Entanglement - Fun for free

How about a nice relaxing puzzle game to start the day? Entanglement plays like an ancient oriental board game. Your aim is simply to match the hexaganol tiles to create the longest line possible. As you can tell from the screen shot above, it doesn’t stay simple for long. It’s beautiful, addictive and free. Check it out.

I've doubled back once. Can I go round the middle and do it again?

You create your line by placing hexagonal tiles. Each tile has a number of routes carved into it, and you can to rotate the tiles to guide your line down new paths. Here’s where it gets really addictive. You get bonus points for doubling back and sending your route through tiles you’ve previously placed. Just when you think you’ve reached a dead end, you can place a crafty U-turn that sends your red line snaking back through ten or more tiles and then – Blammo! 100 points and an enormous sense of satisfaction.

Pretty soon I realised that it’s possible to plan ahead and position the unused routes on each tile to set up a secondary path that can hopefully be used to double back later on. There’s also a backup tile that you can swap in at will. This allows you to snatch a tile with a convenient U-turn to use later on.

Yes, twice! Kapow! Massive points.

Once you’ve earned yourself a respectable score, you can upload it to the global leaderboard, which means picking suitably Zen name for yourself. While the choices may not strike fear into the heart of others, the choices match the calm feeling of the game.  Click here to play the game. Give it a whirl, and tell us your high score and Zen name in the comments.

The Walking Dead - A Big Hit

Sometimes, life seems too shiny; shiny in the sense that all of the niceties and posturing that have become part of modern everyday life are merely masks  all people are taught from birth to wear; a mask people use to cover up their true human nature. What, you ask, is the true nature of man? If you’ve taken a philosophy class at San Diego State (Which I haven't) , you’ll know true human nature rears its ugly head almost everywhere you look, from politics to war to third-world countries and low-income communities.

Yet, flaws and all, what humans have today is paradise compared to the desperate, melancholy and zombie-ridden world developer Telltale Games has masterfully created in its latest and best episodic game series. Based on the wildly popular transmedia universe, “The Walking Dead” began as a humble comic book series and has now become a three-word legend on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, you name it.

Like its past games, Telltale’s “The Walking Dead” is basically a point-and-click adventure spanning five episodes. You may be aware Telltale’s past movie-to-game adaptations, such as “Back to the Future,” received predominantly negative reviews with a common consensus that the gameplay mechanics killed the otherwise-solid story, animation and voice acting. Rest assured, however, Telltale didn’t make the same mistakes again with “The Walking Dead.”

Before getting into the game, a little background is needed to understand what’s going on (don’t worry, relatively no spoilers here, but if you want everything fresh and new, you should skip this paragraph). The player controls Lee, a convicted murderer who is literally thrust into the zombie apocalypse (hopefully, you’ll understand the reference when you play). Lee, in a fateful moment of serendipity, soon comes across an 8-year-old girl named Clementine in her backyard while searching for help. He quickly adopts her in an attempt to make amends for his crimes, a decision which drives the game’s events and choice-based story line, especially in the last few episodes.

Telltale’s choice to make “The Walking Dead” a decision-based game was an excellent one. Not only does it add replay value, but it also culminates nicely into one of the most nerve-racking, but poignantly human conversations in the last episode. All five episodes present the player with difficult choices which determine whether characters live or die. However, the first three episodes are the most powerful and emotionally taxing.

Similar to the TV show,  “The Walking Dead” video game never lets up on the dark and twisted themes central to the comic books that inspired its creation. No spoilers here, but some of the choices you’re faced with are downright disturbing. When it comes down to life or death, self-preservation becomes paramount and attracting zombies to you by making a sound to save someone else will probably not be on the top of a survivalist’s to-do list. When you get bit, there’s no cure-all shot, antidote or medicine to heal you. Instead, you die slowly and painfully, then “reanimate” as one of them. This, to me, is a very powerful theme many other games overlook without attempting to leverage the emotional turmoil of putting down a loved one who is bitten to save them from “turning” invariably produces.

One of the themes that made “The Walking Dead” comic book series so popular is its almost-flawless portrayal of the human race in its darkest hour. Again, no spoilers here, but when the game reveals the key antagonist’s motivation for harassing Lee after his death, I almost felt remorse for the decisions which led to the character’s demise. He clearly broke the insanity-border a long time ago, and yet, killing him gave no real solace to Lee or myself. Once you get to the end of episode 5, hopefully you’ll feel the same way. Because of the overwhelmingly positive fan and media reaction, Telltale has already officially announced a “second season” of “The Walking Dead” game. To add to the pomp and circumstance, the game’s first season has also been nominated for Game of the Year by several media outlets, most notably Spike’s 2012 Video Game Awards.

