Take a copy of the Metro. It's free.

Hello. Hello there.

Its an exciting time of year. The birds are tweeting, bees are humming and the grass is green.
Games are releasing and countdowns are now in motion.
What are you excited about?
Me?
Well, a couple of things are looking increasingly tasty at the moment so where do I begin?
The mother of all sandboxes that is GTA V?
No.
Not yet.

There's a new FPS that has just been released called Metro Last Light. Let's have a rundown.
You play as Artym. A survivor of the harsh wasteland that was Russia's capital, Moscow, you now live with the rest of the survivors in the tunnels that formed the Metro.
What's gone on to cause this horrible hell on earth?

Can you guess?


Similar to Fallout, its nuclear. Russia's capital was rained upon by the fierce mistress that is Atomic warfare in the year 2013 (Spooky!).The world's been ruined and survivors of the blast have ran down and escaped beneath the earth away from the monsters, mutants and human factions who seem hell bent on destroying themselves. (Still... even though they've survived they're still like "phew that was close, oh look other survivors...let's kill those guys!". Get a grip guys). 

Now these creatures and other factions have developed over twenty years, and in the first game, this is the sequel by the way, you play again as Artym in the year 2033 and basically "save" your fellows survivors from creatures called the Dark Ones. 

I've witnessed them in game and must admit they're pretty dark but I wouldn't say evil. From one of the two endings to the first game, that's the picture they portrait. Personally I wouldn't consider them the menace but the other humans, which to be fair is a fantastic representation of what probably would happen, that are located in various underground Hubs across Moscow.

Let's war some more.

So as I said the second game, same character, same city, same bad dudes but with a fresh sprinkle of story and you are chucked within this dark and cruel land. Weapons are a must and you'll recognise some that, I must say, are very similar to the legendary AK47 as well as sawn-offs, long range bolt action rifles and low accuracy high firing sub machine guns. You get to carry all three luckily enough, and by god you'll need them. Upgrades are unlocked and attained throughout the missions and money can be gathered and spent swapping parts on them.

The beasts that roam the underworld and dark spaces are as fierce as they are numerous. Ranging from massive spiders that arachnophobes will love, large wolf like packs that roam the ruins, and many more mutatious (I do hope that's either a word or will soon become one. I like it.) beings. The harder settings are more survival and ration which in it's own creates a cautious and careful play through. 

We want challenging.

We like it. 

Head Shots and Such

Hello.

I'm here to talk about a gift I acquired recently.

Hitman Absolution.

Now the last Hitman game to be released was Hitman: Blood Money. It was in the prehistoric time of 2006 and I had a wail of a time playing it. I loved its bald merciless killer and how he stalked his targets relentlessly until a well time piano or bullet would part them of their lives.
There's something exciting being this bringer of Death, I'll admit it is partly due to the blood thirsty violence but not entirely, that would keep me stuck with the controller in my hand for hours.
It was the challenge mainly.
The challenge to erase the poor sod swiftly and discreetly.
Now to be fair you could, I suppose, run in guns a blazing and finish the mission. But I just think that's cheating the game's creators out of all that time spent designing the bloody thing. Literally.
Now I much preferred to do that after I had completed the game like a paid Hitman would.
(Which would be as sneaky as possible to get future work and avoid the death penalty).

Ratings and Rankings would be presented to you after a completed "Hit" and you would earn a title and more cash to upgrade your arsenal.

Now its six years later and we have our lovely bald best buddy Agent 47 back again.
I've enjoyed the game. All of it.
We have new features and a new style of playing the game.
Now this time over Agent 47's talents have been awakened with a kind of eerie foresight into what's going to happen next in whatever bizarre situation he'll be in.

He can now, with a use of the "Instinct Mode", see where NPCs are going to move to. A trail of fire on the floor indicates what route and end of the movement.
We can now also see through walls, again watching and waiting for the ideal time to strike or move to the next wardrobe or well placed crate.

We can now also blend in with crowds and sneak past enemies whilst disguised as one of them. Just to mention here not everyone can tell your phoney but if we were to say you happened to of "come across" a cop disguise, other cops will notice that for one; they've never met you two; you happen to be bald and three; that you're crouched behind a bucket.

