Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is a new open world multiplayer pirate life game developed by, ‘Rare‘  and coming out 20th of March on the Xbox One and Windows 10. Sea of Thieves is a very large game with lots going on and lots to do. All about exploration and adventure. Let’s take a look.

In Sea of Thieves gamers get to live the pirate life. As in cutlass, drinks, shanties, scaly wags, bar wenches kind of pirates. Straight away it’s clear that it is a multiplayer game but you can be a legendary solo pirate or a powerful pirate crew. Grab your boat and head out to sea. The world is very large with many islands to discover and explore. The ships can be fully interacted with. You can raise or lower the sails, raise or drop the anchor, control the helm to steer the ship, go up into the crows nest and be a spotter. The sails actually have an effect, to raise the anchor you need to literally turn the wheel yourself to slowly raise it up. Also the crows nest is important as spyglasses are in this game and can be used to see other ships from a good distance away giving your time to decide what actions to take. That’s right you aren’t the only person in this game. There are countless other pirates and many pirate crews who are all about building their reputation as well. Are they friendly and want to socialise or do they draw their cutlass and flintlock pistols and want a battle? Be careful though as cannon balls do what they should do, which is damage and cause water to fill up in your ship meaning you need some crew members to get rid of the water and patch up the holes in your ship but that means their are less hands on deck to fight the attacking pirate ship. So crews must work together to handle battle.

Sea of Thieves

There is so much more to this game then originally believed. There are a bunch of other NPC characters who have their own reasons goals for being in the sea of thieves so make to check them all out. It’s important. There are trading companies like the the order of magic who want to control the ancient and magic of the pirate world, the merchant alliance who’s goal is to control and handle trade in the seas and Gold Horders who are all about the treasure. Each of these trading companies are essential for building your reputation and making progress. Players must decide what trading company they want to be affiliated with because each one represents a certain play style. So what is your pirate crew about? Are you the riches pirates who can buy all the rum they want, are you top level business pirate men who buy and sell or are you a cursed pirate crew like Barbossa from pirates of the Caribbean who deal with magic? It’s actually cool when you think about this way. As you build reputation with them, you get promoted within their ranks and get cool items and titles for you to show off and prove how far ahead you are. So take on their favoured activities and voyages. As you make progress they get much harder and more mechanics to take into account.

Since Sea of Thieves is a game all about pirates that means you can have or be part of a crew. This means multiple pirates on a ship. Each crew member has their own voyages and personal progress in the sea of thieves. Crew members can propose voyages to the whole crew and so the team can, as a team can decide what missions to go for. This also means some players have voyages that others won’t have so having them in your crew is an advantage. So having a player who is much ahead of you in terms of personal progress is actually a good idea because they will have bigger and more difficult voyages and that’s a good thing for your reputation. Remember that voyages are based on your reputation with trading companies. There are no barriers in place concerning players playing together. The most challenging voyages can be accessed by your lower progress friends meaning you don’t to wait for your friend to be a level 100 for example (no levels in sea of thieves). This is also means you won’t have to worry about running into too powerful enemies. it all comes down to how you use your weapons. There is the guns and blades. With the guns it’s just a matter of landing your shots, you all die just as fast. With the blades, you have to know when to block players attacks and when to actually strike back. There is actually some skill gap here in terms of combat so make sure to get some practice in.

Sea of Thieves

If you thought that other pirates was the only threat on these sees then boy are you mistaken. Remember how some are interested in the magic and ancient of the Sea of Thieves? Well on some islands there just happens to be some skeletons who walk around and wield weapons as well. These Skeletons are not here to play, they can hit hard and even block your attacks. They also do not fight alone and will come in numbers to defeat your crew and keep you off the islands and away from treasure. If that wasn’t enough, skeletons don’t really die do they? Skeletons seem to keep coming over time, after all they are already dead. It’s pretty much like fighting the cursed crew of the black pearl from pirates of the Caribbean. There is more. There are sharks that inhabit the waters so falling of your ship or being blasted of by a cannon is the last thing that you want because we heard it takes two bites from a shark to kill you and they are off course faster than you. It gets worse, even the weather is against you, there can be storms which will make you lose control of the ship, make you crash and even send you way of course. Worse a lightning bolt might strike your ship which will cause real damage. It has been hinted by the developers that there are more threats in the Sea of Thieves so be on your guard and don’t get caught “unprepared and unawares”.

Sea of Thieves do have other things to take into account. For example if you and your crew are on a voyage and go to a island, you drop the anchor and head on to the island. The problem is that your ship is sitting there alone unguarded. So what if another pirate team came along and saw your ship, two of them climb on board, raise the anchor and then they leave with both ships and your crew is left with the treasure on an island with angry skeletons on land and deadly sharks in the sea. What do you do now?  We believe there is some sort of respawn system that brings you back to your ship, so there is a chance to get your ship back.