During my time playing and replaying, “The Walking Dead’s” gameplay remains pretty solid. Apart from a few confusing and laggy animations during fast-paced events throughout the five episodes, the point-and-click controls work well on PC, but fit comfortably on any console. In terms of environmental exploration and interaction, Telltale did a very good job with consistency, fluidity and environmental boundaries, although I don’t appreciate how Lee walks into an invisible wall when the player tries to go past a boundary. Much of what takes up game time is dialogue alone, but that was more of a pro than a con. The dialogue brought the characters to life, which made them human. Unlike “Call of Duty,” “Dead Rising” or “Resident Evil,” “The Walking Dead’s” characters aren’t indestructible juggernauts with infinite ammo and extra lives (although you can die and have to replay the specific part you failed). Not that those things aren’t fun and all, but “The Walking Dead” does so much more without those constraints common among post-apocalyptic video games and movies.

Overall, Telltale’s version of “The Walking Dead” is an absolute must-play and a probable Game of the Year winner. Out of a score of five, despite some flaws and a hard-hitting ending worthy of the comic books that spawned it, Telltale’s “The Walking Dead” earns a solid five out of five.

Black Ops 2 Campaign Review

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 provides players with three games in one: multiplayer, a single player campaign and an entire set of games revolving around zombies. Some players will eagerly tear through all three; others will just do one part of the game like the multiplayer.

To say developer Treyarch wasn’t aiming for something unique and different with Black Ops 2 would be denying them well-deserved praise; at the same time, there’s still just more of the same in the follow-up to the insanely popular Black Ops, a game which I felt had one of the strongest narrative stories in any Call of Duty game before or even since.

Unfortunately, an ongoing mystery akin to the “numbers” from the first Black Ops isn’t present in the sequel. While I figured out the ultimate mystery in Black Ops before the main character did, at least there was an attempt to have a storyline pay-off.

 The pay-off, instead, is in what ending you will get at the end of Black Ops 2 based on decisions you made earlier in the game.

The issue is, you might not always know when you’re making decisions. Sure, you probably should know right away that skipping or failing the Strike Force missions – which I abhorred every moment of – will result in a “bad” ending. But some decisions come down to you not moving fast enough through the battlefield. Fail—and the “decision” has been made and the story continues.

You can’t undo a mistake you make during the heat of battle. Fail to catch a bad guy in one mission as I did? Tough. There’s no checkpoint. Annoying? Sure. But impactful? Heck yes.

Oddly enough, you’ll even be given the choice to play as the bad guy of the game, Raul Menendez, and sure enough, decisions you make as him will impact the ending. Wait… what? Why would the bad guy make the “good” decision? It’s a bit off-putting, and while it helps see his perspective, it didn’t appear to belong with the rest of the story.

But at least Treyarch is attempting something different. While the characters that return from the previous Black Ops feel shoe-horned in – the numbers are barely mentioned in this game and the allusion to Mason killing JFK in the previous game is all but forgotten – the performances are quite strong. In particular, I enjoyed the camaraderie between the younger Mason and his best friend in the game, who’s given a fun, unique personality and gruffness by voice actor Michael Rooker.

And there’s a lot of incentive for replays—something I’ve never felt before in a Call of Duty game.

(Of course… this all makes me wonder how they could do a Black Ops 3 given the vast differences in the endings you could wind up with.)

As I mentioned, I did hate the so-called Strike Force missions where it’s more like a sandbox-style RPG and you play as soldier, robot or Overwatch—commanding the battlefield from the sky and issuing squad commands. The AI is so incredibly terrible, I usually went in as soldier to make sure the bad guys were killed or the mission objectives were accomplished. If I could have skipped these sections without impacting the ending, I probably would have.

Overall, the pacing is also a bit off with Black Ops 2. It starts with a very exciting mission, but then turns into quite a slow burn. However, the final three missions are incredibly epic, something that gets harder and harder to say the longer in the tooth that Call of Duty seems to get.

It’s a fairly long campaign—about eight or nine hours on normal. The story isn’t as strong as it was in Black Ops, but I’d still say it was easier to follow than either Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3.

Whether or not future Call of Duty games will implement the idea of branching storylines is unclear. But hopefully, the next few developers will continue to push the envelope as Treyarch did—even if they don’t succeed with every new innovation.

Medal Of Honor - Reborn

It's easy to hate Medal of Honor: Warfighter, EA's 'ultra-authentic' terrorist-hunter starring a global assortment of Tier 1 operators decked in gear so authentic they're hard to tell apart.

