Are there any standout titles when it comes to Zombies?

If you are like me you might have noticed that over the last five or more years there has been an increase in the amount of content across all forms of media when it comes to Zombies. This is fine with me even though I am not a massive fan of the genre but there has been one stand out piece that everyone has been talking about for the last three years and that is The Walking Dead.

Today I will be looking at the point and click adventure of The Walking Dead the video game that was released last year by Telltale Games but before we get into the game itself let me mention that The Walking Dead started off as a graphic novel that was created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard back in 2003. Then in 2010 AMC then released a television adoption of the comic book which from what I have read and hear has been met with very high praises.

With all this praise it was only going to be a matter of time before someone decided to make a video game out of it and nine times out of ten that video game is going to be nothing like the show that it was created from but lucky for us Telltale Games decided that they would make a game based on The Walking Dead but as a point and click adventure.

Now I have never seen or read anything to do with The Walking Dead but from all the praise that the show and the game have received I knew that I would have to have a look at it at some point, lucky for me all five chapters went on sale back in March so I decide then that I would pick it up but have only just finished playing the game.

I should point out that from this point onwards there could be a chance of spoilers, so you have been warned.

Now as I said moments ago I went into the game completely blind and I had no knowledge of what I was getting myself into but that didn’t really matter because the game starts just as the Zombie outbreak happens. This to me was a good way to start the story because it allows for those that are new to the series to understand what is going on and enables you to experience what the characters are experiences as they learn something new about their surroundings.

Now without giving too much away for those that haven’t played the game yet, this is a story about a group of characters trying to survive the aftermath of the Zombie apocalypse, at the same time you will be playing as Lee Everett and making choice that will effect the group and Clementine who you find at the start of the game and have taken it upon yourself to protect.

As I have just mentioned this game allows you to make choice that can be carried over from one episode of the game to the next. Now if you have read any of my Mass Effect blogs that I released back in March you will know that I enjoy playing games and watching Television shows that show you the consequences of your actions. In this game these choice you make may not appear till later in the game which is good because you will never know on your first play through when these choice will come back to haunt you.

The way in which the game plays also is very good for a game that is based on a point and click adventure, what I mean by this is the fact the game makes you feel like you are in the games world looks for items that will enable you to survive.

The last part of the game that I enjoy was the way in which the characters develop throughout the game, as the game goes fewer on it throws in events were you have to make hard decision and because of these decision you as a character and those around you change as the story goes on.

So with a game that has been praised so much what were the problems that I had with this game, well one of biggest problems that I encountered was with the conversation options. The reason for the problem was the fact that it would give you up to four options when you are having a conversation with someone along with a time limit in which to give one of the four responses to them. Now I will admit that I am not one of the fastest readers and because of this I sometimes didn’t get the time to read all the options that where present to me and because of this sometimes I didn’t chose anything which just left my character saying nothing.

The next two problems I had with the game was to do with the story itself, I am not saying that the story was bad because to me it was very good but there were parts were I knew what was going to happen before it happened and that wasn’t because I had read up what was going to happen. Examples of this would be when you leave the motel in episode 3 and arrive at the train that is blocking the road, another one for me was also at the end of the fourth episode where you see Clementine’s hat next to a dumpster.

This also leads me into the final problem with the story, you are given the choice to go it alone to save Clementine which was what I decided but before I could go I had to have a chat with everyone were they would tell me if they are coming with me or not and even then when the final chapter gets started you end up coming back to the group that you left in chapter four to find Clementine.

Apart from very long conversation sections of the game and the small grips with the story the game as a whole was brilliant and because of that I now have an interested in The Walking Dead. If you are a fan of the show and haven’t played the game yet I would recommend you do so and if you are a gamer that likes a good story or a good game in general then I would recommend that you go and play this game right now.

Until Next Time.

Why a month of content?

If you have been following me on Twitter then you might have seen a tweet from me talking about Mass Effect March, you might also be asking yourselves what am I on about and if you do then you might be asking yourself why am, I making a whole month of content for just one game series. Well the reasons why I wanted to spend the whole month talking about this series is one, that I want others to know how I got into the series and why I like the series along with everything that has happened over the last year, I thought that I would at least try and shrine a positive light back on the series.

