Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Mortal Kombat X: The Game Review



I decided to write a review for this travesty of a game for steam.

Do you enjoy laggy & unresponsive inputs?
Do you enjoy blocky stiff non-fluid gameplay?
Do you enjoy unfocused character development and balance?


If you said yes to all 3 of these, then Mortal Kombat X is the game for you!

Forget everything you knew about fighting games. Footsies? Gone! Hit confirming? Gone! Just about everything that makes a fighting game good? Gone! Have fun putting your opponent in the corner or being put in the corner and just senselessly mashing buttons with no chance of escape.

Welcome to Mortal Kombat X for PC, one of the worst game ports I've ever played. Dozens of useless patches to help destroy your bandwidth limit and senselessly fill your hard drive. This game is fundamentally broken and is about as balanced as playing tug-of-war with 200 fat kids. I'd rather hit my own dick with a hammer than play this game. Seriously I would even play Mortal Kombat Special Forces over this game.

Awful port aside the game just isn't good. I don't know what the hell NetherRealm Studios was trying to do with this game, but I think they failed. Now you may be thinking "But this game is new, it takes time to fix!", well I can tell you right now, no amount of patching will make this game any better. It's an absolute joke of an addition to the fighting game genre. It lacks the mechanics that generally make a game good. As a long time fan of the MK series it saddens me that this game is probably the worst new game I've played in the last 2 to 3 years. I don't understand how they went from MK9 to this one.

Why do they keep hiring High Voltage Software to do their ports, this company is garbage at what they do. Their ports of MK9 and Injustice for PC were plagued by the same issues and they're still not fixed. It must be really awesome to do shoddy half-assed work and still get paid for it. Where can I sign up, I enjoy phoning it in on a daily basis and disappointing tens of thousands of people simultaneously. I'd be perfect for them!

Anyway I guess that sums it up.

2/10 would not bang.


- - - - - - - -


This only sums up a small amount of the rage I have for this game.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Monday, June 1, 2015

Mortal Kombat X

Mortal Kombat X is the worst new game I've played in the last 2 years.

Firstly, the game feels clunky. I play a lot of fighting games and fluidity is a big factor between what makes a game good and what makes a game bad. I'm not sure what the issue is exactly with MKX but MK9 also had the same issue, it just wasn't nowhere near as bad. It could be related to the block button, since blocking slows down your momentum. I wish NetherRealm would have opted for hold back to block style like most fighting games have adapted now. A block button just feels too archaic in today's fighting games.

Secondly, attacks seem to have little to no priority and hit confirming seems non-existent. I find with MKX that when both players are throwing out attacks it's whoever's attack hits first beats the other attack. This may seem like a positive, but it creates one dimensional game-play. Compared to a game like Street Fighter where attacks have a variety of factors that will determine if you beat, trade, or lose to your opponents attack. It's called footsies and it's completely eluded MKX. Hit confirming too is an absolute joke and it doesn't exist unless your opponent is in a juggled state.

Lastly, the game is horribly imbalanced. I find half the cast completely useless. So many useless moves and useless combos. It's like NetherRealm decided to add too many characters and too many styles for each one without actually focusing on anything. One of the biggest problems are reversals for beating pressure from your opponent. I find that with certain characters you cannot do anything once you're cornered. They can easily spam attacks and keep you there, because you just have no means of getting out. When you get up after being knocked down your opponents attacks will snuff anything you can do. Some characters have good special moves that allow you to escape and stop the pressure, but a lot of them don't or they are very poor.

Overall I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone unless you're a die-hard fan. Heck I'm a die-hard fan, I've been playing MK since MK1 came out in the arcade. And I don't like this game. It's a major disappointment and I can only hope it gets fixed sometime in the next half year but I'm not holding my breath.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Heroes of Newerth: Part Deux

Well I’ve sucessesfully raised my MMR after dropping over 100 points. Mainly due to playing with a friend who is legitimately good at the game. I’m now currently at 1673 my highest so far was 1697 I believe before I took my huge dive in stats.



I had a 60% win ratio which you can see has dropped significantly as well. My K:D Ratio was 1.5 and my K+A:D Ratio was 4.1. It’s slightly disheartening when you lose so many games because of bad teammates. Oh well what can you do other than keep grinding and hoping for the best. Also yes my name is Girlfriend!

