Runescape – Zamorak Godwars Guide

Introduction

This guide was written by I Slay Upray to explain how to effectively dispose of the Zamorak boss, K’ril Tsutsaroth. This beastie is the strongest boss monster in the godwars dungeon, yet, with proper levels, gear, and knowledge, you can put him to shame over and over again!

British Elites Runescape Clan

The most effective way of beating up this boss is to use the TANK and ATTACKER(s) method (like you use in Bandos Godwars). In terms of items you need for protection, you will only require a zamorak item to get killcount easily (A bandos item is useful, too, but not needed)

This boss, like most other bosses, requires knowledge, stats, gear, and has serveral attacks that he can deploy to try and extinguish your presence from his room – Firstly, the attacks!

Regular melee attack – Hits only the Tanker, and can hit up to 400, but is harmless as Tanker uses protect from melee prayer to avoid any damage being done.

Magic Attack – This attack can hit anyone, and can hit in the 200’s, but it is only harmful to the Tanker, as all the Attackers use the protect from magic prayer to avoid this.

MELEE SPECIAL ATTACK – WATCH OUT FOR THIS! This special attack only hits the tanker, Hits through melee prayer, and can hit up to 500! Also, this drains the tankers prayer, so watch your prayer points when tanking!

Poison – Annoyingly, he can poison you, as well as being immune to poison himself – this is a pretty damaging poison, starting at around 160 hitpoints of damage! So, remember your super antipoisons…

His three minions – These three other demons each attack with a different attack style (melee, range, mage), and may look as though they would make cute pets, but can hit a meaty 200+ each on any player!

HOW TO GET THERE + KILLCOUNT

You may be wondering – So, how on earth do I get to the door of the fearsome K’ril Tsutsaroth?
Luckily, I can show you! (I made this myself, so respect it, kay?)

How to get to the God Wars Dungeon

How to get to the God Wars Dungeon

Getting inside Zamorak's Fortress

Getting inside Zamorak’s Fortress

THE ROLE OF THE ATTACKER

Zamorak Godwars is arguably the easiest to do as the attacker, but you can still get an expensive trip to lumbridge if you come unprepared! Personally, I reccomend the following stats –

80+ attack and strength – to be effective in damaging the boss.
70+ prayer – For piety – speedier kills.
70+ Defence + HP – less chance of death.

The attacker should set the following quickprayers – Protect from Magic, and Piety. They will recieve 0 damage from K’ril Tsutsaroth, so it is only the minions that pose any threat to them at all. They wait in the north-east corner inbetween kills. They should give food to the tank whenever it is requested, and should be wearing gear like so –

Zamorak God Wars Melee Gear Setup

Zamorak God Wars Melee Gear Setup

(The above image is screenshots from a calculator on RuneHq, which can be seen here – http://runehq.com/guide.php?type=calculator&id=0762 )

The inventory should be along the lines of this – (I have noted the summons you need in my annotations)
*EDIT* For those without a unicorn, please remember your SUPER ANTIPOSIONS (ideally ++)!!! (they’re the browny pots in the picture) And if you are using a unicorn Solely to cure posion, you will need maybe 3-4 super restores as you need summoning points to cure poison. Bring 2-3 antiposions depending on how long you think you can last.

Zamorak God Wars Inventory

Zamorak God Wars Melee Inventory

THE ROLE OF TANKER.

This unfortunate person must be able to survive the attacks of a rather annoyed level 650 and, sometimes, his three little minions! For this reason I reccomend at least the following –

85 defence+hitpoints – increases survival chance + trip length.
80 magic – The big’un often likes to fire a bolt or two at you – helps to tank this off.
70 prayer, and the ability to notice when it is about to run out!

Also, having decent offensive stats, like 80+ attack and stength, would be nice The quickprayers should be set on Protect item, Protect from melee, and piety. The tank should wait near the middle of the room inbetween kills and get the first hit onto K’ril to get his attention.
My reccomended gear for tanking –

Zamorak God Wars Tanking Gear Setup

Zamorak God Wars Tanking Gear Setup

(The above image is screenshots from a calculator on RuneHq, which can be seen here – http://runehq.com/guide.php?type=calculator&id=0762 )

Zamorak God Wars Tanking Gear Setup

Zamorak God Wars Tanking Gear Inventory

OTHER NOTES / THINGS OF INTEREST

Interestingly, Despite being a pretty large and powerful creature, K’ril Tsutsaroth and his minions are classified as LESSER DEMONS, so if you want to use a slayer helm or black mask against them, Greater demon tasks will NOT give you any boost. However, some time in the future, they shall be corrected –

Zamorak God Wars Lesser Demon/Greater Demon Slayer Masters

Zamorak God Wars Lesser Demon/Greater Demon Slayer Masters

K’ril Tsutsaroth actually has a very low defense level for his combat level, meaning that it is easier to hit him than other bosses. However, he is very dangerous for the tanker, which makes up for this.

The Darklight’s Special Attack is very useful when killing demons such as K’ril as it lowers their defense significantly. It is more effective than a Bandos Godsword special, and it can also be used twice in a row as it has a 50% drain. This makes it a very desirable choice for attackers, especially those that cannot afford Dragon Claws!

Credits to –

I Slay Upray – Writing the guide (took me awhile)
Pugsi1234567 – Wrote the first Zamorak Godwars guide, which you can still see here – https://junglebiscuit.com/runescapezamorakgodwarsguide.shtml
Shyguy921 – Editing Pugsi’s guide
And you, for reading!

British Elites Runescape Clan

Back To Top

Fallout: New Vegas Review 28/10/2010

This identical copy of Fallout 3 may look a bit out of date now, but this enormous game is still one of the most addictive & enjoyable experiences to be had on a PS3.

I was never a fan of role playing games (RPG’s), but 2008’s Fallout 3 totally won me over, and gave me a gaming experience unlike anything I have ever played before. It mixed action with role playing elements, gave a really engrossing story and a ridiculously vast nuclear war devastated wasteland to explore, with huge amounts of customising, side quests and exploring to do. It was so addictive that I just couldn’t get enough of it and it was easily in my top 3 of the best games I have played so far on the PS3, and the vast majority of the gaming world agreed with me as it won many accolades of “game of the year 2008”. As you can imagine I was anticipating this follow up, Fallout: New Vegas, with huge amounts of eagerness. So can lightning strike twice, can Bethesda Studios make another masterpiece? This game is an action RPG set several hundred years into the future, but from the perspective of how society perceived the future would be in the 1950’s. So you have nuclear powered tail finned cars, robot waiters, duke boxes etc. In 2227, inevitably, mankind wiped itself out in a nuclear war between the USA and China. Few people survived but the humans that did, being humans, emerged from the ashes as greedy and willing to kill each other as ever before. Several hundred year’s later people are surviving but society is struggling to be restored and technology is still few and far between. The concept of every man for himself is the most widely adopted attitude. Las Vegas somehow managed to avoid the apocalypse and is still a vibrant neon town, powered by the Hoover Dam which is still functioning, but is in the charge of a mysterious overlord with a robot army, called Mr House. Several societies battle for power in the nuclear wastelands, such as the “New California Republic (NRC)” and the “Legions of Caesar” for example, each one wanting to enforce their particular rule over others. You play a simple courier who was delivering a package when a group of gangsters intercepted you, robbed you and shot you in the head, leaving you for dead. Luckily though a robot finds you and takes you to a nearby doctor, who heals you. Several days later you emerge from the doctors house and go on a mission to try and find out why those people tried to kill you, what was so precious about your package and survive the savage nuclear wastelands long enough to find out.

What’s good?

As before (in Fallout 3) the sheer size of the game is mind boggling. It isn’t quite as big as the capital wasteland of Washington DC, from Fallout 3, but it’s still a monster of a game. Walking across it in its entirety would take hours. There are far more towns and settlements to discover, than its predecessor, including the fully modelled New Vegas, which represents Las Vegas from the 1950’s, so this is casino’s run by mob bosses and crooks in general. There is no subway system as in Fallout 3, but you can still go in practically every house and building and there is still a myriad of underground sewers, caves, bunkers and vaults to explore. There will always be something worth getting in all nooks and crannies so exploration of the wasteland is highly advised. For example, I came across a small group of heavily armed robots defending a crashed aeroplane, and after killing them I found a huge bazooka like laser cannon. I also found a mini nuke launcher, called a Fatman, in a cave which had a nest of night stalkers in it (half dog, half lizard, mutated beasts). There is also the noticeable gang element to New Vegas, as there are loads of these societies. All are very different such as the organised, but desperate, “New California Republic” army, the drugged up rapist murdering psychopathic “Fiends”, the warrior tribe “The great Khans”, the supremely cool “Brotherhood of Steel” (my favourite), the heavily armed “Boomers” and loads more. There are also loads of companies to work for as well, such as caravan companies, weapons dealers, tradesmen, mercenaries, casino’s etc, and all require investigating and communicating with as most will offer you work with high reward, or attack you causing you to slaughter them and fleece their corpses of all their fine weaponry and armour. For example, the “Fiends” will attack anything and everything on sight and are armed to the teeth, but gunning down just a small group of these lunatics will enable you to pick their cold dead hands of their very fine arsenal. You should wander into “Fiend” territory now and again, despite the risk, as you are far better off in this desolate future killing and stealing from those who mean you harm, than earning and purchasing things honourably. The sheer amount of content blows Fallout 3 away and it vastness is unmatched by anything you will have played on the PS3 before.

It trumps its predecessor in the ludicrous amount of game time you will get. Fallout 3 was a big game in the huge amount to do, but New Vegas has taken that and just gone ballistic. I got 5 hours into this game and I was yet to undertake the first mission from the main story. It packs out the hours spent playing by having an untold amount of side missions. They are literally everywhere, in every town, from everyone you speak to. It encourages you constantly to chat to people all the time, and it will always serve you missions as a result. Although not technically essential, side missions are hugely influential, as performing the main story mission is much much harder if you don’t utilise all the favours gained from others in this world. Getting into New Vegas, for example, will cost a fortune, however if you get on the good side of a gang boss called “the King” it’s completely free. This of course involves doing missions for him. Doing missions for others can ultimately end up with them accompanying you on your wasteland trek, and company is often a hugely beneficial asset. Added to this is your need for experience points, the vast majority of which will be gained from missions, to level up your character to make him a jack of all trades. If the vast amount of exploration to undertake didn’t already consume a huge chunk of your life, the sheer amount of missions and tasks alone would still cease your social life. It is a serious amount of game for your money.

