Black Mesa: Source

Black Mesa: Source is a third-party total conversion modification for Valve Corporation's Source engine. The stated goal of the project is to recreate Valve's critically acclaimed 1998 video game Half-Life using the more advanced capabilities of the Source engine. The 40-person volunteer development team says they hope to create a more engrossing in-game world with more varied, complex environments and more challenging, realistic gameplay.

During its eight years in development, Black Mesa has been featured in several video game publications and received direct attention from Valve. Due to its long development time the modification became notable for its delays, and dwindling updates on the status of its completion.


The first part of Black Mesa, featuring remakes of all Half-Life's chapters except those set on the alien world "Xen", was released as a standalone download on September 14, 2012. Public voting through Valve's Greenlight program saw the game approved for distribution on Steam.

Welcome to Summoner's Rift

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game. Players are formed into 2 even teams of Champions, 3v3 or 5v5. As of 13 September 2012 there are 104 different champions from which to choose. Each player begins at opposing sides of a map in an area called the Spawning Pool, near what is called a Nexus. A match is won when either team's nexus is destroyed. To destroy a Nexus, each team must work through a series of Turrets placed along a path to each base referred to as a Lane. Along the way, each player gains levels from killing the opposing team's champions and Minions (NPCs that constantly spawn and attack the other team) and defeating neutral monsters. Completing objectives rewards players with gold which is used to purchase items.

League of Legends is a session-based game. The game can currently be played in five different modes: Tutorial, Custom, Co-Op vs. AI, Normal and Ranked. Custom mode allows players to manually create custom game sessions that other players can find on a game list and join. Co-op vs. AI is a mode where players are matched either alone or as part of a group against a team of bots.
The Ranked mode originally became available to players of level 20 and higher, but was later changed to only be available to players of level 30 (players can still queue for Ranked games if they are over level 20, but only if they are in an arranged team). Ranked uses Draft Mode where each team can ban up to 3 champions from the game, and the two teams cannot play the same champion. In addition, opponent Champions picks are visible before the loading of the actual game. Second, an exclusive, visible rating is calculated based on the player's performance in Ranked games. The player is placed on the ladder according to their rating, and top teams on the ladder have a chance to compete in the "$100,000 Global Finals" at the end of the season.


Dominion is the latest game mode released by Riot Games. Dominion brings faster action and tactical gameplay played on a new map, The Crystal Scar, and features a new Capture-and-Hold playstyle. The Inhibitors and Turrets have been removed - instead, the map has five Capture Points. Capturing one of these points will turn it into a Turret and allow it to start spawning minions. Item availability is also different in Dominion. Two new summoner spells, called Garrison and Promote were released with the new game mode, with the latter also being available in Summoner's Rift. The summoner spell Teleport is the only summoner spell that is not available in this mode. The new game type is aimed to be much shorter than conventional 30-45-minute classic games: most Dominion games average about 15-25 minutes in duration^.

Pandora has Changed

Borderlands 2 builds upon the gameplay elements introduced in its predecessor. It is a first-person shooter that includes character-building elements found in role-playing games, leading Gearbox to call the game a "role-playing shooter." At the start of the game, players select one of four new characters, each with a unique special skill and with proficiencies with certain weapons. From then on, players take on quests assigned through non-player characters or bounty boards, each typically rewarding the player with experience points, money, and sometimes a reward item. Players earn experience by killing foes and completing in-game challenges (such as getting a certain number of kills using a specific type of weapon). As they gain levels from experience growth, players can then allocate skill points into a skill tree that features three distinct specializations of the base character. As with the first game, Borderlands 2 features a procedural-generated loot system, whereby weapons and other equipment dropped by foes, found in chests, or offered as quest items have numerous statistics that are generated randomly, affecting factors such as weapon damage, accuracy, magazine size, and added effects like elemental damage.



Returning gameplay features from the first game will include the 3-branch skill trees, class-mods, and four-player online cooperative modes. New features include a more expansive and customizable weapons system, reworked four-seat drift-able vehicles and vehicle physics elements, and dynamic mission systems. For example, taking too much time to save a friend in a mission may result in their death and the failure of the mission, which will affect the story as the player progresses. In addition, the artificial intelligence (AI) system has been reworked for the game. Non-enemies will populate the game world more often and will travel around different locations depending on the time. Shooting enemies will stun or cripple them depending on where they are shot, such as shooting a Hyperion robot's arms will cause the arms to fall off, impairing its damage-dealing capabilities. For a change, enemies will be intelligent enough to climb and traverse difficult terrain to pursue the player. Enemies will also be able to interact with each other. For example, certain enemies can heal their teammates, boost their shields for defense, or use them as shields to protect themselves.

Blur Review

Blur is a racing game that features stylish racing in realistic locations and 50 real-world cars fighting it out using power-ups and speed boosts. It also features realistic car damage modeling, and is frequently described as a combination of Mario Kart  and an arcade racer. Unlike many of the games that currently feature power-ups, Blur relies strongly on it's realistic physics model.

The game moves away from the clinical and precise nature of sim-like racers that force the player to work within strict time limits and perform inch-perfect turns. It moves towards a more arcade experience that will reward experimentation. Progress through the game is influenced by 'Fan Points', awarded after each race for good racing and use of powerups. You can also get mid-race challenges from your fans to complete for bonus fans.  There are also car specific challenges that can be completed to attain upgrades for that car.  The idea is that the more skilled you are, the more fans you attain and the more money they donate to you, allowing you can upgrade your car further and move onto other circuits.

Blur is designed to tie closely with the game's website, and integrates with popular social networking sites Facebook, and Twitter to allow you to post race results as soon as they are completed.  The website also has a stats page integrated within the site to allow players to link their accounts. A leaderboards are available for the website as well.  It's menu and hub system is a fictional social networking site, where players and NPC drivers communicate with each other to organize the street races and progress the story.

