Tag: X35 Earthwalker

Deathtrap’s Marksman. Good or bad?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

World of van helsing Deathtrap is an excellent example of an action tower defense game. This game focuses heavily on strategy. You get to pick from 3 characters who are very different in skills, strong points and difficulty. This time we will look at the Marksman.

The Marksman is considered the hardest to use of the 3 characters. Forget considered! He is without a doubt the hardest to use. He has been even called the worst of the 3. Again we understand completely but why? The Marksman has the second smallest amount of health. Just 100 hit points more than the Sorceress. So we know that he can’t take a hit. His main attack skill ‘Shoot’ literally tickles the enemies. Simple enemies like the ‘Kobold Wartfiend’ take too long to defeat for such a weak enemy. His other skill that does more damage is ‘Poison streak’ which also poisons the enemies and pierce through them but it’s damage is also very low and it’s focus cost is high enough to only allow two shots at a time. So not only can the Marksman not take a hit but he can’t give one either. The worst thing about him is his, let’s call it ‘ability system’. The Mercenary and the Sorceress regenerate (rage/mana respectively) when not being hit and from basic attacks. The Sorceress even has ‘Arcane retaliation’ which grants her mana whenever she is hurt but the Marksman is so different. He never regenerates Focus unless he is cloaked. He can only be cloaked when a certain distance from an enemy for a certain period of time. Even then it recharges slowly. This sucks, as you can fire two poison streaks, then run away to prevent death and wait an extra while to get some Focus back, all the while, the enemies are making their way to the gates. Most players struggle to even get 3 stars on their first few missions because there is no way of stopping the horde with a limited use of special skills, very little damage and can’t even use your body as a shield to defend the gates.

So the Marksman is garbage right? X35 Earthwalker had a theory and yes you could call it a game theory. He said that the Marksman has to be one of those characters that suck at the start but are very good later tier. It turns out that was true. Marksman is literally for the most strategic gamers and those willing to endure some tough matches. Tier 1 skills for the Marksman isn’t great and we are being nice about this. Tier 2 has two useful skills ‘Scattershot’ and ‘Trap boost’. Scatter shot is perfect for taking down giants and armoured enemies and should not be wasted on horde and normal type enemies. Trap boost is simple. Just select a trap to make it do more damage. Tier 3 is where the good stuff are at. Here you get access to the HIGH damaging skills ‘Grappler bolt’ and ‘Shock bolt’. Grappler bolt does the higher damage of the 2 and pulls nearby enemies to the original target together and slows them down. Shock bolt costs no focus at all and still does really high damage. You also get the trap skill ‘Overdrive Sphere’ which reduces the time it takes for a trap to reset for a period of time within 10 meters of your character. and world skill ‘Overdrive’ which reduces the time it takes for a trap to reset for a period of time. These can be deadly. Don’t waste time with ‘Incendiary Barrage’ as it costs far too much focus to the point where you can use it once and then need to get more Focus. We are sure it becomes immensely powerful once upgraded but when you are at the point of unlocking tier 2 skills and stuff you have to prioritise over things to survive and actually win in some levels. Right now it’s all about: Shoot, Scattershot, Grappler Bolt, Shock Bolt, Overdrive Sphere and Overdrive.

What’s the strategy then with the Marksman? Well it’s to keep firing at all times from a distance and know when to go cloaked to regenerate your Focus. Always start a wave near the gates of where the enemies come from. Always fight near a teleport pad so you can move to where you need to be quickly in case of emergencies or anything else. Whenever Shock bolt is available just use it. It’s powerful enough kill many enemies outright and therefore saving you time. It recharges in 3 seconds but if you are like X35 Earthwalker and always play in times 2 speed then it’s really 1.5 seconds. Plus it doesn’t require Focus so literally use it as soon as it is available. Sort of the same with Grappler bolt but watch your Focus as it uses a little bit of it. Use it on horde and groups as a higher priority but regardless, just use it. It’s stronger the Shock bolt. Scatter shot must be used on giant and armoured as it destroyes them quickly and doesn’t cost too much. Invest points to allow it to pierce through enemies for total destruction. Max out ‘Concentration’ and ‘Ambush stance’ so you have maximum amount of Focus to use your skills and get cloaked faster and regenerate Focus faster while cloaked. This makes a big difference. Max out the ‘Shoot’ skills ‘Splintering’ Bolt skill to make it have area of effect which makes shoot actually not bad anymore and can hold it’s own against horde enemies. Overdrive and Overdrive Sphere are best used with ‘Gun Sentry’ traps as it turns your guns into machine guns but combine both skills and your machine gun becomes a mini gun. Make sure your guns have area of effect and increased damage and they shread everything. Trust us. That’s the game plan here with the Marksman. Once you know what to do and have the tools he actually becomes very powerful.

