What I want to see in Grand Theft Auto V

With the Grand Theft Auto V release date not far around the corner I have recently been replaying number four to get back into the swing of things.  Whilst playing I have noticed there are a few minor things that I'm hoping will be fixed/removed in GTA V.  There are probably a whole tonne of things that I could pick apart about the game because in all honesty it's pretty pants when you get down to it.  Obviously the game was never going to be perfect or match San Andreas because this it was very much a return to the days of GTA 3.  The game world is back in Liberty City, it's the first game on the then new console and Rockstar didn't quite know the full extent of the system and how to work with it.  GTA 3 was an awesome game but as the PS2's life cycle went on Rockstar figured out the full potential of the console and thus after Vice City, San Andreas was born and was subsequently huge in comparison.

I'm rambling now and should get back to point with the post, so without further ado here are 3 things that I would like to see fixed or removed in Grand Theft Auto V.


#1 - Jumping

Now I'm not saying jumping should be removed but the jumping in GTA IV was so slow,  vaulting an object seemed to take ages and hampered some chase sequences in my opinion.  I'm not saying that I want to see Trevor, Michael and Franklin free-running around the place because that would be ridiculous.  All I want to see is a more fluid jumping/vaulting animation to make chase sequences flow a bit more.


#2 - Taxi's

Next up is Taxi's.  When I first played GTA IV I thought the ability to hail a cab and take a ride anywhere was a good idea, I have however since changed my mind.  I understand why a fast travel option was put in the game and I'm not going to lie I use it alot, not just in GTA but in games like Skyrim.  My reason for not liking it is that it takes away from all the details and little bits that you miss when you fast travel.  It's a be lazy option and I'm just as guilty for using it but with the sheer size and scope of the detail in the GTA V world, we could do without it.  As an example in Vice City I knew all the roads, where they went and the quickest routes to almost anything whereas in number IV I know nothing due to being lazy and abusing the Taxi's.


#3 - Vehicle Spawning

This next one is the bane of my Grand Theft Auto life and has plagued me ever since the days of Grand Theft Auto 3 and even though I'd love to see it fixed I have a feeling that it will haunt me forever.  Basically it's when you are driving along and there is nothing in-front of you, you have a quick check behind and suddenly a huge dump-truck, a police car or even a massive queue of traffic has spawned in-front of you.  I don't think I can recall a single thing about a game that has irritated and enraged me more than this over the course of my gaming years.  I'm not even sure if this can be fixed in the confines of how the game engine/spawn system works but I surely hope it can be.  I know some people will be thinking; "don't look behind you and the problem is fixed".  This however is easier said than done because during a chase I will look behind me to see where people are and how close they are, and this is something I have done ever since I started playing racing games.  It serves me well in racing games but in Grand Theft Auto is screws me so badly that I need soothing ointment and a weeks bed-rest.

If Rockstar can change/fix one thing then I hope it's the vehicle spawns because as much as I'd like to see the others changed I could live with them if it meant that everytime I checked my rear-view mirror I wasn't greeted by a massive car pile-up or my head through the windscreen when I look back in-front.

The future for Microsoft

It's been a busy past few weeks for the folks over there at Microsoft, what with E3 conference, the huge backlash, getting wiped all over the floor by Sony and big U-turn on their used game and online check-in policies.

There has been lots of talk on the interwebs about the whole situation but I'm not going to go into detail because I'll be here forever and I've seen that a few people have changed their minds about what console they are going to pre-order now. I personally am still pre-ordering the PlayStation 4 because I've lost trust in Microsoft and a company that were so actively looking to shaft consumers to begin with.  I understand that money is needed to survive when you release a product but there is a difference between making money and rinsing consumers for every possible penny.  To me it seems that Microsoft only care about the money and not what the gamers want; a games console.

I've also seen some people defending the used game policy of Xbox One by comparing it to Steam, and the fact that you can't trade-in the games you purchase off there.  I don't think you can compare the two because Steam is PC gaming and downloads only.  If you download a digital version of a game off of Steam with the expectation that you can trade it in then you sir are a moron.  Needless to say I'm getting off point and must get back to the original reason of this post.

All this talk and the U-turn has left me wondering what the future holds for Microsoft, not so much the next few years but beyond that and the time after Xbox One.

