Borderlands 1: DLC

After playing through Borderlands (several times, with many, MANY, characters), I was ecstatic to discover that Gearbox had released a bunch of campaign DLC for the game.

The first DLC was Dr. Ned's Zombie Island. This was an amazing addition to the game. There are many jokes made at zombie survival games throughout the campaign, like waiting for an elevator to function while zombies "suddenly" discover your position. New enemies were added, including the beloved Loot Chest wearing bruisers, though the majority of your enemies are zombified bandits. The midget zombies are terrifying, just a heads up. Fast little buggers... A fairly solid storyline accompanies the Halloween-esk theme, and is, as always with Borderlands, hilariously funny.

The second DLC was Mad Moxxi's Underdome. While I enjoy Mad Moxxi's... ahem... "character", this DLC was very disappointing to me. I do genuinely enjoy Moxxi as an NPC, she quite funny and adds so much innuendo to the fights (especially if you play as Lilith). Gearbox attempted to create an arena DLC for the game, focusing entirely on fighting back waves of enemies for freakin massive amounts of time. The concept was sound, but with how long it actually took to reach each checkpoint, how much progress you lost if you were downed, and the lacklustre loot you received from the battles, the DLC was not worth the time. Beating the ENTIRE thing awarded you with one skill point per playthrough difficulty. While valuable, it wasn't worth the literal hours you spent fighting. 

Then came General Knox's Secret Armoury. The crown jewel of the DLC pack. Massive storyline (that also plays a large role in the other games), lots of new areas, tons of new enemies, fantastic loot drops, and even new vehicles for you to drive around in. The Armoury set the standard that Borderlands 2 was held up to. It was by far the best DLC, with a lot of effort poured into it by Gearbox.

After the massive success of The Secret Armoury, Gearbox went in a very different direction for the final DLC. Claptrap's Robolution was the last gift to the Borderlands game, focusing on fun combat and humour. There are many new enemies with different combat strategies, a playful storyline following the robotic uprising, and WAY more guns than you'll have inventory space for. The Robolution does a better job at keeping you in new areas instead of revisiting old ones repeatedly (one of the few downsides of The Secret Armoury).

The DLC is almost always sold at this point as a bundle, so you get all four for a good price. The Underdome is probably best to just skip, but the other three are well worth a few playthroughs.

Remember, NO REFUNDS (in the best Slavic accent I can muster)

Toodles!

Super Smash Brothers: DS

I grew up playing the Smash Bros games. All the way back on the N64, where Kirby had a overpowered throw and Samus could be shocked into being naked. Then came the GameCube version, with massive improvements to gameplay and the best controller Nintendo has ever made. Next came the Wii version, with better physics, a good campaign and a variety of characters (Pit and Sonic can burn, I hate them so much). Now, technology has brought us Super Smash Brothers DS and WiiU.

While the character roster is a little disappointing compared to the massive improvements each previous game had, there are still a large variety of playstyles to choose from, although Nintendo did bite the DLC bullet and is releasing other characters as extras that cost money). The game balance is much better, with characters actually tuned to their playstyles (Looking at you, Metaknight). Like previous Smash Bros games, it takes some getting used to with the new kit tweaks, gravity and physics alterations, and item changes.

The DS controls make sense, and are fairly comfortable. The shoulder buttons are a little awkward, as you need to be able to hit all the buttons quickly to fight effectively. I find myself constantly sliding my volume up when I play, though that just may be an unfortunate combination of my hand size with how I had the DS.

The addition of customizable move sets and power levels makes the game interesting, even with a character you know well. You can make a fast character like Shiek hit like a truck, but take a lot of damage in return, or turn King DeeDeeDee into a super tank that just won't die. The Mii character has entirely player chosen B moves, so you can make them fit your own playstyle better. I personally love the Fighter Mii with damage customization. That forward smash... Ouch.

While the game is fun and continues to be a good addition to the Smash Bros collection, the game will always shine best when playing with other people or through competitive play. Solo play against the various computer modes gets a little stale after a while. 

Smash Bros will continue to do what it has always done: Be the best cross-game, platformer, fighting game around (Playstation All-Stars was a disaster). 

Toodles!

Borderlands 1

One of my favourite video games of all time has got to be Borderlands. It was introduced to me by a good friend of mine about 6 years ago, and I've been hooked on the series ever since.

Borderlands is a fairly unique game, in that it combines the action of a shooter with the level and equipment scaling of an rpg. A selling point of the game was that it had "millions of guns". And it did. Each weapon that drops is randomly created from a table of available parts, making for more combinations of stats than you'd think of. Adding in the bonus factor of rare equipment, which often has a special ability or bonus, and you end up constantly upgrading your gear and looking for more powerful items.

You play through the game as one of four distinct classes:

-Soldier: a tough assault rifle specialist who can drop a turret with a variety of effects

-Berserker: a massively tanky man who loves explosives, rockets, and punching people to bits

-Hunter: an agile fighter, flexible with both long range sniper rifles and close range pistols, he can send his pet bird to harass enemies

-Siren: a magical being, with a focus on SMGs and elemental damage, she can temporarily hop into a different dimension to escape or close gaps. 

Each class has three skill trees you can spec into as you gain levels. These progression paths allows you to become specialized in a play style you prefer. For example, the Soldier can progress through a tree focused on weapon damage, one based on your turret, or one that allows you to heal yourself and allies.

The game has a fairly solid, though sparse, storyline. There are many aspects of the world that aren't really explained, but nothing glaring enough to take away from the gameplay. The characters you interact with are iconic, hilarious, and honestly heartwarming. You grow very attached to NPCs throughout the game, both good or evil.