Overall the Marksman is still the worst character in our opinion overall due to the sheer difficulty of using him initially. Sure he is actually very powerful late tier but many give up on him before even getting there. Late tier he may be the most powerful. We’ll find out. We say hold and and don’t give up. Plus his voice and look is pretty cool though, you have to admit. Imagine your school teacher sounded like him. So give the Marksman a try and master him for yourself. Watch X35 Earthwalker himself play it on his livestream. Follow us on twitter and Beam to know when he will be doing it. Let us know of any strategies you come up with. Regardless of what you come up with it can never be better… than the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

The surge. Bringing cybernetic action to us soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

The Surge is a new action RPG game developed by ‘Deck13’ and is coming out May 19th for the Xbox One, PC and PS4. There are many games that have come out and some are soon to come and yet we haven’t even gotten a lot of them. We need a game that really makes us want to play. Straight away this game has got our attention but is it what we’ve been waiting for?

We don’t know much about who we play as. Maybe that because we get to customise and create our own character. We do know that we have cybernetic implants and equipped with the ‘Exo-suit’ which isn’t the flashiest name but it works. We also have super human strength. Our enemy is the CREO complex, a mega corporation, who makes it their mission to save the world. We bet the corporation is evil and corrupt. So your character starts their first day at work but something went wrong and kcocked you out, then you wake up with the exo-suit in a section of the complex. Now everything is your enemy. There’s a rogue AI, hostile robots and your co-workers who have augmentations of their own so expect a fight. A real fight.

The Surge places heavy emphasis on combat an it’s what this game is mainly about. You shouldn’t just charge in and rush everything as even the weakest enemies can be a big threat. You need to watch them and study them to know what they are all about. Discover their attack patterns and more importantly their weaknesses. The Surge has a serious targeting system which allows you to target specific parts of their body (limbs). Even better, you can loot to craft the attachment that you cut off. Finally! A game has this feature. There are times where you kill and enemy and you want to take their weapon but you can’t. Now we can in a way. So are you going to straight up kill your enemies or do they have something that you need to become more powerful. The attacks are vertical and horizontal. Time when to step in or out and pick your moments well to attack. Then finish them of with some healthy violent style. So you could end up building loading weapons and security staffs and much more.

Your exo-suit does have a limit though so you need to make a decisions concerning your power requirements. As you progress through the game and slay enemies you will collect tech scrap. Basically experience points. You use these points to upgrade your exo-suit which increases it’s power output which allows you to use stronger implants and more implants in total making you a incredibly powerful. On top of that, the more you use your weapons the greater your efficiency with them. Eventually you will deal increased damage. More damage means easier fights.

The CREO complex is massive and their are many areas for you to explore.  That sounds like fun but there is one problem. Each area has people who use to work in those places. They with their exo-suits and industrial equipment will pose a massive threat. You have been warned. Make sure to search the executive levels, mechanical areas and toxic underground passages to fight enemies, collect parts, find loot and learn what happened at the CREO complex. So watch out for audio messages, dialogues from survivors and any other clues that you find through the game.

The most interesting part of the game is definitely the combat. It’s brutal and can go either way for both you and the enemies. Some say that this game is basically dark souls but sci-fi. Not exactly. We have checked out some gameplay and whatever and agreed that this game is a higher level than dark souls from what we can see and from some of the game features that we learnt about. The Surge is said to be very difficult and the battles can be very punishing so your mistakes will cost you a lot. To make things worst, remember the tech scrap we mentioned? Well if you die it all drops where you died. If you want it back then you have to go back there and collect it or you will lose it all forever. So what if you got completely owned by a way more powerful enemy and your tech scrap is left there? Well either get it back or it’s gone. So think carefully and know what you are getting yourself into.

