Lunix I

Smash Hit is a 2014 first person video game developed by Swedish indie studio Mediocre ABSmash Hit involves a steadily-moving view through a decorative, colorful passageway. As is typical with these types of often-called "mindless" games, the music changes along with the level, as the pace is fixed and the player doesn't slow down due to anything except "losing" the game. The player has an inventory of metal balls of which the player begins with 25 that they can tap the screen to aim and shoot. The player must be careful not to run out of these balls, for if they do, the game is over and they must either 1 start again from the beginning free version or 2 start at the beginning of the checkpoint (premium version). Obstacles, many of which may be in motion, may get in the way, and if an obstacle is hit, the player loses 10 balls. Many of these obstacles are made of glass and can be smashed hence the name Smash Hit, but some are not and require the hitting of buttons to be moved out of the way. There are power-ups, such as giving the player an infinite supply of balls for a short time, turning all their balls explosive for a short time, or slowing time down for a short time. A game designed for users to creatively destroy their surroundings. There are also small, blue polyhedra scattered throughout the map. By hitting a square pyramid with a ball, the player receives 3 balls (net gain +2) by hitting an octahedron, 5 balls and by hitting a 3D star, 10 balls net gain +9. If the player hits 10 of these polyhedra in a row without missing any, they upgrade their multi-ball status. The player must hit 40 in a row to get to the maximum multi-ball from the single-ball default. The maximum number of balls the player can shoot with a single tap is 5. If the player hits an obstacle or misses any of the ball-gaining targets, they lose all their multi-ball status and must regain it. I’m not the biggest gamer in the world, but every once in a while I get curious and I pick up a new game. Today’s game happened to be Smash Hit from Mediocre AB. I chose it because, well, it was the App Store Game of the Day. The funny thing is that I don’t typically make a daily trip to the App Store, but for some reason, I felt called to do it today. When I saw the image on the home page of the App Store (with the spirals being broken) and the title with the description of “Smash through obstacles,” I thought it was worth a closer look. As it turns out, Smash Hit was first released in 2014 for iOS. The premise of the game is that the player moves straight through a passageway and is charged with breaking crystals and other glass object and barriers along the way. You are given a finite amount of metal balls that you fire at the objects in your path. You can collect more balls if you break the square pyramid crystals that appear throughout the game. Smash Hit falls into the category of games that are labeled ‘mindless’, but I think it’s a really great way to build your hand-eye coordination because the game constantly evolves as you move through it. In fact, according to the Wikipedia article on Smash Hit, average players will only score 4,000 – 8,000 points which means they only make it through 4-8 checkpoints. There are over 30 checkpoints in the game and very few people have made it that hi. My personal best is 3,269 and that was tough. The first thing I found was that the app was free with in-app purchases (my kind of app). So, I tapped on ‘Get’ and authorized the download with my thumbprint. To my surprise, I found that the game was played in horizontal mode rather than vertical. I love that the game works off of the physics of a metal ball smashing through different planes of glass and other breakable materials. The soundtrack consists of sound effects and music. The music track is rather ethereal in nature and very soothing. The sound effects are punchy and fit well with the game. At one point, I realized that music from Pandora was still streaming through my headphones while I was playing the game. So, I turned the music off and played the game while listening to Eminem. That made the game that much more enjoyable. You would be surprised at how relaxed you can get while listening to your favorite music and breaking things. Smash Hit is one of the more enjoyable games I’ve downloaded in a LONG time. It has a unique premise and the design of the game is awesome. It has some stunning graphics and the gameplay is just outstanding. I found out after starting to play the game and writing this review that Mediocre has actually released a version of the game for Samsung Gear VR. While I’m an iOS user, I could imagine that a VR version of this game would be even cooler than the original. The only downside to this game is that you have to pay for the pro version in order to unlock the ability to continue from checkpoints. This was a mild annoyance to me, but in the end, it just meant I got better at the earlier points in the game while I played to beat my best score. Last week made for a pretty solid line-up of new mobile games, and among the pack was Smash Hit by Mediocre Games. This is actually a re-make of an older game, which may be a contributor to it’s immediate success on the market, but that’s probably due to the fact it’s a really great free game. There is however, the option to go premium for $1.99, but the only difference with that is being able to start from any of the checkpoints in the game — free players always start at the beginning. I have quite a bit to say about this game, so let’s get started. I found that my main reason for wanting to play through more of the game, was simply to see what kind of design the next area was going to have. All of that coupled with the fast-paced, reflex intensive game-play, makes for a fantastic mobile game. One other highlight of this game’s visuals, is the brilliant camera angle rotation throughout the game, which is not only a really cool visual effect — but also makes a huge impact on the difficulty of certain areas. Although I’ve never played the original Smash Hit, I found the game-play of the mobile version to be really refreshing. The game feels a lot like an endless runner, but without the constant feeling that you’re this close away from dying. In Smash Hit, you have an ever-changing number of “balls” that represent your hit-points, as well as your ammunition. You can gain more balls by smashing crystal with your already existing balls, these crystals give upwards of 3 balls per crystal, depending on where you’re at in the game. Unless you’re starting from a checkpoint, it’s really important you try to stock up on balls early on, because they become harder to obtain the further you progress. In addition to breaking crystals, your also going to be breaking objects quite frequently, these will be in you way and will cause damage to you if you run into them.

You'd have to be living under a rock to have not seen any advertisements for Lineage 2: Revolution. It received a huge advertising push when it was launched late last year, including a series of ads featuring late night funny man Conan O'Brien that delivered some good laughs, but offered scant details about the game itself. I've previously written about the troubling state of advertising in mobile games and it's fair to say that big-budget ads like this should be a red flag for any critical gamer: So what is the deal with Lineage 2: Revolution? If you were as wary as I was of the manufactured hype surrounding this game, I'm happy to report that your instincts are on point. Lineage 2: Revolution is a mobile spin-off of Lineage 2, an MMORPG for Windows. Revolution markets itself as a mobile version of Lineage 2, with a sprawling campaign with a massive world to explore, epic dungeons to battle through with friends, and a PvP arena to show off your skills — an intriguing concept to be sure. You'd be a sucker to actually control your character through the majority of Lineage 2: Revolution because the game will auto-play itself excellently. But before you can get to any of that fun stuff, you must endure the worst grinding that I have ever experienced. Period. The first chapter of the game takes place on "East Talking Island" and takes several hours to complete. The first chapter essentially acts as a tutorial, teaching you how to navigate the various menus, how to level up your character and upgrade your equipment, and it drags on for what feels like an eternity. Every ad mentions how "groundbreaking" and "epic" this game is, with a massive world for you to explore — and that would be great if the core gameplay wasn't so unbelievably boring. MMORPG quests are notoriously repetitive and boring, but my God does Lineage 2: Revolution ever push things to new levels of monotony. I don't mean that in a snarky way — Lineage 2: Revolution literally lets you automate questing, which is the core mechanic in the game and essentially the only thing you'll actually do in the first 5 hours you play the game as you level up your character. "Auto-questing" is one of the very first features introduced in the game and makes you realize: + This game is a brutal, never-ending grind. + You need to continually level up your character to unlock more interesting modes like PvP battles and Dungeon raids. + The game will essentially play itself with features that include "Auto-Questing" and "Auto-Equiping". Essentially, you'd be a sucker to actually control your character, because the game auto-plays itself excellently, automatically using all of your character's skills and potions as needed to keep your warrior in the fight. Of course, you have the option to take over controls whenever you please, but why would you? The only way you'd lose playing Lineage 2: Revolution is due to human error, so it's much more efficient to let the game auto-quest while you fix yourself a sandwich, do those chores around the house you've been putting off, or file your taxes. Part of the fun here is supposed to be teaming up with friends in a party or clan and questing together — but that doesn't negate the fact that the game is still 100% about grinding by completing repetitive quests and slowly upgrading your character. They call it an MMORPG, but it feels more like a clicker game where you occasionally tap the screen to make things happen and then wait for the loot to roll in. And yet again, the advertising hype would have you believe that this is the most exciting game you'll ever play! Just check out these glowing sentence fragment reviews in this ad featuring streamers at TwitchCon 2017: I'd like to think that the quote from the woman who says "I really could see people playing this for a long time" was actually just part of a longer statement. Something like: "Given the protracted tutorial and limitless grinding that this game starts out with, I really could see people playing this for a long time before they get to anything that would be considered 'redeeming gameplay'." But of course, that's just my opinion of this game, and to be fair there is a ton of content included in Lineage 2: Revolution. The world does appear to be quite massive, the graphics are really impressive for mobile, and I'm sure there might be a ton of cool stuff to enjoy as you progress through the game and max out your character's level — all without spending money on the available in-app purchases — but to what end? Maybe I'm just cynical towards the MMORPG genre in general because a lot of what's included here with Lineage 2: Revolution will be familiar to fans of other po[CENSORED]r titles in the genre. And there's a story being told here about good vs. evil and with a great variety of cool-looking monsters to kill. But even the boss battles in the single-player campaign can be auto-battled, and all the shitty sides of online gaming are represented here, including a useless chat box that gets filled with garbage from immature trolls. Listen, if you're addicted to games that force you to constantly grind towards a never-ending journey to upgrade your character and gear then Lineage 2: Revolution might be well worth wasting your time with. But I would feel like a real jerk recommending any of my friends come join me in playing this game. How would that conversation even go? "Hey, so you should definitely play this game Lineage 2: Revolution. It only takes about 6 hours to get through the tutorial stuff, but don't worry — the game will play itself. Then, once you reach a high enough level we can join a party together and auto-grind through this game together!"

