World of Warcraft series [Game Review]

I'd like to think of myself as huge a secret nerd, i suppose writing this review is like coming out of the nerd closet as i keep my online gaming to myself ... I have a sneaking suspicion that this might just be my longest review yet as i'm going to cover all the expansions so far and maybe even a little look into the latest. So prepare yourself for a long winded slightly opinionated crack of the whip at Blizzards World of Warcraft series.

World of Warcraft is the worlds most popular online game with over 10 million subscribers across the globe, although i'm sure the majority of you reading this knew that already! The game is developer Blizzard's fourth game in a series set in the fantasy universe known as Azeroth, a setting that takes heavy inspiration from dungeons and dragons. The difference with this installment of the Warcraft series is that Blizzard has taken a vastly different approach from the DOTA style games they're used to churning out and instead on November 23rd 2004 (The 10th anniversary of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans) the groundbreaking MMORPG was released.

I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt, sitting down to play World of Warcraft for the very first time is possibly one of the best gaming experiences any gamer can have. You begin with creating your very own in game character, which is one of the hardest choices in the game in my opinion with so many races and classes to pick from you find yourself creating every possible combination you can until you find something that suits your style of play, for example if you like to get into the thick of the action pick a warrior, if you like to keep out of the way and help everyone else roll a priest! The choices presented are well and truely overwhelming for a new player.

The aim of the game can vary depending on what kind of gamer you are (See the similarities here when it comes to how you can play the game?) depending on what realm you pick. Some of the realms cater to role-playing fans that prefer to play in character the whole time, while other realms are made for player-versus-player action. Or if you really want you can just play an ordinary realm. Although since the latest expansion came out it doesnt matter which realm you pick as a lot of the activitys in the game are cross-realm.

The games major accolade is that after countless hours spent playing you just don't want to stop unlike most other games, if you've done enough questing for the day you can go explore one of the various beautifully made zones in Azeroth, team up with your friends to take on a dangerous dungeon for epic loot or if you're in a destructive mood take part in some war games and take on your rival faction in a battleground. The possibilitys are endless.

World of Warcraft provides a constant stream of variety for the player, the combat system isfast, inter-changeable and action-packed! battles that are fun and intense, whether you're fighting alone or in a group. Blizzard well and truely hit gaming gold when they made World of Warcraft.

Of course though with every good game comes updates and over the past eight years three expansions have been released with a third on its way in the not so distant future. The first expansion of the series was World of Warcraft: The burning crusade. This expansion saw the unveiling of a whole new zone Outland which is far far away from Azeroth through a portal, these lands are inhabited with demons last seen in Blizzards Warcraft III. As well as the new zone and antagonists the expansion saw the level cap raised from 60 to 70 and the introduction of Blood elves (Horde) and Draenei (Alliance). Overall i found the questlines and new zone in the Burning Crusade fairly fairly enjoyable but the new races just didn't do it for me.

The second expansion released was World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King. The highly anticipated expansion was released in November 2008 and at the time was the fastest selling game of all time shifting over 2.8 million copies in 24 hours. New to this expansion saw another new zone uncovered, Northrend a continent for higher level players to explore and conquer with areas such as Grizzly Hills and the Howling Fjord being touted by many as the best zones ever created by Blizzard in WoW. Aside from this Wrath of the Lich King also introduced the Hero class Death Knight, an evil class that can played as by any race in the game. Death Knights start at Level 55 and are a mixture of a few different classes rolled into one. Once again the level cap was raised by ten to 80. Personally for i found this expansion underwhelming in terms of content other than the new zone.

The mother of all expansions came early last year, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, one that i myself being a veteran of the game and many other found on one hand absolutely amazing and on the other devastating, as what all Warcraft nerds grew to love was destroyed. In Catalysm an evil dragon aspect, Deathwing the Destroyer has made his way through an elemental plane of Deepholme which has caused the world to fall into a state of cataclysm changing the landscape forever. Along with these changes came a whole handful of new zones for higher level players including an Indiana Jones egypt style zone Uldum and an Underwater zone Vashj'ir, the elemental plane Deepholme, Mount Hyjal & The Twilight Highlands. This expansion also saw two new races, Worgen (Alliance) and Goblins (Horde) who i cannot say i personally like (Although i'm not a fan of any new race) and my opinion is that perhaps they'd both be better served as neutral races. Whilst i absolutely loved the new content that came with Catalysm it has ruined my memorys of Azeroth and i can only look back at my early days of playing and wish for that back.

