Game Of Thrones: Episode 1 review

It’s been a crazy holiday release season so far, and I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t recognised the existence of the new Game Of Thrones video game yet. The series has undergone previous video game iterations with mixed results and Telltale, the  guys behind The Walking Dead adventure games (one of my favourite games of all time), are stepping up to make a change.

In a game as story driven as this, it’s hard for me to delve too deep without revealing any potential spoilers, but suffice to say, the plot is extremely GOT like. I know, that’s not saying much. You’ll make hard decisions just like Telltale’s other games and be forced to live with them throughout the rest of the 6 episode season.

hmmmm whatever should I do?

If you’ve played any of Telltale’s previous games, you’ll be right at home here. The stories progresses in the standard adventure game format where you talk to people around the map, explore the area to find clues or little tidbits of information and participate in quick time events that usually happen during the action sequences of the story. They are hardly challenging but manage to put you into the character’s shoes as you try to predict where an enemy is swinging from or feel their struggle as they endure a choke or something. Yup, you’ve read that right, THEY.

The game puts you in the shoes of multiple Characters and in true GOT style, your view point changes from character to character throughout the episode. The story centres around House Forrester, loyal bannermen of House Stark who have gotten themselves into a bit of a precarious situation after the *ahem* wedding. And it’s up to you! Dear player, to lead the brave members of House Forrester back to glory or at least survive.

The art in this game looks FANTASTIC

The Forresters are a likable bunch and the voice acting does a great job of making you feel for the characters. Although what I think really stands out in the game’s presentation is the amazing art direction. This game is gorgeous, it’s no Crysis of Farcry, but the art really does a good job in evoking a sense of character into the different locations and settings, and more than makes up for the dated engine the game runs on. The character designs are spot on too, and borrow heavily from the HBO show. The way the characters are drawn also fantastic and I think it’s amazing how their emotions come through on their faces. That’s a great achievement!

Look at those puppy dog eyes!

I have to say, this is definitely my favourite Telltale game so far, and my initial worry that I would not be as invested in these new characters as those in the Books and TV show have been quelled. If you’re a fan of the series, this game is an absolute MUST to play. Think Sansa was a dumb little girl who should just die? WELL I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY! And now you can, with this amazing new addition to the GOT franchise.

You’ll explore some new and familiar locations and characters

* If you’re new to Game Of Thrones I’d suggest holding off on this until you get up to at least season 3 or read up to Blood and Gold.

The Singageeks Podcast! Episode 1: GameStart 2014 Postmortem

Hey guys! This has been something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and something I wish will be a regular feature for the site. The podcast is meant to inform, educate and mostly entertain others that share the passion we share. They are meant to be casual discussions and participants are encouraged to be themselves and relax. Anyway here it is!

PS: The slamming sound you hear is me pounding my fist on the table. I do that sometimes haha

You can also download it here.

Sony pulls out the big guns for Singapore

Sony fanboys rejoice! Your fervent devotion  is finally paying off. You would be forgiven if you thought that Singapore was the least of Sony’s concerns for the past couple of years, after all the only major events that happened were the launch of the PS4 and s couple of non public events. But if this year’s GameStart convention says anything, it’s that Sony’s here to stay, and they’re more committed than ever.

Sony’s presence at the show was immense, the Playstation booth occupied an immense corner of the show floor including a pickup counter for PS4s with exclusive deals for the show. Read more here. One could even say Sony made the event, producers from wildly popular games, Street Fighter, Bloodbourne and Freedom Wars were recruited on this endeavour and allowed locals a chance to interact with giants of the gaming industry right here on our sunny shores.

GameStart also marked the beginning of yet another chapter of Sony’s partnership with Nanyang Polytechnic and the Games Solution Centre, a government backed division of the Media Development Authority Of Singapore with the extension of the PlayStation Incubation Studio in Singapore. The PlayStation Incubation Studio is an effort by Sony to help local indie developers with developing their games and offering a platform for their efforts. There are currently 2 games scheduled to be released, One Upon Light, a creative puzzle game which is set to release October 28th, and

Sony also announce the components of the GTAV bundle arriving on the 18th November which includes a $15 PSN card, 12 month access to PS+ and an extended warranty for a year making it a fantastic deal at $699. The White and Pink PS Vitas will also be making their way to SIngapore on the 13th Nov.