I don't see Microsoft giving up the potential money making opportunities of putting the used game market out of business.  I can see that something similar will return in the distant future and have a very strong gut feeling that the next console they work on will be download only (like Steam).  It is the only sure fire way to get rid of trade-ins altogether in one big swoop and I feel that this will happen at some point.  Whether or not the generation after the Xbox One and PS4 will be consoles as we know them now is something I'm unsure of, but I am confident that the next few years at Microsoft's research/development team will be based primarily on new ways to bypass the used game market and other ways to make more money without seeming like a complete bunch of money hungry arseholes.

I know that this is very, very early days to be talking about things like this when the Xbox One isn't even out yet but it's something that has been rumbling around in my head for the past few days and I felt that I needed to share it.  Let me know what you think either in the comments below or via the Twitter button in the top right.

Xbox One Reveal: Thoughts

Today saw the the new Xbox revealed to the world after months of speculation, "leaked" information and shady pictures.  We now know what it looks like (unlike the PlayStation 4, aye Sony), a general release time (later this year), a look at some of the features of the console and the hardware specifications.

Firstly I would like to make something very clear; I don't fully understand all the Hardware Specification mumbo-jumbo. I know how to use a computer and I have a basic level knowledge of what everything means in a computer. HOWEVER when it comes to gaming consoles I couldn't care less if you had tiny little miniaturized people running the thing or hardware in your console that so powerful it could break a hole in the time-space continuum. All I care about is these simple things:

• Does it look better
• Are the loading screens either gone or quicker
• Is there room for bigger and better games in general.
• Is there enough space for my game saves, demos and updates.

That is more or less all I care about when it comes to a new console, and all your technical words, processors and RAM means jackshit to me.  Obviously I'm drifting off topic so I will get back on track and say that all the video of games that I saw on the reveal looked awesome and loads better than the current gen, minus the EA section where people looked a little rubbery to me.

As we are on the games section there were a few games shown at the reveal; Call of Duty Ghosts, Forza 5, the usual yearly EA suspects of FIFA, NFL etc, and new game Quantum Break to name all the games shown.  Seriously for a big huge hyped reveal that had 4 games if you include the EA collection as one.

So there was a fair amount of the time of the reveal spent on explaining how Xbox One can work with your TV, how it is a complete entertainment unit and not just a games console. How you can talk to it and it recognizes your face and voice thanks to the new Kinect. Talking about how you will have a relationship with your Xbox, cue all the loons and the episode of the talk show: "My partner left me to marry his Xbox".
There was a lot of chat about the new partnerships with the NFL and how your 

be totally up to date, by the minute, with your fantasy teams across multiple sports (all American of course).

Essentially there were just talking bollocks for most of it, telling you that your games console is no longer a games console and is so much more now.  It's a TV box, it's a Blu-ray and DVD player, it's a music player, it can browse the internet and it can cook Bacon faster than a grilling machine. OK I made that last bit up.
I really couldn't give a flying monkeys left nut if it has all those features because I like most people have a computer that can do all those things. Admittedly having Netflix or BBC iPlayer on their is handy but it's not the end of the world or a selling point to me. Because do you know what I really want??

A GAMES CONSOLE!!!

I want something to play games on that maybe has some cool features within the gaming section. I want awesome games that will whittle away the hours of my exceedingly boring and wasted life.  I want to play games with a controller, the way it's always been and not by doing movements or talking to the big huge box sat on my living room unit.  I want something that can play games of amazing quality and that is what sells a new console to me.

I surely can't be the only one out there who feels this way?

Cosplayer of the Month: May

So it's a new month which means that I have to announce a new Cosplayer of the Month.  There have been quite a few cosplayers on my list this month and I have gradually whittled it down to one.  So without further ado May's cosplayer of the month is (drum roll please);

Casey Anne
*whoop whoop* *cheers and applause* 

Casey Anne is a cosplayer from either Boston or New England, Facebook tells me New England while Twitter says the former.  I don't think I can describe her in any better way than her own Facebook biography states:

"Casey Anne is a Zelda obsessed gamer and costumer who loves Batman, dogs, Disney movies, and leopard print."


Casey has done a few awesome cosplays over the past year including Berserker Yuna (Final Fantasy X-2), Juliet Starling (Lollipop Chainsaw) and Morrigan (Darkstalkers).  I know a fair few cosplayers have done a Juliet but few have gone that extra mile and made sure that they have a Nick by their side.  I am personally looking forward to seeing future work from a cosplayer who I hope will reach a wider audience over the next year.

