Contents:

Battlefield 4 Vs. COD: Ghosts Review

RED 2 Movie Review

Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire Movie

Review

Kim’s Magic Tips – BRAND NEW SERIES

or Magic 2014 Tips and Hints.

Borderlands 2 Game Revew.

Announced Game Releases for January

and February

The Gamer Gazette:

Welcome back…hopefully…to another edition of The Gamer Gazette!

In this our second edition, we will be concentrating reviews for some of the games and movies, which many of you will most probably have received over Christmas. We will also be taking a brief look at some of the games we have to look forward to during 2014 and more specifically the next couple of months.

If you are a first time reader, then…Welcome, for the rest of you I hope that this second edition can live up to our very popular first issue.

If you have any feedback at all please go to the website (www.tazercg.com) and feel free to leave your comments on the Community Page Chat or Shout Boxes.

Enjoy!

OUT NOW!

Available to Buy on your

Kindle from Amazon!

Call of Duty: Ghosts By Nathan Scullard Well, what can I say about COD: Ghosts? Asking

me what I think is a bit like asking me how my

latest batch for ‘Spinach-Flavour Jelly’ tasted...it

really wasn’t good.

I remember when Black Ops 2 first came out

and there was a massive chunk of gamers who

just refused to play it. A lot of my friends still

don’t. But as I was at the time a competitive Call

of Duty player with a 30 strong clan to lead, I

had little choice but to stay up to day with the

leagues. But despite that, I do think that Black

Ops 2 was a terrible game and well deserved its

nickname of “Lag-Ops 2”. I mean seriously, they

may as well have called it “COD: Migrating Host”

it was so damn bad.

But not to be deterred by one slight ‘blip’ I

decided against my initial feelings that I would

buy Call of Duty: Ghosts, after all, Modern

Warfare 3 was an epic game and still to this day

is my favorite COD. Whoa! Hold your horses

before you all write in and complain, I know

there will be lots of hardcore fans out there

saying “NOOOOOO! COD 4 was the best.” While

that may be true, I only really started playing

COD on MW2, so while I may be wrong about

the best COD game I can only go on my own

experiences. But back to the point I was trying

to make. MW3 is by far my favorite of the

franchise and due to it being made by Infinity

Ward and so is COD: Ghosts, I thought it only

fair to give them another bash at impressing

me. Well, at least you can’t say I gave you a fair

chance Mr ‘Head of Infinity Ward’.

I will start off with the good points about the

game.......ok, now that is done with we can go

onto the bad bits! PMSL! Sorry, I couldn’t resist

slipping that in. Nah, I have to be fair there are a

few goods points to it. The Campaign for

example, I really enjoyed. Admittedly, I have

never played a COD campaign the whole way

through so I have nothing to compare it to, but I

got really engrossed in the story and the

plethora of ‘pace-changing’ missions. Ok so

some of the missions were a bit stupid, like the

whole space shooting bits and the underwater

mission, but it was fun and that is what matters.

I did find it a little laughable that a game called

COD: Ghosts which is supposed to be about an

elite Ninja-like unit which complete missions

under cover of darkness, are about as subtle as

throwing a brick through someone’s window

with your name,

address and

telephone number

stuck to it and then

sticking around to

jump up and down

and shout, “It was

me! It was me!”

The dog was a bit of

a joke too, you use

it for a couple of

missions and then you don’t get to use it again,

which is a shame. I would have paid anything to

see the dog trying to attack people underwater

or in space. Even funnier would have been a

Dog against Shark showdown, especially when

you can’t even kill them with bullets. Honestly, I

tried several times to see if it was possible to kill

the sharks, but it simply isn’t. Even if the is a

good twenty plus meters between you and its

jaws, you’ll be dead before you fire the second

bullet! No fun! (SULK)

The ending was a bit strange though, not having

seen a COD campaign to the end before I’m

unsure if they usually end on a ‘cliff-hanger’ but

I doubt it. I can only assume that they are

planning on doing a Ghosts 2 (heaven forbid) or

they are going to release it as DLC so you can

spend a few more of your hard-earned pennies

finger painting with their excrement.

But all in all I cannot fault the campaign too

much, it was a fun filled adrenaline-pumping

joyride that includes; underwater, space, a

runaway train and a city being flooded

experiences that I really enjoyed.

Before I get onto Multiplayer I want to say a few

things about Extinction, even though I have

never really seen the point of an army-based

FPS having zombies and aliens etc. in them.

Surely if the

gameplay is good

enough, you

shouldn’t need to

put gimmicky extra

bits into the game.

But apparently

there are one or

two people that

occasionally

accidently press

‘Extinction’ when they are on the main menu

instead of ‘Multiplayer’. I cannot use that

excuse myself, instead I will just say that I

endured it for you guys...I hope you appreciate

it.

Extinction is Infinity Ward’s version of

zombies...except that they used aliens. As with

all these bits that they put into the game, it

resembles many many basic tower defense

games I have played on my mobile phone

except that it has been turned into an FPS.

