Magicka

Review Time!

Magicka

You know, when the BF told me that Magicka would infuriate me I bought it anyway just to prove him wrong.

...

He was right.

Especially in the multiplayer, where more often than not you end up killing your partners. And in a huge battle where you're trying to bring them back and keep yourself from like exploding, it is annoying. I had issues with the multiplayer, now I'm not sure if it was because my internet connection was a picky little bitch that day, or because of the serves themselves. 

I ran in several glitches while playing Magicka, one of which was my character getting stuck. I could not move, could not cast, couldn't do anything. This happened a lot after cut scenes, and the only way out of it was to wait until I died, or jump out of the game and back in, which, as you imagine gets a little tiring after a while. Another issue I had was with the game randomly crashing, on single and multiplayer. 

Ok, so this review isn't going to be the greatest thing in the world, but this is just my experience with the game. I'm sure there are people who are much, much, better at this game than I am. Well, much much better than me at gaming period, but anyway.

The spell system confused me, maybe it's just because I can't memorize the spells or combine them quick enough or what. I'm not sure. But I found it infuriating, I'd try to cast a haste spell, and have to do it four times in order for it to get it right. I found that it reacted slowly to my key pressing and when it didn't it doubled up on earth when I'd pressed earth and fire. 

Needless to say, aside from the rage factor I did enjoy this game occasionally. But, I like rage games, so that could probably be it. I'm sorry this review is so short for once, but I don't have that much to say about this game, I'm sure other people liked it much more than I do. But, it passes the time. 

Borderlands 2

Partial Review Time!!

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 is the sequel of Borderlands, it was released in 2012 published by 2K Games developed by Gearbox Software. It is set five years after the first game and starts you off with you waking up in the rubble with Claptrap digging through the remains not far away. 

I'm just going to interrupt myself here by saying, I freakin' love Claptrap and yes, I did complete his birthday party side quest and dance with him. Who wouldn't? Claptrap is amazing. And yes, I might have almost blown him up but...*cough* anyway. 

I haven't played the single player part of Borderlands 2, and it's honestly some of the best multiplayer that I've ever played. Then again, I don't play a lot of multiplayer so don't bite my head off. 

The art style of the background and all the characters is amazing, the little transitions that flash across your screen whenever you meet a new character with their name, picture, and nickname is one of my favourite parts. And I have to say Tiny Tina's is my favourite, but you'll hear me talk about her later because to me she was a HUGE part of the experience. 

Yes, this is another partial review, why? Because I haven't finished the game yet. Why? Because I haven't yet. 

I have to admit in multiplayer that ability to challenge your partner was a feature that the BF and I made use of, mainly while waiting for something, or when we were bored. And I am not going to admit how many times I won or lost, because frankly, that'd just be embarrassing. 

The voice acting in Borderlands was great,  my favourite though is Tiny Tina and Claptrap, I'm not sure why but hey they're my favourite characters. I'll have to get my hands on the DLC for Tiny Tina, because hello? Who can resist a slightly psychotic teenage girl with explosives and tea parties? I'm a fan of the combat as well, which is strange because usually I have a lot of issues with combat in games, but I loved this combat system. 

I am just babbling now. Hopefully, I will get around to doing a single player campaign review of this as well.

Metro 2033

Partial Review Time!

Metro 2033

Now, the first thing you might be asking is "Partial review, what the heck is that? Why didn't she just finish the game?" and I can answer that for you right now. The answer is simple, my computer decided it hates me. So, because of that I will be reviewing Metro 2033 up to the Depot, which is where my game decides to freeze and crash and fail in so many infuriating ways.

I am hoping however, that once I finally figure out the problem, I will be able to come back and do the review on the other half of Metro 2033. So, really this is more like a part one. 

*Ahem*

Moving on.

Metro 2033 is a video game based off of a post-apocalyptic book of the same name by Dmitry Glukhovsky (can we just take a moment to appreciate how his name rolls off the tongue?). It was released in 2010 ad developed by 4A Games. Metro 2033 now has a sequel released in May of this year under the name Metro: Last Light.

In Metro 2033, you play as Artyom in the metro tunnels underneath a completely destroyed Moscow. The world is inhabited by Dark Ones, mutants, and humans. And naturally with people forced to live in such close quarters in the metro, tensions are high. As Artyom you travel through areas of the metro occupied by the Soviets and the Reichs, as well as, unallied stations, all in order to find D6. D6 is the underground missile base that Artyom, Hunter, and others set out to find in order to "reclaim" the surface from the Dark Ones.

