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Sunday, September 27, 2020

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Posted by istaq86 at 10:33 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Project Warlock Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia


Title: Project Warlock
Developer: Buckshot Software
Publisher: Crunching Koalas
Genre: FPS, RPG, Arcade
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: June 05, 2020
Price: $14.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1


Project Warlock is a first person shooter with retro-inspired pixel art style. I'm not a big FPS fan, but this game really caught my eye. The game is heavily-inspired old school shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein (the ones from the 90s), and this game pretty much play like those games, albeit with more modern flare as you can adjust how retro it can look by activating filters, adjusting color settings, activating motion blur, etc.




In this game, you play as a gun-wielding warlock out to get rid the world of evil. Clichéd story, yes, but games of this genre are not really known for their story. Anyway, you will get to travel through 5 worlds, consisting of different biomes each with unique sets of enemies and style. There are 5 levels per world, with varying number of stages, with the fifth being a boss fight. Each of these stages will have you navigate your way within a maze-like corridors, rooms, and open spaces while battling hordes upon hordes of enemies. These enemies vary greatly in design and attack styles, so you will surely be on your toes at any given time. Your goal for each level (except for the boss fights) is to reach the exit. The levels have multiple sections that get gradually opened up by getting unlocked with keys that you have to find. These keys are of different colors and will unlock doors of the same color. The rooms that they open usually have monsters waiting to ambush you.

Speaking of monsters, the most fun part of the game is the gameplay, and the bulk of the gameplay for this game is to kill all the monsters that get in your way without you getting killed first. And to do so, you have to get the most out of your weapons. Each weapon that you discover within levels, given that you end up not dying after doing so, gets permanently included to your arsenal. You can swap weapons on the fly by pressing either the L or R shoulder buttons. Unfortunately, instead of instantly switching to the next weapon, you are first presented with a weapons wheel where you have to then choose the weapon that you want to use. This weapon wheel is a bit awkward and a hassle to use since it just slows you down and when you try to switch to another weapon, the game doesn't pause. It slows down a bit, but some enemies are fast enough to either shoot at you from a distance or clobber you up close while you are busy swapping weapons. You have to know when and where to do it, or else you die. Most definitely you will have a favorite, but there will be a time when you will run out of ammo for that particular weapon and you will have to choose another, so you have to at least know how to use all of your available weapons and know which one is the most effective to the enemies that are trying to kill you to maximize your ammo. 




Defeated enemies would usually drop items, like money, ammo, or mana/health (healing) items. These items are also scattered throughout the levels, but you have to be careful because enemies usually lurk around and will readily attack you at first sight, especially within newly-opened rooms. Aside from the loot drops, you also get to collect Upgrade Points, which is signified with a star token either just placed on the floor or found within secret rooms. Yes, there are secret rooms within levels, and they are easy to spot if you know where and what to look at. If you see a portion of the wall that looks a bit off or colored differently or cracked, press A while facing it and voila, you discover a secret room. The number of such rooms are indicated per level, and it's up to you to find them all, or just ignore them. If you want to find all items or you need more ammo or healing items, the secret rooms are there to the rescue.

After beating a level (meaning beating all the stages within the level), you end up in the Workshop, where you get to spend your acquired Upgrade, Stat, and Perk Points. Upgrade Points are used to upgrade weapons and buy new spells. Stat Points are used to upgrade your strength (melee attack), health, spirit (mana), or capacity (ammo). Every time you level up in the game, you get one Stat Point, and every 5 levels you reach, you get one Perk Point, which you can use to unlock additional perks, or skill modifiers, like being able to sprint faster, get more out of healing items, etc. Once you're all done upgrading, you get to play the next level, so on and so forth. 




