In This Quad-Core Issue!

So this is

going be a

tricky review

to make

since I'm

making one

on a game

that doesn’t

really have

much more

then

potential to it

at the

moment.

The game in

question in

A New Reckoning by a company called

Panzer Gaming Studios.

The game itself is about….well I don’t

know cause it does not have a story as of

yet, nor any named characters for that

matter making it hard for me to find

something to talk about in the way of story

and characters (obviously).

So what I'm going to do is talk about the

POTENTIAL the game has, and some

thing's I can see improvements in. For that

I took a closer look at the developers

behind the game, Panzer Gaming Studios.

And there was not much to tell at all, what

I did find out was that the game was a kick

starter project and not much else.

The game itself is as I sad so far without a

story to it so I can't tell you what it is about,

alien invasion some kind of virus, or

maybe just some dude at a Justin Bieber

concert, that would explain all the hell

demons on earth and why you wake up in

prison. Who knows at this stage, what I

can tell you though, is that it is moving

forward as far

as developing

is concerned.

When I first

got into the

game you

started in the

great

outdoors.

There

appeared to

be zombies

roaming

around (or

skateboarding

as their legs

weren't always moving) some plant

monsters and the occasional bug monster.

And you had a flashlight…..yes that was it.

You where supposed to hold a gun I was

sure because of the way one held one’s

hands. But no gun was visible and no

ammo either. Best I could do was to run

around yelling "bang bang" in the hopes all

my enemies would be very dodgy on the

heart. The game was totally broken, my

enemies and I would continually fall

through the world as the ground broke,

waterfalls that ended in nowhere and lakes

that were just as hard as the rock around

them.

Since then however it has developed to at

least four levels (maybe more but that’s as

far as I could go), less skating zombies, a

new enemy type and 3 different weapons

and ammo. It's come a long way, and I

hope it will continue down this road. But I

also see a lot if disinformation around this

game. But more about this later, let's start

with the game.

When you start the game you break out

from your cell by bashing a zombies head

in during a very simple cut scene. Still I

liked that it was there. I don’t know if this is

the real beginning of the game, but for

now, this is what it is. You then get to

make your through an almost maze like

surroundings

as you try to

find your way

out. You will

encounter

zombies, and

in many

cases a lot of

them in 3

different

forms, as well

as a new

demon enemy that I really like so far. Even

though the animation for it is not yet

complete I still think that it is a nice one

and it brings the game from the common

"zombie genre" to something else, maybe

a demon

invasion, or

hell rift at

some place. I

don’t know

the story of

the game yet.

But the

demon is a

nice addition

to the game

at this point.

Among these enemies are a few bug ones

as well, imagine an overgrown face-

hugger from Aliens that mated with an ant

or a mosquito without wings. I like them

(except in level two, but I will leave the

"why" up to you to find out) they need a bit

of work though, especially the big one that

serves as a boss in level one as it gets

stuck in one place for most of the time,

which obviously makes it really easy to kill.

In the outdoor levels you also encounter a

plant monster that too looked kind of cool.

It does not move right but it should be nice

when the game is ready for its release.

Other than

that, there

are, as of

now 3

weapons in

the game as

well; a

normal

assault rifle

not a bad one

but aiming

down sights can sometimes cause the

bullets to fly off in random directions; a

shotgun that is all but good - The first shot

from it will look like you shot a big flare

and nothing else, It’s a big boom that only

serves to blind the shooter himself and the

second shot

simply goes

off with a

poof to

compensate

for the solar

flare it just

threw in your

face. My

favourite of

the 3 is the

crossbow.

Now the only way to make one of those

better is explosive arrows, and what do

you know...it has! Not only that, it also has

some glowing mystical stuff that explodes.

Not sure what it is, but it definitely

explodes when it hits enemies and that’s

half the battle right, making stuff explode.

The levels themselves are so far very

simple as far as walls, floors and ceilings

go, but they do get better when you get

outside. I just wish there were more levels

outside as I found them more enjoyable to

play (and I did not get lost either). They

don’t have much in the way of decorations

either, with just a few pipes and wot-nots,

as well as a few corpses here and there,

but it's not more than that. Still, it’s an

alpha and I do see a lot of improvements

from its earlier stages.

Now there is not

much else to

the game at this

point, but I did

want to talk

about some of

the

disinformation

about the game.