Below is a few pictures of her work so far and her Twitter and Facebook links below those.  Do go and give her a follow and show her the love.

Juliet Starling

Berserker Yuna

Morrigan

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/xLadieLuck

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xladieluck

Photo's taken from Facebook, all images belong to Casey Anne.

Dead Island Riptide: First Impressions

Today has seen the release of Dead Island Riptide; the sequel to the surprise package Dead Island.  If you've never played or heard of Dead Island then it simplifies itself as a Zombie survival story set on a tropical island, where 4 survivors immune to the infection try to escape.  The game is a mixture of the XP and  quest whoring of games like Borderlands with the zombie fighting of games like Dead Rising/Left 4 Dead.

So is Riptide as good or even better than the first Dead Island?  If I'm being totally honest then no.

Riptide picks up exactly where Dead Island finished off, in the story and the game as a whole.  The fighting system is exactly the same and just as clunky, the character animations and voice acting are just as wooden and unsynchronised as before.  The game still suffers from bugs and glitches much as the last game, and only time will tell as to if there are more or less.

After playing with the game for about 2 hours I've realised that this is not a sequel in the true form, instead this essentially Dead Island re-branded and repackaged in a new city with a few new characters.  Yeah there are a few new things; for example the safe camp defence quests, the ability to drive a boat (it's a car on water with a turbo button), and new camp based missions for your camp members.

This game is not going to be for you if you expected a new Dead Island with a massive overhaul with everything having been retuned and made amazing.  If you are looking for a game to play with your friends for a bit of Zombie killing and a laugh at how bad the game is, much like you probably did before, then pick this up.

I will leave you with one last thing; don't buy this game as a single player game because it's boring and I'd honestly recommend that you wait until a price drop until you pick it up.

Cosplayer of the Month: April

In an attempt to make sure I post somewhat more regularly on this post I'm working this week on some new recurring blog posts for the site. My first idea was this post: Cosplayer of the Month.  So as you probably already know this months (and my first ever) cosplayer of the month is the beautiful and amazing Destiny Nickelsen.

If you don't know of Destiny Nickelsen she is an american cosplayer hailing out of the state of Georgia.  She has been cosplaying for a couple of years now and has cosplayed as an array of characters including; Black Cat, Juliet Starling, Supergirl, Mario, Bulma and more recently Injustice Harley Quinn among others.

In her time cosplaying she has won awards for Best Craftsmanship (Expert) at the Amazing Arizona Comic Con 2013 & Miss Southern Cospitality 2013.

Not only does she make some great costumes, she's also a genuinely lovely person and more importantly finds time to interact with her many fans on twitter.  She currently has just over 2,000 followers on twitter and over 11,000 likes on her Facebook page.  Although this is quite a sizeable amount I genuinely believe that she should have alot more than this so I will link her webpages below and do go and hit those Like & Follow buttons.

I will say that the main reason I have chose Miss Nickelsen is because Injustice: Gods Among Us is out now and I've yet to see a better Injustice based cosplay than hers.  So here are some pictures of a few of her awesome cosplays and don't forget to check her pages out at the bottom of the page.

Black Cat

Harley Quinn (Injustice)

Supergirl

Juliet Starling

Destiny's Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialDestinyNickelsen

Destiny's Twitter:  www.twitter.com/R2Des2

Destiny's Store:  destinynickelsen.storenvy.com/

The Tomb Raider Problem

Recently I purchased the new Tomb Raider game having heard many good things about the game via reviews and word of mouth.  I initially gave it a few days before starting the single player campaign so that I could fully commit to it without being distracted by things I had to do on other games or to a lesser extent, my life.

Once started though I found the campaign extremely difficult thing to stop player, a testament to this being the first evening where it took me after 5 hours of playing to finally turn it off to get sleep.  The game looks amazing, the story draws you in and makes you want to keep playing to find out how Lara actually gets off the island, and the gameplay is as good as Tomb Raider has ever been.  I would wholly recommend this game to anyone who loved the original Tomb Raider games, and also to anyone who loves a good adventure game.  As with all good games it has it's downsides; the overall story is quite short considering the pure brilliance of the story and the other one being collectibles.  This however is a personal preference because I much prefer to play a storyline rather than spend my free time looking for obscure pointless things that are hidden around the world.  You can always extend the story playing time by hunting the collectibles during the story but I get to distracted by my quest/goal to easily.