Combat is hugely important in both RPGs and shooters, and the combat in Borderlands is always entertaining. Humanoid enemies shout great one liners at you, fight fairly intelligently based on their weapon type, and will actively try to flank you. Animal enemies follow their specific attack and defense patterns, and pose just as much threat with their claws, teeth, and fluids as other enemies pose with guns.

I will always remember playing through Borderlands for the first time and finding my first shotgun. It was the strongest weapon I had at the time. A skag (basically a dog) jumped at me, and not only did the shotgun slow its momentum, it stopped the skag mid-jump and sent it flying in the opposite direction, very very dead. 

Another great selling point of the game is how easy it is to play either solo or with others. Borderlands has amazing couch play for your real life friends, well done online gameplay, or simply a single player campaign. The other bonus of this game is that you can drop in and out of modes whenever you like. If your friend is online, you can play with them. If they log off and come over, you can till play your character with them, and then continue on with the same character alone when they leave.

Borderlands was recently rereleased as part of The Handsome Collection, a game bundle that includes all three Borderlands games and all the DLC for them. I'll be reviewing the other games and their DLC at a later date. I definitely recommend you pick up the entire collection, they were all good games in their own ways.

Toodles!

Solforge

If you play any collectable card game, chances are, you probably play Magic: The Gathering. It's an extremely popular card game that has been around for literally decades. Today, I'd like to bring to your attention a video game called Solforge. It is made by the same company that works on Magic, in collaboration with Stoneblade Entertainment.

The game has a fairly simple core concept: Each player starts with 100 life points, and you want to bring your opponent to 0. You can do this through persistent damage from summoned creatures, or instant spikes of damage from spells. Each player creates a deck of 30 cards, of which you may only have a maximum of 3 of any individual card. These cards become more powerful as you play them each game, and reset after the match ends. 

The game has five lanes that you can play creatures in, and unless you have a special way to make them move, they remain in that lane until destroyed. Creatures attack each turn in their lane, either doing damage to a player (if left in an open lane) or to an opposing creature (if set in a lane against an opposing creatures). Creatures do a specific amount of damage with each attack, and have a set pool of hit points to take damage from.

The game has a huge amount of strategies that you can build decks around. Speed rush strategies try to overwhelm your opponent before they can gain access to more powerful cards, often using creatures that attack immediately, or have high damage and low health pools. Defensive decks use high health or resistant creatures to stall for time, gaining access to more powerful creatures as the game progresses. Mob or zoo decks simply pump out more creatures than an opponent can handle, dealing damage by always filling and getting through an open lane. The strategies go on and on. If you find one card you like the mechanic of, chances are, you can make a deck around it.

Another great point to Solforge is that it is free. You do not need to spend a single cent on the game, though you can spend real money to buy card packs more frequently than usual. It is available for IPads, as well as being on Steam for PC.

I've spent a lot of spare time playing Solforge, as a game that is easy to learn and difficult to master. I hope you. Give it a try!

Toodles!

The LCS Workout

Happy Friday, folks!

Today is video-game day, and what better game to discuss than my favourite one, League of Legends. The most played game in the world, with literally millions of players, League of Legends is a based on a hidden mini-game within the old Warcraft III game (Not World of Warcraft, it's much older than that). The main game mode for League puts you on a team of players against an equal team of opponents, both made up of five players. The game has an ever-evolving "meta", which is to say, certain strategies that are strong at the moment. This meta changes constantly, as the game is updated every few weeks for balances, new features, and new playable characters. This constant evolution makes the game feel fresh and fun to play over longer periods of time than other, more stagnant games. On top of it all, the game is free!

I could talk about the intricacies of League forever, and it will probably make a lot of appearances in my Friday posts. BUT, today I wanted to talk about the professional tournament that League of Legends puts on. The League Championship Series, or LCS, takes the best teams in North America and Europe and pits them against each other each week in a series of games. Korea, China, and Oceania all have their own separate tournaments. At the end of these tournaments, the winners from all around the world come together and duke it out to be the best in the world (It's usually the Koreans, spoilers). Basically, the LCS is sports for nerds. They have analysts, coaches, shoutcasters, referees, tech specialists, and a butt-load of production money. There's a Fantasy League of Legends League, more on that in a moment! Players in the LCS have even been given travel visas as professional athletes because of their position in the world's biggest eSport.

Like a bunch of people hanging out to watch football, the LCS matches take place over several hours. Each match takes anywhere from 20 minutes to more than 60, depending on how well a team performs. There are usually four or fives games streamed in a single day, and there are two days each for Europe and North America. Doing the math, that's a ton of time sitting and watching.

It may come as a shock to some of you, but not all gamers are out of shape. There are several members of the LCS that are in extremely good shape. One of these players started a workout regiment for people watching the tournament, based on the player performances. As I am part of a Fantasy league myself, I decided to throw together a workout regiment for my group of friends. How many follow this, I don't know, but I sure am going to do it!

Player point exercises:
1 kill = 1 push up
1 death = 1 sit up/crunch
1 assist = 1 jumping jack
1 CS = 1 second of wall sits
Triple Kill = Add 5 to everything
Quadra Kill = Add 10 to everything
Pentakill = Add 20 to everything
10+ Kills or Assists = Add 10 to everything

Team Point exercises:
First Blood = 5 burpees
Towers = 5 squats/tower
Baron = 10 lunges/Baron
Dragons = 5 russian twists/dragon
Match Victory = 10 high kicks
<30 min Victory = Plank time equal to CS count

Bonus Stuff:
Having a player worth negative points = Double all exercises
Dragon Steals = Double dragon score
Baron Steals = Double baron score

Enjoy your workout, folks!

Download and try League of Legends here
Watch the LCS here

Toodles!