The Curiosity Cube will need no introduction to many of you. To those of you who don’t know, it is the first game/project by independent gaming company 22Cans. An addictive tap-athon, players earn virtual currency by tapping/breaking the tiny little cubes that, together, make up a massive cube. Players score extra for combo-chains which are generated through tapping the cubes accurately.

How the cube was looking at the time this article was written.

But the ultimate goal of the project isn’t to be the one to amass the most coins, oh no (although it could help you achieve the final objective). Player’s ultimate target is to be the one to break the final cube. The prize for attaining this grand achievement? Only 3 people in the world currently know the answer ; 22Cans founder Peter Molyneux, the sound engineer who recorded the sounds of the final video and one further person Molyneux has not revealed.

With the cube now being on the verge of diminished (it was reported that it was down to its last 50 layers earlier this month, although the figure is sure to be much less now) I’ve been doing something I’m sure every other one of the app’s 5 million-odd players has done : speculating whats inside the box. Here is what I’ve come up with

Inspirational video

I’ll begin with the most obvious, most likely (and most disappointing) possibility ; that tapping the final cube will lead to nothing more than a video containing some ‘word of wisdom’ by the man himself. Contents of such a video could be anything from quotes on how to live a more peaceful life by the Dalai Lama, Peter’s own take on what constitutes happiness, a lecture about how the journey to the cube’s core was its own reward, there are heaps of possibilities.

There -will- be a video of Peter Molyneux to greet the winner.
Lets hope that’s not all there is…

I mean, we already know for sure that there will be a video, as evidenced by Molyneux’s reveal about his sound engineer knowing the big secret. Lets just hope that’s not all the big secret is.

Guaranteed ticket into Outer Space

Molyneux famously described the prize at for breaking through the cube as “life-changing in any measurable way”. What could be more life-changing than a journey into space? It was announced in April that a private project called Mars One was recruiting people to start the first permanent human colony on Mars. The Mars One team have stated that the main qualities they will be looking for when selecting astronauts will be resilience, adaptability, curiosity, ability to trust others, and creativity/resourcefulness. As players of the cube have collectively demonstrated all of these traits in their endeavour to get to the bottom of the cube, what better way to celebrate its legacy than to have its most successful player represent it in a brand new society?

Could the one that manages to break the cube be invited to Mars to go fourth and, well, multiply? Unlikely, but possible!

Would 22Cans have the resources to pull off such a stunt as securing a guaranteed place on the project for though? Peter’s a well-connected guy, so there’s no reason to assume he doesn’t know someone who knows someone. He’s also been making top games for over 20 years and is highly revered for that. Who knows, maybe one of the Mars One project managers is a Populous fan? Or Black & White fan? Or Fable fan (you get the picture)?

A large sum of money

A large sum of money would be life-changing. To some of us. If, say, Prince Harry happens to be the one to administer the final click would the money change his life in ‘any measurable way’. Not so much. Still, it would be a lovely gift for the winner to receive. And for the rest of the world watching ; a rather boring one. Lets hope its not this.

You don’t really think 22Cans will give such a boring prize… do you?

The rights to 22Cans 3rd game

From one social experiment to another ; what if the prize for penetrating the cube’s core is the rights to a 22Cans game? With which the lucky individual can do whatever they please ; release/distribute it themselves, sell it, sit on the secret : whatever they wish! What a way to really bring the God genre to life!

Bestowing the winner with the rights to a 22Cans game would prove as much of a Pandora’s box as the Curiosity cube itself!

Its certainly a prize that would capture the imagination of gamers everywhere, and something that, like the ticket into space, would be remembered for a very long time.

Whatever the eventual prize is one thing’s for certain : whoever managed to crack that last cube will have unlocked a most significant achievement in gaming history. And have bragging rights for life. An award which is certainly one worth striving for in itself.

-HelenBaby

Of course, it’s something that people have tried for years. But with limited success – the Virtual Boy for instance, was a notorious failure – essentially just applying old-school 3D glasses to your face to give a 3D feel to basic, NES-quality visuals. Not quite the immersive experience that some of us dream of – but it was perhaps one of the first notable attempts. In more recent years, the idea of a real-life VR device seemed like something of a fleeting dream.

Until recently, that is – when I first heard the news of the Oculus Rift, a Kickstarter project with $250,000 goal. The concept of the Oculus Rift is to deal with perhaps the most prominent aspect of VR - the ability to see within a virtual space as though you are really there. And it seems people have taken more interest than maybe expected – seeing as so far, nearly $2.5 million has been pledged to the cause. So what’s the big deal?

Well, the Oculus Rift is a head-mounted stereoscopic 3D display with a wide screen that gives a very realistic field of vision – meaning that unlike 3D experiences such as cinema and the 3DS, the immersion should be much greater, with your perception close to that which you have in real life. And unlike the 3DS, for example, the head-mounted display means that the stereoscopic picture is always positioned at the optimal view of your eyes – no immersion-breaking when you aren’t quite sitting right. Looking through the Rift should supposedly give you perception into a virtual 3D space much in the same way that you get in reality.

While that in itself sounds extremely cool, it’s the next feature that really get me excited about what the Rift can do. The OR has full head-tracking – meaning that if you turn your head to the left, you see left. If you look up, you see up. As if your head was actually in that virtual space – your vision works in the same way. While all 3D devices so far have only allowed 3D perception dependant on the in-game camera, being able to look around in this manner sounds extremely immersive. Here’s some footage of the Oculus Rift in action.

Seems pretty cool, right? Of course, it’s hard to really get a grasp on just how it feels to use the Oculus Rift without actually being able to use one – but it’s easy to see how the tech is looking very strong and how much potential the equipment has. Already, many well-known game developers are getting in on the action – including Epic Games, who will be integrating OR compatibility into the Unreal Engine, Gabe Newell of Valve, and John Carmack of id Software. Some currently existing PC games are already compatible with the OR – including Mirror’s Edge, Half-Life 2 and Portal – but of course, they don’t offer perfect VR experiences, as they were not originally designed for that purpose. Still, I’d love to play BioShock in immersive 3D!

Two of the issues raised in the previous video were that of no position tracking – i.e. only the head’s position is tracked, taking no account of height or lower body movement, and also that you couldn’t see your body. However, both of these issues seem fairly simple to resolve (in context to what the Rift can already do, that is) – similar to motion capture technology, I would think it would be possible to track your body’s movement by attaching devices to key parts of your frame, to be translated in-game and reflected there. Of course, I’m no expert – but I’m not totally making all of this up – in fact, work in this area has already begun. Utilising some handheld devices, and with a basic in-game character model, developers have already managed to create an in-game presence with hands that move as though they were your own.

Of course, being a tech demo this isn’t Triple-A quality visuals – but looking at the concept of this demo makes me very excited:

Imagine how it must feel to be able to look around a virtual landscape, look down and see your body – one that mimics the movements of your own. Sure, the Hydra controllers shown are used for the hands, but what’s to stop there being similar tracking for feet? Obviously, we then start getting into the territory of more expensive equipment and other technology – but perhaps for the first time in my life - something resembling VR could actually happen, and it might not even be that far off.