Variety is the spice of life In my time spent sampling the many, many freemium flavors on the App Store I feel like I’ve gotten familiar with just about everything that’s out there. And yet here I find myself somewhat smitten with Evolution: Battle for Utopia – a game that doesn’t so much reinvent the wheel as it tries to be a whole bunch of different wheels all at once. The weird thing is it actually kind of works. While on a mission to colonize the planet Utopia, the Commander and his crew are shot down while landing and their escape pods scatter them across the land. A land filled with all sorts of very large and aggressive animals, nomadic scavengers, and plenty of other nasty hazards. The Commander will have to fight his way through hordes of enemies in order to reunite his crew, begin terraforming the planet, and start restoring order. And that’s all within the first thirty minutes or so. Once this fairly robust tutorial is complete, you’ll be able to strike out on your own – completing missions as they become available, fending off swarms of indigenous life forms, exploring new territories, and combating other players. However, Evolution isn’t simply one thing or the other. You’ll be constructing and maintaining a base of operations while slowly unveiling new territories to conquer and seeing lots of action as you battle anything that looks at you funny. It’s a pretty diverse set of gameplay mechanics – base building, map exploration, arcade-style combat, etc – that go a long way towards diversifying your own experience with it. This diversity is one of Evolution‘s biggest strengths. Well, that and the fact that it’s pretty nice to look at. Okay, it’s really nice to look at. But honestly, what’s kept my interest has been the sheer amount of different things to do. Sure it’s all stuff I’ve done before in some form or another, but never in this sort of a combination. Normally I just load up something else while I wait for a building to finish upgrading or for research to be completed, but here I can take my robot dog (everybody gets a robot dog!) out and start killing giant spiders or hunting armor-plated snake/millipede things. And there’s no energy timer to get in the way! Various building and research-related actions still take time, of course, but the only thing holding you back from continually battling enemies is how good you are at avoiding damage. And even then, the Commander’s health recharges fairly rapidly. There are also quite a few mini-games to mess around with. Hacking involves either remembering a numerical sequence and typing it out on a randomized keypad or trying to connect colored nodes on a grid without crossing any lines. The latter example is actually my least favorite, as I’ve had issues on several occasions with a finger accidentally slipping just outside of the grid’s tap-detection range, forcing me to go back and try again while (hopefully) not also accidentally breaking a line somewhere along the way or running out of time. I’ve lost a few Data Disks because of the control/time limit combo, and I have to say it’s not particularly fun. Story puzzles, on the other hand, are more like playing Tangrams with pictures. They’re also quite a bit more relaxing as there’s no time limit to complete them, unlike the hacking games. It’s not all about shooting mutant space spiders or putting together very angular puzzles, though. While it can be downright liberating to not have to sit and wait for hours before I can do anything in Evolution, I do still have to wait for some actions. Oddly though, my having to wait has less to do with how long a task takes to complete and more with how long it takes to earn the resources I need. At first they all just keep rolling right on in, sure, but once the honeymoon tutorial period is over, you’ll be scraping every nook and cranny for some extra Iron, Fuel, or whatever else you might need. Most of these resources can be collected from refineries of various types, but they take a while to fill up and have a somewhat disappointing cap on what they can hold. So saving up that way can take a really, really long time. Completing special missions as they become available (and they do refresh fairly often) helps quite a bit, but the rewards still feel paltry compared to what’s needed. Then there are the random attacks on your base. Every so often (actually it feels more like all the time) a large number of the local fauna will swarm your base. Automated sentry guns do a decent job of fending them off, but it’s not all that difficult for one or two of the little nasties to slip through your defenses. And once they do they’ll most likely incapacitate a building or two, which you’ll then have to spend time and resources to fix if you intend to keep using it. It comes back to variety, and I’m glad Evolution has so much of it, but having to rush back to base so often gets real irritating real fast. I can’t help but find the game’s diversity to be endearing, but it’s also something of a weakness. Not all of these actions are up to snuff, and unfortunately the ones that are the weakest (namely hacking and base defense) are also the one’s you can’t really avoid. Even so, there’s quite a lot on offer here and most of it is pretty entertaining.