Overall the game looks very good indeed. The graphics are excellent. The environments are excellent as well. We can tell some gamers will spend a bit of time just looking around and taking in the sights when on the outside of the complex. Sounds work very well. You can see that a lot of work went into this game. The developers ‘Deck13’ did an excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker know that many gamers are going to love this game as long as the developers don’t screw it up. This game is definitely worth checking out. Now you may or may not have what it takes to play this game, whether you do is not as important as… doing the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Colony is destructive in Halo Wars 2

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Colony is the newest leader in Halo Wars 2. First of all Colony looks cool. He is a hunter but a hunter in charge. His voice is like one of the coolest voices ever. He speaks simple short sentences but that voice just make us wish we could have it as the new default voice for announcements, answer machines etc. It’s so cool. Now as usual when a new character comes out everyone does nothing but just play that character. X35 Earthwalker yesterday did a livestream where he only uses Colony and in every match there was a Colony. Colony on Colony violence.

Colony stands out greatly from other Banished leaders, not just from how he’s designed but from his units and leader powers. He actually brings some new units into the battlefield. Now when Kinsano came out, We never cared to get her at all. She seemed not that fun to use still seemed similar to the other leaders is many ways. Can’t really blame her since the UNSC are humans meaning they will be similar in units but Colony takes things to the next level.

Colony seems to excel most at being at the front of the battle. Colony has the Goliath infantry units which are giant sized hunters that behave like gorillas. They are all about melee. Goliaths are strong against buildings, alright against infantry, weak against vehicles (for some reason) and can’t hurt air. I know they need to balance out the units in the game but how comes a big strong creature (twice the size of a hunter who are 12 feet tall) are weak against vehicles. Those things could smash them apart but whatever… balancing and all that. Goliaths are no joke. They are literally the best units against buildings. Just two of them do some serious damage against enemy bases. Goliaths also have the ability to ram which is great for dealing with annoying vehicles as it is fast and travels quite the distance.

Colony also brings skitterers which are small little mech bots that scuttle along the ground and fire lasers. These mechs are easy to build and come with the ability we have been waiting for. They can attach themselves to another unit becoming invincible and attacking enemies that come near the attached unit. So you could attach skitterers to Goliaths meaning Goliaths can now defend themselves against air units. You could attach them to hunters so they can defend against air as well. It’s up to you gamers to figure out some crazy combinations. You can attach two skitterers to units by the way.

Colony’s leader powers are very different cool. They really have the ability to mix things up. You immediately have access to living barrier and skitterers. We all know about skitterers but living barrier is something X35 Earthwalker underestimated at first but later saw how good it is. Living barrier let’s you drop down Lekgolo caltrops in a line that completely blocks infantry and vehicles. The enemy has to fight and destroy these barriers to get through. So while they are fighting the barrier you can target the enemy. It’s good for distractions, cutting of the enemy while fleeing, blocking movements, extra eyes around the map and more. It’s only for the strategic.

Engineer swarms calls in many engineers to start healing any units or buildings in range. They stay for quite a while and can really help turn the tide of a battle. Upgrade this ability to make killing your army near impossible. Combat repair makes all your units and buildings slowly heal over time, even in battle. This encourages strikes and retreats, keeping your units alive and building their veterancy since they heal by themselves. Colony drop calls in two level 2 veterancy Goliaths meaning they hit harder and themselves are harder to kill. Vehicle symbiotes allows you to buff selected vehicles and buildings with increased range and armour. So good for turrets on defense and off course your vehicles like locusts. Hunters brand allows you to fire 3 glassing beams that quickly converges in the middle. It’s actually very strong and doesn’t take too long to recharge but when it’s level 2 or 3 it is devastating. Lastly Devastating host lets you drop in multiple different vehicles like wraiths, locusts etc but get a instant buff from a vehicle symbiotes. This is powerful indeed. As you can see Colony is something powerful.

His leader unit, The hunter captain, is a very useful leader. It is a giant hunter, pretty much the same size as the goliath units. This hunter instead comes with shields and can actually fire his cannon at air units (wow). As he does damage he siphon some health back. He’s great against vehicles and infantry, alright against air and buildings. Once upgraded his cannon beam has area of effect so he can damage groups and does more damage overall. He can be upgraded to get the taunt ability which forces nearby enemy units to target the hunter captain instead. This is good since he can take lots of hits and siphon health meaning he won’t die easy. Combine him with Combat repair and Engineer swarm and he’ll never die. His main weakness is that he is so slow. Completely slow. The slowest thing ever and because of this he slows down the whole speed of your army so it takes you forever to cross the map and attack or help out an team mate. That’s the only negative thing.