From a VR perspective, this would only be the tip of the iceberg. Outside of vision and sound, there is of course no sense of feedback of anything within these virtual environments. You can’t feel anything, or move your body in a natural way - sitting on things, walking around as if you were in a real environment – at the moment, forward movement is of course performed by a regular controller. But while it’s a long way off real-life VR, it sounds like an amazing step in terms of gaming technology. Imagine being able to play a first-person game but with a real life field-of-vision and 3D depth perception – or something similar to PlayStation Home where you could meet up with friends online – only you could feel like you were in the room, see each other’s body language, and have a conversation as if you were sitting next to them in real life.

It’s surely going to be a year or two yet until we see the Oculus Rift hitting store shelves to use with your PC games, and much longer until we’ll be seeing console support – but it seems to be off to a strong start. With a fantastic concept and strong backing, this is more exciting to me than even the PS4 or next-gen Xbox at this point. I’m sorely lacking a gaming PC – but I think I may need to change that before too long…

Oh, and if you needed more convincing – here’s a video of a 90-year old woman giving the Oculus Rift a whirl.

- Leon

Sims 4 Officially Announced

EA have announced that the Sims 4 will be released in 2014 for PC and Mac. No official release date has been confirmed as yet, but we can only assume we will see the game surface between quarter 1 and 2 next year. The Sims 3 has sold over 150 million copies world wide since its release, so Sims fans will be pleased to hear that the Sims 4 will be making its way to our screens soon.

Grand Theft Auto V Spotted for PC

It seems that Amazon Germany and GamesOnly.at have let the cat out of the bag earl, by listing GTA V for PC. This news comes despite the fact that Rockstar have yet to announce the PC version of the game, and will undoubtably have PC gamers smiling from ear to ear.

As a side note information has also recently surfaced about the special edition version of the game, which is now rumoured to contain the following:

· SteelBook with exclusive artwork

· World map

· Stunt-planes challenges

· Online-store concessions

· Bonus outfits

· Bonus tattoos

· Special abilities booster

· Exclusive weapons

Unfortunately the special edition is not available for pre-order yet, but we will keep you up to date as soon as the official announcement arises.

Plants Vs Zombies 2: It’s about time, slated for July release.

As the game’s subtitle would suggest, it has finally been announced that the sequel to the critically acclaimed PC and mobile game Plants Vs Zombies, will be coming out this July. PopCap haven’t confirmed any platforms as yet, but we can safely assume we will see this game make its way to PC, Mac and mobile devices.

EA Acquire Star Wars game franchise.

f you were as heartbroken as we were about the demise of the Lucas Arts game studio a few weeks ago, then you will be pleased to hear that the Star Wars game legacy has been put in the capable hands of game publisher EA.

So who are the developers who have been confirmed to be creating Star Wars titles on behalf of EA? Well DICE, Visceral and Bioware have also all been confirmed. This will be familiar territory for Bioware as they are the minds behind the successful Star Wars: The Old Republic franchise. Could we see Battlefeild 4: Empire Strikes Back or DeadSpace: The Force Unleashed? Only time will tell.

Kreig The Psycho coming to Borderlands 2 Next week.

If like me you were pleasantly surprised by the announcement of Krieg the Psycho becoming a playable character for Borderlands 2, then you are in for a treat. Kreig is coming to a Pandora near you on May the 14th for $9.99 or 800 MSP as DLC. Unfortunately he is not included in the Boarderlands 2 season pass so all gamers will have to fork out, however it seems a small price to pay in order to get your mitts on the biggest anti hero Pandora has to offer.

Wolfenstein: The New Order announced.

FPS fans are in for a treat as a new Wolfenstein game has been announced. Slated for release in quarter four this year, Wolfenstein: The New Order is a re-imagining of the franchise set in 1960 after the Nazi’s have won World War II.

The game will take place in Europe where players will be infiltrating Nazi strongholds and taking control of super weapons that the Nazi regime have used to dominate earth and beyond. No other information has surfaced yet but it is great to see the Wolfenstein franchise getting yet another new lease of life.

That’s it for the main news this week. Next week we will have more news from the gaming world, but until then keep checking Plus XP for all of your gaming previews, articles and reviews.

-Garv

When Dragon’s Dogma was first shown, I greeted the trailer with a little skepticism; not particularly wowed by the sense of design, or instilled any sense of awe whatsoever.

Instead my gut reaction smacked of Capcom trying hard to capture the Western gaming market. Skyrim was building popularity, both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls had attained a cult following, and that’s even before you factor in the universal success of the likes of World Of Warcraft.

Little did I know that Dragon’s Dogma would go on to become my Game Of The Year for 2012, smash into my top five of this generation, but become one of my favourite games of all time.

Now a new version of the game arrives, bringing with it the original game, a brand new area, a smish of fine tuning and kid-at-Christmas tummy butterflies in yours truly. Henceforth, Lasses & Gentlefolk, I give you ..

DRAGON’S DOGMA: DARK ARISEN

So, what turned that initial skepticism into eventual excite-o-glee? Well, close to Dragon’s Dogma’s release I read a few previews, with journalists surprised at how enjoyable the game was. This raised an eyebrow, a furrowed brow and I made a note to keep an eye out for further details as the release date drew closer. Colour me curious.

Such intrigue was cherried absolutely by a series of videos Matt Lees, then of OXM UK and now of Videogamer, posted up on Youtube. Presented with enthusiasm, and a belting sense of humour, Matt extolled wonderfully the fun contained in the game, the skills of the various classes, massive monster battles and the sinister spoken by darkness once the sun set each day. The game looked like a true adventure, and as each new video was posted, I began to grow ever more excited.

Truth be told, I think those videos sold the game to the vast majority of us that bought it. Certainly everyone I spoke to upon release cited them as the main influence for purchasing. Thereafter, when I was jumping up and down on my ‘BUY IT!’ trampoline, the link proved a fabulous gateway to anyone tempted by the title, else purely by the fact that I wouldn’t shut up about it.

In the run up to release I’d downloaded the demos for both the Xbox360 and PS3, in an attempt to decide which one to buy. Often this meant having both running at the same time and switching between inputs on the telly to play a bit, turn over, play a bit, etc, and try to ascertain the best version to invest in.

At this point I was out of work, somewhat struggling for money, and any game, never mind a day one purchase was a big investment, but there was no doubt in my mind, nor a shortage of Tesco 11p noodles in the run up to release.

Of the two versions, my findings were thus ..

The PS3 has more vibrant colours and heralds deeper blacks to its visuals, with the 360 iteration using an almost watercolour wash in comparison. PS3 runs a little slower than the Xbox game, but doesn’t suffer from any screen tearing whatsoever. Fantastically the Xbox version allows the online component of the game whether you’re a Gold subscriber or not, which is a wonderful touch. Photographs can be taken in game – and oh how ace this feature truly is – with the PS3 saving to the hard drive and 360 bafflingly posting them to Facebook.

