Thursday 16 June 2011

Unboxing Duke Nukem: Forever (Balls Of Steel Edition)

Hello everyone, this is RustyMcNipples first video and he is unboxing Duke Nukem: Forever's Balls of Steel Edition. Hope you enjoy it. Review and gameplay will be out tomorrow.

Monday 6 June 2011

My first post & the taste left in my mouth after the pre-E3 unveilings.

Hello everyone, I'm Alex and you'll see posts from me on here sporadically. Today was an awesome day for 360 gamers everywhere with the Microsoft press conference which is the prelude to this year's E3. It promises some very interesting innovations in the video gaming industry and some of the most anticipated video game releases of our life times thus far.

I'm going to jump right into it here and let you know right up front that this year's theme was very Kinect-centric.


First up is Gears of War 3. This game features some breath-taking action sequences and fantastic graphics that brings the new "pissed" sea creature known as the Leviathan right into your living room. Demoed by Cliff Bleszinski and Ice-T in front of the live audience, GW3 promises to be the action-packed, concentration testing, tour de force we've come to expect from this system exclusive and I know that I'm personally excited to send the Leviathan back to the depths of the ocean.


Next on the list of exciting releases is the Kinect-enabled Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The trailer for this game shown at the conference eludes to some very interesting new features including in-game partial invisibility, better sounds, better visuals, and better environmental interactivity than it's predecessors. Introduced by Yves Guillemot, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will use the Kinect for it's Gunsmith application using gestures or your voice and all weapons are customizable right down to the smallest parts. Kinect is also leveraged to be used for aiming and shooting as if you were holding the gun in your hands. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks like it's going to be a ground breaker for the long running franchise and it may breathe new life into a very enjoyable game that has unfortunately been overlooked in the past few years due to an over-saturated market.


Speaking of saturated markets, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has been announced to be released on November 8th, 2011. With some new graphics and a new story line, this game seems to fail to travel far beyond the beaten trail which is perhaps why this franchise has done so well. One thing to note is that Microsoft has revealed that the 360 will again get the map packs earlier than any other console which seems to have a struck a cord with many gamers who are upset at the extra cost of DLC that is announced pre-release when it might have been incorporated in the game.


In what looks to be a very well thought out and very action filled puzzle game, Tomb Raider (scheduled for release if fall of 2012) seems as if it will breathe new life to a series that has had disappointing sequels, one after another. The game play looks phenomenal and the environmental graphics are above par. The story follows Lara Croft as she grows from being a young 21 year old explorer to the hardened treasure hunter that the first game of the series portrayed. Introduced by Daniel Neuberger and Darrell Gallagher this game looks very solid and hopefully it will mean success for a long running contender.


Either I wasn't paying attention or there was no explanation for this game but the trailer for Ryse looked quite phenomenal. It's not often you see a game that has decent graphics when it's mixed with motion controls but this game looks like it does a good job integrating the two together. It comes at a time when elite gamers are getting tired of button mashers, RPGs or first person shooters and are looking at alternatives but are unwilling to sacrifice graphics for ingenuity. Definitely a bonus for Kinect if future games are headed in this direction.


Forza Motorsports 4 is announced to be released on October 11th 2011 and the gameplay looks jaw dropping. For those into racing simulation games Forza has been at the top for their realism and graphics and this year they are not looking to disappoint. Being "better with Kinect" we can expect to see some awesome customizations headed our way along with a social aspect to connect real world gear heads and racers alike.

One of the smaller announcement of the show is that Minecraft, an indie dev, will be released on the 360 and that it will be Kinect compatible which will add just that much more interactivity to a game that requires user input.


My personal favourite of the show and the game I'm probably most excited for is Fable: The Journey. As far as I am concerned (and I am slightly biased) Lionhead takes the Kinect to a whole other level. You play the role of a young man in a time where there are no heroes left in Albion. You run into the seeress Theresa who is running from something and your destiny starts there. What interests me the most is the seamless use of the Kinect to manipulate your spells and to move your cart, as always with the Fable franchise the dark and menacing landscapes are just that when they need to be and graphically Fable has always been a bit cartoon-ish but the environment and the people are delightfully scripted and animated.

Microsoft also showcased a small line of child-based Kinect games that included Disney and Sesame street characters and while not appealing to the elite gamer in me, I concluded that as a child I would have found these games most enjoyable and more than likely indiscreetly educational which is what these games are all about.


One of the biggest announcements that will resonate around the gaming community for the coming year and a half is that Halo 4 will be released which will be the first of a trilogy of games. Technical aspects were not mentioned but being one of the most successful series of games in the history of gaming this is very big news for gamers everywhere and we're all very excited for what lay ahead in the future in those regards.

