Games

Supreme Commander 2

I've been playing quite a bit of this multiplayer with a friend this week. We used to play it quite a bit, but recently we haven't played it very much. As a massive fan of RTS's in general love the series and the series this game is based on, Total Annihilation. I do however think that this sequel is a bit of a step backwards from the first game. As it's lost a lot of depth in a move to be more streamlined and easy for new comers. It's still a very good game.

I don't have much else to say really so I'll wrap it here.

Check out some of my videos on youtube here.

Music!

I had a refreshing week listening to more rock music.

Rammstein - Du hast

Echo Movement - Maybe Something's Wrong With Me

Arch Enemy - No Gods, No Masters

Slipknot - Before I Forget

The Berzerker - All The Things She Said

Games...

So games huh... well I really don't have much to write on games this week. I've only really spent a bit of time playing some online games with a few friends on Medal of Honor and a little bit of Dawn of War 2. Other than that I've spent some time playing around with some other mods in Skyrim and finishing off a few quests here and there, but I've written quite a bit on that game already. So I'll round it up here.

Sorry this is a bit of a cop out blog this week, but I'll hopefully have a bit more to say in my next blog.

Here are some silly screenshots for your amusement.

Music!

The 69 Eyes - Wasting The Dawn

Five Finger Death Punch - Bad Company

Akira The Don - Be Brave

Games!

Skyrim

So I finally got around to finishing the main quest after spending so long just messing around. The story is very good, something Bethesda is very good. I also thought it suffered from a flaw that has cropped up in the past with Bethesda game and that is it ends abruptly. I thought the story was going to be quite a bit longer and have more twists and turns and a little more depth.

So you maybe wondering why I gave this game a 9, with it's short generic story. It's because it does the game part so well, the world is another great example that Bethesda make probably the best sandboxes. Just the amount to do and see boggles the mind and the fact that the modding community has always been huge around the Elder Scrolls games adds endless possibilities. I spent hundreds of hours with Oblivion adding new fan made content and I can see myself doing the same with Skyrim. I've already got over 50 mods installed that add new weapons, enemies, animals, and generally tweak the game so it looks better. This is really a must buy game if you're a PC player.

I made some videos of me playing around in Skyrim, mainly doing silly things.

Music!

I listen to metal all the time but I haven't been putting as much in my blogs. So here's some ;)

Turisas - Stand Up And Fight

So the Kara tech demo reminded me of this song so I've decided to put it in here.

VNV Nation - Illusion (Doll face)

Some epic music.

Les Friction (Es Posthumus) - Louder Than Words

I'll end on this chilled out tune.

DotEXE - Run Away From Me (Ephixa Chilled Remix)

Games!

Space Marine

So after a few weeks of playing games I would normally over look I've gotten back to my ever growing to play list. This is a game I've been looking forwards to playing for quite some time too. I really wasn't sure how this was going to go down, from what I know, this is the first time Relic have moved away from RTS to do something else.

Even though this game is mainly murdering wave after wave of aliens, with short breaks to fight a boss here and there, the game play is really good. It's a nice mix of third person shooter and hack n' slash fun. The story is a little bland and the ending is a bit weak but the combat makes up for this. You don't even really have to be a fan of the Games Workshop universe to get enjoyment out of this and it's a must buy if you're a fan.

The multiplayer is also quite good. Offering a nice range of competitive modes, a really fun co-operative wave based mode and the unlock system does give a reason to stick with it.

Music!

Lindsey Stirling - Crystallize

Moi dix Mois - Night Breed

The GazettE - The Suicide Circus

Games!

Star Trek Online

So I haven't really been playing much other this week so I'm gonna keep this blog short. I've now reached the end game stage and there's not much else to really do. I'm basically gathering up top tier sets, weapons and other gear and doing raids. It's quite hard to find really good teams to do stuff like STF Elite, so I might have a look into joining a fleet or maybe time to start on one of the many games I have in my to play list haha. Either way I've had a good time with this game.

Music!

This fairly sums up my last friday night.

The Poxy Boggards - Drink 'til I Die

Emilie Autumn - Dead is the new alive (Dopestars Remix)

Infected Mushroom - Herbert the Pervert

Infected Mushroom - Illuminaughty

Akira The Don - Back In The Day

I really enjoy horror games, books and films. It's possibly my favorite genera. That or Sci-Fi. The thing is I'm quite desensitized to horror in general, I will quite happily watch and play horror films and games without even thinking that it's meant to be scary. There was one game in the last few years that managed to creep me out to the point I had to stop playing and take a break before continuing. Possibly one of the scariest games ever made. So I was happy to find out they are making another and it's coming out this year.

Next Frictional Game

Games!

Katawa Shoujo

I'm going to say this right away, while I have played quite a few interactive visual novels in the past, this is my first dating sim ever. I was recommended this by a friend, but because of the name Katawa Shoujo that means Disability Girls and as it was made by 4 Leaf Studios a team from 4 chan (why does that censor as one word?), I really didn't know what I was letting myself in for. I was really surprised. The story is is very tasteful and really well written, the art work and visual effects are really well done and the sound track makes the game very moving. I feel I should get this out of the way, the game does have some adult content but it's fairly tasteful and if you're not keen on seeing it then you can always turn it off in the options.