Hmm.
Well maybe not three but you get the picture. You'd notice an employee or close bodyguard losing their hair or tan in the past 5 minutes, right? So you get as close as possible without triggering a reaction and use "Instinct Mode" to walk past. You'll hear some of them welcome you to the police force or more suspicious officers wonder who you are, and are quite sure they recognize you.
But hey ho there we go. Into the lift and that’s the end of that.
By the way, using your Instinct doing this particular sneaky activity will make your instinct meter deplete. You gain Instinct throughout the level doing particular things like killing a target etc., looking through walls, on normal mode this be, and seeing the floor on fire does not deplete it.

Another little feature that can be used to devastating effect is shooting multiple targets in a slow down time effect thingy. You slow time down, stand and start placing targets on the enemy/enemies you want to take down. Pretty similar to one of the levels of dead eye John Marston had in Red Dead Redemption.
Head shots and such.

The missions are well structured and 47 hasn't lost any skills taking down anybody, anywhere, anyhow.
Use a robot toy and kill a man.
Meat clever? Well get cleaving!
It' up to you really. There's a variety of firepower ranging from his famous SilverBaller Pistols to remote explosives. Silenced sniper rifles are there but unfortunately the little briefcase you pull out and start twisting together in Blood Money has gone I'm afraid. It just made the feel right last time... Oh well you still get to slap targets in the face with a slug from an apartment that's overlooking a suburban street with the soft puff as your silencer does its job.

The story is another great one. Seeing you travel around the U.S. and U.K (for two at the end) and watch him struggle out of very tight squeezes.

Now there is an online feature with this game. You and a pal can't exactly roam the map and slice and dice your way around it in some ugly deathmatch, no.
That'd be silly.
But you can create a mission so to speak. You use the maps you've played through on the main game and select up to three "Hits". It could be any NPC on the map from postman to Chinese takeaway cook. It’s up to you.
But you don't want to create a mission that’s easy, do you?
You want to create a challenge for someone and have one to complete yourself.
I, today, played a creation from a gamer who's name I can't remember, set in a Court room. It comes with a court room, with trial, and surrounding areas. So, anyway, the target was an evidence room employee. Simple enough. Well not quite. You see there are multiple ways to complete a level so you won't go every which way on your first walk through. So I had to gain access to an off limits area I didn't even know about.

So I sneak around the benches and have to wait for another cop to walk on whilst I sneak in there and kill this dude.
Here's another small problem, if you want the full cash from the mission the player's created you must try and complete the mission how they did. So if you were to not use a disguise and kill the target with a specific weapon then hide his body whilst not getting spotted those accomplishments would be in that mission.
So this guy was good.
He snook in with the initial standard black suit 47 always wears, killed the target with a weapon called a glass Shiv then escape after hiding the deceased
And then another problem flicks you on your nose causing your eyes to water. I had no idea where or what this glass shiv thing was. These items don't just show up because that was the weapon used by the creator, you have to find them by yourself
So I sneak in, eventually after repeated fails, into the evidence room and confront my target. Because of my lovely new "Instinct" I already know there's another guy in the room and must take him out without killing him.
As the creator did.
So I did that eventually and started to think how I would get the other guy. My target.
And with a thing called a "glass shiv"?
So I look whilst trying to to remain undetected for this piece of crap then low and behold I see it.It’s the shiv!
But, again, there's a little problem. This thing is in my targets field of vision.
He doesn't move. He just stares at it none stop.
So you can see this guy had created quite a good, challenging mission.
I won't tell you how I solved that little dilemma. But I did.
I also was inspired by it to create my own little mission set in the same location where you get the glass shiv without harming a soul then sneakily cut the throat of the judge overseeing the trial.
MuahAHAHA!

All with out a single person knowing it’s happened.

As evil as this may be it sure feels good.
So I'm waiting to see who can best me on that one.
It's called "Case Dismissed" I think, and I play on PS3 so it'll be PSN exclusive I'm afraid.

So all in all a good game.
I do think I'll be writing about it again but we'll wait and see.

Thanks for reading.

Too many buts.

Hi there.

I've been away kicking butt on Max Payne 3 online.
But that's not what I'm typing about this evening.
Recently me and a friend have been battling it out on Mario Kart 7.
Specifically a track known as Koopa City or in the U S of A; Neo City.
I think...
Regardless we have been taking it in turns to beat one another's lap times.

So because of Nintendo's epic mistake on how me and my friend can compare our records we have had to resort to donning the ink sticks and scribbling records down for each and every track.
(Well my friend has yet to set records for every track)

I'll also, whilst I'm here, explain that in Mario Kart 7 you have to be within a reasonable distance to your fellow racer to send one another track records and ghost laps. Preferably in the room.

BUT

and its a big but.

Why?