One thing that I find that Metro does extremely well is all the atmosphere. This is a game where you want to be sitting in a dark room with good headphones on and the volume cranked. When you are in the metro stations walking through the masses of people who call the station their home, and the refugees from either side of the war, the way the sound hits you can be overwhelming. Which, is great. The voices and cries of people and the advertisements from vendors seem to bounce of the close walls all around you. You literally hear everything everywhere, it left me with a claustrophobic feeling.

Another thing that I love Metro for is all the little details on the surface or below in the metro, how everything just seems to have stopped. How the buildings crumble and the play ground equipment still creaks in the background. How there are personal affects of people left laying around and skeletons to loot.

Bullets are rare in Metro 2033, and if you aren't careful you'll end up shooting the only currency in the game at an enemy and being dirt broke when you need that armour upgrade (yes, I am speaking from experience). But that just adds the urgency to the game, an unwillingness not to shoot unless you have to, not to shoot wildly, and aim properly. I love games that force me to explore and loot in order to have extra bullets, extra bombs, add in the lore, etc.

Metro 2033, is so far one of my favourite games thus far and that is based on pretty much only the atmosphere. Seriously, if you haven't had a chance to play this game yet, play it. I know I will be finishing it once I can figure out why it's suddenly stopped running on my computer. 

The Last of Us

Review Time!

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a post apocalyptic game with zombies and heart created by NaughtyDog. In The Last of Us you play as Joel, a gruff, hardened smuggler put into the one situation he has dreaded, delivering a little girl, Ellie, to the Firefly's. Why? She's immune. 

Along the way you are thrown in to a beautiful environment, I mean, right down to the individual pieces of grass. This game is just plain pretty, not more than pretty, it's beautiful. The sunset in the background behind all the collapsing abandoned buildings, the places where it is clear that nature has started to take the world back. When you walk through water, Joel's clothes actually get wet and gradually dry (though, I did notice that this also occurred in the Uncharted games, but this is better.)

The Last of Us, is more than just a pretty game, the graphics are amazing, the character arcs, the character interactions, oh I can go on forever about the story and character in this game. I'll try to make it brief, so this post doesn't become four pages long. 

I think I mentioned it before, but I am a writer (unpublished :( ) and when a game has such an in-depth story line I get giddy. I was very giddy with this game. Sometimes, I find that characters in games aren't as flushed out as I'd like them to be. Who were they before the disaster happened? What made them change into a smart ass? Surely they didn't just start off that way. The Last of Us does this great, right from the beginning when we find out Joel's reason for his hardened attitude toward Ellie, but it's more than that, throughout the journey little things are revealed about Joel. Little things that you might miss if you're not a story line/Character design/lore fanatic like me. 

These little things all piece together to give an understanding on why Joel is the way he is. They do the same with Ellie, and it's not too far into the journey with her that the game makes you realize how different Ellie is from Joel. How much she doesn't know about Before, because, she wasn't around before the world went to shit. 

The dialogue interaction between the characters is something else I noticed, first of all, I love the voice acting in this game, but NaughtyDog has never let me down in voice actors. The dialogue flows so easily, and naturally, that at times I found myself so invested in the characters that I couldn't stand to see anything bad happen to them.

Which leads me into the FEELS. Oh. My. God. The feels. There aren't too many games that get me this emotionally invested in the characters and the story, but the Last of Us, hits dead on. And I haven't heard very different from anyone else I know who've played it either. When the characters are tense, you're tense, when something happens to one of the characters you hesitate. There was one time I was yelling at my TV because I didn't like a particular decision Joel makes. If you've played the game, and aren't a snow troll, you probably know which one I'm talking about. 

Overall, I absolutely loved The Last of Us. It definitely lived up to all the hype around it, I think. And I'm seriously hoping that they decide to bring it back for a sequel, personally, I'd like to play through a game of the years between Sara's death and meeting Ellie.

BioShock

Review Time

BioShock

Quick note: Yes, I am aware this game is several years old. I am going to review it anyway so hush.

BioShock is a first person shooter developed by 2K Boston--now Irrational Games--which made it's debut in 2007 on Xbox 360. It's set in a the crumbling underwater city of Rapture in 1960 where madness is apparent in most of Rapture's remaining citizens. You are launch into the game after your plane crashes in the middle of the ocean, only then to swim to the nearest piece of land which happens to be a tower sort of building, where after hopping into a Bathosphere you're transported to the decaying city of Rapture.