I'm not going to go onto the latest expansion as quite frankly i think this review has run its course, but when it is released i'll be more than sure to give my opinion. All in all i can safely say World of Warcraft is without a doubt the greatest MMO ever created and its going to take a hell of a lot for it to be knocked from the top spot in online gaming no matter how hard developers are trying. Saying that though i do beleive its glory days have passed and that Blizzard are going to have to pull something big out of the bag in the next five years to stop them steadily losing even more subscribers than they already have.

Overall Grade: A+

Mortal Kombat [Game Review]

I remember like it was only yesterday when i was playing the original Mortal Kombat on the snes, getting absolutely hammered by the big four armed bloke with the womens ponytail countless times, and once again i find myself in the same position well over ten years later. The blood drenched saga continues in glorious fashion in the ninth reincarnation of series, don your ninja suits and ridiculous weapons and jump into the ridiculous and down right brutal world of 'Kombat'.

I've not played a proper Mortal Kombat game in a long time so i'm a bit rusty on the lore/storyline to this game as i've mainly played through ladder matches with my friends and i've neglected the story mode (Although what i have played has rocked!) I do beleive it goes along the lines of the world is ending due to some big dude with an awesome mask fucking up the world, he kills everybody in the mortal kombat franchise, raiden sees this in a vision and the group take part in the kombat tournement ran by some evil old guy to change the course of history and save 'earth realm' The story isnt brilliant and could of been a lot better, but it still aint half bad. The story-mode itself is excellent.

The Combat system in MK is smooth and fluid, and the game feel absolutely awesome to play especially when you line up a whole row of combos leading to the most awesome bit of the game X-Ray moves. X-Ray moves are a short string of brutal attacks that take a fair chunk of damage from your opponent and at the same time treats the player to a gory visual of your oponents bones breaking and being crushed bit by bit, these attacks are difference makers and can win or lose you the fight.

With an awesome set of classic and (I believe) a few new characters in the game this is surely one of the best Mortal Kombats if not the best since the original. Warner Brothers and Netherrealm have taken the game back to its basic roots, no more weird side scrolling fighters or poor attempts at revivals, this games the real deal and with 9 games in the series, two movies, and its very own web based series it surely seems that Mortal Kombat could be on the rise again, a sequel to the game and a new movie perhaps? We can only hope!

Overall Grade: B+

Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Game Review]

Its the release the gaming world has been waiting for for some time, the ever popular Deus Ex series returned after a long eight year delay since its predescor Invisible war came out back in 2003. The series has always offered exciting and deep gameplay with vast choices in player customisation (for skills and such), conversation paths and places to go and look around. I myself have never been a huge fan of the first person shooter genre and especially not a fan of stealth games as i've always found myself becoming bored and running in screaming all guns blazing, which never ends well.

The games game is set in 2027 and the plot circles around the controversial topic of human augmentation which has changed the way people live. Augmentation technology makes the more fortunate stronger, faster, and hardier--for a cost, of course. Of course everybody has their own opinion on the matter, many strongly against which from what i played in the game (First long mission and a few side quests) i felt like the villian for being forced onto the pro-augmentation side after the fundamental choice of whether or not to become augmented with cybernetics has been removed from Adam Jensen's life when he was given the cybernetics after being attacked and nearly killed by a mysterious group.

The gameplay was absolutely stunning, knowing that this game featured heavily in stealth put me off at first, but of course after an hour or so into the game i knew i had nothing to fear Deus Ex gives you the ability to play how you like, so instead of being forced into the boring and tedius task of hiding behind a box and picking off enemys slowly i was able to mix it up and go a little bit crazy at times. The hacking system in the game was pretty confusing and difficult to use, but admittedly thats because i didnt really watch the tutorial properly as i was overly keen to get into the next gunfight, but the hacking system minigame is highly regarded as great success by many reviewers.