Since I don't have much experience with FPS games, I didn't feel much nostalgia while playing the game. I didn't get to play Doom and games similar to that much. In fact, I kind of struggled while playing my first 2 hours of the game. Not the first two hours of the game, but I got stuck at the beginning, for more than 2 hours. I just couldn't quite understand what I needed to do to finish the level, and I thought that the enemy placements were unfair. But I eventually get past the first stage, was able to level up, and I was able to manage beating the succeeding levels. The levels got really challenging, especially the last few ones. And also the boss fights, those are extra tough, because not only the bosses themselves are tough to beat, an almost endless barrage of enemies join the fray and I had to constantly move and fight them off. I really enjoyed blasting through the many enemies, and the more I play, the more I get used to using the various weapons and watch those enemies get ripped to shreds with bullets and flame. I didn't use spells much, but they were there when I needed them. There is also melee attack in this game, but for me, after the first few levels, I rarely used it anymore.




Overall, Project Warlock is one good game. The developers really made good use of the game elements from the old school FPS games that inspire them. The game really does look and feel like an old school game, and if you didn't know that it was first released in 2019, you wouldn't know it. It plays well on Switch, both docked and undocked. It runs at 60fps most of the time, though it would frequently slow down when there are lots of action happening on screen, but it is really not game-breaking. Also, the soundtrack is top-notch, with varying style that match the different worlds in the game. So, if you are a fan of the genre, make sure to play this game, and enjoy shooting your way past enemies with your favorite weapons. Blast them all to hell!


REPLAY VALUE: High


PROS
  • Excellent retro-inspired pixel art style
  • Excellent soundtrack consisting of different styles that match the different worlds of the game
  • High degree of customization options for the visuals, like filters, motion blur, color saturation, etc.
  • Challenging even on casual mode, but not unfair
  • Wide range of weapons to use
  • Wide variety of enemy types
  • Very good use of HD Rumble
  • Ideal for handheld gaming
  • Good price point

CONS
  • Bland story
  • No multiplayer mode
  • No big map available
  • No gyro aiming (good thing the Y-axis for aiming can be locked, making aiming simpler)
  • The weapon wheel is awkward to use
  • Melee is almost useless after the first few levels
  • Levels cannot be replayed
  • Frame rate drops when there are lots of action and enemies on screen 
RATING: 4/5 Guns and monsters
Posted by istaq86 at 11:48 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

28Mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry - The Irregular Option



A few weeks ago I posted on a few of the wargames sites asking for suggestions for options to cover Cavalry options for the Mesopotamia Campaign of WW1. I have some Great War Miniatures with head swaps for the British and some figures from the Minifigs East Ablaze for the Turkish but wanted some more options especially for Indian Cavalry.

A number of options were suggested, sadly Brigade Games aren't avaliable direct in the UK and importing from the US at the moment is just massively prohibitive. 


One company that was suggested was Irregular Miniatures who to be honest I wasn't aware did WW1 figures. I visited the website and ordered 6 figures of three different types as a sample. I've painted them up and now it's time to compare them to my existing collections.



First up are the British Cavalry these have the 1903 ammo bandoliers that prevent the use of earlier figures (like Afgan War) but have Colonial Helmets rather than the Wolesley style more common in Mesopotamia. I do have some pics of troops in theatre with them but these figs look more Boer War to me.


The next two pics show them against a base of my existing Great War Miniatures Cavalry, the GWM are bigger by a visible amount, but the two aren't incompatible on the same table. They have painted up quite well but I'm just not sure about the hat. Undecided.



Next up are some Indian Cavalry with Lance, these are probably the best of the three types of figures I bought. Other than the faces being a bit awkward from some angles I like these. For purists I improvised on the lance pennants, as far as I can tell they weren't used in the field so I guessed 👍



Here they are size wise against the GWM British, these look a lot closer than the Brits do, smaller yes, but only a bit. I like these and may end up getting at least one unit. My alternative to these are some Artizan Afgan War Indian Cavalry, I am looking at the possibility of someone 3d printing the bandoliers but I've no idea if it will work. 



Finally are a couple of Turkish Lancers, these are more toy soldier like in their appearance but once painted up they look pretty good.



Finally the size comparison, these are next to the Minifigs East Ablaze figures (The horses for which are huge !). There is a big difference in size here, although the figures themselves are pretty similar the Irregular horses look like pit ponies. Again I'm undecided on these, they are fine as figures but the size comparison makes it difficult to justify them in the same unit.

