Review: Borderlands 2 Demake

If you're a Borderlands fan or an old school 16-bit fan or just love playing free flash games, then you must try this free-to-play Borderlands 2 Demake! And guess what? It doesn't have those disgusting pop-up ads covering your screen or must-buy-weapons-with-RL-money crap.

The control functions are simply great, arrow keys to move around and the space bar to shoot; even a 3 year old could play this game. The first thing was to select a character, and each character had different stats. I preferred using Axton as he had the best overall stats that worked well for my noob gaming-ness.

Borderlands 2 Demake character selection screen

The objective of the game was to shoot incoming enemies which looked like 16-bit psychos and skags which were pretty sweet, level up some and upgrade your weapons along the way. Actual gameplay I found was a bit stressful (but some-what in a good way).

One thing that pissed me off in the game was the random guns; any gun that has the word random in it. Do not pick up the random gun! I repeat, do not pick up the random gun, it will make you die! I picked one up, started shooting up some skags and the gun literally had bullets flying in random directions. What the feck? Made me run around like a chicken with no head and drop dead because I couldn't kill anything. The game developer probably just put it in there for shits n' giggles.

Upgrading weapons in Borderlands 2 Demake

So, would I play this game again? Yeah, if I was bored shitless at work or wanted to listen to some old school ear raping sound effects.

Lastly, click the link to play the Borderlands 2 Demake! http://www.wubwub.eu/demake.php

MY RATING: 3.5/5

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My Problem with Nintendo 3DS Wireless

Last weekend, I discovered a problem with my Nintendo 3DS's wireless. 

Y U NO WORK 3DS WIRELESS??!

Here were its sickly symptoms:

• I couldn't open the eShop, it would instead - freeze the whole console if I tried to close it
• The internet browser wasn't working
• Green wireless light was still flashing
• It could still pick up wireless network connection points
• StreetPass still works

I tried a few different methods to try and fix it. Re-entering my home network password, standing closer to the wireless router, turning the 3DS off an on, looking online for other solutions to fix the problem... nothing worked really. But I was convinced the wireless in the 3DS wasn't kaput. It was still green with life! The 3DS just wasn't connecting to the internet for some strange reason! 

My boyfriend suggested that I ring up Nintendo Support. As I was about to, I thought, what if... I just reboot the wireless router? Five minutes later. Success! I couldn't believe this fixed the problem. I found it just bizarre that I needed to do this to make the 3DS wireless work again. 

Oh technology, how you boggle my mind.

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Review: The Walking Dead Social Game (Open Beta)

AMC series The Walking Dead has newly introduced their open beta staged game to Facebook. I am a fan of the TV series so I just had to test out this game to see if it's any good. Fingers crossed.

My characters FACE looks worried... AS IT SHOULD BE!
It is a Zombie Apocalypse after all.

The game starts off by allowing you to customize the appearance of your character. Customization wasn't too detailed... but that's probably because the game simply, does not need it. Just enough to get you feeling some-what attached to the character. Perfect.

The game is set in chapters and the chapters as well as the in-game characters, are related to the actual show. To progress through the game, certain missions given by the NPC's at base camp had to be carried out, such as "get more water supplies" or "check if the premises is clear" to progress through the game; and by progressing through the game, more money was earned, experience grew resulting in new levels, character skills upgraded and more random unknown people would join your camp to  help you in future missions.

The mission objectives is what makes The Walking Dead Social Game have its title for being a game. It allows you to run around (turn-based, player versus walker) collecting the desperately needed supplies or stab the guts out of an unwanted walker; which sometimes was your Facebook friend, for the LOLZ. Being a turn-based game, strategizing the shortest route and using the smallest amount of stamina... oh, don't get me started on the stamina; is vital, as stamina is the factor that allows you to even play the game further on - or not.