Extinction is no different, and you quickly set

about working as a team...wait no sorry must

have got that mixed up with what you are

supposed to do...you quickly set about running

around like headless chickens trying to drill alien

starfish off of everything in sight while trying to

defend yourselves and the drill from an endless

onslaught of attackers. This of course all goes

tits up when someone nips off for a sandwich or

just decides frantically masturbate over their

controller as the word “Drill” gave them a raging

hard on. As you can tell I am not a fan of

Extinction and I don’t ever see me being one

either. I felt the same about zombies too and

tend to stick to the Multiplayer. So because of

that we will move swiftly on, stopping only to

say that if you want to play a decent alien game

don’t buy COD get Dead Space, and if you want

to play a good zombie game go buy Resident

Evil 5 and play it over and over because you

won’t ever get bored of that.

So, Multiplayer! Well I hate to say it but if you

were waiting till the end to see if the review was

going to get a bit more cheery and I was going

to reveal some really epic stuff towards the end,

all I can say is, “Take it up with Infinity Ward.” I

had heard that there was going to be loads of

improvement made to the multiplayer because

of all the problems that Lag Ops 2 had. But the

only change that I can see is that they have

completely done away with theatre mode!

What the hell?! Do the guys who make these

games actually play them or do they simply

think of ways to really annoy their customers,

because if they did play them and had even the

slightest clue what their customers actually

want, they would realize that taking theatre

mode out really screws anyone who is a

YouTuber over. I myself have done several

montages on YouTube and always relied on

being able to save my clips when they happened

and then go back and edit them later. Well, now

if I want to record my good clips, I have to

record 24/7 using my HD PVR 2 to make sure I

do not miss a good clip. Because if I pull off a

720 across map no scope or take on 20 guys and

win and I wasn’t recording with my PVR, then

tough luck, that clip is gone never to be seen

again. I have done some digging, as I seriously

cannot understand why they took this out, and

apparently it was affecting the latency in game

and causing all the lag...errr...MW3 had theatre?

I think, Call of Duty, it is about time you

admitted that it is not the theatre’s fault there is

lag because honestly, the lag is still there. I will

admit that it is not as bad a Black Ops 2, but it’s

still not great. Maybe it is just time you

considered other options...such as, dedicated

servers? I can’t even remember the last time I

had lag issues on Battlefield 3, I have not played

Battlefield 4 yet, so I cannot comment on it, I

know Kim has and he said there were a few

issues, but from what I can gather they aren’t

major issues. Check out his review of Battlefield

4 to see what he says.

As for the maps and features on the

Multiplayer, there are some good points, but as

with most aspects of the COD franchise, the

good is outweighed by the bad, and Ghosts is no

exception.

Maps for example, there are always good and

bad maps on any FPS, these all come down

really to how the player plays the game and

how he/she moves around the map. But I

strongly feel that this year the bad maps

completely overshadow the good ones. I

counted about five out of the standard fifteen

or so that they give you that were actually fun

to play. And before you guys start thinking I am

just complaining because I am terrible at the

game, although I would not portray myself as

the next ‘Nadeshot’ I do have a 1.45kdr over

some 500 games so far, so I am no noob. The

‘Dynamic’ parts of the map were hardly worth

mentioning in the review, but seeing as Infinity

Ward saw fit to use them as a unique selling

point to the game, I saw fit to laugh heartily in

their faces. I played the game for a good couple

of hours before I even noticed the dynamic bits

of the maps. On one maps it is a few logs that

tumble into a river, on another it is a crack

appearing in the ground, and another had an

elevator which you can make drop by breaking

the cables with explosives, but it was in such a

remote part of the map which no one ever goes

it took me ages to even find it. The most

impressive one is on the map “Strikezone” when

someone gets a Kem Strike it works like a MOAB

used to except that it changes the entire map

into a nuked wasted land mid game, which I

have to admit is cool, but it’s a shame that they

only did it for one map, all the other maps are

just ‘nuke-proof’.

Overall, I was very disappointed in this game, I

expected so much more from Infinity Ward after

MW3, I really thought they were going to rub it

in Treyarch’s face and show just how much

better their games are, but to be honest I just

think they thought that Black Ops 2 was so bad

that they didn’t have to try and put any effort in

because whatever they brought out people

would buy it. Well I for one will be looking into

COD alternatives, and for now would

recommend to you guys Battlefield 4, but keep

an eye out for the ‘game-changers’ “Destiny”

and “Titanfall”. I am pre-ordering Destiny which

is a joint project of Activision (Call of Duty) and

Bugle (Halo), at present I don’t think a PC

release date has been announced, but I have

been hearing along the grapevine that there will

be one so look out for it.