The single player is brilliant however I have reached a major problem with the game; the as titled 'Tomb Raider Problem'.

The problem is the second half of the game; the multiplayer.  I can only point blame to the huge successes of games like Call of Duty and Halo that have made the gaming industry think that almost every game has to have online multiplayer.  It's my own personal opinion, and from what I've read from general consensus, that the multiplayer is shockingly terrible and a pointless addition to the game.  To me Tomb Raider has always been a single player game and not a game where I thought the ability to play against each other is what the game was missing.

Even though the online multiplayer has put a massive dent in the game, it has shifted over 3 million copies since release which is a reasonably solid display.  Square Enix however have seen this as a failure compared that their financial expectations for the game.  I get the feeling that if Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics had got rid of the multiplayer and instead concentrated on the single player then they could have sold so many more copies of the game.  If they had invested all that time on extending the single player campaign, enriching the experience even more then this new revamp of the series would have been a phenomenal success.

The issue is that everything has to have multiplayer nowadays and too many games companies can't just plan for a totally single player game.  The companies are too focused on trying to achieve sales of Call of Duty's magnitude to not realise that there is still a big market for good, solid single player games.  You only have to look at games like Skyrim, Fallout 3 and the Arkham series of Batman games to show you that totally single player games still have a place in the gaming world.

I still hold a considerable amount of hope that the generalised collection of games companies will realise that online multiplayer isn't required in every single game, and that they lower their expectations and stop striving for sales figures that are ridiculously high.  But maybe that is a fools hope.

TheGamesCast

Sometimes in life there are people, or groups, who really deserve more recognition and public awareness of their existence then they currently have. One such group who fit this bill are TheGamesCast.

If you don't already know of them TheGamesCast are three guys; Paul, Duncan & Phil.  These guys are what might more commonly be referred to as 'old-school gamers'.  They've seen alot of what's gone on in the gaming world over the past years, played alot of different consoles and seen the progression of gaming from the early days of the Spectrum ZX81 right up to the current Gen of Xbox360 and the like.  So what I'm basically trying to say is that they know their shit when it comes to gaming.

These guys host a 60 minute live weekly podcast where they discuss the news and hottest topics of the gaming world for the current week, whilst trying to inject a more mature take on the gaming world and to have a good old laugh and fun at the same time.  There is also the during the show Chatroom where you can discuss the points being raised with other listeners and sometimes things mentioned in the chatroom will make it into the show.

Now I'll hold my hands up and admit that I've only listened to one show and that was last night. However from listening to that one show I was able to realise that these guys are funny, that I'll be listening to alot more shows in the future and that their podcast is perfect for gamers like me.  Gamers who play mostly for fun, who don't spend hours on end scouring the gaming websites for news and have a generally more mature view of life than the spotty 16 year olds whose main interest is tea-bagging and having top kills.

The weekly podcast is broadcast every Friday night at 9pm and I do strongly urge you to have a listen. You can find all the relevant information and a bit more information on the guys on their website, and do make sure to go give them a follow on twitter too (links below).

TheGamesCast.com

TheGamesCast Twitter

My Name is Stuart and I am addicted to X Com.

This is a confession. I have been slowly losing my life to this addiction and it has to stop. I have been hurting sentient life from other planets and dimensions for my own filthy addiction and I haven’t cared how I got my fix.

Look at this shit

I had better start with the beginning. A long time ago, all the cool kids were into turn based combat, it was the in-thing. I wanted to fit in so I tried Final Fantasy X on my Playstation 2 but it was a bad trip. The story was awful and all the characters looked like they had been designed by someone experiencing both a split personality and massive head trauma. The turn based combat itself was tedious, watching the characters repeat the same inane actions over and over for ages until the battle was won. My only reward? Pushing the annoying bastards forward to the next mind numbingly boring battle to while away the hours of my life. This was not for me!

I told my friends that I didn’t want to be cool, if this was what it took. I stuck to real time combat and I stayed healthy. Fortunately this fad didn’t last long and soon turn based combat was relegated to dingy cellars and attics where sad, hollow beings spend hours with calculators working out which stats to increase on their spiky haired personalities which have more life than their users. That was the end of it, or so I thought.