This is the publisher's tenth military shooter in five years, and the genre's been tapped. We've spent a generation peering down iron sights, and Warfighter doesn't change the formula: you'll follow-the-leader in sneak missions, dash from exploding bases, control drones, consult shady informants and more than a few times hop on a turret to mop up.

Nothing new, then, but ask yourself one question: is there anything inherently wrong with that?

Comparisons are often drawn between 'CoD clones' and Michael Bay's school of ADHD filmmaking, so let's run with it. Is Transformers wildly unique? Does it push boundaries? No, but it tells a decent story and had more than its fair share of explosions. Simply put, you know what you're getting. That's the ethos here - if you want fresh, play Dishonored.

Of course, since the term 'military shooter' has become almost a dirty word in some industry circles, developers Danger Close opt to justify, or perhaps divert attention from, constant killing with a little melodrama. Cutscenes in between missions detail U.S. Navy SEAL Preacher's dysfunctional relationship with his wife Lena and their daughter Bella, a relationship that is stretched each time he abandons them to join the frontlines.

Lena and Bella are less emotional anchors and more general annoyances. Let's be honest, you're here to fight, to be whisked through a shooting gallery on the end of an AK-47, told where to aim and when, and that's where the more engaging of the two conflicts lie, one set in bombed out Middle Eastern theatres rather than dreary American diners where creepy character models talk about their feelings. There's nothing wrong with a little context, but there's a lot wrong with shoehorning it in.

Fighting wars is what Warfighter does best. While not necessarily more realistic than its contemporaries, featuring knee-sliding, hip-firing and a generous dose of regenerating health, the inconsequentially of battling it out in a war zone gives the action a tone of authenticity. You're capping insurgents in unpopulated village squares, not the Oval Office.

In one memorable section, you'll infiltrate a Somali coastal village lightly smattered with a few drops of rain. The further you push, the more it pours, eventually breaking the levee and spilling out tides which lap your waist. By the level's end, you're forced to extract in a military-issued RHIB motor boat, taking turns to both shoot and drive past rocket-wielding pirates firing from rooftops which happen to be floating off down the street.

Even if on-rails vehicle sections are hardly a new conceit, it's an exhilarating sequence.

Another killer linear section involves you taking a hatchback to the packed roads of Dubai, dodging black-tinted security 4x4's who object to how you've tied up their envoy and stuffed him in the trunk. It's like EA's racer Shift in rush hour, swiping the in-cockpit impact camera and searing sense of speed to violent effect. Warfighter mostly borrows, but it should get credit for creating too. A stealth variant on the car chase sees you shaking off pursuers in a hub-like residential area while you upload a malicious file onto a network, ducking into alleys when you see approaching cars on the GPS.

It also handles tricky first-person cover brilliantly. You'll hold the left shoulder button to snap to walls and barriers, then use the left stick to lean in and out. You can do this standing, crouching or even prone - a tactical alternative to running-and-gunning. Killzone 2 did it first, but this does it better.

MEDDLESOME HONOR

What the game lacks in originality, it makes up for in functionality. Your tutorial takes place in a Pakistani-mountain-embedded terrorist training course which, in a body-swapping twist, you actually raid as a SEAL later. There are also several sections where you'll guide a rocket-firing MUSA demolitions robot via remote control. These may be isolated moments of creativity, but no-one can say Warfighter isn't solid at its foundation.

Multiplayer is no exception; it treads the line between Call of Duty's fast-paced close-quarters gunplay and Battlefield's 3 weighty heft, borrowing the latter's Frostbite 2 engine though dropping the framerate down and removing environmental destruction.

Your classes are a selection of 12 Tier 1 operators from across the globe (though, as mentioned at the start, they all look pretty much the same), whom you can kit out with guns equipped with various stocks, optics, muzzles and barrels, unlocking more as you progress.

Guns form the main incentiviser, because apart from an efficient Battlelog matchmaking system, and seen-it-all-before equipment such as C4, wire cutters and tomahawks (all more balanced than CoD's gunships and packs of dogs but nowhere near as fun to use), there's not much to keep you going.

Multiplayer is hardly broken, but it ultimately does nothing new, and while Warfighter could get away with that in the campaign, it can't in a sphere which includes a bevy of not only competent, but fantastic online shooters.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter offers no shock or revelation. There's no No Russian moment. There's no indicated trajectory where the genre as a whole is headed. But fundamentally, it works. Guns feel ferocious and enemies are satisfying to shoot (quite crucial in a shooter); memorable set-pieces break up the flow, and there's an earnest multiplayer to get involved in.

