PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal
By KamiKaze Dee

Gameplay

If you love fun and party games then this is a must have for you, Although it is not a game I can sit and have a marathon session on I am happy enough to pop it in a few times a week and play right through one characters Solo campaign. The variety of characters means the All Stars has something for every gamer.

The easier setting make this game accessible to everyone you can team up with a friend, Child or any Relative and have a fun session, With so many characters everyone can find something they like, be It Nathan Drake with all his Guns of Sackboy with his Pop it each character brings a different element to the Gameplay.

Some characters move faster than others, for instance Nathan Drake can be slower while using weapon where if you use one of the smaller character you can get in there and get some quick combo’s going. Each Character has 3 Super powers you can choose to save up the Power meter getting you to level 2 or 3 which are 99% of the time guaranteed Knockouts or keep hammering with your level 1 power which maybe 10% of the time will get you a kill if you are in the right position. The level 2 and 3 powers really are where it is at and really do show what each character can do, for example at Level 3 Sack boy turns all character into orbs and then goes on to collect them each time you collect a character orb you get a kill. I strongly suggest holding out to get the Level 3 powers as it can be what wins the game in the end.

Levelling up you character’s does not seem to do more then give you unlocks, you can unlock costumes, backgrounds and Icons for you player card and also team titles. Some of their unlocks will look near impossible unless you are a hard-core fan and can get all the character up to level 300.

Graphics
The setting of the levels are taken from each character games and the all look exactly like they have been taken straight from there full games, The character models are excellent they look clean and smooth. Cut scenes are more of a Comic style with still Pictures and a voice over but they still look amazing.

Sound

There is a Great soundtrack as you play each level, you can unlock music from each character game so can customise the music around a bit to suit your character. The sound effects are spot on and clear, very crisp and great when turned up loud with a lot of base… It feels like Fight club in the Basement!

Voice acting is right out of each game, they sound like who they are supposed to be and they say what you would expect them to. You will get the classic one lines and can customise what they say during before and after fights as you level up.

Controls Interface

A well rounded control system that can vary in style from character to character, Moves are easy to pull off and remember and the Button layout is easily accessible. Some moves can be more tricky then others and with so many different moves you will find yourself doing the wrong ones but once you get use to the character it all comes together.

I did notice an Arcade setup in the control scheme so am not sure whether this mean you can plug in an arcade stick but I do see this as something that would work exceptionally well in this game.

Story Presentation

Pretty simple, run through each Solo mode with your character fighting everyone, they can come at you in groups of 1 – 3, and then you take on a big boss which is pretty easy. It is a basic story line being what it is but you get the cut scenes which can fill you in on the character if you are not too familiar with them.

The more characters you run through on solo mode the more you will get out of the stories, but you can always skip the cut scenes if you just want to get right in there and start the fight.


Multiplayer

Multiplayer is both hectic and fun and a great laugh, You can play from 2-4 players it is better with 4 but probably also best to be one to play with friends as the search tend to put you in games with red bars against Americans. 50% of the time I have found myself disconnected form the server after the match started due to excessive overseas lag, which is a shame. I have looked for local search options but so far have not found anything hopefully this will be sorted soon.

Overall

This game is the perfect addition to any PlayStation fan its every Sony Exclusive rolled into one, a great game to play with friends online and at home. I highly recommend it to every gamer out there. My overall experience has been pleasant and have not found myself to get a Rage meter going as of yet, when knocked up to the hardest difficulty you really will start to feel the challenge but it is worth it.

Ratings

Gameplay 9.5/10
Graphics 8/10
Sound 9/10
Controls Interface 9/10
Story Presentation 8/10
Multiplayer 8.5/10
Overall 9/10

Girl Gamers: The Good, The Bad and The Bitchy

I have been gaming for around 20 years and have been playing online for 7. In my 7 years of online gaming I have come across many Girl Gamers, Some I Still play with others have disappeared into the gaming community and then there is the small handful I can consider as my real life friends and have met that I would not give away.

When Xbox first launched the official Xbox community set up a group for girls called Gamerchix, with nearly 10’000 members before it shut down there were a lot of different personalities. While I spent some time with this group a Clan was set up called Trixies GamerchiX (TGC), this was one of my first experiences of playing online with a group of girls. We played a lot of COD2 and to start with it was great fun, then the personalities clashed, we had certain members who were very competitive and very in your face with the other teams to insure them that they were beat by girls. In the end the Clan Split up and some of us left attempted setting up a new Clan away from GamerchiX called Girlz are Legendz (GAL). Due to this clan been an American based Clan I was unable to keep up with their game times so in the end had to leave.

