Total War Shogun 2

As a RTS (Real Time Strategy) enthuses that i am, coming to review this game had some small doubts about this game being similar to Age of Empires. As i have never played the Total War series, I was pleasantly surprised when I started Playing. Total Was Shogun 2 is a RST turn based game developed by "The Creative Assembly" and is set in 16th century Japan, after the Omin War. The game involves the player to build towns and amries to dominate surrounding fractions unitl the whole country is seized. Each battle can be played out on the battlefield with the player controlling the methods of attack to lead to victory, which can be seen up close and personal.

The first night I played this game, it captivated me until 5am in the morning withour me noticing. The strategic though that is needed to move and weave through the battlefield is challenging because with one wrong move your fraction can be crippled when it is your turn again, from any direction. For this reason it caused some players (including me) to use Ctrl + S / Ctrl + L. This game has a lot of replay value in single and multiplayer, in the campaign a player can make many different battle and diplomate routes. And in multiplayer it is even more challenging, as other players are always wanting to attact your armies and take your land.

Personal Rating:

Graphical representation: 9/10

This game requires a relatively powerfull computer to run this game at its best, forexampl the game pre loads a mininum of 1 gig of it into the ram before each battle.

Sounds: 8/10

There is always a different Japanese orchestra like sound track before, during and after a battle, which really sets the mood of 16th century Japan.

Gameplay: 9/10

There is so many possibilities with this game, as it is up to the player to micro and macro throughout the entires game, while thinking about when to form and remove diplomatic alliances.

Overall: 9/10

This game captivated my inner RTS spirit, similarly to the nostalgia of playing one of my first RTS games Age of Empires, but on a whole different level. With its gameplay and excellent graphics and sound of the modern era of games.

Start playing now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/201270/

Dwarf Fortress Review

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely complex ASCII drawn simulation game with both real-time strategy and roleplaying modes to play; the roleplaying mode is known as Adventure Mode, and the real-time strategy mode is known as Fortress Mode. Dwarf Fortress is completely free to play and download, and is still in development, relying on player donations to continue. After 4 years of development, the game's first alpha release was on 8th August 2006, and has been in continual development since.

Before you can start playing, you must create a world using the game's extensive world generator. The world generator creates the physical map as well as political and social history, non-playable characters of varying importance including enemies and allies, as well as religions, 'forgotten beasts' and other various creatures.

In Adventure Mode, you take control of a single character, creating them before you enter the world. You can choose their race, skills, starting city and personality traits before entering the world and beginning to explore it. While playing, many different options are available to you dependent on your location and skills, for example if in a merchants house or stall you can buy and sell items, if your attacking enemies from afar you can pick up small wildlife and throw them (see this topic) or while running from enemies you can swim into oceans or rivers.

In Fortress Mode however, you take control of several Dwarves as a god-like figure, similar to traditional real-time strategy games, and give them instructions to carry out within a certain physical area. You can create deeply dug caverns for your dwarves to live in, carve an inspiring or intimidating castle into a mountainside, or even create a massive above ground fortress. Whatever you choose, your dwarves are at your disposal...to a certain degree. Every dwarf has a personality, their own unique appearance, different relationships, family, clothing, armour and weaponry. You can choose to turn them into soldiers, farmers, fisherdwarves, masons, carpenters, engineers, the list goes on. Meanwhile, as you train and improve your fortress, the enemy builds up its own armies in preparation to attack. Some fortresses only have small thieves and raiders coming to 'visit', while others have invading armies on their doorstep almost constantly (makes diplomacy quite difficult), and some don't ever have visitors because they might be on an island with no other civilization, enemy or otherwise.

Personally, I love this game. From it's game mechanics (see the bit about throwing wildlife) to it's quite interesting fanbase of players, this game is unique in the way it is played, appreciated and adored. While some can't stand it's ASCII graphics, and others can't quite grasp how to get their first farm started, once you get into really playing the game, it's fan-made motto starts to make a lot of sense: 

Losing is Fun.

And you'll be doing a lot of losing.

Personal Ratings:

Graphics: 7/10 

Some of the ASCII is a little un-intuitive. Personally I use a graphics tile-replacement set.
Sound: 5/10 
Written and created by Toady One, the accompanying sound files are a little lacking. I recommend using Soundsense, a third-party sound engine specifically designed to enhance the game.
Gamplay: 8/10
Once you get past the learning curve, and it does take a while, this game is amazing to play. However, the UI is still very much lacking and part of the reason the learning curve is so difficult. Keybindings across different sections of the UI are not the same/similar, so unless your familiar with the setup, it will take a while before you can build that wall to stop the enemy is less than 30 seconds...
Overall: 8/10
For what it's worth, this game is great. Just don't take everything the fanbased community has to say to heart and you'll be fine. (Hint: Avoid the elephants!)


Go here to find out more about this game and download it for yourself!

Counter Strike: Source Review

Counter Strike: Source expands on Valves original half life mod Counter Strike. Counter Strike Source was released in 2004 on PC. The game consists of two teams, Counter Terrorists and Terrorists. The objective for each team is to eliminate the opposition and achieve the objective of the map by either planting/defusing the bomb or rescuing the hostages in a set amount of time. There is a buy menu to purchase your weapons and equipment. 

This game is a test of who is the fastest and most accurate in terms of aim and skill. 
This game is very unforgiving. You make one mistake and you will end up dead and if you face someone that is very experienced it can be quite hard to get any kills, as simply spraying and praying will not work.

There is no regeneration of health and when you die you must wait till the round is over. The guns are quite balanced for each side and the weapon of choice for most players is the deagle, ak47, m4a1 and awp. There are no attachments for guns and no way to upgrade them. There is no sprinting in this game and no ability to go prone. However, some servers have their own custom skins and you can also download extra skins to add your player.


There are plenty of mods for Counter Strike: Source and an endless supply of maps as Valve has included a Source SDK which is a map making program as a tool in steam when the game is purchased.

Personal Ratings:

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are very good for when the game was release back in 2004. However does not live up to the present day shooters which is understandable.
Sound: 10/10
The sound is excellent and with the right headset you will be able to hear players footsteps from a great distance.
Gamplay: 10/10
The game play is excellent and has lived up to the original Counter Strike which has pioneered the FPS genre.
Overall: 9/10
In my opinion this game has survived the test of time and is very competitive in E-sports tournaments. It provides you with hours of fun with friends and the competitive aspect of the game is great. This game is definitely worth it. Overall I give this game a 9/10.

Here is a link to the game. Keep in mind you will need a Steam account and will have to purchase the game to play it.

Welcome to Video Game Reviews

Hi gamers! We will have game reviews here in the coming days covering the game genres of FPS, RPG, Adventure and RTS.

Here is a list of games we will be covering from each genre:

FPS presented by John K:

• Counter Strike: Source
• Counter Strike: Global Offensive Beta
• Battlefield 3
• Bioshock 2
• Crysis 2

RPG/Adventure presented by Alex Z:

• Dwarf Fortress
• Skyrim
• Assassins Creed 2
• Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3
• Minecraft

RTS presented by John T:

• StarCraft
• StarCraft 2
• WarCraft 3
• Age of Empires 2
• Total Annihilation