First off, the

rumour that the

game has been cancelled...nope, it was

merely renamed as the developers went

over to a new engine, now working in the

UE4 engine instead of UDK. So the game

is still up and running.

Secondly there were people that thought

themselves tricked as the game they

bought into was nothing at all like the

trailer that was shown on the games

Steam page in the store. I can understand

this in some ways but on the other hand

people should have figured as the trailer

was from the supposedly finished game,

and not the alpha build we have now. I too

was a bit "What the f**k is This?" and still,

I knew it was an alpha game. As I said

though they are moving forward with the

game in the right direction and I’d also like

to say that many of the things people

complain about is mainly of what they

believe is false advertisement of the game

to come. For example there is a picture of

what looks like a huge scorpion on the

developer’s Facebook page that I so far

have not seen in any of my game plays. I

sympathize with the developers though,

because it takes times to make a game,

however, maybe one should be careful

about what one posts and how one does

it. Why not label

it work in

progress, and

people will not

have to feel

fooled or tricked

that they did not

find it in the

game.

My final words

for now about ‘A New Reckoning’, is that it

has potential, and I would love to play the

final product. And I really hope the

developers keep working on this. Even

though it's not there today I believe it will

be in the future, I just hope it won't be too

far in the future. I will come back to this

title at a later stage when it’s closer to

release, but until then, happy gaming

people.

- By Kim Gustafsson

Afflicted Movie Review

By Nathan Scullard

First of all a quick apology, this review was

meant to go into the main magazine, but

when I decided a zombie theme I really

had no idea what zombie movies were out

at the time. So I did a search...something I

should have

known better than

to do.

As a result, this

movie popped up

under a zombie

category. I

watched the trailer

and it still looked

very much like a

zombie movie.

But after watching it I realized that it was

not a zombie movie at all. It was in fact a

vampire movie, but as it was actually a

really good film I decided to stick with it.

Afflicted is a story about two friends Derek

Lee and Clif Prowse who have been

planning an epic year long journey around

the world. They have been planning the

trip for quite some time, but their plans are

pushed forward when Derek is diagnosed

with a brain deformity known as an AVM,

which could kill him at any moment.

Because of this revelation, they decide

that now is the

right time to take

the journey,

before it’s too

late.

They plan to

document the film

on their web

series “Ends of

the Earth”.

After a relatively uneventful start to their

journey, they reach Paris and Derek picks

up a girl in a bar called Audrey. He takes

her back to the hotel and Clif plans to play

a prank on Derek by bursting into the hotel

room. But when he does, he finds Derek

unconscious, scratched and bleeding on

the bed and Audrey is nowhere to be

seen.

After waking Derek, he insists that he can’t

remember anything and point-blank

refuses to go to the hospital.

They continue their trip to Italy where upon

arrival Derek falls into a hibernation-style

state and sleeps for the entire day.

Not wanting

to waste

time, Clif

wakes him up

and takes

him out for

dinner, but

after Derek

literally

chucks his

food down

his throat, he is immediately sick all over

the floor of the restaurant and then runs off

back to the hotel.

Clif catches up with him and tries to calm

him down, but it only leads to Derek

miraculously punching through a solid

concrete wall.

From this point on Derek begins showing

all the signs of vampirism and reluctantly

Clif desperately tries to help his friend in

any way he can. Even holding up an

ambulance to try and get human blood.

But they are unsuccessful in acquiring

what Derek needs and

eventually Derek

turns on

Clif, unable

to contain

his hunger

any longer and

kills him.

When Derek has fed and comes to his

senses he is distraught at what he has

done, and vows never to take a human life

again, and to find Audrey who he believes

must be the reason for his condition.

The movie is really well made and makes

good use of camera trickery in certain

scenes. It does suffer from the same ‘low-

budget’

feeling that a

lot of

camcorder

movies have,

but isn’t that

kind of the

point?

The story is

well thought

out and

believable. I also really liked the idea of

sharing the footage with an online

community as it gives credibility as to

“why” they have a camera with them and

why they don’t just put it away at the first

sign of danger.

I did think that the story was a little

predictable though and fell a little flat and

anti-climatic towards the end, but on the

whole I really enjoyed the movie and its

modern-day take on the Vampire Genre.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

review, and don’t forget to take advantage

of the code at the bottom of the

page, which will allow

you to enter our

“5-Game

Giveaway!”