This game has so many moral choices to make. Although Fallout 3 had choices to make it never went too far into it and you were often better off being good anyway as the advantages were more obvious. New Vegas completely evens out the playing field though as being “good” or “evil” have a totally equal amount of pros and cons. An innocent old woman wants money for some items you badly need so do you a) pay her or try and barter her down and then pay her, or b), blow her head off with a shot gun and rob her. New Vegas has no issue with either. Depending on how good or bad you are affects how the whole game plays out, including the main story, and especially how others treat you. This packs out the already huge amount of content even further as nearly all main story missions have at least two alternative ways of dealing with a quest, normally involving doing the decent thing or having the back stabbing murderous approach, but please be aware its carefully constructed so that neither moral choice will ever have an advantage over the other. I worked for some very unpleasant energy weapon dealers, in a shop called “silver rush”, which gives you bad karma and makes others dislike you, but the rewards for doing so where huge, with the most sophisticated weapons and armour being handed over as payment, along with loads of money. I also hated “Ceaser’s Legion”, as they are slave dealers, but working for them, which again has negative impacts, allowed me access to an essential character in the game. On the other hand, if you are super nice and helpful to the “Boomers” you receive essential help from them later on in the game. Don’t ever be afraid to mix it up, don’t always choose the path of good, as there is no method that serves you better than another. Never have I come across a game before that gives you so much free will to play with.

There is a lot of customisation and personalisation to do. Customising, or levelling up, your character is pretty much the aim of the game. You can choose superficial stuff of course such as your sex, facial feature arrangement, facial hair, hair, eye colour, your armour/clothes, everything. But the main purpose is to add to your experience points. Every thing you kill and every mission you complete adds points in order for you to evolve your character’s skills and abilities. You can make him/her linguistically suave, physically strong, a good shot, a good trader, a lock picking expert, a computer hacking genius, improve your healing ability, the list goes on. Plus, there are loads of levels of this each with it’s own set of “perks”, which include being able to carry round more supplies, having heightened senses at night, increasing your luck when aiming for a critical strike, increasing your abilities with explosives, energy weapons or normal guns etc. The more game time you put in the more levels of experience you will unlock until you can pick the hardest of locks, heal someone who’s on deaths door or barter every merchant to give you seriously discounted supplies. The clever thing is, however, that New Vegas limits the amount everything can be upgraded so you will never be able to have maxed out points of every skill. You have to decide in advance how you are going to approach this wasteland, what sort of character you are going to be. For example, in Fallout 3 I had made a physically strong character who was able to kill the largest of mutated beasts with his bare hands and carry shit loads of stuff, but couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag and got financially buggered by every trader. This means I could never convince anyone to do anything making many missions very difficult to overcome, and always got ripped off by traders costing me a fortune in caps. So in New Vegas I wanted a character who was linguistically mighty. So it was awesome having the ability to convince a stone to give me blood, however the consequences of this slapped me hard round the face when I realised it was at the cost of not being strong enough to hold my weapons for aiming, so I was constantly missing my targets, wasting ammo, being killed a lot and couldn’t carry many supplies with me to go long spells of surviving in the wasteland. You have to approach every situation using your pre-selected advantages and make the best of problems where you have none. The depth and detail of choice and its implications is immense and even more so than its predecessor.

V.A.T.S is still awesome. The Vault Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) is one of Fallout’s unique combat systems. Whenever you encounter an enemy you have the choice of, simply by the push of a button, to enter this mode which allows you to pick an enemy and then choose what part of him you want to shoot at. If you shoot a leg, it will disable the enemy, shoot an arm and he may drop his weapon and if you choose his head you will likely blow it off resulting in a “critical strike” (I’m sure you can guess what that means). You have an unlimited time to choose these targets, once in VATS mode, but it is restricted by your action points (AP’s) displayed in the lower left hand side of the screen. You only have a certain amount, so you can’t use it indefinitely, and they slowly build up over time. You can also take various chemical concoctions that will increase their regenerative ability temporarily. Once your chosen target is selected it will zoom out and show you a slow motion replay of what the kill looks like. Although its not quite as effective as you might think (more on that in a bit) I have come across few more satisfying experiences than watching, in slow motion, your character blow a mutants head clean off with a double barrelled shot gun, blood and limbs splattering everywhere. It is so very rewarding, in a slightly disturbed way, and I have yet to get tired of it. It is often the best method of killing and you should use it a lot.

There is a seriously huge amount of fire power in New Vegas. A criticism I had with Fallout 3 was how unspectacular the weaponry was. It did the job, but other than a few highlights, it didn’t do much to ignite your love of fire power. New Vegas rectifies that though with a huge amount of crazy futuristic weapons. The Gatling lasers, missile launchers, shotguns and machine guns remain, of course, but now you have things such as the immensely powerful Gauss Rifle, a laser sniper rifle that can decapitate at a considerable distance. You also have a laser “Tommy Gun” (basically a smaller Gatling laser), much more variety of hand to hand weapons, such as the ludicrously destructive chainsaw or power glove, a punching mitt that can literally blow your enemy to pieces with one punch. I could go on. There is also a new weapon that combines the two best words possibly in gaming: “Grenade Machinegun”. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. The AK47 has gone, but you can use a myriad of carbine weapons, such as an M16 machine gun, a magnum revolver and rifle, all very powerful. There is also many different shot guns, not just the few found in Fallout 3, and many varieties in general of all weapons. I also found several special guns, such as a rocket launcher called “Annabelle”, a mini gun called “The Avenger” and a grenade launcher called “Thumper”. These special weapons often require you to kill their particularly tough owner, but they have an advantage over its normal brethren such as being more powerful, holding more ammo etc. Plus, of course, the legendary “fat man” remains, and if you don’t know what that is it’s a device that launches “mini nukes”, which are exactly as the name states. They are small nuclear missiles that vaporise anything in a glorious, yet miniature, mushroom cloud. Its particularly entertaining to launch one through VATS and watch it in slow motion, as your target feebly tries to leg it, blow everything sky high. You need to be fairly careful when using it however as ammo is seriously scarce, far more rare than it was in Fallout 3. Power armour is also back and still awesome, though you have to work harder to get it, but it is still particularly cool and very effective. Of course everything has to be maintained and repaired to keep it at full maiming capacity, and there is an untold amount of customising to do on most weapons, such as adding sights, larger magazines etc, and there is different ammo available for every weapon, such as explosive or armour piercing rounds. If you like fire power and weapon customising this will be your nirvana.

This game oozes atmosphere like no other. One thing you will notice is that Fallout doesn’t do things in halves; it has to have ridiculous quantities of everything. Huge amounts to do, vast wastelands to explore, an obscene amount of guns and ammo, but what it has most of is atmosphere. Bethesda Studios really know how to suck you into a game and make you incapable of turning it off. Atmosphere comes from the world that’s been created, for example, very early on you meet a trampy looking wastelander who pleads with you to rescue his sister on top of a hill from irradiated geckos, and upon doing this you find nobody on the hill accept some supplies. The bloke then turns up behind you, states he used you to get rid of the geckos and now needs to kill you to claim the supplies, which he of course tries to do. What a cruel but realistic introduction to this savage wasteland. I also found a house in the mountains full of giant super mutants that were intelligent and you could converse with. There was another mountain that had a massive “nightkin” (a huge dark blue super mutant) dressed as a woman, complete with hat and wig, and broadcasts on the radio bizarre messages of hatred. I found a club in a sewer called “The Thorn” that rears mutated creatures and gets them to fight for sport. There’s a gang called “the Kings” where every one of them is dressed as a 50’s greaser. I got a cyborg dog with an exposed brain called “Rex” as a companion. In a town called “Freeside” I saw two children chasing a rat, and upon shooting the rat, the kids fell on it and started eating it. I explored many deserted vaults often filled with ghouls (mutated human killing machines) and one that was filled with killer plants as a result of an experiment that went wrong. I even found one vault that had become deserted as the computer that ran the vault had become corrupt and demanded a human sacrifice once a year or the oxygen would be turned off. I couldn’t resist going into the sacrificial chamber, where you walk down a brightly lit hallway and into room with a single chair in the middle. It then plays you a really creepy film about accepting death, appreciating your life’s achievements, before the walls drop down and a load of turret machine guns turn you into Swiss cheese. It was disturbing to say the least. I was even walking through the wasteland at one point and came across a man kneeling over the bloody corpse of a woman. As I approached he took a gun out and shot himself through the head. Who comes up with this stuff? “Imaginative” doesn’t come close to describing the mood and atmosphere in this game, it is fantastic.

What’s bad?

As with Fallout 3, glitches and bugs make this a technical nightmare. Fallout 3 was ridden with glitches that often left you stuck and having to restart from a previous save point, and unfortunately New Vegas takes this technical inferiority to new extreme levels. It’s embarrassing for Bethesda Studios. Playing this game is a lot like walking across a very rickety old bridge, such as you would find in an Indiana Jones film. It’s going to collapse; it’s just a matter of when. It pauses, admittedly very briefly, constantly, and every time it does there is fairly decent chance it will crash entirely. This isn’t every half hour or once in a while, this is every ten seconds or so, I kid you not, it’s that bad. Other characters get stuck on each other and their surroundings constantly, or sink into the backgrounds so they have no legs. Then things will start moving randomly, such as metal cans falling repeatedly from the sky, wasteland animals walking up trees (as funny as it is to watch), people standing perfectly still but gliding across the floor, people talking without moving their mouths and just lots and lots of cock ups. It’s easily far worse than the already seriously dodgy predecessor and this is really something that should be improved upon, from previous games, not allowed to deteriorate. There are deeper problems as well as you can get completely stuck as glitches will suddenly not allow you to go through a door which is vital to a mission or a character you have to meet will get stuck on a surface and you can not remove them, or they will simply not be where they are supposed to, meaning the mission can never be completed. I could never gain favour with a gang called “The Great Khans” as I couldn’t complete a mission for them as I had to talk to some woman who simply wasn’t where the pip boy indicator showed, and never was. It is literally tough luck! I also had serious issues with the controller input as if things got a bit frantic on screen, and I needed to change weapons, simply fast selecting them (using the directional buttons) stopped working. Even the fire button ceased on several occasions, leaving me to hammer the trigger whilst screaming “shoot you bastard, I’m pressing the fucking button!” only for there to be a huge delay whilst the game catches up with the input and several minutes later, well after the danger has passed, the gun then starts blasting away unprompted, as a result of my earlier infuriated crazed button mashing. I can’t imagine getting huge games like this to work flawlessly is easy, but other large games, like Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption”, can manage it, so I’m not sure how much I can excuse Fallout New Vegas for its glitch ridden technical crapness.

I still have issues with V.A.T.S. Although I love using VATS, and watching your character blow a raiders head off, it is really only effective at close to point blank range, as it was in Fallout 3. If you are anything less than right up close to your enemy you will almost certainly miss. The problem is that you are not really fully in control of whether you make direct hits on your enemy or not. As you pick which part of the body you want to shoot at it displays a percentage number next to it which indicates how likely you are to actually hit. Obviously the bigger the body part, like the torso, and how far away they are, the more or less likely you are to hit it. If it’s below the 80% mark however, I would not bother. This throws the percentages into question, as surely at 50% it should be 50/50 whether you hit or not, but you will miss every single time. Maybe I’m just unlucky, but it does seem to encourage VATS to only be used for particularly close up messy kills. VATS also encourages you to target limbs for the best killing effects but it is so inconsistent. I have unloaded many double barrelled shot guns at point blank range in the enemies face and he is fine and continues to attack you. I have also shot pistols from a mile away, at an enemies’ leg, and it hits him straight between the eyes for a “critical strike”. The inconsistency does take a lot of the skill out of the game and can often involve luck more than anything else. I prefer to rely on my skill personally, and if I miss it doesn’t bother me as much if I know it’s my fault.

Shooting and combat is still a bit rubbish and clumsy. Although it’s better than Fallout 3, as you can now aim down the sights, aiming and shooting is still very difficult. Just because the cross hairs of your rifle are lined up at an enemies head does not mean you will incur a head shot, as unless you’re close, crouching, aiming down the sights, with 100% condition weapon and not moving you will almost definitely miss, whether you like it or not. If you are doing all you can to be as accurate as possible then the enemy will shoot you way before you even knew he was there, or started to aim, or even had your gun drawn! Plus, trust me when I say, the enemy is a much much better shot than you. Your gun’s accuracy and damage dealt are affected by its condition and your skill abilities but generally you will not have full accuracy skill and not a hint of damage on your weapon until you have put in some serious hours into the game, so you basically miss a hell of a lot. It is frustrating. There is not really anything you can do to be more skilful than your enemy as it nearly always comes down to who has the more powerful weapon or the best armour. Skill is pretty much irrelevant. You can jink, duck and dive, but, as I said, you will definitely miss if you shoot whilst doing this. Plus, the enemy is, again, much more accurate. It’s not terrible it’s just so simplistic and out of date by today’s standards. I just found it annoying as I am doing everything right and it is still not having the desired effect. I keep telling myself that it’s not a FPS as such and that I shouldn’t expect such traits, but there is far too much shooting and killing to be done, in first person, to let this fact go.

The enemies can be ludicrously difficult! Of course this depends on the difficulty setting, which you can change at anytime in the main menu, but even if you have it on the easiest difficulty it will still present you with foes that will appear to be indestructible. My main issue is the amount of fire power it takes to kill some enemies, as it is just preposterously stupid. I mean a seriously, ridiculously, unbelievably, ludicrously, hideously, unfeasible amount of damage needs to be done. Killing some thugs that try and mug you is easy enough, as is killing some small RAD scorpions or bloat fly’s, a simple hunting shotgun to the face solves such niggling issues. But often you will come across some armoured raiders, some nasty huge poisonous mutated insects and, the most abominable of all, Deathclaws! I appreciate that playing a game on a hard difficulty is supposed to be hard, but unloading a double barrel shotgun into a raiders face, at point blank range, and it does minimal damage is just ridiculous. That is a one shot kill that is not even easy to pull off so it really shouldn’t take a further 47 point blank shot gun shots to the face to kill what is basically a normal person. It is ludicrous! Even worse is when giant insects, particularly fast moving giant fly’s called “Cazadors”, swarm you and each one delivers a poisonous sting that effects your ability to aim and shoot, so even if you had the required 4782 machine gun rounds to kill one of them, you couldn’t fire anyway or have enough ammo to kill the other six. Then you have the Deathclaws, not only the hardest non-boss enemy in the game but possibly one of the toughest enemies ever encountered in gaming ever. Mere point blank shotgun shots to the face don’t affect this guy at all; I mean it will literally do nothing! You need at least 2 mini nukes to make a direct hit before it is killed, or around 3 or 4 missiles or several Gauss rifle head shots, on the easiest difficulty, otherwise you’re a dead man. Plus bear in mind that’s just one Deathclaw which you will never encounter as they are always found in packs. Let’s just be clear about this: that is TWO NUCLEAR MISSILES to make direct ground zero contact on a flesh and bone organic creature! To make it worse this thing has an unavoidable attack that will kill you with one hit, unless you have the toughest fully repaired power armour on, and even then it only takes two or three hits. This makes missions where you have to take out a horde of them, with even tougher alpha male and female variations, a total ridiculously impossible nightmare. Believe it or not though, even Deathclaw’s are out done in the bullet sponge competition when compared with the end of game boss. I won’t reveal too much detail but it is literally just a man with some armour on. I had to switch it to the easiest difficulty to do it (pathetic I know) and I launched (yes I counted) 167 explosive round grenades at him from my grenade machine gun to kill him. 167 explosive grenades, which are more powerful than the normal 20mm grenades, at point blank range on a flesh and bone human! There isn’t enough words in the dictionary to describe how ridiculous, and I mean RIDICULOUS, the amount of punishment some enemies can brush off and it leaves me wondering if anyone at Bethesda Studios actually played this game before it was released? Did they not think they were overdoing it slightly? Basically, be prepared to unload round after round at enemies, as they shrug off such things as a missile to the face (for fucks sake!), and if you come across more than one Deathclaw, run. Run for your life!

The game still finishes after the last mission, whether you like it or not. As with the previous game they have maintained this incredibly annoying feature in New Vegas. Basically, when you have completed the last main story mission the game is over whether you like it or not. To be fair it does warn you this time by having a menu pop up before the final mission which states that if you continue now you can’t go back, which is fine. However, you acquire so many awesome weapons and experience whilst doing the final mission that you really didn’t have the money for while doing the game, so if you were looking forward to using them whilst continuing your exploration through the wasteland, then tough luck.

The graphics look really out of date. The funny thing is, I remember how good I thought the graphics of Fallout 3 were, at the time and considering the size of the game. New Vegas uses the exact graphics engine as Fallout 3 and it’s strange to see how much a difference two years makes. The graphics look really out of date by today’s standards, and are by no means bad but when compared to other games out at the moment, such as the eye popping “Vanquish”, they do look like something from the PS2. You can live with it, don’t worry, but things have clearly moved on since 2008.

Conclusion

As much as I loathe using the expression, Fallout New Vegas, much like its predecessor, is a game that has the “X-factor”. There is just something about it that makes it so addictive and hugely enjoyable to play, despite the many things wrong with it. There is a hell of a lot wrong with it, I assure you. Particularly the ludicrous fragility of the game with its constant crashing and technical feebleness, bad graphics, really simplistic and often futile shooting, enemies that absorb a stupidly, soul crushingly, monumentally, ludicrous amount of fire power (It is beyond anything feasible) and an ending that comes and ends the whole game whether you want it or not. It frequently infuriates and frustrates and I don’t think it’s as good as Fallout 3. Cloning a previous older title then shoe horning content into it at a cost of quality doesn’t make it better in my opinion. But despite all that sucks, I still absolutely loved it. It is a strange feeling that only someone who’s played Fallout can understand. It’s like finding an old toy you loved as a child, and even though in reality it’s broken, rubbish and useless to you, you still love it more than anything. It was like crack to me for the hundreds of hours I spent playing it and I just couldn’t get enough of it. The thrill of saving enough caps to buy a favourite gun is so satisfying. Exploring an underground vault that’s filled with mutated inhabitants trying to figure out what happened to them all is thrilling and scary. Exploring a mutated beast filled abandoned mine looking for survivors is exciting. Hacking computers and finding ridiculous emails in abandoned robot factories is pointless and hilarious. Setting off a giant orbital laser frying many people is a brilliant moral choice and just the entire bizarre, humorous, violent and desperate atmosphere Fallout New Vegas creates is ridiculously addictive and keeps you playing and exploring for more gaming hours than you will find on anything out right now. If you liked Fallout 3, New Vegas is your next fix, and if you have never played any Fallout game, New Vegas will be an experience worth having. CA.

Summary

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.5

Your “pip boy” is as excellent as ever and will be overly familiar/identical to anyone who played Fallout 3. Will be a little overwhelming if this is your first go. Very well thought out, you don’t need to be an RPG fan to get the hang of it and the controls will offer you nothing unexpected or unpleasant.

Is the story any good? – 9.0

Main story is very engaging, intriguing and can alter depending on your in game decisions. The hundreds of side quests range from tragic to hilarious, but never dull and add to this wasteland atmosphere.

