The Unfinished Swan

The Unfinished Swan is a first-person painting game developed by Giant Sparrow. You play as a little kid who is chasing an unfinished swan, painting the landscape as you progress through the game. The child's name is Monroe, who has been placed in a world of white. Later to discover an unfinished kingdom where you journey through in search of the unfinished swan. Along the way, you'll encounter little story blocks that will tell you about the King and his legacy he wishes to leave behind.

The Unfinished Swan has a very good story to it. It'll keep you wanting more as you progress within the game. Puzzles will come up and challenge you for a few moments, but is very satisfying to figure out. The art style within the game is superb, and it just keeps getting better as you progress through the game. When you first start the game, everything is plain white. At certain points of the game, things will change, eventually shadow is introduced in some levels.

The soundtrack to the game is rather peaceful. I really enjoyed the music in the Unfinished Swan. I feel it helped with the experience of the game. The audio was very crisp. As you play, you can hear various creature make noise as you walked through an all white world. Frogs, crickets, and birds make a nice addition to the sounds you'll hear in the game. Sometimes Monroe will even say a few words, such as when you fall you'll hear him go "ahhh!" Sometimes he'll even say "Woah!"

I would recommend this game to whomever enjoys a good story as well as puzzles. If you are into art work, you might want to check this game out. It is a PlayStation Exclusive and can only be played on PS3, PS4, and Vita. This game won't be for everybody, and not everybody will have enjoyed it as much as I have. All I ask is that you at least give this game a try. It's only $14.99 on PlayStation Network. I'd rate it a four point five out of five.

Murdered: Soul Suspect

Murdered Soul Suspect is an adventure stealth game developed by Airtight Games. You play as Detective Ronan O'Connor. While on a mission to uncover a murder case, he is inevitability murder. The rest of the game you are his ghost, investigating his own murder. You are within the spirit world, following the trail to discover the murderer. You are in limbo until you can figure out what happened and save people along the way.

The setting of the game takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. That is correct, the same location where the Salem Witch Trials took place. This game makes a connection to the trials, so it has a little historical value to it. Within the spirit world of Salem, you'll meet people from that era. While walking around in the Salem spirit-world, you see the living as well as the dead. In the spirit world, some areas are blockaded by barriers that no spirit can walk through (however, living people can). This cause you to take detours around the town to get to your objective.

While in the spirit world, you'll run into demonic spirits, that you have to sneak past to progress in the story. These creatures are rather annoying because, they appear in pairs (sometimes in large groups), making it rather hard to get past certain areas. These demonic creatures eat at your soul, essentially killing the spirit form of your character.

As a spirit, O'Connor has the ability to posses living people and animals. Which some areas will need you to possess a cat or a person to get passed the demonic creatures. I found that ability to be really cool, and I enjoyed the cat possession - running around in a little kitty cat is just fun!

Graphically, the game looks good. I bought it on Steam, and my computer has a pretty good video card in it. Murdered Soul Suspect ran rather well on max setting on a Radeon HD 7770, frame rate was a little low (30fps). It still worked, all the same. I would recommend this game to anybody who likes stealth, and doesn't mind some repetition. Because I feel like I was always repeating a route to the next objective or doing the same sneak by of the demonic creatures. Which took some fun out of the game, but overall, it did have a good story.

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Civilization V is a turn-based strategy game by Firaxis Games, released many years ago for the PC. There have been two expansion packs released for this game: Gods and Kings, and Brave New World. Within the original game there are eighteen civilizations available: American, Arabian, Aztec, Egyptian, French, and German to name a few. Nine more civilizations were introduced in Gods and Kings as well as Brave New World. Making a total of 37 civilizations with more added as DLC.

You can build a shit ton of armies in Civilization V.