A review of a little ol' game called Bastion

So there's this little ol' game floating around under the name of Bastion, a highly underrated indie game that has stolen my heart. At first I didn't want anything to do with this game until I managed to get my hands on it and let me tell you... THIS. THIS IS THE BEST GAME. EVER MADE.

Bastion is an action role-playing game with a level structure. The player, "the Kid", moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments that form paths as the player approaches the edge. Levels consist of a single plane, and are viewed isometrically. They are filled with enemies of various types, which attempt to harm the Kid. The Kid carries two weapons, which may be selected from the choices available to the player at specific locations called arsenals. The Kid also has the ability to perform a special attack. Weapons and special attacks must be acquired before they can be used. There are a limited number of special attacks that the player can perform at any time, represented by "black tonics" that can be found in the levels or dropped from enemies. The Kid's health is represented by a health bar, which can be replenished with "health tonics". Like black tonics, the Kid can only carry a certain number of health potions at a time, and can replenish them by finding more in the levels.

The game takes place in the aftermath of the Calamity, a catastrophic event that suddenly fractured the city of Caelondia as well as the surrounding areas of the game's world into many floating pieces, disrupting its ecology and turning most of its people into fragile statues. Players take control of the Kid, a silent protagonist who awakens on one of the few remaining pieces of the old world and sets off for the titular Bastion, where everyone was supposed to go in troubled times. The only survivor he meets there is an elderly man named Rucks, the game's narrator, who instructs him to collect the Cores that once powered Caelondia. A device in the Bastion can use the power of the crystalline Cores to create landmasses and structures, as well as enable the Kid to travel farther afield via "skyways" that propel him through the air.

This game's story line is near borderline PERFECT and the narration will be engraved into your head for the rest of your days.

SMNC Character Bio - Assault

Whether he's taking a riveted audience on an emotional storytelling journey in front of a roaring fire at a Paparazzi-filled ski chalet in Courchevel, France, or he's taking the ingredients of a familiar dish and cooking them separately in unfamiliar ways to create a meal that is both similar but utterly unique for his supermodel girlfriend, the Assault is usually the one at the center of activity, driving the action.

As the unofficial leader of the pack he is most comfortable driving the attack while dazzling the crowd with his acrobatic plays and daring-do. He is by far Super MNC's most celebrated athlete; though the Assault takes his success in stride. Neither overly arrogant nor falsely humble, he enjoys the fruits of success with vigor, having earned every one.

Pro Career

• Enters the current season as the all-time Super MNC kill leader with 3,287 (2,078 unassisted).
• Has missed a game due to being knighted by a monarch of a world superpower only three times.
• Has been the leading vote getter in each of his past fourteen seasons when elected to the Monday Night Combat All-Star game in Honolulu, Japan.

Notable DNA:

David Beckham, George Plimpton, famed hurricane forecaster William Gray, Bill Cosby, Julia Child

Personal

• Established "Brief Relief", a non-profit that auctions off lady's undergarments sent to the Assault in the mail for charity.
• During the off-season he is the co-host of "Assault on the Ordinary" a game show in which he travels the globe to visit the playgrounds of the rich and famous while contestants try to guess how much he is (or isn't) enjoying himself.
• Hosts an annual Holiday Giving Parade in which disadvantaged families from colder climates are flown to his ranch in Bermuda, given a winter coat, and flown back home.

Likes:

Victory parades, literary journals, making fine cuisine accessible

Dislikes:

Losing, men who cry like babies

SMNC Character Bio - Megabeth

Maruta Corp. Saitama Megabeth, or "Megabeth" for short, is the greatest combatant in the history of Indo-China's "Kawgashi Fumijiru Meriodashu" (loosely translated to mean "Most Pleasing and Melodious Crushing of Windpipes Like Reeds Underfoot in a Soft, Snowy Riverbank Federation") and the lead singer of the Maeter Motor Tokyo-based grind-core band, Hacksaw Circumcision.

With the rediscovery of flight by hot air balloon, it once again became cost-effective for Indo-China's gladiators to tour the states for Monday Night Combat to host matches in the Orient. Though the team from Saitama was outplayed in almost every match when Monday Night Combat came to visit, Megabeth became an international sensation overnight after scoring kills against the Sniper, Assault, Assassin, Gunslinger, and The Veteran in the same match, without being killed once. Shortly after, she became the first Indo-Chinese clone to sign on with Monday Night Combat where she became an instant star thanks to her intensity, fearlessness and rumored make out sessions with Combat Girl.

Pro Career

• Led the Hyogo Prefecture to the Sparrow Cup twice while in the Amateur Most Pleasing and Melodious Crushing of Windpipes Like Reeds Underfoot in a Soft, Snowy Riverbank Federation.
• Is a three-time inter-league MVP (Happened in a single season thanks to a computer error)
• Holds the current Indo-China record for having the closest actual win rate to their potential win rate as predicted by the Pythagorean winning percentage.

Notable DNA:

Grindcore pioneers Yoshimi P-We and Yasuko Onuki, Team Japan Roller Derby Captain Kaori Ike, Sun Tzu

Personal

• Lead singer of the feminist tribal-acid-grindcore band, Hacksaw Circumcision.
• Had her tear ducts surgically altered so she could cry blood read tears as a tribute to er former lover, Weeping Dahlias lead singer Broken Oath, who self-immolated in protest of the banality of life (note: life still banal as of this writing).
• Manufactures her own line of roller skates under her "Wheels of Death" brand of combat accessories.

Likes:

Manhwa webtunes, the impalement arts, My Little Pony

Dislikes:

Social/ political injustice, conformity, sausage fingers