My choice was to go with the PS3 version, but if you’re stuck as to which to choose I’d say go with the pad you like the best and the friends you have playing the game. I was playing with the PS2’s Dual Shock 2 pad running through a dongle into the PS3, which seemed fantastic and responsive, so that was really the decider for me.

SO, ENOUGH WAFFLE .. THE GAME!

Opening moments show a crack in the moon, as if the glowing orb were naught but a glowing egg hanging within the womb of night. From there a Dragon tumbles forth, pummeling its way beyond a marauding flock of harpies, punching through clouds and winged beasts alike, ravenous for blood, a destination .. a seeming mission to .. somewhere

You live in the peaceful beachside village of Gransys, a place of sun, sand and the whispered lick of a tide, yet safely barricaded from the villains and monsters beyond its gates.

Such sanctity is broken by the arrival of soldiers from the capital, Gran Soren, seeking new recruits to protect against a forthcoming prophecy. One which speaks of a Dragon.

On cue, the beast arrives, tearing into soldiers, villagers and Gransys in equal measure. As Citizens make their panicked escape, you pick up a fallen sword and make to attack the winged aggressor, stabbing it, only to be swatted aside. Yet the mighty devil is fascinated by the splinter of metal in it’s massive paw, perhaps the bravery of those who sought to inflict such worthless folly.

Does it see something in you? A truth? An enemy? Words of a tongue alien to your ears are spoken, upon which the Dragon pushes a claw through your chest and plucks out your very heart. As the still beating muscle throbs towards its final shudder, your last waking moments are of it glowing, moving towards the beasts mouth, of it being devoured. Yet, the next morning you awaken, the rip of a huge scar down the centre of your chest, and impossibly, you live. The people begin to think of you as ‘The Arisen’, a soul spoken of in the self same Prophecy which predicted the Dragon, a chosen someone designed to end its reign.

And so the game begins.

NO, NO, NO – I’M AWAKE!

As you arise [hoho!] you immediately get to chose one of three opening classes – Fighter, Mage or Strider. Fighter’s your sword and shield type, with all the heft and thwunk as you might expect. Mage, much to type, carries a big magic stick adorned with summoning goodness of both the offensive and healing kind. My favourite was Strider, where you could rock a knife in each hand and a bow for good measure. Take out bastards from distance, or gut them like a kipper. Laavely.

Such options are later joined by a number of other classes. Warrior adds even bigger weapons into the melee based mix – think Dragon Bone Sword from Demon’s Souls and you’re on the right track. Ranger brings in bigger bows, greater distance and more accuracy. Sorcerer takes the magic of the Mage and infuses it was far greater power, as fire becomes massive firestorms, meteors can be summoned from the sky and all manner of elemental jiggerypokery scales ever more grandiose heights.

Later still come the hybrid classes, gloriously mixing things up with all manner of magic and melee, depending on your personal preference. Mystic Knight brings the weight of physical combat you’ve come to associate with the Fighter and Warrior classes, but adds in a magic element as well, giving you the option to carry a staff, or else enchant swords and use those to cast brand new magic.

Magick Archer – which is bloody amazing – picks targets for you as you highlight them, upon which you fire off your bow with far greater accuracy, and you can add in a staff, or daggers if you wish. Likewise with the Assassin class, a seeming evolution of Strider, but with a little added sneak to the footfall as well.

Each class has their own unique moveset, an evolving series of skills that can be upgraded as the game goes on. Add in a set of weapons which only that class, or similar group of them similar can equip and use. Your character’s skill levels can be augmented further still by learning new attributes to enhance speed, agility, defense, etc as well.

There’s a lot to go at and tons to play about with, but if it sounds fiddly, it’s not. Part of the fun is playing about with new moves, not just those that debut a potentially new style of attack, but the progressions which give you ever more powerful versions of those you’ve previously adored.

As you progress with one class, you’ll eventually max it out. It’s up to you as to whether you continue on with it, or change things up. More often than not doing so is a massive rug pull on all that you’ve come to know, and re-learning a completely new way of going into battle is as delicious as it is initially bewildering.

For example, I started off with Strider, loving hammering into monsters from distance, and had tons of fun with the twirly spin attack of the blades. Initial cuts brought forth favourite moves, including ‘Toss & Trigger’ [steady!], where you slice an enemy from the belly up to their neck, the knife would release a little gunpowder, and the moment you shiiing away from the chin, it ignites, blowing the enemy a good few feet in the air. Never gets old! Single arrows evolved into the likes of the ‘Pentad Shot’, where you fire into the air and a spread of ten arrows covers a spread o’ baddies; there’s ‘Fivefold Volley’, which hammers five arrows one after the other – and those are just the very cusp of the options available to you.

Which you choose are up to you, but the knives have 20 moves, the bows 12 – and which you align to 3 attack buttons per weapon is entirely your choice.

After I’d maxed the class, I moved to Fighter and .. I was lost. I had no arrows, so had to run into the heart of the battle whether I liked it or not. Nor could I take out any winged creatures and had to rely on my allies to pull them down for me. Now carrying a heavy sword and shield I found myself weighted, lumbering a little more. Should I lighten my load and potentially take more damage?

You do get there, believe me, and end up getting a huge kick from most of the vocations. The only two I didn’t really get on with were the Mage & Sorcerer classes. By this point I was fully versed in ‘getting stuck in’ and sitting outside the battle and gobbing out healing and death from a distance just wasn’t enough fun in comparison. Oh and don’t expect to get through all the classes in the first run of the game. You could, I suppose, but about half way through I settled into variants of bows and daggers and confidently made my way towards the end game.

NEVER MIND THE CLASSES, FEEL THE CHARACTER.

In the first instance, the character creator is one of the best I’ve seen in games. There are tons of different sizes and body shapes, going from small to tall, rake to chunky monkey with every variation inbetween. There’s a fair amount of facial options available, some neat haircuts and the character at the end of it can be as akin to you, or utterly bonkers as you desire.

It’s here you also create your Pawn. Pawns are characters which share your adventures throughout the game. Your Pawn can also be hired out by other people to fight in their game, and upon returning to you bring a number of added benefits. They will earn ‘Rift Crystals’ for the amount of time they’ve spent in that world, but also any experience they’ve had therein. So, if that person visits an area you haven’t, when you arrive there your pawn will advise accordingly, warning of monsters, quirks of the level and the suchlike. Those Rift Crystals? Just like your Pawn can be hired, you can bring in two other Pawns to join your own party, and whatever experience they’ve earned in their hosts game before that point will bring to yours. It’s a fantastic system and works really well.

The redhead in the pics is my main character, with the mighty slice of Beefcake being my Pawn, ‘OptimusPrime’. It’s a decent idea to name your Pawn after something popular, something you love or a slice of geeky loveliness near and dear to your heart. From day one the most popular ‘hire’ was a Pawn called Olivia Wilde, so if you follow such an edict you’ve every chance of earning more rift crystals along the way.

