Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates lately, I’ve just been pretty busy with University work and exam preparation etc.  I haven’t played anything recently or finished reading anything new to review.

I have however purchased a few games over the last few weeks mainly from gog.com. If you don’t know what it is (shame on you), the site specializes in bringing you old games back to the PC and selling them on for (mostly) reasonable prices, and more recently have expanded into some newer titles.

The Games I have gotten off gog.com thus far are:

Nox
Castles 1+2
Lands of Lore 1+2
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Earthworm Jim 1+2
Slipstream 5000

These are just a few of the titles I hope to get playing over the summer break (or what little break I have) and a few more if I can fit them in. The big one this summer though will be the Witcher 2: Enhanced edition. I was a huge fan of the original game and can’t wait to dive straight back into the rich and vibrant world.

That’s pretty much all I have to say for now... *Whistles*... So yeah I guess I’ll see you all in about a month’s time.

Bris out!

A Game of Thrones is an award winning novel written by George R. R. Martin and is the first in a series of Fantasy novels known as ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. This series has become very popular in recent years and is now spilling into other media such as the recent TV series and a few games.

The story is set in a land known as the seven kingdoms and revolves around a series of houses and lords, the three most prominent families being the Starks, the Lannisters and the Baratheons. We follow the story from the perspective of the lead protagonist’s family, the Starks. When the king’s Hand is murdered we are plunged deep into a world of political plotting and ancient rivalries.

I feel that Martin keeps the balance between action and story building, with most of the action scenes happening towards the end of the book, allowing you to really invest in characters before their lives are put in danger. The whole scope of the books is rather impressive building such a large and colourful world from the ground up is an impressive feat.

I don’t want to say much more about the book as it is much better if you read it yourself but I must admit I was hooked and I hope that the books that follow will continue on such a strong start to the series. This is a must read!

Until next time!

Bris out!

Hey guys, hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since my last update, not sure where the time has gone to be frank. I’ve finished a couple of games since my last article such as the two Jedi Academy games. I may review these at a later stage but for today I just want to do a general update.

Working out:

Well to start off with, I bought a barbell set and bench a week or so back from Argos which I’ve been using vigorously since it was assembled. It now sits with my multi-gym set in the garage and I’ve found myself alternating between the two throughout the weekdays, while resting on the weekends.

The set cost just shy of £90 in total, but I feel that it has been a worthwhile investment. It is by no means a professional set but the 50kg it provides should be more than sufficient for someone of my physical range and it gives me a good amount to build up to (as right now I’m only on 30kg).  While my interest in the Gym may have diminished I’m hoping that the handiness of these weights will keep me at the exercise.

YouTube:

As of late I’ve been uploading a number of Lets plays on my YouTube channel, with Mods being the main focus but I’m hoping to do a few more games in the future as well. Initially I had intended to edit the videos with funny or sarcastic captions but I found that it was taking far too long to put it all together. Instead I’ve decided to just do straight playthroughs and get more content out there. So far I haven’t got all that many hits with my highest being about 30 views but I’m only starting out, so I hoping if I keep putting material out there then it might attract a view more viewers.

So yeah that’s pretty much all I wanted to talk about today, nothing particularly interesting going on in University or anything so I won’t bore you with such things. I’ll be back in 2 weeks all being well with some sort of review, no idea what it’ll be at this stage.

Until next time!

Bris out!

Hello and welcome to the first update of February here one the blog. I had intended to do a review of Hard Reset a week or so back but I never got around to it due to one thing or another but I’m back this week with a review on Prototype.

Prototype:

Prototype follows the story of one Alex Mercer as he tries to piece together the remnants of his life after waking up on a slab in the morgue. Mercer flees the scene only to be caught and fired upon by armed guards but the barrage of bullets fails to kill him and he makes a quick exit from the facility. Mercer has been infected by a virus that is now ravaging its way through the city, and with the help of his sister and a few other allies must find out the secrets of the virus.

The level of detail the story goes into is completely up to the player as they can kill and consume certain NPCs in order to gain further background information than you would get from the main plot alone.

The game can be played in two very different ways for the most part with the rare exception of boss battles or chase sequences. First of all you can be an all out fighter who will smash their way through any enemy, choosing to level up your weapon types and armour will be useful to players like this.

On the other hand you can choose to play stealth in which you sabotage military equipment and consume soldiers in stealthy manner in order to proceed. This becomes really tricky later on when they have enemies and machines that see through your shape-shifting form.

Outside the main quest you have the ability to play various mini-games which will award you more XP points which can be used in order to upgrade your skills. These range from killing enemies in a set time limit to things such as gliding within a certain range of a given point.

In conclusion, I found myself enjoying Prototype quite a bit, with its story and all out blood bath fights drawing me back in time and time again. So if you fancy a game which doesn’t take a lot of thought but is still fun to play then you might consider picking up Prototype. I’ve been checking out Prototype 2 trailers and oh boy does it look good, I think I’ll be getting it!

Until Next Time!
Bris out!

Hello and welcome to another update at Mark’s blog, all my exams finished about a week ago so I am just chilling out (aka recovering from the horrible exams) which means I’ve had time to play through a few games. First up on the list to review is Bastion.

Bastion:

Bastion is a top-down RPG game in which you must hack, bash, blast and even burn your way through levels of weird and wonderful enemies in order to progress through the story.

You awake on a floating rock in the middle of the sky, the voice of a stranger is the only thing to guide you. You make your way to the Bastion, the place where everyone was to meet should something bad ever happen. Here you meet the stranger guiding you, an old man by the name of Rucks. He will help you rebuild the bastion using cores, and find any other survivors out there.

There are a number of different buildings you can create throughout the game from an armoury to a temple and even a lost and found shop. Each of these buildings will help you to progress through the game in some shape or form. For instance the forge allows you to upgrade your weapons which make you more effective in combat, while the temple will call upon the gods in order to increases the difficulty of enemies in exchange for more Xp.

There are 12 useable weapons in the game each which can be upgraded to make the more effective in combat. These range from anything as simple as a hammer up to things like an army carbine or even a mortar. I felt that I was more than comfortable using a bow and a machete/Hammer throughout most of the game as I had levelled them up to such a good standard that they were effective on most enemies.
There were also a number of tonics available that boosted your chances of survival, with benefits such as more health potions, less damage from falling etc which really helped in some of the later levels because it could get quite hectic.

It would not be fair to talk about Bastion without mentioning the soundtrack, which is quite simply wonderful. It ranges from jazz, to new age rock and whole bunch of other genres with one or two of them being damn right draw-dropping. Also hats off to Logan Cunningham who voiced Rucks as he did one of the best narration jobs I have ever heard on any game.

So yeah, I can’t really put into words how much I loved this game, it was a real surprise how much I got sucked into the story and the lore of Caelondia. Bastion has an amazing story, stunning visuals and a breathtaking soundtrack, I mean what more do you want from a game? Seriously if you haven’t played it already, make sure you do. Its one hell of an experience.

Until Next Time!
Bris Out!