iGamerz – XGE

So yesterday Dead Island came out and I’ve done NOTHING but play it since then. At first I had mixed feelings about it because I was so used to Treyarch’s fast paced action in their zombie maps, but after further game time I can say this….THIS GAME IS AWESOME!!!

So basically it goes a little something like this… Your on an island called Banoi which is off the coast of New Guinea on a vacation. After a night of heavy drinking, you wake up to find that the island is in chaos. Everyone is infected with some blood disease that turns them into zombies. You can choose from 4 characters who are all immune to the disease, and you go around to the survivors to do missions for them because they don’t want to get infected… otherwise I suppose they’d do the missions themselves. The missions vary anywhere from picking up supplies for survivors, to offing someone’s infected wife and kid so they don’t have to suffer… all this while fighting hoards of zombies.

The zombies are a mix between George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead zombies in that they’re very slow, to 28 Days Later zombies which are insanely fast. There are some special zombies which are almost always harder to kill. As your xp goes up, so does theirs. So if your on level 23, the zombies are on level 23-24.

There are endless weapons in this game. You can kill with a broomstick or a kitchen knife… but later in the game you get guns which are very helpful. Ammo for the guns is scarce so it must be used wisely. You can modify weapons as you progress in the game, and even electrify certain weapons.

This game has EVERYTHING. Not only that, it’s FAR from cheap. No not money cheap (because it did cost me $64 big ones) but it’s fair. Actually, sometimes it’s too fair. That’s never a bad thing though. When you die, you start right where you left off and the zombies stay with the health you left them off at before you ate the big one.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is not a fast paced first person shooter. It’s a well balanced first person RPG. It’s fast at times, but for the most part you’ll be trying to complete little side missions while either trying to avoid the undead, or going face to face with them.

The fighting is a bit choppy at times and can sometimes be difficult to master because of the delay. For example, when your trying to stab a zombie it’s not an automatic response so you have to time everything perfectly. Fighting one zombie is easy, but fighting five is hard. Some zombies sprint and some are very slow. Some are big and some are small. There’s these big guys called Thugs that have a lot of experience points that take a lot of work to take down.

There’s SOOOOOO much going on in this game that a simple review wouldn’t give it justice. One thing is for sure… this game is BIG!!! I’m talkin HUGE!!! It’s certainly worth buying and I highly recommend it for those who are fans of the genre.

Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack 3 “Annihilation” came with 4 multiplayer maps and one zombie map called “Shangri-La.” I won’t be talking about the multiplayer maps this time around, I’ll be talking about the zombie map. Shangri-La is a pretty cool zombie map and it’s certainly in my top 5 favorites. I’ll be doing a review of this map at a later date, but for now I just want to talk about Shangri-La’s Easter Egg and my experience. Because Shangri-La’s Easter Egg is so insanely hard to do, it’s worthy of an entire post. It’s complications are so great, that this topic needs some hearing. And this Easter Egg was so damn annoying, that I have to vent. I’m writing this post at approximately 20 minutes after my first (and probably final) completion of the Easter Egg and I’m DAMN happy about it.

The Easter Egg in Shangri-La is a twelve step process that has to be done to free two explorers stuck inside and ancient temple. When you activate the eclipse, your crew travels back in time to before the accident happens when they die. Your job is pretty much to prevent they’re deaths for whatever reasons. If you do the Easter Egg correctly, one player gets all 7 perks and never loses them…unless the whole team goes down. Each step of the Easter Egg complete is shown by an orb that can be seen in the Juggernog/Speed Cola room.

I’ve been trying to do this Easter Egg for some time now. Ever since I got Annihilation, my main goal was to finish this thing. I saw NGTZombies get it done on youtube and have been trying it ever since.  As many of you know, finding people online isn’t easy. Team work is the MAIN ingredient when trying to do this Easter Egg. Without it, there’s no reason to even try. I’ve been pretty good at weeding the dedicated from the people who just don’t get it.

Through the magic of PSN, you are either blessed with people who know how to play or cursed with boobs. Upon my findings were a cool fella named Bob and his wife Sarah. Then Joey and I were on split-screen. Since we’ve all tried the Easter Egg several times online with others with no results, we were ready to put this thing to bed once and for all. This was the team that was going to make this thing happen.