The story is probably the main reason to play this, it follow the character Hisao Nakai after his arrhythmia causes him to have a heart attack and his life takes and unexpected turn. The game basically allows you to make choices that will lead you down different routes with a number of the other major characters, each of these routes has a number of endings. I have only finished one of these routes and it'll take you a good amount of time to get through the game. I followed Lilly's route and in the end got ended up with a "neutral" ending, which at rally didn't feel very neutral. It felt like of a "Grave of the Fireflies" moment really. I'm guessing the bad endings are going to be even more heart wrenching, if that was meant to be neutral.

While I couldn't recommend this game to everyone, I know that the type of game play, the context of the story and some of the content aren't every ones cup of tea. I would say it's worth playing. I also think people should look past the fact it's a dating sim and has some adult content because this is far far more than that. I could easily recommend this to anyone that was a fan of last years "To the Moon" or anyone just wanting a really good story.

Music!

After all that I think it's time to change the mood a bit.

Crematory - Revolution

Skinny Puppy - Hexonexxon

Skinny Puppy - Pro-Test

Apocalyptica feat. Till Lindemann - HELDEN

Games!

Skyrim

I've been playing a few things this week, but I'm goon keep it short. So yes I haven't put much about this game in my blogs, I have been playing it. You don't seem to be able to go anywhere on the Internet without coming across a reference or a joke about this game. I really do like it, but it isn't with out flaws. One of the big ones for me was to do with some of the graphics and how in places (looking at anything to closely mainly) in my opinion a modded version of Oblivion can look better. Me and a friend where joking about this, so I booted up Oblivion and I had forgotten how good that game actually looks with a few mods on it. The main thing that held Skyrim back was the low quality textures. Luckily the a official texture pack has just come out. This intently transformed the game and I no longer have to worry about spending to long or looking to closely at the nice wall engravings ect.

Above is screenshot of the new textures, though you might want to view the full sized image to get a closer look. Below are the old textures at the the kind of distance you'd have to be at before they became noticeably bad.

Well this was a little longer than expected :)

Music!

Yes the music is back!

Some chilled out music my friend was listening to that I thought was quite cool. I also really like the video.

Shadows- Lindsey Stirling

She also does some game music :)

Zelda Medley- Lindsey Stirling

I'm gonna keep this one short, I'm quite busy on a project atm.

Games!

Nuclear Dawn

Okay I've been playing a bit of the new beta map on my favourite servers, it's much bigger than the other maps in the game and while it still has quite a few bugs, promises to be a good change of scenery. It's has lots of open area and makes it really good sniping map, and it's rather bright making it hard to keep the assaults thermal vision on and maintain a good idea of where you are, this is really good for the stealth players out there. As I said it does have a number of bugs and from what I've heard, the developers are also going to add a lot more capture points to it but hey this is what the beta's for.

I'm going to have to cut this short, sorry there's no music section this week I really haven't had much time. Maybe you could recommend some stuff to listen to.

I will post a like to something I though was rather cool though :)

SoulCalibur V Graffiti Time-lapse Video

So you may have been wondering where my blog about Nuclear Dawn was last week, and I'm sorry you'll have to wait for that. The last couple of weeks I've poured most of my spare time into one game, except the day my power supply finally failed on my gaming rig.

It's done me well these last 5 years and we've seen many, many hours of gaming and other entertainment but I knew the day would come, when my 600w StelthxStream gave up the ghost.

So I've downgraded a little to a 500w, which still has plenty of power and the 80+ rating should mean it's a bit more environmentally friendly choice. It seems a really well biult peice of kit and I should really give the guys at ebuyer a shout out getting it out to me in about under 24 hours.

Games!

Right on to the games, well game.

Star Trek Online

You may remember this game coming out and reading or watching the mediocre reviews on how it really didn't have enough content, that the ground missions where poor and that it was just to easy. Anyone who knows me well, knows I'm not really an MMO person, I just have something against paying monthly subscriptions. Well this game just went free to play last week and while some of the original flaws are still kinda there, they've really expanded on the game now so it's now probably one of the best free to play titles available and hey it's free.

The game now has 2 races (Federation and Klingon's) and 6 quite long campaigns, along side fleets (guilds/clans), crafting, mini-games, global events and raid like fleet actions, this means there's always something to do. The ground missions are not the games best feature, as some of them can be rather boring and the combat while it isn't terrible, it's also not amazing but. The space combat and missions are really fun, especially the huge fleet battles which can have you and up to 24 other players fighting hundreds of a.i. ships.

The game is still quite easy and you'll quickly hit the level 50 cap following the campaigns, but they have added in harder fleet action quests that give out rare loot, so when you hit the cap the game doesn't just stop and it there's always PVP which with the large amount of in game customisation for gear, skills and ship set ups really comes into it's own.

Oh did I say it's also free and while there's a in game store to buy boosters, pets and to customize the look of character or ship all the in game content can be got for free even the store items by playing the game and trading one of the in game currency's (Dilithium) with other players for the real money in game currency (Crytic-points) through the in game exchange. So yeah go play it.

(screenshots to come)

Music!

Blue Stahli - Burning Bridges

Blue Stahli- The Pure and the Tainted [Extended Version]

Malufenix - Age of Aggression (Skyrim Cover)

Tommy Robin - Samurai Rock-Off

Asking Alexandria-A Lesson Never Learned (Celldweller remix)

If you haven't watched DBZA, I recomend you go watch it!

TFS Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Ghost Nappa