My main character has somewhat of a ‘baby bear’s porridge’ kind of build, not too strong, not too heavy .. juuust right, whilst I built my Pawn to be a heavy hitter, big bruiser type. I hired in a Mage and a Sorcerer, one to heal, the other to lob of weighty chunks of elemental backhanders along the way. As I started trying out new classes, so my Pawns were changed accordingly. Ahe point I became a Sorcerer for example, I then retired the Pawn of the same class and brought in a Ranger, or Strider to fill in the void left by of my previous build.

It’s always fun to freshen things up, but as a rule I’d recommend keeping your Pawns on the same level as you at the very least – which doesn’t cost you anything at all. At best I’d say bring in a few around 10 or so levels higher, particularly if you’re facing a part of the game you’re struggling to get past. Given a decent amount of rift crystals, if you’re really stuck you can bring in someone of much greater power, so you can vary the amount of aggro you want to dish out as & when you need it.

Try the character creator out in the demo, and the game will notice you’ve played it and bring both your Main and your Pawn automatically into the retail game, which is an ace touch.

As for in-game garb, the costumes are simply a delight, being both incredibly original, beautifully designed – and there are oodles of them. Where I ordinarily would choose the best, toughest armour, else perhaps that which suited the way I wanted to best play the game, here I was dressing my lass in .. whatever looked prettiest. I say this proudly. And she looked lovely. She also kicked every bumcake whilst doing so. So NER.

MONSTERS, TRAVEL, DAY TO NIGHT, ADVENTURE TONES.

As your adventures take you beyond Gransys, to the City of Gran Soren and beyond, you’ll encounter beautiful terrain, lush, flowing green fields, craggy jagged mountain runs.

The lands are peaked with forts, incredible casts and broken ruins, glistening streams tickle betwixt and throughout these beautiful vistas no end of vicious nasties seek to end you.

These can take numerous forms, from cheeky excitable Goblins, to roaring Orcs, the bewitching song of a flock of Harpies, else all manner of bandits seeking to shiv you undone. This is before you get to the massive stuff.

Huge beasts thoom through the countryside, the likes of Chimeras, Cockatrice, Giant Cyclops and Dragon’s make up the living, along with many a pile of seemingly innocuous rocks transforming into jagged behemoths before your eyes.

You can take on the mahoosive as you would a regular foe, should you wish, but you also get the opportunity to jump on the creature, climb up ‘Shadow of The Colossus’ style and give it a good stab-o-punching from close quarters. Should the beast try to shake you off, you have to maintain a push on the analogue stick to grip on for dear life, stamina draining constantly, as you wait for a new distraction to pull its attention away. Actions such as these often reward the brave/foolhardy.

For example, one of the Cyclops wears a metal helmet and is tough to inflict a head wound. Climb up it’s back and up to its noggin and the creature will reach around and try to smash you away from its neck, failing in all but pulling the helmet off. From there, game on!

There’s a limited fast travel mechanic, activated about half way into the game, allowing you to place a Ferrystone at one point on the map. Otherwise, the adventure is to be traveled, experience earned, and a very important mechanic comes into play – the balance of night and day.

Where the daytime brings with it blazing sunshine, cutting winds and cloudy skies aplenty, seeing what’s ahead of you is a given. When night falls the way ahead is shown only by the light of the lamp on your hip, in a similar way to Tomb Of The Giants in Dark Souls. Throughout you have one eye on the map, attention diverted by new howls, growls and hellish mutterings, for amidst the inky black sing new enemies – including a wink to Resident Evil as the undead rise from the grave.

There’s one really neat touch in particular here, where one female undead says “Have.. have you seen my baby?”, which left me upset, open mouthed and genuinely affected. That said, I still gutted her like a kipper, because experience, yet all joking aside it was a wonderful attention to detail, a fabulous nuance which coloured the moment far more than if the enemy had been purely shuffling and mute.

Within the darkness you may stumble upon one of the giants I mentioned a few paragraphs previous, not seeing them until they arrive, and in an instant finding yourself locked in a panicked war to survive.

Survival. One memory lingers wonderfully here – as shown in the photos below – whilst traveling to a brand new destination. I set off during the day, night fell and I was devastated by attacks – including the blight of something mighty.

By this point my Party was left staggeringly weary, and I had neither the confidence to go forward, nor to return home. So, we climbed a rock and waited for sunrise, captured by the dark echoes of all that sought us ill, paranoid that any of them might actually find us.

When the sun first peaked over the horizon, grew, blossomed and bloomed, it took my breath away. Certainly my group was still consumed by the atrocious state they were in before hiding, yet the wash of brilliant hope upon fresh footfall was truly glorious.

Some might befall the lack of instant ‘boompsh’ for fast travel, but I like it. To make a journey you have to make a journey, and when you set off makes a big difference. If, say, you’re venturing somewhere new, you might choose to set off at night, make headway through familiar lands with a degree of confidence, and when you reach the unknown, your progress is enhanced by the extra detailing that daylight brings.

Before I leave nightfall, I have to mention one of the most stunning moves in the game – Magickal Glare [and later Magickal Gleam], afforded to the Magick Archer class. Here you can fire a bolt into the area ahead, which throws out a staggering wash of white light, rushing through the darkness and regaling the area in glory. It never, ever gets old. I think I’ve said that before, but .. I love this game.

JACKANORY, TELL US A STORY

At first the story seems a little inconsequential, draped in fairly standard, common-or-garden RPG tropes. It doesn’t get in the way of the incredible world, or the amazing combat, but .. it’s just there for the most part. That the tale becomes as incredible as it does, being both truly profound and utterly epic, really took me off guard – and even before the amazing ending arrives there’s one rug pull in particular which is nothing short of gobsmacking. Persevere; because dear Lord does it get there. One of the best endings in gaming. I. Kid. You. Not.

OH – AND THEN THERE’S THE HUMOUR.

Try throwing bunnies off a cliff – oh the noise they make! Run with a piggy – they don’t like it at all!

AND SO TO BITTERBLACK ISLE.

Under the cover of night a ghost appears at the end of Gransys’ pier, beckoning you to Bitterblack Isle, wherein lies Dark Arisen’s brand new content.

A cherry on the cake for those experienced with the main game, Bitterblack’s walls contain brand new enemies, upgrades – and certainly a new feel to the gameplay as a spontaneous mechanic is introduced. Sometimes Death will arrive, a towering creature who can end your entire party with one swing of his mighty scythe.

Another variant brings back memories of the Red Zombies from the Gamecube’s Resident Evil remake, where a creature will run at you from rooms away from where you are, track you down and attempt to kill you. In my game this came in the form of a crazed Ogre, who beset my party with a gamut of fists and smackdowns. That all of us absolutely hammered into it and barely tickled off half of its first health bar – one of about nine might I add – inspired me to run like a mad lad for the nearest door.

It’s this unpredictability that leads to a renewed caution, an understanding that, despite knowing a series of enemies may be around the new corner, you’re never truly sure that the game doesn’t have a surprise up its sleeve, and can never count out that it’s just waiting to get you.

Given that some criticised there being no random spawning of enemies in Dragon’s Dogma, it’s not so much of a twist of lime, as a zing of grapefruit. Be wary, be warned!