There are special abilities to every civilization that you can choose from. For example, the American civilization has an ability called Manifest Destiny where all land military units have +1 sight and 50% discount when purchasing tiles. The American civilization's leader is George Washington, the first President of the United States. The Chinese civilization, led by Wu Zetian, has a special ability called Art of War giving the player's Great General combat bonus increased by 15% and their spawn rate increased by 50%. A Great General is a Great Person specializing in land warfare, these characters have the ability to construct a Citadel or increase land unit combat by 15%. A Great Person are exceptional historical figures with special abilities that appear in your civilization when you develop a certain aspect of the gameplay efficiently. There are various Great Persons from Great Artist, Great Writer, Great Engineer, and Great Prophet. Each with their own special abilities.

Social policies are a new concept to the Civilization universe. Social policies represent the non-scientific or religious advancements of your society. Social policies can be unlocked as your gain more culture. There are many different social policies available with many sub-policies. Tradition is one of the social policies which the sub-categories of Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Legalism, Monarchy, and Landed Elite. Each has a special effect. For example, Aristocracy has a +15% Production when building Wonders and a +1 Happiness for every 10 Citizens in a City.

This guy has little-man syndrome. No, seriously...

As the game progresses you can research into technologies. They help with the the advancement of your empire. Technology can unlock certain building, units and other various things. Some examples of these technologies include: Agriculture, Archery, Masonry, Iron Working, Gunpowder, and so on and so on. Certain technologies are only available in certain eras. For example, Animal Husbandry is only available in the Ancient Era. Horseback Riding in the Classical Era. Civil Service in the Medieval Era. I think you get the point! With each discovery of technology, new building and units are available to construct. An example includes Agriculture which allows you to build farms within your empire. As you progress in eras and unlock different technologies, your units also advance. At a certain point in the game you are able to develop tanks and atomic bombs (which are fun).

Civilization V is a well developed and addicting game. At start up you get to choose which civilization you want to play with as well as how long you want the game to be.  You can have a quick game or an epic game. Which the quick game is fun, but not as fun as a good epic play through. I would highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good strategy game. Also if you like history - this is a fun and often times inaccurate game. It's just fun to see Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander the Great in the same place!

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone is a computerized card game developed by the folks at Blizzard Entertainment. From my research into this game, it's based off the actually physical World of Warcraft card game. When Blizzard discontinued the physical WoW card game, they made Hearthstone as a replacement. It's a very fun and addicting game. There are multiple classes to choose from which include my favorites: Warrior, Priest, and Hunter. Hearthstone reminds me a lot of Magic The Gathering. You start out with thirty life, you summon minions and attack your opponent.

How The Game Is Played

You start off by picking your hero/class. Which I will explain later on what the heroes and classes are. Your hero has 30 defense and this is your life points. Generally Heroes can't be played as minions unless you have a special ability or card. You start the game with four cards, the person who starts second usually gains a coin which allows you to gain an extra mana for that turn. You use mana to summon minions or perform magic. Does this almost sound like Magic The Gathering? Almost, but not quite like MTG.

Format is similar to Magic The Gathering

The Heroes of Warcraft

There are nine Heroes of Warcraft, each with it's different class. Let's begin with Malfurion Stormrage. As Malfurion you are a Druid and with this class you have a special ability called Shapeshift which allows you to gain a +1 Attack for the turn and +1 Armor. Meaning that you can use Malfurion to attack enemy minions as well as gain some defense.

Rexxar is the Hunter. As the Hunter your special ability is called Steady Shot, which allows the hero to deal two damage to enemy hero. Let's say that the opponent has a minion that has taunt (meaning your minions have to attack that specific minion) you can bypass that with this ability. It's very handy in those situations when the enemy minion with taunt has higher defenses than your minions attacks. Gives you the ability to damage the enemy hero and not lose any of your minions.

Jaina Proudmoore is the Mage. As a Mage your ability is called Fireblast which deals one damage to either enemy minions or hero. You get to chose who to damage with this ability. This is helpful at the begin of the game. Lets say you start out with a terrible hand, and you don't have enough mana to summon a minion. You can use Fireblast to attack minions or hero.

Uther Lightbringer is the Paladin. As a Paladin your ability is called Reinforce, which allows the hero to summon a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit. This allows you to summon more minions on to the battlefield, and can overwhelm an opponent. The more minions, the more damage you can do to an enemy hero.

