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
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”
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
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 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 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.
When I first saw the original E3 footage of Destiny I remember thinking to myself “That’s what I call next-gen!” I mean a shooter MMO made by one the best developers to ever touch the genre? Hell yeah! The amazing set designs, fascinating world and rapid gameplay on display immediately grabbed me and I imagined myself playing it with a few friends. Trudging through dungeons, fighting epic bosses getting cool loot while doing one of my favourite things ever, shooting things in the face. Ahhhh the utter bliss that would bring me….. it would be like Borderlands! But better! Perhaps the picture destiny painted in my imagination was too perfect. Playing destiny made me feel like a teenage girl, all my life Disney movies and boy bands have painted the perfect picture of my prince charming, and now I finally have him! Only to find out he’s a jerk just like all the rest of them 😥
That’s not to say Destiny was all that bad, when we first got together, it was magic. Everything I imagined it to be at first, I was shooting and riding on my bike along the beautiful setting and gorgeous graphics oh that handsome lighting…. makes my heart flutter. And he whispered such sweet melodies into my ear every time I turned him on, it just made me want to….explore. He handled like a dream too, he wasn’t too glitchy or slow, ran really smoothly and those shooting mechanics were spot on! The AI felt engaging and i felt constantly excited and challenged. But as time went on, the relationship started to fall apart.
I was so fascinated by his world and his characters, but he just seemed so shady about it and wouldn’t tell me much at all. We always had a general direction of things we had to do and I understood where we were going, there were so many other things I didn’t understand. Instead of telling me upfront or when I asked, Destiny told me I had to sign up on a website to view all the information I wanted. But why? He seemed like such a great guy why didn’t he just give me some context to who he is? The events in his stories he alluded to, the strange new worlds he brought me to seemed inconsequential I didn’t feel connected to them at all and in the end his stunning good looks and great gameplay just seemed to whisper “trust me darling, just come along” and I did. Now I feel dirty.
One of the things he promised me when we first got together was all the gifts he would shower me with, and he delivered…. sometimes. My ex borderlands was such a giving guy, he would shower me with so many cool gifts! Every gift he gave me was ridiculous, and they all had a great return policy so if I didn’t like them I could just get some cash back and buy gifts of my own. Even though, eventually he always gave me something unexpected that was totally cool and what I always wanted :). My other ex Diablo was even better, he gave me gifts I could customise to my own liking and my playstyle which made me very happy. Destiny just seems stingy in comparison, he doesn’t give me gifts as often, and he’s so random! My exes give me gifts when I accomplish something like defeat a boss or find a chest. Destiny doesn’t really do that, I rarely get gifts when i manage to finally defeat his enemies and even when he does give me gifts, they don’t really make me feel very special.
But one of the best things about Destiny that I like that none of my exes did was the many people I could play with. PvP and when we are on our regular quests. The PvP is fun, we have familiar games like controlling points on maps, team deathmatch etc. It’s fun! But sometimes I just wish he explained the rules a little bit better, does the type of damage my weapon does matter? What about my armour? some of his friends seem a little crazy though, very violent and rough. Those hunters are always spoiling everything with their “special power”. I need to tell Bungie to nerf them a little so I can have some fun with the best part about my babe.
After a while, I just got really started to get sick of Destiny, I was tired of his non giving attitude, his mysteriousness and even his sweet music and good looks weren’t doing it for me anymore… I started to think about my ex Diablo, who I recently dated, and I felt really tempted to call him and go out with him again. That’s when I knew, this relationship is not going to work out.
So Destiny, if you’re reading this, it’s not me, it’s you. You have so much potential, and I thought you were someone else when we first started going out, I just….. don’t love you anymore! Not until you change your ways, there are good parts of you and you can do so much better. I won’t lose hope on you, maybe in time you’ll grow to be the right game for me but for now, I’m going home with Diablo, sorry.
It’s almost that time of the year again, fall and winter have historically been one of the most anticipated seasons for gamers with the horde of awesome games just hoping to be snatched up for the holiday season, and without further ado, here’s my top 10 list of games to get this year….
1) Destiny (out now) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4
Destiny has been out for a little under a week and everyone on my friend’s list seems to be playing it. The makers of Halo have successfully the intense and challenging firefights they are known for into this borderlands-esque experience. Destiny allows players to team up in fire teams of 3 players to conquer dungeons, explore caves, and get some epic loot. I will be doing a little review of the game soon, once i’m done and you and look out for it soon.
