All Range Mode!

This steam summer sale was good fun you can see the expanded story of my sale in my Hotline Miami review. But I digress one of the gems to make it into my library was the jaunty survival game Don’t Starve. Seeing the oh so familiar elements of one of my favorite genres I pounced into action, my credit card drawn, I…! Bought the game and watched it download slowly in amongst all the other games I had purchased already. And now I have played it a bit and will talk about it at you!

So you know this is blind, purely my observations about the game and how it fits in to this world of ours. More digression!

Don’t starve is a survival game so I was deeply deeply in love without much of a fight and the Tim Burton-esc art style game is just perfect for what the developer is trying to create. So I was dropped into my don’t starve world and first thing was obviously to chase birds around this lead me to a monster tree that killed me pretty much instantly. So with a new sense of fear and wonder I set out again into this dark and luscious world. I shouldn’t have to tell you that when a tree stands up and kills you, it could hurt your trust of well anything. Scurrying around grabbing any amount of supplies I could before night I started to fall into the world of the game. This was a combination of the chilling mood of the music, the clean disturbing yet cute visuals and the amazing reward system of new craftables lighting up when you reach the required materials. This reward system is one of my favorites of the survival genre where as something like Minecraft requires you to know recipes Don’t Starve asks you to gather anything and everything. Once you have all the everything you can make all the things from traps to tools to walls to hats. Once you have found some rarer items you can start making special work stations to develop new items and gear. The true wonder of this game is that you are defined by what you have and how you decide to survive you can set up farms at your homestead or make up a backpack and just explore for a while. It is just a living breathing world that you have been dropped in and have to adapt to. But adapting can take it’s toll in Don’t Starve you have a depleting sanity meter and this is an island that won’t go easy on the ol’ brain. Dig up a grave; go a bit crazy, stay out in the dark; lose some marbles, eat the wrong thing; prepare to see the devil. This could be an annoying trait in a survival game just another bar to micromanage when you want to be gathering and securing your home, but the mechanic suits the narrative so it doesn’t feel out of place or like a hassle to deal with. Useless mechanics for the sake having them shows up a lot these days but when it suits the feeling and can aid the atmosphere of the world so perfectly like the sanity meter does it is hard to dislike.

All in all Don’t Starve is fun and refreshing with lots of reply value because well when you die you have to restart. Which can suck but it is a cool way to keep you discovering new things and ways to play. Personally I always love a good hardcore mode but if you don’t like starting from scratch over and over you might hate Don’t Starve a lot… But this game is beautiful in design and presentation and can be a great way to burn some time up screaming at pig men in forests.Don’t Starve gets 3.5 starving scientists out of 5.

World War Z was once an acclaimed novel by Max Brooks depicting the zombie apocalypse through interviews… World War Z is now a film with Brad Pitt depicting the zombie apocalypse as experienced by one better then perfect character created to keep a visual connection through the story. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing to me WWZ can be broken into two audiences those that read the book and those that have not. If you have read the book and couldn’t stand to see it changed then it might be worth a miss for everyone else let’s review!

Pros:-

Now I love zombies and I have for over half my life so when a big budget blockbuster like this rolled around I was naturally excited. Zombie movies with budgets and scale of this size don’t really roll around this often so just to see crowd scenes comparable to the armies in lord of the rings hot damn will there be scenes for you! It can start to feel weird as you get closer to the action after these massive crowd shots but that really helps the film along. In a lot of zombie movies the first attack or reveal will be very close up to provide the best jump scare. WWZ flips that and uses the distance as its illusion that you know what the undead look like and what they are then out of nowhere you get that first real jump scare, which works because of what they haven’t been showing us. That is what this film does quite well, it uses its locations really well and does something a lot of horror forgets. It sets up your spatial awareness, this is something often neglected by horror directors but it is so important. If you have seen the original Halloween film, there is an emphasis on violating your spatial awareness by placing the killer in shadows and places you wouldn’t expect. How WWZ uses it isn’t that traditional, they give you more awareness then who is on screen which can be nerve racking. Just as an example from the trailer you see scenes of zombies piling up against a giant wall just climbing each other to reach the top and make the best zombie sex pile ever. Now in this scene in the film the people behind the wall don’t realise the zombie sex party is coming up the wall which makes it all the worse as the viewer who just has to sit there and watch. Lastly before I get negative the locations and atmospheres of each area through the movie keep it moving at a good pace and did something neat for a zombie lover like me. They made me nostalgic I’m not sure how intentional this was but at the movie made me think of all the zombie classics I love to death. The opening scenes and city setting where reminiscent of 28 Days Later, the claustrophobic lab scenes throwing me back to the first time I saw Resident Evil one as a young man. All in all it felt nostalgic through the locations and the presentation and if felt fresh through the portrayal of the undead, that being said there are negatives and here they come.