We checked out some gameplay and it so far looks like a top level game. The art style works well with pirates. the graphics are very good and the sounds are excellent, especially when you use the instruments to make good pirate-y music. We like the acceptable level of interaction like dancing, music and even drinking, which by the way actually gets your pirate drunk meaning blurry and moving vision and harder to control and throwing up (all included). Sea of thieves will also be enhanced on the Xbox One X Sea of Thieves isn’t a released done and finished game. It has been explained that it’s a ever growing game and that new features and adventures will be added after launch continuously. This makes us at X35 Earthwalker wonder what else they could put in. There is a lot of opportunity here. For example what if they add a massive Kraken that becomes another threat that forces players to keep an eye out on the seas as they may end up going near one. What about their own version of Davy Jones with a ship that also can come out from under the water to fight or what about NPC famous pirate crews with larger ships that move around through the game and players can take them on. All possibilities. 

Overall Sea of Thieves is an awesome game with lots of potential. It’s a simple game but just has a lot going on. Travel around, have fun, meet other players, go on voyages, enter duels, fight skeletons, get drunk, go for a swim, dance around with music and much more. The developers, ‘Rare’ did a fantastic job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what Sea of Thieves fully has to offer. Now pirates are very popular but definitely not as much as…the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Attack on Titan 2 is an action game based on the Attack on Titan series developed by ‘Omega Force’. It’s coming out 20th of march on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The Titans are back and the fight for humanity continues… with more zipping through the air and slashing.

Attack on Titan 2 follows the season two story of the anime series. This already is enough to get fans interested in the game because the second season was awesome. This means players can expect to see the Beast, Colossus and Armoured Titan who are merciless in their attacks. Whats interesting though is that you can create your own character who joins the scout regiment. This character is off course customisable and can play through both seasons of Attack on Titan. 

There are ‘town life’ sections in between battles which have a lot of activities for players to engage in. It’s here that you can interact with other characters and form relationships with them. There is a titan research room where you can see the Titans you have caught and learn useful tips and information regarding them. There is the option to receive training which improves your characters skills which effect combat. Players can even upgrade and develop their equipment making them better and even stylish, just take a look for yourself. If you are feeling a bit political then head to the regiment administration to propose policies which will help out in life in the town and combat so it’s worth exploring.

Attack on Titan

The developers focused on what was weak in their first game which was honestly the Titans themselves. In the first game the Titans were slow, easy to kill, didn’t do much and when they did something, it was to run around or randomly just jump in the air. They pretty much let you kill them. Now the Titans have more movement and act more like what’s seen in the anime. They can detect you and zoom after you in an attempt to grab or crush. They will jump and move to help you miss their nape and have more reactions to players flying around them. So expect more swipes and grab attempts. This should hopefully make the combat more thrilling and at least difficult. Seriously when you watch the anime you see how easily anyone can die, the game should truthfully make the combat brutally hard or have a brutal hard mode.

Now the combat can be done with friends. That’s right, co-op mode is available. Four players can work together to slay the Titans and make their way through the story or… They can play Annihilation mode. What’s that? basically two teams of four players race against each other to see who can get the slay the most Titans first to get the highest score. There are factors to scoring like chain bonus which grants more points for kills if your team work together and even more if you destroy all the limbs first before killing the Titan. Near the end of the match all points scores get doubled creating a crazy rush for points. 

Also on the battlefield you will come across bases. It’s important to know the bases from each other as they replenish different things like gas and blades. There are some bases though that do attack titans as they have cannons. Players can even use the a powerful attack to finish of titans after successfully dodging a Titans attack. You dodge attacks by air jumping right before an attack. There is also so much more characters to play now including Keith Sadies, Ian Dietrich, Miche Zacharias and even Dhalis Zachary. What? Who are they? And you call yourself an Attack on Titan Fan. All these things truly do add depth to the game. Attack on Titan 2 sounds bigger and better. 

Overall Attack on Titan 2 looks like a fun game. It’s concept off course is cool and the story will be exciting for fans and gamers alike. The graphics are better but not by much. Gameplay and flow is definitely improved. The developers ‘Omega Force’ did a excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look to see how well the game does. Now titans are a massive threat but even they pale in comparison to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition

Final Fantasy XV isn’t done yet. Not at all because Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition is coming out 6th of March 2018 on the Xbox One and PS4. The developer of Royal Edition is off course, ‘Square Enix‘. This edition is actually jammed packed. Let’s take a look.

One thing that is for sure about Final Fantasy, well the latest games, is that they have awesome graphics. We believe they have the best graphics and visuals. They continue to show this, especially in Final Fantasy XV. Now Royal Edition isn’t a new game. It’s basically an improved version but has much more to offer. If you are Final Fantasy fan, then you definitely have to check this out.

Off course when you buy Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition you will get the actual game. You will also receive lots of DLC content like Ragalia car skins, item sets and weapons. You will also receive complete control of the Royal vessel, that boat in Final Fantasy XV; in addition players can freely explore the large body of water located between Altissia and Cape Caem. It gets better. There is an brand new dungeon available for players to take on. It’s called ‘Insomnia City Ruins: Expanded Map’. So go check that out.

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition - X35 Earthwalker

But wait! There’s more! Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition also includes all season pass content. That’s right. This means: Episode Prompto, Episode Gladiolus,Episode IgnisandMultiplayer Expansion: Comrades.Now Royal Edition sounds more than worth it but it gets even better. Armiger has been unleashed. After collecting all 13 royal arms, players will unlock a more “action-oriented mode of the Armiger”. So if you thought all that warping around and weapon variety was action enough, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition takes things further. This edition also includes new gear, new bosses and a first person mode. First person mode! In Final Fantasy XV! It makes you wonder how that will work. Like would it be the whole campaign and everything is first person or will the first person mode be available only at specific parts like in fights and boss battles? Or maybe it’s the opposite and the first person is only available for the open world parts and exploration. We will have to wait and see. This certainly changes up how the game is played. What if this first person mode leads to VR in the future. Who knows?

