Left 4 Dead Survival Mode

Hey guys, Mark here and today I shall be reviewing Left 4 Dead's new DLC. The best thing is that valve love us so much that we get it free. Now before you ask about the picture, I couldn't find any of the DLC but I'll look while I do the review just in case there are more =D

Basically the DLC is a new mode called survival where you must hold out for as long as you can with limited supplies against a never ending horde. This also contains all the special infected so expect a lot of teamwork protecting and being saved from the clutches of Hunters, Smokers and the general infected. The DLC has about 16 maps (can't say I've counted though) and most are sections from the campaign. There is also a "Last Stand" map where the players are in a lighthouse.

This mode is very addictive as you will often find yourself trying to beat your previous score, and it is really good to play with friends as well and tactics play a key role, for example you need to place fuel tanks where the zombies will be, and organize ammo runs when its hopefully safe. It can also be funny when the Tank spawns with his zombie buddies and beats the living hell outta your buddies.

Overall for free DLC the survival pack is a definite must have for any left 4 dead owner because it is different to the versus, and campaigns once you've done them, and is something different to play. It is great with the AI and with friends. Although I must say at time the AI can be very annoying. For example I had killed a lot of the zombies, then I slipped and fell off the roof (I needed a buddy to pull me up) and along comes Bill, who looks at me, helps me up then drops me and leaves me to get killed by the horde when he could have saved me. Damn it Bill!

Second Opinion

Yo guys its Josh! Not so long ago I went over to Marks and we played the Left 4 Dead survival DLC with are friend Bill via Xbox Live. Although your fellow survivors AI isn't up to much if you're playing with friends it can be a laugh watching the zombies mugging your AI companions. The best way to describe the DLC is to refer to the well known flash game Boxheads. Basically its you against a horde of never-ending zombies wanting your brains. Its important however to prepare booby traps for the zombies so you can set them on fire and what not. Although this will only give you a few extra seconds. The key to success is to find a place to camp that's near supplies but make sure the zombies can only get to from one area and be prepared. Unlike Mark and Bill when they camped in a room and the 50 odd zombies fell on them from the air duct! Stuff like that makes Valve games brilliant!

Picture From Sarcasticgamer.com

Killzone 2 Singleplayer Review

Killzone 2’s story is nothing spectacular. Lets get that right out in the open. After the Helghast attacked a human colony, the ISA [Read: USA] ( The Humans) strike back with an all out attack force on the Helghast home world, the appropriately named Helghan. Execution of the script however is fantastic all round, with some brilliant cutscene’s and scripted events that really make you go ‘wow’. The voice-work is also rather good, but hilariously bad at times. Every Helghast soldier appears to have a cockney accent, as though they’ve been pulled right out of Oliver Twist.

The games AI is excellent. Helghast troops try there hardest to flank you at all times. The amount of times I’ve been shot in the back by some cheeky helghast that sneaked around my back end is uncountable. I wish the same could be said for your Allie’s AI though. At times it can be just as good as the mentioned Helghast, but at times they just seem to refuse to co-operate and just sit and wait till you clear out the enemies. (Then have the face to say ‘yeah we kicked their ass!’)

Killzone 2’s level design is pretty top-notch. Although strictly linear, (think Gears 2 or Call of Duty) There are big open environments for you to kick some ass in. Each level has a distinctive feel to it. The ISA High-Command ship feels clean and futuristic, whereas the Seluja Village is full of sand and feels very old and run down. The Helghan capital itself is very bleak and dark. (Common in a FPS, I know I know...)

Graphically, this game most likely has the best graphics ever seen. (Perhaps Crysis does on max-graphics). With some very life like environments and fantastic lighting. Letting the graphics side down though is some surprisingly low textures in areas, and some very dodgy looking shadows, which I mainly noticed in the first level when I was going through for a second try. Overall though the graphics are the best I personally have ever seen. This is the game you show to a friend who has never seen a video game before.

There are quite a few weapons in the game to play around with. The ISA have the superior weapons, as they have the better technology (which shows in the guns.)the poor Helghast have a crappy excuse for an Iron-sight in there machine guns, whereas the ISA have high-tech green scopes to shoot with. You can pick up some nasty (in a good way) weapons, though. Such as the Bolt-Gun which sends helghast flying when they are hit, and the Electricty Gun, which, as you would expect, electrocutes them. One disappointment though is the Flame Thrower. It feels very weak and acts like a weird looking super-soaker. It feels more like water than fire.