They are well priced at £2.64 each or 8 for £17.60  (2.20 each) compared to around £3.50 a figure for the other two. Website link for the figures below.




Posted by istaq86 at 11:09 AM 0 comments

Friday, September 18, 2020

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Sunday, September 13, 2020

Top Ten Schools In NWU MSSA Online School Esports League.


The 2020 NWU MSSA Online School Esports League was fiercely contested the participating schools.

Full credit must be given to Oakhill School, in particular Ms. Diana Barnard, who has diversified the club so that it now contests four of the 10 ten titles on offer.

There is no doubt that any school club that intends to have a sustainable program should ensure that it has both:

  • Activity in a number of esports titles, and
  • Depth of membership.
Participation in more than one esports title attracts greater numbers of athletes to the club. It is out of the greater number of athletes that the club will be able to find those who will excel and represent the school with pride and honour.

Having depth of membership ensures that there are always athletes who are able to take the spots of those that leave school and leave the positions open. It is those schools that have depth that continue from year-to-year, and are, in most cases successful. Those school clubs that do not pay attention to building up depth, and have a solid development program, will often see their esports club fail as soon as a key athlete leaves.

The principles of running an esports club at school level is no different to running any other sport. It takes hours of work and a great deal of dedication by the Educators in charge.

Of course, without the support  of parents, nothing would happen.

The top ten South African Esports Schools are:

#SchoolProvince
1Oakhill SchoolWestern Cape
2Hoërskool KlerksdorpNorth West
3Hoêrskool ZwarkopsGauteng
4Curro GrantleighKwaZulu Natal
5Northcliff High SchoolGauteng
6Redhill High SchoolGauteng
7Curro RoodeplaatGauteng
8Sasolburg High SchoolFree State
9Monument PrimaryGauteng
10Krugersdorp High SchoolGauteng


Also read:

Posted by istaq86 at 7:10 AM 0 comments

It Is Not To Late To Qualify For 2020 National Team Trials.

There is no doubt that the onslaught of COVID-19 has had a detrimental effect on every aspect of people's lives - including esports.

While esports may still be held online, some Registered Players have not been able to participate in the championships in which they normally participate. As a result, some athletes may not yet have qualified for MSSA's National Team Trials (NTT).

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is ever mindful of the needs and wants of its member clubs and of its Registered Players.

Thus MSSA has agreed that both the North West and Free State Online Championships will be open to all Registered Players.

The rules have been changed so that every Registered Player is afforded every opportunity.

By making such decision, MSSA, is offering all Registered Players to grab an opportunity to qualify for MSSA's 2020 National Team Trials.

The conditions for entry to both are as follows:

  • Entry is R35.00 per Registered Player.
  • Only fully-paid-up Registered Players may participate in this event.
  • Entries for North West Online Championships must be submitted by 26 August 2020.
  • Entries for Free State Online Championships must be submitted by 31 August 2020.
  • To enter, the club must complete the Google Drive document. 
  • The entry form may be found on Google Drive. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_ERR6815uVjSMu4t5KkRxYqGJ_AA88kkz31qRgksASc/edit#gid=287696184
  • Clubs are to download the entry form, completed the downloaded form, and e-mail it to Mind Sports South Africa. 

Should you have any queries please write to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com

Also read:

Posted by istaq86 at 6:03 AM 0 comments

Thursday, September 10, 2020

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Alex Peters
Posted by istaq86 at 3:31 AM 0 comments

Friday, September 4, 2020

Whoops!

What's going on everyone!?


With all the packing and moving lately it completely slipped my mind to post my game for yesterday's #2019gameaday challenge! 

The game I ended up playing last night was Star Realms which ended up with, wait for it... me losing, lol!

It's still a fun time win or lose and it's a game we love around here.


Then for today's #2019gameaday challenge I played a solo game of Ticket to Ride and for the first time in roughly a week I actually broke my streak and won!


As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples!

Posted by istaq86 at 1:03 PM 0 comments
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