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition - X35 Earthwalker

Now some gamers never see the point in getting certain editions of games and we understand in some cases. Some editions have the same high price but all that’s new is like a few levels and some skins which isn’t worth what they are charging. This edition though… has jammed packed this thing. All season pass content, new features, a new vehicle, more bosses etc. All for $49.99 or £36 (rounded up) if you pre-order. If you haven’t gotten the game before, this is the edition to start with. 

Overall Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition is awesome. The developers, ‘Square Enix’ did an unbelievably outstanding job with this game edition. We at X35 Earthwalker are more than happy with the amount of effort and work that goes into the Final Fantasy games. This is worth checking out. Now Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition may be jammed packed, but still hasn’t got enough to challenge… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Metal Gear Survive

Metal Gear Survive has gotten some gamers talking, especially the fans of the Metal Gear series. Off course Metal Gear Survive was developed by Konami. The beta for Metal Gear Survive has been out for a good short time. X35 Earthwalker himself has played the beta allowing us a taste of what is to come. Let’s take a look.

As you are reading this, remember that it is a beta and not a full release so things can get better. The beta let’s you select and customise to some extent your avatar, basically your character. So choose from male or female, then change the hair but restricted to short hair, following the style of the military, face, cheek, eyes etc. Hopefully we will get more options for customising our avatars in the full release. When you enter you are in this space that makes you feel like you are inside a computer. There you can organise and select your inventory, craft items, repair stuff like weapons etc. it’s like the central hub for everything. The action starts when you begin your first salvage mission. 

In salvage missions your job is to plant the wormhole digger which harvests energy. The harvesting always seems to attracts the creatures. So players must defend the wormhole digger at all times. The creatures will come in waves and each wave gets more difficult with more mixture of creature types and watching the timer for the wave to end doesn’t help. The drill will start automatically so make sure to get there and organise yourself or team if playing with others. You have a good amount of time, five minutes, to actually look around the map first which is highly recommended. as you look around you will come objects that can be destroyed for materials, like drums for iron, boxes for wood plus other stuff within, trees for wood and solid energy plant like things which when broken drop energy; however those things require a heavy weapon to smash like the mallet. Collect as much as you can.

Metal Gear Survive - X35 Earthwalker

You can use whatever is in your inventory to your advantage, so build up fences, plant mines, set traps etc, whatever that will help you get through the wave. There is one horrible catch though. At the end of the wave a shockwave blasts out from the machine that kills all remaining enemies but also destroys the stuff you set up like traps, mines, heavy machine guns etc. we actually hate this mechanic. So if you get carried away and fully set up using almost everything for the first wave, you will lose it all and have nothing for the later waves. This is something we recommend shouldn’t be in the Metal Gear Survive. So please don’t Konami. What they did do right was the controls. Each d-pad direction has their own section of items or weapons. There is much things you can equip and selecting between them is very easy. Just cycle through with your d-pad and then use your action buttons accordingly. It takes only a little time to get use to.

Now in the level available in the beta, creatures can come from many directions. North, East, South and West. There is no mercy in this game either and that’s how it should be done. The creatures will all be running towards your location, all trying to get to the machine. So expect, Wanderers, Bombers and variants of the wanderers. The Wanderers are your typical zombies that we all know and hate. They can sprint but when near you they act slow and typical, swinging at you. The bombers are the biggest threats and must be handled straight away. They are pretty much always running and as the name suggests they can explode doing immense damage to players and your traps, fences etc so don’t let them get close. They can even head butt you! There are some variants of the wanderers like the armoured one who has good armour meaning attacks are much less effective. Their is another that has explosives strapped to it and will explode so watch out. By the way the weakness for a bomber is their legs, so don’t waste all your armour trying unloading on their heads. not worth it.

Metal Gear Survive makes it also that you have to be careful with how you use your weapons and items. You hand gun will never have enough ammo to handle the entire wave, you players must decide which enemies are worth using the bullets on. Should you fire to fin out a crowd, or do you use a molotov to set them on fire? Do you get melee with them using your spears, axes, and blades or do you wait until they gather and then use a planted heavy machine gun? Maybe the best thing to do is to run up to an enemy and do a powerful sprint strike with a mallet. So many decisions. It gets worse as you have to prioritise what which enemies over others, which traps to use this wave (since everything gets destroyed). Stealth killing the creatures feels really good here. just get behind them and let them have it but take into account that running creates the most noise, then walking, then crouching but going prone makes zero noise but you are slowest then. The rewards you get for passing a mission are very generous, you get a lot of stuff which allows you to replenish ammo, repair weapons and gear and get more thing. We like the rewards here.