So enjoy your military shooters - they only come around a few times a year.

Farmville 2 - Just another spammer?

FarmVille 2 is the long-awaited follow-up to one of Zynga’s most consistently popular social games. Promising all-new 3D visuals, a fundamental rethinking of the farming genre’s gameplay and a specific effort to be more player-friendly, hopes are high for the new game — but does it deliver on its lofty ambitions?

Like its predecessor, FarmVille 2 casts players in the role of a custom avatar who has inherited an overgrown, abandoned farm. Through harvesting crops, caring for animals and purchasing various new items, it’s up to the player to take ownership of the farm, make it their own and make as much money as possible along the way.

So far so FarmVille — so let’s look at the differences between the two.

The first and most obvious difference is in presentation. Rather than the soulless cartoony graphics of other Zynga games, FarmVille 2 makes extensive use of 3D graphics, but deliberately keeps the models simple so the game will theoretically run well even on less powerful machines. In practice, a lot of the “3D” objects are, in fact, 2D sprites overlaid atop a basic polygonal landscape, but since it is impossible to rotate the view away from its default isometric perspective, this fact remains well-hidden to all but the most observant. The change to 3D doesn’t make a particular difference to the gameplay in and of itself, but it does give the game a distinctive aesthetic that sets it apart from its predecessor.

Another difference is in the way the player interacts with their farm. While FarmVille required players to click on everything they wanted to interact with one at a time, FarmVille 2′s “paint” system allows players to click and drag to select a whole group of, say, crops at the same time, and then the player avatar will run over and deal with them in rapid succession. There is no waiting for unnecessary progress bars to fill while actions are completed — the avatar simply hacks through crops happily and sprinkles water with gay abandon, meaning that it’s possible to get a lot done in a significantly shorter space of time than in the original. The fast pace is very much to the game’s benefit, and very reminiscent of Supercell’s Hay Day for iOS, which makes use of a similar gestural system.

Thirdly, the game has supposedly dropped the play-throttling “energy” system that has blighted most of Zynga’s games over the years. While this may initially appear to be true, it is in fact still present, just more well-disguised and marginally more player-friendly. Instead of every action costing energy, certain important actions require the use of a “water” resource. The player’s water supply gradually regenerates over time (or may be immediately topped up with hard currency) up to a hard cap — initially 30 units. This limit may be expanded by completing various building projects found in land expansions. While the “water” system is more thematically appropriate to the game, it is still clearly an energy system by another name, designed to throttle progress for non-paying players as it becomes more challenging to level up.

New social features include the ability to hire friends as farmhands, who may then be dropped on various locations around the farm to perform functions such as fertilizing crops and feeding animals. In practice, this mechanic is effectively a “reverse neighbor visit” — rather than relying on one’s friends to log in to the game and visit to help out, this allows the player to use the players they have already invited to their advantage, even if they’re not actively playing. It is, of course, also possible to go and visit friends’ farms in the usual manner, with small daily rewards on offer for players who do so. Many buildings also require friends’ cooperation to complete — or the expenditure of hard currency.

The social mechanics are supported by compatibility with Zynga’s “community” feature, meaning that it’s possible for players who are not Facebook friends with one another to play together and help each other out. The game does not, however, do a very good job of explaining how this works — clicking on one of the “add friend” buttons at the base of the screen simply brings up the usual Facebook invite dialog box.

Speaking of invitations, the game is rather pushy about posting stories to the player’s Timeline, asking them to invite friends and send free gifts. Early in the game, the player is confronted with several non-dismissable “Invite Friends” dialog boxes, and upon completing every quest, the game automatically ticks an easily-missed “Share Rewards” box that silently posts to the player’s Timeline. Even if this box is unchecked by the player once, it automatically rechecks itself with every new completed quest, making it easy for the game to build up a ton of Timeline spam without the player realizing it. Facebook’s new methods of organizing Timeline content do at least collect all these stories together into a single activity box, but in the meantime it’s possible that the game could clutter up a lot of friends’ News Feeds. Players should be able to uncheck the box by default and only share specific achievements that they would like to post, rather than the default being to share everything.

Ultimately, FarmVille 2 tries hard to take a step forward with its distinctive 3D visuals, efficient control scheme and use of interconnected systems to make the farm feel much more “realistic.” But the new title remains mired in the past by the established conventions of social gaming — progress throttling; Timeline spam; enforced “socialization” that is, in fact, not all that “social”; not-so-subtle nudges in the direction of monetization options. Zynga had the opportunity to try something truly different here; instead they have produced a game that, while a worthy sequel to one of its most popular titles, certainly isn’t going to change the minds of any social gaming skeptics.

