Thursday 30 January 2014

10,000 Views Extravaganza!

This is just amazing, outstanding, superb, brilliant, great, excellent, terrific and any other adjective which shows just how great you all are. Thanks guys for this opportunity to write for you and for the comments and advice you have given all of us to make this blog flourish. You guys are all really great and we couldn't have done it without you. Let's try and get to a million!


Sunday 26 January 2014

App Review No. 34 Rayman Jungle Run

Strong Points:
Great but simple gameplay
Brilliant graphics
Smooth animations
Good physics
Fair few levels
Easy to learn, challenging to master
Nice learning curve
Pick up and play/just one more level gameplay
Land of the Livid Dead levels are amazing tests of skill

Weak Points:
Frustrating
New Heroes (Globox etc.) cost real money
Can get repetitive trying to get all the Lums
Lums only unlock pictures in the gallery and Skull Teeth



Thursday 23 January 2014

App Review No. 33 Doodle Jump

Strong Points:
Nice, simplistic gameplay
Cool, doodle based graphics
Lots of themed stages
Different areas have slightly different gameplay
Except for the ninja stage, there are no upgrades, making it purely skill based
Good, pick up and play style
Very addictive!
Online multiplayer adds competetivity

Weak Points:
No extra modes
No regular updates
Upgrades are very expensive


Wednesday 22 January 2014

App Review No. 32 Tasty Planet: Back for Seconds

Strong Points:
Stages are named, making them seem more different
Storyline is as funny as ever
Same, old artstyle and graphics
Lots of replay value (although, could get boring)
Lots of levels
Lots of bonus levels
More variety in stages
Larger stages

Weak Points:
Sizing is accurate for some objects and not for others
You can go from metres in length in one level to cm the next
Same old gameplay as the first one with no changes


Tuesday 21 January 2014

App Review No. 31 Tasty Planet

Strong Points:
Different, innovative gameplay
Interesting and different premise
Nice graphics
Good soundtrack
Lots of replay value (although, could get boring)
Lots of levels
Funny story (if short)

Weak Points:
All levels are more or less the same
Longer levels can be boring as you are just eating the same things over and over again
Sizing is accurate for some objects and not for others
You can go from metres in length in one level to centimetres the next




Saturday 18 January 2014

Review No. 69 Pokémon X and Y - 3DS (3+)

Strong Points:
3D graphics (with slider) in battle
Breeding for IV's easier than ever
Main legendary easy to catch
Battle animations are much better
Roller skates make getting around much easier
Storyline is darker
PSS makes connecting to people a lot easier
Global Link is much easier to use
Very big regional Pokédex
3D graphics adds height, depth and better overall graphics to the game
Random people have more of a personality
Luminouse City is huge
Graphics for HM's are much better
EV's are much easier to get and record
BP is easier to get
Map is much less linear
Cinematic cut-scenes!
Character customisation
Restaurant Le Wow makes it easy to get money

Weak Points:
3D effect (with slider) not in overworld
Scary house not really scary
Not very many new Pokémon
League is not very hard
No VS Seeker
Not many legendries (yet?)
Main legendary is easy to catch
Framerate is shaky when in battle
Not as many training spots



Wednesday 15 January 2014

Review No. 68 GTA V - PS3 (18+)

Strong Points:
Amazing map
Detailed graphics
Very interactive
Hard to get bored of
Lots of small little details which make the world alive
Lots of vehicles and weapons 
Police chases are fun
Story is amazing
Lots of random minigames!
Characters are memorable
Voice acting is brilliant

Weak Points:
As it is a big game there can be a bit of lag if running on a older console
Random events can be infrequent
Not enough heists - more coming out in 2014
Police AI can be odd- you may go on a rampage and get no stars but if you punch one person you get 3!


Monday 13 January 2014

Review No. 67 Wii Fit - Wii (3+)

Strong Points:
A fun way to get fit
Lots of activities for all ages
Variety of activities
Wuhu Island is great
Nice to be able to use Miis
Bright, fun graphics

Weak Points:
Expensive to get all accessories.
Gets boring after a while - not motivating
Measurements aren't completely accurate


Wednesday 8 January 2014

App Review No. 30 The Blockheads

Strong Points:
Micro management really works
Minecraft graphics fit the style
Huge world
Lots of achievements
2D plane actually works
Blocks make it easy to build things
Happiness, energy and hunger make it more in depth
Being able to teleport more Blockheads in speeds the game up
Multiplayer is good
Time crystals (premium currency) easy to get and you can find them in game
Lots of items
The game can run while you are not playing it so you can set it up
Upgrading items is a cool feature

Weak Points:
Not enough animals/ enemies
Food is hard to find/ get when you are starving and so can barely move
Slow paced


Monday 6 January 2014

The 12 Generations of Gaming - Gen 9 (The Future)

On the ninth gen of gaming,
The world sent to me,
Three new consoles.

On the ninth gen of gaming,
The world sent to me,
A Pokémon MMORPG,

On the 12 days of Christmas,
This blog sent to you,
Many aw-ful tunes,

On the 12 days of Christmas,
This blog sent to you,
Lots of info-o.

On the 12 days of Christmas,
You skipped past these tunes,
To be fair, I don't blame you.

Consoles:
Wii U Mii I
PlayStation 5
Xbox Everything

Games:
Pokémon World (MMORPG)
Movie Tie In - The Game
Call of Duty: Dogs

And so, it is that we have reached our final post in the 12 Generations of Gaming series and it is now time to talk about the future. What new consoles will the world see in the 9th gen, and what games will grace those consoles?