Prior to this I’d been running around in NG+, which didn’t scale the enemies with the new playthrough, so I was running around with low level supplementary Pawns, hoping to gain them experience to pass into new players games. After being humbled by the Ogre, I decided immediately to cast off the dead wood and bring in something .. Biblical. Hence my level 85 characters hired in a couple of 95’s and .. well, I can’t wait until we meet again, put it that way.

AND SO, IN CONCLUSION.

PRO’S

+ Beautiful world, packed with character and all manner of nasties.

+ Wonderfully kinetic fight mechanics, lots of variety.

+ Incredible value.

CONS

- Story takes a little time to reveal itself.

- A few technical issues, with a little screen tearing in the 360 version, occasional frame rate problems on PS3.

- ‘Into Free’ by Bz is no longer on the title screen!

Dragon’s Dogma is phenomenal. I had so much fun with the original release, the amazing costumes, fantastic battles, an incredible world that had me beaming anew as I returned with Dark Arisen. I love this world, heck I’d missed it. I can look back over pictures I took in game and see my progress, the massive monsters, the new areas, sights of unspeakable beauty and of overcoming absolute evil.

Dark Arisen brings more, a new set of challenges for the experienced player, adding greater value into the mix.

That the best game of 2012 is now available for a third of the original price, with extra content to boot, is staggering. Don’t even second guess this for a microsecond. Everyone should own Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. Everyone.

- CJ

So in March I launched a new website called 3DSBlessed with my friends Tareq (aka Cyburn) and Lucy (and we now have Cyrus on board too). Among the services we offer on there (such as news and review pertaining to the 3DS, as you might imagine) is an Events page where we have a list of upcoming UK-based gaming events. We find out about which events are going on when and where from various sources and word-of-mouth, and we update our list often. Indeed, it is our aim that this will grow into the UK’s most comprehensive directory of upcoming gaming events (if it isn’t already ; luckily we don’t seem to have much competition!)

‘HelenBaby and Cyburn at a Nintendo Spot event they attended in March’

Despite the obvious 3DS bias of our news and reviews, the events we feature are get-togethers concerning any and all console formats. Among the upcoming events we already list are the Rezzed Expo, Eurogamer and Play Expo. We add events from groups such as DS:London and MH3H, which tend to happen more regularly, as they are announced, as well as the swanky events put on by the BAFTA Games department. Events we will add in future will include Summer of Sonic convention and the meets by their spin-off group SonicLondon (which I run) once more details are confirmed.

“The BAFTA gaming events are among the shindigs we feature”

But we don’t want to stop there. While our list is already large we know there are more events going on than we’re covering. Help us be more thorough in our coverage by contacting us with any UK-based events you think we should be featuring.

“Screenshot of our Events page”

I hope you will visit our page, bookmark it, and use it to help you plan your gaming event calendar. Hoping to see you at some of the featured events!

~HelenBaby

The 3DSBlessed Website 
The 3DSBlessed Events Page 

Appynation are a developer-led game publisher who believe that video game developers should own 100% of the game that they create. I caught up with Andrew Smith from Appynation to discuss the company and how publishing games for mobile platforms has seen a boom in the Indie games market.

How did the idea for a developer-led publisher like Appynation come about?

It came from an observed need. The rise of digital platforms meant that developers were able to soar to new heights with their games, but in moving away from publishers they also left behind some of the benefits as well as the downsides. We saw that since developers are rightly now seen as the key piece in the value chain between coming up with an idea and getting it to the fans, we should really be doing something to enable that, rather than get in the way. AppyNation was born to support developers in any way possible (marketing, platform support, platform holder relations, PR, community building, QA, translation, market expertise etc.), without IP ownership or any other of the hangovers from the days before digital.

You have had great support from the charity NESTA, what has their support done to make Appynation what it is today?

We couldn’t have done it on such an effective scale initially. We’re into our second year now, and the combination of NESTA support and the six core developers who founded AppyNation (Niffler, Onteca, Proper Games, Supersonic, Finblade & Chromativity) meant that we all had time to find our feet, hone our skills and make the right decisions for the right reasons. We’re continuing to do so and 2013 is going to be pretty huge for AppyNation.

Guide The Light available now on iOS

A developer having full ownership of their IP is a massive selling point. Do you find that you have a lot of developers approaching you with their game ideas?

We started out with the core 6 developers, but recently have started a concerted effort to spread our wings. Well, maybe a better metaphor is extending our reach to hug more indie developers! We find that people genuinely respond really well to the terms we offer – being so different from the norm – and as long as we believe in a game we’ll try our hardest to do it justice. The market is crowded, and while we have a certain level of knowledge about what does and doesn’t work, we’re not prescriptive about what features to include, and what pricing models to follow. Every game and market is different, and we acknowledge that. We’re always open to seeing more pitches… but with the caveat that we’re still a small outfit and don’t want to take a scattergun approach. We’ll pick the best and do our best with them… and in the future hopefully we’ll grow enough to support as many great games as we get shown.

The popularity of smart phones and tablets has sky rocketed in the last few of years. How has this affected the Indie games market from your stand point?

We see a lot more indies now just making a lot more games, which can in turn reach a much bigger audience. At least potentially. We see far too many fail – be that through a lack of understanding of the new markets or just bad luck or poor exposure to the right people. Which is why we think we’re relevant, of course! Of course the rise also means that we see far more indie games reaching huge sales and massive success… but as a percentage of the games that are released this is still really misleading. Pretty much 98% of good games released go woefully unappreciated.

Fluid Football available now on iOS, Andriod and Amazon App Store

How does publishing for the App market differ from publishing for Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network?

The main difference is the hands-off nature that Apple, Google, Amazon etc. take with submissions. It means a lot more freedom, though some different frustrations. At least game don’t have to jump through hoops designed to do nothing for the game’s actual fun factor – but that said there are some vagaries that can mean missteps and mistakes on the various app stores. In the end its six of one and half a dozen of the other. They all have plus and minus points, though I’d suggest anyone wanting to make a game with a very limited budget do so on mobile. The costs of entry to the market are tiny.

Out of all the games you have released which one has had the most success?

Fluid Football has seen the most success, but we’re really proud of the way all our games have done. They’ve all reached an audience, and more importantly they’ve all been enjoyed by the people who’ve played them. That’s the ultimate test for us – the quality of the product. Guide The Light is a fiendishly difficult block puzzler, while Ninja Ranch is really popular with kids and casuals gamers who want a relaxing puzzler, while Spring Bonus! scratches that match-3 itch. Powertools FX is a fun toy that lets you deface works of art with various drills, saws and other cool gadgets, while Chuck’s Challenge found a really devoted audience with the fans of the original Chip’s Challenge – heck you can even build and share your own levels in it, something we’ve seen barely any mobile games do even now. But everything starts from the quality, with all of these games.

Ninja Ranch available now on iOS

What’s your favourite App market game of all time and why?

It changes every week, there are so many released! For me it’s probably Punch Quest or The Room. I know the other guys on the team will probably have different opinions though! Keep an eye on our twitter feed as we often chat about games on there with our fans!

If there are developers out there reading this wanting to create the next Indie smash hit for the App Market, what advice would you give them?