It’s about time Sony stepped up and leveraged on the immense Sony fandom in Singapore, and boy did they. Here’s to looking forward to a glorious future for the gaming industry right here in Singapore.

 

I Love/Hate Velocibox

I Love/Hate this game, it’s fast, it’s challenging and oh so addictive. In Velocibox you control a box as you move through a highspeed tunnel (heh get it? veloci-box? haha) and avoid obstacles while collecting 6 other boxes strewn around the level to advance to the next level. Sounds simple enough?

This game is anything but simple, it is FAST. The influence of super hexagon is illusive at first glance, but once you play it, you’ll feel it. The controls are tight, and navigating the obstacles requires precision and immaculate timing. Boxes are also placed in challenging spots that force you to risk hitting an obstacle making it a tense 10 second experience before you inevitably crash and burn. In fact, the Developer Shawn was so confident no one could beat the first level he offered free steam codes to anyone who could at his booth at GameStart 2014.

The game also lets you move along the walls so it really trains you to see the layout quickly and make snap decisions on the go. You can also flip to the side directly above you at anytime to make a quick escape or grasp a very fleeting opportunity at survival.

I was not able to play this game with any music, but i’m sure this is a game that would play extremely well if you’re a fan of fast EDM. Or if you’re like me, a great game to play while listening to Podcasts and E-books, that is of course once all the movements and layouts become second nature to you.

Velocibox is available on steam for $5.50 SGD and more platform options are on the way. Buy it!

edit: “There is music! As you can hear from the trailer”

Random picks for 22/10/14

Hey! This a new feature I hope I can continue doing where I pick 3 random new releases off the shelves and give you my thoughts on them. I DON’T read every series that’s released so I may lack some context and be unfamiliar with some characters, but THIS IS MY SITE AND I’LL DO WHAT I WANT! 

I have a confession to make, when I went about looking for comics for this feature, I picked the ones that had the best looking covers. I know, I know, you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. But when it comes to comic books, I’ll make an exception. After all, art is important when it comes to this medium, and I can give in to my superficial tendencies a little less guiltily….

Secret Avengers #09

I absolutely LOVE this cover a candid take on one of the most influential and classic paintings of all time? This is just screaming at me to buy it. Incredible covers aside, boy is this book fun to read. Deadpool and Hawkeye hang out on an off shore bunker, Coulson reflects of the harsh realities of the position he has asked for as a field agent and MODOK is….. well MODOK.

Tradd Moore is responsible for the cover art, a man after my own heart, and Michael Walsh is no slouch either with his gorgeous looking work. I love how expressive these characters are and the pencilling is a little rugged and adds to the fun and not so serious vibe of this book. If there’s one thing Marvel does well, is making fun comic books.

As far as the story goes, it’s intriguing. It doesn’t feel like the star here is the plot, but rather the relationships surrounding these characters, and to be honest this is my favourite kind of book. I honestly can’t wait to see more of the series and this is definitely making it to my pull list.

What a brilliant page….

I really love how this page is a tribute to the style from the current Hawkeye series, which is GREAT.

Axis: Hobgoblin #1

I know nuts about THE HOBGOBLIN, but this book has definitely piqued my curiosity. A fashion Mongol turned Supervillain? Count me in. It’s another zany and fun book from Marvel and it certainly delivers on it’s strengths.

The writing is great, Hobgoblin basically tries to sell his name to anyone who wants it after achieving superhero status and capitalizing on it’s benefits through self help programmes and seminars. Ridiculous? Absolutely, but it’s such an interesting premise and the satirical nature of it is really compelling.

As you can probably tell, this book is also really good looking. It’s an awesome cover by Javier Rodriguez and clearly encompasses what Hobgoblin is about in this book. Sinister, zanny and highly egocentric.

The satire here is palpable, and really fun too.

Definitely my favourite page in the book.

Arkham Manor #01

Arkham Asylum is in ruins after the events of Batman Eternal, and the mayor has commissioned Wayne Manor to be it’s replacement till repairs are made. The book spends a lot of time justifying this predicament, and goes at length about how Bruce was able to accept something like this happening to his own home. It’s a lot more believable than the similar premise of the Arkham City video game, but it can still be a hard pill to swallow in terms of believability.