Motion controls (Remember, the PS3 does have tacked-on motion controllers in the Sixaxis!) also feature in the game. They are so infrequent to be a nuisance and barely feature in the game at all. They appear when (only in singleplayer) when you plant a bomb or pick up a sniper rifle (this appears in multiplayer though), if you move your controller around your aim goes all wiggly.

Vehicle sections also pop up every so often in the game also. These are so infrequent as well that they offer something fresh, new and exciting – unlike the usual dreaded vehicle sections in games (I'm looking at you Gears 2). Driving a tank, or a mech-suit in one of the later level’s actually proves to be really fun!

Boss battles barely feature in Killzone 2 as well. You can get some mid-level ‘bosses’, but these are generally big guys in suits with tanks on their back which might as well have a big “SHOOT HERE” sign attached to them. The only ‘real’ boss fight takes place at the end of the game. It’s a bit of a let-down, but I wont spoil it here for people that have not got that far yet.

Closing Comments:
Taking into account the singleplayer and Multiplayer this game is a definite must buy if your a PS3 owner. I would also consider it something that could tease you into buying a PS3. (it did with me!) The graphics, gameplay, multiplayer are all fantastic and worth your money.

Rating: A*

Note: to all you off-line PS3 gamers, there’s also a handy multiplayer mode for offline people. It plays exactly the same as online, but against bots. These bots handle pretty well and will no doubt provide hours of fun.

Pics taken from: http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=4690&article_id=79292#anchor

Teh Gaming News Episode 6

Hey guys!

First I would like to introduce you to the new editor of the site, Jacob. He shall be editing stuff and keeping the site in tip top condition. He has also got some wallpapers up for the ones who haven't noticed yet and there pretty awesome too! So get 'em on ya desktop and feel proud your a fan of Triforce Games! Now to what this article is all about.... Gaming News!

New Dead Rising 2 video!

Capcom can't help but put chainsaws in all there games involving zombies. Resident 4 got Dr. Salvador (or the guy with a bag on his head welding a chainsaw!). Dead Rising got a mad clown called Adam who chased you with dual chainsaws and balloons. Resident Evil 5 had Dr. Salvador's African cousin chasing you down and Dead Rising 2 has... A motor bike with chainsaws on. A stick with two chainsaws of either side. Capcom pulled out all the stops to add more chainsaw carnage! The game itself shows us the new hero of the story (Chuck Greene)... Killing zombies. The graphics seem better than the original too (but what is shown might not use the in game engine although it looks like it probably does) and with the rock music in the background it makes a good watch for those zombie slaying fans.

Lost Planet 2 Demo

Lost Planet 2 was announced not so long ago and a public demo is heading our way shortly! For those who didn't know the game is being produced by the same guy as Resident Evil 5 so fingers crossed this games gonna be a winner too.

Fable 2 DLC

Fable 2: See Into the future is the new downloadable content coming to Fable 2... Soon. You'll find out more out Theresa, be able to command enemies, change your dogs breed and explore new areas of Albion. There will be 12 more achievements too that can bump ya gamer score up by 250! It will apparently give us an in sight on what Fable 3 will be like... Fingers crossed it will involve more puzzle elements.

DSi

The DSi has finally hit and made a impact on the market. For all you who are behind it has a camera, ability to play music and download games through the DS Ware. Oh and surf the net. Not only that but the menu screen has had a new lick of paint and basically is a better looking console. If you still yet to own a DS of some sort nows ya chance!

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles

With Dead Space Extinction, House of the Dead Overkill and now this for the Wii, I am sure your Zapper will finally get some use. The new Resident Evil game is an exclusive for the Wii and is based on Leon S Kennedy and Claire Redfield as they try and escape Raccoon City (In other words Resident Evil 2). The graphics look great and seems to be one better from Umbrella Chronicles (which me and Mark had a great time playing!).

Gaming Diary = Success!

I myself have really enjoyed doing this over the half term and I am sure I shall carry on the feature when I want to write about games I haven't quite finished enough to review. So keep an eye out for them in the future!

Shameless Plug

Yep, besides from playing video games and managing Triforce Games blog me and Callum our on C21 Web Radio from 7 till 8 every two weeks. You can find us at www.c21webradio.com. So please drop on by and give us a listen! Oh by the way its a rock show so you know when your listening to us when... Well loads of rock and the likes playing. X D

That's all from Teh Gaming News for now!