 There is only one major flaw which drove me absolutely mad with rage when i was playing, its very simple and could be bypassed with common sense on the human side, but the game does not automatically prompt you too sign into your game profile, nor does it have an autosave feature or anywhere in the game to prompt you to save. Of course its entirely my fault that i forgot to do these two things but i found myself dying after playing through an hour of the game and there was no option to return to my last save point, losing ALL my progress as i wasnt signed in. I had to start again and then three hours later i hadnt saved for a good while and lost a LOT of progress once again. It was highly enfuriating and ruined the game a little bit for me.

I really wish i had more time to play this game as i didnt even scratch the surface with it, given the time i'm most defiently going to play this game properly and visit all the places and make use of the augmentation system which is so very important to the game and allows you to play with your own unique style. This was a brilliant game and it made me a little bit more open to stealth/fps games which i've so often avoided in the past. Most defiently worth purchasing!

Overall Grade: B+

Minecraft [Game Review]

For months and months upon end, i've purposely avoided Minecraft like the plague after playing it in its very early beta phase on singleplayer. But with it being summer and not very much to do with my days i figuired my best bet would be to get the chip off my shoulder and give it one more go. Admitedly this review is most likely going to be rather biased as i'm basing it on my first two days playing minecraft and of course i never liked it the first time round (So expect a newer review in a month or so after i've grasped the game).

Once i'd done the heartbreaking task of parting with £13.99 for the game i jumped right into it and thought my best bet would be to play on single player mode for a while and work it all out. Once in i found myself faced with a randomly generated map where i was surrounded by a little bit of everything, sand, snow, grass and water (fun fact, its said that the full size of minecrafts randomly generated maps are eight times the size earths surface). I wanted to explore vast mines, get diamonds and build an awesome building like i've seen on various youtube videos.

Oh no .. of course that wasnt to be was it? Instead i found myself searching through tons and tons of wikipedia pages and websites trying to teach me the basics of minecraft, which is my biggest problem with Minecrafts single player game, it offers nothing at for brand new players with no knowledge of what to do. Once i'd learnt everything the game got slightly fun in all honesty, but i couldnt see myself getting anywhere by mining all this junk on my own, so it was time to plunge into the vast servers of Minecrafts multiplayer mode.

I was more than excited to go around with thousands of other people in these thrilling and creative servers. Until of course that is when i actually clicked the Mutliplayer button. How on earth was i, a brand new player meant to know what to do here? I only just paid for the game nevermind knew any of the servers IP's, this is my second biggest fault with the game all i really want is a big busy server full of rescources and mountains i can dig deep into, so far all i've found is HUGE player citys full of peoples creations where i've been told NO YOU CANT BUILD HERE and so on (note: all these servers have been survival not build). So far i've been hugely dissapointed but perhaps if i can find a server that suits my playing style i might really enjoy this game like the countless others, its just going to take some time.

Overall i can see why this game is such a huge success worldwide and why many people chose to play it, but so far its not for me at all, the singleplayer mode i found enjoyable, but when i went over to multiplayer to see if i could recreate what i was doing there with other people i just found myself being told off for trying to build in certain places and being randomly killed by other players when finally getting somewhere, multiplayers been a VERY fustrating experience and has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Overall Grade: D-  (Note: could rise massively depending on my future gameplay)

Diddy Kong Racing [Game Review]

Its been a busy weekend for me and i havent had the time to watch any new films or purchase any new video games to review, with nothing too contribute i figuired, hey! I'll review some classic video games as there are countless titles i can think of that have carried me through childhood that i'd love to give my opinion on.
So without further adieu heres my review of the Nintendo 64's racing classic Diddy Kong Racing.

Diddy Kong Racing was Rares competition to the N64's Mario Kart 64 in 1997. The game was pre-ordered 800,000 times in the weeks leading up to christmas, making it one of the fastest selling video games of all time with the accolade being more than well deserved as Diddy Kong Racing is possibly one of the best N64 games ever released. The game featured a distinctive game mode that very much had similarites with super Mario 64 except for . . . You're in a vehicle of course! You'd begin the game in an open world map kind of lobby with passages to areas full of doors which led to a certain race track, which over time you would have to unlock via winning races.