I had a few good games today. I decided to use Sandwraith and my team actually let me farm in piece, with me “ulting“ in whenever I was needed. I tried Scout as well but failed hard. Due to the fact my laning partner was really bad and stole a majority of my creep kills from me. Just overall bad playing from everyone though, including myself.

I’d like to figure out ways to jungle with unorthodox heroes. I’ve been watching old Merlini videos of him jungling in DotA, he’s by far one of the most amazing players I’ve ever watched. He jungles so perfectly with Beastmaster. I’ve also been interested in trying to jungle with Armadon. It seems possible but really difficult to pull off. Creeps were a lot bulkier in DotA and in HoN they’re a lot smaller.



Here’s a really good video showcasing some of his jungling skills. I’ve still been trying to perfect the basics of pulling and the timings needed for killing certain camps so they can respawn at the next minute.

Anyway if I do manage to perfect jungling with Armadon I plan to make a video of it.

I’m not sure what else to say at the moment it’s almost 7 am and I still have not slept yet!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Heroes of Newerth

I still haven’t been playing very much Starcraft II, the game just seems to have lost it’s charm with me. It doesn’t seem as complex as Brood War was and that reason solely turns me off from the game.

However that previous paragraph is quite contradicting considering I’m now playing Heroes of Newerth (HoN) again. Which is a pretty simple game by Starcraft metagame standards.

So anyway this entry will be about HoN…

I’ve played this game a lot during it’s beta stages, before it I played a lot of DotA. Which I think was the better game for a lot of reasons. I was quite good in beta but this was also because I had a full team of competent players to constantly game with, and even sometimes game against. But now I’m lacking good playing partners and the amount of variance I encounter is quite hair pulling. I was a few points shy of 1700 MMR, now I’ve slipped to around 1600 in the past 5 days. It’s annoying how 1 poor player on a team can throw the entire game for your team.

The Bad:

I wouldn’t call myself an amazing player but I am better than the average gamer. I have played poorly as well some games. I can easily admit that. It’s incredible though the amount of blame that virtually every HoN player is unwilling to accept on themselves. The community is completely atrocious, it’s full of unwarranted self-important uneducated “children”. The reason I say children is because most users act like they're prepubescent still even though they’re clearly over the age of 18. It’s pretty sad and makes me lose a little bit more faith in humanity with every game I play. Everyone is incapable of spelling; I swear 99% of the people who play that game don’t know the difference between “Your” and “You’re”. I could go on and on about this so I’ll just leave it at that.

It’s also annoying how most public players don’t play the “role” their hero should be. You’re extremely lucky if you get a player who will ward the shit out of the map whenever he can. Or one who gives you the farm if you’re the hard-carry. I enjoy using Sandwraith so this is a huge problem in a lot of games. No one ever lets you get the creep kills which makes you almost useless. Lack of wards is always a big issue too. Without them you can’t tell when a gank is coming your way until it’s far too late in most cases. People always pick heroes that don’t benefit the team very well. Not to mention most people play for themselves only. Kill stealing is rampant because everyone only cares about their stats. It’s painful at times and I always ask myself “Why do I even play this game?”. The answer? Because DotA 2.0 isn’t out yet.

The Good:

Well onto some good points, I’d say the metagame has improved a lot since beta. More players know what items to get also due to the help of in-game guides. Before it was really a huge free for all like DotA was. If you were new or unfamiliar with your hero you would just buy what you thought was best and usually get hounded for going something dumb. So it’s good in that sense that is gives newer players a better edge against the veterans.

The game is actually really fun and enjoyable when you have a full team to play with. Even though it still may be rage inducing at times, I find it’s significantly less stressful when you have a team that can carry it’s weight and people who understand their jobs within the game. I typically like playing carry-type heroes or else supports. I don’t like tanks very much.

My favourite hero in the game right now would probably be Sandwraith as I sort of mentioned before.



He requires a lot of farming and a lot of players dislike him because of it. I like him though because if you have a good team that knows what they’re doing he can be a really efficient carry. He can maintain a constant presence in the game as well because of his ultimate. His deflection and damage reduction give him a lot of survivability in a battle. His sand spell gives him good utility as well since it slows, does AoE damage, has great range, and it can also be used to help escape from dire situations.

Once you get him farmed up weaker heroes on the opposition team have a very hard time doing anything because of his mobility and damage; Especially if you catch them alone. However, he’s quite useless with a useless team on your side. He’s just very item dependant and if you don’t get that farm in then you don’t get those items.