When the series was first released I was still at that point in my life where I wouldn’t play games, read books or listen to music that were popular and a good example of this would be when my brother (who had moved away to go university) came down for the weekend, we as a family went out for the day and he decided that he wanted to visit our local GAME store. While we were in the store I remember him talking about how much he wanted to play Mass Effect and because of his statement and the way I was back then I decided to stay well away from the series.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2009 when I was out shopping with one of my ex-girlfriend that we both decided to stumble into a GAME store and while looking around the box art for Mass Effect jumped out at me and to make things even better it was also on offer. (At this point in my life I had grown out of the phase that I was in back when I first heard about Mass Effect). At that moment in time I remembered what my brother had said a few years back about it, so I decided to pick it up but that didn’t mean that I could played it right away. Oh-no because not long after picking up the game, me and my ex-girlfriend broke up and in the process I had to move back to my parents house and because of all this I completely forgot about the game until April 2010.

When April of 2010 arrived I had the unforeseen problem of my Laptop dying on me and because of this I knew that I need to go out and buy a new one. While out shopping for my new laptop I discovered that the shop that I was buying my laptop from was also selling Mass Effect 2 on the cheap so without knowing what the first game was like I decided that I would pick the it up. I will admit that I did have a feeling that if there was a second game in the series out on the market then it could only mean that the first one was a success.

May 2010 and throughout the summer of 2010 was a bad time for me but I also took that moment in time to at least give Mass Effect a try in a hopes that I could at least loss myself in a story, setting or place that wasn’t my own at the time. Normally if I wanted to do this I would go and play a Tales of Series game (another RPG) or watch a television programmer but I just wasn’t in the mood for either of them. Within just a few hours of booting up the game I was completely lost in the game and its story and because of this I felt like I was the main character within the series and that I was the one making the choices throughout the game.

Once I had completed the first game and because I knew that I had the second one I decided to get started and right away everything that had drawn me in from the first game was there in the second one but this time on a big and more powerful setting.

All I could do after completing the two games was to go back and play them again but it wasn’t until I was with my current girlfriend that she informed me that there were other stories set within the series in books and graphic novels. With this new information I was really pumped and since that day I have done everything that I can to get my hands on any and all things Mass Effect.

Now after this little bit of story time you might be asking yourself why am I telling you my life story about how I got into the series, well the answer to that is very simple, I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that I was late to the party and to also give you an understand that at the time I was also using the story as a way to get away from what was a dark time in my life.

Now the one thing that I will talk about quickly is that at the time I was looking for something that was set within a science fiction background and while going through the series I noticed that this series also closely resembles television show that I was drew too when I was younger and that was Babylon 5. The reason that I make this connection is because after playing the game once you can see that some of the idea that are in Babylon 5 are also within the Mass Effect series, examples that I would use are the character development and that you as a person have the ability to change the events that are happening right now. I will also be honest and say that Babylon 5 does do it on a much better scale than Mass Effect, but this isn’t the reason we are here.

As I said moments ago some of the reason that I really enjoyed the series as a whole is that you get to see some of your choices play out throughout the series along with the relationships that you have created. What I am mean here is that like with all RPG you are given choices so that you can change the story but at the same time the story will still follow the path that was laid out for it but those character around you will react to your choices differently while at the same time seeing parts of yourself within each character and this is what makes good characters. Good characters are those that you can in some form relate to them while at the same time care for them and worry what could happen to them.

One thing that does sometimes get over looked when playing a game or watching other types of mediums is the music, music is also a very important part within these mediums and if you are unable to get the music tone right for the scene then it could completely change or destroy what is going to happen next and Mass Effect series does make good us of its own music.

The last thing I will look at before concluding this blog is the story for the whole series which includes all the novels, graphic novels, games and DLC (this does not include any DLC after the From Ashes DLC) that I have been able to experiences over the years. What I mean here is that the series has been so well written that it does give you the ability to go back and revisit it again and again, just like some of your favourite films or television shows.

I would also like to take this moment to thank everyone that help create such a great series that we can all go back to again and again and that I do hope to see more of these kind of series in the future.

Until Next Time.

Has it really been one year for you guys?