How does it look? – 6.0

3 years ago they impressed, but now they look really out of date. There is a lot of detail, but everything is so wooden and rigid and just looks like an old graphics engine doing its best. Not terrible, but not good either.

How does it sound? – 9.0

No music as such but all voices and eerily quiet wasteland sound effects are very atmospheric. All music changes with the scenario, such as when your attacked, or exploring a vault.

Is it good to play? – 7.5

VATS are awesome but combat is very “old-school” and often futile. Skill has very little to do with it. Character interaction and general exploring is fantastically addictive and very immersive. It is the most glitch ridden, fragile and technically feeble games I have ever played however, it really is bad, and some enemies are so stupidly tough to kill it will drive you mad.

When will I get bored? – 10.0

For those who want the full experience, ice ages will come and go before your addiction is fulfilled. There is an unbelievable amount to do in terms of exploration and side quests and a stupendous amount of guns and ammo to discover and accumulate. Be prepared to sacrifice your social life.

OVERALL – 8.5

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Runescape – The Evil Tree Guide

Introduction

You might cutting down a tree or two, when you notice something popping up from the ground. Yes its a evil tree and you can nuture it into a fully grown evil tree.

And yes you do need requirements.
It’s best to have completed Tree gnome stronghold so you can access the spirit trees, you can ask them about clues so you can locate the evil tree. If the evil tree is fully matured the spirit tree will teleport you directly to it.

Requirements

Runescape Evil Tree Requirements

Runescape Evil Tree Requirements

Most important you can only kill two trees everyday, and a tree will appear every 2 hours.

Don’t worry if you don’t have supplies a leprechuan always is next to the evil tree cheering you on, he will supply you with everything you need to kill the evil tree.

As you go on battling with the tree you will recieve exp im not sure how much yet so as soon as i find out i will update this guide.

Rewards

When the tree has finally been defeated you will gain rewards, these rewards range from money, logs(of the trees kind), money, nests and clue scrolls. Also the leprechuan will take any logs you recieve while woodcutting and put them in your bank ONLY! when your inventory is full.

I hope this guide was useful it is my first ever guide

Working as a clan

The easiest method I can think of is everyone has their own world and get into contact with a spirit tree and ask for any information about up coming evil trees, once someone has been notified about it they can then pass on the information to the rest of the clan about the world and location of the evil tree.

Runescape – Corp Beast Guide

Before I start this guide I would like to raise a few key issues

1) if you die you don’t get a grave, so don’t take anything you dont want to risk.
2) Corp beast is incredibly strong and can hit 55+ at a consistent rate, so mage prayer is a must.
3) Mage prayer doesnt totally negate all damage dealt, just as when pking you dont negate all damage when praying against a fellow player.
4) The Corp Beast does ignore most of your armour Bonuses so therefore the argument of “put on karils instead of Black d hide” is in my opinion irrelevant.
5) The corp has 20,000 hp so killing it will take a while
6) Do not step under the corp beast at any time as it will crush you, hitting upto 500 damage.
7) NO BROAD BOLTS
8) NO BROAD BOLTS
9) you guessed it, NO BROAD BOLTS
10) Don’t take a summon, it will only get eaten and heal the corp

INTRODUCTION

the corp beast is the strongest creature currently on runescape. The corp will attack with all 3 combat styles however using mage prayer is best as it hits hardest with its mage attack.
The risks are great with this beast, however the rewards are great. Not only does it drop the 4 sigils, almost all of its drops are worth having as they are all worth something, e.g. 2000 cannonballs.
To fight the corp effectively you need either 6+ lvl 130+ or 10+ lvl 120+.

Corporeal Beast is a boss that requires a high combat level and good gear to kill efficiently. However, a very underestimated aspect in corping is “skill”. The number of kills a trip and kills an hour you do is highly dependent on how you how you handle your supplies in the corp lair. This includes but isn’t limited to: when you eat, what you pray, how you react to the core, how good the stunner is, and where you stand. Just because you meet the combat requirements and have all the supplies does not mean you can corp. This guide will tell you how to corp efficiently and do a large number of kills per trip ranging from 20-25 kills a trip (I’ve done 28 as a peak but considering the majority of corpers get around 12 ATM, 20-25 is good enough to distinguish you from the rest).

British Elites Runescape Clan

REQUIREMENTS

Must of completed SUMMERS END (quest)

90 range (if ranging)

85 attack and strength (if meleeing)

85 defence

These stats are only a guideline so dont panic if you have lower stats, you can still fight the corp beast. Of course the more people there are the lower stats are required to kill it.]

ELITE SETUP

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Corp Beast Elite Gear Setup

Note: Gear that can substitute the above:
Fighter hat
D stone/Diamond (i)/Berserker/ Berserker (i) (if you’re under 100 MA rank bring berserker, If you don’t want to risk 5m extra corping here’s you inspiration to start doing ma). If you bring ring of life you will be KICKED from most 5 man teams. Simple as.
Fire cape (Bring games necklace if you’re bringing it) / Ardougne Cloak 4
—————————————–
Explanation.
Why the rune crossbow? It has always been debated that the rcb “kos the core more than mith”, where it doesn’t affect ranged strength. I honestly don’t care which you bring because the difference is probably microscopic when you’re in karils and your range bonus is already high and are hitting on a low def lvl 75 core.

OTHER SETUPS

Range setup:

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Neit helm > Archer
Black D’hide body
Black D’hide Chaps
Snakeskin Boots
Ring of WEALTH
Spirit Shield (Ely or Divine) > Unholy Book > Other prayer books.
Rune Crossbow
Amulet of Ranging > Fury > Glory
Alerter > Accumulator

Inventory

Ruby bolts (e)
Emerald Bolts (e)
2 Range potions (Ext if you can)
3 Prayer potions (optional)
Inventory of Sharks/ Cavefish/ Rocktail
(You can if you wish take Brews and Super restores with the ratio of 3 brews to 1 Restore)

Melee setup:

If you have the bank value to increase your weapon then do so, upgrading the Darklight to a Bando’s Godsword is extremely helpful.

Super Set Setup

This setup is for people with low cash value, and people who have not got 90+ herblore.

Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup - Super Set Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear - Super Set Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear – Super Set Setup

Extreme Set – Setup

This setup is for people with low cash value, but 90+ Herblore.

Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup - Extreme Set
Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup – Extreme Set

Overload – Brew – Restore – Setup

This setup is for people who have a slightly higher cash pile, as well as 96+ Herblore

Corp Beast Melee Gear Overload - Brew - Restore - Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear Overload – Brew – Restore – Setup

Neit helm
Black D’hide body
Black D’hide Chaps
Dragon Boots > Bando’s Boots
Ring of WEALTH
Fury > Glory
Uber cape (Upon Arrival) > Max Cape > Ardy Cape (+ Stab Bonus) >Fire Cape > Soulwars Cape > Skill Cape
Barrow gloves
Zamorakian Spear

Super Set Inventory

Statius Warhammer > Bando’s Godsword >Darklight
3 Prayer potions (2 Super Prayer Potions if 94+ Herblore)
Super Set/ Extreme (90+ Herblore)
Inventory of Sharks/ Cavefish/ Rocktail

Overload Inventory

Statius Warhammer > Bando’d Godsword > Darklight
Overloads
17 Saradomin Brew
7 Super Restore

GETTING THERE

Since recent updates have reintroduced the Wilderness, you no longer are required to run through past Bounty Hunter to get there. As a requirement you need to use a Games Necklace which will teleport you directly into the lair’s entrance. From there follow the screenshots on what to do.

When you teleport in, run East towards the first entrance as shown on the minimap below

Corp Beast Tele In and Run Towards First Entrance
Corp Beast Tele In and Run Towards First Entrance

Enter the entrance, then continue due east to the second entrance BUT DO NOT ENTER!!!

You will now be at the Entrance to Corporal Beast’s Lair, stand around the entrance shown below and do not enter until instructed.

Corp Beast Second Entrance
Corp Beast Second Entrance

FIGHTING THE BEAST

Part 1: The attacks

The corp beast has various nasty attacks at its disposal. These attacks will use all three combat types, but it is best to use mage prayer.

Splash(unsure if mage/range) – Most dangerous. Can do 4 300s.
Spiky blast of energy(mage) – Easily hit 650 without prayer
Melee Claw swipe – 550 damage.
Stomp – 510 damage IF you stand under corp.
Ball of energy(mage) – 550 damage. Drains Magic, Prayer or Summoning by a small amount

Part 2 : Luring

The first time you enter the corps lair a lure is needed to allow everyone to enter safely without dying or being attacked.

You lure the beast by one person stepping into the lair with mage pray on, then quickly stepping out again.

The corp will then end up like this:

How To Lure The Corp Beast

How To Lure The Corp Beast

This allows other players to enter without it attacking them. Once Corporal Beast has been lured, you will be able to enter the Lair without it attacking you, stand around Corp in a square/ Box formation until you are instructed to start killing, you should all be POTTING up at this stage as you will be starting soon.

Part 3 : Melee fighting.

As a whole fighting the corp beast is fairly straight forward. KEEP MAGE PRAYER ON. If it turns to attack you, run back to entrance and click to exit, then count to 5,
this normally gives enough time for the corp to swap targets, and renter.
Once the core spawns, make sure to step away from it or it will hit damage very fast, this also heals the corp. SO MAKE SURE TO STEP AWAY IF IT LANDS IN A SQUARE TOUCHING THE ONE YOUR STOOD IN.

Your job as a melee’r is to stab Corporal Beast. Upon entering Corp’s Lair you will need to use your special attacks with either of the 3 melee weapons listed above, if your specials hit, they will effectively lower Corp’s Defense making the kills quicker.

When the Core appears, alert the ranger as to where it is, if the core is under you and a ranger stuns it, please step 1 space away and do not move. Not moving will stop the core from bouncing around to other players. Whilst standing near the Core it will drain 100 HP every few seconds, if the core is stunned it only drains 100 HP every 1 minute which is acceptable.