Signing off,

The Triforce Fighter

Bully - Scholarship Edition

Ta Da.... Yes it is me, Callum and the other week I actually bothered to go outside and buy Bully. I had this game for the Playstation 2, I thought I was great and when this game came out it was on my to get list for a while. So I gathered what money I had went to my local game store and got the game. For those of you familiar with the game you will know the storyline. Basically boy's mother gets married, boy's mother goes on honey moon and dumps boy in a terrible school, boy takes over school. Yeah it's that simple. You basically go running around doing missions to try and win the trust of the different factions of the school. The Nerds, The Jocks, he Greasers, the Preps and the Bullies. Each of the missions give you respect for each of the factions either a negative response or a positive, which leads to you taking over the school. There are also fun mini-games like the lessons you have to go to, they give you clothes or abilities. If you are really bad and you hit too many people and get caught every time you do something bad you get... A detention. Which normally consists of you cutting grass with a ride on a lawn mower. Yes a ride on a lawn mower. If you think that's cool, you can get a moped, bikes and even a go-kart.

Now the graphics i love, the controls for the Wii i love and i just love this game. It is a great buy if you haven't bought it yet it is well worth it. 11 quid or something like that on play.com. So anyway back to the game not play.com, the artwork of this game looks like it has been done by a 12 year old but i love it really, let me give you an example... You know when you're 12, you can't draw hands and you kinda draw them like shovels... That's what they look like, it's amazing really. The controls are pretty interactive as well by swinging the nunchuck and Wii remote like fists to beat up people, what more could you wish for.

Now in my opinion i would give it an A* but it is extremely short. I finished it in a week and i still haven't finished Mario Kart so yeah. With that in account i would give this game a well earned,

A

Second Opinion

As soon as my good friend Callum had finished Bully I borrowed it of him. It has been a game I wanted to play for sometime and thanks to Rebel FM (a brilliant gaming podcast from some of the ex 1Up team) for doing 5 or 6 podcasts about it in there Gaming Club specials I decided to find it. The graphics is of GTA 3, if you've played you will no what I mean. Gritty cel-shaded graphics. Now take some of the gritty-ness out and that's Bully. To put it in a nutshell, it's GTA in a school but with a storyline that is more than 'kill people and take the city over'. Well it feels more than just that because you can actually sympathise with the character! James (or Jimmy to his friends) IS human. Not a psychopath. Something I love about this game. If you're younger than 18 and thirsty for sand box action pick this up. Its on PS2, 360, Wii and PC so you should be able to get it. If you are over 18 you may find this a nice change to the normal GTA affair. In other words a great game!

Picture from: http://www.8bithero.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/bully_scholar.jpg

Introductory Post and Some Wallpapers

Hello. I'm Jacob and i'm the new editor and graphics designer for Triforce Games. I'm pretty much in charge of making the blog look good.
I may be posting some wallpapers from time to time. I mainly make them in 1680 x 1050 resolution, because most of the time I have found it can be shrunk down to pretty much any other resolution without losing the quality or making it stretched. I'm new to making wallpapers so i'm starting off with some basic ones:

Click image for full size view.

Enjoy!

Resident Evil 5 Review

Hey guys, sorry for the late review (I've had a lot of stuff to do recently). But anyone who knows me would know that I love the Resident Evil series, and so I naturally got Resident evil 5. I also got the DLC and will be reviewing that as well.

In RE5 you play as Chris Redfield (Resident evil 1, Code veronica) and his new partner Sheva. That's right, there are two playable characters which makes the gaming experience much more enjoyable. They are sent to Africa. You soon find yourself fighting for your life though against infected Majini (the townspeople) The game plays very similar to Resident Evil 4 and the controls work very well on the 360 controller. I've heard some people complaining about the "Stop and Shoot" mechanic but frankly I love it, its what makes the game Resident evil, it's like Metroid without the morph ball (Weird analogy I know).

The game has a killer story though. It starts off very simple, find Irving, a mysterious guy who seems to run from you every time you see him (with the help of a mysterious masked character) However you soon find out much more about Chris' past (not gonna drop any spoilers) and an old foe of his returns (Resident Evil fans may know who he is) The gameplay works well, playing on your own is also fun as the AI is quite helpful but a human player is also fun. You do have to manage her ammo and guns as well though and you'll have to share your resources

The game itself is about the same length as RE4 and is split into 6 chapters. The game drops you in boss fights most of the time though, some original like U-8 (a giant spider like creation) to the... wait a minute, I swore I saw a giant boss monster in another resident evil game, and a giant fish monster...

