Tag: X35 Earthwalker

Pikmin. A game like no other

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Pikmin was a game from X35 Earthwalker’s childhood. It was the game that he so loved and adored. It was a game that set the standards for other games. This game was most likely the first game he had for the GameCube. Pikmin was a classed as a real time strategy (RTS) game that was released in 2001 on the Nintendo Gamecube. In this game you controlled captain Olimar, an alien who crash lands on a strange planet. He encounters small, cute but unique creatures called ‘Pikmin’. These guys can’t really do anything by themselves but when they are in groups, that’s when they become one of the most powerful things on the planet. 

You crashed landed because an asteroid struck your ship, sending your ship on a crash collision course. Even worse, your ship started to break apart. Parts of your ship landed in different places on the planet. Olimar can’t get the pieces as they are big and heavy and in locations that he can’t reach. Even worse is that the atmosphere of the planet is toxic for him. His life support system has enough to keep him alive for 30 days! Captain Olimar soon discovers that Pikmin can fight other creatures, carry objects, break down walls, build bridges and more. So can he find the ship parts, repair his ship and get off the planet with the help of the Pikmin in 30 days? That’s the question.

Pikmin has 5 different areas for Olimar to explore: Impact site, Forest of Hope, Forest Naval, Distant Spring and Final trial. Each area is very different and has their own fun points and annoying points. The impact site is where you crashed landed on the planet (We are sure you figured that out). Here the area is designed to teach the player the basics of using Pikmin and what they can do. In the very first day, nothing can kill you but after the first night, enemies will occupy the area. Forest of Hope is where the action truly starts. There are many parts to Olimar’s ship here. Also there are little larve like enemies here, Bulborbs which are the famous giant two legged creatures with large mouths to eat you and your Pikmins, armoured beetle which is really mean and long neck bird head creatures who have quite the peck. Forest naval got it’s name because according to Captain Olimar, it looks like a belly button from high altitude. This level is X35 Earthwalker’s least favourite but is the most different and has a lot going on in this level from bugs dragging around a ship part to fire geysers shooting out fire. Things get serious in this area. Distant Spring many would consider to be the hardest area as it has everything from the other areas in it from solid walls and lots of water to numerous enemies and tricky puzzles. Matter of fact Distant spring has stronger versions of previous enemies there.

The final area is the one that no one will ever forget. It’s the level that all players of Pikmin have learnt to fear. It’s ‘Final trial’. This area isn’t like the others. There aren’t multiple areas to explore and many pieces of the ship to find. There is just one piece and just two sections. This area tests what you know about Pikmin and how to use them. Straight away the level splits into three paths. The left is more for red Pikmin, the middle is more for blue Pikmin while the right is more for yellow Pikmin. After you cross the small lake like area, you then come to an arena where the thing that shall not be named… fine… the ‘Emperor Bulblax’ is just chilling. You see what looks like plants in the ground but that’s actually antennae like things from it’s back. It’s underground. This is the official final boss of the game and it’s a fight indeed. The emperor has lots of health and is capable killing your entire army if you aren’t careful. It uses it’s sticky tongue to grab and eat Pikmin and later on can jump high to crush Pikmin to death and shake them off. The secret make the emperor swallow ‘bomb rocks’ which will do nice damage and stun the enemy for a good while.

In Pikmin 1 there were three types of Pikmin: Red, Yellow and blue. Red were the strongest and did the most damage to enemies, making them best for combat. They also have the ability to withstand fire, so fire geysers have nothing on these guys. Yellow are probably the lightest of the Pikmin as they can be thrown to much higher places. Also, they have the ability to pick up and throw bomb rocks, meaning that no wall can stand in the way of the yellows. Blue has the unique ability to go through water. That’s right. They won’t drown, meaning they can reach multiple areas and parts that other Pikmin just can’t go. Also each of the Pikmin types have different physical features. Red has a nose, Yellow has ears and Blue has a mouth. This is interesting though. Also Pikmin have 1 of 3 things on their heads: leaf, bud or flower. Leaf Pikmin are the weakest and the slowest while flower Pikmin are the strongest and fastest. There are two ways to create flower Pikmin. First is when a new Pikmin is made and it’s in the ground, leave them there and over time they will turn into flower Pikmin. The second is to have them drink nectar which instantly turns them into flower Pikmin. Nectar isn’t as rare as people think. You can find them in grass, pebbles, dropped by a rare beetle creature or flying ghost things. 

X35 Earthwalker was one of those who completed the game way before 30 days. You get a different endings depending on how fast you complete the game: early, on time and ran out of time. Now there were two sequels to the game and we loved them also. The third was our least favourite, the second was the best in terms of gameplay and features but the first holds a special place in X35 Earthwalker’s heart. In the second one, the whole idea of controlling Captain Olimar and Louie was excellent. We might write about that game another time though. X35 Earthwalker when he was younger actually got attached to the Pikmin. There was once a time where when searching for parts he made some mistakes and got a quite a bit of his Pikmin eaten. He ended up crying but then later came back with pure rage, vengeance and an army of 100 red Pikmin with the sole purpose of killing that monster. He did and it made him feel a lot better. We remember going through the levels and seeing everything for the first time, wondering how to solve certain puzzles and reach certain parts. It was exciting seeing the ship slowly get built back together and then reaching new areas. Or chasing those flying ghost looking things that have the nectar. Pikmin are so useful and can do many things.

This game isn’t that difficult and we strongly believe that within two play throughs of the game, almost any player can beat the game within 30 in game days. The main skill you need when playing this game is multitasking. You have to have one Pikmin squad collecting and carrying pellets or dead creatures bodies back to the onions to build your numbers. Another group that can be breaking down walls, building bridges or pushing large objects out of the way. While another group goes with you hunting for ship parts and exploring. The player has to manage all these things and know when to do that. You must manage your time properly as you don’t have that much time in a day so what will you do and how will you do it. Will that take too long? Is there a faster way? Should I use one whole day just for increasing Pikmin numbers and upgrading them to flowers? That’s up to you. Lastly, never leave your Pikmin alone at night. Any Pikmin left alone after the countdown reaches 0 will be automatically hunted down and eaten by monsters. Nothing will survive the night. Either keep them right near their onion or keep them with you and they will be safe. This is one of those games that you must play and try if you get the chance. The developers ‘Nintendo EAD’ created an awesome game that will be with us always. Whether you know the game or not… never forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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EVERSPACE. Just pure space action

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

EVERSPACE is a new rougelike, space, shooter game developed by ‘ROCKFISH Games’ and it coming out on Xbox One, PC and PS4 in March. Straight away we like this game just from what it is about and how it looks. It’s literally an action packed space game where you can blast things and fly around at high speeds. The objective of this game is simple. There is a destination that you have to reach; however there are multiple obstacles in the way. Also there is said to be a great puzzle that needs to be solved so there is something a bit deeper going on here.

Everytime you make the journey, it is different everytime. For example you may end up getting into a dog fight with some dangerous fighters but then the next time you may run into a group of large ships with powerful laser blasters. Off course there is more to this game than just blasting and flying around. You can gather resources, check out comets, ship wrecks and wormholes. If you want, you could just find and attack traders to get their supplies but be warned, they won’t give up their goods easily at all. 

Now in order to get to the next area or system to explore and survive, you will need to gather enough fuel to be able to use the jump drive. On top of that you will need to collect resources to upgrade your ship to craft items to upgrade your ship and for repairs. This game is said to be very hard and damage to your ship and systems is unavoidable. You will die a lot in this game, so upgrading your ship and repairs are essential or you pretty much won’t be going anywhere.

The game actually rewards you for dying though, so don’t let the fact that the game is hard put you off. So everytime you die, you will get the chance to to change and improve your ship for the journey. Whether that’s improving your sensors, increasing the capacity of your shields, upgrading your weapons (yes please), increase shield capacity or even adding armour plates. What this game gets right is the fact that most of the upgrades and modifications actually show up visibly on your ship. For example getting new wings will change the shape of the ship. That is very cool indeed. Plus everytime you die will reveal a bit more about the story in the game. So dying is apparently okay in this game. 

Now there is a lot of life in EVERSPACE. There are friends, neutral parties and allies out there but majority of the NPC’s are hostile and will make it their goal to destroy you. There are Kamikaze fighters which when near death they will crash themselves into you so evade for your life. Annoying scavengers who travel around and attack whoever looks like an easy target but some have cloaking technology so they can be anywhere. Frigate class ships might show up with big cannons, turrets and more to blast you away, heavy tactics are needed with these ones. Typical group of pirates might show up from hangar of outposts. They fight strategically, so it might be best to destroy their leader as quickly as possible. Most interesting of is that there is said to be enemies that are organic life forms which stay in asteroid fields covered by plasma clouds. That is so far the most interesting enemies. We hope there is a enemy encyclopedia providing information on them. 

There will be VR support for oculus Rift and HTC Vive, so gamers who to literally get in the cockpit and take command will have no problems doing that. Also in the future there will be a ‘Hardcore mode’ where permadeath is active. This should only be attempted by the masters of this game since dying is most likely going to happen in this game frequently. The fact that there is no multiplayer isn’t a big deal. Not all games need it, it just depends on what the game is about. If they make it multiplayer in the future then that’s excellent but as far as we are concerned. It doesn’t make a difference.

From what we have seen of the game, it all looks very cool indeed. We gamers do need an actually good action packed space shooter game with some depth to it. The graphics look excellent and space in this game will make many want to just explore it. The cross hair is nice and easy to see. The action is smooth and flows nicely. Lots of work went into this game, and it shows. The customising and crafting screens are easy to understand and nicely detailed. The variety of the vents and things that happen in space are interesting and because there is so much going on, you will never really know what is going to happen. Being able to craft and make changes on the go, even in the middle of combat is absolutely great feature to have since this game requires you to have the right stuff at the right time to survive. The sounds of the explosions, other ships and lasers all sound very good and on point in many cases. enemy fighter ships leave trails behind them from their lights and fuel making it easier for players to track them down and blast them. This space game gets a lot of things right. The different locations in the space in this game have different colours and different size rocks and stuff. X35 Earthwalker himself believes that many gamers have been waiting for game like this.

Overall this game is looking extremely solid. The developers ‘ROCKFISH Games’ did an amazing job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what will become of this game and what other gamers have to say about it but it doesn’t matter what they say as long as you never forget… to do the ‘Earth Walk!’.

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Echo. Where actions have consequences

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Echo is a new third person science fiction adventure game developed by ‘Ultra Ultra’ coming out in March on the  Xbox One, PC and PS4. This game was made using ‘Unreal 4 engine’. Echo is definitely one of those games that stand out from the others. This is simply because of a very unique and interesting game mechanic. You may be able to guess it from the title of the game.

The echo game mechanic is pretty much the main and most interesting thing about this game. It’s the thing that will make gamers want to try it out. We at X35 Earthwalker always love unique games or games with unique mechnics or anything really. Basically in this world you control a girl called ‘En’. She is in special legendary place so far just called the ‘Palace’. The palace studies you and uses you to defeat you. That sentence wasn’t a typo it’s exactly what we said. The palace creates ‘Echoes’. Basically exact copies of you in everyway which can only do what you do. They even move and behave like you. In this game, the only true enemy is yourself.

We will explain it. The palace sort of goes through a cycle. It ‘reboots’ every few minutes which causes a black out. During this black out, you can continue to move through the palace however you like and all is well but after the black out. it’s all light in the palace and it’s there where the palace watches you. That’s right, the palace is sort of alive. After watching you, the Echoes it creates gets updated with your latest movements and actions. They learn or unlearn. The whole game is about you facing the consequences of your actions.

So basically If you run, the Echoes will have the ability to run as well. If you sneak, then next time, the Echoes will sneak around meaning they get the jump on you. If you shoot, then they have the ability to shoot as well and since they are an exact copy of you they can kill you just as fast as you can kill them. The game constantly makes a move based on what you do. Sort of like chess. So how will you play? Will you only make moves during the black out to avoid being detected at all (like a wimp) or will you also move during the day but face the consequences of your actions with adjusted Echoes that will come for you.

We don’t know too much about the story besides information concerning the palace and the main character ‘En’ and that you take and place certain light objects but other from that it’s pretty much, you have to wait and see. The graphics are alright but the animations are very good. The environment looks like details and time went into making it. From what we have seen, the game looks cool but sounds extremely cool.

Overall this game is unique and definitely worth checking out. X35 Earthwalker himself really wants to see how the community of gamers react and receive this game. The developers, ‘Ultra Ultra’ came up with something interesting here and we say good job.

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Death Squared. Puzzle action squared

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Death Squared is a new multiplayer puzzle game developed by ‘SMG Studio’, coming out ion February 14th for Xbox One, PC and PS4. Death Squared is a cooperative puzzle game for 1, 2 or 4 players where each player gets to control a squared shaped robot which needs to be guided to a matching colour-coded goal. This does sound easy but with puzzle games, it never is. There are traps and hazards which will destroy and kill your robot.

Straight away from looking at the game, We at X35 Earthwalker could tell that it’s fun and has some humour to it. We could tell that from the design of the robots. The robots may come in the four colours red, blue, green and yellow and have similiar looks but it’s the prints on their faces that gives it away. There are many prints. like an ‘X’, mustache, laughing face, cross bones, heart, tiger stripes and even a skull. It would be better if these robots have voices and actually talk to the players but we will see. The same faces can have different markings so customisation of the robots is there.

The entire level is made of squares and literally, there is a lot of details on the squares. Some squares have different markings, colours and coating. The graphics of the game is very good. The scenery looks like a giant section in a mechanical factory. It looks the the whole thing is like a simulation by a computer with square levels in an area surrounded by lots of space. The music is more like ambiance, just a simple tune in the background. This may be like this because the developers wants all the focus to be on communication between the players. 

X35 Earthwalker has checked out some of the levels already and he said, “The levels throw a lot of stuff in there for the players to think about. It actually causes players to stop, think and plan amongst each other, before continuing. Some levels have blocks that hologram squares which is tangible for the robots of different colour and move when the same coloured robot moves. There are levels where pieces and even rotating parts move as the robot of the same colour move. There are switches which activate spikes from the ground that destroy any robots on top of it. There are levels that have lasers that will destroy any robot that of a different colour that makes contact with it. There are even levels that combine all of this stuff together, creating crazy scenarios. I like what I see so far”. We agree.

This is the kind of game that will get you vex with your friends and family. Maybe your younger sibling accidently gets your robot killed because he moved when he wasn’t supposed to. Maybe your friend forgot that all this time they can move through any hologram squares that’s the same colour as they are, wasting many minutes. Or that one friend who decides to get his friends killed but tries to make it seem like it was an accident. This game starts of very fun but will quite quickly become a challenge and then a head scratching challenge. If you don’t have any temperance (self control) and long suffering (patience) then be careful as you don’t want to get too mad with friends and family. So think twice about this.

It has been said that there is a section in the game called the ‘Vault’ which has a bunch of levels that are only for the brave. We guess that these levels must all be very hard to complete to near impossible to solve. We hope there are some levels like that though because there are always gamers out there who won’t stop until they beat it. Those guys will have fun.

Overall this seems like a fun puzzle game that will keep you occupied for a good while. A lot of work has gone into it. The developers ‘SMG Studio’ did a good job with this game and we at X35 Earthwalker want to see what becomes of this game. Even so… You must not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Crypt of the NecroDancer. Got the moves?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

‘Crypt of the NecroDancer’ is a new action, indie, RPG game but also classed as a rhythm dungeon crawler, developed by ‘Brace Yourself Games’ coming to Xbox One 10th of February but was released on other platforms last year in February as well. Straight away the title of the game should straight up tell any gamer what this game contains. Dancing, music and dungeons. If that’s what you got also, then you are correct. In Crypt of the NecroDancer you control ‘Cadence’ who is the daughter of a famed treasure hunter that has gone missing. She goes off to look for him but accidentally falls into a crypt owned by the NecroDancer, who steals Cadence’s heart and forces her to challenge his minions to retrieve it. Now you are forced to fight through the dungeon but your actions tied to the beat of the music. You must beat the Necrodancer.

This game has a very friendly look to it. It reminds you of the old retro games with that pixel like graphic style. So straight away you want to try the game. The rules and controls of the game are simple. Move, attack and doge enemies in tune with the beat for the best success. There is lots of music and the game even said that it has an award winning sound track plus 4 remixes of a track. So you have options but it gets better. This game has a fantastic feature. It grants players the option to instead import custom music from their MP3 collection. So groove and play to your own tunes. Plus if you have a dance mat connected by USB then you can link it up and get your moves on. We at X35 Earthwalker encourage movement and exercise. There is two player co-op where each player has their own health but share the gold and spells. This means you can show off your moves to a buddy of yours.

The enemies in the game are all dancing. Who ever said skeletons can’t dance. Literally, everything in this crypt seems to be effected by the music and tunes. You can only move or attack if they do the action on the beat of the music. Everytime you get it on the beat boosts your scoring multiplier. You don’t automatically take damage for missing the beat but it does reset the scoring multiplier and you may end up in the path of an enemies attack. As you go through the game, you will find new items, armour, treasures and weapons to use to your advantage. There are lots of weapons in this game like: a dagger, broadsword (which can hit multiple enemies), whip, bow, flail, rifle and much more. All having their own range, damage and mechanics. Find the one that best suits you and your situation.

There is a nice range of enemies that all seem to know how to have a good time, with their dance moves. The dungeon is split into 4 zones which each have four levels. The first three levels always have many enemies, an exit to find and a mini boss for you to overcome but the last level has a big boss who wants you dead. The last mechanic that gamers should be aware of is that you want to complete the level before the song finishes otherwise you will be sent to the next level automatically but miss all the rewards you would get for completing the level. From what we have seen, the game seems quite fun and the whole rhythm mechanic is a nice touch to a dungeon crawler. Music is always enjoyable and impacts the experience of the game, plus having the option to choose our own music is great. The flow of the game is definitely changed according to the song but flows well nonetheless. This game isn’t for every gamer though as you do at times feel restricted to the music and if that annoys you then it’s not for you.

Overall it seems like a fun game but only for some types of gamers. The developers ‘Brace Yourself Games’ made something nice. Regardless… you must never forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Conflict: Desert storm. An example co-op game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Desert storm is an action tactical third person shooter game developed by ‘Pivotal Games’ that came out in September 2002. In this game, you control the most feared special operations forces in the world: the elite British SAS or the US Delta Force squads. These teams consist of: Bradley (the leader), Foley (the sniper), Connors (the heavy weapons) and Jones (the combat engineer). The game takes place in the Persian gulf war.

This is a game that is from X35 Earthwalkers child hood. It’s a legendary game that he will never forget. The memories, the laughs, the struggles and more. It’s all there. There is literally no other game like this game for sure. Best to start of with the tutorial which by the way is amazingly done. This is how tutorials should be. Firstly a choice as to whether you want to take the tutorial or not and then explain and get into everything about the game. It takes you through positions, shooting, movement and more with assault courses, shooting ranges and special rooms. When you play the campaign you can switch between the four soldiers whenever you want. Each character has their own weapons and equipment so you must be smart about who you want to use for certain parts of the mission. For example it’s not best to use Foley, the sniper, when you are going into a building. You need medium to close range weapons in there.

Bradley has the assault rifle which also comes with a grenade launcher attachment meaning he is best medium range combat. He has a silence pistol so entering and clearing out buildings is second easiest for him. He has binoculars so scouting is what he can do also. He later gets access to special weapons too but more on that later. Foley has the sniper rifle so he can head shot and kill enemies from far away and because sniper rifles can zoom in, he can scout good as well. Connors has a light machine gun that can lay down lots of fire and damage at everything. Tanks are scared of him because of the powerful rocket launcher in his back pocket. Connors deals damage like no other. Jones has a silenced sub machine gun meaning he is the best at stealth and taking at enemies in buildings. The man also happens to have some mines, which he can use to cover certain doors or behind the team. It doesn’t stop there as in his pockets are also some C4 explosives which he can plant and then detonate with the trigger. He also has a shotgun making close range combat, like in buildings so easy. Combining all the skills and equipment of the team results in the fact that there isn’t a single situation these guys can’t handle.

Few times in the game there will be levels where your objective will be to destroy some really large or other specific targets and so for this, they equip Bradley with special equipment. The two that we remember are air strikes (the one that looks like a phone) and a laser designator. With the phone looking one, you could use it to call in air strikes on the location that you aimed at to destroy scud launchers, clear a large area of infantry or just to get a tank out of the way. These were limited. The laser designator didn’t have a limit but you couldn’t just use it anywhere. The most notable moment with the laser designator was when you had to use it to destroy a very large bridge. It can be used on tanks as well. With those stuff, you really do feel like you were special forces with exclusive equipment. 

If you play single player then you must use the command to make all your team mates follow you to have everyone moving at once. Depending on the situation, you may have to switch characters. Like the level that had the bridge, Foley was the best as you could snipe them and they can’t even hit you back. When a tank shows up, get everyone to a safe location, switch to Connors and blow up the tank with his rocket launcher. When you need to lock down an area or set traps with silence action then switch to Jones for his mines and C4. All the the characters have frag grenades, smoke grenades, medkits and a combat knife. The frag grenades worked exactly as you expect them to. The smoke grenades in this game is probably the best smoke grenades we have ever seen in a game in terms of effectiveness. Nothing could see you. The medkits recovered a lot of health and can be used to revive fallen troops. The combat knife is always exciting to use because if you sneak up behind an enemy and use it, it becomes a stealth kill execution. Another great feature about this game is that you can give weapons to teammates very easily and if a team mate is down, you can take things from them as well. So let’s say Foley is down but Bradley has run out of medkits then you can take a medkit from Foley to use on him and bring him back into the fight.

Multiplayer is literally the best way to play the game. This where all the memories for X35 Earthwalker himself comes from. He use to play this back when he was very young with his family. X35 Earthwalker would play Bradley, his sister would play Foley, his mum would play Connors and since it was three of them his sister got to control Jones as well. So much crazy adventures would take place. Times when getting new shiny weapons was more important than the fighting going on outside. They even created a ridiculous strategy to deal with tanks when out of rocket launchers. Jones would give his detonator to Foley. Foley would use smoke grenades to create a smokey path towards a tank, then Jones would run up to the tank with a C4 and plant one right next to the tank. Then try and make it far away or back to safety so that Foley can blow the tank up with a detonator. Sometimes Jones couldn’t get back we would have to blow up the tank with him but since when you lose health your body is always in one piece on the ground, we could just revive him with a medkit. How ridicolous is that? X35 Earthwalker and his family would split up and take strategic positions only to hear the screams of his sister being chased found and chased by the enemy so then everyone would run to her to help. It was so much fun. So much craziness and memories that it’s best explained through speaking and not writing.

There were a lot of levels and of a good length with clear and interesting objectives. One time you will be destroying scud launchers, the next time you have to eliminate a target and then next you have to do a rescue. The variety is good. The graphics and sounds were great for its time. The environments and level designs were nice to look at and the areas were different. The enemies are dangerous and numerous. There are infantry with rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns and even rocket launchers. There are anti air tanks, anti-infantry tanks and regular tanks of two types of armour. There is even a helicopter that attacks you. Fight in cities, buildings and off course deserts. Play by yourself or go full in with split screen four player.

Overall this game is awesome and will always be special to us regardless of time. The developers ‘Pivotal Games’ did an outstanding job with this game. It’s still available on steam as well but whatever you do… Don’t forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Candleman. A bright new game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Candleman is a new 3D Platformer game that’s said to come out today on the Xbox One although it has been said it may come to other platforms later. It was first released last year in the Chinese market though. This game was made by Chinese indie game studio ‘Spotlightor Interactive’. X35 Earthwalker himself saw this game and had nothing but good things to say about it. If you look at the game for 1 second then you may just skip past it. If you look at the game for 5 seconds, you might wonder what it is about but if you look at the game for ten seconds then you will discover the main game mechanic of the game which is just one of the cool things that make this game unique.

In Candleman you play a little candle who is on a journey to find the light but to do this. It must go into the darkness. From just looking and reading about this game, we can tell that the developers have put a message or meaning within the game, like a life lesson or something. So be on the look out for that. The game is very simple. You make your way through the very dark levels and avoid being outed or destroyed. That’s right. There are hazards and creatures that will make your journey a whole lot harder. There are crushing walls, twisting paths, ledges, water and more stuff. There are some flying ghost looking creatures which really do come after you.

The main game mechanic here is the candles ability to burn for 10 seconds which lights up the place a whole lot meaning you can actually see what is going on around you and what is right in front of you but just like with any other candle, the candle will melt. This is both good and bad because if you melt, you get closer to being nothing and therefore lose but the smaller you are, the higher you can jump, making some areas that you couldn’t reach before, accessible. The burning of the candle also protects you. For example those flying ghost things are repelled from your flame from when you light up, keeping those things away at all times.

The game looks absolutely beautiful. The graphics are up there with being excellent indeed. You feel this way with everything in the game. The levels look smooth and real nice. The environments look like they took a lot of work. The lighting is very well done indeed as it makes glowing objects and your own flames look realistic and quite powerful at times. The game is said to have challenging levels but with a fair difficulty curve.

Overall this game looks really cool. It’s a nice simple but fun game made very well. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what becomes of this game. The developers ‘Spotlightor Interactive’ did an excellent job with this game and we say keep it up. 

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World of Van Helsing:Deathtrap. Traps of death.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

In World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap there are a total of 25 different traps for the player to unlock and use. You initially start of with 4 traps: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar and Gun sentry.  You can unlock the others by fulfilling certain requirements like poison 600 enemies or inflict 15,000 fire damage and by completing a certain amount of levels. There are more traps though in the game known as special traps which only appear on certain levels. You cannot create them yourself. Many of these are truly traps of Death.