The best thing is to make the best possible game you can, but don’t ignore what the market is like and how it behaves. The mobile store in particular favours free games that support alternate methods of making money, and naturally shorter play sessions. It’s all very obvious when said out loud, but we see a lot of developers coming in from other markets with other rules and different consumer behaviours, and they take a while to fully adjust. That said, the game has to be fun, first and foremost.

I would like to thank Andrew for taking time to talk to Plus XP. If you want to learn more about Appynation, or just want to download some awesome mobile games then click the links below.

Garv

www.appynation.com

www.twitter.com/appynation

www.facebook.com/appynation

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Superman trying to take over the world? Even if you are not a big comic book fan, everyone knows that Superman’s main objective is to save anyone who is in danger and keep planet earth safe. This however is not the case for Injustice: Gods Among us, the latest fighting game to come from the Mortal Kombat creators; NetherRealm studios.

After the Joker murders a pregnant Lois Lane and destroys Superman’s home city of Metropolis, the Man of Steel goes out of his way to get his revenge and make sure that planet earth finally ascertains world peace. In order to make sure there is no war or bloodshed, he builds a regime of super heroes to stamp out human conflict and rule the world. Obviously not all of the caped crusaders are on board with this idea, especially Batman who builds a team of insurgents who plan to stop Superman before it’s too late.

This is just a snippet of what has to be one of the most in depth stories in a fighting game to date. Borrowing ideas from the latest Mortal Kombat game, the story mode in Injustice incorporates fully cinematic cut scenes with the one on one gameplay you come to expect with most fighting games. NetherRealm have made the transition between cut scene and gameplay seamless, really helping to immerse you in the games story line. In order to progress though the story mode you need to complete each chapter using the character given to you. This is a great way for players to test out the games roster as the majority of the fighters are playable in story mode. Unfortunately not all of the characters are playable as the story focuses more on you playing heroes rather than the villains, but for me this isn’t enough to spoil the story mode.

The single player action doesn’t stop at Story mode however as there are two other modes to get stuck into as well. These are S.T.A.R. Labs and Battle. Both of which add a unique single player experience to Injustice.

Battle mode is Injustice’s answer to your standard arcade mode where you have to battle through a set amount of fights to reach the final boss character and win. This is pretty standard for most fighting games but Injustice takes it to the next level. Within battle mode there are several additional modes for you to unlock, for example there is a mode called ‘countdown’ where you have to defeat each opponent within a 30 second time limit. These modes add an extra level of challenge and do help you to utilize your favorite characters more effectively.

Then there are the S.T.A.R Labs. This mode comprises of 240 character specific missions for you to go through, not all of which are about defeating your opponent. There is a surprising number on mini games which test your reactions, speed and memory. There are also a couple of 2D side scrolling missions thrown in there too. It is really nice to see the S.T.A.R Lab missions adding so much variety to the single player gameplay which gives Injustice something different from most fighting games out there.

In classic NetherRealm fashion the unlocks for this game come by the barrel full. Unfortunately there aren’t any unlockable characters but there are plenty of costumes, game modes and concept arts to unlock in the game Archive. You always feel that you are working towards something with the single player mode, meaning that this game will appeal to a lot of completionists.

This is a combo heavy fighter which is reliant on players to string attacks and special moves to rack up some heave damage. NetherRealm have taken the time to really make you feel like a super hero, dishing out obscene amount of damage. Some of the combo strings are very satisfying and when you throw in things like interactive objects and bone crunching arena transition moves, you will soon be racking up the damage. Some pro fighters may find this potentially game breaking however, as the game does allow players to unleash combos that can take out over half of the their opponents health. Luckily there is also the option to disable the arena’s interactive objects should you feel the need to level the playing field.

As Injustice is a fighting game, multiplayer and online capabilities are essential. This game doesn’t disappoint as online matches are seamless with minimal loading times. You also have a King Of The Hill mode available should you want to battle more than one opponent in a winner stays on. You also have the standard local Vs mode should you want to invite some friends over and make an event of it. It would have been nice to see NetherRealm add in a tag team mode much like they did with the last Mortal Kombat game, but as it stands Injustice does well to cater for players who prefer to play their fighters against real opponents.

Injustice has a great variety of characters with a decent roster of 24 heroes and villains to choose from. Any DC or comic book fan would be right at home here pitting their favorite characters against each other in order to once and for all decide who is the worlds best superhero or villain. Each of the games arena’s is based around popular locations from the DC Universe, and there is a brilliant attention to detail here. You can even make use of objects around the arena to pull off some extreme super human moves. Want to throw a jet fighter missile at your unsuspecting opponent? Maybe roundhouse kick your enemies into a passing helicopter? Then this is for you.

Pros:

+ A great amount of single player game play

+ A good roster including classic DC Characters

+ Lot of unlockables

+ In depth story mode

Cons:

- Mega combos could potentially be game breaking

- Story mode doesn’t enable you to use the full character roster

To me Injustice: Gods Among Us is a great fighting game. As well as doing some great fan service, the story will appeal to both comic book veterans and new comers alike. With a decent amount of unlockables and a good variety of single player game play, it is good to see a new fighter on the market that you can still enjoy even if your internet connection goes down.

Last week we teamed up with the awesome folks at FireFly Studios for a competition of epic proportions. We gave five of our Plus XP readers the chance to win Stronghold 3: Gold codes for steam.

The competition closed at midnight last night and we can now announce who the winner are, so without further a-do the winner are as follows:

- Alexander Oberroither

- Cody Pinto

- Thirty Seconds

- Marie Elliot

- Marek Matsanov

Congratulations to all of our winner. Your steam codes will be with you very soon.

Thank you all for taking part in this competition. This has been Plus XP’s most successful competition to date and thanks again to FireFly studios for providing us with the prizes.

- Garv

There are those folks who fight for their console of choice as if such a machine is family member, 360 vs PS3 becomes some kind of wobbly gaming Montague’s Vs Capulets, with Bill Shakey’s sparkling prose replaced with the likes of ‘ZOMFG [thing] am teh sux’.

I’m not arsed about any of that, and frankly couldn’t give a monkeys as to which box under the telly is kicking out the prettifuls, it’s all about the games. All very noble, right?

WHEREFORE WAS I TO THIS KEEN MOCKERY BORN?

Yet, it hasn’t always been that way. I don’t mean within the devious mischief of Company X Vs Company Y – it’s about my favourite console ever – The Nintendo Gamecube.

The only console I’ve bought on launch day – and I believe me I saved like a nutter to get one – it somehow wormed its way into my heart. Mock its Fisher Price Cassette Player stylings if you will, but the Gamecube is a console with character. It looks fun, and isn’t bothered if you swing it around like a kid with a P.E. kit wandering home from school – it even had a handle for crying out loud.

Factor in a comfy as heck controller, oh and that ace Gameboy player that allowed all manner of handheld classics to be played on the big telly and, well, I adored it.