Well as you cannot select which track to send you have to hope that you send the track you've been putting hours and hours into. The 3DS sends a random ghost from yours to the other. So that sucks to put it simply.

But...there's another but...

BUT

you can only send one track per day. (Correct me if I'm wrong and if you've found away around this horrible curse please message me....please!)

However there is a silver lining to this problem. I have a list of records that I can hold in my hand (and lose, damn it) so I can recall the previous laps times we had.
So when we came up with this little idea I set the record at 02:07.012
He beat it with 02:03.600
I ran in with 02:02.446 and he kicked me with 01:55.489

So it went on and on and on. I'd beat his time and send him the lap. He'd beat that and so on and so on.

It's now gone on for about two months. Now let me explain.
Every time you try and beat his record you're also beating your own and you're constantly on edge as you pull the lead on your ghost and grit your teeth as it slides past you on a corner. You forget how to turn into a bend and screw it up. You repeatedly clip the same bit of wall again and again that you want to turn the DS to your face and bite into it releasing its evil power... well that's what I'd like to do.
But it's the excitement. The adrenaline. You're on the last lap and you pull into the lead. You're ahead of your ghost.
A few more corners. Don't screw up. The finishing line is in sight, all you have to do is stay straight and

Boom!

You're across the line. Not only beating your own record but beating your friends.
Exhilarating.

So as it stands. I hold the record at, drum roll please...

01:50.765

Thank you for your time.

Hey Mario!

I remember it like it was...
Like it was about 15 years ago.
The pixels, sounds. The drama.
That's when it started but not when it flourished.

I'm talking Mario Kart. From its banana sliding, kart bashing, shell crashing, hair pulling outness.
(Yes I'll make up new words for Mario Kart.)
I love it.
My early memories consist of me being creamed on the SNES by my brother but I'll never forget the grey stoned lava filled track that is Bowser's castle. The sharp corners, the fire balls, the pain of being nudged into the lava but the excitement of being the guy nudging never gets old.

I must admit there was a huge gap between me playing the 1992 version and getting back in my 150cc Kart seat once more.
*Brum Brum*

2008 released the well hyped up motion controlled console the Wii. And with it hours and hours and hours of me stuck to the controller. Perfecting lap after lap after lap.

Literally.

Three heart pounding laps trying to beat time trials that myself or friend had set.
I have so many fuzzy memories of racing in my living room till the wee early morning hours. I stand by it that its good therapy. A talking point, a memory base. A smile is on my face recalling the days spent.
The horrors of being first place until a well timed blue shell crashes in on you from above and your best friend wheelies past you and across the finishing line. And with that he's not only won the race but also the grand prix. You look left and see a grin or a terrified face and understand.
The satisfying feeling of being that racer. The annoyed but excited feeling of losing.
EPIC!
I hope to do regular post about the racing game and its good times (And lots of bad times) not only for you fine people to read but so I can recall the memories also.

See you later.
Thank you.

Something for the sweetness. Perhaps Bread?

As mentioned in my previous post I cannot play DayZ so instead I watch players who post their footage upon a little known website called Youtube.
If, like me, you'd like to watch some of this fabulous game I do suggest an uploader named:

Drum roll please...

FRANKIEonPCin1080p

He's an English PC player who appears to be quite famous on a bunch of formats and is highly skilled from what I've seen. His videos are of great quality and he edits them excellently. They're quite long videos but I really enjoy them. His playing style is to be respected as he doesn't slaughter the weak and new but helps them aswell as obliterating anyone who is causing bother for other players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPJ37khFJWI

There's a link to the first video.
Another thing is that he lists all his video's for this series in the description in numerical order. (Which I find very helpful.)

So Enjoy.
Thank you.

A little something sweet.

Recently I cannot get enough of...

A fast rising mod, that unfortunately I can't indulge in.

DayZ
For the P.C.

Where to begin?
Well about five months ago I happened to be crawling though a random variety of videos on Youtube when I stumbled upon a very interesting game. If you don't know what the game is, which to be honest but not degrading I find hard to believe but hey there's nothing wrong with that, it's basically a mod for the PC game ArmA 2. It is set on a massive sized map. Absolutely huge! In fact I must Google the size.
Excuse me.