is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Electronic Arts, released on March 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. The game is centered upon two mercenaries fighting through war, political turmoil, and a conspiracy from 1993 to 2009. Focusing on cooperative strategies, Army of Two's main feature is the necessity to use coordinated teamwork to accomplish the game's goals. While the game is meant to be played with another human as a partner, a "Partner Artificial Intelligence" (PAI) is also included and programmed to follow the player's strategies. Dependence on a partner (whether human or PAI) is so pronounced that most objectives are impossible to complete without it. Army of Two is one of the first games released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles that feature region-locked online play. EA claims that the region-locking is to prevent network lag caused by players from multiple regions, and to prevent the Asian region console owners from playing the U.S. and European version of the game, as the Asian version has been censored to meet certain requirements (notably, the shooting of already dead bodies in the game). On August 11, 2011, Electronic Arts shut down the online multiplayer servers for the game. A sequel titled Army of Two: The 40th Day, was released on January 12, 2010. The player can upgrade their armor to make it better and stronger but these cannot be purchased and are unlocked as the player progresses through campaign mode. The players start with Basic body armor, upgrade to Medium after completing the Afghanistan mission, and are granted Heavy body armor after the Aircraft Carrier mission. Players can also unlock and purchase new face masks that the main characters wear. The game allows weapon customization, bought with money earned as the game progresses. Such elements as new barrels, stocks, forend-mounted vertical grips, and extra-large magazines and ammo drums that can be swapped out to give the weapon a unique look and superior statistics. Other modifications include suppressors, a gun-shield, an underslung grenade launcher, or an underslung 12-gauge shotgun. A firing range feature was proposed that would allow the player to test out their newly customized weapon, however it was removed as it did not meet the developers' standards. The original game boasted three different drivable vehicles: a jeep, a main battle tank, and a hovercraft. Gameplay was designed so that one player would drive and the other would fire a secondary weapon like a ring-mounted XM312 heavy machine gun (jeep and hovercraft) or a 120 mm cannon (the tank). The jeep and tank were removed from the final product due to "pacing issues" and the hovercraft was used only in the China and Miami levels. The original game boasted three different drivable vehicles: a jeep, a main battle tank, and a hovercraft. Gameplay was designed so that one player would drive and the other would fire a secondary weapon like a ring-mounted XM312 heavy machine gun (jeep and hovercraft) or a 120 mm cannon (the tank). The jeep and tank were remMultiplayer (or "Versus" mode) allows up to four players, with two on each team (similar to the co-op structure of the main campaign). Both teams will compete over objectives on the map such as assassinating a VIP or destroying an objective in order to earn the most money for their side. At the same time, they will also be forced to deal with the opposing team in order to secure their objectives. On August 11, 2011, the Army of Two online servers were shut down by EA due to lack of players.ved from the final product due to "pacing issues" and the hovercraft was used only in the China and Miami levels. In Warzone, the primary and secondary objectives are randomly generated and they may vary greatly. One team might need to get to a certain place and defend it, while the other team tries to destroy it, shoot down the chopper, blow up a jeep with its gunner, transport wounded soldiers to the extraction point, assassinate V.I.P's, etc. Also, every map contains cases of intelligence documents that the player can seek out for extra cash. Character customization is not possible in the multiplayer portion of the game but the player can buy preset sets of weapons, upgrade the characters body armor and the amount of ammo he can carry. Players need to be careful while shopping though since the team with the most cash in the end wins. In 1993 Somalia Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios are in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. They are tasked to work with Phillip Clyde, a private military contractor with the Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC), tasked with carrying out the assassination of powerful local warlord Abdullahi Mo'Alim. During the aftermath of the mission, Philip Clyde invites Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dalton (CO for Salem and Rios's Ranger squad) to join the company for a desk job. He agrees, asking to bring Salem and Rios with him as contractors, and in the following year, the three enter the private sector.[7] Salem and Rios begin work as Private Contractors. By 2003, Salem and Rios are sent to Iraq. Their objective here is to rescue former squad mate Lt. Col Eisenhower, whose U.S. Army base was under siege by the terrorist leader Ali Youssef. They secure Eisenhower, but before the chopper arrives, they are ambushed. Eisenhower bids them farewell before the chopper takes off, but it suddenly explodes in mid-air. Ali Youssef makes a radio transmission claiming responsibility for blowing up the chopper. Rios suspects a conspiracy behind Eisenhower's death, thinking he was singled out – Salem dismisses this, saying he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just before entering Ali Youssef's oil facility, Rios asks Section 8 to investigate the ambushes and try to find their source. Salem and Rios eventually reach Ali Youssef and kill him at his helipad. A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has been seized by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization. Returning from an unspecified mission after Iraq, Salem and Rios are redirected by SSC and tasked with liberating the aircraft carrier from terrorist control. They parachute onto the deck and meet up with Clyde. They clear the deck of hostiles and disable the remaining jets to prevent escape. Salem notes that the crew left behind one lifeboat, which could be useful. Salem and Rios soon stumble upon Clyde and a terrorist collaborating by a computer. Clyde flees, but Rios retrieves his USB flash drive. He sends the information on the drive to hacker Section 8 for analysis and refuses to tell colleague Alice Murray what's happening until he hears back from him. Section 8 tells Rios that Clyde was responsible for leaking U.S. Troop positions to the terrorists. Salem and Rios then stumble upon the Captain, learning that the nuclear bomb-laden ship is on a collision course for the city of Manila on the Philippine island of Luzon. The captain detonates the explosives, sacrificing himself to make sure that the ship sinks before colliding with the city. Salem and Rios escape using the lifeboat they had discovered earlier.

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Rejected... maybe next time

Earlier this week, I posted some pretty exhaustive first impressions of Iron Marines ($4.99), and consider this review a continuation of that article. In it, I cover most of the basics of the game and how various mechanics work. To avoid endlessly repeating myself a bunch, I’d recommend going back and reading that as this review will mostly confirm suspicions that I had and answer questions about the game’s monetization methods which have been fairly controversial in our community. Real quick, the basic gist of the game is that Iron Marines is the closest thing that I know of to a mobile version of StarCraft that you can play on your iPhone or iPad. Take a universe that leans heavily on inspiration from StarCraft, add in a great touch interface and simplified base building that feels a bit more like a tower defense game, and you’ve got Iron Marines. Mission types are straight out of what you’d see playing a single player RTS game and have you doing things like conquering different parts of a map, defending objectives, rescuing other units, and many other things. It’s sort of wild just how much variety the different levels have. The first hour of gameplay, which is where my first impressions stopped, left me with a few big questions. See, much like Ironhide’s other titles, Iron Marines is a premium game which as of this writing is selling for five bucks. Inside the game, however, there are quite a few IAP options. The App Store has more or less programmed my brain to assume there’s going to be some kind of pinch point in any game that gives you the ability to buy multiple currencies where you’re either going to need to pay up, or else. After playing a ton more Iron Marines, I can say that point never came. It seems like Iron Marines doles out a constant supply of credits, and while you certainly won’t have enough to spam the consumable weapons every time you come across an enemy, you get enough credits that you shouldn’t really feel shy about firing off some special bombs if you’re really in a bind. Similarly, the way the techpoints end up panning out for filling in your tech tree, unless you really just want to boost your progress there’s no reason I can come up with to buy additional points- Particularly considering unlocking the game’s tech tree of persistent upgrades feels like one of the major overall progression paths in the game, so you’re effectively paying to skip playing, which seems odd. There’s a whole host of unlockable hero characters, ranging from (again, as of this writing) $2.99 to $6.99. It’d be easy to assume that the more expensive hero characters would be way more powerful- Game breakingly powerful even. For the sake of science, I forked out the $6.99 hero, Mark X, and then replayed some of the levels I found to be pretty challenging. They were still really tricky, and it certainly wasn’t like suddenly I was steamrolling the game. Certain hero characters might have abilities that situationally can be better, but it doesn’t seem like a $6.99 character is distinctly better, or more powerful, than the freebies. The problem comes in with the feeling that if you’re ever losing it’s because you’re not spending money, which is somewhat inescapable in a game which is both very challenging and offers you the ability to buy your way out of problems. I wouldn’t consider myself that great at RTS games, but the normal difficulty is challenging enough to be fun for me. At times it’s surprising just how much micromanagement of your units is required to clear normal difficulty maps even, but once I got a good handle of the game and its mechanics I can confidently say that any time I was failing missions was because of a strategic error I was making and not because I hadn’t spent. If you’re having trouble with normal, just kick it down to easy. There’s no shame in that. Really the only thing I can come up with to complain about the game is that I really wish this game had some kind of checkpoint system in maps. I tend to take things very slow and methodically in RTS games, and many maps have multiple phases you need to get through. Any failure, at any point, sends you right back to the beginning. I usually mitigate this when I play PC RTS games by saving often, and if things start to go pear shaped I can just go back a bit and rethink things. In Iron Marines, it’s all or nothing. If you fail at the very last segment of a map after playing potentially for quite a while, you start back from the beginning. It feels unnecessary, particularly in a game that seems to punish micromanagement errors so severely. Other than that, Iron Marines is a very, very good game. It seems like some sort of checkpoint or save system that makes failure feel a little less brutal would be a simple modification, but even without it, the game just forces you to be careful with your decisions. I really doubt StarCraft, in any form, will ever come to the App Store, so provided you can put up with the slightly cartoony art style of Iron Marines, this is definitely the next best thing.

