Open World Games

            Open world games have been a mainstay ever since their introduction into the gaming industry as a way of creating a game. Games like Grand Theft Auto (GTA) have set the standard since the beginning of these sort of games and have continued to maintain these standards with the recently released GTA V, a true masterpiece of open world games, tying in aspects such as free roam, third-person shooters, story quests and also side quests in a large and vibrant world which is as realistic as they can make it to allow the player to immerse themselves into this experience.

 

I thought the V looked like a cash note

Summary of All Reviews

Introduction

            With 11 game reviews rolled out and read by all you lovely readers, I figured it was time to have a little checkpoint and take a little breather before continuing on to bigger and better games, thus introducing a new review type: summary! Of course, with the new school semester just entering its second week, I am bound to be tied down and busy with mountains of work soon. However! I will definitely not let this blog go two weeks max without a fresh new review gracing the front page! So, without further ado, the summarized editions with some fresh new information not present in the reviews themselves at the time (selectively of course!).

Hearthstone (ABIT EARLY ARE WE?)

Introduction

            Welcome to this week’s dose of gaming reviews. As more and more good games begin to appear on the horizon of the year 2014, all I can think about is my ever-thinning (it was thin in the first place) wallet. However, if there’s one thing that has been on-the-rise over the past few years, it is the appearance of free-to-play games, games that save your wallet, and mine, from thinning out to the point of non-existence.

Free-to-play games have been spanning multiple genres since they have appeared in the early 21^st century. Games like Maplestory and Cabal have started to define the free-to-play games, starting them off as MMORPGs. In the recent years, however, free-to-play games have started to spread to other genres such as the FPS and free-roam games, just to name a few. A new free-to-play game has also been recently released worldwide by Blizzard, and this game is Hearthstone.

Papers, Please

Introduction

            In this tenth game review of this blog, we shall be looking at a game praised for its utter simplicity and superb gameplay, for its price. This game is called: Papers, Please.

 

            Papers, Please is an indie adventure game that tells the story of a immigration officer who has recently been appointed to his post by a state-sponsored lottery of a fictional country known as Artstotzka. The player is then put into his shoes, approving or denying access of foreigners and natives alike from going into the country of Arstotzka during his working shift from 6am to 6pm of in-game time (of course), this is done in the game by checking their passports and relevant documents, and if these documents are in check, allow him/her access, if not, deny him/her access. Although this task may seem like a boring and droll task, this is just the base gameplay of Papers, Please.

 

A normal day in Artstotzka

            What Papers, Please does fantastically well is how it constantly challenges the player’s moral conscience by making the player struggle to think whether what they’re doing is right or wrong, and oftentimes these decisions differ from all players, meaning each outcome is different for every individual, resulting in a part of the story being the work of the player and their morals, which definitely helps makes this game stand out from the other indie games. Although the story is pretty short, it does have certain branched out sections that allow for a unique (although slightly lacking) story experience. There are also 20 different endings for this game, and experiencing each would mean racking up many hours of gameplay whilst struggling to wonder if the guy in front of you should be allowed or denied access.

 

To approve, or to deny.

Goat Simulator (A COMPLETELY SERIOUS REVIEW)

            I gladly bring to all of you, the audience, the next serious review among the throngs of serious reviews worldwide of the extremely serious game that has been released on 1^st of April and has taken the world by storm and ravaged game reviewers all across the fair land. This game is none other than Goat Simulator!

Left 4 Dead 2 (DELAYED AS USUAL)

Introduction

             Welcome one and all to the newest, and slightly delayed, review to grace this gaming blog of mine. I definitely have a problem with keeping with scheduled releases of these reviews on Sundays, mainly because I sometimes lack inspiration and the feeling of writing and just abandon it altogether and wait till the next Sunday, but that will not suffice, and thus I bring to you this new review, and it may be a day late, but better late than… next Sunday.

            This week’s game of particular focus is an all-time classic, with its huge fanbase (a respectable one even today!), offers spectacularly solid gameplay, had a recent free giveaway for every copy (wow!) and is part of the zombie game genre. Of course, many of you would have guessed it by now. That game is… Left 4 Dead 2.

 

Took me some time to realise the thumb is missing

            Left 4 Dead 2, also known as L4D2, is the sequel to the original L4D, developed by Valve and released on November 2007. An extremely old game, and you know the saying “old is gold”, and that is what this game definitely falls under. 

L4D2 features several maps, the maps individually are split into 4-5 subparts, with players having to battle their way through the zombie horde in order to reach a “safe-house”, where players can heal up and restore their ammunition supply. In the last subpart, however, players must usually hold up somewhere on the map as they must wait for their rescue party to arrive, which is in the form of a boat, plane and many others. There is usually a center spot within the map where players will mostly hold up in as they contain medical supplies and ammunition. If players are successful in fending off the waves of zombies, they escape and thus “win” the campaign, after which credits will roll showing the statistics of the whole playthrough. The whole aim of the game is pretty much similar to many other zombie genre games, which is to survive and be rescued.

Various load screens posters of various campaigns

The main characters in L4D2 include new characters from the sequel itself, and also the main characters and the maps of the original L4D, updated with better graphics, a bigger variety of weapons and new Special Infected.

L.A Noire (WOOP)

Introduction

            Ever watched shows like Sherlock Holmes and had that fuel and drive and motivation to be an epic investigator within a game that breaks cases single-handedly thanks to your logic and intuition alone? Well, there isn’t such a game.

            But one game that comes close to achieving this is L.A Noire.