After my experience with those 2 Clans I went back to just casual playing with my friends I had found while spending time in the Australian Xbox Forums, These guys were always polite and friendly and not competitive at all and like myself jut enjoyed having fun and a laugh. I have got one good friends left from the GamerchiX and she is a lovely lady from Florida who I use to stay up all night with playing the first Saints row and having a laugh.

2 or 3 years ago I decided to give the Girl gaming community another chance and venture over to the PMS/H20 forums, although this was an American group they had an Australian division for Halo 3, I went through the trial and made it and made my new PMS gamertag ,PMS Domino was born. Although due to work I didn’t play as much as some of the girls and guys when I did I felt very welcomed, I Never really had the skills like a lot of the girls in PMS but they never made you feel inferior. I love having a few games of Halo with PMS/H20 although they were organised it was still fun. The Australian Division of PMS has now disbanded but I still do have a few of the PMS Girls and H20 Boys on my Friends list today.

Since PMS I have not joined another Clan on Xbox I found myself just wanting to play with friends casually and having a laugh. All the Girl clans I looked at a while ago were either very competitive or there forums were full of bitchy remarks. So during my time in the Girl Gaming Community I have found there seems to be 4 types of Girl Gamers

Type One: The Casual Girl

This is the group I play with now, we are the girls who just play for a laugh, we play anything, we play with the boys and don’t go advertising that we are girls and are not arrogant enough to go screaming out YOU GOT BEAT BY A GIRL. The casual gamer girl just slips in with the gaming community and gets along with all the Casual players be they male or female.

Type 2: The Shy Girl

This is where I was when I first started gaming, This is the girl who’s gamertag does not show she is a she and who will not use a mic in public games as she does not want to put up with constant abuse and guys cracking on to her. You will find her mostly in the single player world but when she does go online it is with a muted mic and she normally only stays one match. The shy girl just needs a bit of a nudge to come out of her shell so don’t give up on her.

Type 3: The Bitch

I have come across a few of these types in my time in the girl gaming community, These are the girls who make sure they announce to everyone in the lobby they are a girl and they will kick your ass, these are the girls who crack onto random guys in the lobby trying to make herself look cool even if she is in a relationship. These girls spend more time bitching about other players then talking tactics and are out for themselves, teamwork is the last thing on their mind.

Type 4: The Competitive Lady

This is one I have only ever experience when playing with PMS/H20, these girls are cooptative but they are polite about it, they hold their heads high in the gaming community but they do not put people down. They help the Casual gamers out and give them some tips, they are always happy to play for fun but they also are ready for a battle.

I know everyone has their own personality but from my view this is the main 4 types of girl gamers I have run into over the years in the Xbox community, For some reason the PS3 community has not shown me much in the Female gamers, but I have been in my Clan SPT for around 4 years so have not really ventured out to have a look.

So next time you run into a female gamer remember she does not want to hear about how big you penis is, she does not want to sleep with you, she is there to game just like you and should not have to put up with been told to get back in the kitchen and make you a sammich.I mean if you can't get into the Kitchen to make yourself a sammich you must look like this (see not everyone like stereotypes)

So in conclusion we are all gamers we all love to play, just get on with it and stop and think before you speak being polite goes a long way and will earn you a lot more respect in the real world then you KDR

To Finnish of I have some Quotes from The Men of SPT about how they see Girl Gamers

Axe99 -  "brutal, and you'd better watch your back"

Not really, of course, bumped into a few in my time, and girl gamers tend to be like most gamers (at least to blokes - may well be some bitchiness between each other, I've never really understood that m'self, but seen it between women plenty IRL).

Rocket - Had a great girl gamer in the HellFish back in the day, but sadly lost touch with her. She went by the name Dafunkette. At first she was just using her BF's account Dafunk, so we all started calling her funkette, so when she finally made her own account she just went with that. Wasn't the strongest player, but we always had great fun with her in Socom 1 & 2. Had us all in stitches one particular game when we were all dead and the only player left on alive on our team was camping it out. We were all just talking crap, and all of a sudden funkette starts telling us about a certain piercing she had. Funny as fuck.

My Undead Gaming

Zombies, Undead, Walkers, just few of the many names given to the living dead. Over the years Zombies have become very present in the gaming world and have made for me some of the best gaming experiences out there. In this article I will be writing about some of my favourite zombie experiences gaming has to offer.

Left 4 Dead 2

Okay so Australia sort of got shafted with L4D2 with a piss weak version with no blood and bodies that just vanished, when I first played this watered down version I just couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t until I imported an uncut copy from the UK that I really got into and enjoyed playing this game.

L4D2 is another game made for playing with friends, AI controlled team mates are useless at times, especially when a clown is up your ass honking its stupid red nose, Sorry I have Clown fear. My most memorable moment playing this game with friends is carrying around the gnome in the carnival level only to get right to the end and run the wrong way and get nailed, Laughs all round but it was annoying having to do that final battle again.