X35 Earthwalker has unlocked all the traps in the game and used them all and said, “Only 15 of the 25 traps are useful.” This is a big statement and while it is primarily due to his style of play, it’s also because of how they stack up against other traps, which is something we will talk about later. At the end of the day it is up to the player to figure which traps are good and useful to them and their style. Some of the traps just give out damage, while some cause effect damage while others are do no damage but just there to assist you in some way, some summon creatures to help you and some help you not mainly in damage but due to it’s unique effects.

As you should know the traps are split into five groups: Mystical ground, Mechanical ground, Mystical tower, Mechanical tower and Summoning. Let’s start with Mystical ground. The lava grill is a splash type trap that that deals continuous fire damage but once upgraded can set enemies on fire and even disorientate your enemies. Icicle field causes ice damage and slows the enemy down for 5 seconds but once upgraded, has a chance to freeze enemies for 5 seconds and make them more vulnerable to ice attacks. Stasis trap uses three stasis bubbles to trap and hold enemies in place for 5 seconds and deal good physical damage but once upgraded can hold them for longer and deal bigger damage. Abyss crater has a chance of instantly killing ‘horde’ and ‘normal’ enemies but those not killed instead just take damage but once upgraded can deal area of effect damage. The portal glyph is unique as it has a chance to send an enemy back some distance along the path they came from but once upgraded can deal damage also and make them more vulnerable to lightning attacks.

Now for Mechanical traps. Acid geyser is a piercing type trap that deals poison damage while making the enemies more vulnerable to physical attacks but once upgraded can afflict enemies with the poison status. Spear trap is a piercing type trap that simply impales enemies with spears dealing heavy physical damage but once upgraded able to poison enemies also. Essence trap is unique as it does no damage but enemies killed within its range generate more essence more normal and when upgraded they have a chance to stun enemies that step on it. Spring trap knocks enemies down, harming them and slowing them down but if an enemy is knocked of a ledge then it instantly dies but once upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire attacks. Tick mine Dispenser has a small chance to attach a bomb to an enemy and when that enemy dies the bomb explodes with heavy area of effect damage but once upgraded can set a space on fire. 

Now for Mystical towers. Lightning pillar is a piercing type trap that creates charges every 3 seconds which it uses to attack enemies at double the normal rate of fire but once upgraded can hit multiple enemies at once. Frost pillar is a concentrated type trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously damaging them and slowing them down but when upgraded can freeze enemies it hits. Phoenix pillar is a splash type trap that launches a fireball to deal area of effect fire damage and capable of knocking enemies down if deals 25% of enemies health worth of damage but once upgraded can ignite enemies. Enthropic pillar is a concentrated trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously harming them. 20% of the damage is returned to player or ally creatures as health but when upgraded has a chance to hit multiple enemies at once. Olympus pillar strikes an enemy with a thunderbolt that deals area of effect lightning damage after a 2 second delay of original place of target but once upgraded can reduce the delay.

Now for Mechanical towers. Gun sentry is a concentrated trap that fires at a enemy continually until it is out of range or dead but once upgraded can do area of effect damage and slow down enemies too. Razor launcher is a piercing trap that fires razor sharp discs through enemies hitting others behind them but when upgraded has a chance to fire multiple discs and increase the damage dealt to enemies behind original target. Blast furnace is a splash trap that shoots jets of flames in all four directions which also ignites enemies so they take damage over time but when upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire damage and increase burn damage. Voltaron coil electrocutes all enemies within range and the shock can jump to other targets, dishing out more damage but once upgraded can make the electric arcs jump more times. Cannon sentry is a splash trap that fires explosive shells and has high area of effect but once upgraded can have a faster rate of fire and faster shell speed.

Now for Summoning. Monster cage summons a werewolf (we think) that runs at near enemies and starts swinging at them. They have high health meaning they are good for stalling for time but once upgraded you can have 4 of them with a chance that a rare more powerful wolf will show up. Reanimator pit has a chance to summon a ghoulin when an enemy dies near or in the pit. This is good for areas where lots die there as you could get continuous monster summons, slowing down and stalling the enemy like no other but once upgraded the ghoulins can be stronger and stay around longer. Archer post summons up to 3 archers one by one who have great range and fire high damage arrows but once upgraded they have a chance to dodge none area of effect attacks, have more archers and their arrows do area of effect damage. Suicide swarm nest summons suicide spawns who run at enemies and attack them and when they die they explode dealing 1000 poison damage but once upgraded there is a chance of an instant respawn and greater range of explosion. Winter queen sigil summons a winter queen spirit that uses blizzard spells to deal ice damage to enemies at great range but once upgraded has reduced cool down for blizzard spell and increased damage.

X35 Earthwalker himself only seems to use: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar, Gun Sentry, Monster cage, Spear trap, Razor launcher, Stasis trap, Essence trap, Phoenix pillar, Blast furnace, Archer post, Enthropic pillar,Olympus pillar and Cannon sentry. Gun Sentry traps are best used in groups as when together they can shred anything to bits. If you have 3 Gun sentry traps that have maxed area of effect and damage, even horde type enemies will get owned. These are the traps that are good for almost any situation. The Acid geyser is best used in front of other traps that deal physical damage like Razor launcher or spear trap as the acid increases their vulnerability to physical damage. Matter of fact have a mercenary keep the enemy busy on top of a Acid geyser trap while Gun sentry traps continue to deliver the pain with increase physical vulnerability. When almost every time you see a spot for a Summoning trap, always build archers as they deliver fantastic damage from a good distance and once enemies get close they can stall for time buying you precious seconds. Olympus pillar has the largest range in the whole game and therefore can strike enemies from different paths and lanes with heavy area of effect damage meaning it’s good against boss enemies and horde. 