Thank you for bearing with this very long

rant/review of mine, but I really felt that it

needed to be said. Activision, Treyarch and

Infinity Ward need to realize that this is not

good enough. The amount of money people pay

into these games every year, there should be at

least some effort into stuff that the fans actually

want, like dedicated servers, and not just what

the producers deem fit for us to have. It is a

community game, and without the community

behind it, these games would be worth

absolutely nothing, so don’t let them treat you

like idiots.

Happy Gaming People from me and all the guys

at TaZeR PC Gaming Community!

Battlefield 4 By Kim Gustafsson

Me and Battlefield:

First of all I like to apologize to our readers. Due

to a number of personal factors and due to it

being Christmas when I write this, the review

may be somewhat compressed compared to the

normal length of my reviews, and it will just

consist of a few things about the game that I

think stand out the most. Most of them are

negative, but I still stand by the game and saying

that it's a good game.

So Battlefield

4 (BF4) is a

first person

shooter and

when I first

came into

contact with

this game

series I was

playing Bad

Company 2, I

think. This

was way back

on the Playstation system if I remember right,

and it was a great game. Both story and

multiplayer were brilliant. It had good action

and I just liked it, I was even good at it, and

that's saying a lot of both the games and me if

you know my history in this type of FPS's, which

is not good. So when I got hold of BF4 I had high

expectations. And just to make this easier I will

divide this into two different topics; story mode

and multiplayer.

Story Mode: Gameplay:

The game runs well, never had any problems

with the game lagging out or any other type of

unwelcomed stops. But it's not without its

problems. One of them is the collectibles, now I

love these, I love running around finding all

weapons and whatever else I can find along the

way. But at least give me something for it, on

console you will get a trophy or an achievement

to show off, but on the PC and running the

game through Origin, I get nothing for finding

them all. Sure the weapons I can use in game

but I can't brag about it to my friends, and that's

what I want to be doing, I want them to know I

did something they have not yet accomplished.

So why can't I?

Can't be that

hard to put

something like

that in there,

if the consoles

have it and

not the PC

version of it

then

something is

wrong. (There

are a few medals, but it's too few in my opinion,

I want more of them to aim for. Like one for

taking out a 100 enemies with a single pack of

C4, ok that's impossible, but that's what the

achievements are supposed to do. To make you

explore the game more and do harder stuff to

get them all). And to add to that even if I have

found all of the collectibles it will still tell me

there are those left undiscovered when I look at

my players status, seems like an easy fix for me

but it remains at the writing of this, and they

don't look interested in fixing it either. Not the

biggest thing, but I want my bragging rights

back.

This aside though the game is nice, it got a good

feel to it, it's fun to run through and shoot

things down, and even pretend to be a soldier

for a while. And every now and again a small tip

will come across your screen, and one of them is

one that I did not really understand at all; “The

Bullet Drop Mechanic”. Now that sounds pretty

cool, but I see no use for it at all. As far as I have

seen it’s about the distance the bullet travels

before its trajectory starts to fall. Now on some

guns you can alter this but WHY? If I have a gun

and I shoot, why would I EVER what it to have a

shorter rage then its maximum? Why would I

want my bullet to hit the ground prematurely, it

makes no sense and I simply see this as a

useless mechanic to have in the game. I want

my bullets to drop after they get to the

maximum range rather than to disappear into

thin air. I just don't see the point in having them

do so before getting to that range. No point

whatsoever sorry to say.

After getting over my confusion about this I

soon got my first explosives and a few more

dead people and I thought I was getting the

hang of it. I get pinned down by a sniper, no

problem I thought, I have a team. Yes you do

and they will kill someone every now and then,

but not at all as many as would be expected of

them. But it’s ok, I'm supposed to be the hero

and after a couple of shots I'm free to move on.

But my companions or my so called "team" kept

getting me shot at, sure I can order them to

attack a target (a cool feature), but if I don't

they just seem to stand there. And if I'm pinned

down I would expect the enemy A.I. to target

someone else, like an easier target who is

standing around not doing anything (naming no

names…TEAMMATES!). But they don't, as far as

they are concerned, my own A.I. aren't there.

They don't seem to be directing a single shoot at

them. And at first I thought this was stupid, but I

kind of like the idea in the end. Not only does it

leave me with more kills to make, and I don't

have to run up and revive a fallen team mate

because they were too slow, stupid or just did

not follow the plan I had for attacking the

target. It keeps the game flowing in a way it

would not have done otherwise. But in other

ways it slows the game down, for example when

you have to wait for your team mates to open a

door or to have a seemingly useless discussion

about what to do next, I wish I could simply

walk up between them and simply state the

obvious "We will kill every single f****r that

comes our way" cause that's what I want from

the game. Yes I realize that it adds to the feeling

and suspense to have the characters talk and I

have to listen, but at the end of the day, I just

want to kill people and blow stuff up, not listen

to them talk. Now I don't mind being told what

to do, but if so I would like the ability to

influence the outcome of it. Here I can't, so I

have no interest in listening at all. Just open the

door and let me kill more people so I can say I

have been there, done it and got the blood-

stained t-shirt. And since they are normally not

doing much (my team mates) I don't see why

they are in the game at all. The enemy won’t

shoot them, they only attack if I tell them to and

I can't do that all the time and they keep me

from getting to the next area until I have waited

and listened to them talk, and they have opened

the door. I got C4, just let me place it and move

on. (Spoiler Alert: You have been warned!) And

it all leads up to me choosing which one of them

should die in the last mission. The complaining

black

guy, or

the lying

Asian

women.