The first issue explores how the facilities were built and surrounds a murder mystery of an inmate in the manor, which isn’t really compelling. But what’s great about this issue is the flashbacks Bruce has as he walks around the manor witnessing the sacrilege that is happening before his eyes, and coming to terms with that. It’s grim, and Batman has given up so much in recent events, you can’t help but feel for him.

The art here looks great too, it’s definitely not my favourite artistic take on Batman, too lanky for my liking but the gruff and almost tired looking Batman is pretty befitting of the tone and recent bat events or (Batvents) haha. The final page though is a huge contrast of how Batman is portrayed in the book, physically speaking. I won’t go into to much here because the last page also contains the twist for the first issue. It’s worth a shot, and I’d recommend it to any Batman fan out there.

I LOVE this page

These flashback pages are the highlight of this book.

Cards Against Humanity

I’ll start by saying, this is not a game for the prudish, but if you’re an open minded, totally liberal and all round horrible person,  you’re gonna LOVE this game.

Cards Against Humanity is a game for 3 players or more. Each player starts with 10 white cards. A black card is drawn every round that contains a question or statement that is then answered by the white cards. Best answer wins!  It’s an incredibly simple game, and literally anyone can jump into this.

The combinations you can come up with are endless, and although you might not have cards that play well with the question at hand, you’ll inevitably find good use for it down the road. This can lead to hilarious and horrible revelations about the darkest depths of the human soul, as this Buzzfeed article clearly portrays. My personal favorites though are:

Did I also mention that there are blank black and white cards you can fill up yourself if you manage to think of anything more insidious. There are also 4 expansion decks available and various themed expansion decks and packs for more varied monstrosity.

So if you’re up for a horribly good time where the winner is really the ultimate loser when it comes to being a decent human being, drop by your local board game store or if you’re a cheap bastard play it free online or print the base set for free. Stocks tend to run low in Singapore, so if you really want it, Amazon might be best. Get it before our government bans it!

You can pick them up at:

Paradigm Infinitum

220 Orchard Road #03-01

Midpoint Orchard

Opens Daily 12-10pm

Base deck is $35 or ($33) – member price

Expansions are $15 or ($13) – member price

The Evil Within Comic Review

Dazed and confused after my play through of The Evil Within, I seeked answers wherever I could find them. Wikipedia evidently sorted things out for me even though parts of the story still didn’t make sense to me. But that was after I tried seeking clarity through the official comic book mini-series of the game published by Titan Comics.

If you were hoping this book could provide some answers as to what is actually going on, you should really just save your $7. The book is just as disjointed and random as the video game, although those who have completed the game might be able to make sense of parts of this story.

The plot centers around Dana, a college girl looking for her kidnapped sister. She eventually finds herself at a diner where she meets Paul a doctor who also finds himself at the diner under mysterious circumstances. The pair is then chased by “The Haunted”, zombie like monsters, into an abandoned mental asylum where horrible things happen.

Told you it was random, which isn’t really the problem. The problem with EW’s story is that it isn’t grounded in any strong characters. It feels completely unfocused and the random events lose their context when you don’t really care about any of the characters who are perpetually put in danger. In this aspect, the book shares the same problems as the game.

Those zombies look way better and more detailed than the actual characters.

The art looks fine, although some of the human faces, particularly Paul’s, just appear bland and undetailed. I cannot conceivably imagine someone who has never played the game to read this book and want to pick up the next copy, and to all those people out there who did enjoy the game and it’s story, save your money for the DLC.

The Evil Within Review

The Evil Within is not the game I hoped it would be. Parts of it aren’t terrible, in fact there are some pretty cool moments and boss fights. But there are so many technical faults and bad design choices that really hinder the game’s ability to truly stand out as a shooter or even as a horror game.

The game puts you in the shoes of Sebastian Castellanos a rugged and worn out cop who stumbles onto the site of a mass murder in Beacon Mental Hospital where he is knocked unconscious and proceeds to awake into a realm of horrible nightmares and monsters. Got it so far? Great because this story gets really crazy really quickly, and if you’re not paying attention to the diaries and audio tapes littered around the game, you’ll quickly get lost and end up as confused and clueless as our dear detective as he stumbles into one horrible situation after another. The story itself, after you piece everything together isn’t anything very compelling, and probably nothing you’ve never seen before if you have any experience with horror or mystery novels or TV shows at all. The characters in the story barely make an impression on you as well. Sebastian is the embodiment of every single veteran cop on TV, has a wife and kid, breaks up with wife but still loves the kid and drowns himself in work or alcohol. The other characters aren’t exactly anything new either.