Certainly the software library of the Xbox and particularly the PS2 wasn’t comparable in popularity, but the Cube had more than its fair share of classics, many only truly recognized in the last few years. Wind Waker initially received no end of ire when it was announced, with hurled snark-o-snarls of ‘kiddy graphics’ syncing up to the catcalls of the folks who would tear a strip off the console itself for the way it dressed. The ‘Cube also received arguably the best ever Resident Evil games, with the belting fourth installment being a exclusive for some time, plus the remake of the first title was absolutely exceptional and still looks gorgeous even now.

My initial launch games were Sonic Adventure 2 and the original Burnout. I’m not a Sonic fan, but had tons of fun with ‘Adventure 2, particularly raising those cute Chaos, utterly meltworthy mutating ickle blighters that brought forth more than a few “Awwww”’s from my stoney soul.

Burnout… Burnout I played endlessly, particularly tons of 2 player battles racing against a Policeman friend. For him, such combative and addictive racing affected real life to such a degree that when driving the police car at work, particularly in chases, he had to fight the instinct to swerve into oncoming traffic and lean into the rush of oncoming motors to steal himself extra boost! Damn, I loved couch co-op.

Oh and I had Super Monkeyball as well. Beautiful memories of a certain someone who remains very special to me, yet the way we fought on Monkey Fight – not just on the screen but giggliciously on the sofa as well – brings forth a smile equal to the ache in my chest. Fun times, and a Miss very much missed.

SO MUCH DOWNHILL, IT MIGHT AS WELL BE TOBOGGANING.

Since then, Nintendo and I had a bit of a falling out. This isn’t going to be a ‘filthy casuals’ diatribe aimed at the Wii, far from it. The Wii was the first time my Dad understood my love of games. He’d become addicted to Wii Sports, in particular the golf, and despite getting up for work staggeringly early anyway, he’d give himself an hour extra so he could pack in 18 holes before heading out.

What irked was Nintendo Of America’s reaction to the titles which became known as Operation Rainfall – Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story & Pandora’s Tower – and specifically the company’s apathetic reaction to fan desires to see those games reach US shores. Add in a dousing of Nintendo EU’s attempts to bring Xenoblade to E3, shunning a letter writing campaign – and even when folks voted the Xenoblade Amazon placeholder to the top of the pre-order charts, Reggie & The Wiggle Stick Krew remained unmoved.

In contrast, Nintendo Europe seemed the polar opposite, not only releasing all three games in Europe, but also handling English vocal dubs, as well as celebrating each with a special edition release. Xenoblade received posters and its own red classic controller, Pandora’s Tower received a separate steelbook and hardcover artbook, as did The Last Story, which added in a soundtrack CD as well.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be as fussed about Nintendo Of America’s actions as I am. After all, I’m in Europe, where Nintendo’s desires to make these three titles the best they can be for their audience was an absolute joy. Yet to see so many US fans looking over their shoulders with envy, having supported the Wii, perhaps even, like me, celebrated the new folks discovering gaming, but at the same time having history, lineage with the Nintendo and not wanting to be forgotten. Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower were games that loyal audience were desperate to play, yet found themselves confronted with one of the largest chunks of the parent company utterly disinterested in any part of letting those fans play them.

Thereafter other companies asked to release the games, and finally those raveneous Rainfall-ers would get their chance to play the titles. What frankly made me sick was Reggie Fills-Aim’s Nintendo Update Direct diatribe from February 2012. Here he lavished glowing praise on Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, lobbing out shimmering prose about the ‘Numerous Game Of The Year Awards’ for Monolith Software’s game, stroking the reputation of The Last Story’s Sakoguchi-san. No, just, NO. Given Nintendo U.S.’s previous stance and absolute stubbornness, it smacked of insincerity, not to mention piggybacking on the enthusiasm and determination of ‘our publishing partners’ – IE the people who actually wanted to release the games.

Then came the WiiU Press event. A terrible press event. One where Reggie stood tall like a Skesksis from Dark Crystal, doing that strange thing with his hands – pulling apart a little while as if sticky with bubblegum, then bringing them back together as if caging tiny, tiny owls. Nintendo at E3 2012 promised lots of the new, yet trotted out vaguely tweaked versions of established franchises in the videos to follow.

Then came the WiiU itself, particularly the games shown. On the one hand it looked as though Nintendo had listened, revealing a group of franchises that would appear to what’s become known as ‘core gamers’. As to whether those people would buy a WiiU, or even play the versions of Arkham City, Mass Effect 3 [Why not 1?] or Black Ops – the latter being quite the coup for the new machine – was uncertain.

The skeptic in me wondered as to whether Nintendo had seen diminishing returns on the audience that arrived with the Wii, and were looking to steal a slice of the gaming pie they didn’t have, and perhaps have never had given the Call Of Duty demographic may not hold the same affection for the company that older gamers do. Perhaps there lay a nervousness that the 360, with these ‘mainstream’ titles may be walking a more succinct line with those gamers, plus pulling in the more casual audience with Kinect, and Nintendo thought a similarly balanced strategy was something they should adhere towards.

Whilst the majority of titles seemed underwhelming, Lego City raised a few smiles and ZombiU drooled with undead atmosphere – curdled somewhat by Reggie’s already muppety features being forced into a bit of face pulling, leading to many an awkward face in the audience. We all waited for a jaw dropping punchline, an exclamation mark to instill a degree of ‘COR!’ at the end. Would they sneak a Zelda? A new Retro Studios Metroid? A much beloved franchise from the past, polished up and looking all shiny-shiny on the new system? Nope. Nothing. It didn’t come.

The nearest thing to it arrived a little while after, where Platinum Games showed off the tremendously fun looking Wonderful 101. I can only imagine there was a technical hitch prior to Nintendo’s show as to why it didn’t make an appearance there, rather than in the Gametrailers studio. Regardless, it looked ace and Platinum very, very rarely let the side down.

Thereafter came the system launch, and it was fun to see so many folks getting excited. Midnight launches, the initial swatch of reviews hitting, which version of the console people were picking up and what games to get – I love that stuff. It’s just that, beyond perhaps ZombiU, there was nothing there screaming out me to lay down three hundred and odd notes, particularly given what Nintendo had seemingly become. It would take a serious company rethink to claw back all that open-jawed-popping-candy-tummy-butterflies ace of once upon a time, and they were clearly too far gone to do such a thing. Surely?

THE TURNAROUND

What turned my head back towards Nintendo, and indeed made me smile their way for the first time in the longest time, was January’s Nintendo Direct. I was working when it hit, but Twitter lit up with heartfelt adorations as to how great it was, instilling a curiousity to get home and see for myself.

Nintendo were rather self-deprecating in the first instance, apologising for the lack of games in the opening quarter of the year, going on to say that they like to populate a new console with great games, but those they are working on are taking a little longer to perfect. Lovely, I’m fine with that, a fabulous gesture and an eyebrow raised to see if they could follow such a great start and such a wonderful declaration of honesty. They did.

The next titles promised were Lego City, which still piqued my curiousity, and Monster Hunter, both arriving towards Easter time. I adored Monster Hunter on Wii, played it to bits, attended an amazing event by Capcom which is still the greatest piece of publicity I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Moreover, Monster Hunter was a game I could lose myself in.