Anduin Wrynn is the Priest. As a Priest your ability is called Lesser Heal which restores two health. If I remember correctly you can give your minions or hero two health. You can choose who gains that health. Which is helpful in so many ways, especially if your hero is losing health. I found this rather annoying when I first went against a player who was a Priest. That made me want to play as a Priest, which I win most games it seems with Anduin.

Valeera Sanguinar is the Rogue. As a Rogue your ability is called Dagger Mastery which equips a 1/2 Dagger to your hero. This allows your hero to attack enemy minions or hero. Which can be helpful to you and perhaps overwhelming for your opponent. Let's say you have five minions out, and then you equip the dagger to your hero. You have six capable creatures to attack your opponent. Depending on how many minions your opponent has, this move can be devastating to him or her.

Thrall is the Shaman. As a Shaman your ability is called Totemic Call which summons a random Totem. By Totem they mean a totem-type minion which is exclusively available for the Shaman class. Most totem-type minions can only be summoned by the Totemic Call ability. Which the totem-type minions generally don't have very good attacks. They are mostly used for defense. For example, the Stoneclaw Totem is a 0/2 minion with taunt. The Vitality Totem is a 0/5 minion which has an ability to restore four health to your hero at the end of your turn. This class can be very helpful, however the Totemic Call is random. So you could summon a totem that's very helpful or not so helpful. Just depends on the situation.

Gul'dan is the Warlock. As a Warlock your ability is called Life Tap, which allows you to draw a card with a catch . . . you take two damage. I feel that this ability is rather dumb, but I know some players enjoy this class. I can see why someone would like this class, being that your ability allows you to draw a card. Lets say you have a bad hand, your take the risk of losing two life to draw another card. More likely, that you ran out of cards in your hand so you take two life to draw another card that you could possibly play that turn.

Finally, Garrosh Hellscream is the Warrior. As a Warrior your ability is called Armor Up which allows your hero to gain two armor.This can be helpful to you because on top of your thirty life, you can gain armor to your hero. I've seen matches where a person playing as Garrosh getting ten armor and thirty life, which basically equates to forty life.

The Heroes of Warcraft and Their Classes

Card Powers

There are many cards within the Hearthstone realm with many special abilities to them. I won't be going through all of them, but will cover the card powers you'll see a lot of the time while playing. Starting with Taunt, which is an ability that forces the opposing player to direct any combat damage to the minion with said ability. An example card is Sen'jin Shieldmasta which is a 3/5 minion with taunt. Bring these beast onto the battlefield and your opponent's minions have to attack Shieldmasta.

Another common card ability is Charge. This allows your minion to attack the same turn it was summoned. Just like Magic The Gathering, when you summon a creature or minion they suffer from summoning sickness which makes them unable to attack the same turn as they were summoned. However, which Charge it is different. An example card is Stonetusk Boar - a 1/1 minion with charge. Bring these guy out and you will be able to attack same turn as it was summoned. Helpful because you're able to do damage right away with it. The Stonetusk Boar only needs one mana crystal to summon which is why it has such a low attack. If you can get him on the field first turn, you can start attacking enemy hero.

Windfurry is a very helpful card power. Minions that have windfurry are able to attack twice per turn. An example of this is Thrallmar Farseer which is a 2/3 minion with windfurry. If you can attack the enemy hero with Farseer, you can cause four damage to them. Especially helpful when opponent has a low defense minion with taunt. You can eliminate that minion with taunt with Farseer and then attack the hero afterward with the same minion.

The last card ability I'll share with you is called Transform. Any minion or card with this ability is able to transform any minion into something else. Usually it transform minions into lower power minions. For exmaple, Hex is a card that transforms a minion into a 0/1 frog with taunt. Polymorph is another card that transforms a minion into a 1/1 sheep. However there are some cards that allow you to transform one of your minions into something more powerful. With Druid of the Flame (a 2/2 minion) you can choose either transform said card into a 5/2 minion or another minion into a 2/5 minion.