The characters in this classic racing game are possibly the reason why i loved the game so very much. I think i could name you them all today even though i've not played the game for over ten years. There were familiar characters such as Diddy Kong (From Donkey Kong Country) Crunch (Also from the same title) Conker (From Conkers Quest & Conkers Bad Fur Day) and the ever recognisable Banjo (From the hit N64 classic Banjo Kazooie which is another game i'd like to review soon). Each track in game was littered with power-ups too use mid race to thwart your rivals with a whole host of different weapons too collect throughout the track, although all in all they were very much the same as Mario Kart.

The fact that in Diddy Kong Racing you would race on unique tracks that relied a certain vehicle made this game stand out for me as it was exciting to get out of the standard go-kart style car and get into a Plane or a Hovercraft, especially in multiplayer where you could all drive something different. Another thing that made DKR different from Mario Kart was the fact at the end of each set of races you would have a boss fight which didnt include racing at all, but instead you would have too complete certain tasks against other computer controlled players in a certain ammount of time and be the last player standing in for example collecting dinosaur eggs.

All in all this game is bloody brilliant! It had some of the most aesthetically pleasing graphics for a Nintendo 64 game and had a whole host memorable characters and tracks which i can still picture today. Countless hours of my childhood were wittled away whilst playing this game and to be quite honest i'd go back and do it again! As back then i was too young and naive to beleive that i had to complete the game and i'd just have fun messing about racing random tracks all day. Now i've got the urge to challenge myself again and complete it all . . . So watch out Diddy Kong, i'm coming for you soon.

Ovcrall Grade: A+

Football Manager 2011 [Game Review]

If you're thinking of buying this game albeit the 2011 version or the 2012 one set to be released in not to distant future prepare to kiss goodbye to your social life, because football manager will consume everything in its bask of nerdy simulation glory, trust me i know. The majority of my first year at university was spent either getting drunk or being sat around the kitchen table with my mates trash talking eachother and bragging about how our teams are better than eachothers . . . Of course i started as MK Dons, so naturally my team sucked.

The game is a long long throw away from its original heydays of Championship manager from the 90s in FM2011 there are over 50 nations, 100 leagues and thousands upon thousands of players as well as the the little polished touches such as real life journalists and media publications. Its fair too say the game itself is pretty complicated to the football management newcomer, but it only takes a few hours of play to get into the swing of things, and once you have gotten into that swing the game grips you like a drug addiction.

The biggest problem i found upon starting this game was that there is so much choice i struggled to pick a time to begin with and like myself, its likely that you're going too struggle to find a team you feel comfortable with for a while and you may find yourself restarting a few times. Once you have found the team you intend to take onto glory (For example lets say i took Charlton Athletic) the game begins in pre season, where you find yourself with a set ammount of funds from your chairman and you have a month or so to improve your team with signings, set tactics for the upcoming season and play in some friendlies. Which to a seasoned football manager veteran, can get a little bit boring after the first 10 pre seasons. It could take up to an hour alone for pre season to be over and done with once all the tweaking has been completed before you even play your first league match. And a good few days to a week to complete your season if you're truely dedicated too seeing your team acheive promotion and the time put in is truely worth it.

The 3D match engine is a vast improvement on past football manager titles where for each match your team would a set of coloured blobs running around the pitch which was uglier than a league 2 tuesday night fixture in november, although its nothing to write home about and it'll be interesting to see how it is improved upon soon enough. Notable flaws for me were the tedious press confrences, before and after each match, i found myself answering the same questions week in week out and i ended up sending my assistant manager to deal with them, which doesnt always work out for the best.

Football Manager as per usual though rises above its flaws and continues to take the gaming world by storm cementing it place as number one for simulation and management games out there today. I highlyhighly reccomend you buy this from the steam store or from a retail outlet on the cheap now the new title is coming out soon if you're curious about the series but not too sure. I myself intend to devote many more depressingly commited hours too seeing my Derby County side fail in game and in real life only resulting in multiple counts me quitting the game and restarting in a nerdy rage and i hope i've given you the push in the right direction to joining the wonderful nerdy world of Football Management.

