Author: Ray Morgan

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Gameplay Trailer is here!

2006: Hundreds of thousands of gamers disappear suddenly and without a trace.

Many months later, when the first of them emerge and hazily return to their workplaces, schools, and girlfriends, it is revealed that the cause of this phenomenon was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When the release of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced for November 11 this year, many wondered whether our society could indeed survive another event like the Great Gamer Disappearance of ’06.

BEHOLD!

New Battlefield 3 Gameplay Video Released!

How’s your PC hardware looking? If you’re looking for an excuse to upgrade, I just found you one:

Prone is BACK BABY! BF purists will be pleased to hear that PC is the lead platform, but judging by this video I’m thinking that the Sys Reqs are going to make many gamers cry. BF3 has a scheduled release date of Q3 2011 and will be available on PC/XBOX360/PS3.

Batman: Arkham City Gameplay Trailer

Last week,  me and Lee were drooling over this Batman: Arkham City gameplay trailer.  Check this shit out:

Being the sequel to the best superhero game ever made, this game has a lot to live up to and it looks like Rocksteady are attempting to raise the bar even higher.  Batman: Arkham City is scheduled for realease in Australia on October 19th (PC/XBOX360/PS3).

ZEDGAMES – EPISODE 58 [playlist]

ZEDGAMES – EPISODE 58

In Studio:
DJ LAME, Scribewraith, Razor, Lee, Ian.

This week:
Corey from Good Games came in to chat about launching the Brisbane store of the GG franchise.
Lee talked about the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, and first impressions of Dragon Age 2.

1. TECHNO SYNDROME – Mortal Kombat
2. POKEMON – Jigglypuff’s Song
3. FINAL FANTASY 7 REMIX – Chocarena
4. TEAM TEAMWORK – Slim Thug & mike Joes (Still Tippin’)
5. ECLECTIC METHOD – 8bitmixtape
Good Games
email Corey:
[email protected]

ZEDGAMES EPISODE 57

9 March 2011

Presented by DJ LAME, SCRIBEWRAITH & RAZOR

This week we chatted with:
RUBIJAQ
DUDES FROM AUSCON
DJ Lame gave Pokemon:Black first impressions

1. KOLA KID – Spaceman
2. DOT.AY – Bambiraptor
3. RUBIJAQ – Pale Face
4. RUBIJAQ – Thetan Level 8 (live)
5. 8bitIAL LION – Infinite Potentials
6. DOSHY – Space Attack V.I.P.
7. POKEMON – Theme
8. SNOOP DOGG – Drop It Like It’s Hot Kirby Mix

AUSCON GAMES
RUBIJAQ

Zedgames at Supanova 2010

Supanova, the biggest pop culture expo in Australia returns to Brisbane April 1-3.  This year is set to be the biggest one yet!  Check out this video of Zedgames at Supanova last year.  For full details about the even, head to www.supanova.com.au

ZEDGAMES – EPISODE 20

ZedGames – Episode 20

16 June 2010

In studio: DJ Lame, Leigh, Razor, Scribewraith and Codeblink

This week we featured:

E3 Special! The ZedGames crew discussed their impressions of what had been unveiled at E3 so far at the time the program went to air. Some of the main discussion points were the press conferences by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Tune in next week to hear Part 2 of the discussion as well as the post E3 round-up.

1. HIT ‘N’ HIDE – Space Invaders

Razor’s Magical Journey

Last week’s ZedGames segment on Magic: The Gathering had me primed up for some tournament play. So, I went along yesterday to the Friday Night Magic (that actually happens on Saturday afternoon) at Ace Comics & Games in the Queen St. Mall. As a relatively new player I’m used to getting my butt handed to me at tournaments; but I’m pleased to announce that yesterday was my best result to date. I won two games (out of four) to place fifth out of fifteen players!

This follows my last tournament a fortnight ago where I placed third last (one win out of three) and the one prior to that where I placed second last (drew two, lost two).

A major reason I did better this week was because the last time I turned up to FNM I did an awesome trade with some totally rad dude who basically gave me his entire Ally deck in return for two pretty decent cards I had (Time Sieve and Student of Warfare). Because Allies is seen as a fairly un-competitive deck build, it’s pretty easy to get your hands on Ally cards that other players don’t want. Personally I’ve always brought Ally decks to FNM tournaments because the cards are cheap (monetarily speaking) and it’s easy to put a deck together, despite having a few glaring weaknesses. The main problem is that you need to play an Ally every turn to get the full benefit of their abilities, otherwise you have a battlefield full of easy to kill/block little men. Playing the optimum number of Allies (28-32) means that you have to sacrifice useful other non-Ally cards in your deck, like creature removal. The fact that I didn’t have four copies of common card Join The Ranks, which lets you drop two Allies at instant speed, was also a major weakness of my previous decks.

