors that P.S.N. would be turning into a paid service, if that's true, it wasn't announced here. This conference was planned to create positive hype, and no controversy at all. Even the console's pitch wasn't that it was a new untethered powerful beast, rather it was pitched as a product developed after consulting deeply with the developer and the gaming community which aimed to please everyone with its simplicity and ease. In a nutshell, there was no damper, no pot-shots, and no controversial statements made during the 2 hours (except for the small mention that PS4 won't be backward compatible).

We might not know how the console looks like, but here is a peek at its interface

This is an exciting time to be a gamer, we are on the cusp of new console war. The PS4 is all set to go against the Wii U and Microsoft's next. There is also Valve's Piston (a super small computer to play games) and Ouva (the android based gaming console) over in the horizon. A lot of people are heralding the end of the console generation, with the rise of casual gaming and cheap PC hardware. In spite of all that, it seems like a throwback to the old 90s when there were plenty of consoles to choose from. What do you think of the new PS4, and gaming consoles in general, tell me more in the comments. For some more coverage of the PS4 conference check out my friends over at whatsyourtagblog and their view here and here.

Special Forces Team X: Review

Special Forces Team X looks like Team Fortress, and feels like Counter-Strike, but what does it play like. The game released last week on the X-Box Live Arcade, and was making plenty of noises on my X-Box Dashboard, so I finally decided to try it out this weekend. So how did this brand new 3rd person shooter multiplayer game pan out for me, was it any fun, read on to find out.

First thing first, Special Forces Team X is multiplayer only; it has no single player campaign. Its a team based third person shooter, with cover mechanics (not unlike Army Of Two, or the recent Dead Space 3) pitting you in different multiplayer modes. I played in 3 of them:

1.  Team Death Match (TDM): Your everyday staple kill your opponents and make points for a limited time. The team with higher points after time is over, wins.
2. High Value Target (HTV): 2 or more teams of 2 people each fight against each other. A HTV cycles between the teams, if he is in the opposing team kill him, and if he is your team, defend him. You get points for all that and killing random people from different teams.
3. Hot Spot (HS): Its basically king of the hill, with a randomly generated flag point after some time. The first team to reach 350 points win. Just 2 teams compete in this mode.

Story N/A

The game is different in the way that team play is awarded more than solo work. The more team-mates you are with, the more bonus points you earn. Apart from that the game plays out more or less as other multiplayer shooters out there. You start off with certain weapons, you earn experience, level up and unlock new weapons and clothes and stuff, which you can then use to kill even more and earn even more XP. I didn't play enough to check if there was a level cap, but it seemed unlikely. Also instead of traditional 2 teams head to head, most game types have smaller teams (up to 6) of 2-3 players each, hence its more like "You and Your Partner against the World". There are cover mechanics involved and you can take cover when you are under fire, but the screen doesn't tell you which direction you are getting shot from, so unless you can see the shooter himself, you might as well stand like a man and take it.

Gameplay- 8/10

The game has a cell-shaded feel to it, and feels almost like a throwback to good old Counter-Strike. You can easily distinguish an enemy from the surroundings (something which I sorely miss in most multiplayer) and even most weapons are what you would have already used in your CS hay days. Unlike Counter-Strike however, most locations on the map are open ended (as opposed to CS, where you mostly just had to care about your front and your back). Its colorful and gory (your head bursts ope like a balloon on a head shot), and mostly non serious about killing people (a bit like Team Fortress). The sounds are as good as you can hope they can be in an arcade game, and definitely doesn't spoil the fun. It doesn't try to be too realistic or too fancy, and props safely in the middle.

Graphics+Sound- 7/10

There was a clear lag in the game, at all times. More than once, my grenade exploded in my hand because my screen showed it wasn't cooked enough, while in reality it was. Other times, you can clearly see, bullets firing after you had pressed the button. People teleporting from one point to another was less frequent but not rare enough. While I put most of these lag issues down to the fact that I play in games hosted half way across the Earth (I live in India), it's still not nice to see blowing yourself up. I was disconnected from 2 different games and didn't earn any XP for them (which was sad),

Mojo 6/10

I enjoyed myself playing this amalgamation of Team Fortress, Counter-Strike and Modern Warfare. But the frequent lag issues, coupled with my own suckiness at shooter multiplayer, I wasn't much good at it. I would suggest this to anyone who has an X-Box, wants to play multiplayer and does not want to buy Call Of Duty. To everyone who already has their choice of multiplayer shooter set in stone, Special Force Team Alpha X doesn't do anything special (except for the part where you run like crazy holding a chainsaw above your head).

