In This Quad-Core Issue!
So this is going be a tricky review to make since I'm making one on a game that doesn’t really have much more then potential to it at the moment. The game in question in A New Reckoning by a company called Panzer Gaming Studios. The game itself is about….well I don’t know cause it does not have a story as of yet, nor any named characters for that matter making it hard for me to find something to talk about in the way of story and characters (obviously). So what I'm going to do is talk about the POTENTIAL the game has, and some thing's I can see improvements in. For that I took a closer look at the developers behind the game, Panzer Gaming Studios. And there was not much to tell at all, what I did find out was that the game was a kick starter project and not much else. The game itself is as I sad so far without a story to it so I can't tell you what it is about, alien invasion some kind of virus, or maybe just some dude at a Justin Bieber concert, that would explain all the hell demons on earth and why you wake up in prison. Who knows at this stage, what I can tell you though, is that it is moving
forward as far as developing is concerned. When I first got into the game you started in the great outdoors. There appeared to be zombies roaming around (or skateboarding as their legs weren't always moving) some plant monsters and the occasional bug monster. And you had a flashlight…..yes that was it. You where supposed to hold a gun I was sure because of the way one held one’s hands. But no gun was visible and no ammo either. Best I could do was to run around yelling "bang bang" in the hopes all my enemies would be very dodgy on the heart. The game was totally broken, my enemies and I would continually fall through the world as the ground broke, waterfalls that ended in nowhere and lakes that were just as hard as the rock around them. Since then however it has developed to at least four levels (maybe more but that’s as far as I could go), less skating zombies, a new enemy type and 3 different weapons and ammo. It's come a long way, and I hope it will continue down this road. But I also see a lot if disinformation around this game. But more about this later, let's start with the game.
When you start the game you break out from your cell by bashing a zombies head in during a very simple cut scene. Still I liked that it was there. I don’t know if this is the real beginning of the game, but for now, this is what it is. You then get to make your through an almost maze like surroundings as you try to find your way out. You will encounter zombies, and in many cases a lot of them in 3 different forms, as well as a new demon enemy that I really like so far. Even though the animation for it is not yet complete I still think that it is a nice one and it brings the game from the common "zombie genre" to something else, maybe a demon invasion, or hell rift at some place. I don’t know the story of the game yet. But the demon is a nice addition to the game at this point. Among these enemies are a few bug ones as well, imagine an overgrown facehugger from Aliens that mated with an ant or a mosquito without wings. I like them (except in level two, but I will leave the "why" up to you to find out) they need a bit of work though, especially the big one that
serves as a boss in level one as it gets stuck in one place for most of the time, which obviously makes it really easy to kill. In the outdoor levels you also encounter a plant monster that too looked kind of cool. It does not move right but it should be nice when the game is ready for its release. Other than that, there are, as of now 3 weapons in the game as well; a normal assault rifle not a bad one but aiming down sights can sometimes cause the bullets to fly off in random directions; a shotgun that is all but good - The first shot from it will look like you shot a big flare and nothing else, It’s a big boom that only serves to blind the shooter himself and the second shot simply goes off with a poof to compensate for the solar flare it just threw in your face. My favourite of the 3 is the crossbow. Now the only way to make one of those better is explosive arrows, and what do you know...it has! Not only that, it also has some glowing mystical stuff that explodes. Not sure what it is, but it definitely explodes when it hits enemies and that’s half the battle right, making stuff explode.