Another good thing is that when your beat the game for the first time you unlock the 'Mercenaries' mode, which RE4 fans will be associated with I'm sure. Basically for those who don't know, you have a time limit to kill as many enemies as possible on a level, while collecting extra time, keeping combos going and trying to avoid or kill the boss monster in the level. It is very fun and now you can also play with Online Co-op with a friend and by beating levels you can unlock more and extra characters (10 total).

There is also Verses mode DLC out now for 400 Microsoft points (about £4.50) and the strange thing is that the mode download is only a couple of Megabytes big... almost as in the mode was already on the disc and you needed to unlock it...very strange eh? The mode itself is very enjoyable and it can be very fun fighting other people around the world and can really build up an adrenaline rush.

Anyway I could go on for ages about this game but I'm gonna stop now, It has a good story, mechanics, graphics and is very good, the only real downside is that some ideas seem just like RE4 and anyone who plays both games would probably agree with me.

Rating: A*

Pictures from cache.gawker.com

Gaming Diary: Mega Man 9

Hi Guys,

Right now I am sitting in my room with a Mega Man 9 guide trying to helplessly defeat the game. (It's Mark and Josh by the way) Josh downloaded it from the XBLA and I must say it is a pretty hardcore game. If you haven't noticed as this is a joint article I have made what I have got to say in bold and Mark in normal. To be honest I'll likely do more typing seeing as Mark is better than me!

Right now we just defeated Galaxy Man. When I say we, I mean Mark. I tried but epic-ally failed. I am quite good at platformers but this is a whole new level of hard....ness. I knew what to expect because I had got myself Mega Man 2 on the Wii Shop thing.

I have to say though this game is harder than any retro game I've played in a very long time, I must say as well it is very much like the early Mega Man games. The story is rather simple. Basically Dr. Wily has once again begged forgiveness, but then Dr.Lights' robots go mad and start creating havoc. Dr.Wily quickly comes out to say that he isn't involved in this plan saying that he has turned a new leaf. Megaman then goes out to clear Dr.Lights' name and defeat Dr.Wily once and for all (Well until Capcom feel a bit retro and make Mega Man 10).

This game is can be fast paced or slow, it all really depends on what your playing style is in games like this. The gameplay is simple, there are eight "Robot Masters" and you pick which one to attempt to battle, you then play through a side scrolling level shooting the evil robots. Or something that looks like a giant meatball. Well on Jewel Man's level anyway. I really think Capcom were quite creative with their enemy designs as well, I mean earlier on I found myself fighting a blue elephant that blew a giant pink ball at me... It was scary.

In this game you can also shop in between levels with the "Screws" you have collected (your sister is the shopkeeper by the way, you think she'd be a bit more generous in a situation where evil robots are attacking). What gets me is that you can only use you items once... Only once and they cost the Earth too. This game has NES 8-bit style graphics but was never actually released on the NES and its available for all three major consoles. And for all you guys saying gaming is getting easier then I think this game officially proves that not all of them are!

That's all we have to say about Mega Man 9 for now! Stayed tuned for are next update on what us guys are playing in Gaming Diary!

Signing out, Josh and Mark!

pictures from: http://saitonetwork.files.wordpress.com

Gaming Diary : I finally caved in (World of Warcraft)

Our fellow banner maker Jacob has forever nagged at me to try World of Warcraft and every time I just couldn't see the point of playing it. Why play that when I could play Final Fantasy? I mean they both have big ass swords, stupid names, monsters and some evil bad guy hell bent on taking the world over. Only difference I can tell instead of NPC's repeating there lines over and over you get n00bs asking for gear and whatnot.

I was actually surprised when I started playing. No one hassling level 80's for stuff! The only other MMO I played before in depth was Runescape and I can tell you there was a lot of that. Anyway, my character is a human warrior called Luneth or something like that. It was a name from Final Fantasy 3 which I had fused with another name from Final Fantasy 3. I did first jump to my Warhammer 40k rule book to find a name, but they were to 'spacey' for my liking.