The Walking Dead Social Game: Chilling in base camp

The stamina bar was like the fuel to a car. If you didn't have any stamina left, you literally couldn't play the game anymore; unless you fork out more stamina energy drinks - with real money - or wait with real life time, to venture further into the game. Neither of which, I was happy to do. Stamina energy drinks could be given out as a gift by your Facebook friends but would be near to useless as it would only give 1 stamina increase. Bleh.

Weapons were mediocre in this game. To hit a zombie with a weapon, simply just press 'x' at the precise moment it swivels and turns red on their rotting body. I also found that guns are a no-no as it attracts a lot of unwanted walkers... So I stuck to my handy-dandy axe; but my axe kept breaking so I'd have to wait with real life time before it was mended again. On top of that, unfortunately like the stamina, lot of the weapon upgrades can only be bought with real life money. What a bummer but I guess, understandable in a way. Developers need to make money too, right?

Character skills were upgradable from time to time but it didn't make much of a huge difference really... however I advice you to put your stat increase to stamina so you can actually play the game for more than 2 minutes at a time. GOOD ONE (insert rage face meme here).

The music was um, like one song that I can recall... Nothing memorable at all here.

On a more positive note, with every successful mission you do, people in-game start finding their way to your camp. These random people can be used in a strategic way within a mission to help save your health and stamina! And the graphics and artwork are appealing to my eyes. I like its grungy style.

On a mission with a complimentary character. The Walking Dead Social Game.

Overall I feel like there's a lot more work that still needs to be done to the game - to make it more like a game. At the moment I get about 1-2 minutes of actually playing time out of it... and I would love to play for even longer because I like the whole idea of the game as well as it having some sort of positive potential - but the stamina regenerating situation is just a bit off-putting for me. I don't like spending money on Social Facebook games, so you'll really need to grab a good one out of your bag of tricks for my 2 cents. Just my opinion.

Here are things I suggest for its improvements:

• Instead of pressing 'x' to kill a zombie, maybe use a combination of keys to make it more challenging; even on expert mode it's still a little too dull.
• Come up with another way of regenerating stamina! Spending money on a game like this will not tickle everyone's pickle. And waiting for stamina regeneration for ages to play only 2 minutes of The Walking Dead? It's simply painful. Maybe watch more 'advertisements' - like the get-more-ammo concept you already have in place?
• You need more creepier sounds effects. I should be shaking in my seat ready to piss myself when the DANGER sign awakens.
• Walking around base-camp shouldn't use up stamina at ALL.
• K, I understand the real life money for better weapons deal, but I'm hoping there is armor included in the Inventory > Items section once that's released because losing the recruited people is very sad and makes me want to cry go punch my pillow.

RATING: 2/5

*Note: I am only reviewing the Open Beta version of The Walking Dead Social Game so the actual proper release of this game may change drastically, resulting in this review to be utterly useless.

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Mutant Mudds Demo

When sifting through the demos in the Nintendo eShop, I came across this adorable little platformer called Mutant Mudds. From the screenshots shown in this post, you can see that it has a sorta; cute retro feel about it. It's a generic platform game, no doubt about it, but the way it's played and how the controls are designed and handled; you could say, Mutant Mudds was built perfectly for the 3DS.

This game - even though a demo, was one of the first games I've played that was better off being played with the 3D turned on. Better with 3D turned on?! Chaotic! Yep, this shocked me too. 

Mutant Mudds Demo

The game consisted of the usual platform normality to it... but also contained a foreground platform and a background platform you could jump across to! 3D being turned on (for once), really helped on distinguishing the placements of the monsters and the different platforms. If the monsters were right in front of you - you can blast them away with your bubble looking gun or jet-pack your way over them, but if in the background or foreground then, they were not to be worried about.

On each level you start off with 2 extra lives. It actually shows 3 hearts... but you die if you lose the 3rd heart life - so that's freaking weird. And... the game has a time limit to make it extra more challenging. The perfect amount of challenging-ness in my opinion. On the fourth level, I learnt to not collect all of the diamond looking points because there was simply not enough time to collect them all and stuff around on the annoying disappearing yet reappearing platforms.