Cons:-

Brad Pitt’s character feels like he was invented to be in film which I’m pretty sure he was. Pitt plays this family man ex UN super detective that can really handle anything like when he is constantly forced to be the only hope for the planet nothing ever really stops him. I know he is the lead but he was not relatable as he remained flawless the entire time they could have given him PTSD from his UN work or something, anything to make him more relatable. While each location is rich and has its own distinct atmosphere and attitude this can feel overwhelming after a while. When you go to the movies these days you might end up being there for at least two and a half hours WWZ runs for an hour and fifty six minutes so when you spend almost two hours hopping from country to country it can begin to feel ridiculous. Maybe this was intentional and the feeling of a wild goose chase that just wouldn’t end was supposed to bring me into the same headspace as Pitt’s character constantly searching for something that may not exist. But it is just kinda boring after a while and all the acting and dialogue seems to only serve the purpose of exposition. None of the characters really get to develop or grow Brad Pitt is still who he was at the start of the movie now he is just more perfect after saving the world. Although each section of the film is interesting in it’s own right for whatever reason when it all goes together it doesn’t feel that clever.

Mehs:-

-There was a little blood and no gore in this film really which was interesting as a choice for a zombie movie it seems like they wanted to ensure a younger audience could see it?

-The movie is not like the book in any way besides name really but is still fun so if you have some time and no better zombie movie it might be worth it!

World War Z gets 3/5 not shown on screen zombie heads!

Welcome to Comic Friday were we will be talking things in comic books. Today I bring you my top 5 things to love about Deadpool.

5:- Healing factor! Deadpool having a augmented healing factor is both epic and hilarious. There is a scene in Wolverine VS Hulk in which Deadpool has his arm cut off and the dialog as he tries to reattach it is just priceless.

4:- Weapons and crazy ass balls combat! Deadpool can use any weapon he has his signature swords and giant lasers but still remains a master of combat. Deadpool is one of the only people to be impossible to mimic by muscle mimics like Taskmaster due to his erratic thought processes. He has used breakdancing to dodge lasers and made the hulk bleed Deadpool is a fighter to be feared!

3:- Other characters! Everyone that has to deal with Deadpool and his madness in the very serious marvel universe is so endearing. My favorite of these is usually Deadpool and Spiderman something about two of the mouthiest heroes duke it out just makes you smile.

2:- Inner monologue

Deadpool comes with multiple inner voices because he is amazing some of the exchanges with his inner voices are just amazing! Deadpool also has been known to narrate his own adventures giving his location up to the enemy talking about how he will kill them all in a movie voice over style.

1:- His adventures are amazing.

So I have been a bit addicted to Wayward as of late for a few reasons. I have always loved rouge likes something about perma death that just makes me swoon. So when I stumbled across Wayward I fell in love at first play. In Wayward you wake up on the shore of a dessert island and have to survive and this can be difficult at first. To start you will need tools which need sticks, string and rocks so to get these you just have to walk into trees and rocks. As you collect resources you will discover new recipes for items so you will wanna try and collect as much as possible! As well as the crafting you have to manage your health, hunger and stamina, hunger is the main problem of these three but a nice trick is that food won’t rot in storage chests. This game has an awesome retro style to it and just looks and sounds so nostalgic. If you wanna play some fun retro castaway style survival Wayward will waste so many of your hours. Wayward is on steam greenlight so you can support it for a PC release but you can play the beta in your browser right now at the link down below. Thanks so much for joining me, until next time all range it up!

So you finished Hotline Miami huh? (Well the story at least the bonus level will come after I finish typing this… Like right after o.O) Now that the story is over you will begin to experience PHMD (Post Hotline Miami Disorder). The main symptom of PHMD being the uncontrollable lust to murder hundreds of bald buys in white suits and blue shirts. This review will hopefully help you to come to peace with your new condition. (kinda but not really)

When this years steam summer sale rolled around I sat and pondered my life before restricting myself to two cheap titles. The idea was to buy Don’t Starve and CS:GO spend a little money and be done, (if you have participated in the sale before you know how bad this plan was) bright eyed and bushy tailed I bought those games only to see that Hotline Miami and Bastion were cheap as chips as well. Next thing I know I have all four downloading tearing my precious gigabytes to shreds! If this game wasn’t on special and if I hadn’t seen it when I was buying other things I might never have grabbed it in the first place. The idea that one of the best games I have ever played in my life could have slipped through my fingers just because of these things that have nothing to do with the actually game experience is really worrisome. So after playing this perfect storm of difficulty, gameplay and atmosphere I understand why the fans of this beast are so die hard. Enough with the intro lets just dig in!