Weapons

Some cards are able to give your hero weapons. Such as the Rogue hero power - Dagger Mastery. Weapons can be very helpful because they give you hero the ability to attach enemy minions or hero. Some examples of weapon cards are Light's Justice (gives hero 1 attack and 4 defense) or Fiery War Axe (gives hero 3 attack and 2 defense).

Some weapons have special ability like minion card have. Such as Truesilver Champion is a weapon that gives your hero a 4 attack and 2 defense and whenever your hero attacks it restores two health. There is also Coghammer, which is a weapon that gives your minion 2 attack and 3 defense as well as a Battlecry - allowing you to give a random friendly minion Divine Shield and Taunt.

The Acidic Swamp Ooze minion has the ability to destroy enemy weapons. There are also other minions that gives your weapon higher attack such as with Spiteful Smith, giving your weapon a +2 attack. So there is all sorts of things you can do to get your hero into the fight with weapons and special powers.

An example of a card. Arcane Missiles.

Overview

Hearthstone is a fun and addictive game from Blizzard. There is a large number of classes and heroes to choose from. As well as an ever expanding collection of cards to choose and put into your decks. Hearthstone is available on PC for free with Battlenet and can be found on the App Store for iPads. Hearthstone is a free-to-play game, however there is microtransactions where you can buy more cards to put into your decks. However if you don't want to pay any money to get more cards there is another way. It's a rather slow process, but it works. If you do the daily quests which usually entail winning three matches with a certain class, you are able to gain coins. With these coins you can buy more cards. At least there is two ways of getting more cards.

I would recommend this game to anybody who enjoy playing card games like Magic The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. If you're a fan of Blizzard games, you'll probably want to give this game a try. I do realize that Hearthstone has been out for awhile, but I hope people that are still considering to get this game has gotten a good look into what this game has to offer after reading this post. I wish you well on your journey into the world of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

Limbo

Ever wondered what it be like to go through purgatory? The developers at Playdead do a very impressive job at making an eerie black-and-white visual design of what purgatory may very well be like. You play as a young boy, and what a very courageous little boy he is. With absolutely no way to defend yourself within this dreamland-like world, you face many opponents that are there to kill you. With smarts and courage, that little boy can get away without one single scratch. You’ll face hostile natives, an assortment of traps and other deadly creatures.

The developers really suck you into this game. Between the gorgeous 2D side-scrolling black-and-white action, the sound effects, and an amazing sounding musical score, you just can’t put down the game. There are a lot of puzzles, which will also get you real involved in the game. Some puzzles are really simple, but then later in the game you’ll encounter harder and more complex puzzles. Some puzzles you can take your time on, but other are timed and everything must be done perfectly or you’ll have to face the consequences.

Limbo is a well-designed, visually astounding game with amazing sound and a down right impressive musical score. But sadly, however, as you get real into the game, it abruptly ends and all you can say is “I want more!” So hopefully the developers at Playdead hear our plea for another installment for this awesome and involving game.

Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty is the largest and most well-known franchise in the gaming industry. There are a lot of expectations from this series, and Treyarch has once again met those expectations and brought us the new installment of the franchise – Black Ops. Call of Duty Black Ops delivers intense action, glorious visuals, impressive audio, and ingenious multiplayer. Similar to Modern Warfare 2, but with a little more modifications.

The storyline take place mostly during the 1960’s and takes you to Cold War hotspots such as Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam. The protagonist of Black Ops is an elite covert operative named Alex Mason. You start out the game in a room, and find yourself being interrogated. Mason doesn’t remember anything, and throughout the interrogation you play Mason’s memories. Each mission slowly comes together to build a momentum as each interrogation cutscene puts another piece of the puzzle together. The hazy edges of your consciousness conceal information that must eventually come to light, and the erratic visual effects and unnerving audio that encompasses your interrogations sometimes bleed into your mission memories, creating a great tone of uncertainty that plays out in astounding and substantial ways.