Fast forward more than a decade and turn based combat has come back in a new guise. I knew it was bad news, but a friend talked to me about it. He said turn based combat had changed. It wasn’t about stupid looking gits whining about to esoteric situation, this time, it was about fighting off an alien invasion with big burly men and big burly women. The game was getting high score reviews everywhere you looked and once again, my curiosity was peaked. The demo appeared on the Xbox live market place and I gave in, deciding that I would be just as bored as I had been before.

I couldn’t have been more wrong

Before I knew it, I was selecting a squad to fight off an alien menace, I was picking their weapons and skill sets, their armour and sending them out into battle, choosing optimal routes of attack, sending my snipers to higher ground so they have an advantage, making sure I don’t get out flanked. I was in heaven.  

You see, I was always a huge fan of Real Time Strategy games. While they had advanced, my laptop, the one I am typing this on, was a hybrid engine of steam power and hamsters on treadmills. 

Unfortunately steam and hamster power doesn’t work together very well and 8 steamed alive hamsters later, my computer can barely run basic programs at the same time, let alone a high end Real time strategy game.

There had been attempts to make Real Time Strategy games on the console market, but sadly, the controller is not suited to this, and made every battle an exercise in frustration and defeat. Xcom solves this problem by using a mixture of strategy and turn based action which is satisfying almost to the point that it would be illegal to play it in public and especially not in front of children.

When the mission is over, you return to your base which isn’t just a mission hub, it’s also a vital part of the game, making sure you keep funds coming in from countries in the world so you don’t run out of money, keeping aircraft ready in those countries if a UFO is spotted above them, making sure the base has enough power, workshops, scientists and engineers. There is a whole litany of things you can build in the base, all there to provide support for your team and hell for the invading aliens.

You raise your team members from frail humans with normal machine guns to the point where they are armoured titans, striding across the battlefields as a tightly knit team. Snipers dealing with long range enemies, assault troops being the grunts, heavy weapons soldiers to take on the tougher opponents, support troops with med kits and tasers to capture aliens. I was even giving them stupid nicknames. Mr. Cuddlebums was the name of my heavy weapons expert from the first level of the game and I have still kept him alive since then and in that, is where my real shame comes from.

You see, in Xcom, troops get stronger with each mission, develop their own specialties and tactics and soon become your primary soldiers. Unfortunately, when your soldier dies, they are dead forever. All that work, all that experience can be ruined by one berserker running up to him and tearing out his anus through their oesophagus.

Farewell Soldiers. You're killing aliens in heaven now

I could not handle that. I needed my favourite troops to stay alive. I didn’t want their names on the memorial wall  So I saved. I saved every time I thought my troops were going to be in danger. I saved before I started a mission and I saved after it. I reloaded so often if one of my team were killed, and the first thing that came to my head was “NOPE!”.

Xcom had made me something I’m not, a Save Spammer. Cowardly, unwilling to take defeat because I knew that one step back meant eight steps forward for the alien menace. I don’t need to make a game that is already pretty bloody difficult any harder.

So this is my confession, I spend hours on Xcom but do I really accomplish anything?

You bet your arse I do! DIE ALIENS DIE!

Life After Questing: Day 453

It's day 453 of my life in Skyrim and questing is a side note, a thing I do when I get bored or nostalgic about 'the good old days'.  Today I am in Whiterun (I swear I never leave this town), and I am having an easy day. I'm going to help the locals where I can and see what there is in a town that, if I'm honest, I've only ever run through on quests.

It's a fairly grime day in Whiterun with rain clouds overhead so there is only one thing for it; a trip to the Bannered Mare for a spot of breakfast.  As I'm not going to be doing much today I start with something light and a nice piece of Bread and a Sweetroll.  After an unfruitful attempt at seeing if Hulda has any gossip, I decided to mingle with the drunks who are always in here day and night.  There are all pretty boring so I figure that I'll explore the markets outside and what they have to sell before I get in trouble for punching Mikael out cold.

After clearing the gold out of two of the vendors I come to Carlotta Valentia who has something for sale that I have never found in Skyrim before: Milk.  For over a year now my diet has consisted of just alcohol and it's a surprise that I can walk straight let alone fight a Dragon and win.  Now however I have something normal to drink and for some strange reason this makes me happy.