Konami went real deep with the in game mechanics of Metal Gear Survive. There isn’t just only health, there is also your thirst and hunger. Meaning you have to make sure to have food and drink available. your stats can be seen from the main menu which looks awesome by the way. Keep track of all these things. Now when it comes to your equipment and weapon they all have weight. That’s right watching your weight isn’t just for real life but also in Metal Gear Survive. Being too heavy will cause you some problems on the field…. remember that. Straight away you can see that the graphics are excellent in Metal Gear Survive. The attention to detail is pretty cool as well like the markings and rust on some materials is all cool. Notice that when cycling through and selecting in the menu menu, your characters thumb moves as well showing that your actions control your character interacting with the device. Little stuff like that make a big difference in our books here at X35 Earthwalker. Real cool.

Metal Gear Survive main menu - X35 Earthwalker

The rewards you get for completing each salvage mission is great. Lots of materials allowing players to replenish and gear up for the next ones and then some. So they did well with that. it makes using your traps and items that you spent resources to build not a problem as you can easily make more after missions. The side missions that appear are definitely worth completing while on the salvage missions. Diamondz L45 stayed at the base to defend while X35 Earthwalker went to a side mission and found some machines that walk, run over enemies and has a heavy machine gun attached which easily cleared out the zombies saving them in that wave. So go for side missions when you can as they make a big difference, you may get mortars, heavy machine guns and other fancy stuff. 

The Metal Gear Survive beta showed many things and done it’s job right. It showed that players have to be aware of what enemies are coming and how to deal with them efficiently. It showed that weight, health, hunger and thirst are factors here. It showed that crafting and maintenance of your equipment is important. It showed the wide range of weapons that can be used. it showed how dangerous the enemy is and how merciless the waves can be. Co-op mode is definitely where it’s at, get some friends and defend together. Spend energy for support at the wormhole digger or bonuses like speeding up the digging. Timing is also important, for example if you attack an enemy but you get interrupted by an creature’s attack, your attack won’t go through. So using a mallet is powerful and will destroy all but so slow that it becomes easy to interrupt. So choose wisely and get your distance right or get swarmed by the horde. There is so much going on in Metal Gear Survive.

Overall the beta did what it was suppose to do. It gave us a serious taste of what’s to come and showed off many strong points of the game. Off course there are some negatives: destroying all our stuff at the end of the wave, the crafting system and what materials you have in and outside of missioned what in storage is actually quite confusing, you think you have enough materials but then it shows you have nothing in a mission and we think that should be made more clear. Connection gets unstable at times but ti’s a beta so we won’t stone them for it just yet. The parry ability is very clear and how it works and the timing at all. They need to make the whole ammo on person or in storage thing more clear too. Metal Gear Survive looks like a special game right now. We at X35 Earthwalker can say that we are looking forward to this game and that Konami has so far done an outstanding job. You can even choose what your character says and have emotes like in Destiny 2 but not as large selection yet. Metal Gear Survive is worth checking out. Now there is lots to do but not more than… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Hello Neighbor

Hello Neighbor was one of those games that many looked forward to. It had a lot of hype and man was there a lot of content on youtube concerning this game from CoryxKenshin, Markiplier, 8-Bit Ryan and more. There was quite a lot theories being made as well. Even Game Theory got in on the action. There were multiple betas for the gamers to play and some alphas. The developers Dynamic Pixels truly did work hard on this game. We are going to talk about the disappointing stuff about Hello Neighbor. The stuff we didn’t like.

Now the difficulty of puzzles and the amount of thinking increases drastically with each Act. The sad part is that there is only three acts. We at X35 Earthwalker and some others thought there would be more. The game is actually quite short if you cut out all the time you spend on puzzles. It makes us wonder if there will be DLC in the future maybe. We actually expected a bigger adventure, more missions etc but we aren’t the developers. Now off course there were many glitches and issues but they weren’t game stopping glitches. The most annoying one is when you walk through items or boxes and then you get launched into the air for some reason. The funniest one was when X35 Earthwalker threw a box at a window to break the window but instead the box went right through the window with breaking the glass. We caught that on livestream.

There isa seed in Act three that you can plant and then it grows into large tree which is suppose to give us an item when fully grown. Sounds great but the problem is that the tree takes forever to grow. It has been stated that it takes 3 actual hours to grow completely. Three hours! That’s stupid. We ain’t got that kind of time to chill in Hello Neighbor. Now maybe Dynamic Pixels thought that if players found the seed and planted it the tree would have grown by the time they get through all the puzzle solving, searching, hiding and running away from the Neighbor. This isn’t guaranteed as the seed was pretty much the last thing X35 Earthwalker found so that means he had nothing to do while waiting for the tree to grow. It’s suppose to give a golden apple we believe. So didn’t like the tree mechanic at all.

Act three was ruined. This is because Act three is exactly the same as the beta that the developers released for gamers to play. This means that a bunch of people already knew what to do because either they played that version of the beta or they watched CoryxKenshin and Markiplier play through the whole thing. We think this is a fail on the developers side. We get that maybe they wanted to make sure everything worked properly but you can’t release an the whole actual level of Act 3 of the game as a beta. The thing is, this didn’t have much effect on us because we never played the beta so it was sort of new for us. Which is why we spent a long time trying to solve everything and do every puzzle bit by bit.

