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Given To Gaming - November 2006

Gears of War Review

November 28th 2006 03:14
Gears of War XBOX 360 Review

Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft
Price: $79 - $100
Website: www.gearsofwar.com



Gears of War may quite possibly be the best console game of the year, and if it was released on the PC probably the best PC game of the year as well. Well maybe if Oblivion didn't exist. What isn't undisputed is that this is the best game on the Xbox 360 out yet. Full Stop.


Gears of War is different because it doesn't use a first person perspective like you would have thought, instead it uses third person which is just as good in my opinion. Using third person makes the game much more tactical than your average Quake 4 which relies simply on brute force (you can only carry four weapons as well, instead of the usual 20). Cover is essential in this game, I don't know how many times I died because I just went in guns a blazing only to be shot to pieces in seconds (or ripped apart by feral monsters). When you tap the A button near some type of cover (burnt out car, wall, sandbags etc) you are protected from most attacks, while using your aim to peak out and take pot shots at the enemy. To move out of cover you can either tap the A button to jump over it, or do a action hero dive, or even a SWAT turn (a spin move from one wall to another). When done right after a bit of practice this looks very cool, especially with the awesome particle effects created from grenades and bullets whizzing past.


The Locust a.k.a The bad guys


Graphically Gears of War is superb, I simply can't find any way to fault it, the landscape and battlefields are to put it bluntly: beautiful. What else is beautiful is the effects, such as the awesome 'Hammer of Dawn' weapon that fires a laser from an orbiting satellite down on the battlefield. The way blood spurts onto the screen (as though a camera was following your player) is hell cool, cooler still is how it gets there, a chainsaw on your gun. Yes there is a chainsaw on one your weapons called a Lancer, and by pressing B while charging into an enemy you get a very cool death scene whereby your player cuts the monsters in half. The aforementioned blood covering half your television screen. Move over GTA this is how you do video game violence. I've included a video off of youtube.com to give you an idea, oh yeah and the video contains graphic video game violence for those who are a bit squeamish.



I haven't finished the entire game, so when I do I'll do another update with a sort of walkthrough of the story, consider this review to be the first part of several Gears of War posts, I like this game that much. Stay tuned later on in the week for more gears of war updates.

Oh I almost forgot, this game gets:

9.5/10

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Worst Computer Disaster

November 21st 2006 23:47
I was going to post another review yesterday but I had a little technical error with my laptop, involving a glass of water and the said glass of water spilling on my laptop. I promptly turned off my computer only to find after draining and drying it that my entire hard drive partition was now corrupted (which isn't that bad considering I poured a whole glass of water into my computer). I've had to reformat and reinstall everything which is taking me forever.

Damn you water! Damn you to hell!


So in keeping with the theme of computer f**k ups giventogaming.com wants to know what your worst computer disaster has been. It doesn't have to be home computer just any computer disaster (laptop, desktop, pda, work computer etc etc) or your worst experience with a computer/game console etc.

If you can beat pouring a glass of water into your laptop then I'd love to hear it so I can rest easy knowing theres someone worse off than me...

*Image sourced from the following wikipedia.org page Water
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Dark Crusade Review

November 19th 2006 01:30
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Dark Crusade Review

Developer: Relic
Publisher: THQ
Price: $49.95AUD - $59.95AUD
Website: www.dow-darkcrusade.com

Title Screen


This is the second expansion pack instalment for the ‘Dawn of War’ franchise released so far and does not disappoint in any way at all, and in my opinion is a step better than Winter Assault. Why? Because instead of just one new race, ‘Dark Crusade’ adds two more, bringing the total number of playable sides in Dawn of War up to seven. This is the largest diversity in playable sides that I have ever seen in a sci-fi based real time strategy game (RTS). The two new sides included in ‘Dark Crusade’ are the Tau and the Necrons two very new sides with very different play styles. Along with the two new races ‘Dark Crusade’ includes an all new style of Campaign, in the form of a large map of the planet Kronus (where the game is set) laid out in a style like the game ‘Risk’ or more recently similar to ‘The Battle for Middle-Earth 2’. There are also new units for all the older races, new maps and new game options as well. This expansion is packed huge and better still doesn’t require the original ‘Dawn of War’ or ‘Winter Assault’ to play, though you will need them to play online with the older races.

The Tau Leader


The Tau: The Tau are a confederation of three different races; the Tau themselves, grey coloured aliens that wear powered armour suits with a style very similar to Japanese anime robots; the Kroot which are carnivourous aliens that are suited to close combat; and the Vespid flying insect like aliens that are very good at tearing apart buildings. The Tau themselves are pretty hopeless at fighting in close combat an so rely on the Kroot and the Vespid to back them up on this, their main strength lies in their ranged attacks which are the best so far out of the seven races. A large group of Tau fire warriors can easily gun down an enemy army in a matter of seconds, however if you let them get into close combat then you might be in some trouble. The Tau are backed up by Battlesuit infantry that can jetpack around the map and take down vehicles and large groups at ease, and can easily hold their own in close combat with flamethrowers. The vehicles the Tau use are hover style tanks that either fire missile barrages, laser cannons or release squadrons of robotic drones to attack the enemy. The also use large Kroot monsters like look very similar to dinosaurs and huge apes as vehicles. The Tau have a very ‘eastern’ futuristic feel to them, like I said earlier with an anime look. The most powerful attack the Tau possess would most likely be the Air Caste bombardment, that can take out numerous buildings and units with ease while looking pretty damn cool.