And the

game

clearly

states

that

they are

both

needed,

the

women, because of her ties to the politicians in

the game, and the man because of his wife and

kids. But I just wanted to off them both because

of all the waiting around I had to do while

waiting for them to catch up, slowing the game

down for no reason! And I wonder why I'm not

allowed to take on the last explosion myself? I

would have liked that to be a thing as well.

And speaking of things I don't get along with

really, is it me or does it always seem to be the

same bad guys in games. The Germans,

Russians, Chinese or "Terrorists". Is there no

other plausible enemy to destroy the world

anymore? Game developers don't seem to be

able to leave these alone without going to aliens

or mutants of some kind. Why not the

Mexicans, Swedes or any other unexpected

place? Why do they always have to follow the

stereotypes? It's a game, it's not a

documentary, someone please pass that on to

any and all game developers they happen to run

across.

The gun play feels good, but it gets interrupted

with having to listen to my team about stuff

they can keep to themselves for all I give a

damn.

And in

games

with no

options as

far as

dialogue

for

instance, I

don't

really

have any

interest in

listening

to them. I can't do anything about it anyway so

why should I. And sure there are some places

where the game tries and fails to throw a curve

ball at you. You will already know what is

coming, and you can see where it's going clear

as day. And just when it gets good and you feel

like ok now we are moving forward in a better

pace, the game ends. It's just 7 missions and

they are fairly short all of them.

It's a common pattern with this type of game,

losing the story and putting it all on the

multiplayer. But then why have it at all, why not

just have the multiplayer? And speaking of...

Multiplayer:

This is going to be a short segment, simply cause

its good. You get rid of all the things I don't like

with the story mode. No stupid A.I., no "talking"

that keeps me from moving forward. There's

nothing majorly wrong with it.

It's the basic leveling up system as you would

expect same with the guns and weapon

upgrades, just like you would expect from any

FPS multiplayer…well…plus the vehicles that is.

And even they are good. Sure I'm not the best

player but I like it. The dynamic buildings that

can fall apart, the tanks, helicopters I love it all

and it adds a great feel to the game running

next to a tank towards the enemy lines guns

blazing. The only thing bad is some connection

issues, but I'm not sure if that's from the game

or from Origin, so not going to lay it on the

game.

But once I'm in the game it’s fantastic, buildings

crumbling down, that one tank that was about

to kill you but got blown up by a jetfighter just

before he pulled the trigger. The game gives an

awesome feeling of reality. And no I have never

been in a war in person and I hope I never will,

but hiding in a building knowing that I'm not

alone and trying to find them before they find

me is really nervy for me, and I love it so much.

The multiplayer is really good. It's better than

most other FPS's I have played and it feels really

smooth.

That's it for this game at this point. I will most

likely feel compelled to go back to it at a later

date to make a more elaborate one and talk

about the stuff that I have missed. I apologize

again for my own shortcomings and hope that

this will keep you satisfied until I get around to

making a better one.

Happy Gaming People!

COD: Ghosts Vs.

Battlefield 4

Our Summary:

To summarize, we think both games were a bit

of a letdown this year, they both had good bits

and bad bits about them, I liked COD’s campaign

and Kim liked BF4’s multiplayer.

COD need to realize that to keep its existing fans

it is going to need to step up to the mark and try

something different, and Battlefield need to

remember that 7 missions for a campaign is not

enough.

But if we had to choose one to buy over the

other, I think we are both agreed that it would

be…Battlefield. At least they made and effort

with this year’s game and they are definitely the

ones to beat.

RED 2 By Nathan Scullard

Retired and

Extremely

Dangerous...AKA:

‘RED’. Not

something I would

use to describe

anyone in the cast

of this film. More

like; “Retired and

Extremely Likely to

Shit their Pants!”

Ok, so I guess it is pretty obvious from my

opening comment what I thought of this film. I

did see the first one too and was equally

unimpressed.

I just don’t see the point of them. You’re getting

old, and it’s about time you started doing some

more serious acting that doesn’t involve so

much psychical work like jumping on cars,

jumping out of buildings zip wires or seducing

sexy women. I understand the actors ‘wanting’

to continue doing all that stuff, but from a

viewer’s perspective, there is a reason why you

stop it at a certain point...because no one wants

to see ‘Mr Magoo’ chatting up some sexy

blonde or attempting to talk tough while his

Arthritis causes him to drop the bazooka he was

holding. I mean there is funny, and then there is

cringing!