So finally last week I was able to build a proper White/Red Ally deck using four copies of all the different Ally cards I wanted to play. Play-testing at home, it seemed like it could at least be semi-competitive. I added four copies of Splinter Twin, which has the same converted mana cost (CMC) asJoin the Ranks but lets me tap to put a token copy of the enchanted Ally onto the battlefield anytime I want (token gets exiled at end of turn), including during an opponents turn. It seemed that if it all worked out, this would let me work around the weakness of Allies by letting me trigger my Allies anytime I wanted!

Splinter Twin works fantastically with an Ally deck for a bunch of reasons: First, it lets you create an Ally token the turn you cast it. This is rad as you don’t have to worry about the fact that it’s not an Ally card. Then you get to trigger all your Allies for free every turn thereafter! If you can also cast an Ally and activate Splinter Twin in the same turn, it’s double the fun! (not for your opponent) And here is something that is sure to wipe the smile from your opponents face: Wait until they attack, then cast Join the Ranks and activate your Splinter Twin in succession! You instantly get three chump blockers AND you trigger all of your Allies thrice! In addition to this, you can choose which Allies effect you want to double depending on your situation. If you are playing against a multi-coloured deck, attach Splinter Twin to Kabira Evangel for instant protection from two colours. If you’re in a position to be aggressive, attach Splinter Twin to Akoum Battlesinger to give all your Allies (including the token) +2 to their attack. If you need some life, attach it to Ondu Cleric to instantly gain life equal to double the number of allies on the battlefield. Putting it on Kazandu Blademaster works a treat because of his vigilance; you can attack with him on your turn and then wait until its your opponents turn to tap it to create the token! And probably the best combo: putting it on Kazuul Warlordinstantly gives all your allies two +1/+1 tokens each, plus a 5/5 creature that can attack or block without consequence!

One of the most exciting moments in my Magic playing career thus far was at FNM yesterday, playing against a mono-green elf deck. He flooded the board with mana-generating elves and had a couple of huuuge creatures, including one elf who was pumped up to be a 15/15. He kept swinging with his big dudes, and on my side of the board I had two Splinter Twins attached to both an Ondu Cleric and a Kabira Evangel that I activated as needed. The fact that I had a second Ondu Cleric (in addition to the one that was enchanted) on the board meant that everytime I created a token to use as a chump blocker, I gained life equal to THREE TIMES the number of allies I had, which was five (life gain per activation: fifteen). I kept chipping away at him with my 2/3 token that had protection from Green and eventually after six or seven turns got him down to 1 life. Meanwhile I had gained so much life that I had to borrow more dice to keep track of my life total (seriously, about 12 dice). Finally he thought he may have gained the tools to turn the tide when he cast Beastmaster Ascension which activated straight away, giving all of his creatures +5/+5; and then quickly cast Overrun the turn after that, giving all of his creatures a further +3/+3 for the turn plus trample. So with 1 life point remaining he put it all on the line and swung at me for a grand total of 82 damage across 9 or 10 creatures, with trample. 82 damage! With trample! HOLY CRUD! Considering that you only start with 20 life, swinging for 82 is huge by anyone’s standards. To block, I had a measly two 1/1 Soldier Allies that were untapped. So, I was up for a total of 80 damage. We each held our breath as we counted the pile of dice that represented my life total to see if he had done enough damage to kill me. It turned out that I had 87 life, which meant that I had survived to inflict lethal damage the following turn! I didn’t have to though; my opponent conceded. Following this tense and extremely mathematical battle, we shook hands and agreed that surviving a swing for 82 trample damage with only two 1/1 blockers was pretty freaking amazing.

The next two matches didn’t go so well. Both were against aggro decks (like mine) that are designed to hit hard and fast for a win within six turns. However, I didn’t get completely whooped as usual. Both of the matches came down to a few life points and critical plays that happened at around turn six. Actually, in retrospect I probably could have won my third game if I had chosen to attack rather than hold my guys back at the endgame. Ah well, you play and you learn. I’ll definitely be bringing my W/R Ally deck back to FNM for another couple of plays before I try a different build.