Waving in Mutant Mudds

The Mutant Mudds soundtrack from what I've heard so far is just pure bliss! Great melodic tunes and not too over the top. Old school gaming music makes me a little moist in the pants, LMAO! Besides that, it costs about $13.50 AUS so it a little bit pricey for an eShop game but... It's a great game! So I think I just have to buy it. I'm hoping the full game contains a gazillion more levels, more fantastic music and more awesome mutant surprises.

A great demo I say!

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Review: Flowerz

Flowerz by Carbonated Games is the very first game that I've downloaded on my current Windows phone. And I've learnt to not judge this book by its cover. When I first looked at the screenshots, I was a bit iffy about the graphics because it looked really basic. Most of the reviews from other users were five stars which was surprising, so this game just had to be downloaded, plus it was free!

When I first opened the game, I was incredibly shocked at the colour arrangements used in the game. The GREEN, its a terrible shade of green. Really! Oh and those orange button with the blue text, it's so hard to read; it makes my eyes bleed...

Besides the way it looks, it didn't deter me from playing this puzzle game. I just had to give it a try.

Flowerz green is nasty!

Whether it be standard or expert mode, the game sets you on a board where flowers of a few sorts of colours have been placed randomly on the board. Simultaneously, the top of the board displays a row of the types of flowers and actions (such as a shovel or colour changing butterfly) needing to be used in the next moves you make. The objective of the game is to make a row of three or more of the same flower colour - which then deletes these flowers, therefore receiving points from these eliminated flowers and allowing more space on the board to situate your next flowers on. Gosh I'm bad at explaining. Luckily there's helpful pop-up hints in-game to help you with with your way.

But oh no no, it doesn't stop there. With each level you accomplish, it gets harder. The flowers start multiplying in colour, getting an inner secondary colour which needs to be eliminated once the primary colour gets eliminated first. Random bricks also makes its way onto the board making your puzzle gaming experience even more challenging and the useful shovels and colour changing butterflies become even more rare, resulting in epic failure and the end of the game.

This game can easily be addictive for puzzle lovers. You can make up some sort of strategy to accumulate flower combos for more points and to last longer in-game. Playing through each level can be quite fast and if you get into a phone call, it is easy to resume back to the game. And the sound? There's no music thank God. But cool bloop, beep and sparkly sound effects to emphasise placing the flowers on the board. Lmao!

Besides the terrible crazy colour choices in the game, the one other little thing that's a tiny bit annoying is the random lag you get when completing some crazy super duper combo. Pretty sure its the game and not the phone.

Overall it's a greatly designed puzzle game and has high replay value. It's also a free download plus it has a few easy Xbox LIVE achievements in it, so I highly recommend it.

MY RATING: 4/5

Note: The word colour and color mean the same thing.

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Mini Nokia Lumia 800 Review and Xbox LIVE!

Round about this time last week, I received a new phone. Thank goodness God. I was still on the ol' grandpa iPhone 3G phone and had that same phone for about 3 years prior. I'm impressed that the iPhone 3G even lasted that long with the amount of times I've dropped it!

Nokia Lumia 800 Pinned App Screen
EMBRACE THE FUZZY IMAGE!

So now, I'm on a Nokia Lumia 800, I know it's not the latest and greatest phone on market to-date, but it's cheap in price and does nearly everything that I want it to do. Plus I got it for free. That's ultimately what you want out of your phone right? Being my first Windows phone... I wasn't quite sure what to expect of it; what type of apps I'd be able to download and the type of games I can play.

The first thing I noticed when I turned the phone on was how the interface was set out. Two application squares across and down the page. Interesting design and quite good for people with large fingers. If you wanted to see other hidden applications that you don't have pinned on your main screen, a simple swipe to the left and scroll, scroll, scroll is all you need to do! Easy and simple.