Spoon full of sugar and then stir, stir. No Zelda game yet, but how about a polished, tweaked and altogether gorgeous looking version of Wind Waker? I have warm recollections of the title back on Gamecube, but I know a few folks who absolutely loved it to bits, and seeing them veritably cartwheel at the sight of a new version was a fabulous to behold.

Then, a truly scintillating last few minutes arrived. The point where they showed us the new Xenoblade, ‘X’ – ironically a sequel to a game one third of the company weren’t fussed about releasing a little while back. ‘X’ looks jaw dropping, gobsmacking to a degree I’ve not experienced for a fair while. That amazing shiver of ‘Can’t wait’ brushed over each pore, along with a whispered wondering as to whether I might have to pick up the system after all.

Such shimmers of smile and curiousity continued to pique. Was I .. was I beginning to fall in love with Ninty again? Such emotions echoed onwards, I watched a few videos and, almost subconsciously, those feelings grew exponentially. ZombiU still looked absolutely my cup of tea, mixing the dark chills of Condemned with a little Dark Souls. A friend raved about how much fun it was, of how scary, mentioned even non-gaming friends of hers loved to watch it being played. Opinion digested, more videos watched.

I listened to the Midnight Resistance podcast, telling tales of the times they’d had with the console, the games, their hope for the future – the enthusiasm was infectious. Robert Florence shared musings of how much fun he was having with Nintendo’s new machine, of fabulous battles on Monster Hunter with friends, just how much fun could be wrung from Sonic & All Stars Racing: Transformed. Hmmm. *^-^*

Criterion showed off the WiiU Need For Speed: Underground, triumphantly beaming about how hard they’d worked on the WiiU version. Rather than a lazy port from the 360 or PS3, the PC graphics had been moved to the machine, with gameplay appropriately fine tuned to suit. Reviews later backed up the wonderful work the British company had done on the title. Not only hope for future endeavours on the console, but the old school Burnout fan in me had a new racing fire to put alongside times of yore.

And Monster Hunter. Still Monster Hunter. A game released and sold out instantly at retail. Another apology from Nintendo, before going on to say that new stock would hit retailers in a few weeks time. Now that stock is scarce, and the stores which do have the game are charging pretty hefty prices for the remaining copies.

As for me, I’m trying to zero in on a decent deal, eyeing various stores, bundles, trying to figure out how rash I should be and which – if any – I could afford.

All I know is I want one. That and Nintendo and I are beautifully on good terms again. Anything could happen on the road back but .. I’d rather like it to work out, y’know

- CJ

Lets start off with talking about the story mode. The Mum character of Mama and Son’s cleaning and demolition services has been kidnapped by some maniacal mischievous animal aliens. That’s pretty much it. You must then spend multiple levels shooting Kangoroos, Bears (with shields) Armadillos, Turtles (that shoot rockets) and birds (that I can only assume are either sparrows or crows) in order to save your Mum.  Each episode has 5 levels and the fifth level of each episode as you may have guessed, is a boss fight. The final bosses are quite difficult to beat but with the right tactics you can defeat them.

Now here is where the game takes a very interesting turn. Your character starts off with a machine gun and as you start blasting away each animal you destroy   leaves a black stain on the wall. This might not sound like something interesting so far but you haven’t heard the best part. When you stand in front of the stains your character starts cleaning them up, and by doing so gains a bit for his special bar. The bigger the stain the more points you get, and the bigger you special bar is boosted. When the special bar is full you can unleash an attack that destroys all animals within a certain distance. In addition to that you can also drag the broken up robot pieces and bullet casings to little compactors, which if you fill up will give you a box that can either replace your current weapon with another, or refill your current one. There are quite a few weapons available in Alien Chaos but for me my personal favorite is the mini gun. My reason is that if you jump into the air and shoot down you can fly across the room… or just hit the roof, which is also a lot of fun.

This game starts off very easy, you destroy a few kangaroos, some birds and a couple of bears with shields. As you get into the game however it becomes sometimes almost impossible to complete a level. You still have the same animals but they have different colours, ranging from silver, to brown, to black and with each new colour it gets harder for you to kill them. Now I know it is customary for a game to become more difficult as it progresses, but as the birds can phase through walls it soon becomes easy for the animals to sneak up on you. To put it bluntly, there is nothing worse than having no cover and having a kangaroo land on your head. In fact not just a kangaroo, but a bear and even an armadillo too. If your looking for a challenge then this game will give you one, as well as giving you an excuse to kill some robot animals.

There wasn’t just a story mode but also a challenge section, as well as a Streetpass function. Unlike the Story mode however the challenges are just plain hard from the start. You have various test’s ranging from, survival levels to destroy these targets within the time limit challenges. There are ten levels in total and each on is harder than the next, which means you can use this as a way to improve your skill and build up a high score. I found them to be entertaining to start with but once you have completed them or survived for a long time they kinda lost some of their appeal to me. I am not saying that I wouldn’t play them, I’m just saying that there isn’t much of a challenge once you know the levels.

The gameplay itself is pretty good as the response time is almost perfect and the controls are simple too. There is a button to shoot, one to jump, one to aim and one for the special, which is all a point and shoot game like this needs. As there is nothing more I like than simplistic controls I really got into the gameplay. Something that was really noticeable was the accurate response times, this made the timings perfect sometimes letting you jump right over a group of animals just in time. The game was more enjoyable knowing that my death wasn’t anything to do with the controls or anything to do with the gameplay as a whole.

As with all games on the 3DS you can play in 3D. Now this is fun to start off with and does have a great visual quality, but for me I have preferred to play it in the standard 2D. Now that’s not to say I’m not a fan of the 3D effect, its just that when it comes to playing a game where you are shooting robotic animals from all angles the 3D gets kinda distracting. Sometimes I  would be looking around for when the next animals would be coming out, only to be unable to really notice it in the 3D. Without the 3D however it was much easier to see the robo birds flying into my face.

Graphically the game looked like a release on the Super Nintendo, it wasn’t amazing graphics but it wasn’t rubbish either. The level design is very simple and yet a brought difficulty that you could not foresee. An example of this is the complex cover and areas of defense on certain levels, which made them more difficult and more entertaining. The background music and sound effects had a similar feel to them as if they had also been taken from a SNES game, but that is probably due to the fact that this game overall wasn’t meant to be anything but a simple and fun.

Pros

- Fun levels and concept

- Good weapon variety and mini gun flying

- Difficult to complete

Cons

- Challenges do not have a long term reply factor

- 3D can be distracting

Alien Chaos 3D is a very good game, and had a lot more to offer than even I thought. The fact that its so difficult to complete some levels (Due to being overwhelmed with animals and no place to hide) makes this the perfect game to play when travelling long distances, or even to play to distract you for a while. I personally will be continuing to play this game as I will not let those animals beat me. Especially the bears with shields, who thinks a bear would need a shield? A robot alien animal menace that needs to be destroyed, that’s who.

-Random Man 5000

Alien Chaos 3D is available now on the Nintendo 3DS eShop

Ludosity

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS-download-software/Alien-Chaos-3D-746023.html