First of all, I would like to openly admit that I am a total scaredy cat, why? Because I remember when BioShock first came out and seeing the trailers for it, and people talking about it, but why didn't I get it and play it then? Because big ass machine-like dudes with freakin' drill arms that's why! When BioShock originally came out, I couldn't even bring myself to watch horror movies. 

But, that aside, I've been wanting to play BioShock for the last couple months and I got lucky during the Steam Summer Sale, and the package with Bioshock 1 & 2 were on. Hello Pretty, you're mine. So I've been pretty much glued to my computer since I installed it. 

The one thing that stands out for me in BioShock the most is the atmosphere and how well the story is told, revealing tiny bits and pieces as it goes on. I am one of those crazy people who go nuts over the lore in video games, and I think it's done well in BioShock with the recordings of different peoples accounts. Because of how this is done, you get to see even when Rapture was in good condition, things were already crumbling society wise. You get to know peoples inner most thoughts about the Big Daddies and the Little Sisters, about Andrew Ryan and Fontaine even before you meet these characters face to face. 

Now, I could talk about graphics in this game and how I think they're great, but being totally honest, I don't know much about graphics other than oh pretty. So I'll leave that for now and move on. 

The combat system in BioShock is great, I found switching between Plasmids and weapons to be easy and quick with my mouse (which in some cases since I am more of a rush in head first kind of gamer, is a great thing, for me at least). Though, the one complaint I do have is when adding a new Plasmid or switching Plasmids out, the entire order gets messed up every time, which forced me to take more time reorganizing everything or after I while I just adapted to every time it changed positions. 

Over all, I love the whole premise of BioShock. I love how the story has it's twists and turns until it gives you one huge AHA! moment.

Now, would you kindly give it a play?

Roll Call!

Who the #@%*! is Gamer Girl Present?

GGP is just a girl who happens to also be a gigantic geek, and Canadian.

And you're qualified how?

I think it's pretty self explanatory. I'm a gamer, the fact that I am a girl is what seems to get everyone's panties in a twist. I've reviewed books for years, hell, I want to write as a profession. I am a fairly opinionated person. Whether or not you deem me qualified is up to you, but I'm going to post reviews here anyway. 

Sure, OK, you are a "gamer" girl. Seriously though, are you just one of those chicks who pose with controllers and games in strategic places? Do you only game because your boyfriend/husband/significant other does?

So I guess, I'm going to hit some stereotypes here. No, I do not pose with controllers/games in strategic places, annnd never will so stop beating that horse. And secondly, I was gaming long before I met my BF, yes, he's a gamer too, yes we do play Borderlands 2 together, yes he encourages my gaming, but I do not game just because he does. Hell, I grew up playing Mario and Duck Hunt on the NES.

So you're a girl why aren't you in the kitchen? Seriously, make me a sandwich.

I swear, honestly, if I hear this one more time I am going to explode or implode which ever is more dramatic. And actually, if you want to know the real reason why I'm not in the kitchen? I can't cook. Seriously, not a skill I posses, just ask my BF.

You're just going to use this blog to talk about all the girly aspects in gaming aren't you?

I'm not sure what is meant by "girly aspects in gaming," I mean if you're talking about me going on a rant about the over sexualization of women in games or how female game characters are under some sort of injustice, I can do that, but, that isn't what this blog is about. Sure, I might write up a completely pms-y response to something said in the gaming community or something happening in a game, but let's not focus on that. This blog is for reviews, the end.

Consoles or PC?

Both. For consoles, I mainly use my PS3. But lately, I've gotten more into PC gaming, but seriously don't ask me for computer specs because I have no f***king clue, I can read off what the little sticker on my laptop says, but other than that you're shite out of luck. I don't have a fancy gaming computer, in fact, when I bought my laptop I was told straight up "This is not a gaming computer." But guess what? I'm gonna use it like that anyway. 

Blog features on the way?

Like I said above somewhere, mainly I'll have game reviews. Maybe later on into the blog life I'll start adding in some upcoming releases posts, if people want the kind of thing. And there will probably be the occasional random post from me, and maybe a pot or two about some cool gadgets I've found around the web.

Other badass gamer girls out there?

Honestly? There are a lot, you just don't hear about them because we're still outnumbered. But here are two of my favourite gamer girls.

Dodger Leigh 

Rosanna Pansino (Ro also does a show called Nerdy Nummies, which honestly is the best nerdy baking show ever).