Black Ops covers a wide array of geographical landscapes and gameplay. A dramatic breakout from a brutal Soviet prison is one early highlight, and later missions feature frontline conflicts, urban firefights, and mountainous infiltrations. Environments are richly detailed, and though the campaign may have a few technical problems - such as the occasional problematic checkpoint or the odd teleporting ally – these moments aren’t likely to impede your amusement. In addition to the on-foot action, you do use a wide variety of vehicles to achieve success in your missions. Sometimes you’ll be in the gunner’s seat while other times you’ll be behind the wheel, and although the vehicle handling is discreet, the thrill of blowing stuff up and speeding through hostile territory is unquestionable. The core run-and-gun mechanics remains exciting as ever, and the gameplay variety throughout the campaign keeps the action moving at a great pace.

Although the campaign is a adrenaline-fueled good time, it’s not that long. The thing that will most likely keep you coming back to Black Ops for months to come is, predictably, the online competitive multiplayer. At its basic, this is the accustomed top-notch Call of Duty action that gamers have been appreciating for years. You gain experience for doing well in battle, and as you level up, you gain admittance to new and influential ways to customize your loadouts. New weapons and maps freshen things up, and one of the new killstreak awards is an explosive-laden remote-control car which is a pleasantly lethal device. The key new element to the multiplayer is currency. In addition to receiving experience for battlefield performance, you earn Call of Duty points, which can then be spent in a variety of ways. Most perks, weapon attachments, killstreaks, and equipment items are obtainable early on, providing you to bomb out the points to equip them. Customization selections like face paint, player card backgrounds, and the new create-your-own-icon tool are all accessed by spending points. Having the option to pay your way gives you more loadout options at lower required levels than previous Call of Duty games.

The Call of Duty points also permit two awesome new mechanics, the first is contracts. Like many multiplayer challenges that reward you with experience points for completing goals, which contracts you have to pay to complete them. If you do so within the prearranged time period, you receive an organized payout. If you pay 50 points for a contract and succeed in that contract, you’ll earn 11 points for all your trouble. If time expires before you complete that contract, you loose the points. The tougher the contract, the more it’ll cost, however, they have the larger payouts. You can have up to three contracts active at a time across three different categories – Mercenary Contracts, Operations Contracts, and Specialist Contracts. Contracts offer a nicely incentivized version of challenges and gives you something fun to attempt for if you ever get bored.

The other cool new mechanic is wager matches. In these matches, you pay an entrance fee of 10, 1,000, or 10,000 points, depending upon how much points you have, and then you get to play some of the most unique game modes that Black Ops has to offer. One mode gives you increasingly better weapons for each kill you tally, while another gives you a pistol with one bullet and only three lives to live. At the end of the match, the points is split proportionally among the top three finishers while everyone else comes away empty handed.

The rather popular four-player cooperative zombie-killing mode that was first debuted in Call of Duty World at War has returned. The fight to stay alive against wave after wave of zombies is still an intense and strange struggle, and new maps and playable characters take the eccentric humor of the situation to a whole new level. This mode supports four players online or two locally. Two local players can also play split-screen competitive multiplayer online, while four can divide the screen equally among them and set up competitive local matches.

Call of Duty Black Ops is an amazing game with new modes and mechanics that give a jolt of enthusiasm to the game. Though the campaign may be short, but the engrossing storyline gives this game the best thrill a gamer could ask for. Black Ops lives up to the top-notch lineage that the franchise has earned, giving gamers a tremendous new shooter to enjoy.

Heavy Rain Review

Heavy Rain, a PlayStation3 exclusive, is a unique new kind of game developed by Quantic Dream. The game is a powerful interactive drama, with intensely absorbing experiences that precisely conveys the tension, urgency, surprise and tragedy that the characters feel. The ongoing narrative changes to your every action and improving a deeply personal journey that leave everyone who undertakes it with something slightly different.

“How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?” is the central question within Heavy Rain. The protagonist, Ethan Mars, is compelled to answer that question. After Ethan’s son goes missing and is rumored to be the latest victim of the mysterious Origami Killer. Ethan vows to do whatever it takes to save in son. Besides playing as Ethan, you also play three other characters who are seemingly unrelated to one another but are drawn into the case: Scott Shelby, a private investigator; Norman Jayden, an FBI criminal profiler; and Madison Paige, an insomniac.

