Contents:
Next Car Game (Alpha) Review
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Review
NVIDA GeForce GTX 760 Asus
Edition Hardware Review
Robocop Movie Review
Community Pic: CANCELLED
Announced PC Game Releases
(June - July)
News:
New YouTube Channels – As a lot of
you may have noticed we have split
the YouTube channel into two, which
so far has been a very successful tactic
with this month bringing in more new
subscribers then we have in a long
time. So “Welcome!” to all the
newcomers and “Thank You!” to all of
you for showing your support, we
really appreciate it. The reason the
channel has split is so that we can
manage the content more effectively,
on Channel 2 (Original Channel) we
now have the Vlogs and other random
stuff that is not always related to PC
Gaming and on Channel 1 (The New
One) we have all the Tazer Plays and
Challenge/Gameplay Videos.
Monthly Subscriber Giveaways –
Because we have split the channels,
we thought we would introduce a
brand new monthly giveaway to say
thank you to you guys for sticking
with us and showing us your support.
This month, the game we are giving
away is “Stick it to the Man”. For
more details and information on how
to enter, check out the new “Tazer
Prizes” page on the website.
Next Car Game
By Nathan Scullard
Ok, so please bear in mind that this game is
still in the Alpha stage and I am basing my
opinion of it purely on how the game is right
now. I will of course be revisiting this game
with a proper review as and when the game is
completed and released.
For now I would just like to start by saying
that this game costs around the £20 mark for
the Alpha version of the game, and I have to
admit that that to me seems very expensive. I
don’t have much experience in buying early
releases games, in fact that was the first.
Since then, I have in fact purchased a couple
more including DayZ, which I will be doing a
“Tazer Plays!” video on at some point.
But to buy a game that is not yet complete
and still has the option to completely change
what it offers before release day is a bit of a
risk. But after much deliberation I decided
that I would take the risk as many YouTubers
had already expressed a great interest in the
game and specifically its damage/physics
engine. And boy was I glad I did!
The game is so fun; it’s the best way of
describing it. If you liked the old Demolition
Derby games from back in the day, then you
will love this new take on it.
So far there isn’t much you can do in the
game as it is still an early release. In fact there
are only 3 cars and 7 or 8 tracks which you can
play on. However, when looking at the main
menu it is apparent what kind of stuff you can
expect to be in the final version of the game.
Including; a “Social” button, “Car
Customization” and some sort of “Credit”
system. Whether that means an in-game
credit system for the purchase of cars and
upgrades or micro-transactions I’m not sure.
There is still no indication of any kind of
“Story Mode” or “Campaign” in it, but I
sincerely hope that there is as the game is in
danger of falling flat and lacking in substance
if a campaign is missed out.
There is also no indication of any kind of
online multiplayer, but with racing games
these days that is almost a given, and the
“Social” button would certainly point towards
there being some kind of online integration.
There is also a “Profile Icon” shown that
would support this theory.
But on to what the game has to offer right
now! Why should you buy this game that only
offers 7 maps and 3 cars? Well simply put,
unless you can spare the cash, don’t buy it.
And the reason for that is although it is a
great fun game, that’s all it is at the moment,
it’ll keep you entertained for a very short
amount of time unless you’re one of those
people who can make their own fun out of
anything.
The in-game play is really good though, the
carnage created on every map due to the
damage/physics engine is impressive and you
never truly know in what kind of condition
your car is going to finish the race in.
The driving controls do feel kind of clunky at
the moment and all of the cars suffer from
massive under-steer, but that may just be due
to the fact that the only cars you have
available at the moment are rear-wheel drive,
but either way that does need addressing. The
options menu does boast support for force
feedback wheels, but I have not as yet tested
that out so you may wish to be aware that
that may not be a possibility just yet, but does
look like something they are planning on
putting into the final game.
The aesthetics of the environments and cars
are amazing and for an Alpha game I was
thoroughly impressed by how polished the
game does actually look.
There are one or two slight issues including
the occasional visible break in graphics,
especially behind barriers, sometimes you can
see a tear in time and space that threatens to
drop you into nothingness. I also noticed on
occasion that the drivers in the cars
sometimes appeared flat, not all the time but
occasionally I would catch a glimpse of one
and where the drivers car had been battered
and squashed, so had the driver making him
appear to be flat.
But this kind of stuff is to be expected in most
Alpha games. On the whole I think it has a lot
to offer, but it’s not quite at the stage where
it worth buying, especially at £20. However, at
the same time, I urge you to go and buy it.
And yes I am aware that I totally contradicted
myself then but I will explain.
Although it is not at the stage where it is
ready to buy yet, every copy you buy is the
helping hand the developers need to get this
game created and created to a certain
standard. Also by buying a copy you are
showing the developers your interest in their
product, an indication to them that they are
doing something right. So hopefully, assuming
they all think like me (Doesn’t everyone?),
then they won’t change too much, or worse
go completely full circle, and continue to
make the game that I know this game can be.