Next is how cryptic Act 3 is. Now we know that the puzzles do force gamers to slow it down and start thinking but this was too much for many. For starters unlike Act 1 we have no clues of what to do. The only ones who do know played the Hello Neighbor beta or watched it. Finding the mannequins was a hard task. One of them you can’r reach until you get a code which must be inputted through buttons on the wall. You need binoculars to see far and find the code yourself. Another mannequin is hiding in the highest room of the house directly in front of you from the front of your house. How was anyone suppose to know that one is up there? You can’t see the mannequin through the window. You need to firstly use an object and super throw something to smash open the window. Then get to the top of the house and jump of with an umbrella (which surprisingly can support our weight) and glide through the window to the grab the mannequin. Finding the four cakes is no easier and getting the gramophone with the red record wasn’t easy either. You have to get the globe, then freeze the globe, then place it back on it’s stand and then race to the top before the ice melts to get it. First of all you can’t just place the globe, you have to use the interact button to snap it in. Also the only clue we get about this globe freezing water thing is a map next to the globe which has a pin on the Antarctica. Cryptic anyone?

Hello Neighbor leaves to many things unexplained. How did the Neighbor’s children go missing? We see him crying by some missing posters. Worse we also see something dark, glowing white eyes and an evil presence watching the neighbor. What is this thing? we have seen it more than once in the game but no explanation as to what it is. Is it a symbol as in just showing that the neighbor has his own demons. Or does it represent the one who stole his children? In Act one we saw the neighbor lock something in the basement. When we get in there, we don’t see anyone or anything. He wasn’t wrestling with the air right? After being trapped in the room if you look through the keyhole, you will see a cardboard cut out of a boy rise up and unlock the door for you, allowing you to escape. Cardboard can’t do that by itsself. We don’t know what happened to the neighbor but he seems sad at times like at the end when he sees us through the window, like we mean something to him which is strange. We get an achievement which says “like father, like son”. So who’s the father and who’s the son? It can’t be the character we play as we got kidnapped by him and we ran away like he’s a stranger. Why wouldn’t he recognised the neighbor as his dada if that’s the case. maybe he was too young and didn’t know? Then why would he live exactly opposite from the neighbor. We know that the neighbours wife died and so our characters mum couldn’t be the neighbours wife. Also if we were adopted or taken away by social services then why are we put on a poster as missing or living directly opposite the man? We have come up with some awesome theories but they are all just theories… a game theory (Sorry guys). Too much questions. 

Lastly is how the Hello Neighbor ends. After protecting a young version of our self from a giant dark entity we have a quiet place with just a door and a part of the neighbours house. The neighbor looks sad and has a dark entity knocking on his door. If we go through the other door the character wakes up and starts moving his things into his house to live there again. We then watch a continuous loop of the character carrying boxes. nothing else, no hidden cutscene after the credits. Nothing! This was incredibly disappointing because of all the questions we are left with. It wasn’t satisfying at all. Now we are aware that a game like Hello Neighbor has to have secrets and hidden things that will give more clues or information. We know there has to be more but a standard player wouldn’t find those things but instead wait for others to find to find it. Like seriously we first think the neighbor is all bad but then we learn he lost his wife, kids go missing and has something dark haunting him by the looks of it. He looks sad when he sees us and tried to approach us but couldn’t. What happened to him? Is he okay? his house is burned down. Too many questions. 

Overall we did have a lot of fun playing the Hello Neighbor but we were disappointed for sure. Too cryptic, three hour waiting tree, so many questions, glitches here and there, not an epic boss battle, too many unanswered questions and a unsatisfying ending. Off course just highlighting the bigger stuff Hello Neighbor. We were really disappointed with the game. It was still fun with many laughing moments but disappointed.

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Metal Gear Survive

Metal Gear Survive is a new game coming out developed by ‘Konami’. It’s coming out 20th of February on the Xbox One, Play Station 4 and PC. Metal Gear Survive is off course from the Metal Gear series; it’s a spin-off and it’s going in a different direction from the others. The top priority here is survival. Let’s take a look.

Now Metal Gear Survive spins-off from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. So the “intense” action from Metal Gear Solid V is being inserted into the survival action style. Honestly Metal Gear Survive seems more like a survival action tower defence as the game places emphasis strategic decisions like where to place defensive units. Why do you need defensive units? Well that because in this world there are dangerous creatures and environmental hazards that will end you real quick.

Basically here’s the story. It’s 1975 Big boss and his soldiers were at ‘Mother base’ but was attacked by an enemy force known as ‘XOF’. Big boss and his boys put up a fight but eventually lost. Big boss escaped but a worm hole opens above the base and sucks everything in. The soldier who helped big boss escape almost gets sucked in. That soldier loses consciousness and wakes up six months later. Too cut it shorter, he is infected and so heads to that dimension where the worm hole leads to find a cure and rescue those who are stuck there. What could possibly go wrong?

Metal Gear Survive - X35 Earthwalker

There are two modes in Met Gear Survive: Single player  and online co-op multiplayer. Both modes are technically needed. This is because in single player, you get to go through the Metal Gear Survive story, to know what’s going on while learning the basics of the gameplay mechanics and more. While in Online co-op, that’s where gamers have to use their skills and everything they learned from single player and see just how good they are. It’s there where you are put to the test. Now we know their are so called ‘fans’ who don’t care about the story and go straight to multiplayer so they get a head start… not here. All rewards and progress earned in both single player and multiplayer are carry over and apply in both of the modes. So you won’t fall behind.