I’ll write more about HoN in the coming weeks as for right now… I need to play some more games!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri (SMAC)

I’d like to take the time to post about another game I’ve been playing a lot lately… This one is a classic and this entry will most likely make you nostalgia hard and install it.



This is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. I’d rank it at #2 out of my top 5 favourite games. With Starcraft: Broodwars being #1. Easily the best “Turn-Based Strategy” game I’ve ever played. The Civilization games have NOTHING on this.



I don’t even know where to begin with this game. It’s old but it still holds up better than virtually every game I’ve played today. Not only for replay-ability but for how deep this game is philosophically and intellectually. If you honestly haven’t played this game; I highly recommend you do.

Depending on if you have the expansion or not but for the sake of this entry we’ll just talk about the original for now. You can play as 1 of 7 factions. Each with their own very unique agenda and personalities…

Copied from Wikipedia:

SMAC takes place in the Civilization universe, beginning in the 22nd century, and follows the space-race victory in Civilization II.[1] The premise is that the United Nations has sent the "Unity" colonization mission to the Alpha Centauri planet Chiron ("Planet").[2] Advanced aliens had conducted an experiment in planetary-level sentience on Chiron, leaving behind monoliths and artifacts.[3] Unfortunately, the experiment was a disaster, creating a hundred-million-year evolutionary cycle ending in the death of all animal life.[4] After the disaster, the aliens split into the Manifold Caretakers, who opposed further experimentation, and the Manifold Usurpers, who favored further experimentation. Immediately prior to the start of the game, a reactor malfunction wakes the crew and colonists on the Unity early and irreparably severs communications with Earth.[5] After the captain is assassinated, the most powerful leaders on board build ideological factions with dedicated followers, conflicting agendas for the future of mankind, and "desperately serious" commitments.[5][6] As the ship breaks up, seven escape pods, each containing a faction, are scattered across Planet.[7]



Out of the 7 factions I personally like University of Planet the most.



Granted each faction has their benefits and downsides, I think if you can rush the secret project “Hunter-Seeker Algorithm” and finish it first, you’ll be extremely far ahead.


My 2nd most favourite faction to play is Morgan Industries.



The amount of wealth you can amass early in the game is pretty high compared to everyone else. You can set up a pretty good infrastructure but the limited base sizes and lack of support for military units is pretty crippling.


I also have a few early game strategies built up for every faction. The Spartan Federation being the strongest I think since you get rovers immediately. Just rush your tech and get particle impactors. It lays waste to the other factions early game. This also works with any faction as well though, but I find it less effective.

The story in this game is also really deep. No matter how many times I’ve played this game I still find it interesting and very immersive. (With the expansion pack you can play as Alien factions which I feel add a whole new level to this immersion since they bring their own story into the game.) Over the course of the game you find out that the planet is actually a semi-sentient being, which is learning and observing you. Unsure if you’re there to help it or destroy it. Here’s a memorable quote that planet gives.

“You are the children of a dead planet, earthdeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend. We shall take you in, but may we ask this question--will we too catch the planetdeath disease?”

Just by posting that quote I don’t feel it does much justice without playing the whole game. I find that alone really deep, since the planet understand that humanity has come from a dead planet (Earth). There are a lot more memorable quotes. Most of them I find are done by Chairman Sheng-ji Yan. His quotes are more focused on the fundamentals of what makes us human and what our objectives in life are. Also he talks a lot about what is really the purpose of life.

“If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself.”

“What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.”


Both of these are Yan’s quotes that I absolutely love.


I’ll continue with another entry later on talking more about my strategies and play-style. As well as my adventures on playing the 2nd hardest difficulty the game has to offer.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Mortal Kombat 9



So I haven't been playing much Starcraft II lately. I've been playing Mortal Kombat 9 on xbox for the past few days. I actually like this game quite a bit minus the fact that online play is still kind of laggy compared to offline.





I'm really good with Raiden I've figured out, and I'm okay with Scorpion and Sindel. I'm currently on a 29 ranked game win streak with my overall stats being something like 60-11. People online are really bad. I can do this massive 15 hit combo with Raiden in the corner and every single time I've pulled it off the other player left once I was finished. I lol everytime.

To add insult to injury I also do Babalities to 90% of the people I play. (You can't block the final round in order to perform one.)

If anyone feels like hitting me up for a game add my XBL account. enruler