During the livestream X35 Earthwalker won all his matches with Colony except the match where he was teamed up with a rank 7 and he had to go against level 32 and 41 (round about) and the level 7 team mate left the match. Through practise we have seen just how useful Colony is. He is very powerful and when used correctly can be devastating against everything. He is a lot of fun to use and it’s so satisfying when you beat another player who is using Colony as well. He is worth getting. Whether you try out Colony or not… you can always try the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below: 

Valkyria Revolution. The action is soon here

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Valkyria Revolution is part of the Valkyria series but considered a spin off. Valkyria Revolution was developed by ‘Media.Vision’ and is coming out June 27th (America) and June 30th (Europe) for the Xbox One, PS4 and PS Vita.

Now honestly we don’t know much about this game. We haven’t even heard of it but we have checked it out and so far it looks real good and interesting. In the trailer you see a big battle going on, people in armour with guns, then a giant mech like machine shows up and stands laying down some serious fire. Then a confident looking lady with a giant scythe stands there. She looks confident, bit cocky and had a serious entrance to the battle which means she’s powerful (in the fictional world). The two leaders on the other armies side prepares to take her on. From that trailer alone, you can pick up many things about Valkyria Revolution.

Valkyria Revolution is an RPG game with some focus on action (off course) and strategy. It won’t be turn based so stay on your guard. Amleth is the commanding officer of Jutland’s elite anti-Valkyria unit and is the character players control in Valkyria Revolution. There are more main characters like Brynhildr who is a Valkyria and is on the side of the Ruzhien Empire and Jutland’s princess Ophelia. Sorry guys but when we see the name ‘Brynhildr’ we think of the Eidolon from Final Fantasy 13, who was awesome by the way.

The action seems flow very well in Valkyria Revolution. You can switch between your characters with a click of the button to mix things up. Select and use side-arms and Ragnites during combat to dominate the field. In the trailer saw a smoke grenade like side arm which really smokes the place out. The graphics are very good in this game. The sounds are good. From what we have seen this looks very cool indeed. We hope to learn more about this game. Check it out for yourself to learn more.

Overall Valkyria Revolution has got our attention. The developers ‘Media.Vision’ did a great job. This game might be worth checking out. Whether you do or not just make sure… to do the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Radian games Crossfire 2. Awesome and underrated

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Radian games ‘Crossfire 2’ is one of those games that are awesome and made excellently but never got the love it deserved. I believe the name of the game got changed to ‘Super Crossfire 2’. X35 Earthwalker played this game way back on his Xbox 360. It’s such a shame that not as many gamers as you think had this game.

Straight from the title screen, you just know that this game has got some tunes. The beat is there and it gives the impression that the game has got some action to it. Thankfully it does. Seriously, you have to listen to that music. This game isn’t that deep and complex. It’s actually quite simple with a few game modes: Conquest, Conquest plus and Score attack. Conquest is the main story where you take on 60 waves across 3 different planets. There is a check point every 10 waves but you can heal and upgrade every two waves. Score attack is where you take on 30 repeated levels but they get increasingly harder and you can heal and upgrade every ten levels. Conquest plus is where things get real crazy. Here you will go through the same as Conquest except harder. Much harder.

Crossfire 2 is all about watching everything that’s happening on the screen and those reflexes. If you can’t do both then you will have a hard and time and forget about Conquest plus. You control a small ship and you must blast away the aliens, space invaders style, and stay alive. The game takes things to the next level with your special ability to jump between the top and bottom of the screen. This should be done to avoid bullets or get behind aliens to shoot them in a weak spot or other to force some aliens to direct their attention. The aliens are pretty much always firing and the different types of aliens being there all at once is where all the difficulty comes from. The orange/red pointed alien can fire in the direction it faces. The purple ones that have three segments poking out of it don’t need to face a direction as they can fire both up and down. Also if you jump then they reappear in a different spot. The almost square alien with a large central eye shows his targeting laser and then like a second later fires a dangerous beam exactly where that laser is. There are aliens that makes surrounding aliens invulnerable, others project a filed that if you are in, you can’t jump. There are aliens that explode upon death and release many dangerous projectiles which can be hard to dodge. The worse part is that there are also bigger versions of some aliens who have more health and more dangerous.

When you get to the upgrades screen you instantly get your health replenished. Here you can also spend upgrade points to improve your ship which is something that you need to do. There are upgrades that affect your: ship, shots and superfire. It’s up to you to decide what you need to focus on as you get 3 points every 2 waves so you have to decide what you need now. Prioritise. For example you may decide to increase your ships health, speed and power of your shots making you a powerful solid ship. Or you may focus on increasing fire rate, speed of bullets and spread angle to make hitting the aliens easier than ever. It’s up to you. X35 Earthwalker himself always prioritised spread angle and number of shots first over everything else. He bothers with ship health much later as he believes, if you are good then you won’t get hit that much therefore not requiring increased health yet. See what works best for you though.

There are three difficulties in Crossfire 2: Trainee, hotshot and ace. We seriously don’t believe playing the first two modes are worth it. It’s too easy. Play through Conquest on Ace as it will prepare you for Conquest plus. Conquest plus is so hard that on one play through of it. We almost lost as we had one life left and just about beat it but that’s the thing about Crossfire 2 it can easily get intense. You will sit there watching the entire screen and trying to stay alive and dodge everything while knowing when to jump and use your superfire. By the way ‘Superfire’ is a special weapon which fires like a machine gun but with the power of a minigun. No alien can stay alive for long against it. You get ammunition for it by collecting the purple mini gem like objects that comes from dead aliens. Fill the meter up and let loose when you need it. The power ups in this game are game changers. There are 3. The purple one fully filles up your superfire meter. The yellow one grants temporary invincibility. The green literally slows down time considerably for you. All the aliens move sooooooo slow. So grab these when you can.

Co-op mode is available here. X35 Earthwalker has played with others before and it’s hilarious. The friend would die quite frequently because they struggle to watch everything that’s happening and dodge in time so X35 has to always bring them back at the upgrade screen. It’s so much fun. We will be jumping around, fire non stop and that’s what’s also difficult about this game. There are projectiles pretty much everywhere so some lose track of what’s going on and even lose where their ship is and finds it but only a few moments before it dies. 

Overall Crossfire 2 is an amazing game. The graphics are great. The music is great. The sounds are very good. The game could have been bigger but it originally was like an ios game for phones and tablets so it’s acceptable by those standards. It’s a great amount of fun, even to this day. The developers ‘Radian games’ did a fantastic job with this game. Just wished more people had it. This game is still worth checking out. Whether you think this game is great or not is not as important as thinking about… doing the ‘Earth Walk!’ 

For more information check out the link below:

 

Portal Knights. Crafting our adventure soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Portal knights is a sandbox action-RPG adventure developed by ‘Keen Games’ coming out May 19th for the Xbox One and PS4 but already out on PC. Some have described this game as minecraft but more RPG and adventure. Let’s see for ourselves.

The story in this game is that the world was peaceful but something happened and tore it apart by ‘The Fracture’ which plummeted the world into darkness. No one remembers how it has been since that happened. You, the player must be the hero and unite the shattered world. Be the portal knight. That’s basically it. Nice simple and that means we will have to craft out own adventure.

Now yes, straight away you as soon as you see the game, Minecraft will pop into your head, which is a good thing. This means crafting is a feature here. You can build your own base, castle, lair, hideout, it doesn’t matter. Just build yourself a mighty and spacious fortress to call your own. Level up your character as you go through the lands to become stronger and more of a force to be taken seriously. Your character has attributes like strength, wisdom, agility and more so decide what kind of character you want, whether tanky or mobility. 

There are many lands to explore and traverse. There are caves, lakes and dungeons. As you travel, collect resources for crafting. Battle many enemies with different weapons and spells. Study your enemies and learn when to attack and when to dodge. We heard the movements have been stepped up from the initial released game. Traditionally you can pick between: Mage, Ranger and Warrior. Customise your gear, appearance and abilities while also unlocking new abilities as you level up. Collect portal stone shards to build portal stones and build the portals which allow you to reach and travel to different areas.

Give your character some character (see what we did there?) with emotes like the one which shows your portal knight charging up with fire which does look cool. There’s another emote which makes your portal knight wave and do a little jump around. If that wasn’t enough then get your portal knight a pet. That’s right. Pet’s like a cat for example are ready to be owned. There are over 100 items to craft and you can even build furniture so why not get a fine couch to get lazy on after a hard fought battle. Just saying.

The biggest threats are the portal guardians. They are said to be huge, powerful epic bosses. We have seen a ice dragon, a giant ground catepillar like thing and more. The bosses are definitely huge indeed and look interesting. This shouldn’t be a problem though as Portal Knights is all about playing with your friends. as it’s 4 player co-op. You can team up with mates and work together to destroy the portal guardians, collect resources and build fortresses and giant structures together. 

We have checked out some gameplay and from what we have seen the game looks real cool. The worlds look very big and has a lot to explore. The attention to detail is very good. There is so much stuff in each world. Even the vegetation have a lot going on. The skies could look better though as they seem a bit grainy but that’s minor. The portal knights should move faster in our opinion. They are too slow. The environments have variety and look great. The battles seem easy to control and flows quite nicely. This is one of those games that you need to check out and see gameplay for yourself. The graphics are very good and some areas look nice and colourful. The sounds of the weapons, attacks, actions and enemies are all good. 

Overall this is definitely a good game and many gamers have good things to say about the original PC release. It looks fun and you can’t get mad at co-op. More games need this. Very glad that it’s now going to be available to console gamers, this means we can actually try the game ourselves. The developers ‘Keen Games’ did a very good job with this game. Portal Knights is worth checking out. Whether you like to craft or not… just make sure you do the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Defense Grid 2. Tactical battles

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Defense Grid 2 might is our favourite tower defense game. It could be the best we have ever played as well. We still play it and having lots of fun with it. This game certainly has quite the challenge factor to it. X35 Earthwalker himself is taking on the levels in ‘Elite’ difficulty. If in case you didn’t know Elite difficulty is where things get less fun and more difficult.

There are multiple factors to take into account when tackling this difficulty. In Elite, the aliens have even more strength than what they had in ‘Hard’ difficulty. The description even states that this mode requires both skill and tower items. This is also where more strategy is required. A more tactical approach to the levels. There are many towers to use, more tower items to give you the edge you need but more aliens that want your cores. Defense Grid 2 won’t go easy on any gamer who takes this challenge on.

Since in Defense Grid 2 you get to see what aliens are coming in the next wave you can make adjustments and plan to some extent to deal with them. This is a most. For example a certain level might spend the whole map throwing shielded enemies at you like the ‘Bulwark’ and ‘Spire’ so then make sure to have ‘Tesla’ towers spaced apart around the map to drain and destroy shields along the way especially since the Spire alien can project shields onto others. Some levels may have fast moving aliens like ‘Racer’ and ‘Rumbler’ which means get some ‘Laser’ towers out there as those aliens are weak against heat and lasers deal continuous damage over time. So yes countering aliens is one thing but having a lot of towers out there is always key. The more towers you have, the better things will be for you as you have more things dishing out damage regardless. So get lots out there while keeping counter towers in mind.

Tower items are one of the biggest additions to Defense Grid 2. Tower items once unlocked are items that add extra features to your towers. For example the ‘Gun’ tower could be equipped with ‘Chemical tipped bullets’ which inflicts 20% extra damage over time thanks to the chemical substance. ‘Shield piercing rounds’ allow bullets to pierce through shields and deal direct damage to aliens and priority target forces tower to target the strongest alien in the group instead of which ever comes first. There are items for each tower. Items can be upgraded as you play through the game. For example the inferno tower has the ‘Concentrated fire’ item but once upgraded to level 5 does 125% more damage which is huge. Things burn up and die good and proper. Pick the items that will help you tackle the types of aliens. For example the level ‘Suspension’ has so many shielded aliens so you might want to equip your: Gun with shield piercing rounds, Laser with shield piercer, Cannon with shield buster shells and Tesla with shield cracker. This makes majority of your towers haters of shields. No longer will you have to watch a shielded alien eat all your bullets and walk out with a core. We hate that!

Inferno towers should be used at tight corners where aliens can’t out-range it. Concussion towers should be placed in centrally tight areas where they cover the whole area. Cannons should be placed on back rows on ‘Boost’ platforms. Lasers must never be grouped together so spread them apart to keep the burning going. Guns must be in groups. Alone they don’t do anything at all. Missiles must be placed around the edge of the map as they do more damage the longer distance the missile travels. Tesla should be spaced out around the map to keep bringing down those shields aliens wherever they go. Meteor must be placed in the center of the maps so that they can hit everything thanks to that range they have.

Being honest we do feel that some of the towers aren’t as effective as they should be. For example in Defense Grid 1 we loved the Gun tower as they were actually towers that did well no matter what. The best thing was to have a temporal slow aliens down forcing them to crawl through a tunnel of level 3 (red) Gun towers which shreds through aliens. Now Gun towers feel really weak don’t seem to get the job done. The Cannon tower seems even worse. For example we have had level 3 Cannons, which aren’t cheap by the way, fire at simple Walker aliens and it does so little damage. This must be an error as when you check the stats it shows that cannons do really high damage. We don’t see it. Literally. We have been discouraged from using Guns and Cannons in Defense Grid 2 which is a huge shame as we loved them in the Defense Grid 1.