Part 4 : Range fighting

Again this is really straight forward. KEEP MAGE PRAYER ON. If it attacks you leave the lair back through the entrance. The difference with ranging is that you need to stun the core.
If you attack the core with emerald e bolts, and it hits, you will stun the core, you then need to step next to it to stop the core from moving.
Whilst the core is stunned it will hit one damage occasionally rather than the constant hits it normally dishes out.
Use ruby bolts (which the damage is capped at 1000 damage unfortunately) until its low, then swap to diamond.

If you are ranging, killing Corp is simple, Stand far enough away from Corp so he cannot melee you, use Ruby (e)’s whilst he is above half HP, as these hit 1000 HP often enough they are crucial! After half HP Switch to your Diamond (e). When the core appears (Small creature that jumps from player to player stealing life points to feed Corp) You need to switch to Emerald (e) and attack the Core. Once you see green smoke appearing from the Core, it will be stunned, Instruct another player to stand 1 space away from the Core if it is still next to Corp, or move 1 space away from Core if it has landed underneath you.

(Standing next to core will drain 100 HP every few seconds, once it is stunned you will lose 100 HP every minute which is considerably less) Moving away from the core after it is stunned will cause it to regain consciousness and start moving around again.

Method for killing Corp/ Core whilst ranging
Method for killing Corp/ Core whilst ranging

Part 5: The aftermath

If you use up all your food, dont despair, thats why you carry a games necklace, teleport to the wilderness volcano, then run back up.
After the initial Luring kill, you will either need to leave the Lair and re-lure Corp, or you can form a circle/box around it’s spawn point. As shown in the photo below:

Form a circle/box around corp's spawn point
Form a circle/box around corp's spawn point
Form a circle/box around corp’s spawn point

However depending on how many people there are, for example if there where less than say 8, it can be better to lure it.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Review 08/10/2010

Not very daring or innovative, but there is a lot to enjoy.

Another geek-fest game and it will inevitably have to vault the two main hurdles that most games of this type will have to, which is to please all the fans and make it appealing to casual gamers as well. It’s clearly a tough one to do as I can only think of one or two games that have managed it, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” being one of them, “Alien Vs Predator” being one that did not. The problem for “War for Cybertron” is that it’s all very well allowing you to transform at will, making all the right noises on the way, but if behind that nerd pleasing process is a dull, boring, repetitive shooter then it simply wont do. So does War for Cybertron transcend such difficult tasks? This is a third person shooter that’s set in the world of transformers, specifically on their home planet Cybertron, and is more of a prequel to the whole franchise. It’s set towards the end of the war on Cybertron, for example, Optimus is not a “prime” yet and Starscream has not yet met Megatron and is an Autobot. In this game you will play as Decepticons and Autobots doing an equal amount of missions generally blasting your way through each of them. For the Decepticons, Megatron is intent on taking over Cybertron using the controversial and volatile Dark Energon. If he can get hold of and use some Dark Energon he then plans to infect the core of Cybertron with it which will result in him having to fight all the Autobots who mean to stop him from doing this, including a huge ludicrously powerful Autobot guardian called Omega Supreme. As an Autobot you will have to fight the Decepticons back permanently as they try to take over the Autobot home city and try and find a way to stop Megatron from infecting Cybertron with Dark Energon. This is a full on all out war on this planet between massive heavily armed robots, that can transform into jet fighters, cars and tanks at will and use ridiculous amounts of fire power to blow the living crap out of each other.

What’s good?

It’s a transformers fans ultimate fantasy. I’m not a massive transformers fan, but I can’t help love the franchise being an 80’s child, and I have no doubt this game pushes all the right buttons for fans. You will get to play as all your favourites in this, Optimus, Megtron, Iron Hide, Starscream, Bumble Bee, Soundwave, and fight them, and they all have all their traits incorporated. They all transform at the click of a button into futuristic looking versions of the vehicles we all know and love, with a few exceptions such as Soundwave turning into a car. Having him turn into a 1980’s “ghetto blaster” in this game probably wouldn’t serve him very well, and remember this is way before they all came to Earth. They all sound fantastic as all voice actors from the series and films have been drafted in and “yes” they still make the famous and essential noise when they transform. The world of Cybertron has been beautifully re-constructed (more on that in a bit) and everything that you loved about these massive robots from the TV shows and the comics has all been included, and luckily it doesn’t have much to do with the bloody awful films. The story is also pretty interesting, intertwines the two campaigns very well and reveals a lot of storyline many transformers fans will be unaware of, how Optimus became a Prime, how Megatron took over Cybertron, how various characters came to be who they are and all sorts. Playing as Optimus and Megatron is as satisfying as you would imagine (although rather disappointingly they never actually fight each other) and it will definitely do almost everything fans will be wanting.

Transforming is an essential part of gameplay and not just a gimmick. One of the things I liked most about War for Cybertron is that High Moon Studios have really thought about the aspect of transforming into tanks and fighter jets and its implications in battle. I assure you it is not a gimmick in anyway. For starters transforming looks and sounds awesome, and often the game forces you into parts of the levels where you cannot progress on foot. Unavoidably the levels where you transform into fighter jets are a lot more fun, as you can fly in any direction or dimension, and often have to fly down tunnels avoiding lasers or collapsing objects. It’s also really good fun to transform, blast across the ceiling of a level to a particularly annoying sniper, transform back in mid-air, land just in front of him and knock his head off with a big hammer. Very satisfying stuff. Ammo can dwindle quite a lot so it’s also good to be able to fall back on your ability to turn into a tank when your guns have emptied and blow the living shit out of everything. Transforming also opens up completely different pros and cons with manoeuvrability as you are often way faster in car form which comes in handy when running for cover or avoiding taking fire. Learning to use your two forms is an essential part of this game and, luckily, one of the most enjoyable.

The action packed gameplay is pretty intense. I can’t deny the actual gun slinging in Transformers is really simple and unimaginative (more on that in a bit) but it’s compensated by having a huge amount of it and constantly intensifying the fire power to make it really exhilarating. You will have a choice at the beginning of each mission to play as one of three transformers, no matter which one you pick the other two will be accompanying you. You can hold two guns and when you transform you will have a different gun altogether. The guns are the expected machine guns, shot guns, sniper rifles and missile launchers and each transformer has a unique ability, such as making a shield in front of them, cloaking, increasing fire power etc. You also have a quick melee attack when up close that will make your chosen robot form a huge sword, axe, hammer etc on its arm and batter an enemy with it (it ends there though, as there is no combo’s or anything like that to be had). You can also interact with huge gun turrets, a particularly destructive weapon, which can be removed from the turret and lugged around with you. Although this will vastly affect your manoeuvrability, their vast fire power is always an asset. The enemy will come at you in various guises as well, from huge “Brutes” that have shields and hammers and can only be defeated by shooting them in the back, cloakers that are really hard to see and attack in swarms, massive robots with enormo Gatling guns and plasma cannons, flying robots that descend from above and perform bombing raids on you and the (predictable) epic boss fights. None of this stuff is revolutionary or jaw dropping but it’s very well executed and super intense. You are encouraged/forced to just go mental with your chosen robot character, literally blasting, firing and hacking your way through everything, constantly, whilst using the skills of transforming, never ever pausing or trying to hold back and simply don’t stop firing until everything is a pile of wrecked metal on the floor. You are frequently forced into “last stand” scenarios where wave after wave of enemies will come at you, your ammo and health dwindling per wave, and it will test your skills of survival and your aim to the extreme. There is nothing here you wont have done before but if you like your fire power, action, explosions and huge boss battles (who doesn’t?) then there is still a lot for you to like here.

Some of the battles in this are, surprisingly, epic. I say “surprisingly” as this game is quite serious and it’s serious about the struggle in which you are engaged in. The thought of giant robots clubbing each other is a ludicrous one but War for Cybertron paints a very different picture. For example, on the first Autobot mission you have to walk through several Autobot strongholds with the few survivors left fighting to their last breath, and the dead and wounded lying around you. As you walk out into the battlefield you will see your fellow Autobots lining up behind cover, trying to resuscitate fallen comrades, and performing trench warfare style pushes for territory. They all talk to each other as well, recognise you as they say “hail Megatron” etc, and shout things like “for Cybertron!” as they charge into battle. This really isn’t a childish cartoon world. All they need is some regimental gear and to start writing endless reams of poetry and it could be a top quality World War II game. Added to this are the action set pieces which are really quite something. Some of the battle scenes are crazy, with many Autobots and Decepticons going at each other trying to take territory or defend it, with heavy weapon robots slowly advancing on you and other enemies transforming to dive bomb from above or escape to recover health. It’s not dissimilar in anyway to other games more notorious for their epic fight scenes, such as Resistance 2 or Modern Warfare. The boss battle with Omega Supreme, which lasts two levels, is incredibly fast paced as this behemoth chases you down through Cybertron regularly knocking down buildings to get at you, then you have to fight him directly as he rains missiles at you from above and uses his ludicrously huge laser cannons to literally blow your cover to pieces. The Autobot equivalent battle with an equally huge Decepticon called Trypticon is just as impressive, as you have to fly through the body of this giant taking out strategic parts of his anatomy (a particularly awesome level!). The last stand missions where you have to defend something for a certain time take the intensity trophy as wave after wave enemies come at you in many different forms all requiring different tactics as your ammo dwindles and your health borders on death. The Decepticon mission where you have to defend against an Autobot onslaught, whilst waiting for bombers, is seriously intense as is the Autobot mission where you have to defend Ratchet, as Decepticons will come at you from all angles in all guises. This is a seriously good one for action fans and don’t underestimate the slightly childish connotations of Transformers, as this game takes things very seriously.

It’s a seriously visually stunning and gorgeous game. As always there are lots of really good looking games in the world, but I felt War for Cybertron deserves a special mention is it really is stunner. The transformers all look fantastic, with levels of detail you won’t believe. You can see bits of them moving around, tiny things such as gun barrels or feet, when standing still and the transformations are fantastic to watch. The biggest eye opener is the level design as the planet Cybertron looks unbelievable. High Moon Studios have clearly put a lot of work into the workings and visual appearance of the setting and it won’t disappoint.