Good luck to Bugbear with the future
production of this game, just don’t f**k it up!
Thanks guys for taking the time to read this
review, your support means the world to us
and I look forward to writing another one for
you next month.
Peace Out!
Transformers started out as a toy line in
Japan and no thought was given to what
the company Takara Tomy had in their
hands. As Hasbro, an American toy
company started a cooperation with
Takara they both realized the potential
and the Transformers we know and love
today were born.
The first animated series was aired way
back in 1984 and ran until 1993 and since
then there has always been some kind of
animation or comic book taking over from
where the previous ended.
But I'm getting off topic a bit and I could
bore you to death with my extended
Transformer knowledge base but that’s
not why you’re reading this article now is
it?
So then, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
takes place on their home world of
Cybertron (duh) one huge planet made of
steel and living energy is now slowly dying
as a result of the long wars between the
Autobots and the Decepticons and can no
longer support life. And as the last
reserves of Energon is being used up to
create an arc powerful enough to take
them all to a new world, that’s where we
come in.
As the story progresses and the war
between the factions escalates, you get to
play as both sides. At first I did not think
this was a good idea as it usually means
you don’t get to emerge properly with a
character. But the way they have done it
here I have to say I like it. In its twelfth
mission campaign you play as ten
different characters not including the last
chapter when you get to pick any of the
DLC's. The game does a pretty good job
telling the story about the Transformers
before they came to earth, but at the
same time there are things I only know
because I have been following the series
for so long that the game simply did not
take up. They do remedy this in some
ways by hidden audio logs hidden in the
levels for you to find but there's still a lot
that goes past the player. But next to cut
in bits and pieces from the old series I
think they found a good solution, after all
it would not be good if the game took you
away from the action all the time to give
you a proper history lesson.
Story progression
In the first chapter you play as Bumblebee
and it's kind of a prelude to the story
itself, as Bumblebee tries to keep the arc
in one piece until it can go through the
worm hole that will take them away from
Cybertron. It also serves as your "How to
play" tutorial, and even though the game
might not be that complicated when it
comes to controllers some things are good
to know, for example how to dodge. It's
fairly short but covers the basics.
In the two following chapters you get to
play as Optimus Prime himself as you fight
to keep the Decepticons away from the
Arc. This takes you over a huge level
where you will have to use your vehicle
form a lot in order to travel as well as
much shooting in his robot form, you also
get to meet Warpath, a lesser know
Autobot that serves as one of Primes
Generals. You also have the fortune to
find Metroplex, a huge Autobot that helps
Optimus on his mission and lays down
some massive supporting barrages.
Blowing Decepticons to tiny tiny pieces
whenever you pull the trigger.
Unfortunately you don’t get to play as the
big guy, but you do get to use its weapons
as his targeting matrix is apparently
broken. To see how this huge robot steps
over buildings and simply shoulder tackles
huge plasma cannons till they explode is
some of the best scenes in the game. Next
up is Cliffjumper, a smaller robot to Prime
but one that has a more stealthy role.
Cliffjumper and Jazz are tasked with
locating a third Autobot, none other than
Grimlock who apparently deserted his
post and caused a lot of damage to be
done to the Autobots defensive lines.
While Cliffjumper has access to the same
weapons as everyone else. He does have a
stealth special ability that’s unique to him
and Starscream alone in the game. This
turned the game into a sneakier mode
that I honestly did not like. It's not that it's
not satisfying to be able to rip some ones
head off by sneaking up on them, but in
order to get there means sneaking and
calculating the enemy’s movement
patterns, that I found tedious and boring.
A mission that I would have been happy to
be without. Not to mention that if you fail
all Decepticons in the area will come for
you and they will rip you apart making you
restart a whole lot of times over and over
again (this of course is something I just
have heard, since I naturally did not die
during this game…). The animations are
good for the assassinations, but I just
found them to be a part of the game that
slowed it down too much. I do have to say
though that this chapter still allows for
plenty of shooting and explosions as well.
It's not all stealth.
Next up is Jazz a well known name in the
franchise. And even though he follows
Cliffjumper on his mission in a way this is
where his mission really starts. Armed
with a whip like energy arm that allows
him to get to areas that would be
impossible to reach otherwise, his mission
is to track Grimlock's signal. This takes him
down to the underground of Cybertron
and as it comes to pass is not without life
in its bowels. Down here you get to fight
the Insectobots. Insects like robots that
live hidden from the other life forms on
Cybertron. Here he also finds some
remnants of Grimlock's team that tell him
about a grim fate for the rest of them, but
no sign of the leader or who was
responsible for it. Although it becomes
clear that the Decepticon known as
Soundwave might have had something to
do with it.
