One Sentence Reviews

Super Monkey Ball 2 [Android, iOS] This game is surprisingly good despite the fact that it uses tilt controls, if you've never played the series before and like tilt gameplay, this is for you 7/10.

The Dictator [iOS] Shameless propaganda that actually makes you NOT want to see the film 2/10.

Buccaneer Blitz [iOS] There is just no skill to these build up your armies attack the next sector games no matter how many bells and whistles you add 5/10.

Diablo III Beta Impression

The Diablo III open beta has just finished but what was it like to play?

At first I wished that skills were a little less optimised in the game but having found the elective mode option in the gameplay settings, I don't mind too much. Ticking this option allows you greater freedom in the way you mix and match your skills, allowing you to tailor the character to your playing style. It seems odd to even have this option as I can't imagine playing without it but maybe someone people will like the lack of freedom.

I do however wish that items were more streamlined. You receive so many junk items on your travels and you also receive a lot of items that for example do less damage then your current weapon, yet have some other bonus such as extra experience points. I would like to have seen items streamlined so that you receive less junk. The items already appear to be streamlined in some ways such as you don't receive a helmet till you have levelled up a few times. I know that Diablo games are supposed to be about random loot but I think it doesn't need to be so tedious. It was also disappointing that most of the class unique gear I found was terrible, meaning that my characters ended up looking pretty stupid holding equipment they wouldn't normally take. I am hoping that the reason for this is that Blizzard are wanting to keep somethings secret for now and there will be a greater set of unique items when the game is fully released.

Graphically the game features the standard chunky character models that you have come to expect from Blizzard. These aren't that impressive but the way the game handles lighting, spell effects and other little touches is great. I loved watching the Wizard's Orb spell, the way it moved across the screen sending enemies flying into the air as it exploded upon them is enchanting. Even the health and skill/mana bars look great.

Graphically the game has nice touches but it's audio is it's best feature. The music sets the perfect atmosphere, it's dark, foreboding and sometimes even leaves you in silence to hear the scraping and moaning of the undead. The crush of the Barbarian's blows lets you feel each hit, you can hear the ice snap as you freeze your enemies with the wizard, of course you need these reinvigorating sounds else you might succumb to the horrors that live in Diablo's audio. I highly recommend getting a nice set of headphones for the experience, or if you plan to play with a friend or sibling, you may have to buy them this so they can listen in clarity whilst communicating with you.

The release of the beta has done what Blizzard had hoped it would do, at least in my case and I will have to head out and grab a copy. I am pretty excited that there will be plenty of changes and of course a lot more to do in the full release but if I had to give it a score I would tentatively say an 8.5/10 would suffice.

One Sentence Reviews

Tree World [iOS] There is very little to do but somehow growing your tree and filling it with absurd pets is kind of fun 6/10.

8 Bit Ninja [Android, iOS] Fruit and ninjas apparently go together and even though it's complete madness, it works 7/10.

Soundrop [iOS] It seems like a great idea an easily accessible way to create music but so does teaching your cat how to play piano 2/10.

Beastmen WIP Part 1

I am going to have a go at an army log here, in the hope that it inspires me to get more work done on my minis. I am a huge fan of seeing average people build and paint minis as it inspires me to get work done, whereas seeing really good people do it just makes me want to hide in a hole and cry. So to begin with here is a shot of what I'm working with.

Beer included for scale purposes and not a part of the army.

My army consists of:

3 Minotaurs (I have already finished painting these)

10 Ungors (mostly finished)

10 Bestigors

20 Gors

A shaman

A Khorne Lord or Hero I am using as the general for now

and I have 3 Tzeentch Flamers floating around for some reason.

Minotaurs are already finished... Maybe I need 6 more?

I am a huge fan of the old Chaos armies and after having read Tamurkhan I am pretty keen on making a chaos united army at some point but for now the Beastmen come first. I don't plan to play in any tournaments so using units as "counts as" holds no problem for me. I just aim to have fun and beat my friends every game I play!

I went experimental with the Ungors and had good and bad results.