Play

While a worthy successor to FarmVille and thus likely to enjoy a good degree of success, it’s a little disappointing to see FarmVille 2 relying on so many of social gaming’s least endearing conventions.

Bf3's After Math may have Dinosaurs?

If you are a Battlefield 3 player, there is a lot of great content to look forward to, with the next expansion pack being Armored Kill followed by the mystery Aftermath and End Game DLC packs. DICE are staying silent on what the final packs will contain, but there has been prolonged speculation that it may have something to do with a dinosaur survival mode.

The very mention of Battlefield 3 and dinosaurs shouldn’t be too alien to you, as if you have played Wake Island to death you may have already discovered that DICE has planted several toy dinosaurs in the map. If you haven’t seen them yet, you can watch the video below which shows this exactly.
Although talk of a secret dinosaur mode has been evident since Battlefield 3 first launched last year, interest in this mode has considerably picked up after the Battlefield Twitter account officially acknowledged a user question relating to dinosaurs. The reply from DICE to the user asked whether the dinosaur mode should be dinosaurs vs humans and immediately received countless retweets from fans who were excited to see DICE acknowledge this finally.
But there’s even more. DICE’s community manager replied to a follow up thread on Reddit, by saying that if fans wanted to get their points across to EA regarding a dinosaur mode – they should try to get #BF3Dinos trending on Twitter. We’re not sure if it did end up trending at one point, but doing a search for BF3Dinos certainly brings up a lot of feedback from BF3 owners who obviously want to see this become a reality.
Is it already in development though we ask, and this is just the first step in DICE’s marketing campaign to build up anticipation? We’ve read some pretty amazing clues online and it does seem to suggest that dinosaurs are coming to the game in some capacity. It was originally thought that ‘End Game’ would end up being the expansion that features dinosaurs, but now due to the unveiling of a fifth expansion pack, it is most likely to be Aftermath now.
Firstly, take a look at the official cover art for Aftermath which DICE has released. We see what appears to be a man running in the rain with a flare in his hand. There’s also possibly a car in the background and the man could be wearing a pair of goggles as well. Does this sound familiar to you?

You may not be aware of this, but a scene in the famous Jurassic Park movie shows Jeff Goldblum’s character in a very similar scenario. During the T-Rex scene shown at 1m37s below, he is seen running away from the T-Rex with a flare in his hand – there’s also a car in the background and it’s also raining.
This still may be a coincidence to some of you, but there are still a few other pieces of evidence. There’s also a dinosaur reference on Gulf of Oman which you may not have spotted yet, while BF3 gameplay designer Alan Kertz even teased fans with this picture showing two lego figures – one in a dinosaur suit and another with a gun who is wearing goggles.
All these hints are too blatent to just be a coincidence in our opinion. The flare cover art inspired by Jurassic Park seems like a dead giveaway and in the build up to Aftermath releasing, it will probably be a big surprise if we don’t see dinosaurs included.
What do you make of all these clues? Could we possibly be seeing a survival type mode, where you can jump on vehicles to escape from the charging dinosaurs? It sounds really epic and we just hope that it comes true. Don’t forget that Aftermath is due out before the end of the year. Let us know if you have any input to these theories. Presuming that dinosaurs are coming to BF3 – how would DICE be able to make it work?

Halo 4 - The Best Halo Ever?

Halo isn’t allowed to die just because Bungie and Microsoft parted ways. It’s too big, too popular, and too vital to the Xbox brand to simply fade into obscurity. And so 343 Industries was assembled, and handed the keys to one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. Its task was significant, and expectations were massive. With Halo 4, 343 has proven itself not only proficient in building a Halo game, but capable of building a better Halo franchise in a post-Bungie world.

Halo 4 paints a portrait of a much calmer universe in the years following Halo 3, letting John-117--better known to the world he saved as the Master Chief--spend his years of stasis in a half-destroyed spaceship undisturbed. Outside the Chief’s chamber, his AI companion Cortana acts as a watchdog, though not without a price: She is slowly slipping into a state called Rampancy, a fate akin to dementia that eventually befalls all AI. After four years of silence, she is forced to hesitantly wake John when the ship he’s on is scanned by a mysterious force. Before long, the Chief is involved in another galactic conflict, attempting to prevent an ancient Forerunner from unleashing his Promethean soldiers on an unsuspecting, peaceful Earth.