So I was doing a few quests. Kill 10 wolfs that sort of thing. When I was tasked with visiting a inn. Sounds easy right? And it was really but during the 2 minute walk from the gates of the Abbey to Goldshire (I think that's the place) I realized how you never know what might happen in this game. I had been reading the pop ups saying how Goldshire is under attack and Level 80's were needed but you know it didn't register till I actually got there.

I knew something was up when I noticed so many skeletons surrounding the place. I asked the guard where the inn was. He happily told me to just keep following the road. I looked in front of me and there were big monster things everywhere! I couldn't work who was Alliance or Horde all I knew is that it was scary. I think I stood in the middle of this all perplexed for about two minutes until I realized I should really find cover. I ran into the first house I found and lo and behold it was the inn! I got some pumpkins and felt rather chuffed. I thought to myself 'This WoW thing isn't that hard!'

It went down hill from there on. After that I died so many times I lost count, got chased out of a mine repeatedly by tunneling monster things, got lost in a wood full of thugs and BIG bears then finally to cap it all off when I was looking for cover in the forest I found a hut. I went inside thinking 'yeah, I'll eat a pumpkin and be on my way' when I turn around I am trapped inside by 3 thugs and something which looked remarkably like a Gretching from Warhammer 40K. I was like ' What the -' and died....... Again. It got to a point where I gave up finding my dead body because every time I spawned, I died!

I might give it a go again tomorrow..... Wish me luck!

Gaming Diary: Intro

Hello guys, I am off from school for the next two weeks, so I thought I shall make a feature which includes me, talking about what games I have been playing over the time I'm off and what I think about them. I am likely to rant here and there but you know! There won't be a said structure for this feature and I'll just do it when I feel the need.

So keep an eye out over the coming two weeks!

Killzone 2 Multiplayer Review

Killzone 2 has practically everything. Good gameplay, Excellent graphics, (i personally cannot comment on the story itself – as I have not finished the single player, or played Killzone 1) and just overall fun. But what about the included Online Multiplayer?
Well, it rocks to. I’ve gotten to the highest online rank available (General – 3 stars), so I’ve played a fair few amount of online matches.

Rather than just having one class and unlockable weapons, A total of 6 classes have been introduced. The Rifleman, with the machine gun. The Medic with the ability to heal comrades and bring them back to life. The engineer whom can build turrets and fix ammo and weapon placements around the many maps. The solider, who uses a rocket launcher/grenade launcher, and also has the most health and ability to sprint (Which is a bit unfair in my opinion.). The Tactician, who can set up spawn points and call in air support. The Saboteur, whom can disguise as an enemy team member and place C4. And finally, the Scout (my personal favourite) who is the only class that can use the sniper rifle, and can cloak to become invisible (the more you move, the more visible you become), and pinpoint enemies on the radar. (This is sounding a bit like Team Fortress 2!)

The thing that's really cool about the class system is the ability to combine classes. You unlock the second ablitiy of each class by fulfilling certain objectives (e.g. 10 kills with sniper rifle in 8 matches to unlock the ability to pinpoint enemies on radar) and then mix and match them with other classes. Want a medic that can plant C4 and call in air support? Then you can!

Now the maps, a staple of any good online multiplayer game. These can kill the game, or make it something special. Luckily, the maps in Killzone 2 are good overall, apart from a few dodgy ones. The maps themselves are pretty large. Now im sure you’ll be asking yourself – how can i spot people halfway across a huge map? Well Guerrilla thought of this, and its easy to see people (although not TOO easy), as Helghast players have red eye’s on their helmets, and ISA members have blue glowing patches on their head, and elbows.

The multiplayer modes are just like Call of Duty, with Bodycount (team deathmatch), Capture the Flag and Headquarter style matches. One thing that is really interesting is the on-the-fly matches. You can be in a match playing Headquarters, then suddenly the objective will change to assassination, in which you have to kill a particular member of the enemy team. These on-the-fly matches keep things new and fresh.

Closing comments:
Overall, the Killzone 2 multiplayer is a very entertaining game, which is well worth your money if you own a PS3 and a decent internet connection. One thing that really should have been (and hopefully will be) implemented is a lobby system. You and your buddies can't all join the same match at once. One person will have to join a game, then the other friends will have to join after he has. Meaning that you will most likely end up on different teams. Hopefully Guerrilla will patch this though.

Rating: A*
(Note: A review of Killzone 2’s Singleplayer shall be up soon, when I complete it!)

Pictures taken from: http://uk.media.ps3.ign.com/media/748/748475/imgs_3.html