On my way to Dragonsreach I pass Heimskr and wonder to myself how the Thalmor haven't killed him yet, or at least a citizen of Whiterun for his generally annoying never-ending rants.  After getting moaned at by the old crow of a cleaner upon entering and raiding the kitchen of all the good food I realise that there is nothing else here that I've not already seen and head out to explore the rest of the town in the hope of something interesting.

The trip to the Dungeon leads to looking at empty cells (clearly no crime happening at the moment), so I head back to the market, past Belethor's General Goods store and I stop at a house.  This is a special house for it is the house of my ex-wife Ysolda.  I start to feel my love for her return which is quickly overtaken with an overwhelming sense of guilt.  I can't bring myself to enter the house even though I still carry the key around with me.  You see I didn't break off the marriage, but in a moment of rage and stupidity I took her life.  Now I see that it was a terrible thing to do and wish I could go back and change it but I can't (and there is only so much necromancy can do).

Filled with regret and sadness I decide that there is only one thing left to do with the rest of my day; return to the Bannered Mare, buy loads of alcohol and get smashed at home with my companion Gregor.

For a day that was meant to be a good easy one, it turned out to be a pretty crappy one.  The only way it could get worse is if Gregor takes advantage of me while drunk.  But I suppose if it's been this long since she died then I shouldn't complain about a little action wherever it comes from.

The New Playstation

So if you haven't already heard the rumours  it would seem that by the end of this month we should all know either some concrete information on Sony's new PlayStation, or even know what it's going to look like.

It does however seem that there has been some leaked photos going around of what the new controller is going to be.  If you haven't seen it then the picture is below.

Personally I'm not a massive fan of this controller at the moment as it looks a big chunky in some aspects.  But what can we tell from the pictures so far?  Well you can see a socket for a jack at the bottom of the controller; is Sony going to do an Xbox and go for wired headsets as well as wireless?
There is also the screen on the front which some people are thinking is a touch screen built into the controller.  I don't see how beneficial that will be considering the size of it means you probably won't get a lot of display on the screen to touch.
You can also see in this picture a white box just above the screen.  Could this be a sensor for PlayStation move and this time round it's integrated into the controller to save having added peripherals??
Finally, the first picture I saw of this had the controller looking like a proper old-school wired controller.  Now I'm sure Sony wouldn't go back to them and this will no doubt be wireless but it does make me worry a little bit.

I'm not sold on this controller if it does in fact turn out to be the new PlayStation controller and leads me to have reservations about the console itself.  Either way Sony is still hurting from the hacking scandal and have lost a lot of consumer trust due to this, and this new console is their big chance to try and entice some of those consumers back to them and away from Xbox.

One thing is for sure; hopefully we should all know what is going on by the end of this month.

Revolution Is Here

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 DLC map pack 'Revolution' has finally hit the Xbox360 this week.  So with that in mind I have decided to post my views on it; this is not a review.

So I'll start with the multiplayer maps.  The new maps have added a bit of freshness to the online multiplayer because playing the same 4 maps seemingly all the time can be a bit tedious (Hijacked anyone?).  The 4 new maps have a variety of slightly different dynamics around the levels, with things such as the flooding of part of the Hydro map & the moving Cable Cars on Downhill.  These add the need to remember your surroundings or the game itself will kill you if you get in the way of them.

Spawning has always been a major issue in COD but without those issues, you still wouldn't be to far away from an enemy when you spawn.  The new maps have so many different ways to get around the maps and cut-ways making the journey shorter from one side to the other.  After a few games online you soon start to realise that 'Spawn Camping' seems to have gotten alot easier in these maps.

That aside these new multiplayer maps are good, they are not amazing, but they are good.  They inject the new settings that full time Call of Duty players have needed for a little while now and a new gun that is a great gun but time will tell if it is soon to become the only gun that most non-snipers use.

After a few more games online I will skip over the Turned mode.

So finally Die Rise.  Now I've heard a mixed bunch of replies to this ranging from; 'this is an awesome map' all the way to 'this is fucking shit'.  I personally think this map is very good and provides zombie players with a more close quarters environment that adds even more of a challenge to the game mode.  I've played a few games on there now and I am still managing to get lost in the buildings, opening doors to corridors that I've not been down yet.  I think the Easter Egg for this map is going to be hard but hopefully rewarding and not a 'thank fuck that's done' moment.