Halo 4’s narrative is enthralling, and much better in structure than the series’ predecessors. The characters feel multidimensional and have strong personalities, running in stark contrast to past clichéd heroes and villains. More important is Master Chief, who has had a personality overhaul of sorts to make him more than a generic intergalactic hero. Cortana’s slow deterioration has forced a personality out of him, creating the Chief everyone imagined, but wasn’t really there--the interesting, complex, and (more importantly) broken man he was always said to be. The Spartan program tore him apart and put him back together, and though he didn’t let it show in the original games, this mental scarring is deep, and has grown into fruition in Halo 4, explaining the stoic character completely.

This story is held up on the shoulders of wonderful gameplay, and a campaign that keeps things varied by traveling between interesting locations to make for varied battles. Halo’s combat has always had a certain physicality to it that makes it feel more substantial and tangible. This is something which not only exists in Halo 4, but thrives. Seeing a vehicle in the distance means you can destroy or pilot it, and firefights often take place across sprawling mountain tops or in fields. Personal, intimate encounters with foes exist, but they’re spread between massive battlegrounds where the Chief is tasked with taking on dozens of enemies in vehicles.

These encounters are the bread and butter of Halo, and though other action-packed cinematic elements have been weaved throughout the story, there’s still plenty of classic action, and it’s as good as it has ever been.

Sadly, it’s also a bit shorter than it’s ever been, clocking in at around six hours on Normal and a good deal more as the difficulty is ramped up. Length wouldn’t be an issue if the pacing didn’t also feel a little rushed, as if the campaign was attempting to get the story with as quickly as possible. Chief will often step through glowing portals and land exactly where he needs to be, which, whilepartially explained and given context, still feels like a cop-out to expedite getting from point A to point B. When you step into a portal and land in the middle of a raging battle without anyone addressing the convenience of it all, you’ll start to feel like Halo 4 has some place to be, and it isn’t with you.

The basic gameplay of Halo didn’t need much work, but 343 upgraded features where it made sense. The addition of sprinting is helpful, but you’ll likely wish it was joined by iron sights, at least for some of the awesome new guns you’ll pick up. It's not that it's necessary--far from it--but with so many other elements shifting forward it feels out of place when zooming in on a pistol changes the entire screen. Other elements where it tried to evolve, such as canned assassination animations when you melee enemies from behind, fall flat, as it puts visual flare over gameplay, since you’re still vulnerable to gunfire while Chief throws an enemy down and stabs him.

The aforementioned changes definitely makes things feel more advanced, and help the multiplayer side of Halo--which has always been among the best when it comes to online shooters--catch up with the competition. Sprinting is joined by Ordinance Drops (similar to kill streak rewards), weapon and item loadouts, and deeper customization to allow you to create the Spartan that’s right for you. These definitely help modernize the Halo experience, even if they only have it falling in line with the modern era of shooters, instead of actually speeding past them. Multiplayer has also been given context, tying into the lore that the United Nations Space Command has partially revived the Spartan project in Master Chief’s absence. All multiplayer now falls after the “Infinity” moniker, a part of the game where squads of soldiers compete in wargames to up their skill, fighting in typical Halo multiplayer battles.

The area where Halo 4 truly revolutionizes is with Spartan Ops, a new cooperative story mode that’ll be rolled out weekly following release. Spartan Ops follows a squad of Spartans as they take on different operations around the galaxy. Built for co-op play, these free mini-missions are absolutely thrilling, providing classic Halo campaign battles in an episodic, easy-to-digest nature. The idea that five new missions will be available each week for ten weeks--adding around four or five hours of gameplay a month--nearly makes up for the abridged campaign, and we’re excited to see how it changes in the months following release, providing a glimpse into what may truly be the future of gaming. Or at least the future of post-release support for a game.

While 343 builds on the world, expands on characters, and adds to the lore of the Halo universe, its greatest focus in Halo 4 was investing in Master Chief--and a wise investment it was. By doing this, 343 Industries’ Halo 4 establishes itself not as “the next” Halo game, or “another sequel,” but instead opts to be a new beginning for the franchise--one with more commitment to its characters. It’s refreshing to see the series admit its shortcomings and catch up with its contemporaries without sacrificing what makes it unique, and that’s just what Halo 4 does, creating a name for itself without relying on its popularity, and getting us excited to start, continue, and one day finish the fight all over again.

BlackOps 2 Breathes Life Into a Dying Series

Scores for this year's Call of Duty are positive, with the futuristic first-person shooter scoring over eight out of ten across most publications.

© Activision

IGN was one of the highest scoring reviews with 9.3/10, branding it "one of the best shooters of the last decade".

"The team at Treyarch could have played it safe and Black Ops II would have sold well, but instead they challenged assumptions and pushed the series forward in awesome new directions," said Anthony Gallegos.