This installment is mainly about the group being

named as participants in a secret operation

codenamed ‘Nightshade’. The operation is

supposed to have been carried out in the cold

war when they smuggled a super weapon into

Russia piece by piece to avoid detection and

then assembled and hid it somewhere.

The group are classed as terrorists and hunted

by the government as well as by several

professionals including Victoria, Frank and

Marvin’s companion from the first film.

They decide that the only way to prove their

innocence is to find the weapon and keep it

from falling into the wrong hands, and hope

that somehow in doing this they will find a way

to clear their names.

After gaining information from a man named

“The Frog, they learn that the only man who

knows the location of the weapon is a man

named Dr Edward Bailey (Played by Antony

Hopkins, whose performance I did actually

enjoy) who created it. Unfortunately for them,

Bailey is residing in an asylum in London for the

criminally insane, and has been there for 32

years!

They break him out regardless, and manage to

piece together his ramblings and discover that

the bomb is hidden in the Kremlin in Moscow.

They recover it and find out soon after from

Victoria, who has decided not to kill them that

Bailey was locked up because he wanted to

detonate the bomb just to see it go off. They

turn to be held at gunpoint by Bailey as he

makes his get away with the weapon.

Now it’s a race against time. They have to avoid

being killed by the following hitmen and

government agents at the same time as trying

to stop Bailey from detonating the bomb and

clearing their names.

This is just my opinion, and yours may differ, but

I really don’t like the RED films, they just feel

like a mid-life crisis gone wild. The stories are

predictable and not very interesting. They are

also completely stereotyped...

Russians...again...really?

I spoke to someone recently about this film and

she asked what I thought of it, and when I told

her my opinion she was like “Are you mad? They

are great films!” So each to their own, but I

personally did not like it.

My Rating:

4/10

The Hunger Games:

Catching Fire By Nathan Scullard

I had never

heard of The

Hunger Games

before the first

film, it was only

after I watched

it that I heard

there were a

series of books,

not that I read

them to be

honest, I knew

that a sequel

was coming out

and I did not want to ruin the story by reading

the books. Especially as when I start a book

series, if I get into it, I will not stop till I have

read the lot, so I couldn’t have even just read

the first one and stopped.

So when the sequel movie came out I was really

excited as I had really enjoyed the first film,

even if I thought the whole thing was a bit

weird. Kind of a cross between Battle Royale

and Memoirs of a Geisha (which by the way is a

good film, but an epic book – really got a thing

about books atm...It’s a movie review Nathan,

get back on track!). I had to admit that I was

wondering if the sequel was going to be any

good though as having not read the books, I

didn’t know where they were going to go with

the story. Most of the characters that you get to

know in the first movie end up dead because

they are competing alongside Katniss Everdeen,

the main character from the first one. And as

mentioned in the first film, once you win the

Hunger Games, you cannot be picked for it

again, so I wondered what kind of story they

would have, they can’t use the main character

again and there will be totally new people???

But after I saw the front cover and watched the

trailer it was pretty obvious that they could use

the main character, because the very definition

of the people who run the Hunger Games is that

they can do whatever they want to suit their

own needs.

So with that in mind I will talk a little about the

plot, I don’t want to delve to deep into it like I

usually do as it is a popular movie that many of

you will probably want to go and see or buy at a

later date, and like me will not want to know all

the surprises before you see it.

With tensions building in the districts after the

last Hunger Games, President Snow is not happy

and focuses most of his anger towards Katniss

and Peeta Mellark the loved up winners of the

games. Their defiance against the rules in

refusing to kill each other, but actually choosing

to eat poisonous together to avoid having to be

without each other, forced the President to

allow them both to live. But it appears now that

Katniss’ heart belongs to her boyfriend from

before the games and President Snow knows it,

he forces her and Peeta to tour the districts and

show their “support” for the government in the

hope that it will ease the tension between local

residents and the so-called “Peacekeepers” who

are really vicious thugs who beat or shoot first

and then ask questions later.

His attempt is unsuccessful and the tension still

begins to rise and once again he blames Katniss,

but he knows he can’t just kill her or there will

defiantly be riots, so he and his new Head

Gamesmaker, Plutarch Heavensbee come up

with a cunning plan. They decide to mark the

75th Annual Hunger Games with a special event.

This year they will pick the tributes from pool of

surviving winners, a girl and a boy from each

district. District 12 has only one female

winner...Katniss Everdeen.

And that is as far as I

will tell you guys, like I

said I don’t want to

ruin it for you. But I will

give you my opinion on

both the good bits and

the bad bits, and its

final score.

I actually really liked

this movie; in fact I

think I liked it better

then the first one. With the first one you were

just kind of thrown into this weird world and

although it was well put together and well

thought out, I loved how dark this instalment

was, I really got a sense of how powerful the

government is and how underhand they can be

to get what they want. Nothing is more

important to them then control, so important

that they will go to any lengths to keep it. But

there are also a few incidents when they lose

control of situations and you’ll be sat screaming

at the screen and cheering on the rebels.