He doesn’t use the Icicle field because it delivers the lowest amount of damage of all towers and it doesn’t look like its slowing enemies down at all. The Stasis trap is superior in every way as it doesn’t slow down but keeps them in place and deals way more damage. Stasis > Icicle field. He doesn’t use the Frost pillar as it is inferior to the Enthropic pillar in most situations. It does less damage than Enthropic and it’s effect is not as useful as it doesn’t slow the enemy down by much visibly but the Enthropic actually heals the players and their allied units if nearby keeping you in the fight and able to bounce the beam unto multiple targets for more damage. Once upgraded though, the frost pillar becomes quite powerful and essential on one some levels. Enthropic pillar > Frost pillar (most of the time). He doesn’t use the Reanimator pit as it relies on others killing for it to activate and even then the activation is by chance and not guaranteed; furthermore the summoned monster after the chance is the weakest of all summoned monsters and deal the least damage. So not worth it. Any other summon monster would be useful almost all the time except the Winter queen sigil. He doesn’t use the Abyss crater as it has a low chance of instantly killing enemies with investing so much points in upgrading it. If it doesn’t kill, the damage it gives is really low. On top of that any enemies instantly killed do not give you any essence which you need in this game to build other traps. He doesn’t use spring trap as there are other traps that do better damage and at times the trap (depending on the location of the enemy) launches enemies forward a bit. It should only be used on narrow paths for a chance of knocking them off the edge. It’s not worth it. He doesn’t use Tick mine Dispenser as it has a really low chance of attaching a bomb to an enemy and that bomb is only useful if the enemy with the bomb is killed near others and the damage is not all that impressive when an upgraded Spear trap deals more damage and even poisons them. He doesn’t use the ‘Voltaron coil’ because it is either outclassed in damage or usefulness. It’s best against groups of enemies but the ‘blast furnace’ works better. Even with upgrades it seems like a waste of essence. The winter queen sigil trap is the worst thing ever. It does so little damage and takes too long to attack. Why is this even one of the last traps to unlock like it’s something special. Maybe he is using it wrong, we don’t know. Literally anything is better than this. Any summoning trap will do. Now ‘suicide swarm nest’ and ‘portal glyph’ aren’t bad, it’s that their use is so rare and limited that he hardly uses them. Mostly to show off or rarely, they are actually needed.

In this game you are truly dependent on your traps and so you must know them very well. Check out each trap and try out each trap. Who knows, you may find a trap that X35 Earthwalker never uses to be one of the best in the game. 25 is a lot to work with and we haven’t even mentioned the ones that are specially placed on certain maps. Maybe next time. Now you can see whay some are truly traps of death. Have fun and off course… do not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Gears of war Multiplayer Mechanics

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

Gears of war 3 is still to this day one of our favourite games to play. Gears of war 3 is the game that all the other gears of war games need to learn from when it comes to multiplayer mechanics and gameplay. The games were all very good and we love them, it’s just that they either lack or missing some great things that gears of war 3 has. 

For example gears of war ultimate edition has the same feel and movements like gears of war 1 but refined. The movements are still and we feel that wall bouncing is much harder to perform unless you have your sensitivity set to maximum, which isn’t something everyone can handle. We never liked it at all. Since it was based on the first game there is only the ‘Curb stomp’ execution which will always be awesome by the way.

Gears of war judgement is one of my favourites. This game was hated by many fans but it’s because of their mentality. Gears of war judgement was the best at balancing the weapons for multiplayer. Short range weapons rule short range battles. Mid range weapons like rifles actually rule mid range battles. Gears of war 3’s gnasher shotgun was the most over powered. The damage was really high, combine that with the range and you have a weapon that everyone uses. That shotgun could beat rifles at mid range literally. It’s that powerful. Don’t get us started on how much worse the weapon is with a perfect active reload as it increases the range and damage of the weapon. In gears of war 3, the shotgun literally is the best weapon to have and use. When in doubt, equip your shotgun. We hated the shotgun always. In gears of war judgement you could actually defend yourself against shotgun users.

Gears of war 4 was the closest thing to the mechanics of gears 3. The gameplay is faster than 3 but feels a little more like ‘Ultimate edition’. The game, because of the faster gameplay, has less executions and less rivalry. The best thing about gears of war 4 is that everything feels closest to perfect, except for the fact that their is no real defense against the shotgun now. The ‘Retro lancer’ and ‘Sawed off’ are gone now. The replacement that any player can equip is the ‘Enforcer’ smg. This gun has really high rate of fire but has a small clip with low damage. This means that unless you catch someone out of cover, you aren’t really going to kill them. Gnasher users can easily pop shot them making the Enforcer useless. The hammerburst has been nerfed so much that there really is no reason to use it as the lancer has better damage and a bigger clip. X35 Earthwalker just uses it for fun but says you need the active reload as that makes it fire twice as fast meaning you can down any opponent really fast. In gears of war.