Heavy Rain is an immersive interactive drama that will suck you in and not spit you out. As you control each of the four characters, onscreen prompts will have you pressing buttons in sequence, move the right analog stick in the exact directions as shown onscreen, shake the controller, and more to interact with the scenes. Each input is correspondingly difficult to the tasks being performed. When a character is scared or stressed, the floating onscreen prompts will tremble. The exceptional control scheme does a marvelous job at grounding you to the characters and their emotional states. A lot of action is to be found in forms of brutal or violent brawls, heart-pounding chases, and deadly gunfights, but even with such things as brushing your teeth and rocking a baby are rather engaging tasks which strengthens your bond with the characters.

Heavy Rain does not bother keeping track on your progress in terms of success and failure, for there is no right or wrong way to play. No matter what your outcome may be, the game will move forward and adapt to the consequences of your actions. Although the overall narrative framework is firm, your performance throughout the game can have a variety of effects, ranging from subtle changes in how a scene plays out to much bigger problems. Entire events might not even occur due to your actions and choices causing the plot to branch in a new direction. It’s even possible for one of the characters to die, consequently eliminating any subsequent contributions to the story that they might have made.

Heavy Rain is gorgeous looking game. The visual design of the environments is rather outstanding, and weather your visiting a dirty old creepy apartment building or a gorgeous forest utopia, the thorough amount of detailing put into the game in incredibly fascinating. Character models are so realistic, predominately in the way they move and interact. An irregular awkward animation can occur, like a robot-like move up the stairs or your stuck in place for a split second. Overall characters move extremely well.

Music will stir up your emotions in just the right way. When a scene starts to intensify the music becomes rapid paced, indicating that something bad is happening or will happen. When something depressing happens in a scene, the music becomes rather slow and gloomy. The voice acting is amazing, completing the human element to round out the experience.

Heavy Rain is a bold and revolutionary game that should be played by all who look upon its cover. Everything that happens in Heavy Rain will effect your emotions as it engages you into it’s universe. It’s astonishing visuals and outstanding voice overs will have you admiring the game every moment you click a button. The soundtrack will have you sitting at the edge of you seat. Hop on the roller coaster and give Heavy Rain a try!

Mass Effect 2

2010 looks to be a great year for the gaming industry. Usually there are not that many great games that come out early in the year. This year we start out the year with the highly anticipated Mass Effect 2 (available only on Xbox360 and PC). What makes the game really unique is the fact that you can transfer all your saved data from the first Mass Effect game to the second game to continue as your original character. If you had a cool looking scared up character (like I did) you can transfer that character to the second game and continue to play as him as well as be as bad or good as you were in the first game.


The game still has the unique dialog system, where your decisions effect all aspects of the game. You can be good, neutral or bad. You can ask questions to other characters, or just get down to the point and get to the mission. Its a very large map, since you got the whole galaxy to explore. If fact, the game is two-discs long. Thats impressive! There are a lot of main quests as well as tons of side missions or assignments. You can also decide which crew member you're going to have an affair with.



There are a wide range of characters you can assemble into your team. Some of them you'll remember from the first Mass Effect game. But there are some new character that are introduced in the second one. Miranda, a biogenetic character built to be all perfect with body and mind. Thane Krios, a Drell assassin who is dying from a disease known as Kepler's Syndrome. Grunt, a pure blood, tank-bred Krogan. As well as many more!



There are a wide range of weaponry as well. The most useful and reliable will probably be the M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle. Another usual weapon, used for long distance shooting is the M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle. The gun that should be used for close counter shooting would have to be the M-23 Katana Shotgun. There are other weapons as well, such as the M-100 Grenade Launcher, the M-490 Blackstorm Projector, the M-622 Avalanche, and the M-90 Cain.

Mass Effect 2 is a must buy game for any Xbox360 and PC owners. Its wide open world is fascinating to explore as well as beautiful to look at. The graphics are amazing. The sounds are phenomenal. The voice acting is believable, making the storyline more gripping. Mass Effect is going to be a trilogy, so lets see what BioWare has to offer in the next game! Thank you for reading!

Game On!