I ended up returning the game to Redbox as I had seen enough, but if you’re interested in seeing a more detailed look at the game check out Dan Ryckert’s impressions in this Giant Bomb Quick Look.
Watching the video almost made me want to play the game a bit more, but I think I’m going to stick to my guns and leave it alone for awhile. I still have plenty of other things I can be playing that will make better use of my time. If you’ve played the game let me know what you think of it so far.
I first found out about the game PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS last week after seeing it played on Giant Bomb, and their continued coverage of the game has made me unusually excited for some random, non AAA game on Steam. The game unleashes up to 100 players into a huge playground (or ‘battleground’ if you will) and it’s up to the player to scavenge for weapons, armor and supplies while trying to survive until the end.
This was the idea that sold me on Day Z initially, but I could never get past the complexity of the game. Battlegrounds seems to be much simpler to dive into, and it also looks to run reasonably well. I tried it out on my laptop (Acer Aspire V15 Nitro), but it doesn’t run as well as I’d like it to so I’ve mostly avoided playing it so that I can dive in using my desktop once I return home.
Until then, I’m going to continue to enjoy watching the guys at Giant Bomb screw around in the game as they try to be the last man standing.
Hey just wanted to pop in and say I’m about to go live with an Extra Life stream, as a member of team Giant Bomb. The link for my Extra Life profile is http://extra-life.org/participant/AVGL, and the link to the Twitch stream is http://twitch.tv/jdh5153.
I encourage you to stop by if you can! I’ll be starting off by working through some games in my Steam backlog such as Bastion, Transistor, Gone Home and Stardew Valley and moving on from there. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to make it through the 24 hours in one shot, or divide it up into two legs. We’ll see how it goes!
After seeing the quicklook on Giant Bomb and realizing that current gen consoles aren’t region locked, I immediately went over to Solaris Japan and ordered a copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris from Japan. As many were, I was a bit underwhelmed by the recent release of Tetris Ultimate here in the states, but was immediately sold once I saw the Japanese game. The game offers a unique style (very Japan) and a twist on the gameplay with the Puyo Puyo integration.
If you don’t know anything about Puyo Puyo, I invite you to check out Giant Bomb’s quick look, it’s quite entertaining! Can’t wait to play it after it arrives!
I had never imported any video game before, but Solaris Japan made it quick and easy. I was able to pay using PayPal, and after selecting the quickest shipping option the total came out to just over $60 which seems pretty reasonable. The game shipped quickly (the day after I ordered it I believe) and everything has gone smoothly so far. It’s scheduled for delivery tomorrow by DHL, so hopefully I’ll be able to pop it in and give it a try before heading into work tomorrow night.
Monolith Productions may be most well known for developing the hit games F.E.A.R. and Condemned, but they’ve also made quite a splash in the downloadable ‘arcade’ market with Gotham City Imposters. It looks like they have another downloadable hit on their hands with Guardians of Middle-Earth (available on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN).
If you’re familiar with the insanely popular League of Legends game on the PC (or DOTA 2) then you’ll easily understand how to play Guardians of Middle-Earth. GoME is a console version of these games with a Lord of the Rings theme, so you’ll be playing as characters such as Gandalf or Sauron. I’ve played a handful of matches so far and I have to say the game plays great on a console. Controls are quite intuitive. Hold right trigger for your basic attack while the face buttons are used for special attacks and abilities. When you level up, simply hold RB (on the 360) to open your abilities menu and press to corresponding button to quickly add a point to your chosen ability).
Guardians of Middle-Earth also spices things up by allowing you to upgrade your towers as you level up. The higher your level the more powerful the upgrade you can apply to any given tower. You can change their rate of fire, or build a barracks to spawn more powerful creatures.
The graphics are pretty nice and the map is well designed and nice to look at when you’re not frantically attacking (or retreating).
Guardians of Middle-Earth is available for $15 (1200 MSP) and there’s also a season pass available for an additional $15 which will grant you access to future DLC ‘guardians’ (the characters you play as) and other content. It’s certainly a great game to enjoy as you prepare to watch The Hobbit this weekend.
If you want to see the game in action, check out Giant Bomb’s gameplay ‘quick look’ which features 37 minutes of gameplay and commentary, below:
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