Kabelled Score- 7/10

MetalGearRising Revengeance, Dead Space 3, Crysis 3: Demos and First Impressions

As I go through the economic depression of my life, it was only a matter of time before the financial crisis started chocking my gaming life. I haven't bought a new game in 2 months now, and even the last one was a 3 year old game(Fable 3, read the review here). In-fact the last game that I bought which was released in the same year was Borderlands-2 (that's way back in September, check out the review here). This however does not mean that I have not kept up with the gaming world/news around me. I downloaded and played the recently released demos for 3 of the most anticipated games ready to hit the market in the coming months, and as I don't work for any big video gaming review house, this is my first hands-on for the games itself. Below are my first impressions.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

The Hideo Kojima brainchild is not one for short names. The most recent episode into the Metal Gear franchise was announced way back in 2009, then shelved and then re-started in 2011. The game is now ready to hit the markets in Feburary, and for a change focuses on Raiden (the semi protagonist of MGS 2) instead of Solid Snake himself. Raiden is a cyborg, and has one hell of a sword, that is supposed to cut through absolutely anything. This makes the game more hack and slash rather than the stealth oriented game-play of its predecessors. But will that work?

The demo has you playing a tutorial level, followed by what I believe is an initial mission in the main storyline, ending in a mini boss fight with an A.I. controlled Dog robot. The long conversational cut scenes (which are the trademark of MGS and Hideo Kojima) are there in the tutorial too, giving you enough background into what you are about to do and why.

As mentioned before; the game-play is more hack and slash, there is a sword attack and a melee attack, you can also equip different secondary weapons (ranging from grenades to rocket launchers) for use, the combat is combo based and revolves around hitting and moving in one complete flow. The highlight of the combat however is the sword mode. Hit the LT and time slows down, the left analog controls the camera and the right analog the actual sword, allowing you to swing the sword in any trajectory you deem fit.

The idea is novel and new, but it does take a bit of getting used to. The left analog stick is for motion in normal mode, and many a times I was actually moving when I hit the sword mode, and hence the camera angle got screwed cause I was still holding the stick in a particular direction. Get the swing right however, and you are awarded with visceral slashing scenes, and if you cut them in proper ways, health regeneration.I was happier using the sword mode for the killing blow rather than using it as my staple, but I believe mastering this art and using it as often as possible is the key of enjoying this game.

Dead Space 3:

The dead space franchise is a little closer to my heart than most. I loved the first game, and I have kept a tab on everything dead space ever since (Even the novel, and the animated feature films). Recently, I also received a special code from Origin (or EA) to try out Dead-Space 3 demo exclusively. Of course the demo was released to the public soon after (1 week later), but still the fact that I was sent a special key, makes me feel that I accomplished something as a gamer.

This demo is the most impressive of the three that I am talking about here today. It offers the single and co-op mode for the same mission, and surprisingly the same mission plays out much differently when played solo as compared to playing with someone else (I played the co-op online and changed 3 partners). First and foremost, the chill is still there, from the emptiness of the Ishimura to the devastation of the 'Sprawl' to the frigid planet Tau Volantis, the team at Visceral have kept the thriller horror aspect of the game alive. Even the presence of another player does little to alay the creeping noises that you hear from time time (was it the wind, or a necromorph just crawled). So while Dead Space might have added human enemies and even cover and shoot mechanics, the core of the game at-least in the demo, still lies in classical Dead Space.

There is also a Workbench mode provided in the demo, where you can try out crafting your weapons using some stuff already provided, and then try out the weapon in a controlled necromorph wave. The mode quite frankly can be a little over-whelming, and initially I had no idea what I was doing, adding stuff hap-hazardly until I could add no more. The gun that I came up with wasn't really impressive, but I am sure someone out there, with more brains than I has already come up with something unique.

Crysis 3:

Crytek are the second company in the world that actually create a new engine for their game every time (the first is iD software) and do a good job of it. And boy does the Cry Engine 3 look gorgeous. The marshes, the weeds, the smog, the broken buildings, I played for about 2 hours straight and landed up in the most awkward of corners, but never did the textures look like textures, they were all rendered as what they were supposed to be (mud, wall or wreckage).

The demo differs in the way that it only offers 2 multiplayer modes to the player (no single player, not even a tutorial); never explaining you the nuances of the game, leaving you to learn on the fly (it helps that it's control scheme follows other shooters though). The 2 modes are Crash-site (a spin off on Capture the Flag) and Hunter (where 1 team of 'Hunters' need to kill off the other team of 'C.E.L.L. operatives' in a given time). I believe that modern day multiplayer is not my thing, there is too much camouflage and too many ways to kill, but I gave it a try anyways. As was expected I sucked big time, still I leveled up-to 4 before I gave in for the night.