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Mass Effect is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Microsoft Game Studios and Electronic Arts. Originally released for the Xbox 360 video game console in 2007, it is the first game of the Mass Effect series. The game takes place within the Milky Way galaxy in the year 2183, where civilization is threatened by a highly advanced machine race known as the Reapers. The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who must stop a rogue agent from carrying out the Reapers' galactic invasion. The gameplay requires the player to complete multiple quests that generally involve space exploration, squad and vehicular combat, and interaction with non-player characters. Since the release of Mass Effect™: Andromeda, we’ve worked hard to address feedback from our community. From improving animations to expanding customization options, we looked to respond to your concerns, and build on what you loved. Mass Effect: Andromeda has undergone a number of patches and updates to the singleplayer and multiplayer portions of the game. The game is no longer being officially patched, so any items that are broken as of Update 1.10 will stay broken. The following information was sourced directly from Bioware and EA websites. Grammar, punctuation, naming, etc are all exactly as they are found [sic]. Mass Effect has an optional subplot where the player can develop a romantic relationship with a non-player character. If the relationship becomes more intimate, a cutscene containing partial nudity and sexual activity is shown. The scene first came under scrutiny in an article by neoconservative blogger Kevin McCullough, who employed statements such as "Mass Effect can be customized to sodomise whatever, whomever, however, the game player wishes", and "with its over the net capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away." Multiplayer Only Updates BioWare officially ended patching and new content for single player Mass Effect: Andromeda with Update 1.10 but continued to update the multiplayer side of the game. Listed below are the updates by date (from the Bioware website). Early in development, we decided to focus Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story on the Pathfinder, the exploration of the Andromeda galaxy, and the conflict with the Archon. The game was designed to further expand on the Pathfinder’s journey through this new galaxy with story-based APEX multiplayer missions and we will continue to tell stories in the Andromeda Galaxy through our upcoming comics and novels, including the fate of the quarian ark. Our last update, 1.10, was the final update for Mass Effect: Andromeda. There are no planned future patches for single-player or in-game story content. In the coming weeks, our multiplayer team will provide details of their ongoing support and upcoming content, including new multiplayer missions, character kits, and what’s in store for N7 Day. We appreciate all the millions of people who came with us to the Andromeda galaxy. We hope to see you again in the Mass Effect universe. Pre-Release Patches Improvements to Strike Teams UI screens Additional multiplayer tutorials implemented Balance: guns, loot drops, reward packs, objectives scoring Improved appearance of character portraits Adds new artwork for MP characters, armor, challenges in menu and codex entries Improvements to many cinematics, conversations, and other character interactions Improvements to quest tracking and waypoints Improved quest rewards Fixes various collision issues and a few rare audio issues Performance improvement

Fortnite Fortnite is a battle royale game which sees you thrown onto an island with no weapons or armor and it's up to you to scavenge for supplies and fight for your life to be the last man or squad standing at the end of the game – with the added pressure of a shrinking map that closes in as the match progresses, forcing players into tighter skirmishes. In such a short space of time, Fortnite Battle Royale has become certified gaming phenomenon. Pitting 100 players against each other on a single map, it melds fun, cartoonish gameplay with a fierce competitive streak, and has attracted millions of players across the globe across all ages and demographics. Season 9 is now officially live, and we've got details of all the changes and updates to mark the transition from Season 8. We knew from the teaser tweet that we had a futuristic theme to look forward to, and so it's proved. To help you keep on top of what's new and what's coming up in Fortnite, we've put together this handy page which will be updated with all the latest announcements. So to get you ready for blast off, here's everything you need to know about Fortnite. Fortnite Update patch notes Epic Games has pushed out the Season 9 update and you can read all the details on what's new here. We've got two new locations to talk about for a start: Neo Tilted has replaced the recently destroyed Tilted Towers, and Mega Mall is here as an upgrade to Retail Row. Also new are Slipstreams, blasts of air that help you get across the map quickly and also open up some interesting new options for battle. We've also got Fortbytes, a hidden item challenge that involves 100 different computer chips concealed in different places all across the map (find them and you can earn various rewards). Three new limited time games are included as well.$ There's a new gun, the combat shotgun, while we say goodbye to a lot of other weapons, including the pump shotgun, scoped revolver, and balloons. Grenades have made a return too. It is the full Fortnite game. There are some small differences: it’s not quite as visually impressive as it is on more powerful devices, the controls are touchscreen, and a lot of audio cues have been made visual so you can play comfortably in public without the need for headphones. But you won’t be missing out on any key features. A sweet deal is what it is. While previously Xbox One and PS4 owners couldn't play the game together, Sony's U-turn on the matter means that now everyone across Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android can all take part in the crossfire. Those who use Twitch Prime and play Fortnite will be glad to know that they have access to free loot right now. Those with a Prime account can claim the Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack and the Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack 2 which include a host of cosmetic items and are available across all platforms. The first pack includes two exclusive gliders and outfits: the Havoc Outfit and Back Bling, plus the Sub Commander Outfit and Slipstream Glider. The second pack contains three exclusive items for Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode including the camouflage-heavy Trailblazer Outfit, the True North Back Bling, and the Tenderizer Pickaxe. There’s also a brand new dance emote for those that like the dance floor as much as the battleground. The packs can only be claimed on a single platform, but they can be shared across PC/console and mobile as long as you use the same Epic account across these platforms. You can’t however, share your loot across PS4 and Xbox One even if you are using the same Epic account.

At first, Swag and Sorcery seems like a streamlined version of your average city builder, but it quickly proves you wrong. At its core, Swag and Sorcery is a more robust idle RPG experience than it lets on. Its story is nothing to write home about, though, and it knows it. Problems are arising in a faraway kingdom, and the king refuses to take his advisor’s advice. The king seems to think that his great-grandfather’s “magical costume,” which was stolen years ago, will solve all the kingdom’s problems. His advisor, not very pleased with how his king is treating him, decides that he would be a better ruler for the kingdom. The majority of the narrative involves the advisor devising plans to sabotage the kingdom so that he can be king,It’s like a colourful, tongue-in-cheek Game of Thrones. Honestly, you don’t have to pay attention to the story if you don’t want to. It won’t take away from your experience. However, there are some charming bits and pieces here. The banter between the castle’s black cat and the narrator of the story, who often breaks the fourth wall, offers a couple of good laughs. For some reason, only a few characters have voiced lines of dialogue and others only have text boxes, which can be a little jarring. But the voiced lines that are here are pretty great. Most of the gameplay revolves around purchasing new characters and sending them out into the world in search of quest items and loot. As you level up your characters, they’ll be able to take on tougher enemies. And tougher enemies mean better loot. The mechanic of sending your soldiers out is entirely idle. All you have to do it make sure they’re happy (by sending them to your village’s spa) and make sure they’re healthy (by sending them to your village’s church) beforehand. Lazy Bear Games and Uroboros Games absolutely nail the idle aspect of this game. The quest bits don’t take too long, so you won’t find yourself waiting around for your soldiers to come back once you’ve sent them out. As you progress through the story, the game opens up more characters and up to three quest lanes, meaning you can send multiple soldiers out on quests at once or stagger your questing so someone is always out collecting loot while you craft the materials you need back at the village. Crafting is also well-executed, but there are a couple of issues with it later on. Specifically, the tedium of gathering the items you need to take on the almost overwhelming number of options you have. A lot of the game’s beauty is rooted in how every item has a use. It never adds something to your inventory that you don’t need. It’s simple—ores and wood are at the core of everything you craft. But that’s where it starts to become overwhelming. It never feels like you have enough items to complete the tasks available to you, and the process of prioritizing isn’t very fun. It’s nice to consistently have something to work toward, but that initial decision-making seems unnecessary. If there were just two or three few options at any given time, it would be a little easier to get past those bits and into the fun part of the game faster. However, these issues are easy to get past once you get a handle on them. As you progress, you’ll start to understand what your own priorities are, and these decisions become easier. So far, it seems like a lot of sorcery, but where does the swag come in? Well, right off the bat, you can tell the people of this kingdom are a little too concerned with how they look. Appearances are everything, hence why the king thinks a costume can help solve all of his kingdom’s problems. Early on, one of your tasks is to build a fashion house. This allows you to compete in costume competitions where you can earn cash—used to upgrade your characters and purchase new ones—and fancy new loot. Your success in these competitions is dictated by your character’s clothing. There’s trouble in the kingdom (as always), though the king doesn’t want to dispatch a horde of troops or develop grand strategies. Instead, he believes a magical suit can save the day. The only problem is, it has been stolen. And so your adventure begins. Tasked with locating the magical suit, you’re going to need to develop your town, recruit a load of soldiers, and explore every nook and cranny of the surrounding lands. Only you won’t actually do any adventuring at all. Different competitions have a different set of judges and each set has different preferences. Sometimes they prefer green clothing, others like a more casual look overall. The clothing items you have equipped to your characters have different appearance attributes, so your best bet is to align those to whatever the judges prefer. This part of the Swag and Sorcery is just plain fun. It’s a little stupid and out of left field, but it’s really enjoyable and adds another layer of differentiation onto the entire package. It can take a while to craft the clothing you need to succeed in some of these competitions, but the rewards are worth it. Overall, Swag and Sorcery is a great game. There are a few kinks along the way, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously and offers some truly fun gameplay. It’s definitely worth your time and money. In Swag and Sorcery, you play more of a managerial role. A string of introductory quests get you up to speed with activities such as crafting, training your men and sending them off to battle, and then ease off to give you some breathing room. Though completing quests as they appear is still a good idea, as the rewards are rather invaluable. While you’ll start out with just one soldier to look after, eventually you’ll be able send out multiple parties of three. Adventuring for you is a laid back affair. Your soldiers will simply move from left to right of their own accord, only stopping to gather resources or fight enemies. And you don’t need to issue them any commands. The only time you need to step in is if you think they’re in mortal danger, in which case forcing them to retreat is the best option. You don’t want to loose your loot, after all. Back in your town, your soldiers heal automatically, but you can speed up the process by visiting the church and spending some coin. It’s always wise to give them a rest at the spa, too, raising their mood so they perform more efficiently. And of course, all those resources you gather while out adventuring can be put to better use by turning them into equipment. The loop of adventuring for loot and then improving your soldiers back in town is an addictive one, but it’s one of the more unusual features of Swag and Sorcery that proves to be the most interesting: fashion shows. Every once in while you’re able to dress up a few of your soldiers in their best threads with the hopes of winning over a panel of judges. Succeed and you’ll earn respect. Lose, and you’ll just have to accept that you don’t have style. Either way, it’s an amusing way to spend a few minutes. Of course, Swag and Sorcery has a story running through it as well, and like the rest of the game it’s mildly humorous. It all adds up to a rather easygoing affair that you can play at your own pace; a game that you can dip in and out of for just five minutes at a time and still feel like you’ve accomplished something. So basically, if you’ve been craving a streamlined RPG that doesn’t demand you to crawl through dungeons for hours on end, you should definitely give it a go.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a Western-themed first-person shooter video game, the fourth in the Call of Juarez series. Announced at PAX 2012, it was released on May 22, 2013, via PlayStation Network, Steam and Xbox Live Arcade. Unlike its predecessor Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger returns to the traditional Old West setting and features three unique game modes (story, arcade and duel) while the setting is the life story of a bounty hunter named Silas Greaves. On March 30, 2018; the game, along with The Cartel; was briefly removed from Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network citing a publishing dispute with Ubisoft. The game returned to those storefronts in April 2018 with Techland as the sole publisher. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a linear first-person shooter game. Like the previous Call of Juarez games, the game consists of completing objectives to progress through the game. Staple gameplay elements of the series such as bullet-time and gunslinger duels make a return. A novel element is the occasional ability to dodge bullets via a quick time event. The player can earn experience points and level up their skills, specializing in either dual pistols, shotguns, or rifles. The game allows the player to carry their accumulated skills over to replays, so they can eventually fully master all categories. Scattered throughout the game are collectible secret items called "Nuggets of Truth", which recount the historical truths behind Silas' tales. The story levels take place in the imagination of one of the bar patrons as Silas Greaves, an unreliable narrator, relates his travels. As his audience challenges the lies and inconsistencies in his tales, Silas revises his story, which results in abrupt changes to game environment (such as the sudden appearance and disappearance of an Apache army). Aside from the Story mode, there is an Arcade mode wherein the player can fight off waves of enemies and a Duel mode where they can have a series of classic gun-slinger showdowns. In 1910, a legendary old bounty hunter named Silas Greaves enters a saloon in Abilene, Kansas and regales the patrons with tales of his adventures in exchange for free drinks. The patrons, Steve, Jack, and a teenager named Dwight, awe-struck at first, grow increasingly incredulous and irritated the more they listen to his ludicrous stories, in which he takes credit for the killings of numerous legendary outlaws including Butch Cassidy and Newman Haynes Clanton. At the end, just as the patrons are about to become fully enraged by Silas' over the top accounts of his travels, he reveals that Ben, the bartender, is in fact Roscoe "Bob" Bryant, one of the three bandits that murdered Silas' brothers and set him on the path of a bounty hunter. The player is then given a choice whether to challenge Bob to a duel, thus fulfilling Silas' vendetta at long last, or letting him go, in which case Silas finally lets go of the hate and anger that has been driving him for years. The ending reveals that Dwight is indeed Dwight Eisenhower on his way to West Point. If the player chooses the "redemption" option and forgives Bob for his actions, Silas reveals he had been deliberately exaggerating his tales to confirm his suspicions, with details Ben would know only if he were Roscoe. Silas then asks Dwight what he plans to do with his life, and upon hearing that he's becoming a soldier, Silas says: "Well, you do it right then, son. Don't tear down the world out of anger and spite like I did. You build it up. You do something decent with your life. You hear me?" to which Dwight says, "Sir, yes sir" and sets out to become the 34th President of the United States, and if the player chooses the "revenge" option, Silas duels with Bob, with Silas emerging as the victor. Everyone present at the bar becomes cautious to Silas, with Dwight being highly disturbed. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 78.18% and 79/100, the Xbox 360 version 76.87% and 76/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 71.69% and 75/100. Colin Moriarty from IGN gave the game 7.5/10, praising the excellent storytelling twist, fast-paced and arcade-style gunplay, and voice acting, while criticizing the long load time and occasional crash. Mark Watson from GameSpot awarded the game an 8/10. He also praised the satisfying and accurate shooting mechanics and the well-designed levels, while criticizing the predictable ending of the story and shallow boss battles. Jim Sterling from Destructoid was surprised by how polished the game is, stating that the game has many fewer bugs and glitches than other games by Techland like Dead Island and Call of Juarez: The Cartel, and considered the game as the best entry in the series. He awarded the game an 8.5/10. Lorenzo Veloriafrom from GamesRadar give the game a 3.5/5 as he thought that the game succeeded in creating a score-based shooter with an interesting, constantly morphing environment and charming narration, but fail to design charming and exciting boss battles. Edge gave the game a 7/10, and praised the leveling system, abilities and weapons featured in the game, as well as the highly replayable levels. They also described the game as a terrific genre piece. The game puts you into the boots of two distinct characters. Billy Candle is a half-white, half-Mexican drifter of sorts who had been on the hunt for the legendary Lost Gold of Juarez, a treasure trove of gold buried somewhere within the titular town. Unable to find it, Billy decides to come home to the town of Hope to visit his mother and stepfather--only to find them murdered upon his arrival. The other character is Reverend Ray, Billy's step-uncle and the town preacher. Ray's a reformed gunslinger now dedicated to spreading the Lord's word, but when he hears of the ruckus going on at his brother's farm and arrives to see a panicked Billy running away from the bloody corpses of his brother and sister-in-law, Ray vows vengeance, and begins tracking his step-nephew until he can satisfy it. The dynamic of having two playable characters would be more interesting if there weren't such a distinct separation of quality between them. The more entertaining of the two, both in story and gameplay, is easily Ray. Voiced by an actor who seems to be equally channeling Sam Elliott and the creepy priest from Poltergeist II, Ray's sequences are filled with enough amazing, self-righteous bible quoting immediately followed by heavy amounts of murdering that you almost wish they'd gotten Samuel L. Jackson for this role. Heck, Ray's even got what we'll affectionately refer to as a "bible button." One of the weapons he can hold is a bible, and if you press the fire button while he's holding it, he'll start reading random passages to any nearby enemies, who will then stop for a second to listen, at which point you can shoot them in their stupid faces. That's either genius or awful--or possibly both.

