Halloween the only time of the year

Where parents get there kids to dress up and beg for sweets from strangers

What would put you off a game that is announced ?

So you catch the first look of a new game or trailer and you think this game looks great the idea is good the setting is awesome but they mention that one thing that just puts you off.

This is purely a subjective list but i will try to explain on why the things put me off

The 3 dreaded letters MMO that really puts me off. I have played Mmo's before and have enjoyed them but i have seen many projects that i just feel would have been alot better without the mmo trappings.

Android/Mobile etc seen quite a few times on kickstarter games that looked promising but were aiming for android or mobile gaming first and that really puts off as i always think they would be cutdown affairs.

Turn based. Now this is a personal thing but i have always preferred real time to turn based game play i think probably more to do with my attention span and patience rather then anything wrong with turn based games.

Multiplayer focused. I think this is a combination of me having poor broadband and the fact that i have to really rely on other people for the enjoyment of a game. I would much rather have a solid single player game.

If anyone has more please comment

Project nimbus kickstarter some early impressions of the alpha build

So while backed i backed a kickstarter project and they have released the alpha version which they update regular.So i thought i would give a few opinions. Now i will stress it is very early and they do take on feedback some things mentioned in the forum have already been implemented which impressed me a lot.

It is a mech shooter where you fly around a specific area and you take down enemies with either machine gun or missiles and a few other weapons aswell. There is a dash mechanic so you can get the enemy quicker or dodge bullets and if you hold shift there is a bullet time mode. It is good fun even in this early version the issues i have had so far are slow frame rates (even lowest details would get about 27fps and i am using a amd 8350 and a 270x) i imagine though it will get optimized later on.

Sometimes the camera can got a bit crazy when you lock onto enemies though pressing Q switches the type of lock on mode

In the recent build they added the choice of multiple mechs in survival mode had a play of a few and will post a vid of that.

As far as what i would like to see well better frame rates /bigger explosions/ perhaps some kind of grading system as that would encourage replaying the game and perhaps secret unlocks linked to that and i am really hoping the mech's all have big differences in the way they play.

The return of the space sim

Ok granted it never really left but with the big names of Star citizen and elite:dangerous they are back in a much bigger way.

When i was a kid i played a little bit of elite but a lot of elite 2 for the amiga it was one of those mind blowing games with a real sense of the scale of space and even landing on planets and all on one floppy disk.

They did disappear for while and the only space games was more focused with levels and missions rather then a open world  like with freespace. But there have been a fair few the past 14 years such as Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos, Terminus and the X series

Now the only one that really got me addicted was the X series mostly X-2 and X-3 (give X-rebirth a wide miss for the moment).They got alot right with ships upgrades and trading but just did not get the open space feel as it felt like a series of sectors and they needed a lot of hours put in.

With star citizen and elite coming out they look really promising (And really hoping to try the Elite beta soon) what i really really hope though is they give you plenty to do.Having a open universe is great but not if there is very little to do

Also if they do well hopefully will mean we will get a lot more of that type of game.

Secrets in games

The memories of playing doom and coming across this secret door with a weapon that normally you could not get till later on was such a thrill and really missing in games now. Was playing the remake of shadow warrior and came across a secret and i thought oh i forgot about secret areas as i see them so rarely.

Now secrets are either unlockables or hidden items you can find that have no real use and do not feel really substantial i mean even in the original doom there were entire secret hidden levels to play

Now do not get me wrong there are games out there that have some decent secrets i was playing bayonetta and came across some decent ones but while playing bayonetta and just exploring that modern games in many cases are so linear and narrow that i never even thought about exploring for hidden stuff. And RAGE had some really cool stuff 

All i can ask please bring back more secrets and easter eggs in games

Kingdom come: Deliverance alpha

So for backers the released a extremely early alpha footage and i have posted some footage which i will post a link

And even though it is literally a taster it is showing a lot of promise graphics wise it looks great even on low detail though prepare for a fair bit of popup and of course there are bugs and crashes as a alpha build but as far as the basics they have a solid foundation.

I almost find it unfair to really give any feedback as it is just a tester with one basic quest a but what i hope for is plenty of stuff to do plenty of quests even better graphics and a awesome combat system with great enemy blow reactions.If they can pack plenty of history into it i will be happy though i am not sure if this will be based on a real place and people or if they will create there own.