We started off on a pretty high note. The first few rounds went as usual and we made it to round 5 before we opened the first door. To the AK74u room we went, then to the power. We geared up a bit before starting a new round. All four of us were on edge since we were all sick and tired of finding boobs online and making it halfway through the Easter Egg and failing at a crucial moment. We weren’t taking any chances. So we posted up by the water slide and held out for a while until we had enough to get some perks and hit the box. After we had what we needed, we saved a crawler and started the eclipse.

The first two steps went smoothly. We started an eclipse and Bobby and Sarah did the “pressure plate with the symbols” step while Joey and I watched the crawler in the spawn room. We started up another eclipse to do the water slide part then proceeded to another round. After that round we saved a crawler and hit the box. The box was in a bad mood.

We had to do many many rounds to keep hitting the box because for the next step we needed the JGB (baby maker) gun and we couldn’t seem to get it. We got everything BUT that gun for the first 30 times. The box probably re-spawned at least ten times before we got the baby maker, but finally we got it. The step where you have to shrink the rock and knife it down the water slide was now finished. Here comes the hard part.

For the next step, you need a Napalm Zombie to ignite the gas coming out of the pipes. After the eclipse is started you must lead him down through the cave where the Juggernog or Speed Cola is. The problem with this is that a teammate is always blowing up the Napalm Zombie by walking too close to it. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve gotten to this step only to have this happen. It’s frustrating when people don’t listen even though you know what your talking about. Since we all knew what we had to do, this went by pretty smoothly though and we got it done.

The next part of the Easter Egg is another pain. You have to plant spikemore mines in the cave at the end of the bridge and let crawlers blow them up so the spikes fill these little holes in the wall. Again, we’ve done this before and it got done smoothly. I can’t count the amount of times people have killed the crawlers and we didn’t have enough to blow up all the spikemores, or the eclipse ends and we have to do it over. One time the eclipse ended and the game glitched so we couldn’t complete the rest of the Easter Egg. Needless to say, that was frustrating as hell.

After that step you have to start another eclipse and knife symbols that spawn on the walls. They have to be found, but they are always in the same spot and if you’ve done it before it’s easy. We got this step done with no problems. I actually got a bit worried though because after you knife all the symbols you have to blow up a pile of sticks that lies outside the map where the mine cart is. I blew it up before all the symbols were knifed so I didn’t know if I messed up the Easter Egg. Luckily I didn’t and we got it done.

The next step we had to locate 4 out of the 8 gongs on the map that have the same pitch in sound. This took a few tries because we kept hitting the wrong ones and resetting it. So we had to start the eclipse over and over again until we got it right. The next step was to shoot the last orb with the baby maker. We knew the baby maker had to be pack a punched for this step so it was done early on in the game.

This is where we got worried. Joey had the baby maker pack a punched (which is called the Resonater) but we couldn’t get the step right and we were running out of ammo. We didn’t know you had to hit all of them so Joey kept on shooting the same ones over and over. Then the crawlers killed him. We were losing hope because it had already been about 3 and a half hours of this stuff. I picked him up and gave him the pep talk he needed to continue on. After all, we were almost done it.

So finally he shot the right ones causing the giant meteor on the top of the pack a punch machine shrink. Then we started an eclipse and all stood on the pressure plates to activate the pack a punch machine. We go to the top of the stairs and give the guy the dynamite we got in an earlier step. It turns daylight again and we all stand on the pack a punch panels to activate the steps to the pack a punch. At the top of the steps there was an opening behind where pack a punch should have been. There was a table with a floating rock on it which was picked up by me and I had all 7 perks. The Easter Egg was done. A GIANT weight lifted from my shoulders and a huge sigh of relief came from my mouth.

Joey and I looked at each other as if we’ve been through so much. I told Bobby and his wife that they were now my friends and that I’ll never be doing this again. I can’t even say it was fun to do. It was just something I had to do because it was eating away at me, plus I wanted the trophy. Well I got it now. If anybody ever plans on doing this, make sure it’s with people you can count on. And team work goes a long way. Moon map Easter Egg here I come…well, when it’s finally released for PS3 that is.