Nick : Lunix I Name of server : Classic - EMMA Picture Of Score:

Conan Exiles is a survival video game developed and published by Funcom for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game is set in the world of Conan the Barbarian, with the custom playable character being rescued by Conan, beginning their journey. Early access versions of the game were released in 2017, with the official release date for all platforms being on May 8, 2018. The most basic premise of Conan Exiles is survival in the fictional prehistoric Hyborian Age. Player characters begin convicted of various crimes, sentenced to death, and are crucified under the scorching desert sun. The player is rescued by Conan, however, and as an exile must now navigate a harsh desert landscape, appropriately titled The Exiled Lands. Though large, this was initially the only biome available for exploration. A later update added a biome called The Frozen North, which added new elements to build, new armors and a whole new land to explore. It also added Star metal which is used to build strong armor, and better tools and weapons. An additional biome, The Highlands, was added in 2017. A high-level Volcano area followed in Q2 2018 in the northern-most region of the game map. This newest addition also added Obsidian, used to create powerful tools and weapons rivaling their Star Metal counterparts. According to Funcom community manager, Jens Erik, the finished game is around 53 km2. Conan Exiles features a fair number of customization options such as gender, voice, and several physical attribute sliders for both head and body. Many races may be chosen from including, Cimmerian, Stygian, Hyborian, Nordheimer, and more. More controversially, sliders for both breast size and size of a male character's penile area are also available, the latter being removed and censored in North America by the ESRB. Further into the beta test phase, muscular definition was also added. Religion plays an important role in Conan Exiles. Players may initially swear allegiance to one of six pantheon gods, Set, Yog, Mitra, Ymir, Derketo, or Crom. All of the religions can later be learned from NPCs in-game, with the exception of Crom, as choosing this is the equivalent of choosing none at all, and is not represented by any in-game benefit. An additional deity, Jhebbal Sag, may be acquired only by speaking with an NPC and completing a certain dungeon. The player may then use any combination of their benefits at any given time, which mainly consists of special crafting recipes. Upon gathering enough offerings specific to each deity, their avatar may also be summoned by the player as a pinnacle form of offense, most commonly against other player bases. Utilizing natural resources, the player must manage hunger and thirst gauges in addition to warding off hostile enemies, including other players if participating on a PvP server. NPC enemies include savannah and delta fauna such as crocodiles, hyenas, rhinoceroses, and more. Fictional creatures such as dragons, dinosaur-like "shalebacks," and various undead also po[CENSORED]te The Exiled Lands. A number of aggressive human NPCs exist in small encampments, villages, and the rare city. These human NPCs may be captured using Conan Exiles's thrall system. Depending on their profession and rank, captured thralls can provide a number of benefits to the player including faster crafting speeds, reduced material costs, exclusive crafting recipes, and melee or ranged defense. As of a 2018 update, pets were added to the game, allowing animals to be captured in the wild in the form of baby animals or eggs, and raised as travel companions or player home defense. A mount system was planned for the game, but was not included in the game's release due to console performance limitations. As of April 2019, the mount system has yet to be implemented. Experience points are earned through successful combat, gathering, and crafting, as well as small amounts simply with the passing of time. Though lacking a formal class system, each level-up allows a degree of customization through the selection of attribute points and crafting recipes. The history of the Exiled Lands is revealed to the player by Warmaker Klael, one of the Giantkings, the ancient rulers of the Exiled Lands. Klael reveals that the humans once came to the giantkings as refugees, and the giantkings offered the humans the frozen wastelands of the North to settle. The humans built a city among the trees and practiced weird sciences and worshiped demon gods. There was peace and trade for a thousand years between the humans and giantkings. However due to human greed, war eventually broke out. When the war began, the giantkings created the bracelet, adorned by all players to bend the will of the human prisoners of war, allow them to understand the language of giantkings, and to prevent the humans from escaping. They came to rely on human prisoners to fight and labor for the giantkings. The warmaker is now unsure of the bracelets new purpose. Near the end of the war, humans revealed a new weapon, forged of science, smashing through troops and encasing the survivors in stone. In desperation, the giantkings created the ritual that summoned the Sandstorm, which scorched and destroyed everything in its path. This is why most of the exiled lands are now a desert like waste. Now all the giantkings are dead, except Warmaker Klael. After thousands of years, Conan comes to speak with the Warmaker and goes to search for the Serpent Ring of Set. And in the end that’s a shame, as the world of Conan Exiles is the star of the show thanks to its rich and varied environments that encapsulate the look and feel set in Howard’s stories. Many locations make me want to return time and time again, such as the magnificent looking Frost Giant’s cave in the north or the complex ruins that make up the Unnamed City in the central-west part of the map. I’m specifically keen to explore the volcano again, as it feels like the most interesting area in the Exiled Lands thanks largely to the religious temples and dungeons inside. In fact, the best times I’ve had in Conan Exiles were when I’ve simply been exploring the landscape, diving into the various ruins, caves, and encampments which dot the world. The world is full of small touches, like a petrified pirate ship in the northeast that has a tribe of pirates encamped in its hull, or the broken ruins in the swampland reminding me of Angkor Wat, rooting me more fully in this world. And while the survival aspects, such as keeping yourself fed and staving off thirst, can feel like an annoying grind unto itself, having to prepare for the different climates by factoring in temperature, armor types, and how many waterskins to bring into the desert really adds to that sense of adventure. Thankfully, while crafting itself can feel like a tedious grind, building structures in Conan Exiles is a joy because the level of creative freedom available gives you the chance to build the fortress – or home – of your dreams. Starting from a basic shack and building your encampment into a fortress really gave me a sense of accomplishment, and they make incredibly convenient places to store your crafted items and stations – especially when you log off, since on most servers your body does not leave the world when you do. Keeping your items safe helps lighten the grind a bit, because there is nothing more frustrating than going on an brimstone harvest across the Exiled Lands only to come back and find your camp ransacked because you hadn’t completed construction on your building yet. Depending on the server settings, these structures can be made indestructible or inaccessible (which on our server, they are fully accessible) to other players as well, which is probably a good call if you’re not ultra-hardcore about it. Structures also keep you safe from the various potentially lethal weather storms, such as the vicious sandstorm that rolls through the lands south of the Frozen North. When playing on player-versus-environment servers, these encampments serve mainly as places to hoard your gathered gold, though the periodic Purges by monsters and NPCs dispatched to reclaim the land you occupy are still something to defend against. While I’ve not been online when a Purge has happened, I’ve been keenly aware of its power because I’ve needed to fully rebuild a base after logging back in the next morning. Player-versus-player servers have the added threat of other clans wiping out hours of your work. Some servers have PvP times set to certain windows in the day, so the chances of logging in and seeing your base destroyed are reduced – but even then, the need to defend your base is paramount, especially if another player summons one of the giant religious Avatars to decimate your hard work. Siege engines and cauldrons of boiling oil can be used to ward off players if your crafting skill is high enough, but it doesn’t take much for the dominant clan on a server to overwhelm the little guys if they put their minds to it. To this end, capturing thralls from the various human camps and breaking them on a Wheel of Pain can help defend your settlement while you’re away. Knocking out a thrall and bringing them back successfully though was a mostly buggy experience, though, as more often than not the thrall would fall through the world or fully disappear if I had to change the binding out, resulting in time wasted. This actually happened twice with the same thrall, as I was bringing a Priest of Mitra back from one of the altars in the desert.