Application selection seems responsive, the main bottom buttons seems very responsive with the slight vibrate at touch, the screen res is crisp, brightness is immaculate, volume is good and the overall feel of the phone feels solid. I won't go into too much detail or we'll be here all day! Click link for full list of statistics. Most of the applications that I wanted to install on my phone were available, such as Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook Twitter etc. except for Blogger and some sort of Screen Capture application - but that's ok. I can't have everything lol.

One application that came with the phone that caught my attention was the Xbox LIVE application. Xbox LIVE? That's freaking awesome! I've never made an Xbox LIVE account before and don't own an Xbox 360 so this was definitely a bonus to be able to play some Xbox titles on my phone. In a flash I made an Xbox LIVE account, made an avatar and downloaded some free Xbox LIVE games.

If you want to recommend an Xbox LIVE game available on a Windows phone whether its a paid game or not, feel free to post it here!

Hoping to add some sexy achievements next to my Xbox LIVE name in future!

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First Impressions: Heroes of Ruin

I purchased Heroes of Ruin, simply because I thoroughly enjoyed, what I played and saw in the Heroes of Ruin demo! It was one of those demo's where I just wanted to keep playing more and more; but I couldn't because I had reached the end of the demo campaign.

The demo was fantastic because the multi-player feature (without the voice) was utilized, so I was walking around luring monsters on other players! Like a troll. It was epicly fun. So really, there was no question about it, I just had to go out and purchase it. Once I had purchased the game, funny enough, I didn't actually get stuck into it straight away. My boyfriend decided to get his grubby fingers all over the game first. But that changed quickly.

Hooded gunslinger. I named him Duke!

Starting off, I got the vibe of a hack and slash Diablo 3-ish dungeon crawling type of game, but on a much smaller scale. It would be terribly bad to solely compare this to Diablo 3 seeing as Heroes of Ruin is on a Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS console alone would determine graphics and the overall gameplay experience and on a 3DS, you already know what to expect.

Duke the gunslinger sitting in the corner like a dodo.

Character selection was one of the first tasks endued. From an alchitect, savage, gunslinger or vindicator, I chose to become a dual-wielding gunslinger because it just sounded motherfucking LEET! Actual customization was basic, but I already expected that from the demo.

The main storyline I felt, wasn't translated to its full potential. I didn't totally understand what was going on, maybe I wasn't listening; I don't know. However, I did hear something about a place called Nexus, then went on collecting a heap of different quests from some random NPC's and boom, active quest --> this way! I then ventured forward to the hack and slash, loot collecting, potion grabbing, upgrading skills/special abilities/level and armoury part of the game and this is the part that I really like! At this point, I knew that this could be one of those addictive games however... I did question the hack and slash repetitiveness. Was it too much? For a gunslinger... nahhhhh!

So far I can see that there is no shortage on loot - which is great. I also haven't died either; there were a few close calls with some boss monsters but no deaths yet. It's probably set on easy to cater for the younger audience, but I do think they should of implemented a difficulty system for a bit of fun!

I've also played a bit of multi-player but I'll talk about it in another post. Overall, I am very happy with my Heroes of Ruin purchase and will definitely work on future posts about it and finishing it off.

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Mario Kart 7 Winning Guide

In this post, I'm going to try and write a type of guide on things you can do to come first in Mario Kart 7 (MK7, no I am not referring to Mortal Kombat 7). I'm no pro at this game; just an everyday player, that managed to get the three stars next to my name, so don't get all rage face on me if you've read this and are still losing. You simply just need to practice more or - settle on being a gaming noob in general. Jks.

Drifting

Firstly, I'm new to the "Mario Kart" saga and I've notice that drifting or um, power-sliding around a corner in-game can sometimes be difficult and be a pain in the butt hole if you have bad handling. Drifting however, is something you really really need in Mario Kart and need in nearly every other racing game. It gives you boost - which can lead you to victory. Drifting in MK7 I've noticed, can takes you far wide. On a regular noob occasion, you drift, and end up sliding out far too wide and off the track. It sucks bad. What you need to try and do is give yourself enough space to let a fart drift out. If you try to drift and don't think you have enough track or feel like you're going to hit a wall, then simply don't drift, just steer normally. Hitting a wall or falling off a track is worse than not having boost after a drift. Remember, if you can let an occasional drift out and succeed in doing so, you will pwn over others.