Formerly known as Wanako Games, developers Behaviour are responsible for this horrible game. I don’t mean horrible like the ghosts are scary looking and the atmosphere is creepy, I mean this game sucks.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is a top view looking down shooter that may sound good when hearing about it, but you’ll know how bad it is once you’ve played it for 2 minutes. It’s a repeat and rinse type of game. You go into a room and defeat a certain amount of ghosts, then move on to the next one and do the same. This goes on for 12 levels.

You play as 4 unknown characters using the well known Proton Packs as well as a few other weapons that can be used. The weapons given damage varies on what kind of ghoul your shooting at. Some weapons work best on certain ghouls, and some weapons don’t do much damage.

The ghouls are boring and annoying, but they do a lot of damage. Sometimes there are so many ghosts on the screen at one time it’s almost impossible not to go down. Luckily, your teammates can pick you back up again.

There’s 4 player action and when your not playing with teammates of your own, the game provides you with some AI action. The AI’s can sometimes be a bit annoying, but for the most part are helpful. They revive you if you go down and they do help get rid of some ghouls. I’d say that the AI is probably the best help this game has since the graphics, level design, and overall mechanics of this game are just plain garbage.

Ghostbuster fans be warned, this is NOT a good game. I know the title can be misleading, and if your a Ghostbuster fan you’ll be curious. I was, and I regret it. I’ll probably never play this game again. Out of 5 dead scientists (they crossed the streams) I give this game just one. And for the developers who made this hunk of garbage, you should be ashamed of yourselves for using the fine Ghostbusters name to sell a piece of trash like this.

Shi No Numa or “Swamp of Death” is the third installment in the Call of Duty: World at War zombie series. This map is a change from the rest in that it doesn’t have Nazi zombies. This map takes place somewhere in Japan and is the beginning of the zombie storyline. The setting is a swamp with 5 huts scattered throughout. Shi No Numa introduced us to our four main characters Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Brezinski, Takeo Masaki, and Dr. Edward Richtofen. There is a man hanging by the neck in the room where you spawn. Nobody knows for sure who he is.
Unlike all the other maps besides Nacht Der Untoten, this map has no power switch that needs to be turned on. It’s the first map to add radios and the first time we saw a zip line added. Also unlike its predecessor Verruckt, it’s perk machines spawn randomly instead of being in the same place all the time.

We’re familiar with traps already but Shi No Numa added a new trap called the Flogger. The electric traps return also and like Verruckt, the Mystery Box moves from location to location. But the biggest change in this map isn’t the location and the randomly spawning Perk Machines, it’s the Hell Hound rounds. Hell Hounds are vicious dogs that spawn at round 5, 6, or sometimes 7, and they come every 4-5 rounds afterwards. So if round 5 is a dog round, expect the next dog round to be at round 10 or 11. If you successfully complete a dog round, you are rewarded with a max ammo.

Also new to Shi No Numa is a fan favorite weapon called the “Wunderwaffe DG-2.” This gun looks like it belongs in the year 2131. It was created by Dr. Maxis and is powered by Element 115. The DG-2 is a serious piece of weaponry, and if handled the wrong way it can be more dangerous than useful. If you shoot a zombie or a dog too close, it will zap you causing damage. If it’s used correctly, it can be a life saver. It shoots an electrical beam that electrocutes the zombies and bounces from one zombie to another, then to another. It can clear out a hourde of zombies in one shot if the zombies are close enough together.

Theres a lot of doors in this map so it’s important to get a lot of points to progress. And with the randomly spawning Perk Machines, you have to get lucky if you want a certain perk. Most people always go looking for Juggernog first, but in Shi No Numa you may have to open all the doors before you find it.

There are 4 areas that can be opened. The Com Room, the Storage Room, the Doctors Quarters, and the Fishing Hut. This place was a Japanese testing site for scientist experimenting on element 115. It’s supposed to be where one of the comets containing the element landed. If you look closely while in the storage area, you can see one of the meteor pieces sitting in the forest outside of the map. This is where our story starts getting more interesting. I’ll make a post about the zombie story at a later time.