"It'll be hard to return to a campaign where I don't have the ability to shape it, and I simply can't imagine going back to the old loadout system now that Pick 10 exists."

© Activision

Videogamer gave the game 8/10, and were highly critical of the game's campaign, but gave praise to multiplayer.

"The weak campaign is a massive disappointment, and the bizarre and disjointed execution of its signature set-piece moments are failed even further by the woeful Strike Force missions and wonky, wishy-washy attempts at player interactivity. It is, to put it simply, bad," said reviewer Martin Gaston.

"Yet the multiplayer side of the game has successfully managed to rekindle my love for Call of Duty's close-range playgrounds, and Treyarch's decision to mix an excellent selection of maps with a new bag of futuristic toys reinvigorates an experience that I was starting to tire of."

He added: "For the first time since Modern Warfare 2 I am plotting out loadouts and map strategies on the train to work.

© Activision

CVG, meanwhile, gave one of the lower scores with 7.8, saying the campaign was one of the "weaker single-player offerings" to date, yet was packed full of "unforgettable scenes" and replay value.

"While it's fashionable to rag on Call of Duty, you can't deny that the series constantly throws out a fearsomely complete package year-on-year, and Black Ops 2 is certainly no exception to that rule," said Alex Dale.

"The multiplayer component carries on the series' fine tradition, and the Zombies mode, despite its paucity of content, is an absolute riot."

Finally, Giantbomb scored the game four out of five, giving particular comment to the title's visuals and sound.

© Activision

"Visually, the game looks better than its predecessors, with the most obvious improvement showing on the faces of the people you talk to in the campaign," said Jeff Gerstmann.

"They look more lifelike than they have in the past, which helps get the game's story across. It also handles large areas quite nicely, without huge sacrifices to the frame rate."



Black Ops 2 is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and on Wii U from November 30 in Europe.

Plague Inc - Can you create the world's apocalypse?

It might be built on the DNA of the successful Flash and iOS Pandemic series, but Plague Inc. has mutated into the slickest simulation of humanity’s destruction on the App Store and Google Play.

If you can put aside your moral qualms about killing billions with a virus that makes smallpox look like a touch of the sniffles, then you’ll find Nndemic Creations’s game to be one of the most engrossing strategy titles around.

Perfect pestilence

It’s not just nasty viruses that you get to unleash upon the world - you can pick from hideous contagions ranging from humble bacteria to a smart nano-virus, with a "built in kill switch” – although they need to be unlocked or bought via in-app purchases.

Once you’ve picked your biological poison you’re taken to a bustling map of the world. Life, represented by planes and boats zipping across the screen, will continue as normal until you pick a country to infect first.

People will soon to start to fall ill, but symptoms will be minor until you begin to add new features paid for with DNA points acquired whenever the disease spreads.

Each augmentation or mutation can increase the severity of symptoms and infection rates, help the illness spread through different animals, or protect it from government-made cures and inhospitable climates.

Meanwhile, a ticker tape news reader at the top of the screen highlights how the world is responding to your plague, along with some chortle-worthy satirical gags and some natural events to exploit – like a sudden bird migration your plague can hop aboard.

Panic in the streets

Although you’ll spend a lot of time jumping between menus, Plague Inc.'s tap controls and distinctive icons for each option make it a straightforward, ultra-intuitive experience.

Such streamlined design leaves you plenty of time to work on a winning strategy, with the main choice being whether to hit the population hard with a deadly, highly contagious disease or let a subtle virus spread globally before suddenly unleashing fatal symptoms.

And even with the first DLC released this month (centred around an infectious brain worm and boasting new gameplay features, like Trojan Planes you can aim at uninfected countries), the three difficulty modes, unpredictable AI, and endless virus combinations mean Plague Inc.offers stacks of replayability.

Admittedly, the immoral concept of trying to wipe out all life on earth – no matter how imaginatively it’s presented – won’t appeal to many good-natured gamers.

Those looking for a smart, deliciously demented antidote to traditional strategy gaming, however, will want it to contract this infectiously entertaining title immediately.

Downloads

Get on the play store

 Get from the App store

Gamestop Madness

Driving past my local gamestop I saw a group of people out infront camping till the realease of bo2. Talk about some hardcore fans! How long would you be willing to camp?
-Dakota Wise

Black Ops 2 Live Uk Release NOW!

The Uk realease is happening live right now. Watch on the offical Black Ops Page! https://www.youtube.com/user/codblackops2live?oref=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FCuO2FZxL&has_verified=1

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy veterans day. We would like to thank all the veterans who have served our country so bravely. Thank you,
-Dakota Wise

Black Ops 2 Code of Conduct Cracking Down

5PWT4EW99GC3 Ignore!