The Darkness II plays similarly to its predecessor, but with the introduction of new features such as "quad wielding," a technique which allows Jackie to use both the Darkness' "Creeping Dark" tendrils and firearms simultaneously. The player has access to one Darkling, who is involved in the plot and useful in various situations. The player can use the "Creeping Dark" tendrils to slash or pick up enemies for executions or to simply throw them, or various items within the environment (parking meters, car doors, etc.) and use them as projectile weapons or shields. Each kill, discovered relic, and execution earns the player Essence, which allows players to purchase new abilities from Talent Shrines. Devouring hearts restores Jackie's health and earns Essence. Like in the previous game, Jackie loses his powers in the light, though in this game light also causes Jackie's vision to brightly blur and is coupled with a high-pitched ringing. Vendettas is a separate cooperative campaign that runs parallel to the main campaign and allows up to four players to play together online (though players can play through the campaign by themselves offline as well). The story involves four hitmen working for Jackie as they attempt to stop the Brotherhood from obtaining the Spear of Destiny. Each of these four characters have different Darkness powers (all of them can be obtained by Jackie in the main campaign, although some have been slightly altered or upgraded) and are armed with a unique special weapon. Also included is "Hit List", a feature that allows players to replay missions from the Vendettas campaign individually, or play through missions exclusive to the Hit List mode. Two years after the events of the first game, Jackie Estacado (voiced by Brian Bloom) has become head of the Franchetti family and has learned to suppress the Darkness (voiced by Mike Patton) with the help of a mentally-unstable occultist, Johnny Powell (voiced by David Hoffman). Despite having moved on from his past as a mob enforcer and having established himself as a prominent criminal kingpin, Jackie is still haunted by the memory of his murdered girlfriend, Jenny Romano (voiced by Stephanie Frame), to the extent of seeing lifelike apparitions of her. While relaxing at a restaurant, Jackie and his crew are attacked by a rival gang. Managing to escape from the gunfire, Jackie sees a stranger with a cane who mentions his late father. Grievously wounded and about to be executed, Jackie is forced to let the Darkness out once more. His powers restored and reunited with his Darkling (voiced by Peter Newman) - a goblin-like familiar of the Darkness - Jackie peruses his attackers into the subway. Amidst the violence, Jackie is mesmerized by a vision of Jenny on the tracks, only to be apparently hit by a train. His vision blurs and he wakes up in what appears to be a psychiatric ward occupied by his own crewman, including Johnny Powell, who insists that Jackie finds him. Reawakening back into the living world, Jackie regroups with his men at his penthouse estate to plan a counterattack. One of Jackie's closest associates, Jimmy the Grape (voiced by Frank Ashmore), provides a lead that points to Swifty - a smaller crime boss - as being potentially involved in the attack. Chasing Swifty to a construction site, the rogue boss attacks him with a wrecking ball crane. Finally catching Swifty, he explains that a shady group he met at the Brimstone Club brothel paid him to put the hit on Jackie. Before he can reveal anything else, the Darkness brutally murders him. Before leaving, Jackie collects a cash envelope from his corpse with a seal on it. Returning to his penthouse, Jackie reunites with Johnny, who had left due to the Darkness' influence. Jackie gives him the envelope and orders him to find out who paid Swifty. Vinnie (voiced by Rick Pasqualone) - one of Jackie's men - enlists his contact at Brimstone to help them. Arriving at the club, Jackie meets Vinnie's contact, Venus (voiced by Anastasia Baranova). She explains that the bordello is under a much stricter management - having closed off the top two floors and with one of her coworkers having disappeared up there - and provides him a gun. Making his way through the building, Jackie encounters armed cultists who know how to use light to disable the Darkness' powers. Caught in a blinding ambush, Jackie is knocked out. Waking up, he finds himself crucified, Venus dead, and a device draining his dark power out of him. He's greeted by Victor (voiced by William Salyers), the man from the restaurant, who offers to take the Darkness from him in exchange for the lives of his family. Bitterly refusing, he loses consciousness momentarily to find himself in Hell where the Darkness keeps Jenny's soul. After breaking free, Victor is forced to flee - promising to murder Jackie's Aunt Sarah (voiced by Bridger Fox). As the club burns, the Darkness offers Jenny's soul in exchange for the device, the Siphon. Jackie regroups with Butcher Joyce (voiced by Phil Idrissi) and races home. Johnny explains that Jackie is being pursued by a secret society called the Brotherhood who seek the Darkness' powers for themselves using the Siphon, an object created to contain the Darkness by an entity known as the Angelus, which is the Darkness' female counterpart. After discovering who set up the attack at the restaurant, Johnny then provides a lead to the Brotherhood's location at a nearby brothel. Jackie gains entry through help of a prostitute named Venus and finds that the Brotherhood has been tracking him, his gang, and his family for years. He is then captured by their leader, Victor Valente. Victor orders Jackie crucified, and demands Jackie release the Darkness to him, revealing they have taken over his home. The Darkness reveals that it is holding Jenny's soul hostage in Hell, forcing Jackie into fighting back against the Brotherhood. Jackie escapes and races home, mounting an attack with his men against the Brotherhood. Upon reaching his bedroom, Jackie is shot by Bragg, a man who works for the Brotherhood, who then proceeds to murder Jackie's Aunt Sarah. After getting shot in the head, Jackie then experiences another psychiatric ward hallucination, where Jenny and members of his mob appear as doctors, nurses, and fellow patients, telling him that his mob stories are simply hallucinations inspired by mafia fiction. Jackie wakes back in the library of his home with Johnny explaining that he had been unconscious for four days, and that the Franchetti enforcers drove the Brotherhood off before they could make off with Jackie's body. At Sarah's funeral, the Brotherhood launches another attack against Jackie. In battle with Bragg, he reveals that Victor is operating out of an abandoned theme park. Jackie kills Bragg, and then orders his men to stay low while he travels to the park, where more visions of Jenny appear. He is soon captured by Victor in an iron maiden, and loses consciousness from blood loss. Again, he wakes in the ward, but the janitor - a manifestation of his Darkling - explains that the asylum is a trap for Jackie to keep him alive and away from Jenny. Jackie eventually regains consciousness and finds that Victor has successfully drained the Darkness from him. The Darkling helps Jackie escape and defeat Peevish, another Brotherhood member, and upon killing him Jackie regains a small portion of the Darkness. Jackie proceeds to pursue Victor through the remains of a mansion once owned by Carlo Estacado, Jackie's father. Jackie learns from Victor that Carlo had promised the Darkness to the Brotherhood in an attempt to ensure Jackie didn't have to suffer the same fate as his father. Upon reaching the attic, Jackie defeats Victor and impales himself with the Siphon, regaining the Darkness completely and killing himself in an attempt to rescue Jenny from Hell. Jackie wakes up in the psychiatric ward where the doctors and nurses, concerned for his well being, offer to take him to Jenny. The Darkling appears, however, and sacrifices himself to help Jackie escape. Jackie reaches the roof, and is pursued and confronted by Victor (now a doctor), Jenny, and an orderly who attempt to convince Jackie that his life as a mob boss is a delusion and that the world in the psychiatric ward is real. On the roof of the asylum, Jackie is given a choice: stay with Jenny in the ward or reject the asylum and attempt to reach Hell. If Jackie chooses to stay with Jenny, the two will head back into the asylum and slowly dance to "I Only Have Eyes for You", and the game ends. If Jackie chooses to reject the asylum, he will jump from the roof, briefly seeing Jenny and the others melt away as he escapes, and fall into Hell. The Darkness, in a fit of rage, sends demons to stop Jackie from reaching Jenny. Jackie, however, gains complete control of the Darkness and manages to overcome all obstacles in his way. He releases Jenny from her bindings and the couple embrace. In a post credits scene, Jenny is revealed to have become the new host for the Angelus, who has seen the destruction that Jackie and the Darkness have caused and states that Jackie has become too powerful, and leaves them trapped in Hell, leaving an enraged Jackie screaming as the screen fades out. The Darkness II received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The U.S. edition of Official Xbox Magazine praised the dark story, "excellent" combination of Darkness powers and gunplay, brutal finishing moves, and fun cooperative multiplayer, while criticizing the campaign's relatively short length and problems reviving allies in multiplayer. The UK edition said "It's one of the best shooter-stories we've seen in years - justifying its own ludicrous nature in interesting and unexpected ways. If the ending didn't feel like such a cop-out, The Darkness II could have been on par with BioShock. As it is, the gripping narrative and wonderfully empowering combat mean you'll be talking about it for months after completing it." X360 Magazine listed the game with its predecessor as one of their "Favourite Shooters With More Than Just Guns". GameZone gave the Xbox 360 version 8.5 out of 10 and stated: "Ultimately, The Darkness II will captivate you with the combat, but it'll keep you playing due to the story. Even the multiplayer campaign features lines that you're going to want to hear. Even with a lack of truly memorable enemies, the game doesn't take no for an answer and will demand that you keep playing it." PlayStation Official Magazine – UK said, "no graphic novel has been brought to life in such a deliciously gory manner, with offing goons turned an art form."