Aesthetics

This is a wonderful example of what can be done with the retro style. The game looks like the old GTA games on PS1 and sounds like an 80’s action classic that has just been forced through a VHS player on cocaine. AND YES, this is a good thing! When I bought it, I won’t lie I was worried about these aspects but at no point while playing it did the graphical style bother me and the sound track is so bad ass you will probably find a way to buy it cause, well, I know I did. Each song from the game is memorable for it’s place and how it is used. The best example of this I could find happened towards the end of the first story, I hope that makes sense. Up until this point of the game I had used the end of level tune to unwind and stroll back to my car over the mountains of corpses I had left throughout the various places I had brought the apocalypse down upon. Then at the end of this certain level on the way out BAM, unavoidable death, I jumped out of my chair with shock and never left a level the same way again. The fact that this song could put me into such a safe place and then break that feeling so suddenly with such a “simple" graphical style was amazingly fresh and just proved how clever the game was. Now as for the graphics I say “simple" due to the retro pixel style it uses, however at no point was the art truly simple. Each level, character, and prop looks fantastic and vibrant in such a chaotic game it is nice to never feel like you are lost in it. The classic yet jaunty 80’s soundtrack matched with these graphics perfectly thanks to the atmospheric elements and distortion used. Now if you haven’t played Hotline Miami let me try and explain what it might be like best I can. Find a building with mirrors all over the roofs, take a heavy drug of your choice and stare directly up then attempt to guide your way through the premises and kill everyone you can… Obviously don’t do that tho. The fact that it is distorted and the level can rotate as you move around makes this game so much more then just a top down killing machine sim. It adds a sense of realism and natural movement to the game, also pumping the difficulty to the exact right place. It is truly an amazing achievement that this game looks and sounds the way it does. It proves that you don’t need roided out AAA graphics or sound to make something that is visually outstanding and has one of the most memorable soundtracks I have heard in years.

Gameplay

This had to be my main concern entering this game, because most of the good things I had heard before buying it was that the soundtrack was amazing. So looking at it with that mind set that the soundtrack was the main draw it was easy to feel concerned about gameplay, but the key was in the graphics! The style suits the gameplay almost perfectly even in large chaotic fights you might be screaming and confused but you never feel lost. That being said this game is not easy you will die a lot but the quick respawns with just the tap of a button really makes up for this. Constant death can be annoying but only if it is a chore to die, Hotline Miami makes death a learning tool the only way to plan your full approach is to have played the scenario before and it feels fantastic. But why do we die so much? Well it is due to the game treating you like an adult, in a landscape of regenerating health and bulletproof heroes Hotline Miami puts you on the same level as the other basic enemies, one hit and your dead. In some cases enemies would only die from certain weapons or you might only have a baseball bat to fight three gunmen so you are constantly changing your strategy to adapt to the situation. For the last part of the game they throw some curveballs your way like a stealth level with no weapons and then being limited to only a knife and three throwing knives per level. These changes come at a point in the game where you need a boost to keep playing and they totally work. Without the juxtaposition of the extreme chaos and choices to the limitation of some levels really is what makes every aspect of the gameplay shine. This game does a great job of making you feel like an unstoppable, out of control killing machine. Then at the perfect time they force you to become more strategic and calculated to proceed these levels test everything you have learnt up until this point and take away all of your bonuses you have been using and abusing. If you are prone to rage quitting this game could push you over the edge a couple of times but if you love a challenge or even just retro gaming difficulties this might be up your ally.

Immersion

Overall this was one of the most immersive experiences I ever had in gaming, every death I didn’t see coming made me jump, yelp slightly and then laugh uncontrollably. The graphics and soundtrack take you into this amazing world and the gameplay seals the coffin that you and Hotline Miami will be buried in together. Now it is worth mentioning the story, due to spoilers I don’t wanna go into it to much. Basically at the start of the level you will wake up in your apartment answer the phone, get an address and walk to your car, then you visit a bar or a video store, before we are off to the killing. It is in these places you have brief dialogues coming from the employees and phone messages that you can really reflect on the clues you are getting about the world around you. It is a complicated story tho so be prepared for a couple of play throughs to really feel like you have a grasp on it, that is if you can ever feel confident in your conclusions. Whatever your drive is to play games (as long as you don’t mind a few restarts) Hotline Miami will probably be able to scratch that itch. It has some of the most amazing graphics and sound design I have ever seen, the gameplay is difficult but rewarding and addictive, finally the story is confusing and delightfully fun to move through. Hotline Miami is an amazing super death simulator with a gooey detective vibe in the centre and backed by a great soundtrack it is really hard to find problems with this game.