I also liked how this movie was the same...but

yet different. Like in real life you have a World

Cup and then another World Cup, but they are

both really different in their own way,

sometimes that can be lost in stories. People try

so hard to create these little worlds that they

forget a key element of making it real is change,

worlds don’t stay rigidly the same, bits will

change and it was done very well in this movie.

I have to admit I’m not so keen on the boyfriend

back in District 12, I just think his storyline is a

bit weak and it would be fine without that

character in it altogether. I kind of understand

why he is there,

but I just think

they could have

got the same

effect without

the boyfriend

and just having

Katniss as the

rebel’s

figurehead.

The new

tributes in this

movie are really interesting characters though,

and I loved how they interacted with each

other. In the last film, the characters had to

impress sponsors who would send them stuff

they need during the games. This time because

they had all won before, they all knew what to

expect, and it was much more important for

them to work out alliances with other tributes

to help them survive longer. But who can they

trust? I loved the idea of that because you really

were looking for enemies everywhere.

Honestly, I highly recommend this movie. I

myself am really looking forward to the next

instalment, and although I will not tell you too

much about the end, I will just say...

“Cliffhanger!”

This movie is due to come out on DVD and Blu-

Ray around March-April 2014, so it would make

a great Easter present for any film-fanatic like

me...no that was not a hint to buy me a

copy...well unless you want to buy me a copy? ;)

LOL

Anyway, go see this film, and if you haven’t seen

they first one...well...why not? (Anyone who

does not have the excuse “I have been living in

an igloo”...shame on you!)

My Rating:

10/10

(Only the second film I have given this to.)

(BELOW) I saw this picture on Google while

looking for pictures for this review and had

to give it a mention.

It’s the Arena used in The Hunger Games:

Catching Fire, but someone has made it in

Minecraft.

(Huge Thumbs Up for whoever did this!)

So for those of you that do not know Magic 2014 is a card based game that's kind of addictive. I originally planned to just make a simple article about the game and some cards that are good to know about, but there are so many, and even more tactics to use I have decided to talk about the decks in another fashion, making a small series about the game talking about one deck in each episode. That way I can (hopefully) stay on topic. So if you get the basic game then your starter deck will be Firewave so we will start with that. It’s a red deck with a bunch of creatures as well as spells, and I will go through some of them and talk just a bit about them. I will not talk about them for pages but hopefully it will help improve your game and avoid some pitfalls. Or at least the same ones I had to climb my way out of.

First card is Disintegrate, it's a strong card with a damage equal to the amount of ‘Land’ you control. It can deal massive damage to a creature, and not only that it will also exile the creature if it would die. Meaning no regeneration, no flashback,

no nothing, it's gone. It's a great card and does definitely come in handy when you need it most. When your opponent casts out that 12/12, you tap 12 lands and it's a goner. Easy as that.

Next up is a creature called Crimson Mage, just going its power it's not great. But for one cost in ‘Land’ it can give one of your creatures haste. This is great. No summoning sickness to worry about. You have that one card in your hand that

can kill or put the final nail in the coffin of your opponent. But with summoning sickness he/she will have one turn to counter your move. So you put haste on it, and there's no defense other then what was already on the table. Small and seemingly useless card, but for this it goes a long way. But keep in mind, it has only got 1 point in health, you need to be careful and keep it alive if this is your plan.

Kiln Fiend is a special one but kind of good and kind of not. It looks weak but does have advantages. If you cast a spell that damages your opponent, this creature will get a +3/+0 until the rest of the turn. And now it's not so

feeble anymore. It's not the best card in the deck, but every once and a while it will cause you to get some extra damage on your side, just remember to do the best you can with it.

So a card to look out for is Final Fortune, it can be good, but more often than not I find myself losing the game. The card gives you an extra turn, an awesome ability, BUT if you don't win the game in that round, you will LOSE the game then and there. Don't matter

how much health you have, but you will lose in that moment. And needless to say, when you play this card, your opponent will do everything to keep you from winning. Cause if he does, you will lose. There's no reason for him to hold back after you played this card. I don't take it out of my deck, but I can count on one hand how many times I have used the card. It's not the best card in the world in my opinion. It's a make or break card.

Sulfuric Vortex is next on the list. It's simple and straight forward, it will deal 2 damage to each opponents at the start of their turn. This includes you as well so keep that in mind. It's a nice way to get around your opponents

creatures as long as you have more life left then they have.

Flame Break is very useful for those decks that pump out a plethora of low strength creatures and clear the board. It deals 3 damage to all non-flying creatures. Simple and good. Furnace of Wrath is a really good card in my mind. It

doubles the damage dealt for every spell, every creature, for everything. The point is, it works for your opponent too. But I love it, making my weak creatures super strong, and my strong ones a lethal weapon. I love this card, it's worth

you putting it on the table, especially if you have a spell at hand.