Overall Grade: A+

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 [Game Review]

The ever popular WWE Smackdown vs Raw series is back for its 12th installment this year and like anything thats getting on in age, tiredness and wear and tear begin to show. The game itself is as per usual a great addition to the franchise but like time and time again we're greeted with the same glitchy mechanics and positioning system that has plagued the series for so long.

With each new WWE release per year we expect a new breath of life to be given to the franchise which in fairness THQ & Yukes have noteably given it a shot this time round, but not to the extent we would of liked to have seen. It seems to most of us that they've just slightly updated SVR 2010s winning formula which isnt always a bad thing. The game includes 70 wrestlers which leaves us more than spoilt for choice when it comes to taking on friends in the one of the tons of gamemodes offered, although a fair few of the wrestlers will need to be unlocked from Road to wrestlemania mode and WWE Universe.

If you're yet to play this series you will be asking yourself, what the hell is WWE Universe? Well, Universe is a combination of career mode and exhibition mode which is basically a never ending calender of matchups that you can edit to your desire. You make the matchups on Raw, Smackdown or Superstars. You cant just decide hey, i want The Undertaker to be the new Heavyweight champion you have to make each superstar earn the title by booking them in matches each week forcing them to climb their way to the #1 contenders spot, which when the time comes for that superstar to take their title shot at a pay per view event there is more of a feeling of acheivement afterwards. This and the highly in depth create modes (i.e. Create a superstar, finisher, entrance and cutscenes) make this installment one of the most immersive to date.

As for the Road to Wrestlemania mode if truth be told i wasnt a huge fan, i much prefered the older SVR titles in which i could play as any superstar and follow one of a few paths throughout the game. Thats not to say i didnt enjoy certain wrestlers RTWM campaigns most notably Chris Jerichos, but i felt that the free roaming backstage was ridgid and very samey if at all necessary. I've not got much else to say with regards to this gamemode.

Growing up watching the WWE and playing the games i'll always have that nerdy little love for the series of games and television show so i'm naturally going to suggest to you all that this game is a must buy, especially if you're one of those gamers who likes to sit down with your mates and immerse yourselves in a bit of mindless and ridiculous gaming in which you see a 300+ pound man jump from the top of a steel cell only to miss and faceplant the mat below.

Overall Grade: B-

Rugby World Cup 2011 [Game Review]

As a huge rugby fan myself this game has been a cause of excitement for some months as its a very long time since a rugby game has been released on a console since the days of the original xbox, upon release day i made sure i had a copy of the game, sadly though i've been hardly impressed by the long awaited titile.

Like many other rugby and gaming fans, i feel slightly robbed by Hb studios and 505games, all in all it seemed like a 'lite' version of the real game as there is a HUGE lack of content unlike previous titles which included Tri-Nations, Six-Nations and the Super 15. This title unfortunately only offers the world cup mode and warm up tour mode which is essentially the same thing.

Another fault to add the endless list of faults that unfortunately come with this game is the liscencing, the front cover of the games box has the IRB logo on it which is heavily misleading as the Australian and New Zealand teams are not licensed and the players for a whole host of lesser teams are not real. (Only 10 out of a possible 20 teams are licensed) Other than the pretty neat HD graphics and average commentry this game has nothing to offer and left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. Surely its only a matter of time before the rugby community receives a good game to rival footballs FIFA?

We can only hope ...

Overall Grade: D-

Fable 3 [Game review]

Fable 3 is Lionheads third installment to the ever popular series that allows the player to pick between vast moral choices which influence the games outcome in all of the series' titles. Of course this game was always going to an excellent well thought out masterpeice which has been highly anticipated by the gaming community ever since completing the flawless Fable II (Which has to be possibly be one of my all time favourite games).