2) Disney Infinity 2.0 (23rd sept) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4
I was incredibly exited when the original Disney infinity was released being the gargantuan Disney fan that I am, but something just never clicked with me. The game seemed repetitive and grew boring despite it’s charming visuals and characters. The figures were also giving my wallet a really hard time and it grew harder and harder for me to justify spending $20 on a character on a game I was falling out of love with.
But 2.0 looks like a refreshing breath of life, the game now features the Marvel universe right along side Disney characters and the figures look amazing, not to mention adorable. Characters also have ski8ll trees now and it plays almost like an action RPG. All your 1.0 figures will also work with with the new game INCLUDING the base set. which means you could possibly play 2.0 by just buying a disc copy if you already own 1.0. That’s a huge deal because it just means I have more money to spend on all those supercalifragilisticexpialidocious figures.
3) Shadow Of Mordor (30th Sept) – PC,XONE,PS4
This is the best looking LOTR game to date, you play Talion, a ranger whose family was slaughtered by sauron and the game chronicles your revenge into the heart of mordor in a stealth and action based adventure.
The video shown at E3 really impressed me, I never thought a stealth based LOTR game could really happen. But what was shown proved me wrong. SOM operates on a Nemesis system which generates enemies unique to every playthrough to assassinate. These characters follow a hierarchy and lower ranking enemies can be influenced to spy, assassinate or spread fear of your name around the ranks.
Combat in this game looks super fun as well in a very Batman Arkham Asylum way. It’s a tried and true system, I wouldn’t blame anyone for copying it because it works so well. But I think the option to go all stealth creates a unique gameplay experience. I can’t wait to play this game!
4) Alien Isolation (Oct 7th) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC
This game looks scary and for Alien fans, the game they’ve all been waiting for. Alien Isolation is pegged as the sequel to the original Alien movie. You play as Ellen Ripley, daughter of Amanda Ripley from alien as you explore a devastated outpost for signs of your missing mother.
The game provides you with rudimentary tools for survival but not so much for combat and the constant threat of the alien stalking you is always around. Dark corridors and empty rooms are now stalking grounds as you try and evade the alien that is ever on the hunt. Besides the alien, there are also other survivors who may or may not be friendly to deal with as you uncover the mysteries in Sevastopol.
5) Dragon Age: Inquisition (Nov 18th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC
I’m a big fan of the original Dragon Age and this one has me drooling so far. Not only does it look great, but the combat looks exciting and faster than ever before. DA3 is an action RPG with combat happening in real time, you can also choose to pause combat at anytime and issue orders to your team mates to carry out.
The world looks beautiful, and i’m super pumped that it’s open world. What i’m hoping that means is that we’ll get different quests that bring us back to familiar areas with a new context, or decisions that are made changing the landscape of previous areas and of course mounts, which i feel is essential to any open world game, unless you’re demon souls.
6) The Crew (Nov 11th) 360,XONE,PS4,PC
This is an interesting one. It’s touted as a social racing game, a racing mmo where players share the same world. The game seems similar to EA’s latest offerings in Need For Speed: RIvals, where players can challenge each other to races as they pass by, interact with other car factions ie cops vs racers and hunt for hidden routes and secrets.
The crew seems to have a pretty good emphasis on off road racing though, and could be the thing that sets it apart for similar racers. Players can also join crews to complete objectives and compete on a global leaderboard to be the best crew.
7) Assasin’s creed Unity (Nov 11th) – PC,XONE,PS4
This must be the 15th AC game, but the series has always managed to deliver pretty stellar stuff with a few exceptions. Last year’s iteration Black Flag turned out to be one of my favourite games of the year, although the best parts of that game weren’t designed after traditional AC mechanics.
This time, the game will take place in revolutionary France, which is great because I can say i’m researching for my history essay while playing. The game of course looks fantastic, the in game crowd in the E3 video looked like what the original AC had promised but failed to deliver so many years ago.
The gameplay however, looked really similar to other AC games. There’s your climbing stabbing and counter based combat, which seems totally fine and competent, but a little bland and uninspired being the 15th time they’ve done this. It’s like in soccer games when they introduce a new shooting system to “revolutionise” the way you play fifa, then they “revolutionise” it again next year.
The co-op missions however look really interesting and could be great fun to play with. Up to 4 players can work together to infiltrate restricted areas and kill off their targets which could lead to some interesting gameplay moments, although i’m interested to see how the developers will counter the ease of the missions once 4 players are involved.