Metal Gear Survive in single player, is more adventurous, you could say. Now we know there are creatures that will end your adventure real quick but they aren’t the biggest problem. The biggest problem is in fact hunger and thirst. So make sure to find food and water around otherwise it’s game over. What’s cool is that you can get food and water straight from your base camp. For example grow crops to get vegetables. Off course this all must be managed. Creatures can wound you and that wound must be treated as quickly as possible. Same goes for illnesses which you can get through eating contaminated food. Yep, metal Gear Survive isn’t messing around.

The other big problem is the mist. Mist is pretty much everywhere and it’s off course deadly and extremely hazardous. Good thing players have oxygen tanks to use so they can travel through it but keep an eye on how much oxygen you have left because it isn’t unlimited. Matter of fact… Oxygen is not included. Don’t forget that these creatures are also in the mist as well and the oxygen doesn’t stop being used when in combat, it still goes down so players again have to be strategic and decide whether it’s better to engage in combat or sneak around. Multiple trips are recommended in single player as there are many secrets and materials to find. So be brave and get out there. 

Metal Gear Survive X35 Earthwalker

Now in co-op there is a lot to do and it’s more action and defence here. There are Salvage missions and side missions to consider. In salvage missions your teams aim is to place and set up a worm hole digger which harvests energy. Off course it isn’t going to be easy. Now side missions pop up from time to time. Be careful though, as you don’t want everyone to leave the base to go for a side mission. We at X35 Earthwalker recommend going for these in between waves and split your team to be on the safe side. Some stay and maintain the base while others complete the side mission. they are worth it though as the rewards you get like items and good weapons are key to defending your base here.

It doesn’t stop there, how do you defend a base without defences? You can set up machine guns and even mortars to handle creatures with ease, especially if they come in a group. There are also traps available which are perfect for thinning out hordes and slowing them down. Take away that momentum. structures like fences are pretty much the most useful thing in the game. They keep the words at bay and allow you to strike them while they are halted by the great power of… the fence. Sandbag barricades are structures don’t just block enemies but players can stand on them, receiving the advantage of elevation. This all sounds fun.

Off course you can craft weapons and items and even build and design the base how you want. This is also a big decision as the design layout. You can make things easy for yourself or hard. Gather materials to develop and improve your base camp. This also falls under management. So upgrade, reinforce and find those crafting recipes to bring out the real fire power.

We checked out some gameplay and everything looks really cool and how we imagined it but we didn’t expect some of those types of traps. It was funny to see a trap that is slippery and makes everything slip right past. Kind of like a cartoon. Very creative. The building of structures like fences seems very simple and quick which is what you need in a game like that. The creatures so far do not look impressive at all. There are three types so far: Wanderer, Bomber and Tracker. Wanderers are the standard zombie like ones. Bombers are big swollen ones that can explode and trackers have enhanced legs which they use to move fast and jump high, even over the fences you built. Making them a problem.

Overall Metal Gear Survive looks cool and is an interesting spin-off that works. Off course fans will divided on this direction but we will see. The graphics look excellent, the visuals look real good. Off curse there is time to add more to the game and give it more meat because there is quite a lot they can do with this game. The developers, ‘Konami’ did a great drop with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what metal Gear Survive has to offer. Now wanders and mist are a big problem but they ain’t too big for… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Dynasty Warriors 9

Dynasty Warriors 9 is the new hack and slash game coming out, developed by ‘Omega Force’. It’s coming out the 13th of February on Xbox One, Play Station 4 and Microsoft Windows. It’s the 9th Dynasty Warriors game and there is quite some hype from the fan base.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is a hack and slash game where players fight massive battles. Massive as in 1 vs  1000 massive. Now what’s different? Dynasty Warriors 9 does have some stealth elements which mixes things up. Also, Dynasty Warriors is now an open world environment giving players more freedom in how they play and what to do. Open world seems to be the trend lately. 

There are 83 characters! 83! That’s a large roster indeed. The characters are from the dynasty series so expect to see some of your favourites from previous games. Off course there are some new ones as well. To name two of them: Cheng Pu, a Wu officer and Zhou Cang, a Shu officer. The three kingdom story with all these characters will create something special. Everything about Dynasty Warriors 9 is improved over the previous instalments. 

Dynasty Warriors 9 - X35 Earthwalker

The combat system in Dynasty Warriors 9 has another layer added to it… the new state Combo system. There are three kinds of attacks now: ‘Trigger’, ‘Flow’ and ‘Reactive’. Basically ‘Trigger attacks’ changes an enemies state, ‘Flow attacks’ change depending on the state of the enemy and ‘Reactive attacks’ “optimally adapt to situations”. Now straight away fans of the earlier Dynasty Warriors games can see that the combat system has gotten deeper. This new layer really does force players to be aware of the surrounding conditions as this new state combo system reacts and responds to them.

Dynasty Warriors 9 has also taken interactivity to the next level too. Players can now interactive wth their environment to their advantage. For example, you can climb up walls using grapple hooks, cross rivers by swimming and even climb those mountains that use to mock you with their height. it’s even stated on their official website that players can launch fire arrows at oil barrels which will off course cause an explosion. Which is also awesome. Dynasty Warriors 9 so far sounds better in every way.