*Cough*

225 kilometres is the apparent number. It's terrain varies from rolling fields, lakes and dense woodland to vast cities, numerous villages and settlements
In this world ,you, the player must survive the zombie apocalypse by gathering food, tools and weapons etc.
(I know I know zombie's are everywhere in games currently but when done right they're a spectacular tool to have in game. When done RIGHT.)
Which to be fair they're not in this game but they can cause panic and create a very scary atmosphere.
For example.
You're being chased by four of them through a city. You only have limited ammunition and a particularly loud gun. You don't want to shoot your weapon.
Oh no sir. Not one bit.
It'll cause more of these flesh munching lunatics to run at you and for the one that you've killed you would of gained two more of these saliva dripping horrors but the main fear is that you don't want the other players to know where you are.


Now, on that note, it's not the size of the world that impresses me nor the undead. It's the actual player mentality this game causes is the thing that intrigues me.
You start off with limited supplies, very limited, and must move through the world collecting different items as you set your own goals.
You decide what to do.
Want to eat heinz beans all day? Fine.
Want to be the most powerful survivor with the best weapons and equipment? Fine.
See a helicopter? Assess the damage and go out into the landscape collecting the parts needed to power up the whirly bird.
But it's not that easy.
To do so would mean crossing through a very harsh and baron landscape enduring the zombies, the weather, the landscape and the human survivors.
You see? There's the problem.
They too could have bumped into this smashed wreckage and are off on their way to do the same as you. They could of been a party of ghillied up Pro's who, knowing the advantage of an armed helicopter in this game, have sent part of their group to collect said parts in let's say a jeep.
Whilst one of their very sharp sharp shooters is currently watching you blink from 800 yards away with a very powerful rifle.

(Likely an AS50)

But you see. When you get killed or die in this game that's it.

Done.

Finito.

This creates a very specially effect. Players don't want their two week old geared up character to die and respawn at some horrible coast 30 km away with no gear and no one you know. It is special.
It's the only game where I've witnessed players rob other players.
Literally two of them had lured a character to a vehicle by leaving the lights on their car lit.
Whilst I'm on the subject. This games night is scary as hell.
It is Pitch Black. (It'd be beautiful, the starry sky glittering, if you weren't so paranoid about the perils all around)

Anyhow these two appeared out of no where pointing weapons at this guy and telling him, via audio, instructions to lie down and drop his gear.
Now...
I look at it and I see it could of gone two ways.
The way it didn't go was that they should have told him to lie down and drop all his gear and then crawl 20 yards away. One keeps the gun on the guy. One takes what they want. One starts the car and off they go

But no.
He lay down. Dropped his gear and waited till one of these bandits ran over and started rummaging through his backpack. What the bandit didn't realise is that at the same time the guy he was robbing was robbing him.
The guy stole the bandit's M16 out his gear and and simply blasted him point blank.
Unluckily, this epic little turnaround ended as quickly as it started. The guy who was getting robbed got shot and that's the end of that.

But wow. WOW!

I've seen new players take it alone, chop down trees, kill a cow and take refuge around a fire and cook the beef. I've seen a team of guys fly a helicopter into town, keep a close perimeter, raid an army air base and take on zombies and enemy players in intense firefights, then fly off again when they call their heli pick up in.
It's as good as you make it. With effort and time comes true special moments.

Fantastic to watch.                  Again and Again.

If you're wondering why I can't play it. My laptop isn't powerful enough. *sigh*

Anyways I've typed enough on this subject for now. So see you later.
Thank you.

First Post

First post eh? What to write at this time of year. Quite a few games on the horizon in these coming months. I suppose a short description of myself and what I indulge in is needed.
Well firstly I mainly play on Nintendo and the Playstation consoles since, well practically birth, I do recall playing on my brothers Nintendo. Specifically shooting Ducks with an orange rifle (Quack Quack). My first Playstation memory consists of spinning around a rendered T Rex, opening its jaws and so on.
I loved the background music on the Mantaray btw.

So enough of that.

What have I been playing recently. Well... I've got back into Max Payne 3's online multiplayer yesterday. Literally had a blast, sooo many RPG's now!, it's a good game. Addictive, replayable and enjoyable and with Rockstars multiplayer events it can also mean big rewards to those skilled enough to last them out and cream the opposition. I did get kicked out of a few games though, due to connection errors, which is particularly irritating when you perform a slo mo dive from a door way blasting your enemy from above, like there's no tomorrow, to only slide on the ground grinning and wonder why they're running into a wall.
Damn.

Ermmm.

I've been also enjoying the 3DS recently, such titles as MK7 GTA chinatown wars and Harvest Moon, Fantastic little console. I'm a massive Mario Kart fan but there will be a seperate entry about that.

Well got to go for now. So happy gaming.
Thanks for your time.