It was the only demo, in which I actually faced glitches. Twice I was frozen (and had to quit the session) and once the world around me just collapsed into blue and purple geometric figures (had to quit the session again), but I would put these down to Open-Beta and multiplayer glitches, which should be ironed out, once the game comes out in March this year.

Fable 3: A game for the in betweeners

First up a big thanks to all the surfers who made January a massive month for my blog. In the past seven months my site had just about 1000 visitors, all this was changed as the blog garnered an unprecedented 1600+ hits this month alone. I am over the moon, and really appreciate that both Google and people are taking my posts seriously. Now only if people would start commenting also, and this would be a dream come true.

Moving onto the business at hand, which today is Fable 3. I had never played Fable before, but ever since the first game out in 2004, I always wanted to try this new kind of R.P.G. (and for some reason I loved the name). Sadly however, as is the case with many of the games during that time, I neither had the proper system to run it nor the console to play it on. 7 years later and here I am finally able to put Fable 3 into my X-Box disc tray. It's been a long time coming, so how was it?

Fable 3 came out in 2010, so this review is almost 3 years late. But the fact that the game is still available for a dirt cheap price (along with many others), I guess letting the people know how good it is, make sense right!

The story of Fable 3 continues as Albion enters the Industrial Age, and follows the lives of Fable 2's hero 2 children. The older one is a ruler and is quickly turning into a dictator. The first part of the game is how you build up your forces against your brother and overthrow him as king/queen of Albion. The second is how you rule as a ruler yourself, and whether you decide to follow in your brother's footsteps or become a benevolent ruler. Straightforward with minimal twist, the story is both threadbare and enough to keep you going. Especially the part where you get to make decisions as a king is quite novel, and you hope that the game had more of that.

Story- 7/10

When I played the game for the first time, it gave me signs of a game meant for kids, or at max childish teenagers. The hero rarely speaks, and expressions such as hugging, dancing, tickling along with bullying, farting and beating people replace actual conversations (a part and parcel of R.P.Gs worldwide). Even the conversations that do happen are straightforward and quite understandable, giving you the impression that the game means to convey its message as clearly as possible with as less dialogue as possible. The violence too is quite clean and the tech/skill-tree is easy to understand and upgrade. The visual model, and even the script is written in a very kid friendly manner, and nothing rarely goes edgy in the game. You actually hold the hands of people you like or to get them somewhere (puppy love at its best). The sounds, the visuals, the complete design is harmonious and smooth, inciting a happy go luck feel to the entire game.

Graphics+Sound- 7/10

All that is fine and dandy, but for condoms, the concept of sex, marriage and infidelity, and a particularly dark tone in later levels (especially during the quest 'Into The darkness'). There is sex, but the actual act is a black screen with noises. You have werewolves and dark shadows which are a far-cry from the initial bats and witty spirits that you have to fight off initially. There is a real edgy and dark quest, suddenly in the middle of the game (after you have played through the sunshine and rainbow quests before) and then its back to that "go there, get that, fancy little prince" affair.This leaves you wondering whether the game is to be enjoyed as a childish or adult comedy.

Mojo- 4/10

There are few innovations here. The game rarely takes you to a pause menu. Instead pressing 'START' takes you to 'Sanctuary' which is a room catering to your gaming needs (like changing weapons, costumes etc.). Most of the menus are represented as galleries and there is very little actual pause. There is also no Quit button, and you actually have to quit directly out to the X-box dashboard (which put me off a bit, I actually searched on the net if there was an option I was overlooking). The map while sucks at navigation, is a nice little tool for managing your finances and fast-travel. Your dog, is another innovative addition, tagging along everywhere and helping you locate treasures and other buried objects. There is also a selective mapping to your d-pad, which can act as a quick key to either the map, the 'road to rule', and your spouse's home, depending on the situation.

In the vein of making the game streamlined the combat is mapped to the 3 face buttons, and the combat is never that hard (you can easily complete a game without ever being knocked down). Range weapon and spell casting works fine, while adjusting to Melee block and attack (mapped onto the same button) can take some time. There are an adequate number of side quests and plenty to keep you involved. Play a flute, bake a pie, catch a thief, woo a girl/guy, or manage real estate. It is an surprising mixture of the conventional and the new, and while some work, the others not really.

Gameplay- 6/10

The game has some really novel and new concepts to show. It also has a very streamlined feel to its R.P.G. element. However, it really falters in its vision. In order to appeal to everyone and have everything, it is failing to cater to one age group. Most parents would not like their child to play a game, which encourages polygamy, while most adult gamers would be put off by all the other stuff meant for kids (even the sex and condom thing is really mild).

KABELLED SCORE- 6/10