There are predictable but competent multiplayer modes as well. When done with the single player there is much to do with your friends. Firstly you can play through the whole single player campaign with two mates online. Then there is a survival mode where you and two friends have to ward off wave after wave of enemies and basically survive as long as you can. Then there are the predictable online battles where, not only can you use unlocked characters like Arcee, but the more you play, the more you can level up your character with upgrades and some customisation. The options are laughably limited and can only be used online but its better to have something for the online obsessed rather than nothing.

What’s bad?

It gets really repetitive. Despite the excellent execution this game is really really repetitive, as it doesn’t at any point venture beyond a simple strafe and shoot game. That is literally what you will do the whole way through. There is no cover system, no puzzles to solve, no hand to hand combat, despite having a melee weapon attack, no huge robot vehicles to take control of, literally nothing other than running around and shooting. The guns vary a bit, but are all far to clichéd and obvious, and the thrill of transforming is really the only thing in this that doesn’t get old quickly. Other than that, it really doesn’t do anything so anyone that’s expecting anything particularly innovative is going to be very disappointed.

The incentive to re-play is little to none. To add to the repetitiveness of the gameplay, is the fact that reasons to keep coming back are few and far between. There is nothing to explore, as it’s incredibly linear, with no bonuses to find, super weapons to unlock, secrets to find, nothing. It doesn’t even have any slight customising to be done, weapons to upgrade, or anything. How hard would it have been to allow some colour changes on the transformers, or to add some battle decals for achievements, or something? How about getting money by killing enemies to buy or upgrade weapons and armour? None of this stuff exactly reinvents the wheel and is found on most games, but it requires some investment in your time, a reason to pick it up again. This is just so totally unwilling to expand on anything. How about some nods to the comic book fans, such as some character details or storyline, such as the vast quantity found in “Batman: Arkham Asylum”? Games don’t necessarily need such things, but one as simplistic as this should have at least one thing to encourage a re-play. The multiplayer or online matches do have customisable abilities, which you get based on achievements, i.e. killing others, but it is ridiculously simple, very limited and hardly worth it. Furthermore, why is it not an option to integrate it with the single player campaign? How hard could it have been? The only real incentive to play through again is to achieve completion on harder difficulties, or, mainly, to play as different transformers. But they have even managed to kill this incentive as the different transformers really only differ very slightly, as there is only around 3 variations of abilities and skills. There just isn’t enough content for my liking when compared to other games.

The boss battles are childishly simple. Another game with vast bosses, and it just isn’t enough to have a very large boss now, as large foes seem to be burned into the gaming industry mandatory bible. They all have them, which is fine, but there needs to be more to it now. Transformers is the perfect example of having huge bosses that are all for show, but don’t really require any skill at all. They are all so ludicrously easy to kill even though they are the size of sky scrapers, could easily crush you with one finger, form and fire laser cannons that could punch a hole in a planet and rain missiles down on you like a monsoon. It’s just stupid. They perform these ludicrous apocalyptic attacks and they just don’t go any where near you, or are incredibly easy to dodge. They may appear quite tough when you first encounter them, but you will soon workout how to evade their attacks and expose their stupidly obvious weaknesses. It just feels like your going through the motions of another huge but seriously flawed boss battle. The battle where you fight Omega Supreme from a gun platform is a good example as he transforms into a laser cannon that sends out a blast that looks like it could create a black hole, and destroy anything that goes within a four mile radius of it. But all you have to do to avoid it is walk behind a thin wall, wait for him to stop and you are completely impervious to harm. If you go up onto other platforms to the right or left then he doesn’t actually touch you at all! It’s just stupid, and as entertaining as they are from a visual perspective the bosses lack some proper balls.

The initial load screen takes an interminable amount of time to load every time you turn it on. For the PS3 there is a lengthy installing process the first time you play, which is annoying but can be forgiven as it is a one off. But what really annoyed me is that every single time you switch it on from then on it has to perform a “check” and spends about a minute loading. “Only a minute” I hear you say, “who cares”, but you, now, stare at a blank wall for exactly one minute and see how long it feels. It’s interminable. You always have to stare it as well as you need to press “start” twenty times to get through all the intro title screens and you just sit there wanting to play the game waiting for the count down to get to 100%. It drove me mad.

Conclusion

My biggest issue with Transformers: War for Cybertron is that I cant help but feel it has ventured too far into relying on the brand name, “Transformers”, but doing very little to make a particularly outstanding game. It’s by no means bad but does nothing for those of you who expect more from a transformers game, other than the ability to transform. There’s nothing to unlock, nothing to find or buy, no customising, except online where it’s really limited, and you will generally just run around and shoot. It feels like it’s as good as a pretty forgettable game can be. In years to come people will still be talking about/playing “Street fighter II” or “COD: Modern Warfare”, but no one will remember War for Cybertron. Saying that though, and despite this, I can’t deny there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had here. The combat is simple, but really intense, transforming never ceases to be cool and the game is designed to force you to learn the skill of knowing when to transform, as often if you don’t you will be killed. The boss battles are epically huge, if a bit simple and easy, and it is graphically utterly stunning. Those who expect innovative games and those who don’t give a flying crap about transformers will probably be less thrilled, but High Moon studios have shown that you don’t really need to change the face of gaming to still get a lot of (predictable) enjoyment out of a title. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 8.0

It’s quite simple and instinctive for anyone that plays games regularly, so nothing will be of any surprise, but you do have to seek out tutorials yourself and a few game options are not so clear, changing the difficulty level for example.

Is the story any good? – 8.0

It’s not anything spectacular, but even if you’re only mildly interested in Transformers this will keep your interest up. Lots of previously untold back story, and the two campaigns are interwoven well.

How does it look? – 9.5

It’s a real stunner, especially environments/levels. The Transformers all look incredibly detailed and the transforming ability looks awesome as well.

How does it sound? – 9.5

Sound effects are all good as is back ground music. The highlights come from the voice acting, Optimus, Megatron, Starscream and, of course, Soundwave, all sound fantastic, and the legendary transformation sound effect.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

It’s intense in places, and you are forced to learn when to transform to aid you in combat, and there are loads of guns, grenades, rocket launchers and turrets to blow the living crap out of everything, including huge boss battles. It gets really repetitive though, it’s incredibly linear, and does nothing you won’t be expecting.

When will I get bored? – 7.0

Single player takes a fair few hours, you can play 3 person co-op as well (online only though, not on the same screen) and there is a rewards based online multiplayer mode, all of which will take up your time for a fair amount. But lack of secrets, rewards, upgrading with any depth or anything at all really, gives few reasons to keep coming back for a very long time.

OVERALL – 8.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 – Trophies and Tips

Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 – Trophies and Tips

Here are the names of the Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 trophies, and some tips on how you can achieve them. The tips were written based on my ps3 experience but lots of the tips are also relevant to the xbox and pc versions of the game.

51 Total Trophies: Platinum Trophy 1 Platinum Gold Trophy 2 Gold Silver Trophy 13 Silver Bronze Trophy 35 Bronze Hidden Trophy 0 of these are hidden

Platinum Trophy
Platinum Trophy

Earn all other trophies.

No tips required!

Bronze Trophy
Back in the Saddle

Help train the local militia.

If you have played the campaign then you can’t really miss this trophy. You get it after finishing the training session/running the pit in the very first mission.

Bronze Trophy
Danger Close

Get hand picked for Shepherd’s elite squad.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Team Player’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Cold Shoulder

Infiltrate the snowy mountain side base.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Cliffhanger’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Tag ’em and bag ’em

Find Rojas in the Favelas.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Takedown’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Royale with Cheese

Defend Burger Town.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Wolverines!’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Soap on a Rope

Storm the gulag.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘The Gulag’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Desperate Times

Execute the plan to help the Americans.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Contingency’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Whiskey Hotel

Take back Whiskey Hotel.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Second Sun’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
The Pawn

Assault Makarov’s safe house.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘Loose Ends’ and you will unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Out of the Frying Pan…

Complete the mission in the airplane graveyard.

Once again, part of the main campaign – finish ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ and you will unlock this one.

Silver Trophy
For the Record

Complete the Single Player campaign on any difficulty.

Pretty easy to get this one be it on recruit mode or regular, just complete the main campaign.

Gold Trophy
The Price of War

Complete the single player campaign on Hardened or Veteran Difficulty.

Some tricky parts but easier than completing the single player campaign on Hardened or Veteran Difficulty on the previous cod games.

Silver Trophy
First Day of School

Complete ‘S.S.D.D’ and ‘Team Player’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Black Diamond

Complete ‘Cliffhanger’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Turistas

Complete ‘Takedown’ and ‘The Hornet’s Nest’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Red Dawn

Complete ‘Wolverines!’ and ‘Exodus’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Prisoner #627

Complete ‘The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday’ and ‘The Gulag’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Ends Justify the Means

Complete ‘Contingency’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Homecoming

Complete ‘Of Their Own Accord’, ‘Second Sun’, and ‘Whiskey Hotel’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Queen takes Rook

Complete ‘Loose Ends’ and ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Off the Grid

Complete ‘Just Like Old Times’ and ‘Endgame’ on Veteran Difficulty.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Pit Boss

Run The Pit in ‘S.S.D.D’ and finish with a final time under 30 seconds.

This is a pretty tough achievement to get. I tried it hundreds of times before I realised its quicker to use two pistols than the automatic weapons! You will only get this after you have practised it over and over, some of the targets you can hit multiple with one bullet so work out your route first.

Bronze Trophy
Ghost

Plant the C4 in ‘Cliffhanger’ without alerting or injuring anyone in the blizzard.

This isn’t too difficult as long as you use your heartbeat sensor. Note: The enemies McTavish kills do not ruin this achievement, just don’t kill any yourself.

Bronze Trophy
Colonel Sanderson

Kill 7 chickens in under 10 seconds in ‘The Hornet’s Nest’.

I actually got this achievement with a grenade by accident but don’t count on getting that lucky! Drop all of the bad guys and try not to shoot any of the chickens in the process. This will give you time to find a nice group of chickens to execute and plan your attack. Maybe start with a grenade and then pop any remaining quickly in the group – There are some areas with 7 chickens in a cluster.

Bronze Trophy
Gold Star

Earn 1 star in Special Ops.

Play this on veteran if your going for the platinum trophy, if not, then just play through any special ops level on easy mode.

Bronze Trophy
Hotel Bravo

Earn 4 stars in Special Ops.

Play this on veteran if your going for the platinum trophy, if not, then just play through any four special ops levels on easy mode.

Bronze Trophy
Charlie On Our Six

Earn 8 stars in Special Ops.

Play this on veteran if your going for the platinum trophy, if not, then just play through any eight special ops levels on easy mode. You will probably have to unlock the Bravo levels to get this one.

Bronze Trophy
Goes to Eleven

Earn at least 1 star in 11 different Special Op missions.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Operational Asset

Earn all 3 stars in at least 5 different Special Op missions.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Blackjack

Earn 21 stars in Special Ops.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Honor Roll

Earn at least 1 star in each Special Op mission.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Operative

Earn all 3 stars in at least 10 different Special Op missions.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Specialist

Earn 30 stars in Special Ops.

No tips yet

Silver Trophy
Professional

Earn all 3 stars in at least 15 different Special Op missions.

No tips yet

Gold Trophy
Star 69

Earn 69 stars in Special Ops.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Downed but Not Out

Kill 4 enemies in a row while downed in Special Ops.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
I’m the Juggernaut…

Kill a Juggernaut in Special Ops.

You can do this on the Estate level in spec ops or Snatch and Grab. These are mean bastards and you need several shots to drop them. Estate level use the Barrett grenade launcher and it should take two or three. On Snatch and Grab the juggernaut should run at you down the path, snipe its head off, still takes two to three shots so try not to miss! They normally spawn in the same places but sometimes their spawn location will vary so don’t get too confident when doing the rest of the op.

Bronze Trophy
Ten plus foot-mobiles

Kill at least 10 enemies with one Predator missile in Single Player or Special Ops.

You should be able to get this easily on the ‘Wolverines!’ level.

Bronze Trophy
Unnecessary Roughness

Use a riot shield to beat down an enemy in Single Player or Special Ops.

Best place to do this is in ‘The Gulag’ mission, you will be told to pick up a riot shield when you are trapped in the armoury about half way through. Just walk up to the bad guy and melee attack button to get this achievement.

Bronze Trophy
Knock-knock

Kill 4 enemies with 4 shots during a slow-mo breach in Single Player or Special Ops.

Lots of opportunities to get this one in spec ops and single player, just restart one breech a few times to learn where the guys are and then head shot four of them with four bullets.

Bronze Trophy
Some Like it Hot

Kill 6 enemies in a row using a thermal weapon in Single Player or Special Ops.

On ‘The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday’ mission there is a part where the enemy are using smoke grenades. Your second weapon should be a thermal scope. Clear all of the trops on the ground using your other weapon so you are clear to do some thermal sniping. Then go wild through the smoke popping any hiders and troops in windows to unlock this one.

Bronze Trophy
Two Birds with One Stone

Kill 2 enemies with a single bullet in Single Player or Special Ops.

Best place to get this is on ‘Contingency’ mission where your sniping in the snow. Take your time and line up two enemies anywhere throughout the mission (there are lots of opportunities).

Bronze Trophy
The Road Less Traveled

Collect 22 enemy intel items.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Leave No Stone Unturned

Collect 45 enemy intel items.

No tips yet

Bronze Trophy
Drive By

Kill 20 enemies in a row while driving a vehicle in Single Player or Special Ops.

Best to be done on the snowmobile in spec ops race or singleplayer. All I did was stick it on one of the easier modes, hold down the fire button permanently (unlimited ammo) driving slowly on the mobile and steering occasionally through the level. The enemies throw themselves in front of your gun so its pretty easy.

Bronze Trophy
The Harder They Fall

Kill 2 rappelling enemies in a row before they land on their feet in Single Player or Special Ops.

Several single play missions and special ops where enemies come down on ropes to get this. In spec ops there are a few bridge missions on the suspension bridge – just run up to one side or the other when it begins and you should be able to get this trophy. In single player, before the toll place in ‘Exodus’ you will see an ammo crate. Run up to it and shoot anything that comes down from the sky on a rope!

Bronze Trophy
Desperado

Kill 5 enemies in a row using 5 different weapons or attachments in Single Player or Special Ops.

You can do this on most levels, its not something you would do while just playing normally so just put it on easy mode and make an effort to change weapons after each kill. Can use grenades or claymores too don’t forget!

Bronze Trophy
Look Ma Two Hands

Kill 10 enemies in a row using akimbo weapons in Single Player or Special Ops.

I don’t personally like using the akimbo weapons but there are a few missions where enemies drop them. The mission I gained this achievement on was ‘Takedown’. Make sure the weapons you pick up has enough ammo for 10 or more kills and don’t switch to another weapon while you are getting the 10 kills as it sometimes resets.

Bronze Trophy
No Rest For the Wary

Knife an enemy without him ever knowing you were there in Single Player or Special Ops.

‘Cliffhanger’ is the mission where most people unlock this trophy. Use your heartbeat sensor to locate an enemy. Make sure you approach them from behind and sneak up to them as quietly as possible before knifing them.

Bronze Trophy
Three-some

Kill at least 3 enemies with a single shot from a grenade launcher in Single Player or Special Ops.

You can get this on the ‘Team Player’ mission fairly early on, your given a grenade launcher and told to use it on the enemy accross the river. There are numerous other opportunities to get this throughout the campaign.

Back To Top

Split Second: Velocity Review 1/09/2010

It only has one trick up its sleeve, but it’s a very good one.

Black Rock Studios, the developers of Split Second: Velocity, are of course no strangers to arcade racers, having frequently dabbled in the Need for Speed franchise and other such racers. But Split Second seemed to come out of nowhere into a market filled with racing giants such as the aforementioned “Need for Speed”, but also including the mental but mighty “Motostorm”, the legendary “Burnout” and another new rival, the much critically acclaimed, “Blur”. So surely Split Second has to do or be something special to be noticed in this crowd? The game is an arcade racer based around the concept of a reality TV show, where racers drive for money and victory, by racing fast and, more interestingly, taking out their opponents. It’s the way in which you take out your opponents that is what’s interesting here as all tracks are almost completely fully destructible. You must destroy bridges, rip apart roads, drop bombs, crash planes, shoot missiles and generally blow up everything around the course to take out your opponents, as you will never win by speed alone.

What’s good?

Luckily the whole concept the game is based on is its most impressive feature, which is the “power play’s”. As you drive around the very simple tracks you will build up your power play bar, which is in three sections and when maxed out (fill up all 3), you can trigger a super power play. You build this up by power sliding, drafting (driving directly behind your opponent), jumping or marginally avoiding disaster. The power play bars don’t take long to build up but when they do get ready to watch everything explode. You don’t shoot anything specifically yourself, missiles or guns etc, but instead you set off explosives around the environment the tracks are based in an attempt to cause road side explosions that may cause your opponents to crash, or even better demolish buildings and cause other such vast things to come crumbling down onto your opponents taking all them out at once. Small blue symbols appear above your opponent’s vehicles when they are in the potential firing line and then you must time your strike well. Now, this can range from blowing up a taxi at the side of the road, which uses one power play bar, to blowing up a train bridge, that crashes down onto the race track launching a huge speeding locomotive off the rails and come crashing down onto the race track crushing all cars that happen to be in the blast radius. The taxi explosion is a normal power play but the destruction of a bridge is a super power play, that uses all three of your power play bars. What really summed it up for me was in only my second race, and thus far had only really seen exploding cars and barrels, I triggered a super power play. In the background a huge skyscraper was suddenly lit up with explosions, like a controlled demolition, and it slowly came thundering down onto the track, the very top of which landed inches from my front bumper, and it caved in the entire road, crushing all opponents ahead of me and completely altered the track as my car flew down into the subway system and a whole new set of corners was opened up to the race track. It was so spectacular and unexpected my jaw never got off the floor for the rest of that race. The falling buildings are quite spectacular, but the game doesn’t end it there, as it will hurl enormous freighter air craft at you the size of Jumbo’s, that come crashing down onto the track in front of you in a biblically huge fire ball, ignite entire power stations, tip over ocean liners in a dry dock, bring down huge suspension bridges and cause city destroying landslides. It is stupendously ridiculous! The super power plays are not as common but they are unbelievably spectacular and entertaining, and even the smaller normal power play’s rarely feel tame, as igniting a petrol tanker at the side of the road so that it blows an opponent completely off the track and into the air, is still a hugely satisfying experience. I’m not sure how original the concept of blowing up parts of the track in a race is, but I have certainly not seen it before, and even if you have, the execution of it in Split Second is absolutely epic and will appeal to anyone that likes racing fast and blowing large objects up in order to crush opponents.

The tracks are fantastic and perfect settings for destruction. I won’t lie to you, the tracks are childishly simple, but as your blasting round them you will start to realise that you really don’t want them to be any more complex than they are. Upon encountering the few hairpins there are, for example, you will start to curse the pressure of juggling a tight difficult corner whilst helicopter homing missiles rain down on you from above, the shock waves of which batter your poor vehicle all over the place, which will require driving skill to keep under control. They are simple, but necessarily so. On the destructive side, they are spot on though, so expect to encounter ocean liner ship yards, airports, enormous dams, power stations, sewers and places that don’t generally explode, but you sure as hell would like to see them do so. All will have something vast to demolish that will be a massive visual treat, and give you a huge buzz when they atomise your opponents. Each also has shortcuts that can be activated by using your power play bar and often you are better off using these shortcuts rather than going for the violent option as they will give you a significant advantage.

