The American video game company EA Games is currently offering the famous space horror game Dead Space for free. In order to get a free copy, the installation of EA Games' Origin is required. The offer lasts until May 8th, 2014.
When you have Origin installed, you can also get Battlefield 1942 free of charge.
Do you remember SEGA:s Crazy Taxi? The arcade game where you choose one of four different drivers, drive through a city resembling San Francisco, pick up customers and transport them to their destinations as quickly as possible to earn crrrraaazy money?
The mobile version of the game (Android/iOS) is now free for a limited time. The deadline is March 19th 2014. So if you haven't played Crazy Taxi before, or you want to relive the classic arcade title, you better start downloading now!
Yesterday (March 4th 2014), we finally got the news of a new game in the famous Batman: Arkham video game franchise. It's called Batman: Arkham Knight. The game, created by the British Rocksteady Studios, will be the forth and final game in the series. It will also be the first game in the series where players can control the Batmobile.
I have many thoughts regarding this. Firstly, I'm sad that Rocksteady has decided to conclude the series with Arkham Knight, although I understand that it's better to end a series perfectly than badly. Secondly, I'm glad that Rocksteady has to make Gotham City bigger and the streets wider (compared to the ones in Batman: Arkham City) in order to make room for the Batmobile. Thirdly, I'm still disappointed that sexism is still present in the game - I'm thinking of Harley Quinn's provocative outfit.
Although many people - including my countrymen - love and praise Batman: Arkham City, I'm not impressed with the game. Although Rocksteady intended to create the second game about "Batman in Gotham", Arkham City (I'm talking about the prison with the same name of the game) feels small. The prison isn't meant to be large, but since it consists of an older part of Gotham with famous locations like Crime Alley, Gotham Cathedral and Ace Chemicals, I think it should be larger than that. And the streets are narrow like a small suburb! This doesn't feel like a former part of a big city at all.
Regarding the sexism in the Arkham-franchise, I fail to understand why Rocksteady has chosen not to re-use Harley's classic outfit introduced in Batman: The Animated Series. While the male characters are fully dressed, Harley (like in the previous games) still have some parts uncovered - you can see that in the trailer at the end of this post.
In Arkham City, I would say that both Catwoman and Harley Quinn had the most impractical and sexist outfits. Poison Ivy is a "logical" exception since her appearance was that of a "naked-goddess" similar to Aphrodite.
These are some of my many thoughts of the franchise. Now please enjoy the YouTube-trailer of Arkham Knight:
This weekend I got two new Limited 5* cards in Guardian Cross!
The first one is Mighty Valentine Specter which I won in the Coliseum (PvP-battles):
The information page about Mighty Valentine Specter. (Screenshot taken by me)
The second one is Berith which I got by logging in 15 days in a row.
The information page about Berith. (Screenshot taken by me)
Like I wrote earlier, Guardian Cross is a great and easy online trading card game for Android- and iOS-devices, made by the Japanese video game company Square-Enix.
I love it very much since the illustrations are very beautiful, it's a Final Fantasy spin off, it reminds of Pokémon and it's very easy to play. If you're searching for a great game for your mobile phone, I highly reommend it.
Here is an invitation code (sadly only for the iOS-version) to get you started: DT47351
With the code you get a Super Rare card. I hope you'll enjoy the game as much as I do!
Another weekend and another game which Steam lets its users try for free. This time we get to try the fantasy games The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, based on the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowki's series of fantasy short stories.
Normally I would try a Steam-game during the weekend and then review it in one of my "A weekend with..." posts, but this time I won't play any of the games. The reason is the large game size. The first game alone is about 16 GB which would approximately take 20 hours for me to download. And I can't just let my computer "go on" 24 hours a day, can I?
During the weekend (07/02/14-09/02/14), Steam lets its members try Borderlands 2 (by 2K Games) for free. I found out about it during late Saturday, and after waiting more than 8 hours to download and install the game I finally got a chance to try it out - even if I could only play it for 1-2 hours.
In short, Borderlands 2 can be described as a FPS (= first person shooter) game with RPG-elements (= role playing game). 4 players can play together online in the story campaign.
Borderlands 2 takes place on a planet called Pandora, where a Vault (with alien technology) has been opened and a valuable mineral has been spread all over the planet as a result. The Hyperion Corporation, lead by the antagonist Handsome Jack, tries to find this mineral and "civilise" the savage planet with an iron fist. Many people travel to the planet in order to find the mineral, and they're hence called "Vault Hunters".
The story starts with four Vault Hunters travel on a train which gets destroyed by the Handsome Jack. Left for dead, the protagonists are found by a robot named Claptrap who decides to lead them to the city of Sanctuary. In the city, an anti-Hyperion resistance group is gathering to revolt against the terror of Handsome Jack. The voyage to Sanctuary isn't easy since the route is filled with bandits and mercenaries working for Handsome Jack, and monstrous beasts.
The graphics are cell-shaded, so it feels like watching a cartoon. I don't know how to comment on the humour presented in the game, but the game - due to its violent content (among others) - is definitely not recommended for younger players (compared to Sanctum 2). The ESRB gave it an M-rating.
Similar to a MMORPG (= massive multiplayer online role playing game), the player can't really "die" during the missions. Once defeated, the player gets a chance to recover by defeating an opponent. If the player fails to do so, he/she will respawn at a spawn point spread across the level he/she is in.
Borderlands 2 offers the player a chance to explore Pandora, something which I appreciate a lot. But I'm not into games with M-ratings so I might not buy it for a while.
Shortly after publishing my previous post about Green Lantern John Stewart, I read a notice on Swedish Metro that actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has passed away. At the moment there's very little information about the actor's death, only that he was found in his flat in New York City.
I must admit that I haven't seen many of his movies. The first time I saw him was in Mission Impossible III where he played the villain Owen Davian. The last time I saw him was in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Rest in peace Mr. Hoffman, and thank you very much for the interpretation of your movie characters!
Here's the trailer to Mission Impossible III showing Owen Davian's (Philip Seymour Hoffman) threat against the protagonist Ethan Hunt:
Do you like old school JRPG:s? Do you think that Final Fantasy VI is the best FF-game ever? Then you must look at this trailer which summarises the plots of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Square-Enix released this trailer yesterday (January 29th) to promote their upcoming game Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, which is the final game of the trilogy featuring the protagonist Lightning.
What do I think of the trailer? It's very awesome! Square-Enix should have continued to create old school RPG:s of this kind!
During the weekend (24/01/14-26/01/14), Steam let its users play Sanctum 2 free of charge.
Sanctum 2 is a science fiction hybrid of tower defense/FPS game by Coffee Stain Studios released in 2013. In the game, four players may ally with each other online in order to stop aliens from destroying the player base's power core.
The four players can choose between four different characters with different abilities. Each player can arm him- or herself with 2 different firearms.
When not fighting aliens, the players must build walls and towers in order to defend the power core long enough before all of the attackers are annihilated.
The plot is narrated through comic book panels which are interesting to follow.
Sanctum 2 is fun to play, but I'm more of an explorer. Instead of guarding an area I would rather visit new environments like Black Mesa (Half-Life), City 17 (Half-Life 2), Nar Shadda (Star Wars: Dark Forces) and many other places.
So would I buy it? Perhaps in the future, but not today.
Here is a trailer showing the gameplay of Sanctum 2:
