This Phobia of Hydros made me wet

Hydrophobia, an xbox live arcade game currently priced at 400 Points in a sale (normally 800 Points), is a third person action game. It is planned to be a trilogy, though nothing on the second one has been mentioned. It just recently recieved a major overhaul (The hydopohbia pure update) majorly improving the games looks and reducing the games price from 1200 points to 800. But this water based game anything to get wet about, or should you stay high and dry?

You play as Kate, a engineer of the  Huge vessel The Queen of The Earth. In the future, global populizations has caused humanity to find places to live, and so the ship was born. Then Terrorists attack, and Kate's in the middle of it. Unfortunately she has a bit of the hydrophobia, swimming underwater for too long brings dulls the sound and you being ot hear voices of Kate's past (I remember hearing that the screen goes dim iswell, but I think it was removed in the update). As you continue, water bursts into the ship, and its clear this game is clearly focused on the water. And the water pyshics are brilliant. Water swoops in on waves, bursting through and sweeping characters off your feet. Water splashes on the screen, drips from every source, and provides some interesting puzzles. It can also be used as timed weapons in many ways.  Its the best water physics ive seen in a game.

The game plays from a 3rd person perspective, similar to uncharted, in terms of climbing and gameplay (though not as effective). The swimmings plays pretty good iswell. The cover system is a bit choopy, however. The combat is quite unique. Although it takes a while to reach it, Kate is equipped with a security gun, in which has different ammo types. The first one you recieve gives the ability to shock and stun enemies, eventually killing them with enough shocks. But this also brings back to the water, stunned enemies will eventually drowned, so in certain situations using the environment is essenstial. Others including  gel bombs, and of course, standard ammo. There are also a number of other environmental dangers to take note when combating the terrorists. Electirc wires halter the players progress, or can be used to your environmental advantage. Another includes exploding barrels, but what game doesent have them. Then again, they are more effective due to the lack of lethal weaponry.

After youve Done the story mode (which unfortunately is only a few hours) the challenge mode becomes avalible. Here, Kate gets the power to contorl water to knock her enemies over in a survival style mode. Its a real shame the waer controlling ability isnt in the main game. If your someone who has a soft spot for hi scorees and leaderboards, then this will keep you for a while.

One thing that I didnt like about the game is the lack of smoothness in the controls. Although its not devastatingly terrible, sometimes a matter of life and death. Adding the length of the game (though you cant ocmplain at the price) the worst part of the game, past the few bugs and glitches still in the game (I got stuck in the floor in the swimming animation, was quite annoying) is the ending. Why? cause there isnt one. I know this game was supposed to be a triology, but it jsut ends halfway through a cut scene. Which left me completely unsatisfied, especially since I finished the game in a single sitting.

Overall, hydrophobia is a fairly enjoyable game. The water and combat mechaniques are unique and brilliantly shown off, but it falls short at the basics. Still, its not enough to put anyone off, but expect a generic 3rd person game after the wow of the water gets past you. Also, beware, one thing about planned 'episodic games' they might nt make the next one, leaving us with that half a cutscene to end the story

What I liked

Great water physics
Tactical shooting style
Envionmentals
Water controlling challenge mode

What annoyed me

Stiff controls
Few bugs and glitches
Shortness of game
Lack of ending (especially wiht no sign of episode 2 yet)

Rating 7/10
Reccomend to: Uncharted fans who are sat ina  room going insane waiting for the third one.

OH, before I forget...TWITTER

Just another update, In the next few days Ill be experimenting with twitter to provide you guys with a daily update of what Im up to, from my daily life to blog updates.

It will probably be under ShowerTroll, but Im not sure yet, Ill let you guys know when its confirmed (It will also be on my profile box on the side of the blog.

News Update: Birthday, fun, and what to expect this february

It was birthday on tuesday, I am now at the right old age of 17. Ive already said it a billion times, but you know when you're getting old when you forget its your own birthday till 3 days before when someone reminds you, due to all the coursework youve been typing away at. Which means I only got money this time round, which was ok, but I do like opening the mystery present on your birthday, it just seems special to come home and use said present. Whereas the money just got added onto my original pile of money, which was enough to buy pretty much enough to buy anything I wanted in reason (and the reason its there is because I dont want anything atm, so thats where my birthday moneys going). Maybe its a good idea to save?

BTW, I am in no way complaining, I am very grateful for the money, its just that it made the day less exciting. Im also jsut discussing my thoughs on the matter.

Right, onto topic 2, what to expect.

Well, I have alot of ideas planned. I just finished Hydrophobia, so expect a review of that either tommorow or sunday. Ive also been playing alot of minecraft, so expect minecrafty stuff. And Ive been bustin out the old ps2 slim, so Ill be starting a new Blast from the past section, where Ill write about returning to old games and how theve aged now that Im old enough to tell if a games bad or not.

Its gonna be a packed Februrary/March. I thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you stick around for these updates.

