Tag: X35 Earthwalker

Halo Wars 2 – Banished vs UNSC Unbalanced

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Halo Wars 2 is absolutely amazing. The graphics, sounds and whole gaming mechanics are top notch. Even the matches can be intense and take up some time. Halo Wars 2 is even more strategic than the prequel. More leader characters that brings more flavour and options to the matches. Even so, there are some big issues concerning balancing.

Straight up we are going to say it. The Banished have a big advantage over UNSC and it’s big enough that it makes a difference in every match. Seriously. The biggest advantage is the fact that Banished bases get the chance to place shields in the turret sections. These shields are powerful and soak up all kinds of damage. Why is that so bad? Didn’t Halo Wars 1 have shields. Well yes but their shields occupied a slot for building like energy generators, and supply pads. So if you wanted to stack two shields then that’s two less slots for you. The shields in Halo Wars 2 are more powerful because if the shield was dropped due to too much damage but another shield gets built, instantly the shield goes up regardless of whether the base is taking damage or not. The if another shield is built in time then it’s a double layer straight away. Also any Banished (or allies of the banished) withing the shields are protected and take significantly less damage until the shield drops. The problem is that an UNSC army would spend a hard time fighting the enemy army and lose because the shields protect the enemy army but if through leader powers and other means beat the army then you still have the shields which lasts long but skilled banished players leave a slot at the back ready for when they get attacked just to build another shield for instant shield regeneration. It’s so unfair. Don’t listen to stupid who say it isn’t an issue when it clearly is.

The next big Banished advantage are the Banshees. The banshees are practically the strongest units in the game. Surely X35 Earthwalker is exaggerating though. No we aren’t. We have seen a group of banshees beat wolverines and reavers of same group size. We aren’t joking. X35 Earthwalker himself has had his banshees beat anti-vehicle units many times even when there were more of them and vice versa he had his anti-air vehicles lose to banshees. How does that work? How do air units beat anti-air units? Sure air has a advantage over vehicles but anti-air is ANTI-AIR, full stop. Now in recent matches pretty much every Banished character user is always using banshees in great numbers. Either full population of banshees with engineers or half locusts (or something) mixed with them. It gets boring and predictable. It’s too strong. Banshees are suppose to be main air vehicles, in other words basic air units but their strength is much higher. Thanks to their own anti-air upgrade, they can take on two groups at the same time. The anti-air lets them attack nightingales and hornets while their fuel rod cannons and main plasma guns can fire at tanks, wolverines and whatever. That doesn’t sound fair at all.

Lastly, many, almost all, banished players are copying and using the chopper rush and then get engineers as fast as possible. It just makes matches boring now and predictable. X35 Earthwalker himself likes discovering and trying new strategies to accomplish different things. Some work and some don’t. This is how he ended up discovering a big secret. Choppers are vehicles. They are stronger than jack rabbits. They counter marines very well. They counter hellbringers. The way to beat them is to rely on your marines and turrets but that strategy is defensive, meaning while you stay near your base, the banished players can grab power nodes, mini bases and control the map. If you go out there then your marines will get caught by the choppers who can also ram for maximised damage. If you get the grenade throw ability for your marines then you can destroy some but you would have spent so much energy that the banished players will reach tier 2 way before the UNSC do. It’s not fair either way you look at it. 

So basically Banished have the advantage in defense, early game and mid game. This stuff has put some of us off the game for a while because unless we also play as banished, mainly Atriox, Decimus and Colony, you will have a real hard time. Until this is fixed we won’t be playing this game as frequently as before. Either way, this is what we and many others have experienced. If you are a banished player then aren’t you happy but if not, you could always do… The ‘Earth Walk!’ 

DeadCore. Soon alive at it’s core

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

DeadCore is a platformer FPS, developed by ‘5 Bits Games’. This game was already out on PC but will be coming to Xbox One and PS4 July 14th. 

Now this is another game that we at X35 Earthwalker never heard of at all. In DeadCore you wake up to see a incredibly large tower standing in the middle of the void. Basically you fell through magnetic storms. So we survived the fall? As with these weird worlds with voids and different worlds, we have no idea knowledge of who we are or where we are. Somehow we know that we must climb the tower and for some reason… Do it fast. So as we climb this tower we will get answers and clues concerning the mystery that is this weird world.

You probably guessed this but climbing the tower will not be something simple. As you go up you will encounter robots who guard the tower. There are also puzzles as in tricky platforming like where to jump, activate switches and lifts while in the air and timing. So how about platform puzzles and robots together, well DeadCore has got that too. The main character is equipped with the ‘Switch Gun’. It’s basically a cool gun which can activate or deactivate most of the towers elements like switches, lifts other mechanisms and robots, temporarily of course.

Now this game doesn’t leave you as you are. There are power ups for you to find which will change how you play levels. For example if you find ‘Dash’, you can do a brief dash through the air allowing you reach new places and move faster. We also like the fact that there are collectibles that when collected unlocks new maps, new music tracks and narrative logs. There is a speedrun mode with dedicated maps but they must be unlocked by finding sparks in the story levels. Each leveis said to have at least 2 main paths but they also have secret paths to find and use to get the best time since DeadCore is about speed running primarily.

We checked out some gameplay and we think it looks real cool. The main problem we have with it is that our character jumps like they are on the moon so some players have easily used this to jump past rooms, gaps and go around areas which they are supposed to go through. This was intentional but it means that somethings, if you know them, are easy and pointless. Either way we like the style and what is going on.

Overall, the graphics are very nice, the environment, like the clouds and everything, look wonderful and the sounds are great. The developers ‘5 Bits Games’ did a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will wait to hear what others have to say about it. This game may be worth checking out. Are you trying to get to the top of the tower? That’s fine as long as you try to do the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Agony. The suffering soon starts

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Agony is the new Survival Horror game, developed by ‘Madmind Studio’ coming out later 2017 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. When we first heard of this game we were not excited at all, simply because we wonder if this game can pull of what others have failed to do. 

Players start of as one of the tormented souls in Hell with no memory of their past. This is how your journey starts. The aim of the tormented souls is the same as what anyone would want in Hell: To escape. By talking and interacting with other tormented souls and exploring Hell and the different locations you discover that there is apparently a way out. Players will have to find and meet something called ‘mystical Red Goddess’. That’s all we know. 

We have seen some gameplay, off course it’s all early development, and it’s quite creative in how the game is designed. Hiding places, enemies and the locations. You have walls that look like rows of teeth. You have little shelters that look like it was made from body parts and organs. Some areas look like pits with hanging skeletons. Agony is truly survival horror as you literally have to hide to survive. The demons come for you on sight and from hearing you, so crouching and staying still will be your close friends. Some demons look like a crawling spider like thing that pounces. Another looked like a succubus thing with furry goat legs or whatever. Some tormented souls in Agony which are hanging from hooks and stuff or look dead, if you go near them can hear them groaning in pain which is a good step in the right direction. You apparently have a special ability in Agony. Players can control other people and even some weak to simple minded demons. to progress and survive that horrible place. Which makes us wonder, are the players the only ones who can control others. After all like the others, the players are also lost souls so can they control others too or even us. Are we the only ones? If so then what makes us so special. Hopefully Agony will explain everything in it’s story.

This game straight away reminds of Dante’s inferno which was a fun game but failed miserably in terms of displaying how terrifying Hell is. Now off course the real Hell is far more terrifying than what any game could try and create. In the real Hell there is literally no escape. Once you are there, you are there but in this game there is a way out. Dante’s inferno failed went too soft. They had an area for violence and didn’t show any true violence amongst the souls. Just harsh words. They had an area for deceit but there weren’t any tricks and lies. There was a location for lust and there was nothing tempting there but creepy enemies and stuff. Sure Dante was more focused on the combat but still Hell is Hell, work with it. We hope that Agony can really go all out and make the game has terrifying and horrifying as possible. We have seen some strong gore and nudity which is a step in the right direction for this game. We did see some demos and we weren’t impressed at all but it’s not easy designing a game and there are limits but off course that was early access though so better is coming.

Many have been talking about this game and waiting for it to release and more info on it. The hype is there and that’s good. We just hope that it truly does deliver as a game like no other. Will this game actually be able to scare X35 Earthwalker himself? Will this game be viewed and played by countless gamers or will it play to slow and get boring? We will have to see. We honestly do want this game to be something truly special and bring the horror atmosphere, the sense of being helpless and very punishing for mistakes like you get spotted once then it’s almost pretty much over. Will there be items besides the torches? We truly want to see.

Overall this does look like it will be a great game, it’s just that it has a lot to live up to. Every developer must think twice when creating a game about Hell. The graphics are excellent and the sounds so far are good. The locations and environments have quite the variety to it. The developers ‘Madmind Studio’ have so far done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what Agony has to offer the gaming community. This game is definitely worth checking out. Whether you are a fan of such games like this is not as important as being a fan… of the ‘Earth Walk!’.

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Bomberman battlefest. MLG ain’t ready for this

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Bomberman Battlefest is crazy. Crazy fun. Crazy good. Crazy intense. If you haven’t played Bomberman Battlefest then we understand as it is quite old-ish now but it’s one of those games where you can keep playing for years to come. Want proof? When X35 Earthwalker is still by a nintendo gamecube he will still sometimes play Pario party, Pikmin and Monkey balls which were all fantastic games but old. Bomberman battlefest is one of those games because of how simple it is to play but how deep, competitive and intense it can really get.

Intense? Don’t you just run around and blow up blocks and your opponents in Bomberman battlefest? Yes but so much more. When you play against easy difficulty bots then it feels like that but when you play against 3 hard difficulty bots then it becomes a struggle. The bots dodge bombs like they were paid to do it. They will do tricky things like throw and punch bombs out of the arena just for it to bounce around to the otherside and trap you. Yes we admit one of us did get trapped by this before. It’s embarrassing but it happens. Many times it comes down to sudden death to beat the bots as they have problems with falling blocks. Just wait. It gets crazier. It’s up to 8 players. So imagine a all against all standard battle mode against 7 hard difficulty bots. It becomes chaotic. Wait! It gets crazier.

The types of bombs are to blame. The power bomb makes your bomb blast go all the way to the edges of the arena. The remote control bomb lets you detonate bombs when you want. Pass through bomb (use to be spike bomb) allows your bomb blasts to pass through soft blocks instead of stopping at one. Laser bombs explode when someone crosses the laser lines it sets up. Cluster bomb sends out a bomb to the left, right and forward when it explodes. Rocket bombs travel in the direction you was facing when you placed it and then explodes after hitting something solid. Dangerous bomb explodes not in lines but squares, at max range this covers one quarter of the arena. Now imagine everyone fighting to get these and combine them with fire ups to increase bomb blasts, speed ups to move faster and bomb ups so that they can drop more. There are more power ups that help like power glove which lets you pick up and throw bombs. Double special which lets you drop 2 of your special bombs at a time and ‘Barrier-drop’ which lets you drop in a soft block. Now play against 3 of your friends and see how hectic things can and will get.

One of X35 Earthwalker’s favourite is when you play an all against all battle game mode on the giant map. It’s basically a standard level but with a much bigger arena. Here all players get a bit of a chance to breathe and then kick of the battle. The worse part is that bots will target you more than each other so the pressure is constantly on. A rocket bomb flying over there. A laser bomb prevents you from getting to that side of the arena. Some crazy guy running around dropping max range dangerous bombs forcing everyone to run away for their lives. Lastly there’s always that one player who stays away from everyone and keeps kicking bombs towards the others from a safe distance. That dirty coward. It’s also about speed. You must start off fast and not waste a second. Plant bombs as fast as possible and get power ups as fast as possible. The most important power ups are definitely speed ups as they allow you to compete for other power ups better and evading bombs become much easier. Off course more bombs and more blast range is also important but the main thing is to get them and keep the advantage. There is nothing worse than going up against players that are literally moving twice as fast as you. You never get power ups and they try to trap you in between bombs.

The ultimate intense strategy is when you and 3 friends take on 4 human player or even worse, hard difficulty bots in Zombie mode. This is where the real challenge comes. The aim of zombie is to paint the arena floor with your colours by your bomb blasts. Off course anyone can take over your coloured sqaures. Everyone is invincible as in they come back after every death but everytime you die you lose all your power ups and they are scattered across the arena for everyone to take take for themselves. So now what happens when the player on your team with the most power ups dies and your enemies get some of the scattered items? Winning becomes that much harder. Your top bomber could be the player with the power bomb painting many squares with one bomb. So your team makes sure to protect him but then that player dies and it’s a mad scramble. The worst is when someone has ‘Double special’, dangerous bomb and full fire. They control the whole match. Oh yeah, by the way, it’s all friendly fire so watch out for your teams bombs as well.

Not too long ago X35 Earthwalker did some serious Bomberman tournament and the matches were so intense. The bots are not easy at all. They are really tough. The best was the team zombie matches. It got to the point where the matches came down to 4-4. whoever won would have won the whole tournament. Lots of laughs, screams and strategies with a hint of frustration included for some gamers. We have never got so tactical for some fun matches before. All we are saying is that Bomberman Battlefest is absolute gold in terms of fun. Play with family, friends or even solo, it doesn’t matter. X35 Earthwalker will do some livestreams and videos of this game and the action it brings in the future so make sure to follow him on Twitter and Mixer to know when.

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Hand of fate 2. The dealer is back!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Hand of Fate 2 is a new action card game developed by ‘Defiant Development’. It is the sequel to Hand of Fate and is said to be coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC later this summer. Now honestly we have never heard of Hand of Fate but we came across the sequel and decided to check it out. 

The world of Hand of Fate 2 is built from collectible cards which are distributed by a shady magical guy who is the dealer in a meta boardgame. Sounds like fun if you ask us. The players will have to adventure and explore in this world but things can easily change up with the reveal of a card. This is because every turned over card reveals a new trial. These could be very risky but high pay out minigames, ‘Tabletop RPG style decision making’ or combat in third person. So draw your cards and play them wisely.

Hand of Fate 2 is a new table and map with new challenges which also means new cards. There are companion characters who can influence the players story and really shake things up. They can provide mini game perks and combat support. We are interested to know what kind of combat support though. Since in Hand of Fate 2 you will play for the fate of whole empires, you can take on new foes like the well trained imperial forces of the steel suit or fight the mutants of Blight. Do so with new combat styles like dual-wielding and something they call ‘heft two handed heavy arms’. Hand of Fate 2 is off course still in development but said to be better than the first game in every area.

We checked out the trailers and some game play and we like what we say of Hand of Fate 2. All the main action happens with you facing the dealer. You draw cards, make decisions, ask questions and some events get triggered like being attacked by raiders and then zoom into third person combat to fight them and the outcome effects the story. It’s an excellent style that this game has, switching between card table and the action. 

Overall this game is very cool but it does have it’s small negative but don’t forget that it is still in development. The combat doesn’t flow that great, the graphics are okay for now but the music is better. Even so this game has quite a bit going for it and the developers did a great job with Hand of Fate 2. We at X35 Earthwalker like the style. This game might be worth checking out. You may not have what it takes to deal cards but make sure you can deal… with the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Goliath. Coming in large

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Goliath is an action RPG developed by ‘Whalebox Studio’ coming out later this year for the Xbox One and PS4 but already out on PC. 

In Goliath you find yourself in a mysterious land that consists of the fragments of a hundred dead civilisations. Whatever that means? Does that mean many civilisations passed away here over time and their essence built this place? Whatever. What we do know is that several powerful factions are around and battling it out for control of this world. Even so there are giants as in real big giants that roam about. So what to do? Explore the world for resources and materials in order to construct and build Goliaths for battle or probably sell them.

Off course no game seems to let us start of with some awesome stuff so players will start from the bottom with basic materials. So your first couple of Goliaths will be made from wood. Don’t get us wrong, the right kind of wood could be as tough as anything but wood is still wood. Eventually you will discover and construct Goliaths from stone, metal (probably iron) and even more exotic materials that exist in this weird world. Your Goliaths can be customised. Decide what weapons they should have. Equip for situations and be prepared. Not every Goliath might be close range fighters so remember that. By the way Goliaths aren’t the only things you need to be building for survival. The players will need shelter, equipment and it says that there will even be fortresses. 

Don’t forget that the world of Goliath has different factions within it. This means you have to pick a side or who to support. There are ‘The created’ which are sentient robotic beings, Forgers which are demons, the brotherhood and humans. Off course each faction has their own strategies and different things to gain from them so choose wisely. This Goliath world isn’t just a static world. The weather changes which does effect the terrain which will effect your Goliaths so build different ones for different weather maybe. There is a day and night time and multiple environments like forests, swamps and even tundras.

After checking out some gameplay we can say that it looks fun but not 100% with it yet. We hope to see more of it and find out what console gamers have to say about it. We do like the style of it though and a lot of work went into this game so make sure to check it out for yourselves. 

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Dungeon Defenders 2. More dungeons to defend

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Dungeon Defenders 2 is a new action tower defense RPG developed by ‘Trendy Entertainment’. This sequel is coming out the 20th of June for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We have to say right now that we are so excited for this sequel. We loved the first game and looking forward to what the sequel has to offer as the first one brought lots of fun and tactical action.

The story is quite similar to the sequel. The ‘Old one’s armies are back. They have invaded once again. So it’s up to the defenders (the heroes) to fight against them and get them out of here by force. The four main heroes are back as well. The Squire who is tanky and gets up in the enemies face, the Apprentice who is a ranged fighter with spells, the Huntress who is trap heavy ranged fighter and the Monk who is a melee character who specialises in support. They all have grown up. They look like they mean business.

Each of the heroes have brand new abilities and new towers. The squire has the same towers though which is a bit disappointing but also means it’s familiar. After all his job is to stop the enemies and rely on brute force. The Monk finally has something to deal with those stupid flying enemies from the first game. There was this one enemies, a flying genie who destroyed out towers and there was no real way to hit him as he was too fast for us to chase down. Now with the ‘Sky guard tower’ which specilises in killing those stupid flying things.

As you continue through Etheria you will come across armour, relics and weapons. With some tactical thinking you can combine their passive and stats to make your own hero build. The pieces and stuff you find that you don’t want, you could fuse them together. A completely new feature to Dungeon Defenders 2 are skill spheres. Small and medium Skill Spheres allow you to boost the stats on your heroes. Large Skill Spheres brings customized attributes and skills. The Uber Skill Spheres are next level because they will completely change the way your defenses or abilities work. It makes us really wonder how. Probably all new abilities. That would be awesome. Allowing your hero the option to have maybe 4 whole new abilities to choose from would be great.

Guess what else is new. There are pets in Dungeon Defenders 2. There were technically pets in the first Dungeon Defenders but you bought one, it fights with you and then that’s it but in Dungeon Defenders 2 you can level them up and use evolution materials to increase their stats, bring out new pet abilities to to help your hero defend against the enemy armies and unleash your pets true power. So now you don’t have to save up lots of cash to buy a pet and then later because a better one appears and so you then save up even more to buy the new one. No more! Now we can have our pet and work on them. A partner. An ally. A companion.

We have to give top respects to Dungeon Defenders 2 and the developers ‘Trendy Entertainment’ because of this one big thing. Dungeon Defenders 2 is free! According to their official website, this game is free. There will be off course in game purchases like costomes and tower skins. There will be no purchases that give advantages. This is a big move and we at X35 Earthwalker respect it. Off course we will support Dungeon Defenders 2 as we loved the first game and this one has more going on.

Overall Dungeon Defenders 2 is looking real good right now. We checked out some gameplay of the alpha builds of the game and the graphics and sounds have stepped up while still keeping that whole cartoon-ish like style. There is some new stuff, the new abilities do add more combinations and strategic possibilities for players to try in teams, the skill spheres just make us so curious as to what they do, we already know that it’s still multiplayer which is great but best of all the game is free so make sure to support the game because a lot of hard work goes into making games. The developers ‘Trendy Entertainment’ did an awesomely fantastic job. This game is definitely worth checking out.

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Chess ultra. The ultimate chess action

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Chess ultra is a brand new chess simulation game, developed by ‘Ripstone’ and coming out the 23rd of June for Xbox One but earlier for PS4, PC, Oculus, Vive and playstation VR on June 21st.

Now we are sure that everyone knows Chess. It’s been around for years and we have all pretty much played it on the computer at school or wherever; however not everyone has heard of Chess Ultra. Chess Ultra is supposed to be the ultimate chess action. This games biggest point as of right now is it’s visuals. Some have described it as breath taking. It’s 4k visuals and boy does the game look good.

This won’t exactly be chess as you know it. There is Marathon, Blitz and classical mode. Multiple difficulty modes. Make your way from novice to grandmaster. If you have the intellectual might. There are 10 grandmaster approved AI levels. So Chess Ultra shouldn’t be a walk in the park at all. 

Do not worry if you haven’t had much chess experience or don’t think you got the moves for it because Chess Ultra is said to have in depth tutorials which will teach you everything about the world of Chess. Play chess in multiple environments and surroundings. You can play with different chess piece designs. There is a nicely carved set of wood chess pieces, then there’s ones that look like glass or marble. Finally we have see ones that look like angels and monsters like they were carved from emerald or precious stones. It does look cool.

 

Yes Chess Ultra does have online multiplayer so now players can prove there skills to the world. Who is the best at chess? Things get more crazy though. Remember how Chess Ultra has full Oculus Rift, VR and HTC Vive support? Well those with virtual reality gear can not only use their hands to move the pieces themselves but they get the chance to take on the ultimate challenge. Something so terrifying that even we think twice about talking about it. They can take on the Grim Reaper in the pits of Gomorrah! That’s right. The Grim Reaper himself awaits the best of the best (like us).

Overall from what we have seen Chess Ultra is looking real awesome right now in terms of visuals and very good in terms of what it offers players. Hopefully the music will be mostly ambiance to suit the concentration mood. Some cool music will be great as well. The developers, ‘Ripstone’ did an amazing job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will actually look forward to seeing what a chess game has to offer. Is chess boring? That’s a question but the real question is.., what is the ‘Earth Walk?!’

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Shadow of War. It’s war indeed

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Shadow of war is a new action RPG developed by ‘Monolith Productions’ coming out October 10th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. If you was a fan of Shadow of Mordor then Shadow of war should be for you. 

Honestly we never heard of Shadow of war or Shadow of Mordor until recently so we checked out some game play and liking what we saw. You must take on fortresses in really big battles with your own army of Orcs. Your goal is to dominate Mordor. The combat system instantly reminds us of Batman arkham as in you dash from enemy to enemy striking them and waiting for that indication that an enemy is attacking, for you to block or parry. You see your combo count and can do some cool looking executions like knocking them on the floor and then face punching them just like in Gears of war 3 & 4 but much faster (it’s called fury). The combat isn’t that fast. The enemies kind of just stand by and wait for their turn to attack you, like in the movies. The good thing about this means you will have an easier time in combat.

Shadow of War has an army screen is real cool. Your army is made up of different Orcs with different strengths and weaknesses. Like the beast master is larger and more powerful than the ‘Warmonger Marksman’ but he is heavily damaged by ranged attacks so he will need support when attacking places that have lots of archers and ranged attacks etc. Some Orcs have masks like the Mystic destroyer while we saw another bigger Orc with antlers. The mystic destroyer gets dazed by Caragors and is weak against poison so players must take these things into account. Ogg the Elder is a powerful legendary Warmonger assassin but even it has some weaknesses like being terrified of Morgai flies. The Orcs are so different and interesting that it just adds much more to the game than what any previous ones have. 

When attacking strongholds and fortresses in Shadow of War, you have the opportunity to upgrade and make certain units have abilities to help you dominate the stronghold. Like more defensive soldiers to help capture points faster or have more hunters who are more effective against beasts. Will your siege beats launch fire or poison? Think about it. It literally gets real deep. You can be supported with a swarm of spiders that poison and attack, or have a drake which flies around and rains down fire or have a giant war Graug who can fling boulders and help cause immense destruction.

A whole lot of work went into this game and it shows. You can save yourself from some executions with quick time events in the middle of a battle and they look flashy. We saw a giant olaf kill the player and then break their sword; however if you find that same creature and kill it then you get your sword back but upgraded and more powerful. There are a lot of powers, abilities, upgrades and moves in Shadow of war like ‘unstoppable’ which increases your critical strike chance significantly as you keep your hit streak over 30. You have options though as you could choose ‘Elven Precision’ increases your chances of critical hits if you time your button press with landed strikes. Scale the sides of walls to reach certain enemies like archers. Throw knives in the middle of combos, flip over enemies or even back hand some.

We think the ‘Wraith shield’ will seriously come in handy because it allows a wraith to counter enemies who try to interrupt you completing a ground execution. Use drain to steal health from enemies and even when upgraded, brand enemies to make them on your side. Turn them against each other. The ground execution upgrade allows you to drain enemies you knocked down in the middle of combat.

Overall this game is looking real cool right now. The smooth flowing combat with multiple options. The army screen is just great to have. The details of the Orcs like items and strengths all just adds to level of design. The graphics look great right now. The sounds are great as well. The developers ‘Monolith Productions’ did a really good job so far with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker think Shadow of War is worth checking out. Some like Orcs while others don’t regardless of what you like, just make sure to like… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Gears of war 4 Campaign. Insane difficulty

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Gears of war 4 decided to continue the campaign tradition by making sure that it isn’t easy to beat. Seriously, Gears of war 4’s campaign is very ridiculously hard. Many have found it too difficult. Some are still stuck near the start because of those stupid DR-1 robots that continuously walk towards you with the overkill. That’s right it’s that hard but a good challenge and certainly not impossible. X35 Earthwalker himself will provide some advice here as well.

The start of the campaign has been considered as one of the hardest parts of the game, especially because of that one level where a ship drops of DR-1’s and shepherds and you have limited space to run and take cover. Now normally this would’t be too much of a problem but since it’s insane difficulty expect to die a lot. Let’s explain just how hard Gears of war 4 campaign is on insane difficulty. One burst of the hammerburst will bring you almost half dead. One shot from the boltok will bring you near full red. The lancer can kill you within 2 seconds. One shot from the sniper rifle kills you. That’s right, it doesn’t matter where it hits you. If that sniper round hits your foot, well you still are dead. Now you can see where the problem is. A normal swarm drone can literally can kill you within one second. So when those DR-1’s with there abundance of health keep advancing towards you, constantly shooting the overkill (which is stronger than the gnasher) and Shepherds sort of staying back and spraying their enforcer smgs at you, all of a sudden the level near the start becomes incredibly difficult.