The game is played from a third person over the shoulder perspective, and is pretty much similar to one of the most classic horror shooters of all time, Resident Evil 4. (No surprise since Shinji Mikami is responsible for both projects.) The shooting itself is…… a real mixed bag. On the one hand, pulling off head shots is really satisfying. It’s rarely a one hit kill, you’ll have to upgrade your critical hit for that, but the chunks of brain and skull blasting off as your shot connects feels great.  You can also shoot enemies in the foot while running to knock them down for a quick kill with a match by lighting them on fire.

The environments are pretty great. This one near the beginning of the game is incredibly reminiscent of the village in RE4, down to the psycho with the chainsaw…..

On the other hand, it doesn’t feel very precise. You can upgrade your aiming ability to prevent your weapon from swaying too much, but it doesn’t change the fact that you might be fighting the controls form time to time. It’s not a huge problem, but it does get a little tiresome in tight corners which may force you into a position where you might use melee attacks which are highly ineffectual even when fully upgraded. My advice? Put those precious points into something else because it honestly won’t make much difference. Enemies can also carry melee weapons which can sometimes be picked up by Sebastian. These items are one use only but they do tons of damage, and it’s a one hit kill to the basic enemies in the game.

Weapons in the game are pretty standard fare. Pistols, shotguns and a magnum later in the game don’t do much in the way of mixing up gameplay. The crossbow however allows you to craft different types of ammo for your needs, and provides players with more flexible ways to play. These arrows can deal massive damage, stun or freeze enemies depending on what you need, and are crafted by scavenging for parts around the game. These come in especially handy in boss fights where you will more than likely be out or running low on ammo.

Instead of fighting enemies straight on, you can also choose a stealthy route, when the game lets you. Sneaking up on enemies provides you the opportunity to instant kill them. Unfortunately, it’s rarely the most viable option. Enemies are often too close together to do it, and often times areas are separated by doors or traps that take forever to open leaving you completely vulnerable to all those guys you just sneaked past. It’s pointless at times and incredibly frustrating when it happens.

Speaking of frustration, the one thing that makes my blood boil more than anything in this game is the controls and movement. Parts of this game require you to make precision movements which are fine, but the game’s controls just aren’t up to task. Sometimes it’s the camera angle that puts you in an awkward spot, or sometimes your character just moves a little too much triggering a trap that blows you to smithereens. Checkpoints can also to pretty scarce and replaying parts of the game because you screwed up for one second just isn’t any fun at all. Coupled with the long loading times this game has, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The game isn’t a looker either, the letter box resolution the game is stuck with on consoles really hinder the view and just looks really jarring. You’ll get used to it after some time but I’d much rather a full screen game still. The environments themselves are very well designed. It’s incredibly eerie, gruesome and dreadful, and they look interesting and induced my sense of exploration. However, texture issues really bring down the visuals on what could have been a great looking game. Texture pop ins and low resolution textures on surfaces are a real let down especially since the environments are so well executed.

Parts of the game are genuinely unsettling, but I wouldn’t call it a scary game.

The Evil Within is a great tragedy. On paper, it looks like a great game. The legendary creator of the revolutionary Resident Evil 4 returns to offer a similar product, but it’s just nowhere near as polished as what I expected it to be. It has some great aspects, but everything else about it just brings it down and at the end of the day, you’re better off not making that effort.

The Pathfinder Path: Part 1

I’m new to Pathfinder, in fact I’m new to pen and paper RPGS in general. The closest I ever got to it was Neverwinter Nights back in the day and I have absolutely no idea what I signed up for. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to play Pathfinder at the local comic book store Atom Comics. Now I’ve always been fascinated by pen and paper games, spending hours in a basement adventuring and actually playing different characters together with other people was something I was definitely into. It sounds like a children’s fantasy I know, but games like this take it to the extreme, and I was dying to be part of it.