Thanks

I got noticed

Well, seems like my writing has paid off. Im in the running for a writers posistion on a new games website. They want me to send in a review in 2 weeks. Im going to send in a modified version of my killing floor review. Ill let you know how it turns out

Wish me luck

Consoles have their limits ya know

First off, I noticed that the previous post seems a little buit angry and aggresive. I apologise, try to read it more calmly, the message still stands (To be honest if your reading my blog, chances are your not the bad type anyway, unless you followed my facebook link, which makes it depending on the person)

Now on topic

Recently, I played the xbox verison of left 4 dead 2. As much as the bots were bad enough, I did notice on occasions (such as the petrol station bit and the finale on no mercy, my brother bought the dlc) that it lags. Obviously this is unstoppable, as console dont have graphic settings, because they dont need to. BUT surely this shouldnt happen, they should be built to run perfectly to the system?

This, my friends, is what I like to call lazy developers (or other reasons, valve arent lazy...oh wait, they are)

Nowadays, consoles have become alot more....fiercer. Back in the old days the console wars was barely heard of. It was there, of course, but not as strong as it is today. With everyone competing for graphics and popularity, graphics and visuals are being chosen over performance. Games like mass effect, which probably run really well on pc, lag at parts on the xbox. Sure, some people might not notice, but it bugged me. And some games are worse.

But why?

Sure, the current consoles are getting old, and with the recent release of the motion controllers and peripherals, there gonna be around for a while still, but surely developers would see this, and adapt. The exclusive games, uncharted, halo reach etc, will run perfectly (unless its a badly made game). But its generally games that are on the pc too that end up being laggy. Now we all know how pcs are almost' two generations ahead' or something, which means the pc is capable of a wee bit more than the consoles. So why do developers make games that are destined to lag. It happens both ways iswell, bad ports make pc games lag like crazy. One example of this is the whole Black ops affair. While the xbox version remained at prestine quality, both the ps3 and pc versions were left with sudden drops in frame rate and other problems (the pc being dreadful for some).

So it does happen both ways, though the console having the bad version being the more common. What developers need to understand is that the pc being different from home consoles. They dont need a port, they need a almost new game. This is alot similar to the story of ports to ps3, due to the multi core processor. Now, Bioware did this perfectly. Dragon age origins had a brilliant pc version, pushing the pc alot, where the console version got a optimized game with a brilliant control system. This is proof that it is possible, though bioware did make mass effect

There was other stuff that I was gonna put, but I forgot. Therefore, I shall leave it there

Thanks for reading

Girls 'n' Games

If youve played a game online for more than 4 seconds (ok, a little exaggeration MAY be in that last statement) youll notice how girl gamers are treated by guys, or showing off that they play games, depending on who you have met. Both are a pain in there own way, from having a whiny chav shout owned all the time, while shes shooting at a wall, to having either guys hitting on or moaning at said girl for playing the game.

As you can probably tell,I believe there are 2 types of girl gamers. Girl Gamers, and Girls who play Games.

Girl gamers are the ones that are the problem. They come on games shouting " OH HAI, LOOK A GIRL ON A GAME, OMG IM LIKE THE ONLY ONE, PAY ATTENTION TO ME" in which, a variety of boys ( either a gamer or just a cod only player, these being the ones who only play cod and think it are the only game in the world) Try to impress them, skill for the first one, talking and insulting everyone for the second one.

And they leech off it.

Its so annoying to see a girl say IM GOING ON COD on facebook each time they do. There was a funny story of a girl which said that COD was her first game ever, then went on to post about how she preffered the Nintendo 64 over the xbox, and then said how she 'used to have one and play it'

Its like comon, MAKE UP YOUR MIND YOU ATTENTION SEEKING FAGGOLA...

It annoys me to see something like gaming, a hobby for most people, myself included, being treated by girls as an attention method. Like its some kind of big league thing. You should play a game because you enjoy it, not because you want some attention from the opposite sex.

So where does that leave the Girls who play Games? trapped in a world where guys consitently hit on them because there used to it (or because there just like that, but thats kinda unavoidable). All these girls want to do is play games, but some people wont let them. Ive met girls like this, talked with them in game, either ABOUT THE GAME, or just standard talk with people with mics. Either way, the fact that she is a girl is almost ignored, and no personal questions are asked. But because of the other group, the experience is almost ruined for them.

As for why guys make a fuss. Because
A) They are sad pathetic losers
and
B) The girls force a fuss if one does not naturally occur.


Note this says when they make a fuss, not everytime there is a  girl on the game

So next time you go online, have a think about which type of boy/girl gamer you are, dont be the pervy boy, or attention seeking girl, just enjoy the game.

Whatever it is you are packing in your panties is best kept out of the conversation.


Thanks for reading

Yeah, I failed

As you can see guys, the christmas thing failed. Due to personal problems, I was unable to finish, or rather, couldnt. To stop this in the future, I wont be setting deadlines from now on. I hope to get at least 1 post a month, possibly going up to 1 a week.

Thanks