In this post, I will talk about the new three consoles and three games that will take the world by storm. (Warning these consoles and games do not exist). Please comment if you have any more ideas about what you want to happen in the future.

Sunday 5 January 2014

The 12 Generations of Gaming - Smartphones

On the phone gen of gaming,
The world sent to me,
A new revolution.

On the phone gen of gaming,
Apple sent to me,
Many i related phones.

On the phone gen of gaming,

Rovio sent to me,
Many Angry Birds.

Smartphones: 2000-present


Platforms:
iPhone
HTC Dream
Windows Phone 7

Games:
Angry Birds
Infinity Blade

And so, we come to our last platform based post and it is one of the revolutionary Smartphone platform going around the world. In this post, I will talk about the first iPhone, Android and Windows based devices as well as 3 of the best and most influential games on the revolutionary platform.

Saturday 4 January 2014

The 12 Generations of Gaming - PC

On the PC version of gaming,
The world sent to me,
Much better RAM.

On the PC version of gaming,
The world sent to me,
Stea-e-em.

On the PC version of gaming,
The world sent to me,
Mac, Windows rivalry.

PC: 1961-Present

Platforms:
Windows
Mac
Steam

Games:
Minecraft
The Sims
Age of Empires

PC's have been around since before the video game console era and have always been stuck, firmly in the market. The time period I am talking about is when the first video games appeared on PC's (such as Spacewar!), not when the first PC was made. In this post, I will talk about two of the biggest companies for making PC's as well as the biggest company for downloading games on to PC's. Finally, I will be talking about 3 of the biggest and best games on the platform.

Friday 3 January 2014

The 12 Generations of Gaming - Handheld

On the hand(held) gen of gaming,
The world sent to me,
Easier ways, to play.

On the hand(held) gen of gaming, 
Nintendo sent to me,
Many clamshell-els.

On the hand(held) gen of gaming,
Sony sent to me,
Another PSP.

Handheld: 1977-Present

Consoles: 
Nintendo Game and Watch
Milton Bradley Microvision
Epoch Game Pocket Computer
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Colour
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
PlayStation Portable
Nintendo DS
PSP Go
Nintendo DSi
Nintendo 3DS
PSP Vita
Nintendo 2DS

Popular Games:
Pokémon Red and Blue
Tetris

And so, we come to the handheld genre of gaming and I know what you thinking (maybe, but probably not) it's not even a gen of gaming! Well, I know this but as there has only been eight gens of gaming and I haven't had the space to write about the other types of gaming other than consoles so I have decided to make the next three posts about the other three platforms for gaming (what are they? You'll have to wait and see). Now, back to the post.

Handheld's are consoles that are well... held by your hand. Think of them as the laptops of the gaming world. The ones included in this post are not smartphones however (for reasons you shall see soon enough - hint, hint) and I will write about 4 of the most influential, of which Nintendo own three, as well as 2 of the biggest and most influential games on the platform.

Thursday 2 January 2014

The 12 Generations of Gaming - Gen 8

On the eighth gen of gaming,
Microsoft sent to me,
The actual Xbox One,

On the eighth gen of gaming,
Sony sent to me,
Another uncreative name,

On the eighth gen of gaming,
Nintendo sent to me,
Another Nintendo Wii.

The Eighth Generation – 2012 - present

Consoles:
Xbox One
PlayStation 4
Wii U

Popular Games:
Nintendo Land
Battlefield 4
COD Ghosts
Assassins Creed
Watch Dogs
Knack
Forza 5

And so, we come to the final generation of gaming so far, eighth gen. And while it hasn't been around for very long, a lasting impression on the world is already forming. But, the home consoles are facing a new threat, one of mobility, one of easiness to use, one of... mobile devices.

In this post, I will talk about the newest three home consoles as well as three of the most influential and best games on the market.

Wednesday 1 January 2014

Video Game Character Of The Month - January 2014 - Jingle - Animal Crossing

Video Game Character of the Month
January 2014
Jingle
Animal Crossing
Overview:
It's that most wonderful time of the year again all of you lucky readers get a Video Game Character of the Month post with a slight twist. The twist is that this character is neither too well known nor a main character like all of my other awards. Instead you get Jingle the Black Nosed Reindeer from Animal Crossing, aren't you lucky?! Jingle is a reindeer humanoid (obviously) and is in charge of giving out presents at the time of Toy Day (that's Christmas to us non-humanoid animal folk) as well as generally cheering everyone up. I mean, isn't he just adorable? No? Oh. Well at least he gives out free presents.
A quick bit of info on Jingle:

The 12 Generations of Gaming - Gen 7

On the seventh gen of gaming,
Nintendo sent to me,
The Nintendo Wii-e-e,

On the seventh gen of gaming,
Sony sent to me,
The PlayStation 3-e-e,

On the seventh gen of gaming,
Bethesda sent to me,
A bigger, better world.

The Seventh Generation – 2005 - Present

Consoles:
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Nintendo Wii

Popular Games:
Assassins Creed
Elder Scrolls Oblivion/Skyrim
Wii Sports
GTA IV/V

And so, we join up with the last gen that just happened as well as the gen that brought about the rise of a new type of gamer: the casual gamer. It also saw the rise of HD gaming as well as motion controls (and even no controller at all). Finally, it saw the rise of the big three of gaming: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.

In this post, I will write about all three consoles and three of their most defining and best-selling games.