We will discuss more in later blogs but one last thing. The aliens have been giving X35 Earthwalker himself some trouble even with all the tower items he has. This shows that you need to play for a while to level up those tower items to even stand a chance. Maybe you are taking on Elite difficulty as well, whether you are or not… Just make sure to do the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Race The Sun. Racing to all soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Race The Sun technically isn’t a new game as it did come out in 2014 but we have never heard of it nor do we know anyone who has heard of it. Well now people will. Race the sun was developed by ‘Flippfly LLC’. This game is finally coming out to Xbox One on April 21st, meaning now everyone can get the game which is what they should have done before.

Race The Sun is classed as a endless running game. In the world of Race The Sun you control a solar craft and the sun is literally your “death timer”. Why? Well you are a solar craft and run on solar energy like the sun, so if the sun sets, you have no power and you lose. Yes this is a pointless struggle and you must delay the inevitable for as long as possible. This game isn’t easy as there are lots of obstacles that will get in your way and cause you to crash like falling pillars, pyramid shaped structures, rolling balls and more. What’s even better is that your solar craft moves at breakneck speed. You are literally zooming around so that means reflexes is the crucial skill here. If you don’t have that, then you are screwed. Along the way you will run pyramid shaped energy boosts which reverse the setting of the sun temporarily, buying you more time. The question is how long can you survive and how far can you get?

Simple make sure to do the following things: stay in the light at all times, never slow down regardless and off course don’t smack into something solid (crash). Easier said then done when the worlds are said to be random generated worlds that change every day. Now that’s not all this game is. There are objectives that once completed unlocks upgrades for your ship and levels it up. Level 25 is the maximum we believe. There are different attachments that will give you the edge you need like granting faster turning. Race The Sun has a feature that more games need, a built-in editor which you can use to create your own endless worlds. So have fun with that. There are world portals that will take you to other user-created worlds and thanks to the built-in editor you know there are some crazy designs out there. It is said that there is a mode that you must unlock called ‘Apocalypse’ which is a extremely hard world. Probably keeping the player alert at all times forcing them to never be able to look away.

From what we have seen of the game, it does look like a lot of fun. It is really fast, the design of the world do make Race The Sun quite challenging. The regions are quite diverse from each other which is great as we love variety. The power ups available make things interesting as there is one which grants the solar craft the ability to jump. This sounds simple but if you play the game you will see just how useful that it as you jump really high. It can get intense even to watch. We at X35 Earthwalker are already really interested in Race The Sun. The graphics are very good for a simple game. The sounds are good and the music is okay

Overall this is a really fun game. It’s challenging. Will make you want to take multiple tries and simple to understand. The developers ‘Flippfly LLC’ did a very great job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are really looking forward to seeing what ‘Race The Sun’ has got for us. It is worth checking out. Whether you can race the sun or not it doesn’t matter but what does matter is that… you do the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Outlast 2. This ain’t no joke

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Outlast 2 is the long awaited survival horror game sequel developed by ‘Red barrels’ coming out April 25th for Xbox One, PC and PS4. Outlast 2 is soon here. In a week in fact. Quite a few people have been talking about this game and their expectations. From what we have heard, this game isn’t a joke. 

In the world of Outlast 2 you control Blake Langermann. He is a camera man and he works with his wife, Lynn. By following clues they have come miles into the Arizona desert concerning the murder of a pregnant lady called ‘Jane Doe’. Why? Oh, that’s because Blake and Lynn are investigative journalists. Risking their lives to find the story behind the stories and uncover the truths. Basically doing stuff that no normal person would do. We are’t dissing, just saying, we aren’t going into the desert to investigate some murder but that’s the plot so let’s go with it.

Now some people have declared Outlast as the scariest game they have ever played. There are jump scares, sneaking, creep looking people, crazy people (it’s an asylum), a large humanoid monster that won’t stop following you like seriously why is it so persistent and much more. The game also centered around a cool mechanic where it’s really dark and in order to see, you will need to use your camera which has night vision. Kind of like in Doom 3 where you had to at multiple times switch between your gun and your flash light. This made the game more dreadful for some as using the camera consumes battery life. So when do you use the camera is up to you. There was one moment where a certain person was sneaking around, then stopped and decided to use his camera. He saw a threat dead right in front of him, which was a scary moment for him but a hilarious moment for us.