Fire Servant is a good strong creature in its own way. But it also doubles the damage for your spells. Now this is great on its own, but if you add this to the Furnace of Wrath, you are looking at doing a whole lot of damage. The

only problem with this is that you can't see your opponent’s eyes in total dismay when you pull this combo off. (LOL)

Stalking Vengeance, now

this only works when one of

your creatures dies, it deals

damage to your opponent

that equals its power. So if

it has a power of 3, then

your opponent takes 3

damage, it's awesome. And

yes you will lose creatures, but you will do that

anyways, might as well take full advantage of it.

So there it is, some of the cards that I feel you should know about in this game, but keep in mind there are hundreds of cards and I can't go through all of them, the combinations are endless. Keep playing the game! It’s fun to unlock more cards and it's just great overall, and if you like it there are extra decks for you as well. So that's it for this deck, it's called Firewave remember it and love it. And keep an eye out for more of these articles in the coming issues of The Gamer Gazette.

Borderlands 2 By Kim Gustafsson

Me and Borderlands 2:

So for me the second

installment of the game

was the first one I played.

It was a good friend of mine that convinced me

to get it, and the first platform I played it on was

on the Xbox 360. But in time it moved to the PC

and so did I. But it was a bit of a gamble. I

wasn’t sure I liked the texture and the graphic

style the game ran with, and to be fair it gave

me a headache the first time I played it. But I

wanted a game that I could play with others and

needed a good co-up game. That's how it all

started.

Story and Characters:

There is a lot of both here so let's start with the

ones you have as playable characters. In the

basic game you have the "Gunzerker" or

“Salvador”,

a gun

wielding

midget that

can dual-

wield

weapons.

"Zero" the

assassin-styled character with an emphasis on

stealth, snipers and melee combat. A

commando named "Axton" with his very handy

gun turret. And a "Siren" named Maya.

So to explain a bit about the character and the

story: You are one of the above, here for

reasons you will have to discover yourself (not

going to give away too much on that) and where

"here" is, well "here" is the planet of Pandora, a

planet of untold riches, douchbags and guns,

the last two are considered natural recourses.

But before we go into the story I want to explain

some more about the characters.

You see most of them have one overall skill, for

the Commando it's his turret and for the

Gunzerker his ability to dual-wield for example.

And then a bunch of I think 30 skills to augment

this or other parts of your character. Making

your weapons do more damage, healing others

or whatever else the creators came up with, and

I have to say, they have all but the kitchen sink

in this. There

are a

hundred and

one builds

for our

characters

and add to

that the

billion

different guns that are in the game, well actually

the game cover says, "A Bazillion weapons just

got Bazilliondier". And after playing the game, I

believe them! There are a lot of guns! BUT I will

not talk in length of the characters and what

they can do in detail, mostly for two reasons, 1 I

have not played all of them so it would be a bit

unfair to do so, so most of it will be out of my

perspective, and 2 cause of a bit of poor

planning....again (if you read the BF4 report I did

first). This is going in for correction the same

day as it’s supposed to be put in the Gazette so I

hope to make it easier on our residential

spelling doctor (wink wink, nudge nudge).

(Spelling Doctor Note: “Thanks Kim!”)

But I will post a few pictures on them as they

are introduced in the game instead.

But I have to say this game did not start for me

until I got the first DLC and got hold of the

Mecromancer character, a small girl named

Paige and her killer machine of awesomeness

named “Deathtrap”. Now I love all types of pet

classes

almost

exclusively

and that's

what I go

for in

games. And

She was

the first

real good one in this game, and it just lifted the

game up so much that it’s crazy, at least in my

opinion. I finally had a character that I loved

playing as. But to be fair I don't think that the

other characters are in any way bad, it's just

that her ability and skills suited my play style

perfectly and it was love at the first Deathtrap

kill. So, moving on from me raving on and

on…and on about her, there is also one more

playable character called “Krieg” and he's a nut

case, no seriously he is! His class is called Psycho

and he has a habit of setting himself on fire at

odd moments.

Them being done, there are more characters in

the game, so many in fact I'm not going to try to

get them all in here, but will just take up a few

of them as I go along. And keep in mind that I

will be playing as the Mecromancer as I go, as

some of the experience with different

characters may vary slightly from character to

character, but they all have a good voice all but

one in my mind, Mordecai. I just don't like the

character at all. He's nice in the game, but I just

don't like the voice, the acting or the lines he

has, it's just bad in my opinion. Other than that,

I think most of the acting and scripts in the

game are solid. I like the voices, some more

than others, but more about that later.