Shi No Numa is definetely one of the greats. Out of 5 severed fingers, this one gets a 4 straight up. I’ll play this map whenever I need a change of scenery and when I’m in a classic mood. Stay tuned, we’re just getting warmed up here. Theres many more maps to be discussed so don’t miss out.

Easter Eggs:

In the Comm Room there is a telephone. Press reload on the telephone 3 times to start the Elena Siegman and Kevin Sherwood song “The One.”

In the spawn room there is 3 radios. If you activate all three of them by pressing the reload button on all of them, a series of numbers is spoken by a deep voice. The numbers spoken are the lattitude and longitude degrees of Area 51 in the Nevada Desert. A lot of people think that Area 51 will become a zombie map one of these days.
In the Storage Room area, there is an Element 115 comet sitting outside of the map. If you shoot it, the character you are playing as will make a comment about it.

In the spawn room there is a man hanging by the neck. Some people say this is Peter, a secret operations marine sent in to gather information or rescue hurt scientist or marines.

There are also radios found in some of the other huts which don’t necessarily have anything to do with the story, but play rather creepy sounds and voices when activated.

The second zombie map to ever exist was a giant step in the series. Verruckt is the German word for “crazy” or “psyco.” This map added so much to zombie mode and is widely known as one of the hardest zombie maps in existance. With its narrow halls and small areas, it’s difficulty level is high. There is little room to run a circle strategy and makes for a good camping map.
Verruckt was the first map to introduce Perk-A-Cola machines. The four main Perk machines are Juggernog which gives 2x the health, Quick Revive which helps revive teamates in half the time, Double Tap which allows 2x the shooting speed, and Speed Cola which gives you 2x the reload speed. These perks are vital in your survival. Well, some more than others. For instance, if you don’t have Juggernog you’ll go down in two hits from a zombie. With it, you can withstand 4 hits from a zombie and sometimes more. Personally, I must have Juggernog and Speed Cola. Double Tap is a waste of ammo for me unless I have a slow shooting gun, and Quick Revive doesn’t do anything in a solo game. However, it’s a good perk to have while playing a co-op match.
Verruckt was the first and only map to start a co-op game with the players in different rooms. This was a clever thing added by Treyarch and was never done again for some reason. There was a big metal door separating the players which needed power to move. So usually players would choose a player or group to get to the power room first, then they would return to their main goals…slaying puss bags. I was kind of hoping that Treyarch would do this again in future maps but as of yet they haven’t.
Traps were introduced in Verruckt also. These traps can stop a hourde with the flick of a switch by causing a virticle stream of electricle current that sends the zombies into a high voltage spasm killing them almost instantly, no matter what round it is. The traps come in handy for the later rounds and cost 1000 points to use which isn’t too bad.
The Mystery Box returns in Verruckt with some new features. It moves from place to place after it’s used a random amount of times making it important to work as a team. You know when the box is moving when you use it and a teddy bear comes up. The good part of it is that when you spend your 950 points to use the box and you get a teddy, you get your points back. The only bad thing is that you may have to go looking for it when it moves, and if your not familiar with the map this can be deadly. The Mystery Box always starts in the power room and then moves all around the map to random locations.
Nacht Der Untoten introduced us to zombies. Verruckt however, introduced us to sprinting zombies. These zombies are fast. And when I say fast, I mean FAST!!! With the lack of room to run around, these suckers can end it all for a player. Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of these bad boys is to get rid of them the old fashioned way…a few rounds to the head. Of course, thats how you end all zombies so thats not really good advice. Just try to stay far from these guys because they are much faster than the normal zombies.
There wasn’t too much added to Verruckt and the differences between it and Nacht Der Untoten basically stop at the things I listed above (traps and Perk Machines.) And since Treyarch still wasn’t sure of the success of zombie mode, the story was still in it’s infant stage. They did however add some creepy little easter eggs though. And a good song.
This is one of my favorite maps to play solo. It’s difficult and it takes a lot of luck (as well as a good amount of skill) to get to later rounds. I enjoy co-op also. The problem with co-op is that it’s not easy to find a match where people aren’t glitching or have a hack going. I once got into a match where a person was outside of the building, shooting the zombies as they were rising from the dirt. Needless to say, I ended that game in a hurry. Out of 5 severed fingers, Verruckt gets a whopping 4 1/2 severed fingers. Like I said earlier, it’s one of my favs.