If you’re interested in competitive magic, I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to this event:

MTG QUALIFIER

Magic The Gathering: PTQ Amsterdam – Standard (Type 2)

Event Details:

Date: Sunday June 27, 2010

Format: Standard (Type 2)

Cost: $20

Time: 9am Rego for a 10am start

Finals: Top 8

Main Event – Main Prizes

1st: Flight to play at pro Tour Amsterdam (or US$375)

2nd: 24 Boosters

3rd – 4th: 12 Boosters

5th – 8th: 8 boosters

Serious Stuff:

Deck Rego’s required

Rules Enforcement: Competitive

Venue:

Woolloongabba Bridge Club

67 Ipswich Rd

WOOLLOONGABBA QLD 4102

http://www.qldpe.com/event-2010-june-ptq-amsterdam.php

Review – Blur (360/PS3/PC)

BLUR (PG)

Developer: Bizzarre Creations

Publisher: Activision

Out Now for XBOX360, PS3 & PC.

Reviewed by Razor.
If you’ve ever played a racing game and wished you could suddenly unleash a powerful energy bolt to destroy the car ahead of you, or even if you’ve driven through the C.B.D. during peak hour and wished you could unleash an energy bolt to destroy the car ahead of you, then you will definitely enjoy BLUR.

The main event is “powered-up” racing. You and your opponents race as usual, but at select points around the course you will find different powerups that give you access to various offensive and defensive abilities that you can unleash at will. Sound familiar? Yep, it’s pretty much just like Mario Kart, except instead of Mario and friends racing around tracks like mushroom circuit, it’s Renaults, Dodges, Fords and Volkswagens racing in real-life inspired locations like Hollywood and London.

Now, did I say that this was a bad thing? Hello no! Finally we have a racing game that fills the void between Project Gotham Racing and Mario Kart. I’ve never been a huge racing game fan (though I do like games like Burnout where the emphasis is on fun rather than realism) but some of my most beloved gaming memories have been of dominating my friends at Mario Kart. BLUR gives me the tools to dominate them further.

The real fun is in multiplayer mode. You can play online or LAN against up to 19 opponents, or you can play offline with up to four players on a split screen. However, I found the 20 player races to be more chaotic than I could handle, and I much prefered the smaller races of 10 players.

Powered up racing is the default, but there is also a racing only mode, for people who like to race without the destruction; and an arena deathmatch mode for people who like destruction without the racing. Personally I found the powered up racing to be the most enjoyable of the three modes.

Single player mode is great too. It plays out like a career where you are competing against other computer controlled characters. Each stage sees you completing a certain amount of challenges set by a champion driver who you have to eventually beat to progess. Winning the races is only one aspect of it; you also have to win fans by performing crazy stunts and pulling of mini-challenges within the race. Like most other racing games you have to perform well to unlock all of the courses and cars available.

The selection of cars is surprisingly varied. It’s rare to see such a damage-intensive game with a license to use real car models.
Car brands featured include Dodge, Lotus, Ford, Vokswagen and Toyota; and even more surprisingly: all car models feature realistic damage. So yes, you will see Renaults and Nissans hurtling airborne sideways down the course, leaving shattered glass and twisted metal in their wake. There are also a range of four wheel drive and off road vehicles that fit this style of game perfectly.

Powerups that you can use are slightly more balanced carbon-copies of their Mario Kart equivalent. There’s the bolt which is three unguided shots; Shunt is a homing blast that targets the car ahead (think red shell); Mines are like an exploding banana peel; Shock places energy vortexes on the track ahead of the leading player to slow them down; Barge blasts cars in your immediate vicinity away from you; Nitro is your standard temporary speed boost; shield offers you protection from other powerups and there is also a Repair powerup that you will need A LOT.

Something to be aware of is that the game is pretty hard. Like most driving games, there is definitely a steep learning curve and you may find yourself coming nineteenth or twentieth for the first hour or so. The fact that your opponents are all trying to blow you up doesn’t make it any easier.
So, once again I found myself swallowing my pride and switching the difficulty to Easy while I got used to the car handling.

As expected there are heaps of achievements and trophies to aim for, although BLUR rewards you for non-gaming achievements like posting your results to Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, BLUR is an intense and action packed racer that shines in multiplayer mode. A word of warning: you may want to reaffirm your friendships at regular intervals while playing this game, because you will be trading insults regularly.

We reviewed the XBOX360 version; Blur is also available for the PS3 and PC.

ZEDGAMES – EPISODE 19

ZEDGAMES – Episode 19
09 June 2010

Presented by DJ Lame, Razor and Scribewraith.

This week we featured:
Review: Red Dead Redemption [MA] by Ian (360/PS3)
Review: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle [MA] by DJ Lame (Wii)
Review: Blur [PG] by Razor (360/PS3/PC)
Review: Alien Breed Impact [M] by Chris (360/PC)

Louis and Nick dropped in to chat about Magic: The Gathering.

1. THE COMBOVERS – Ur 2 Cool
2. M. TAKADA & J. FUKUDA – No More Heroes Theme
3. 10K FREEMEN & THEIR FAMILIES – Maybe