Welcome to a very special blog this week, Today I am going to talk about a show on You Tube called The Completionist which is created by Jirard “Dragonrider” Kahlil, Greg Wilmot and Carlos Padilla. Now you might be wondering why I have taken today of all days to talk about the show, well the main reason is today marks the one year anniversary of the show and as a sign of respect and thanks to three of them for bring all this great content to us, I have decided to write blog about them and why I enjoy the show.

 

Let me start of by exampling what The Completionist is, in short it is a video game review show in which Jirard and company will try and one hundred percent complete one game per week and then review it. The three of them have also gone on to creating addition shows over the past year but I will look at them in a bit more detail shortly.

As I said a moment ago the show has been going on for a year now and it hasn’t been plain sailing for them but that has stop them from powering through everything and continuing create top quality content for us each and every week for us to watch.

Now you might be asking yourself what is so special about this video game review show compared to all the others? Well the answer to that question is very simple, do all the others have the humour and detail that these guy’s place into their shows. For you to fully understand what I am talking about I will now spend a bit of time talking about the three of them in a bit more detail along with the content they have created too.

First up we have Jirard Kahlil who spends as much time as he can working on the show whenever he get a chance to due to the fact that he also has responsibility for look after his mother who is his inspiration behind the show and why he completes every game one hundred percent. His role within the show is to capture all of the footage for each episode, complete the game one hundred percent, editing and recording of both video and audio and to help write the scripted. Jirard long term goal with the show is to hopefully turn it into a business.

The next member involved in the creation of the show is Greg Wilmot who is also a very talented musician, vocalist and comedian. Aside from working on the show with Jirard and hosting The Mediocre-ist, Greg also plays for an indie band called Long Black Shadows. His main role with the show is to help write the scripted, editing and recording of sounds and their effects.

Lastly we have Carlos Padilla who is a very talented artist and creates all the art work for each and every episode of the show (I would pay money to buy some of his art).

Now as I said earlier there are other shows that the three of them have created which I have decided to break down into two groups. The first group of shows are what I would call review shows such as The Completionist (the main show), Here Comes a New Challenger which is similar to The Completionist but looks at a newly released game without completing them one hundred percent and suggesting if you should buy it or not. The next show under this heading is the mediocre-ist which is where Greg will then try and finish a game and then review it on what he likes and dislikes about the game. The last show in this section is Arcades which is where they will go out and find hidden arcade’s and spend some time playing the games and enjoying themselves.

The second group of shows are what I would call entertainment shows, this is make up of shows like Top Ten’s and as the title suggests it is a top ten list. Defend It, which is where Jirard and company go to court and try and defend a game that was given a bad review by the internet while giving you reasons as to why you should try this game. Next up is Mail bag which is where Jirard and Greg going though all the mail they have received and answer any questions we may have for the show, lastly there is the Downloadable Cast or DLC which is their weekly pod cast, where they talk about topics they believe effect the gaming industry

As you can see in the last year the three of them have tried to create as much great content as they can so that there is something for everyone to watch and enjoy. With this in mind I should also make a point about why the show has been such a success and that is because of the loyal fan base that Jirard and company have been able to create. A good example of how loyal the fans are is by looking to just a few weeks ago when Jirard and company took it upon themselves to compete and win King of the Web contest. While the contest was going on we as fans were treated to just how much work goes into each and every episode. I just find it so hard to believe that so few people are watching this amazing show.

Before I move on to my thoughts about why I like this show so much I should point out something that I missed and that was the newest addition to the show in the form of Alex Faciane.

The reason that I like this shows so much and why I will just have it playing in the background when I am doing my own work is mainly because each episode is so well writing and edited together that it almost looks like a piece of art. I do hope that the show can continue to grow and become stronger as time goes by and I would also like to thank you guys for inspiring my to continue to do what I love doing.

Keep up all the good work and all the best for future guys.

Until next time.

The Completionist website

http://thatonevideogamer.com

All published work

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL37DA718ACF6B1323&feature=plcp

Don’t forget to follow the show on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr

http://www.facebook.com/TheCompletionist
http://www.twitter.com/JKCompletesIt

http://www.twitter.com/McSquaresVille

https://twitter.com/GrizzlyCP3

http://www.twitter.com/FacianeA

http://www.thatonevideojirard.tumblr.com