8) Far Cry 4 (Nov 18th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC
This game looks bat shit crazy, in other words incredibly fun. You still do the same thing like tackling outposts, but the fundamental feeling of stalking your prey and exploding barrels all around you is just so thrilling. Far Cry 4 also introduces a lot of the late game traversal stuff in 3 like the flight suit earlier so players are more empowered to experiment and do crazier shit.
There’s a cool bait mechanic as well. Instead of throwing rocks to distract enemies, you can throw meat which serves as bait that draws nearby predators into the fray. The game actually spawns these animals whenever you throw it so use them wisely of you might just end up getting mauled yourself.
9) Costume quest 2 (Oct 7th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC,WIIU
The original Costume Quest came out sometime ago and I absolutely loved it. You go around as 3 kids on halloween trying to collect as much candy as humanly possible while reprising the roles of your costume while battling other “monsters” in turn based combat. Now that’s saying a lot coming from me because I hate turn based RPGs. Too slow for my taste, but CQ is just so charming it makes my heart melt and I could never ever hate it. It may be bare bones turned based combat but it’s not a big budget game like everything else on the list and if it looks good to you, it’ll be well worth your time.
10) Forza Horizon 2 (30th Sept) 360,XONE
Forza Horizon is my favourite racing game of all time. It’s gorgeous, has a great soundtrack, great festival atmosphere and some good old arcade style racing. This isn’t a game for hard core racing sim fans, it’s an arcade racer at it’s core but true to Forza style, you can turn off assists and tweak various settings to get to the realism you want.
This time the game takes place in one of my favourite places in the world, Southern France and Northern Italy, and I’m expecting nothing but greatness from the soundtrack this year. The beauty of Forza Horizon for me was how a non racing fan like me could enjoy it so much too. It was challenging, but the leveling up system was addictive and the adjustable difficulty settings reallyy helped me ease into things.
So I’ll start of by saying I’m all for DC in the great comic book wars, that is if I had to choose. But a few years ago I was introduced to Marvel Now which is a fantastic service, and if you haven’t heard of it, you need to stop reading RIGHT NOW and buy yourself a subscription. It’s a collection of Marvel books available online at the cost of a very modest fee of 9.99/ month. It doesn’t have the latest issues, but it’s a great way to read up on characters you’re curious about or just killing time. Anyway, I was looking around for the best Spiderman stories to read, and Spiderman: blue was suggested to me. I took a leap and man am I glad I did because it is definitely one of my favourite comic books I’ve ever read.
Spiderman: Blue isn’t your typical superhero story. There’s no world ending plot and Peter doesn’t get into too much trouble (comparatively speaking) . In fact, it’s more of a love story and the relationship between Peter, Gwen Stacey and Mary Jane Watson . Veterans to Spiderman already know what happens between them, but the story isn’t really about her death at all, but the profound impact she has had on their lives. The story takes place on valentine’s day where Peter grieves the loss of Gwen every year. It’s told with a series of flashbacks about how they met and how the relationship managed to progress.
Now as a love story itself, it isn’t very compelling. Geeky boy falls in love with girl, girl falls in love with geeky guy while the jock tries to make things difficult for the geek. It’s typical rom-com stuff. But there’s a sense of foreboding throughout the entire story, we know at the beginning that Gwen has already met her demise, and Peter has already gotten some closure. And this sense of foreboding really lent the rest of the narrative which was really charmingly written and happy go lucky (in true Spiderman fashion) a very different context. It feels like an account of the good old days, and you are constantly reminded throughout the book that these events are over, and twist is already known. Reading this book is really bittersweet which is something I’ve never really experienced with a comic book.
The book is amazingly well written as well, it’s the funny witty Spiderman we all know, but the grieving peter parker at the end of every issue shows off the contrasts and how much these events have changed him. The art style is great as well,, the characters here are really well drawn, especially Gwen and Mary Jane, and it’s fitting for the whimsical nature of the book.
One of my main gripes however is that I wish a bit more time was put into the relationship between Gwen and Mary Jane. They are friends but the book doesn’t exactly go in depth into how their relationship evolved and how the death had any real implication on her other than “that girl we used to hang with is dead now :(” .
Spiderman: Blue is a great read, for hardcore fans and newbies alike. Although I would suggest reading up on the events around Gwen Stacey and the earlier days of Spiderman to enjoy the full emotional impact the story strives for. And that’s it for my first comic book entry!
The Millennial Geek 