Gears of war 3 was the closest to being perfect for many reasons. The gameplay was at a great speed. If you stayed still for too long, be sure that someone will come up behind you with the shotgun and kill you. The pace was also not to fast to the point where you don’t have time for executions and targeting certain players. The weapons felt like they do the right amount of damage. You can easily tell the pros and cons of the 3 rifles and when they should be used. Off course the gnasher shotgun was still too powerful and the main issue of gears of war 3. If you can’t use it, then you are screwed. Simple as that. 

To compare Gears of war 3 had the best balance out of all of them. Gears of war judgement not having four weapons as usual changed how some players could play due to the lack of options. The fact that you could throw a grenade without changing weapons because of one button made combat in most cases faster than normal but more grenade happy than they were in gears of war 3. The frag grenade having the ability to stick to enemies just made it clear that the best frag in the game was the frag; however the different options did make matches interesting and only the best will use the other grenades. Judgement also had the ability for us to drop of ledges to areas below and climb over edges too. This forced players to be more aware as attacks could easily come from above, like someone dropping in with a ‘Scorcher’ flamethrower while in 3 you just had to look ahead and behind. Judgement had the best weapon balancing of them all meaning that everyone couldn’t just rush with shotguns all the time unlike 3 where everyone lives of that gun. Gears of war 4 made wall bouncing easier and feels easier to use the shotgun making it more beginner friendly. This means that everyone stands more of a chance in matches than with gears of war 3. The gameplay in 4 is faster than 3 which does lead to less rivalry and targeted playing while in gears of war 3 you are always looking for that one player. Ultimate edition just feels to stiff and the shotgun was hard to understand in terms of what it can do.

Overall all Ultimate edition was the worse for us as it still has the mechanics and gameplay of gears of war 1. Ultimate edition also had the most weirdest damage for weapons making them unreliable. Judgement has the best weapon damage balancing but was overall just too different from what we are use to; however it is our second favourite multiplayer of all the gears of war because all the weapons are actually useful and the gnasher wasn’t the only thing to use. Gears of war 4 did an excellent job at balancing all aspects but in order to please majority of the gears fans, they made the gnasher the best weapon in the game again and left no counters to the weapons meaning you must learn the ways of the gnasher or be gnashed (whatever that means). Gears of war 3 has the right pace and the best tension in matches which makes all the difference. The rifles are still effective, also there are counters to the gnasher shotgun so if you can’t wall bounce and kill then you can rely on other weapons to stand up to them. Gears of war 3 is our favourite and we believe has the best multiplayer mechanics. Time to do executions and the boom shot is nice and explosive. We believe Judgement did the best for what it is but it was most enjoyable with gears of war 3. This is just our opinion after all but whether opinion or not… you must never forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Aaero. Coming to us with music soon.

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

 

‘Aaero’ is a new musical rail-shooter game developed by ‘Mad Fellows’ coming out in February 2017 for Xbox one, PC (steam) and PS4. From what I can see of this game, it’s clear that this game places heavy emphasis on music. We mean music is like the whole point of the game. It’s all about the in game tracks and the songs but still a shooter which would remind you, in a way, of ‘Star fox’ with the flying and the shooting.

You control a small drone like ship and the main aim is to stay on some light trails, which we think are called ribbons. As you stay on the trail the music plays and the closer you are to it the better your score. It increases and becomes score multipliers. This is very clever as almost everyone loves music and many love games so why not combine them in a fun way but more attention on the music. We can imagine X35 Earthwalker bopping his head to the tunes while blasting enemies away. You can even destroy enemies in tune with the music, so you will have to become one with the beat but you don’t have to. The ship we control seems to attack mainly by a lock on system and then firing. The enemies seem to all be other small flying drones and ships but they have different designs to them, which is nice.

Music is even the key to defeating the bosses we have heard. It’s like the tunes will let you know when is the perfect time to attack, again you don’t have to do it that way but it’s a big clue and help. The bosses are large creatures that should do a good job at the getting the gamers excited and their attention, like a large sand worm like thing that borrows in and out of the ground, a giant squid like creature that can be seen trying to pull a space ship below water (why do they always do that?) and off course a giant spider which looks the meanest of the bunch we have seen so far. It chases you. We are guessing that they have certain weaknesses and once found, should be exploited to the beat.

The graphics looks lovely in this game. It’s just so nice to look at. It’s colourful and bright at times. The particles and lights all work very well and just add to the game. You can tell that a lot of time went into this game just from looking at the attention to detail. The environments are very nice to look at. The graphic style looks like that special kind of material that people can sculpt structures and images out off. You can see where areas were smoothed and which areas remained rough. The style works. The music, well what can we say. If the rest of the tunes are fun and entertaining like some of the ones we have heard already then it will be great indeed. Just wonder what other music and tunes they have in this game.

From what we know, the game is single player but since there is a whole scoring system, we can imagine people getting really competitive and trying to hit that high score. This game does seem like it’s more of a casual relaxing game than a difficult and challenging one. We hope there will be a challenge mode or something like that were there are many enemies which you must fight while still staying on the light trail to rack up the points. Forcing us to rely on our reflexes. That would be awesome. The level designs look very nice and it’s like it takes you for a ride through the place. Some levels look like a city, some are like tunnels or mines while some just look futuristic.

This game is interesting and taking a new turn with the whole musical approach. X35 Earthwalker himself says that he wants to see what becomes of this game. The developers ‘Mad Fellows’ did a great job with this game. We can see that they worked hard. Keep it up and look forward to what you plan to do next. This game is worth checking out and most important of all… Do not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

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