Up to 4 friends can jump into the action, with a vast arsenal of weapons from Guns to Fry pans and my personal favourite the gold club, The Zombies can be a little repetitive and when you here the crying of a witch you find yourself inching around the map trying not to wake the red eyes whore up... or in my case trying to get as close as possible and running away before she give chase.... ahh good times.

L4D2 is a good all round Co Op experience with the right fun gamers, I highly suggest importing the uncut version if you can and not playing this on your own it just doesn’t hold up as a single player game.

7 Undead Chickens out of 10

Dead Island

Another zombie game made to lay with friends, unlike L4D2 this game can hold its own when playing solo but I still preferred having a bit of backup when taking on the armies of the Undead. This game can be brutal at times I did find myself bolting to the exits on many occasions just to get away from some mad Undead bitch who was about to take a chunk out of my ass.

Dead Island has some great weapons from guns to Melee, you will find bullets are hard to come buy so don’t go wasting them all at once especially on a zombie that could easily be whacked in the head with a paddle.

I loved the game and have put a lot of time into it with my friends but alas had not had the time to finish it. I recommend this game to anyone who has a good amount of time on their hands love large open worlds and love having things jump out at them from every corners. You can play this on your own but it is awesome to play with your mates as well

8 Undead Chickens out of 10

Resident Evil 5

 Out of all of my Zombie games RE5 feels like it is the serious one of the bunch.  You play as Chris Redfield or Sheva Aloma.  If you are familiar with the latest Resident Evil movie you will see a lot of familiar faces from Jill Valentine to Wheska and a few areas seem similar like the movie may have taken some pages from the RE5 book. I found the similarities to tie the games and movies together a lot more.

The combat in RE5 can take some getting use to with not been able to move while looking down sights or shooting can make this feel awkward to start with.  I tend to run in to bad situation without thinking which in RE5 is not the best move in this game, take your time line up your shots and make sure you watch your back.

You will come across a lot of different enemies during you time in RE5 I was especially welcome by the giant Crocodile in chapter 3-2 who decided to give me a big love bite 5 or 5 times, apart from gunplay in this game you will also have a few cinematic scenes which will give you prompts to press button combination, be quick and don’t stuff up as they can change when u try again.

RE5 is a great survival horror game and has left me rubbing my hands together or the upcoming Resident Evil 6 and I only hope it is as good even better then RE5

8.5 Undead Chickens out of 10

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare

I love RDR, I have put a lot of hours into the campaign and have legend 5 times during my Multiplayer wanderings, When Undead Nightmare was Released I was more than happy to part with some points to get some Zombie Cowboy action going on.

Combat in Undead Nightmare is similar to the combat in RDR apart from you must get head shots so having aim assist does not help as much just remember to try aim high when you shot, I found the shotguns to be more reliable in zombie killing until I got my hands on the blunderbuss but you don’t get that tile halfway through the game.

You can wander the full RDR world during this expansion head up to Tall trees to hunt some zombie grizzlies or even hunt the mythical Sasquatch. During you wandering you will 5 mythical creatures there are 4 horses of the apocalypse and a unicorn to be found and they can be used as mounts during the game.

This expansion has a decent length and I recommend it to any RDR fan, it also opens up a zombie survival game mode online and zombie characters, but there moaning got on my nerves after a while.

9 Undead chickens out of 10

Call of Duty Zombies

Zombies were first introduced to COD in World at War and then again inn Black Ops; there have always been fun expansions to the game and a nice break from the online MP modes of the game when needed.

COD Zombies is a Wave mode Survival you can only go through doors and unlock weapons as you earn more money, it is best to play this with friends and not randoms as most randoms are all for themselves. Conserve your ammo there is nothing worse then been chased down by a hoard of zombies with a few pistol rounds.

If you want to get the most out of Zombies on COD I suggest getting BLOPs it had several zombie DLC expansions come out after release including one where you could play as some famous faces like Buffy and Freddy Kruger. When you play Survival on Modern Warfare 3 you will really miss the lack of zombies bring on BLOPS 2

7 Undead Chickens out of 10

                                                        

So in conclusion of my Zombie loving rant, there are a couple of Zombie games on my radar this year, First of Resident Evil 6 the follow up to RE5 I am rubbing my hands together for this and have already got my copy ordered Also PS3 owner keep your eye out for a game called Last of us, this game looks very promising from the makers of Uncharted it can’t go wrong.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Mini Review

I am a huge Zombie game fan from Left 4 dead to Dead island then a hop skip and a jump to Resident Evil if the dead walks I’m there to put a bullet in its head. Dirty rotting walkers!