The Necron Lord


The Necrons: The Necrons are lifeless robots hell bent on galactic genocide or so the game says, and they look just like robotic skeletons that fire green electric lasers from their guns. The units in the game are pretty slow moving but are extremely powerful and are even able to come back to life when killed. They don’t get requisition points like all the other races from taking control points, instead they get a percentage increase in the build speed of all their units and buildings for each one controlled. Instead they rely upon power from generators to supply all their resources, with some units such as the builder scarabs and necron warriors requiring no resources at all to build. The vehicles used by the Necrons are basically just hovercraft versions of the walking warriors, with the exception being the Tomb Spider, which is a giant hovering robot spider of sorts that is very good at close combat. The ultimate weapon of the necrons however is the ability to upgrade their headquarters (a giant black pyramid called a monolith) to a floating fortress that can move (very slowly) around the map firing giant beams of green energy at whatever comes close. To make up for the slow speed it can teleport short distances and takes a lot of punishment to take down. The other power unit for the Necrons is the ability to transform your Necron Lord into a C’tan Night Bringer (a giant grim reaper) for a limited time who gains health whenever he dishes out damage. This unit is a bitch to play against especially when you think you have their army beat only to have this practically invincible unit come out of nowhere.

The new turn based campaign map


The new campaign map is a great feature of ‘Dark Crusade’ and adds a whole new level of gameplay mixing turn based strategy with real time strategy. As you can play as each of the seven races in the campaign map it really becomes seven different campaigns, with the introduction and conclusion videos all different depending on which race you play as. I’ve personally been playing as both the Tau and the Necrons and have found the A.I on the campaign to be pretty difficult especially on the hard setting. Regular conquest of territory creates either a skirmish game or a custom game (such as getting only a certain number of units without the ability to build more). And attacking an enemies capital territory results in a large scripted battle similar to the original Dawn of War, win this battle and you that race is out of the game.



Overall ‘Dark Crusade’ is an excellent addition to the ‘Dawn of War’ series and I find it really hard to fault, it may be the same game with basically the same graphics but the inclusion of two more races and a turn based campaign map really makes this the best expansion out yet. ‘Dark Crusade’ is just great all round with basically no technical errors that I could find and great polished sci-fi RTS gameplay. Go out and get it, and if you haven’t already played the original ‘Dawn of War’ and ‘Winter Assault’ go and get them too. If you love RTS games then you’ll love ‘Dark Crusade’.

8.9/10
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Crazy Swedish Gamers Music Clip

November 16th 2006 07:12
Exams are finally over hell yeh! Which means more time sitting around playing games which means more posts yeh! The Beta Commander beta is still up I'm on the closed beta but due to Computer problems it doesn't work (will be doing a windows reinstall to get it going soonish). I shall also have a Dawn of War: Dark Crusade up soon as well as Hitman: Bloodmoney and Neverwinter Nights 2 reviews. But to celebrate my finishing study for another year here's a light hearted song based on a very popular Warcraft 3 mod called DOTA. Apparently if you live in Scandinavia and play online for most of your free time you pick up hot blonde chicks really easily, and here I am with my wit and charm...

All I have to say is 'Only in Sweden...' you have been warned


[ Click here to read more ]
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Grand Theft Mario

November 9th 2006 07:11
From RobotChicken comes this hilarous adaption of two of the greatest video games of all time (oh and watch till the end for another game cameo)...now if only Nintendo had thought of this...


[ Click here to read more ]
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Away for a week

November 6th 2006 12:35
Hey there orble readers, due to my extremely busy schedule as of late with exams and all I might not be able to post as often as I would like. This is just to let you all know that giventogaming.com is *not* dead and that I shall be posting a complete report of my closed Beta Test of the simply jaw dropping Supreme Commander very, very soon.

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Australian Wii Price List

November 3rd 2006 08:12
Nintendo has just confirmed the Australian price guide for the Wii and accessories.


[ Click here to read more ]
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Defcon Review

November 2nd 2006 04:38
8/10

Developer: Introversion


[ Click here to read more ]
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Supreme Commander Beta Test

November 2nd 2006 01:10
Yours truly (most likely) has been given a spot on the Supreme Commander Beta test for the PC. I should find out today or tomorrow if I am definitely on it, then I'll post full details of how it went to you guys on www.giventogaming.com.

Stay tuned for more information!
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Console Wars

November 1st 2006 06:03
Apparently due to blue-laser diode production being behind schedule the Australiasian and European releases have been pushed into the distant future. March 2007. Hopefully if Mad Max style gangs haven't taken over the streets by then we can finally get a taste of what the Americans and Japanese will be getting for Christmas.

Console soap drama's!...Ahhh I'm so witty

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