As you go into the game there will be a lot of

memorable characters in the story and even

more in the DLC's. Many of them will be bosses

or just people that will aid you and give you

missions or side missions one way or the other

in the game, and let’s not forget the main villain

in all of this. A man named Handsome Jack. A

genuine douchbag that you will absolutely love

to hate, I mean how many villains have the hero

on speed dial? His voice will pop up every now

and again, sometimes to make you rage,

sometimes to make you laugh and sometimes

for you to just go…wtf!? I love him for what he

is.

Not only have they spent considerable time in

making the characters worth your time, but

they have also added some time to make sure

that they have some way of interacting as well.

Unfortunately it’s mostly in the DLC you get to

see most of the story about that, and how they

deal with the different situations that are

created

while you

played

through the

original

story mode.

And

speaking of

story mode, you traveled to this planet for

reasons of your own, BUT you’re also there for

the riches and adventure. And here is a story

rich on both, and did I mention there were

awesome guns in this too didn’t I? You will be

taken to a myriad of different locations with

even more locations in those locations, sounds a

bit strange but you will understand it once you

get into the game. The story is also pretty long

not accounting for the DLC and I felt good at the

end of it. Not only is it long but it also takes you

to a bunch of crazy places, sure they will reuse

some of the enemies, making them stronger

versions of the ones you saw earlier, but they

also add a few new ones as you go along.

Overall it's a great game, you will fight, laugh

and cry or maybe go into a berserker rage, (or

maybe a gunzerker rage if you know what I

mean?) it all depends on what type of person

you are. It's a nice story with lots of crazy stuff

going on. It's not going to make any dramatic

360’s that I could not tell were going to happen

in advance, but there's so much that happens

along the way that it still manages to keep you

going. It's just fun. If you like that type of game

you will love Borderlands 2, for both its amazing

story, its fun voice acting, and very memorable

characters.

Gameplay:

The game has a deliberate cartoony style, and at

first it made me carsick or motion sick as I

played it. It takes some getting used to but I

liked the game and cursed them for doing it in

that style.

But as I

played, it

got better

and I

realized

why it was

like that, or

at least I

think I realized...at a guess, I would say it’s

because it does not freeze! Don't know how

many hours I have put down on this game both

on the PC and the Xbox and it has never frozen

on me, not once. How many of you have played

open world games with graphics like Fallout 3 or

New Vegas and had it freeze-up on you? For me,

the answer is a lot, but not with this. Whether

it’s the style that saves the processor a lot of

work or some other unknown magic, I don’t

know, but it just doesn't stop working. It's in my

opinion a

good trade

off for

Fallout (I still

don't want

the next

Fallout to

look like

Borderlands though, just saying, both games

have their charms. Oh, and by the way next

Fallout is going to be set in Massachusetts

according to rumors', a bit of inside info for you

all there, it’s just a rumor though.....or is it?).

And the more I think about it the more I love

the idea of it.

So knowing the game runs smoothly and for

what it is, it looks great and has some very cool

special effects in it. It also did not need 5 million

patches to make it run properly after release

and that, to me, makes it a very fine game.

That's mostly all I need to say about it, I never

had a drift stop in the game, there have been

times when my characters have been lost and

found again, but I blame that on Microsoft for

losing my account temporarily on the Xbox. But

nothing major on the games side.

And I said at the beginning that I wanted the

game to play co-op right, and the game does

that really well. And to be fair there are times

where you want some friends with you to take

down the most epic bosses in the game. And

even with up to the maximum of 4 players I still

see no signs of the game crashing on me. It did

lag a bit when one of our team mates had some

internet issues but other than that it all worked

smoothly. And it was a great fun, just wish I had

my own friends to play with, instead of the

three random blokes I just happened to meet on

the net. But it was still a great fun time. The

game just seems to work. So I don't really have

much to say here, which is kind of strange, but

kind of good too I guess for the game.

As a last word though…get the DLC, get the

Mecromancer, and get Assault on Dragon’s

Keep, it's the best DLC they ever made and is a

mix of the Borderlands craziness with your

classic dungeons and dragon fantasy game. And

if you happen to find yourself without someone

to play with, give me a shout and we will see If

we can't get a game in at some point.

Happy Gaming People!

Secrets of Rætikon PC

Adventure Broken Rules

January 7, 2014

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance PC

Action Konami

January 9, 2014

Assassin's Creed Liberation HD PC

Action Ubisoft

January 15. 2014

Spellforce 2: Demons Of The Past PC

RPG Nordic Games Publishing

January 16, 2014

Broken Age PC

Adventure Not Available January 2014

Shadowrun: Dragonfall PC

RPG Harebrained Schemes

January 2014

Legends of Persia PC

Action Sourena Game Studio

January 2014

Moebius PC

Adventure Pinkerton Road January 2014

Life Goes On PC

Platformer Independent January 2014

Thief PC

Adventure , Adventure Square Enix

February 28, 2013

The Wolf Among Us: Episode 5 -- Cry

Wolf PC

Adventure Telltale Games February 2014

Divinity: Original Sin PC

RPG Not Available February 2014