To advance the story, players need to complete the critical missions. There are also regular missions which affect the critical missions. not sure how exactly. There will be, you can call them side quests, basically requests from other characters. The in-game situation is off course affected by the missions you do and their outcomes. Off course the many and huge battles of Dynasty Warriors remains. So still be hyped for taking on a thousand warriors at one time all by yourself; or you could just surprise attack them at night. It’s up to you.

We checked out some gameplay and it’s what we thought. Lots of enemies with sharp weapons, lots of different officers to use, lots of strong strikes that send enemies flying, lots of flashy moves, lots of scenery and lots of mobility. The action is smooth and definitely fast paced when the combat is rolling. The options to strike at night or from top of buildings is really cool and is something you would expect from a game like this. So glad they done that. Some gamers may look at this style and think that the game is too simple and easy. we at X35 Earthwalker recommend you check out some gameplay for yourself and hopefully give it a go.

Overall Dynasty Warriors is a very cool game indeed. The graphics are excellent here, especially for a game like this. The sounds are what you would expect from a combat heavy game of this location and style. The developers, ‘Omega Force’ did an excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are going to keep an eye out for this game when it lands in stores. We recommend you do as well. Now their may be 83 officers in this game but there still ain’t enough room for… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Past Cure

Past Cure is a new cinematic supernatural thriller game developed by “Phantom 8 Studio”. It’s coming out the 2nd of February on the Xbox One, Play Station 4 and PC. Past Cure attempts to combine action and stealth. Two genres that don’t always work so well together. Let’s take a look.

In Past Cure players control Ian. Ian is a former elite soldier but was held and tortured in dark prisons within Europe. Naturally all those horrible experiements took their toll on Ian and he now struggles and suffers from the consequences. His mind is messed up, gets hallucinations, clearly nothing good came from this… but; the experiments also gave Ian some awesome mental abilities. Don’t worry it’s nothing big or anything just: telekinesis and time manipulation. You know… minor stuff. 

Seriously though, why would these people give their tortured subject such powers. It never ends well. Well Ian off course wants revenge for what was done to him and how messed up he is now. Ian gets his brother to help him with two things: hunting down the ones responsible for Ian’s torment and for the truth surrounding the hallucinations and other mysteries.

Past Cure - X35 Earthwalker

Now some gamers may think it’s not all bad because Ian gets some awesome powers. You soon discover that each time you use them, it negatively impacts your sanity. The more damaged you become, the more likely you are to draw something else to yourself. Something the developers described as “nightmarish… beyond reality”. At the centre of Past Cure is the combination of both action and stealth. Action because you have guns, can get melee and have telekinesis but stealth because using your powers has consequences and so at times it’s better to just not get seen at all. Players will have to be smart about the different situations and know exactly what the best approach would be.

Now off course Past Cure isn’t just guns and stealth otherwise it wouldn’t be all that different from other games like Metal Gear Solid and the Evil Within 2. In Past Cure Ian has to face two worlds. The cruel and gun fights of the real world and the nightmarish horror of his dreams. That’s right. The real world is more action, time bending bullets and landing those headshots. The nightmares are something else. It’s there stealth becomes far more essential and puzzles give players moments of scratching their heads. The nightmares are more survival. now the developers have an interesting maths formula to describe the game. Past Cure is 50% Thriller, 50% Horror, 50% Action and 50% Stealth = 200% gameplay. Pretty cool if you ask us at X35 Earthwalker.

We checked out some gameplay and we are so far really liking what we are seeing. For example the astral projection skill sounds OP (over powered) when you think about it but awesome. Leave the body and have a look round and even have the ability while in astral to short circuit and disable electrical too. That’s important because in certain places where stealth is needed, devices like cameras  will give you away. The graphics look nice, not top range but nice. Hopefully, the overall quality of the game will increase as well. It’s currently being developed by eight people. The concept and game mechanics are definitely there. Let’s just see how they execute it.

Overall Past Cure seems like a really cool game. It isn’t of the same quality as other releases but ti can be overlooked due to such a small team. We like what we hear and see so far. The developers, “Phantom 8 Studio” did a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker, look forward to seeing how the gaming community reacts to Past Cure. Now the past may have messed up Ian but it certainly cannot mess up… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a new open world RPG developed by ‘Warhorse Studios’. It’s coming out the 13th of February for the Xbox One, Play Station 4 and PC. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance players are thrown into the world and times of the roman empire. swords, shields and lots of yelling. Let’s take a look.

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, you play Henry who’s the son of a blacksmith. Henry has a peaceful life but that all got ruined when a mercenary raid shows up. Your village is destroyed and burned to the ground. this raid was ordered by king Sigismund himself. Let’s get some of the back story. This all takes place in Europe 1403, in a region called ‘Bohemia’ which had everything going for it. It was had money  rich culture and structures everywhere like castles. Bohemia’s beloved ruler, Emperor, Charles IV  died. Basically one of the Emperors sons, Wenceslas took over the throne but was’t as good as Charles was. Then Wenceslas’s half brother, king Sigimund takes action, kidnaps Wencelas and takes over the place. This off course is bad.