The game picks up 50 years since the end of the Fable II in the middle of what seems to be an industrial revolution ruled by Tyrant king who happens to be the games heroes brother. You play as either a prince or princess whos job it is to unseat the unpopular tyrant king by amassing an army from across Albion by slowly gaining the trust of each induvidual group of people by completing various quests for them.

The game is split into several different parts in which you see your character develop throughout growing in stature, popularity and strength. You are joinined in the game by several key characters which are by your side pretty much throughout the whole storyline, most notably Walter (your partner who slides in and out of the game often) and your ever loyal butler Jasper (Voiced by the brilliant John Cleese). The game does include a variety of exciting and not so exciting quests, the latter being your average collect x or kill x ammount of whatever, although we are also treated some brilliant quests injected with humour for example one in which you are shrunk and sent into a group of medival nerds dungeons and dragons style board game which includes brilliant voice acting (Which fable is noted for in all of its games) and several pop culture references.

The combat system in game though sadly is fairly basic and knocks the game down a peg or two in my opinion. You are restricted to one combat attack, one ranged attack and one magic attack which is a huge shame as in previous Fable games you could use several attacks which made for exciting combat, wheras here it gets boring quickly. My only other complaint about the game is despite its great storyline and side quests it all seems pretty linear, the story is so intense at times that i felt rushed to follow and complete the storyline rather than explore towns buy propertys and customise my character which made Fable 1 & 2 so exciting.

All in all though, i highly reccomend the purchase of this game if a strong storyline with beautiful scenery a great soundtrack, humerous voiceacting and a good few hours of immersive play coupled is what you're looking for.

Overall Grade: B-

Garry's Mod [Game review]

Take any of your typical half-life characters and throw them into the middle of a field with a homemade rocket ship built out a shopping trolley to his left and a pile of corpses surrounded by burning watermelons and you have your typical foray into the sandbox mode of Garrys mod, a game developed by Garry Newman and released by Valve which allows you to do litteraly whatever you want with no boundries.

Garry's Mod is basically a usermade group of tools which allows you to edit your own game in anyway you can imagine, which when left to the imagination of a group of friends can be anything as spectacular as a whole city built down to a tee for the thousands of avid gamers to explore and wreck havock in or it could be a simple and silly as making two zombies look as if they're being caught in the most crude of situations thanks to Garry's Mod ragdoll manipulation tools.

Tools included in the sandbox gamemodes (Singleplayer & Mutliplayer) are vast an exciting to use, on my first play through on the single player sandbox i found myself spawning a handful of NPC's (None player character) and attaching ballons too them so that they float high up into the air, only for me to pull our a rocket launcher seconds later and blast them back down to earth in glorious fashion. Garry's Mod pretty much allows you to play god which as stated earlier, can lead to hillarious and horrific consequences.

Its in its Multiplayer modes that the game really comes into its own though, i've had this game for just under a month now and i've barely seen ANY of the content. There are an incredible ammount of game modes and maps to explore. Some of the main gamemodes are DarkRP (Servers that allow you to take a specific job and play out your characters profession in an enviroment set by the person who made the server for example, Fallout RP is a HUGE map that pretty much mimics that of Fallout New Vegas). Other gamemodes i've come across so far are Trouble in terrorist town (A deathmatch style game in which the players must work together via use of their microphones to determine who the spy is stealthily killing all the other players on the map) and Bunnyhop (A gamemode in which you have to jump across various items to in a certain ammount of time without falling into the water/lava).

Obviously there are a whole ton of gamemodes you can play but i shall only mention one last one as personally i've found it to be initiative and truely brilliant, GMOD Theater. This is basically a giant cinema you can walk around with other people in game and watch Youtube videos in one of the screens, players request what everyone watches and you have the power to vote to skip a video if its not to your taste. I found it an incredibly weird experienc watching Shaun of the dead with 30 other people in an online cinema at once whilst talking about it at the same time, it was one of my online gaming highlights so far (Nerd alert)!

I highly highly reccomend to everybody that you purchase this game some time in your life whilst you still have the time to play, for all the content you should purchase Garry's Mod in a bundle from the STEAM Store with Counter Striker: Scource, Half life or Left for dead.

Overall Grade: A++