It gets much worse and frustrating. The enemies in Gears of war 4, specifically those stupid swarm grenadiers, are far more aggressive than the enemies from the other Gears of war games. Some enemies are actually fearless. For example during X35 Earthwalker’s livestream in a certain level on the way to the hive, there was a certain swarm grenadier that always rushes towards X35’s location in attempt to try and unload a shotgun round into his face. Well why doesn’t he just shot it before it comes near? It’s insane difficulty meaning you do much less damage than normal, also enemies are never alone there are three drones nearby who keep shooting at you and don’t forget how quickly an enemy can kill you and it’s worse when there is a swarm sniper in the back watching you closely. It gets even better. With our low amounts of health, the gnasher shotgun (over powered since Gears of war 2) kills you real quick. Also one melee hit from a drone sized enemy instantly kills you. You need to truly rely on cover, aim and timing.

If only we could leave it as that. Well we can’t. Anyone who knows Gears of war know that the humanoid enemies are technically the easy ones to deal with. It’s the not so humanoid ones that really shake things up. Imagine being in cover with your bots and firing at a group of swarm drones. Then all of a sudden a small group of Juvies start rushing towards you. Now it’s horrible. Juvies are the worst on insane difficulty as they only need to slap you twice to kill you. They can dodge your bullets and even mantle kick you which stuns you and pretty much guarantees your death. You may have to wait until your health recovers as you took some damage from being shot. It forces you to make a choice, kill the Juvies quick before they get close while staying in cover, or run away from Juvies and dodge bullets. Both can end in death. Pouncers make things real complex as they force you to take cover, but if any juvies show up then you have to run, but Pouncers fling things at you which do heavy damage.

So as long as you stay alive all will be well. Wrong! Your bots actually matter in this game. They don’t stay alive forever anymore. When that pouncer jumped on Del, X35 thought he would be fine but nope. Del died and back to checkpoint. If your bot is downed and no one saves that bot then they die and back to checkpoint. So keep your bots alive, especially when it comes to Snatchers. One of the best advice we can give any gamers for Gears of War 4 campaign is that you must try and keep a sniper or similar weapon around at all times as much as possible for handle some areas in the game. A sniper, torque bow, embar, boltok really do help out. They do heavy damage per bullet and all capable of head shotting and killing enemies easily. Especially when they are so far away and sticking your head out for more than 2 seconds can be real risky at times. The up side is that your bots have quite a bit of health and can be useful at times so don’t ever feel guilty about letting your bots take some of the heat for you; however please note that enemies will always target you first, even if your allies are nearby. We have seen Juvies run past all the bots just to get at the player and kill them.

Another thing to take into account is knowing when to use heavy weapons like the buzzkill and muncher. Normally those weapons will destroy everything but in insane difficulty those heavy weapons will get you killed. This is because it takes a little bit of time for you to drop back into cover with your heavy weapon and enemies can still hit you during that time. Pick your moments. If it’s a horde of juries then a buzzkill will tear through the whole of them but if it’s standard drones then that might just be a big mistake. 

So let’s summarise some stuff here. Always stick to cover. Use your bots to your advantage. Take snipers and explosive weapon wielding enemies seriously. Always try to keep a sniper type weapon with you. Know when to revive your bots. Never let any enemy come close. Be careful with heavy weapons. Most importantly just have fun, don’t let it get to you. Don’t be one of those foolish people who break their controllers. If you die, which you will (a lot), then laugh at yourself. Follow X35 Earthwalker on Mixer and twitter to know when he will continue his insane difficulty livestream. Whether you are good at campaign or not, it doesn’t matter but what does matter is that you do the ‘Earth Walk!’

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