From what we have seen and heard concerning Outlast 2, the game looks like it going to take a darker and creepier turn. The location is dark and so not welcoming. The atmosphere seems to have been done right concerning the location. There is even a pit filled with the bodies of dead babies which must be one of the most disturbing things ever in video games. It’s obvious at this point that the fact that the murdered lady, Jane Doe, being pregnant is related to all this. In the demo you see a book, blood, a manger like thing and symbols. This has to be the work of a religious cult that apparently believes in killing babies and stuff. The whole evil religious cult theme has been done a lot over the years so let’s see if Outlast 2 gets it right as some have been too predictable or didn’t go big enough with it but a pit of dead bodies is considered a start for some. 

The game has more details than before as sounds have been carefully placed in like stepping on certain bodies produces a squishy fleshy noise which will disturb some weak stomach gamers. This game is literally out to scare people as they even have the instant look behind you button because we need a nice mug shot of whatever will be chasing us. Nice feature though, we actually like it. It’s always better to give options to gamers. We are interested to know more about that scythe wielding humanoid lady who has no problems ripping of a certain part of the main character in the demo (seriously go watch it for yourself). Here’s the thing though. X35 Earthwalker is one of those people who doesn’t get scared from these games. Whether it’s slender man, five nights at freddy’s and even dead space. It just doesn’t seem to work but he is looking forward to seeing what this game has in store.

Just to let you all know, also on the 25th of April ‘Outlast trinity’ will be coming out which is basically a physical collection of the Outlast series: Outlast, the Whistleblower DLC and Outlast II. Take note of this as when Outlast 2 comes out, it will come out digitally for the Xbox One, PC and PS4. So decide what type of copy you want.

Overall Outlast 2 looks great. They emphasise the importance of using cover effectively. The graphics are improved and look good. The sounds have been stepped up. The atmosphere in out opinion is very good indeed. If you want a survival horror game that will keep you focused, double checking corners and eventually scared to the point where you have to pause the game then this might be for you. The developers ‘Red barrels’ did a great job with this game. Keep it up guys. We at X35 Earthwalker are keeping an eye out to see what this game can do. This game is worth checking out. Whether you get scared or not, never be scared… to do the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

More information

Sensible gaming

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

X35 Earthwalker has been a gamer for many years now. Matter of fact he has been gaming since primary school. He still has memories of playing Halo for the first time after hearing so much about it from his friends. What we want to talk about today is sensible gaming. Video and computer games at the end of the day are for entertainment. Yet some gamers take it much further and too far. We have gamers today who spend far too much time playing games and less time on other important things. There are even some who have died because they sit still and play for hours instead of getting exercise. We aren’t saying all gamers are like this because we certainly aren’t. The point is games are fictional, they aren’t real life.

Playing video games doesn’t get you the grades in school, don’t get you a job (unless it’s a game tester but even then you do’t get that from sitting around) and don’t advance your life. Make sure you have balance to your life. Set time aside to focus on your career and any projects you have going on. Set time aside for exercise and activities, set time aside for meaningful things for family, friends (not online friends) and yourself. Set time for your gaming as well. We have to be sensible about this. Sensible gaming will make you better of.

X35 Earthwalker himself balances handling his business, personal life, activities and projects and ministry. He doesn’t get stressed and makes appropriate time for these things. Being organised and diligent is not just wise, but also what God told us to do. Even Moses asked God to teach us how to number our days (Psalm 90:12) which means how to be organised and plan our days. 

There are also some gamers who get too into games and when things go wrong, lose, or too difficult they rage and we mean they literally rage. They throw their controllers, they break their keyboards, knock over their chairs, smash their headphones, which by the way all costs quite a lot of money. Seriously it’s painful to watch. Don’t waste money like that. Those people need to know how to behave themselves. Such people even get racist and proper aggressive with others. I dare those same people to come and try that stuff with certain people on the streets and see what happens to them. That stuff is not sensible gaming. If you lose, it’s just a game. If you get wrecked or owned online well guess what? Everyone, even the best players (cough X35 Earthwalker cough) has had matches where everything went wrong. Just laugh at yourself and if you can’t put the game down for a while. Simple.

Don’t get us wrong. We are gamers we have spent hours playing games. We play all sorts of games. X35 Earthwalker himself has completed every Halo game solo in Legendary and every Gears of war game in insane as well. He has a high gamer score and has gotten insane moments like getting the quad and quinn in gears of war and even the unfriggenbelievable and killionaire in Halo. We aren’t dissing gamers at all. Sensible gaming is where you use your days smartly, where you don’t alienate yourself from your family, you don’t turn into a monster, you have fun and where you draw the line between fictional worlds and reality. This message is for gamers from us at X35 Earthwalker with love. 

So have fun and don’t forget to do the ‘Earth Walk!’