I have a few little touch ups to do on my Ungors and then they are finished. I am really happy with the yellow sort of colour I settled on but I made a few mistakes in experimenting with colours for them. The Gors are where I will be working next, with 20 of them I certainly have my work cut out with me. I think I will be going with a brown for their flesh as I like them to look more beast than man and I will probably spray paint the next lot black as the wash technique I was going to try on them did not work on the Ungor. With so many models to paint I think they will mostly be pretty basically painted with a Devlan Mud Wash (my favourite and may or may not be called Agrax Earthshade) to cover the whole model.

Lots of work to be done here.

I haven't even begun on my Bestigors yet and as you may be able to tell from this photo they aren't all in one piece. My housemates have a cat that loves to sit on/in boxes and it always ends up destroying my models. I am contemplating getting a case for them and I may do a review of it when i finally get one.

Bestigors and some Flamers of Tzeentch hiding in the background, pact with the devil (I mean Daemons) anyone?

Here are my hero characters, obviously the Shaman is canon but I am using a Khorne Hero/Lord to be my general. It is a great model and I've worked so hard on it to get the red to black fade which you cant see here. He may have to be replaced with an Avatars of War model but we'll see.

Shaman and I think I will use the Khorne Lord as my General for now as it's such a cool model.

The Settlers Online [Browser]

If you are a fan of the Settlers series it is hard not to be drawn to this game. The Settlers games are known for having a heavy economic focus for an RTS and they have a slower pace than many other games. This online version however is beyond slow and can only be recommended as a distraction from work or other tasks. The only way to speed up the game is to pay and the prices aren't cheap. I can't understand how we can have top quality games being sold for a dollar and then these freemium games that cost as much as a premium title to have any fast fun in. The game has already launched an in-store pack that comes with in game items and currency as well as a preloader for windows yet it still has a lot of incomplete content. There is no PvP currently, the easter pack will not launch until a week after easter and the game could use a lot of minor fixes here and there.

If follows your basic settlers gameplay, get your economy running, tweak it, build up an army, tweak your economy some more and send out your general to fight. There is nothing particularly unique about this version. If you are a fan of the series and want something to on a slow day at work or whilst your code compiles then you may want to check out this game, otherwise it is best avoided 5/10.

Health and Fitness

Like many of you I had a new years resolution to get fit so I've decided to show you some of the apps I have been using to track and facilitate my progress.

First up is 8700, this app was created by the NSW government and derives it's name from the approximate number of kilojoules an adult should consume daily. It has a chart to work out how many kJs you would need to eat to stay at your weight, to gain weight or, to lose weight but it's most useful feature is that it tells you how many kJs are in certain items of food. Unfortunately it only includes foods from places that are required by NSW law to disclose their kilojoule ratings so many basic things such as fruit and vegetables are missed out. However it forms a good basis point to let you know what you should avoid and how much you can eat in total.

Next is Ab Workout, this is part of a series of workout apps and they can be bought all together as one pack. I find the ab routine absolutely killer even the five minute one. If you did this everyday you would definitely have great abs. These apps are a good idea for the keen exerciser who will probably want to buy the whole pack. Personally I think the pack should have been a little more discounted as it isn't much cheaper than buying them separately. The free versions are more than enough for the average person anyway.

Finally there is Target Weight. This is my favourite out of all the apps mentioned here. Again there is a free and a paid version. The free version is just for tracking your weight whereas the paid version will track your exercise, syncs with some medical equipment and other things for the health obsessed. The free version is really all most people will need as it gives you a clear goal, advice on what speed to approach your weight loss at and charts it all out clearly.

Breaking News

Diablo IV has been announced and will be out next year. New features including clicking based gameplay, the ability to play as a demon and the option to disable clicking based gameplay. Four classes have already been announced including the Poetry Slam Master, the Horny Drunkard and the Fat Cretin Who Writes a Videogame Based Blog.

In other news the next SimCity will be a much more hands on game and in order to generate new sims you will have to force them to breed. In order to do this you will need to build things such as the candle store, record shop and provide sufficient paracetamol to avoid any headaches, some sims will require ibuprofen as a substitute.

Finally EA have announced that they will never release DLC for any of their upcoming releases, there will not be any special editions nor will they include any DRM for any of their future games. The announcement caused a huge surge in their share price and various hacking outfits announced that they will never hack another EA title should these policies stand.