So last Friday night, I hopped out of school the second I was released and pranced my way down, full of hope and dreams about what it would be like. What my character would be, the trials and monsters I would have to face and endless dice rolls to be made. Bruce (Owner of Atom Comics) was quick to introduce me to the other players who were of varying skill levels. Some have played a couple of times, some life long veterans and of course there were complete newbies like me which I took solace in.

So after days of dreaming and fantasizing my hopes were dashed as our DM (dungeon master) announced that we WOULDN’T be starting the actual game today. All he wanted us to do today was to create our characters, I was disappointed, how long could creating a character take? It’s just filling in some blanks right? WRONG it took me 3 almost 2 hours just to get started on my character and I’m still not done!

My character sheet as it stands… horrible handwriting I know!

The DM slapped 2 menacingly large tomes on the table, the official rule books of the game and instructed us to pour through the races and classes available for our characters. Up till this point I thought I knew what customization was in a game. I thought my experience in all those RPGS I played were going to be of actual use for me. I thought Skyrim and great customization! That is until I sat down to create a Pathfinder character. My god the choices here are overwhelming you choose everything from the standard name, class, weapons and armour, spells and stats to crazy things like gods to worship, feats, alignment and even specifics like height, weight and age.

Creating my character made me feel like god, all these details i was writing down, the specifics of it all just made my character seem so real in my mind. Granted I modeled mine after everyone’s favourite country turned pop star Taylor Swift (A Half-Elf bard), but the skills I assigned her seemed to craft her very nature. Naturally I poured a crazy amount of points into charisma just because I do it for every RPG I play, and I built her up from there making her aerobic, and escape artist, skilled liar and diplomat and of course, a great singer.

It’s a pretty daunting start, I spent the rest of my time talking to other players about their character choices, trading tips and laughing at players who landed some pretty horrible dice rolls. I swear some of those dices are loaded! But I’m looking forward to start of my adventure where I will take Taylor swift the lying diplomatic half elf into the depths of some horrible death inducing dungeon.

Nick

Gotham: Episode 1 recap

The initial pitch of Gotham was an uninspiring one, the story of everyone else but Batman after the death of the Waynes? Who’d want to watch that? Can a story of the most infamous citizens of Gotham really survive on network television without Batman? To be completely honest, I’m not sold yet.

The story revolves around the later would be figures of the Gotham underworld, Jim Gordon the future Police Commissioner is a rookie cop in this series, with Harvey Bullock playing the seasoned detective and reluctant partner to the ever enthusiastic James.  We are also introduced to a variety of villains and would be villains in this episode including:

The Penguin

Poison Ivy

Catwoman or girl in this case

The Joker?

The Riddler

Carmine Falcone

Most of these characters so far do have an interesting path to take based on the lore of the DC universe and would make some great stories. But then again, their best stories have always been after they’ve submitted to their roles in the Batman universe. Origin stories are fun and all, but they have to go somewhere and the frame work of this series just doesn’t seem to help.

On the bright side, the show is gorgeous. A lot of thought and money has clearly been poured into this project. The costume designs are elaborate and detailed, and the skyline is gorgeous. A lot of the building interiors and architecture also reflect the art deco style that Gotham city is so famous for, and the way the show looks is definitely the strongest part of the show so far.

Gotham looks gorgeous

The episode follows Jim and Harvey as they try to solve the Wayne case, and to be honest it’s pretty bland. It’s like an episode of Law and Order with some really REALLY cheesy dialogue thrown in and a few interesting character which are only interesting to me because I know the significance they play in the future. I’m sure there are a lot of Batman fans out there but the reality is that most people will not identify these characters or get excited because they don’t have the proper context to be, and if this show is going to survive for a next season they need to show why these characters are interesting fast.

Spoiler alert: Bruce Wayne’s parents die!

It’s too early to say if the series will succeed, but I can’t help but feel disappointed from what I’ve seen so far. It’s not as dark as I expected it to be, and the dialogue is a little too on the nose for me. What keeps me hopeful is the potential the series has and the seeds that were planted in the first episode. How will Jim rise to be commissioner? How will Nigma eventually go crazy and become the Riddler? How does Penguin gain control of the Gotham under world? They are exciting things to think about, and may just turn my opinion around. But for now, the future of Gotham is cloudy at best.