Author: scrooloose

I've been a gamer since a young age, my first experiences were with my old Atari 2600. Nowadays I'm mostly a PC guy but I also play board games when I have the group for it. And I love wrenching on cars besides.

Nier: Automata – Early Impressions

So I picked up Nier: Automata on release day without any prior experience with the Drakengard series or Nier. I had paid it mild attention when I started seeing early footage and then it went largely forgotten, lost behind my growing backlog of games yet to be played. When I started seeing footage of pre-release reviews and very early first impressions I began seeing what was so intriguing again. Then I learned that this game was being made by Platinum Games - I had all but decided this was going to be next on my list. Read more

I Finally Played Darksiders: Warmastered Edition – A Review From Scroo

Way back in 2010 Vigil released Darksiders, a game that followed a Metroidvania style of play. I remember very clearly being totally enthralled by the atmosphere then and guys, it's still awesome. Stay with me and I'll tell you what I thought about this newest remaster from developers, Vigil Games and Kaiko and publisher, THQNordic. Read more

Law Suit WRUP

Alright so if you're into games and game critics you'll know that a certain Mr. Jim Sterling has been getting hit left and right with law suits that have basically no base. Most recently is a Trademark attack based on a video he made of a title from a Greenlight developer and is just as silly as the last one he was hit with. The man doesn't need to pay more legal fees for fair use content for crying out loud. Check out what everyone's favorite copyright lawyer has to say about that.

Then there's John Carmack. He's apparently suing Zenimax for some twenty two million dollars for allegedly failing to fully pay him for his time there. Crazy times guys, crazy times.

Anyway, what's everyone up to this weekend?

Andrew: More Breath of the Wild. I'm loving it on the Wii U. Still haven't experienced any noticeable performance issues.

Greywolfe: i'm VERY nearly at a point where i can start doing the story mode of shadow of mordor. just a tiny bit more grinding to go. [250 more "red" xp, aka, fight captains and so on. you'll probably know what i'm talking about if you've played the game.] - other than that? lots of pip adventuring. i'm supposed to also be playing "a mind forever voyaging," but for that game, i have to make a map. and i don't really feel like mapping it :P - so i'm being a little lazy on that front.

Scroo: Well I finished the Darksiders: Warmastered Edition and am currnetly writing about it so probably just more Vermintide for me. I'll have to see if anything else strikes me I suppose.

Dr. S.: Snipperclips with the girlfriend, Zelda mit me, maybe some I am Setsuna and Fast RMX. Yay for the Switch. Finally weekend gaming is a thing again

Yoda: Definitely going to be playing more Horizon Zero Dawn. Maybe I'll buy Wildlands, but I may wait to see if Andromeda is worth getting

Twinstiq Game Club Plays: Abzu

Hey guys it's me, Scrooloose. Welcome to another round of the Twinstiq Game Club. Ive been very busy playing many important video games and other things like: working and spending time with family members over the holidays so I haven't been writing much. But here I am now (yay) and this time I've nominated a game that I hadn't played until very recently. That title is called Abzu and I got it for Christmas. It's short, it's artsy and it looks very pretty and happens to have been developed by the same folks that did Journey. I actually nominated Abzu before I played it, but as luck would have it I was able to remedy that in a short time as my game wasn't chosen first this round.

So, Abzu: A game about diving in the ocean and watching ocean-y things. I'm down if you guys are. I couldn't help but smile during my time swimming and playing with dolphins and the plethora of other sea creatures in some pretty spectacular, yet relatively simple environments. Only visual and musical story telling is to be had here and what a beautiful presentation it is. This one only takes about three hours to play to completion so we'll be running through in one go. I hope you'll join us in checking out what is certainly a pretty great and immersive experience. open-water

 

Grim Dawn: A Review From Scroo

I'm into ARPG's. From the isometrics like Diablo of the 90's, to the much more modern Path of Exile and the third person Darksiders from the 2000's, they've all entertained me and kept me in the hunt for newer and better gear just as they're designed to do. Grim Dawn is one such ARPG and I'm going to go into some manner of detail and hopefully give those of you who don't know about this title a reason to check it out. Read more

I Re-Played Lost Planet 3 from 2013: A Review From Scroo

Hey. You guys ever play the Lost Planet games? I never played the first one but I did play the second. Heads up, it's aged like Melanie Griffith. But the third installment wasn't half bad. Stick around and I'll tell you why it could be worth going back to now. Read more