Will probably give more feedback when more and more stuff is released  here is some footage

Does practice always make perfect ?

I have been playing games for years and have always been told practice makes perfect. But in my case that never happens i always seem to reach a ceiling in my skill level which is far from perfect.

Best way i can describe it is with fighting games most have challenge modes where you have to do a certain combos and in most i can get to around 60% of them done but then no further no matter how hard i practice

With online fights i see my self as not to bad but again i do reach a certain level and get no further

Now is it to do with my reactions or do i have to put even more time into it ? i am not to sure but in a few months i will not be working so i will get to put time into my games so will hope to test it out and see if can get above this ceiling  

The lessons to be learned from the failed Kickstarter game Human resources

So past few hours it was announced they were cancelling there kickstarter for the game human resources and i wanted to give a few opinions on why i think it failed.

Firstly and i think the biggest reason is that  they had a lot of good will previously.There game planetary annihilation did very well on kickstarter thought i have yet to play it but from what i read a lot of people are not happy with it so far was missing features and it still felt very unfinished even though it was now a full release. And i suspect that put people off for there next game.

Secondly they really should have clarified more about how planetary annihilation was going to progress if human resources was successfully funded. In the kickstarter for torment tides of numera they had said that only the preproduction part of the company would work on that (as they had little to do) while the rest would finish work on wastelands 2

Thirdly comments and feedback from the developers seem to be fairly sporadic and while it appeared they seem to reply to positive comments. When there were negative comments (even if it is constructive ) they seemed to skip over it.

Finally no real single player mode and a always online connection for me that was the reason i cancelled my pledge everyone can play single player games without issue usually to have a decent multiplayer game does require a decent connection which not everyone has. And i would have thought if you want to get as many people to buy into a game you need to get as many people on boards as possible. Also them saying using there always online system cuts down on cost and i am really not sure how thats possible as you would need more servers


It is a shame really as i really liked the idea and the look i am hoping it comes back and i plan to give planetary annihilation a try.

Can too much challenge take the fun out of a game ?

So now when people say challenging games the dark souls/demon souls games pop up.Now i did complete demon souls but dark souls pushed my patience to far. And it got me thinking why are some games a challenge but fun and other games are a challenge but frustrating.So some of the stuff i personally find frustrating.

Technical issues. Now this is what the developer may not have intended but can include bad camera or unresponsive controls had the camera issue in quite a lot of games.

You should have known that was coming....if you are a mutant that can predict the future.Now some games you can be cautious and it will work but there are some games where you die because something happened you could not have possibly known in advance the trial and error approach sure you will remember for the future but chances are more will come up again.

Superhuman enemy AI. Happens a lot in fighting games where the enemy seems to counter every attack in a way that no human could.

Grinding, A good game should not need you having to grind to increase your stats so you can beat a enemy.If its a action game your skill should be able to win (i would always say for a decent action game if you are good enough you should be able to complete a game without taking a hit). And perhaps a turn based game the strategy should be enough to make up the difference.

Time sink.This is one i really hate basically a enemy that takes so long to beat that dying and having to do it again is really frustrating


if anyone has got more examples let me know

Publisher NDA's and embargo's

So this generation and previous generation the thing i have seen coming up are non disclosure agreements and embargo's. Basically from what i can gather sites and magazines get early access to a game but that is providing they do not disclose information until a specific date. The idea (supposedly) was so no specific site or publication had the advantage of a early review and everything was equal.

Nice in theory not that good in practice firstly when the embargo ends can be a big giveaway.If for example the embargo ends on the release date of the game or worse later on you can usually guess they do not have much faith in the game. Second if a certain site or magazine has a earlier then the rest review you can guess there was a specific deal done with them and i would be very wary of there opinion.

I do have a concern on how much hold a publisher has on the sites if for example they give a bad review would they blacklist them with holding future games ?. If a site was under that much pressure i would imagine it would be really hard to be unbiased.

Its even happen with youtuber's recent one was the middle earth lord of the rings game if you wanted a early access to it you needed to comply with a huge list of demands (Rather then requests) like for example not mentioning any negatives.

Have to say it has changed my buying habits and i no longer preorder games at all i wait until i get variety of opinions before i put down my money. I think in the end publishers need to give a lot more leeway it would be fairer for the consumers aswell as the reviewers.

Resolution and frame rates

With all this talk about resolutions and frame rates i thought i would give my two cents about it. Recently my 1080p monitor broke and i had to use a old monitor i had which was 720p and to be honest after a period of time i got used to it. Now granted when i get a new monitor i will probably notice the difference but for now its good enough.

Frame rates though that i do notice a lot more i really notice low frame rates and things like microstuttering (where even if the frame rate is say a 60fps but its not a constant speed) i really love a smooth frame rate in games i find it makes the experience better (also because if there is more frames per second the controls can be more responsive

Ubisoft saying with the new assassins creed having a 30fps to make a more cinematice experience to me is like peter jackson saying the hobbit is 48ps to have better gameplay. In my mind i do not play games solely for the cinematic feel.

In the end for me though frames per second is not the be and end all as long as the game plays well enough that is good for me

Developer feedback done right

I have to give major kudos to the makers of project nimbus now in its alpha stage and they have a forum on steam and they really are taking on feedback. One bug was mentioned and a few hours later a patch came out fixing it 

Some of the requested stuff has already been implemented though still say it is early days and there is still a lot of work to such as optimization and polishing.


You really get a feeling that you are interacting with the developers i really hope it gets early access as i just do not have the time to put into the game to give more feedback 

The waiting game

I used to be the type of gamer that would get the stuff at launch but past few years i have learnt to be a lot more patient. The reason being most of the time the game at launch is the buggiest most expensive and has the least content of what the game will eventually become.

There are a load of games from borderlands 2 to skyrim and fighting games like blazblue to MMO'S such startrek. With either content updates or game of the year editions with all patches and dlc or just a quasi sequel if you can wait you can get a better game.

With stuff like early access it really often pays to wait as some games may never actually finished and how gutting would it be to spend the money only never to get a completed product.

I was really really glad i held out on getting GTA V for previous gen i knew it would get a pc version and while the wait has been long hopefully it would be worth it .

RTS games with the emphasis on the Strategy part

i grew up on real time strategy games but i noticed with quite a few of them there is not that much emphasis on the actual strategy most of the time it boils down to building and researching as fast as possible to try an overrun the enemy.

First time i remember using strategy and it worked was playing this game cossacks and using the terrain and the height to my advantage a  squad of riflemen took out a much larger squad because they could shoot further.

Now there are more strategic games such as total war series, company of heroes etc.

I would love to hear from people stories about when strategy paid off and the perhaps more traditional resource collecting games that have a fair amount of strategy rather then base rushing.

Developers that listen to there fans

Have been following two games one was Skullgirls which had a full release then a successful indie gogo campaign and the second was Project nimbus a kickstarter funded game which is now in beta.

Now what has impressed me about these two games is that you can interact and feedback to the developers and they really take the comments on board.

And i do find that missing now days with a lot of companies it feels like there is a barrier or you get lost in the crowd it could have something to do with the size of them and perhaps that the smaller companies are closer to the fans

Will say about diablo 3 it does appear they have took a lot of the feedback aboard and the game is now a lot better (still no offline mode though grrr) so that is a start but i have seen some official forums for a recent kickstarter game where any negative feedback is not acknowledged at all (even if it is valid constructive criticism

When it comes to crowdfunding constant communication i feel is important and they really need the goodwill to be successful.But it is also important to the bigger companies make sure that the constructive feedback can get to the developers even via things like polls

early version compared with full release

Was reading some comments about a game which is in a testing phase at the moment and people were of course commenting on the footage and when people mentioned negative's the response was "its a test/early version"

But that got me thinking if a game is released either in a beta/alpha/demo/test release how often are they different to the final product ?.And for me personally with the limited games i have played i have not played many early versions which does not give me a basis on what the final game will be like. The only game i remember playing was timeshift for the pc when i played the demo the game was took back into development and redone so the final version was very different.

There have been games such as killer instinct and streetfighter x tekken were the first vids i saw the game was changed a fair bit though i suspect even with those early versions you would still get a feel of a game.

And of course we have games like duke nukem forever and aliens colonial marines where the final version is different.

But i would really love to know for the people who play far more games then i would what games have you played where the final version was a lot different ?