There are several different interesting events, other than simple races to do. Luckily, Split Second does a bit more than simple races. There are plenty of fast paced races, sure, but there are the expected eliminator events, where the person in last place is blown up every 20 seconds or so until there is only one person left, and detonator events, which is basically a time trial where you get a specific car and have to do a timed lap as power plays are triggered automatically and you basically have to avoid destruction and beat the time. These are pretty good, if rather predictable, but there are also events where a heavily armed attack helicopter will shoot missiles at you as you race round the track, and for each wave of barrage you avoid you get points, and basically have to survive as long as you can, the longer the better. This event is updated later on in the game as you have to do the same thing but you get the opportunity to build up your power bar and use it to deflect missiles back at the helicopter taking it down in as quicker time as possible. They are not only challenging but an interesting unique take on destructive racing. My favourite though was the survival events where you have to charge round a wide even more simpler track, whilst huge trucks spit coloured barrels at you which you have to avoid. The blue ones damage your car slightly and slow you down, where the red ones kill you instantly. You basically have to pass as many trucks as you can and you will often have to enter sudden death mode where all trucks will spit red barrels at you constantly in order to win. It is utterly chaotic, as there are other dummy cars driving round that often get caught up in the carnage, and the combination of bouncing rolling barrels all over the track, exploding vehicles everywhere and trying to keep your speed up and pass these juggernaughts is difficult but rewarding.

There are the expected tracks, vehicles, decals and other rewards to unlock. The cars all look fantastic in Split Second, often better looking than the ones the automotive industry produces. If you know your cars it will be obvious which ones have their styling cues stolen from, and there is a lot of them to unlock. All have varying gifts of speed and toughness, grip and drifting abilities, and some variation will be required as, for example, the trucks are better at the survival events for their weight and durability. The further through the single player campaign you get, the more points, and therefore cars, you get, the further along you get the faster and better the car. There is also the decals which are loads of little challenges throughout the game which when achieved will be ordained upon all your vehicles. These include, simple things like winning 5 races or destroying 3 opponents, to more complex harder things such as doing a 300 yard drift, doing a 200 yard jump, taking out 5 opponents with one power play and getting first in every single event. You can easily complete the single player campaign without achieving all of these so it gives an extra incentive to re-visit it and show off your achievements online. Speaking of online, there is the expected “simply jump in and race random people” mode, which will cycle through tracks until you get bored, and you can set up your own race with friends, and use AI opponents to fill in the gaps. All of this is rewarded with an experience points system. Nothing amazing, but it is certainly solid enough for the internet dorks, their foul language and dirty gameplay.

It’s got split screen racing. Don’t fancy going online and just want a mate round for a quick race? Split Second has it covered with a simple split screen race option. “So what” I hear you say, but lets not forget how easily an old school two player game is not considered these days. Not only is it one of the most basic, easiest and most enjoyable aspects of an arcade racer, but it is often forgotten in today’s online obsessed elitist gaming society, filled with the most vile of teenage nerds, that shout a torrent of racist abuse at you because they are not very popular at school and you ruined their one chance that day of not being a total loser that masturbates constantly in their parents basement, by dropping a building on their car. Burnout: Paradise certainly forgot it, and was a worse game for it considering its excellent multiplayer roots. Good show Split Second!

What’s bad?

There just isn’t enough to the racing. Unfortunatley the biggest problem with Split Second is that other than hitting power plays there is very very little to the racing at all. For starters, all the tracks are really simple and rarely involve you hitting the brakes or steering much, its literally point and squirt and memorising tracks will only give you a marginal advantage. Then there’s the fact that in order to win races you must wreck your opponents, through power plays, but you get no reward whatsoever for ramming them, grinding them, bashing them, forcing them into obstacles etc. Absolutely nothing! So all physical contact does is slow you down, and for such a monumentally destructive racing game I thought that was crazy to not involve in any way. There’s no boost or nitrous to use at all either, so other than the stats of your car, you have no advantage over your opponents. Plus, there are only two different types of vehicle, the expected category’s of big, tough, but slow and super fast, light but fragile, and they are not too dissimilar, at least no where near the difference in vehicles experienced in “Motorstorm”. You see, I feel arcade racers need this stuff, it’s what makes the Burnout series so awesome, and the Motorstorm series so chaotic and mental. The power plays are brilliant, but they are just not enough for me, and “no”, it isn’t complicated enough as it is and things such as a boost meter could have easily been included without it being overwhelming. I think they are going to see how well this initial concept sells and more than likely ramp it up for the inevitable sequel, but for now you are left with something that’s just a bit too uninvolving and after the initial shock of your first super power play you will realise this game really only has one trick up its sleeve.

The level of difficulty is not very well thought out. The game obviously gets harder the further into it you get, and the faster your car is, but it’s the way in which it goes about the difficulty which wound me up. Rather than making you graft harder for your rewards, like Monster Hunter, or up your skill levels, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, it simply makes the competition ridiculous. Your opponents will simply blast off into the distance at the beginning of the race no matter how good your car’s stats are, and you spend the remainder of the race catching them up, in some cases not at all. Even if you race perfectly, not getting wrecked once, you can still be lying in 5th whilst your opponents increase their lead over you lap by lap. You can be ploughing along quite nicely at full speed and an opponent, even if they are in an inferior car to you, will simply flash past as though you are at the wheel of a golf buggy. They can also lose you very quickly, as the front running cars hit the horizon almost instantly and you never see them again, but you can never really lose them. Even if you race perfectly and wreck all opponents several times they will be mere inches from you the entire race, nudging your rear bumper trying to force a spin or simply waiting for you to make one tiny slip up and then they fly past, and I mean all of them will pass you, not just a few. For anyone that played the rage inducing bile spitting “Midnight Club: LA” this suffers from a similar problem, just an awful feeling of futility. It’s just such a frustrating and un-enjoyable way to make races harder.

You can still crash when control is taken away from you. Whenever you take out an opponent, by getting a helicopter to drop a bomb on it or something, it often goes to a sort of cut scene where it zooms in on your slain opponents wrecked vehicle, so you can watch it barrel roll down the road in a fireball, very similar to the system in Burnout when you “take down” an opponent. The problem with this, which I’m sure you have guessed, is that although you no longer have control of your car you can still crash into stuff. So you can very often be blasting down the road, trigger a crane to drop its load on your opponent up front, wrecking them, and as you wallow in your victory cut scene, someone behind you has decided to detonate the bus you were just passing, which you couldn’t see because the camera was pointing down the road or avoid as you couldn’t control your car. How are you supposed to stop that? In what way could a crash be avoided? The point is it couldn’t, and few things fill me with such rage in a game than to be punished for something you can do absolutely nothing about. It doesn’t happen constantly, but it will happen, you will be angry, you will lose as a result and you will be left contemplating whether your controller or PS3 will survive a high velocity impact with a wall. Stop doing this to us gaming studios, its wrong!

It’s generally a pretty short game. There are 72 races, split into 12 different “episodes” in the career mode, which sounds a lot, but the majority are repeated, and you simply do different things on the same tracks. It is not really boring, but don’t be deceived by the numerical amount of events, there is not that much to do. Once the career mode is done, there are a myriad of trophies/decals to win and online racing, but the incentive to do either is non-existent, other than the thrill of racing. You can’t customise cars at all, with the exception of a very limited number of colours/paint jobs and the achievement decals are placed automatically, so you don’t get a say in the matter. It by no means will be done with in no time at all but falls well short of games like Gran Turismo, Need for Speed: Shift and Burnout Paradise in terms of game time and involvement for your cash.

Conclusion:

This game is a perfect example of showing that if you are going to base an entire game on one simple concept, then make sure you execute it very well, and Split Second does. This unfortunately leads to its biggest flaw, which is that it also does very little else other than the one concept. It is really good fun though, I have to admit, the racing is fast and exhilarating and when you hit your first super power play your jaw will drop. They are ridiculous! As you progress through a predictable but satisfying career mode the tracks seem to become more explosive, the cars get faster and harder to handle and the ludicrous action and fast paced racing will give you a big buzz and it will please those who like their racing uncomplicated, fun and destructive. It will never achieve greatness however, in my opinion, as there is just not enough to it. It needs more than just destructive environments, and sadly it offers little to nothing else. You really want this to be the love child of Burnout and Motorstorm, with a bit of Need for Speed on the side, but it isn’t and I would say it’s not worth picking up over any of them, albeit by a small margin. However, to be fair, there are not a huge amount of racers out at the moment, and if you’re bored of the ageing Burnout and waiting for the new Gran Turismo, Motorstorm or Need For Speed, this will definitely fill in that gap in your gaming hours that lusts for a quick, explosive, exhilarating and uncomplicated speed thrill. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.0

It’s a very very simple game, that gives you a really good intro race, good on screen prompts where necessary, and all controls will be familiar and instantly instinctive.

Is the story any good? – 5.0

There is not much of a story. The concept of death racing for TV is old and unoriginal, but to be honest, it really doesn’t matter, and the twist at the end is stupid but intriguing.

How does it look? – 9.5

Looks fantastic, especially explosions and fire, and all tracks. All cars look awesome as well. Never tears, glitches or slows down either. Pretty flawless.

How does it sound? – 10.0

I loved the music in Split Second. The music is not by any known artist, but sounds like the music from The Matrix, Reloaded, fast paced drum beats, with dramatic orchestral sounds accompanying it. The music fades in and out when you hit the really big power plays and the sound effects of collapsing sky scrapers is fantastic.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

Its fast paced, explosive stuff, the power plays will blow your mind and give you a huge sense of satisfaction watching a building collapse on to your opponents in front. There is no point in physical contact though, there is no boosting/nitrous, and when not using power plays, there is nothing to it, literally. The difficulty is stupid as well. It just needs more!

When will I get bored? – 7.0

The career mode is decent enough, there is split screen racing, and the usual online stuff. A lack of tracks, differentiating vehicles, little rewards and general simplicity result in a very good but fairly short lived thrill.

OVERALL – 8.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.