[35] GameShark praised the heavy focus on storyline and the action packed gameplay. IGN praised the visuals and gameplay, but suggested the game lacks polish and the story, while enjoyable, isn't as strong as the original. GameSpot praised the gameplay, story, skill tree, and sound. The negative aspects of the game, in their view, include the short campaign, predictable enemy A.I, unsatisfactory multiplayer and linear level design. Edge gave the Xbox 360 version a score of seven out of ten and said it was "derivative, gratuitous and needlessly profane, but beneath the gruesome veneer lies a tale of – believe it or not – genuine tenderness." In Japan, where the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were ported for release on February 23, 2012,[citation needed] Famitsu gave both console versions each a score of one nine and three eights for a total of 33 out of 40.

Welcome To Csbd !

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment and released on May 24, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. Described as a "hero shooter", Overwatch assigns players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a roster of 30 characters, known as "heroes", each with a unique style of play whose roles are divided into three general categories that fit their role. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they play the game. The game was initially launched with casual play, with a competitive ranked mode, various 'arcade' game modes, and a player-customizable server browser subsequently included following its release. Additionally, Blizzard has added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to earn cosmetic items. Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the growing po[CENSORED]rity of multiplayer online battle arenas, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time is spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge. Overwatch was unveiled at BlizzCon 2014, and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta prior to release drew in nearly 10 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the narrative and characters. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, diverse appeal of its hero characters, bright cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$1 billion in revenue during the first year of its release, and had more than 40 million players after two years. Overwatch is considered one of the greatest video games of all time, receiving numerous game of the year awards, alongside other accolades. The game has also become recognized as an esport, with Blizzard helping to fund and produce professional leagues, such as the Overwatch League. Overwatch features a number of different game modes, principally designed around squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players select one of over two dozen pre-made hero characters from one of three class types: Damage heroes that deal most of the damage to attack or defend control points, Tank heroes that can absorb a large amount of damage, and Support heroes that provide healing or other buffs for their teammates. Each hero has a unique skill kit, defining their intrinsic attributes like health points and running speed, their primary attacks, several active and passive skills, and an ultimate ability that can only be used after it has been charged through dealing damage. Players can change their hero during the course of a match, as a goal of Overwatch's design was to encourage dynamic team compositions that adapt to the situation. The game's genre has been described by some journalists as a "hero shooter", due to its design around specific heroes and classes. The game features game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and for supporting esports competitions including Blizzard's Overwatch League. These modes generally are centered around sequentially securing control of points on the map, or escorting a payload between points on the map, with one team attacking while the other defends. Other modes set aside for casual matches include solo and team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and unique modes run during various seasonal events. Regardless of winning or losing a match, players gain experience towards a player level, and on gaining a new level, receive loot boxes that contain cosmetic items that they can use to customize the appearance of the hero characters but otherwise does not affect gameplay. Loot boxes can also be purchased through microtransactions. Overwatch is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of what is known as the "Omnic Crisis". Prior to the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were put to use to achieve economic equality, and began to be treated as people in their own right. The Omnic Crisis began when the worldwide automated "omnium" facilities that produced them, started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots, that attacked humankind. The United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force to combat this threat and restore order. Two veteran soldiers were put in charge of Overwatch: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled the robotic uprising and brought a number of talented individuals to the forefront, a rift ended up developing between Reyes and Morrison, and Morrison became the leader of Overwatch while Reyes took charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division. Overwatch maintained peace across the world for several decades in what was called the "Overwatch Generation" as the team gained more members, but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting the UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland, purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity. Overwatch is set six years after the Petras Act; without Overwatch, corporations have started to take over, fighting and terrorism have broken out in parts of the globe, and there are signs of a second Omnic Crisis occurring in Russia. A former member of Overwatch, the intelligent gorilla Winston, decides to begin reforming Overwatch to protect the peace once again despite the Petras Act, with the team members recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight Thus it is also revealed that Reyes and Morrison were not killed in the explosion, that, in fact, was the result of a battle between them: Morrison became a masked vigilante known as "Soldier: 76", who is trying to uncover the reasons why Overwatch was shut down; while Reyes joined the criminal organisation Talon and became "Reaper", a terrorist disguised as Death. Overwatch came about in the aftermath of Blizzard's decision to cancel the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan in 2013, a project that had been in development for about seven years. While most others assigned to the project were transferred to other departments within Blizzard, a small team of about 40 people, led by director Jeff Kaplan, were tasked to come up with a new concept for a game in a few months. After some brainstorming, they came onto the idea of a hero team-based shooter, building upon the success of games like Team Fortress 2 and multiplayer online battle arenas. They started with assets developed for Titan to demonstrate the proof-of-concept, and were greenlit to build out the full game, the first new intellectual property that Blizzard had developed since StarCraft. The intra-company experience of Titan's cancellation served to help drive the narrative and setting. They created an optimistic vision of the near-future, some decades following the Omnic Crisis and the formation and collapse of the peacekeeping Overwatch group. This allowed them to create a diverse cast of characters, include non-human ones, and colorful settings from around the globe. The Overwatch team continues to support the game through free updates, the introduction of new characters, maps, game modes, cosmetic items, seasonal events, and external media to support the game's narrative, as well as continuously tuning how the individual heroes play by monitoring meta-game statistics and user feedback. Overwatch was formally announced at the BlizzCon event on November 7, 2014; the game was playable during the event to all attendees, with fourteen characters available to select from. During this event Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game. A month after the BlizzCon event, in December 2014, Blizzard published character introduction videos to its YouTube channel, and followed up on this May 2015 by posting weekly videos of game footage and character highlights. A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015.[16] The closed beta was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016. Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client. The open beta proven po[CENSORED]r with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating, and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day.