All in all I think the map pack is a pretty good one and like so many people I'm more interested in where this Zombie's story-line is going to take us over the coming months.

The personal highlight of the bundle for me is Die Rise, but when you play with a bunch of guys who scream like girls when a zombie turns up out of nowhere, it's always going to be fun.

Life After Questing: Day 445

A few days have past since you were last here and in that time I have added a North wing to Lakeview manor and added a load of furniture inside the house.  However in that time I felt a little lost, I felt that silent call to quest and so today I've decided to finish a quest I've been meaning to for over a year now: collecting all the Dragon Priest masks.  You see the thing is you can't just give up questing for good, it's like a Nord giving up alcohol and we all know that will never happen.

So you join me at 8.30am on Fredas the 7th of Sun's Dusk and I'm am currently outside High Gate Ruins after receiving a tip off ages ago about there being a source of power here and maybe even a Dragon Priest. I am fully kitted out in my Ancient Falmer armour and attempting to fight off any enemies with a Dragonbone Greatsword; a two-handed weapon that I am not great at using.

As soon as I enter the ruins I find a dead Draugr on the floor which makes me wonder if I may have fleetingly visited these ruins before but as I continue through to the next room I meet a woman called Anska. She's just stood there doing nothing as if she has been waiting for me.  We talk and I discover that the ruins are the home of the tomb of the long dead priest Vokun (jackpot), and that she needs my help retrieving a scroll from within the tomb.  This essentially means that she's too chicken to go it alone and wants me to kill everything and get attacked by everything instead of her.  However I am a nice guy (only been to prison once and that was a stray fireball during a Dragon attack), so I offer to help.

We head into the next area and get attacked by three Draugr that I dispatch of quickly and we continue deeper into the ruin.  As we delve further it becomes apparent that I'm a little rusty at ruin exploration as I set off a trap and get a face full of wooden spikes but Anska actually killed a few Draugr.  However rusty my exploration is, my puzzle solving skills are as sharp as ever and after taking less than a minute to solve a lever puzzle we are on our way again and into the catacombs.

After dispatching a load of Draugr Deathlords, a generic Dragon Priest and saving Anska's ass countless times we arrived in Vokun's Throne Room.  Vokun attacked us but it would seem he is not as big as he was made out to be as he went down like a sack of potatoes.  In the chamber behind I found a word wall and learnt a new word for the Storm Call shout.  I explored the room some more for more loot before I realised that Anska was still following me, waiting for me to pick up the scroll she came here for off the table next to her and personally hand it to her.  Why are all the citizens of Skyrim so lazy and useless?

With that part of the quest completed in just a mere 10 hours I left Anska to her own devices inside the ruins and headed outside, where I had an Ale and some vegetable soup and headed off home, up the road my second build Winstad Manor.  Only to get there to find a Giant attacking my house, so had to kill him before I could properly rest for the night.


It's been a long day and quite a proportion of me doesn't actually miss questing after today.  I think I might just have to stick to being a normal man about the house kind of guy.  Today has made me realise one other thing actually: it's a good job that potions don't have a use by date.

Life After Questing: Day 442

Good day everyone, you join my story not at the beginning or even the middle but at the end of it's tale.  At a point where I am master of all the guilds, the civil war has ended (the imperials won), the Dawnguard were victorious and Alduin has been defeated.  A stage in my life where meaningful quests are hard to come by and I am attempting to live a normal life in Skyrim.  This is my tale of that life and the occurrences that happen on a day to day basis.

So my story begins on day 442; Tirdas on the 3rd of Sun's Dusk. I awaken at 6.35am in Breezehome in Whiterun, with the view to having a productive day.  You see since my questing days have all but finished I have become something of a property developer and I'm currently working on the construction of my third house.  Unfortunately though during the building I ran out of some materials which I picked yesterday, the only item I haven't got yet is lumber.  So that is my plan for the day; taking a trip to the Half-Moon Mill on my way back to my new construction 'Lakeview Manor'.