With no where to go, family ruined and off course some sort of vengeance in your heart, you end up in the service of Lord Radzig Kobyla who just so happens to be forming a resistance to combat and fight against the invaders. Now you, Henry, the player are now in the middle of a very bloody civil war. Bohemia needs an hero. Fight and do your best. It certainly won’t be easy. The enemy isn’t a rage tag group of soldiers, they now how to wield a sword as well. Don’t forget that.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance - X35 Earthwalker

The developers wanted to make sure that gamers had as many options as possible about how you do things in the game. Use your reputation and charisma to your advantage. Maybe get some residents or characters on your side or get what you need from them. So your responses, words and what you do with certain individual characters and who you impress will definitely matter. So how will you handle your situations? Handle with your words and very polite or will you use force, raise your sword and make them hand it over. It’s up to you. Just don’t forget that freedom of choice is the main thing about this game. There are many ways to complete a quest and it’s up to the player how you do it but never forget that whatever you do will have consequences.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance also payed attention to some smaller details as well. The developers wanted to make this game very realistic as well. NPCs in the game will react to what you do, even if that means reporting you to the authorities. So snitching is a real thing here. There are actually weather patterns in Kingdom Come: Deliverance so rain, probably fog as well. That sounds real cool. It gets better though. There is a functioning day and night system. This is awesome. It adds more layers to the game. You could attack at night in the rain. Or wait for a sunny day. 

We checked out some gameplay and we can confirm that this won’t be a hack and slasher at all. Each fight will require players to use their head and have good timing. Wait for an opening and then exploit it. It’s all European sword fighting. Wield many weapons like swords, maces, off course axes and more like the bow and arrow. Join large battles with many soldiers yelling and swinging their swords and even help with castle sieges. The action is far from dull. It’s definitely something you should check out for yourself. The 1v1 fights can go so wrong very quickly so have the right armour and don’t rush.

Overall Kingdom Come: Deliverance seems like a very cool RPG. The graphics are excellent for a game this large. High attention to details. The animations and weapon control of the characters are all done through motion capture with “experienced sword fighters” (X35 Earthwalker could easily beat them). A lot of effort and time went into Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The developers, ‘Warhorse Studios’ did an amazing job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to see what this game has to offer on a full scale. Now the 15th century is not for everyone but there’s one thing that’s too much for the 15 century and that’s… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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mutant league football

Mutant Football League is 3D arcade style sports game developed by ‘Digital Dreams Entertainment LLC’. It’s coming out the 19th of January for the Xbox One and Play Station 4 but already out on PC. If you like football, monsters and over the top violence then Mutant Football League has got it. Let’s take a look.

In the world of Mutant Football League, monsters and mutants take their skills and expertise to the gridiron. Here they American football but there’s a twist. There isn’t really any rules. So the result is some arcade style, violent games filled with a dangerous sense of humour. At least the fans from the stands love it (that’s what matters). So expect all kinds of creatures like aliens, skeletons, trolls, demons and battle bots. Who would have thought these guys could play American football.

Now the matches are simple to some extent. It does play like normal 7 on 7 matches except their are two ways to win. Either by having the highest score or by killing and destroying your opponents. This makes the game more strategic and gives more options. Now their are 18 teams and each team have what Mutant Football league calls ‘Dirty tricks’. Now ‘Dirty tricks’ are abilities which help put things in the teams favour. Such dirty tricks allows you to bribe the ref to make him cancel or overturn a call he made, make your player ginormous allowing them to crush and smash the competition away, equip your players with chainsaws and even throw bombs. Now that’s crazy.

mutant league football - X35 Earthwalker

The commentary is done by NBA Jam and NFL Blitz hall of fame, ‘Tim Kitzrow’. He does the play by play. There are Mutant League Football all-stars who own the fields with their powerful abilities and high kill counts just waiting for players to put to use like: Ghoulio Bones, Bomb Shady, Wham Neutron and much more. There are multiple game modes to try out like Play off, exhibition and practice but if you are really good then try out for the The mayhem bowl. There are 18 different arenas to play in and they have dangerous obstacles like lava, fire pits, buzz saws and even landmines so watch your step and where you run.

We checked out some gameplay of Mutant Football league and we can confirm that it is fully 3D violent American football mutant, monster game with dirty tricks. That’s literally what the game is. It’s for gamers who like violent and very silly commentary. It’s more in your face funny than subtle at all. The matches are quick action, no long waiting for the whistle and thanks to the abilities and lack of rules for this sport, it’s hard for an opponent to stay away with the ball to stall for time. Tackling your opponents is easier to do as you just really need to get on them and let them have it. We have seen players get dropped, kicked, slammed and smashed. almost makes you not want to have the ball. You can either do 4 player local multiplayer or two players online allowing the mayhem to spread across the world.

Overall Mutant Football league seems like a fun and good game. It’s for casual gamers who just like to have fun and smash their opponents in totally unrealistic but crazy ways. You may not even be good at gaming but at least you would enjoy beating your friends to death on the field (who doesn’t enjoy that?). This doesn’t mean their isn’t any strategy or deep gameplay involved. The graphics are good, the sounds need to be better, the commentary in our opinion is lame but the action isn’t. Being a multiplayer game again adds more options and a range of players to face. The developers, ‘Digital Dreams Entertainment LLC’ did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker don’t have an interest in this game but will keep and ear out for it. Mutant Football League has the violent matches but even that’s not enough to match… the ‘Earth Walk’.

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