The levels themselves are so far very simple as far as walls, floors and ceilings go, but they do get better when you get outside. I just wish there were more levels outside as I found them more enjoyable to play (and I did not get lost either). They don’t have much in the way of decorations either, with just a few pipes and wot-nots, as well as a few corpses here and there, but it's not more than that. Still, it’s an alpha and I do see a lot of improvements from its earlier stages. Now there is not much else to the game at this point, but I did want to talk about some of the disinformation about the game. First off, the rumour that the game has been cancelled...nope, it was merely renamed as the developers went over to a new engine, now working in the UE4 engine instead of UDK. So the game is still up and running. Secondly there were people that thought themselves tricked as the game they bought into was nothing at all like the trailer that was shown on the games Steam page in the store. I can understand this in some ways but on the other hand people should have figured as the trailer was from the supposedly finished game, and not the alpha build we have now. I too was a bit "What the f**k is This?" and still, I knew it was an alpha game. As I said
though they are moving forward with the game in the right direction and I’d also like to say that many of the things people complain about is mainly of what they believe is false advertisement of the game to come. For example there is a picture of what looks like a huge scorpion on the developer’s Facebook page that I so far have not seen in any of my game plays. I sympathize with the developers though, because it takes times to make a game, however, maybe one should be careful about what one posts and how one does it. Why not label it work in progress, and people will not have to feel fooled or tricked that they did not find it in the game. My final words for now about ‘A New Reckoning’, is that it has potential, and I would love to play the final product. And I really hope the developers keep working on this. Even though it's not there today I believe it will be in the future, I just hope it won't be too far in the future. I will come back to this title at a later stage when it’s closer to release, but until then, happy gaming people.
- By Kim Gustafsson
Afflicted Movie Review By Nathan Scullard First of all a quick apology, this review was meant to go into the main magazine, but when I decided a zombie theme I really had no idea what zombie movies were out at the time. So I did a search...something I should have known better than to do. As a result, this movie popped up under a zombie category. I watched the trailer and it still looked very much like a zombie movie. But after watching it I realized that it was not a zombie movie at all. It was in fact a vampire movie, but as it was actually a really good film I decided to stick with it.
Afflicted is a story about two friends Derek Lee and Clif Prowse who have been planning an epic year long journey around the world. They have been planning the trip for quite some time, but their plans are pushed forward when Derek is diagnosed with a brain deformity known as an AVM, which could kill him at any moment. Because of this revelation, they decide that now is the right time to take the journey, before it’s too late. They plan to document the film on their web series “Ends of the Earth�. After a relatively uneventful start to their journey, they reach Paris and Derek picks up a girl in a bar called Audrey. He takes her back to the hotel and Clif plans to play a prank on Derek by bursting into the hotel room. But when he does, he finds Derek
unconscious, scratched and bleeding on the bed and Audrey is nowhere to be seen. After waking Derek, he insists that he can’t remember anything and point-blank refuses to go to the hospital. They continue their trip to Italy where upon arrival Derek falls into a hibernation-style state and sleeps for the entire day. Not wanting to waste time, Clif wakes him up and takes him out for dinner, but after Derek literally chucks his food down his throat, he is immediately sick all over the floor of the restaurant and then runs off back to the hotel. Clif catches up with him and tries to calm him down, but it only leads to Derek miraculously punching through a solid concrete wall. From this point on Derek begins showing all the signs of vampirism and reluctantly Clif desperately tries to help his friend in any way he can. Even holding up an ambulance to try and get human blood. But they are unsuccessful in acquiring what Derek needs and eventually Derek turns on Clif, unable to contain his hunger any longer and
kills him. When Derek has fed and comes to his senses he is distraught at what he has done, and vows never to take a human life again, and to find Audrey who he believes must be the reason for his condition. The movie is really well made and makes good use of camera trickery in certain scenes. It does suffer from the same ‘lowbudget’ feeling that a lot of camcorder movies have, but isn’t that kind of the point? The story is well thought out and believable. I also really liked the idea of sharing the footage with an online community as it gives credibility as to “why” they have a camera with them and why they don’t just put it away at the first sign of danger. I did think that the story was a little predictable though and fell a little flat and anti-climatic towards the end, but on the whole I really enjoyed the movie and its modern-day take on the Vampire Genre. Thank you for taking the time to read this review, and don’t forget to take advantage of the code at the bottom of the page, which will allow you to enter our “5-Game Giveaway!”