Black Ops 2 Code of conduct is out, and boy dose it seem harsh! I liked how this website put it www.charlieintel.com

Treyarch has officially revealed the Code of Conduct for Black Ops 2. This Code of Conduct is what Treyarch will follow when banning people in Black Ops 2. All reports are throughly reviewed by the Treyarch enforcement team.
Modding/Hacking
Any user who runs a modified version of game code or uses a modified game profile is subject to penalty.

• First offense: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

• Console users who modify their hardware or profile data will also be reported to console manufacturers. PC users on Steam will be reported to the Steam enforcement team.

Pirated Content
Any user who illegally acquires Call of Duty: Black Ops II content is subject to penalty.

• First offense: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

• Console users in possession of illegally acquired content will also be reported to console manufacturers. PC users on Steam will be reported to the Steam enforcement team.

Unsupported Peripheral Devices & Applications
Any user who utilizes an unsupported external hardware device or application to interact with the game is subject to penalty. Unsupported peripheral devices and applications include but are not limited to modded controllers, IP flooders and lag switches

• Minor offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset and will have their leaderboard entries deleted.

• Extreme or repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

Boosting
Any user who colludes with another user to exploit the game for the purpose of gaining XP, prestige, game score, weapon level, or in-game unlock is subject to penalty.

• First offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will have their leaderboard entries deleted.

• Second offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, will have online split-screen privileges revoked, and will have their leaderboard entries deleted.

• Extreme or multiple repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

Glitching
Any user who abuses an exploit in game code or other established rule of play is subject to penalty. An example includes but is not limited to using a hole in the map geo to intentionally go outside of the map boundary.

• First offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will have their leaderboard entries deleted.

• Second offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, will have online split-screen privileges revoked, and will have their leaderboard entries deleted.

• Extreme or multiple repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

Offensive Behavior
Any user who is found to use aggressive, offensive, derogatory or racially charged language is subject to penalty.

• First offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online.

• Second offense: User will be temporarily banned from playing the game online and will have voice chat privileges in the game revoked.

• Extreme or repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from playing the game online, will have their stats & emblems reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in leaderboards.

Offensive Emblems
Any user who creates an emblem with sexually gratuitous images, racially offensive material or foul language is subject to penalty.

• Minor offense: User will be temporarily banned from using the Emblem Editor, and all emblems will be reset to default.

• Extreme or repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from using the Emblem Editor, and all emblems will be reset to default.

Offensive Live Streams or Unauthorized Live Stream ContentAny user who is found to have offensive or unauthorized content in their live stream is subject to penalty. Offensive content includes but is not limited to foul language, racially charged language, and nudity. Unauthorized content includes but is not limited to unlicensed music, TV shows, movies and brand logos.

• Minor offense: User will be temporarily banned from using live streaming and may have camera streaming privileges in the game revoked.

• Extreme or repeat offenses: User will be permanently banned from using live streaming.

• Extreme offenders will also be reported to the live streaming service provider and may have their account revoked by that service provider

SOURCE: Call of Duty HQ

Glitching?  

I agree with almost all of this EXCEPT for the glitching section. C'mon we all have used or tried to use glithches its just part of the game. Might I suggest better bug testing before a release? Sure all this is great but the real question is whether treyarch will back up their code of conduct. As of this point I have the impression that their tring to clean up COD's image. Only time will answer these questions. Please share with all your friends so maybe they won't be banned! Imagine playing alone o_O. Realy guys please share and comment, the moral boost is a huge bonus! Thanks,
-Dakota Wise

Minecraft Xbox 360 living up to expectations?

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition was welcomed with open arms to the Xbox community; many people (including myself) bought it right away. It was... well I guess you could say a disappointment. It brought us back to the first beta of pc version. We weren't sure when the next update was going to come out especially when a tip in the loading screen said "There will be an update eventually." No one knew when this update would come out. The update did finally come out about three or four months later. In this update it made fell a little better and fixed a few bugs in the game. Then another update came out right after. This update was horrible it just brought more bugs into the game(i.e. endermen randomly glitching everywhere, chests glitching open, eating gesture keeps going after done eating and more.) they brought villages into the game, but didn't bring villagers into the game. The couple things i am happy about in this update are; creative mode, super flat worlds, and host options, I'll give Mojang that. The game is new but, needs improvement.

Rating
gameplay  4/5
feel           2/5
graphics    4/5

overall   10/15

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