With all that in mind I head downstairs to have some breakfast, a nice simple bread and cheese combo and I'm on my way.  I leave the house at seven to find that the weather looks pretty good today; it's not bright and sunny but there are few clouds in the sky.  I already begin to feel that this is going to be a good day.  On my way out of Whiterun I stop off at the Stables to be amazed to see my horse there, I was convinced that I saw it die at the hands of some Forsworn ages ago but here he is.  Southwest is my heading and as I pass the Western Watchtower a novice from the Dawnguard starts running alongside me. After awhile I stopped to see what he wanted only to find that he was fleeing from some kind of danger.  I looked around but could see no dangerous creatures or Bandits so just assumed he'd lost his marbles and let him carry on running away from his invisible foe.

Apart from a Sabrecat trying his luck the rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and I arrived at Half-Moon Mill at 9.40 and sought out Hert to purchase my lumber.  Now I've done my time with the Dawnguard so I know a Vampire when I see one, and Hert is most definitely a vampire (the red eyes and pasty face give it away).  But I'm not here on Dawnguard business so I purchase plenty of lumber and have a little chat only to find that Hert seems like a really nice woman.  Anyway it is time to press on before I have wasted the day away and once again my horse has disappeared on me again (wish it had died now), so I head off on foot.

After finding my horse 10 minutes up the road I reached Lakeview at just after eleven and began work on the main house building straight away.  I managed to build the main house and some furniture inside to at least make it a place that I can sleep/live in whilst I build the rest.  After feeling a bit hungry & fatigued I stopped to realise that it was almost 6:30 in the evening, so I stopped for a dinner consisting of Rabbit Haunch & Potato Soup.  There was little else to do so I indulged in a few drinks of wine (is alcohol all we drink in Skyrim??), and settled down for the evening.

I'm starting to feel that Lakeview may just become my new favourite house, so what if my neighbour is a necromancer practicing her works at the bottom of the hill my house sits on.  You can't pick your neighbours they say, but you can't argue with that view.

Introduction to...Simon

The above picture is of my main character in Skyrim; named Simon obviously.  Now over the past year I have seen many blogs solely detailing various ways of playing the game, people's day to day lives and adventures in the land of Skyrim.  I thought I would do posts every now and again detailing my life in Skyrim, but with a twist.

You see these posts will be detailing what happens after questing, when all the side quest-lines and the main story is completed.  They will be showing just what the Dovahkiin does to pass the time when almost everything is done and work is sparse.

I can't guarentee this will be overly interesting or at all exciting, instead an account of the 'Dragonborn' attempting to adjust to a normal life.

Black Ops 2 Challenge Guides

If you have Call of Duty Black Ops 2 & have played the single player campaign, you will have no doubt encountered the Challenges.  If you haven't then basically each single player mission has 10 challenges to complete, completing then all for every mission nets you an achievement/trophy.

If like me you are having a spot of bother with these challenges then I highly recommend checking out the videos posted by YouTube user ArticCompany via the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcticCompany

The videos are of good quality, show you how to do the challenges and they are explained in full in the description box.  There is also the opportunity to skip ahead to specific challenges if you only need one or two.  I personally have used these videos to complete the majority of the challenges on my game & found them helpful, so I thought I'd share them with you.

On a side note I would just like to say that who ever decided to put these challenges in the game, along with the achievement/trophy that comes with completing them, should be fired.  These challenges have killed pretty much all enjoyment I got out of the game when I first started playing it and I'm literally having to force myself to load the game up just to get the last 20 challenges.  My only hope is that these don't return in future games in the series.

Black Ops 2 & Other Stuff

Well it's been awhile since I was last on this site but I am determined to make a go of blogging for once & actually mean it.  So last time I was here I mentioned about the new direction for this site & that's going to continue.  The main reasoning behind this is that I don't have the time to constantly keep an eye out for gaming news & I'm pretty rubbish at doing reviews.

So along with online videos & games I will be posting articles about many gaming related things I find on my searches online, the music choices I am currently listening to, and my general opinions of some bits of gaming news and the like.

So to kick off the rebirth of this site I have a Youtuber by the name of MetatronixGaming who posts game-play commentary videos (mainly on Black Ops 2 at the moment), and also posts 'How To' videos on how to make some of the best emblems around.  Why are they the best? Because they are Adventure Time emblems and you can't go wrong with a bit of Jake & Finn.

Check out his how to make Finn video below and please do Like & subscribe to his channel.