1. Drift for 3-ish seconds (till exhaust sparks blue) and you will get a small-ass boost.
2. Drift for about 6-ish seconds (till blue exhaust sparks red) and you will get a slightly bigger boost.

Jump Boosting

I say, do it at every jump possible. Every ledge, every small ramp, every boost ramp thingy or whatever it's called - just do it. But before you do it, make sure you're facing the right way, because sometimes it's hard to control yourself in mid-air without a glider, epecially on the Rainbow Road track (that track sucks balls). To boost after a jump, simply press R-button quickly straight after the jump. It really helps. Really.

Coins
Collect the damn coins when you can but leave them if you feel like you're going to crash into a wall doing so. Collecting coins can increase your base-speed and help you un-lock kart mods and characters to use in-game. It's a win win.

Items

Make sure to always drive through the item boxes. And if you feel adventurous enough, knock out 2 item boxes at the same time, so the opponents behind you get squat. Every item is important; shrooms to boost, the weird looking squirrel tail to knock out opponents as well as hitting unwanted shells (excluding blue shell) away, bananas to slow your opponents down and a silly little green turtle shell. Even if you're in first place; you can shoot the green shell back in-case there's a red turtle shell heading your way. And so on.

Snake

When I first played MK7 online, I was wondering what the eff people were doing when they kept drifting left to right to left to right. I soon discovered they were snaking (which is just constant drifting from left to right). Yes, snaking can benefit you by getting boost, but I personally believe it's not that beneficial at all. Bumping into things, falling off tracks and getting hit by other players and their annoying items are hard enough. Let's just stick to drifting corners when required.

Glitches
If you feel like being a total ass to other players, for the sake of winning, feel free to use MK7 glitches to your advantage, and yes, I'm talking about the Wuhu Mountain Loop glitch.

Shortcuts
Ok, so now I'm not referring to the shortcut glitches in the game, I'm referring to the legitimate ramps in the middle of the grassy nulls or the path that randomly veers off to the side.

I personally didn't use these shortcuts often, usually because the kart I'd choose to race with would be shit in a shortcut circumstance; plus it would only save you a second or two which didn't really bother me. However, if you feel the need to take a shortcut, go right ahead, or left - whichever way it goes.

Character & Kart Statistics
Choosing your character and kart mods will totally depended on your driving style. It'll take a few races and modifications of character/kart selections to properly figure out your true driving nature.

I used to think it was all about the speed, however selecting a speed character meant slower acceleration and un-easy handling. I was struggling to win any 150cc races - due to getting hit by items and or crashing into walls frequently, so I tried a character and kart with better acceleration and handling. To my surprise, these stats were perfect for me. I was able to come first in 150cc races 80% of the time. In my personal opinion, acceleration triumphs over speed.

Map Screen
Eyeball the map screen like your eye-balling some hot bikini babe. Simply just, glance occasionally at it to see if the opponents behind you have little nasty nuggets for you like a blue shell up their sleeve. Then plan your strategy to avoid it accordingly.

Time Trial
Rainbow Road was a track that I struggled on. Sometimes it wasn't worth going through the whole Cup Tournament knowing I'd fail on one particular track. So what I'd do is, perrrfect.. racing the track through Time Trialling. Practice makes perfect right?

Driving

Last but not least is the way you drive in Mario Kart 7. Run over every boost pad, take every short cut possible, boost over jumps - just boost in general... Avoid grassy sections if your kart is built for on-road only, drift around corners narrowly, avoid touching other karts if your kart is weak. Common knowledge stuff. All in all, good luck!

Some of the stuff I've written above may be a little wrong but all the stuff I've written above is from my own personal experience, I hope it helps! If you have any more great tips in beating Mario Kart 7, feel free to post them in the comments.

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