This game is made to play with friends; I suggest not even attempting this one on your own some parts of the game are imposable without a real human playing alongside. When your team is controlled with AI is about as useful as tits on a bull. Most the time they will stand still or you will turn around and they will be having a picnic on the other side of the map. The enemy AI however doesn’t stand still and takes a lot and I mean a lot of Bullets to take them down.

You play as USS (Umbrella Security Service) Team Delta, It is your job to stop the US Military getting their hands on the T Virus and to retrieve the newer G Virus, you will come up against Soldiers, Zombies and the STARs. This game seems to have taken a twist by placing you in the position of working for umbrella, where in the past few games you have worked against them.

There is not really much to the story in this game, it’s the usual Survival Horror get through a level fight a big bad, fight hundreds of Zombies, don’t get shot, don’t Bleed out or you will have a riot o your hands.

When this game ended I was left feeling very disappointed and empty, It is very short and the Enemy character models were just too little, there is only so many times you can shot the same Cop Zombie in the head without yawning.

My tips to get the most from ORC, play with friends who don’t take shit to seriously, have a laugh and a few drinks, If you play on your own... maybe have a few more drinks as Passing out is probably more entertaining, Or just wait for Resident Evil 6!

My rating for this instalment of Res Evil is 5 out of 10

Mass Effect 3

(Some Spoilers Main Spoilers Marked)

A lot of people start trilogy from the first one... unless you’re like George Lucas and want to go backwards like me.

Single Player

Note:  I played this in Role Playing Mode

 

I have never felt so emotionally attached to a game character as I did with Female Sheppard everything that happened to her I felt was happening to me, I have spent over 40 hours on the single player of this game and am now on my second run through, For once in a game I bothered with all the side quests which Have opened the story even more.

The atmosphere of the Mass Effect 3 Words is stunning, you can go from Dessert like land scapes to Lush Forrest’s and they are all stunning, The music really makes this game, like something you would here from a Oscar winning composer and another thing that draws you into the ME world. So much effort has been put into ever last scene in this game and in my words sound and visual wise this game is spectacular.

Now for the Game play, I have been dabbling with Mass Effect 1 in the past week and can really see how much the gun play has improved, in ME3 it is smooth and flawless, compared to the first games very jerky and unsteady scope it makes it much more enjoyable. The only flaw I did find was with the melee system, allot of the time you would find you south missing the enemy facing the wrong way and not knowing where they had jumped to. 

I think jumping into ME3 without playing the first 2 games can be a bit frustrating at first getting you bearings learning the menus and how to navigate area of the game, which has not changed much from the first game.  The character customization still could use more... not many hair styles to choose from for Fem shep and they seem to have removed some of the styles from the first 2 games. I manually levelled up my character as I played so I could have her as I wanted but there is the option to auto level up if you not to phased with where you skill points are going. On you first play through expect to get to around the high 30s low 40s in level but you can import your ME3 character into a new game keeping all you skills and powers, or if you have a save from ME2 you can import you character from there.

** ENDING SPOILER – Do not read the next section if you do not want the ending spoilt **

The end of ME3 for me was a little disappointing, you seem to have to options of how to end it but I tried both and they both ended the same only difference was you either destroyed the reavers or controlled them... but no matter what you sacrifice yourself, The Normandy Crashes and the Mass Relays go Bye bye. I do feel there was a lead in for a ME4 with the ending showing a man talking to a child so let’s hope so.

All up this was an Amazing single player experience and I highly recommend it to anyone even if you are not a Mass Effect Fan like me, this game may just change your mind.

Multiplayer

When I first looked at the ME3 Multi I was very sceptical, It is only a 4 player Survival Co Op so it doesn’t sound to thrilling to start with, But fuck was I surprised, this is very addictive I really enjoyed playing this with my friends for hours on end seeing how far we could get who could do the stupidest thing, who could die the most and laugh at the last one standing when all hope was lost.

 

Levelling up in MP is very easy... you have 6 characters to select and if you play with them all you overall rank will fly up allot quicker then sticking with one; so far I have enjoyed using the engineer class but am not dabbling with the spectre. Soldier is kind of boring maybe because I used this class on my single player character but it is the noob character of choice.

Weapon ranking and upgrades is by luck, you have to purchase crates with the credits you earn in MP I suggest just keep buying the recruit pack when u start off to get some weapon upgrades and gadgets to use in the matches. This is also the easiest way to get the Trophy or Achievement for level 10 weapon; I got it within a few crates. Character customization is a bit bleh to start with but you do unlock skins and patterns as you play and buy crates, I like making my character very obnoxious colour or my fave leopard lady.

EA has recently released a free MP pack on PSN and Xbox Live with 2 new levels so if you haven’t already get into it.

Overall Mass Effect 3 is one of the best Games I have played in a long time; this game has High replayability as you can take a few different paths throughout the career.

My rating for ME3 is 10 out of 10 GOTY for sure!