Game Club Plays: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Hey everyone, Scrooloose here again with another great pick for the Twinstiq Game Club. This week it's going to be The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

This is a mystery narrative title with some kind of noir elements and plenty of puzzle solving that was released in 2014. That was a mouth full I know. Ethan Carter was originally rendered in Unreal Engine 3 and is still one of most highly detailed and aesthetically beautiful games out there to date. In 2015 there was a free redux version released that used the more powerful Unreal Engine 4 and the difference is noticeable not only visibly, but also in terms of performance and various forms of refinement. Nowadays there's even a VR version of the game released as DLC. Ethan Carter is available for PC through Steam and GoG as well as for PS4 so you'll have a couple of options for playing. Sadly there is no Mac port.

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As said above this is a narrative title set in the first person where the player takes the role of Paul Prospero, a detective tasked to find out what happened in the game's setting, Red Creek Valley. Pretty simple in its execution The Vanishing of Ethan Carter says from the beginning that it will not hold your hand. That means a few things: Firstly, there's no real tutorial, suck it up and figure it out. Secondly, there are no forced story elements so you as the player are allowed to go as deep or as shallow in the game play as you like. Thirdly, there are no real hints aside from the clues that Paul will find via exploration.

I personally really love this game and it's worth the full price of admission. Beautiful environments, minimal loading screens, lots of exploration and puzzle solving and a pretty well told story make this one my pick for this Game Club round. It's also a relatively short game, I spent about five hours on my first play through. We at the Game Club hope you'll join us on our journey to solve The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

System Requirements for The Vanishing of Ethan Carter are as follows:

MINIMUM:

    • OS: Windows 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or equivalent AMD
    • Memory: 6 GB RAM
    • Graphics: DirectX11 compliant card with 1GB of VRAM
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 9 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant

Darksiders Warmastered Edition: Coming [Not Quite as] Soon – Update

Update

Alright so I guess I'm late to the party here but after much anticipation of the Warmastered Edition's release date tomorrow (the 25th of October) it turns out there's been a delay.

According to THQ Nordic, they'll be pushing back the release until November 29th for PC and November 22nd for console. Unfortunately there were no reasons given for the push back but it looks like we'll have to wait another month to jump back into War's Story.

My original article can still be read below, and you can bet that I'm still excited for this one.

Original Article Oct. 13th

You guys know I really like Darksiders from my review of Darksiders 2: Dethinitive Edition that I did did a few months back right? Well, not terribly long ago Nordic Games also announced the remaster of the original Darksiders called the Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, and it's live on October 25th.

I'll certainly be picking this one up. Darksiders was a killer title when it came out and it was one of the first games I got when I built my PC back in 2011. I'm really excited for this one especially if it's anywhere near as good as the last remaster Nordic did for the series.

The Warmastered Edition will be available for PS4 and Xbox One, boasting 1080p at 60 fps. There will also be a Wii U version that will be capped at 30 fps. For those of us who flex our PC muscles, we'll get up to 4k resolution and lots of additional video and control options. All versions of the game will be treated to improved textures and post processing as well as better shadows etc. There won't be any new content but it should still be vastly improved over the original Darksiders, and that's ok with me -I'm very important.

We'll get all the improvements and badassery one would expect from a current gen remaster for the so good price of $20. I can't wait to see how it is and write extensively about it in one of my all too long reviews that I occasionally bore you all with. Of course the rumor mill is still churning with speculation that these remasters are in fact a test for the audience reception of a possible Darksiders 3. One can only hope.

I Re-played Bulletstorm from 2011: A Review From Scroo

Recently we did a play through of Alan Wake for Twinstiq Game Club and after it was over I had an itch for a good fast paced shooter. I had played Doom not too long ago and as good as it was, I didn't want to start that over again quite yet. I Considered Rage: It was fun and it had some cool elements even if it was hampered by poor texture resolution and lots of pop-ins. Then I saw a rumor going around that there was likely going to be a remaster of Bulletstorm in 2017. "That could be fun" I thought "I haven't played it since it was new". And guess what? It holds up pretty well. Be forewarned that this article contains some bad language... because it's about Bulletstorm. Read more