Easter Eggs:
There are 3 toilets in the room next to the power room. Flush the first toilet 3 times to start the Elena Siegman and Kevin Sherwood song “Lullaby for a Dead Man.”
In one of the spawning rooms, there is a dentist chair. Point your crosshair at the wheel on the bottom of the chair and press the reload button 3 times to hear a drill and a man screaming.
This is much of an Easter Egg as much as a strategy, but if you go to the room where the Speed Cola is without openning the door to the right of the Speed Cola you can camp there without worrying about zombies coming in the window behind you. For some reason the zombies never come through that window in the little room behind Speed Cola when the door to the right of the Speed Cola isn’t opened which makes for a GREAT camping area.

Before there was Dead Ops Arcade, there was this game. The same style, and basically the same controls. I was looking through the demos on PSN and came across it. Think of Dead Ops Arcade and add in some goofy characters and a little dialog. It’s not the first of its kind, but it’s fun as hell.
From the starting screen, you choose your character and get right into it. Your character is placed on a screen of a wrecked street and a hourde of zombies. Some zombies even come out of the sewer drains. Theres a jet crash landed on the ground and fires are blaring. The weapon you have is a fully automatic machine gun…but it’s kind of slow. Luckily, drops and power-ups randomly appear that give you better weapons. After you’ve finished off the amount of puss bags the stage requires, you move on to the next one.
While fun and often funny, this game feels like it’s already been done. I’ve been here before and I’ll certainly be here again. And though it came out before Black Ops and Dead Nation, I don’t I’d buy this game…but only because I have Dead Nation and Black Ops. Still though, it may be good for a change in style since it has it own. Out of 5 severed fingers, I’d give this demo 3 1/2 severed fingers. My prediction for the game would be about the same…it’s that familiar.

With the burning heat of the summer, theres lots of time to do some serious gaming. Since November 2010, we’ve been blessed with all new Call of Duty zombie maps. In February, the first DLC became available for download for the XBOX 360 and in March for PS3. It was called First Strike and it came with 4 multiplayer maps and 1 zombie map called Ascension. In May, Escalation was released for XBOX 360 and in June for PS3. Escalation came with the epic zombie map “Call of the Dead” featuring George Romaro as a boss zombie. In June, Annihilation was released containing the zombie map Shangri-La and it will be released for PS3 starting July 28.

So far there are only rumors of a 4th and final DLC for Black Ops. But will the epic zombie maps continue with Treyarchs next Call of Duty release in 2012? That is the question us zombie fans are asking ourselves. There are many theories out there, and a lot of them are far out. I’ve heard that we’ll be killing zombies on the moon, in Paris, in Area 51 and several other locations. Only time will tell I guess, but theres one thing I know for sure….I can’t go ONE day without slaying puss bags. Thats right folks…I am a Zombie Slaying Maniac!!!

So with that said, I’ll be posting reviews and theories about zombie maps for the next coming months. I hope you got your popcorn ready because it’s gonna be a long journey.

I’ll be starting in Kino Der Toten (the first zombie map on Black Ops) and moving on to the others, as well as DLCs. Of course, no CoD Zombie review wouldn’t be complete without reviews on the maps that made this all possible. Thats right folks, we’ll be going back in time to Call of Duty: World at War also and reviewing the 4 original zombie maps. From Nacht Der Untoten to Shangri-La. So sit back, drink your Juggernog, and ready up.

UPDATE: Apple has pulled Nescaline from the App store already! The letter sent to the developer stated it was pulled due to the App being an emulator. Let us know if you were able to get it and what games you’ve been playing in the Comments!

Original Post:

I just wanted to post some quick thoughts on this… I am playing Castlevania now and it does seem to be a little glitchy but runs pretty good. Kind of reminds me of playing with early versions of Nesticle. The game runs pretty smooth, sound is glitchy on occasion. I think the control pad size should be adjustable in Full Screen Mode (Which you get to by turning your phone sideways) is a little to big for me. Transferring ROMS is a little tedious since you need to fire up a web server on your laptop or actually find a web site with direct download links to ROMS. You can add a ROM by typing or pasting the URL into Nescaline.

Next up is Contra… Yeah Baby!

Overall, I think this App/Emulator is off to a great start and with a few updates I think this could be awesome! Hopefully Nintendo doesn’t make a stink and Apple keeps on providing developers with some much needed freedom!

Check it out here.

This is by no means our full review of Fargoal for the iPhone but I needed to tell you why I hate this game… It’s so good I can’t stop playing it! It is now eating into what little time I have as it is to sleep!

This game is fantastic. Great tile set, tons to explorer, and the game is different everytime you start over. It highlights some of the great aspects of rogue like games and removes some of the complexities. You can collect gold, magic spells, level up your character, and explorer the dungeons but you don’t have to worry about eating corpses, dipping stuff in fountains, etc… Don’t get me wrong, I love nethack. I have wasted tons of time playing nethack on nethack.alt.org and it’s fun. I think Fargoal will create a fun rogue like experience for casual users and maybe some will move on to more complex rogue-likes, such as nethack.

Fargoal is a couple dollars really well spent. You will have a great time with this. Random dungeon generation also gives this game a superior level of replayability as well.

Go ahead and pick it up then kiss a decent chunk of your free time good bye!

iGamerz – Recommened

Hell Yeah!

Call of Duty? Check!

Nazi Zombies? Check!

Online Multiplayer (WiFi)? Check!

This game has it all! Excellent graphics, excellent controls, multiplayer, and most importantly its a shit load of fun!

I didn’t even realize this was headed our way on the iPhone and I was quite surprised when I found it while trolling the App Store. I immediately picked this one up and gave it a go…

Game Play

Call of Duty Zombies offers two modes of play. You can play the single player campaign or you can join up with four team members (two if you are using Bluetooth). One down side here is currently you only have one map to play on. According to the developers new maps should be on the way soon. We are not sure if it will be free or purchased DLC but either way I am looking forward to some additional maps.

The single map available does provide for some interesting strategizing on your part though. As you kill the zombies you will earn points that you can use to either purchase new weapons or open various pathways throughout the map. You can use this to your advantage to control the paths available to the zombies as they begin to over take you in later rounds. Each entrance the zombies can utilize are boarded up with the exception of a tunnel that will open up once you unlock the door to the second room on the bottom floor. The zombies must breakdown the barrier before the can enter the building.

Head shot coming right up!!

The game play is divided into rounds. Each round will increase the amount of zombies that want to eat your brain. You will have a little breather between each round to restock ammo, repair barriers, or try your luck at the random weapon box. The weapon box also adds some excitement to the game. For a cheap price you can grab some pretty decent firepower or you may get lucky and score some hardcore firepower. I highly recommend opening the clock on the second floor and picking up the flame thrower. Roast Zombie meat for all!!

COD Zombies also offers an achievement system which provides some interesting goals to achieve like blowing your self up with a grenade and taking three zombies with you!

Ahhhhhh!

Controls

The controls all seem to work well although, I have spent the most time playing with the Dual Stick configuration. I found the controls smooth and responsive in the Dual Stick configuration. I have had an issue a few times getting the flame thrower to fire though.

Braaaaaiiiiinns

Graphics & Sound

The graphics are nicely polished and smooth. On my iPhone 3GS the frame rate has been consistent regardless of how many of the undead are running after me. Atmosphere is perfect for scaring the hell out of you especially when things are getting crazy. Creepy noises, moaning, and screaming zombies all add to the atmosphere of the game. Which sounds awesome when you have your earbuds strapped to your ears. The heavy music just adds to the excitement.

Closing

We have seen a few issues where shooting the zombie does not inflict any damage and repairing barriers does not give you any points but don’t let that stop you from making this most excellent purchase. Hopefully those issues will be fixed in the next version. Also, I think this game would benefit if they enabled Voice Chat. Working out strategies with your team members would make this game even better.

Also don’t forget to setup an account on codwaw.com and link it to your iPhone COD user to track all your zombie killing stats!

Please stop by our forums to discuss strategy or setup private games.

iGamerz Recommended!