So basically I didn't pay enough attention to the rest of the show or I'm too lazy to write anymore, I hope you enjoyed reading through my first post. I know I didn't critique anything yet but eventually it'll come to me... I'm just honeymooning on the excitement. So make sure you subscribe so you can see the harrowing things I will say about your favourite games that will make you want to punch me in the face!

Tuesday 17 May 2011

L.A. Noire Walkthrough

Here I will continuously embedding my L.A. Noire gameplay footage as it come available on YouTube.





























L.A. Noire Review - 9.5/10



Hello everyone, this is Aaron from Band Of Nerdz and I am here to bring you a review of the new detective game, L.A. Noire. Before I get into my thoughts on the game let me tell you a little bit about the game first so you can get an idea on what it is about. L.A. Noire was developed and published by Team Bondi and Rockstar Games. This is Team Bondi’s first game and as their introduction development into the gaming industry, L.A. Noire brings components in a game that have not been used frequently. The game takes place in 1947, in Los Angeles obviously, during a time where crime and corruption were the norm. The player takes on the role of Cole Phelps, who is an LAPD officer who is trying to rise through the ranks of is department. He joined the police force because he wanted to “right the wrongs” that he committed during World War II. He starts off as a patrol-man, and rises to traffic detective, then homicide, then vice, when he finally becomes an arson investigator. Each of the different ranks gives the player a different partner to become you aide as you investigate crime scenes as well as making arrests and getting into brawls with criminals who don’t come down easily.

The video aspect of this game is the best I have ever seen by any game developers to date. Team Bondi and Rockstar Games went all out in this game and the time they took into creating similar faces and likenesses of the voice actors is amazing. I have seen videos before the release date of developer’s diaries and by the looks of things they took 360 degrees visuals of the actors and then created the characters from there. This also includes facial expressions as well and to get these precision expressions that you see in the game, the actors actually acted out the scenes in real life to help the developers get a feel for how to make the expressions work. I am certain this is correct, but I am not for certain, but let’s talk about the in-game visuals. Rockstar Games is the best company for making sand-box style games look beautiful. The similarities that they were able to create on a visual aspect to the actual 1940s Los Angeles are absolutely incredible and they did a good job with it. Like I said before about the facial expressions, the developers made this game unlike any other game. Facial expressions make up for a lot of the games focal point, as during interrogations, you must carefully read the face of the suspects while they are talking and be able to correctly call them out on being the truth, a lie, and also things that they say that are doubtful. The audio in this game is amazing, be it the car radio or the characters talking to one another. The car radio plays soothing jazz music from the World War II era and bring the mood of being in that time period. When characters talk it is almost like you are watching a move, as the synchronization of the characters lips and the audio of their voice are, if not exact, the best in any game.


This game has a very well rounded hand out of driving, action, and investigating. It is like any Rockstar game with that format like driving to missions and carrying them out. While driving around you must be careful for pedestrians and other drivers as at the end of each case, there is a rack up of all the economic damage you did. Sometimes it is hard to dodge pedestrians while in a car chase because while tailgating your target they do cause you to drive into them. I am sure if I used my sirens more that would not be a problem, but just a heads up. Since this game is more for the detective genre fans, the action portion of the game is able to be skipped if you cannot get passed that part. For the interrogation portion of the game, I myself find it hard to correctly carry out the interviews. Sometimes it is hard to decipher which of the three choices (truth, doubt, lie) the suspect is communicating to you. This also goes to show that the real interrogators out there must have a hard time figuring out when someone is lying or not, unless they have been at it for years. For those of you who find specific interrogation parts hard, it is possible to bring up your book and either remove an incorrect answer or to even ask the community (those who have done this part before) and it gives you the percentage of which answers players chose.

The achievement list is a mix of driving, discovery, doing things in a certain way in different cases. Some awesome achievements and names are the following:

Asphalt Jungle – Chase down and tackle a fleeing suspect on foot as and LAPD Detective
Not So Hasty – Stop a fleeing suspect with a warning shot as an LAPD Detective
Public Menace – Rack up $47 000 in penalties during a single story case
Keep A Lid On – Complete a brawl without losing your hat as an LAPD Detective or Investigator
Give My Regards – Shoot every letter down from the tower at the Broadway Hotel



Monday 16 May 2011

Welcome To The New Group: Band Of Nerdz!

My name is Aaron and you may know me from Wheeling Rampage Productions, in which you can see me on YouTube and my other Blogger page. Along with some friends, we will be called Band Of Nerdz. This will be the blog for said page and will have updates on how the videos are progressing as well as any issues that may delay them. The videos will mainly remain around reviews of games, as well as walkthroughs. We may show you how to get achievements, but they will probably already be done in the walkthrough footage. As well as game footage, one of the members may also do a news segment. This group is just starting to begin and it may be a bumpy path for the first few months but I believe as we progress, we will grow into a good group. We will post videos on YouTube, so whenever a new video is posted we will also put it on here. Videos will start in a couple of days, so be sure to subscribe to get the latest!