Here the game alters and brings you on to
the side of the Decepticons and first one
out is Vortex, not only is it fun and
awesome to play as the bad guy, but you
also get to fly how awesome is that!? Not
only is the chapter fun, but the flying is
good, the controllers are great and flying
is something that really works, they did a
good job with it, even if you hover to get a
better shot or using your boosters to
quickly move from target to target. And I
have to say that his, what I assume is a
plasma cannon, is an awesome weapon in
his vehicle form, and I can't stress how
much I love the flying part of this game,
it's fun and fast paced once you get the
hang of it. It even makes up for the stealth
parts earlier.
Next up is Swindle, no more flying but
here you get to do some driving and it was
not as fun as the previous missions but
was still an important part as it leads up to
the Autobots loosing the newly found
Energon. And leads up to something even
more awesome…
…next up is Bruticus, and I have to say he's
a bit special. He is what happens when
transformers hyperlink with one another.
He is the combination of five different
Decepticons (Vortex, Blastoff, Swindle,
Brawl and Onslaught). This makes him
pretty big and to simply walk through
walls and be a total bad ass is awesome.
Not only because you get to fight a small
army of Autobots, you are almost
impossible to kill once you get rolling. It’s
bloody awesome! While you’re main
objective is to destroy the carrier that
hauls the Energon to make it stop. I have
to give the creators a point here, when
they made Starscream they did stay true
to the comic versions of him as the self-
obsessed asshole that he is, and it
becomes apparent through the game.
Much of that is shown in this chapter as
his leadership skills are shown to be
lacking a bit.
After a few failures on the field by
Starscream, and a mission saved by
Onslaught. Soundblaster starts the repairs
of Megatron, and although you get to play
as him for the two coming missions, I find
him a bit lacking. His tank form (That was
not a tank to start with but a pistol in the
original series, there’s some nerd facts for
you all!) is really powerful but in his Robot
form he has a hover ability that I really
don’t like. It's an ability that no one else
has and I can see that they wanted him to
be special, but I don’t like it. You need it
to keep moving forward in the story and
get to hard to reach areas. But it can also
be used as a weapon to slam into the
ground doing damage to the enemies
around. But it's so slow to use and I can
easily do the damage with a normal
weapon and not making myself a target
but levitating in the air where all can see
me. I’d rather keep in cover, or possibly
transform into a tank and blow em all up!
And after taking back control from
Starscream, Megatron launches a massive
counter offensive against the Autobots.
Next up is Starscream himself. Feeling
betrayed by both Megatron and the other
Decepticons he breaks free and decides to
sabotage Megatrons offensive. This is a
longer mission and takes some time, but
as you are allowed to fly again while you
do it, I'm happy as I can be. During this
mission Starscream decides to start his
own army by gathering up bots that are
angry at Megatron and sets about to free
Grimlock from his prison after he was
detained by Soundwave. Unfortunately
for Starscream, Grimlock is angry but
towards everyone and after using his
would be rescuer's body to slam open a
door he walks out and leaves a broken
Starscream behind.
Next up is Grimlock, a bigger then average
robot armed with a blade that would
make any one proud to use it. He works a
bit different than the others, first off he's
a melee character and doesn’t use any
weapons that the other use. You can
make up for this by picking up items to
throw at your enemies (This includes
other robots as well!) and an ability to
execute your enemies to regain health
and power. Furthermore, he can't change
form right off, but has to work up to it as
his rage increases. But when he does, it’s
amazing! Soundwave had been altering
the forms using him in his experiments
and created the dinobots. As Grimlock
transforms for the first time he becomes a
T-Rex! It’s a huge metal robot T-Rex that
can bite people in half in a messy way and
cause untold carnage on its way. What's
not to like! In this last chapter you get to
meet all the original four Dinobots. As you
fight through a sea of insectobots you also
learn of Soundwaves plans and with the
force of an angry dinosaur you chew up
everything in your path.
The final chapter lets you play as either
Megatron or Optimus Prime as the final
confrontation unfolds. Not much more to
say about all this, except as always I have
not told you everything that transpires in
this game, like for example where they
are planning to go with the Arc. But I want
you as the player to have something to
look forward to as you play the game
instead of me telling you every plot twist
there is in the game. Furthermore, there
are more famous names of other bots in
the game that I have not taken up
unfortunately these are just the playable
ones. And after four pages I think I should
move on a bit.
Gameplay
The game doesn’t run as well as I would
have liked it to at times. It is a bit jumpy at
certain points mostly when playing as
Bruticus and even after a reinstallation
this problem remains. It's not a big thing
but it is annoying nonetheless. If this is
cause of the game or my PC I don’t know,
since changing the settings did not make it
go away and it works fine in other
missions I will have to go with the game
and not my PC.
Other then this it’s a smooth ride all the
way, and the areas you get to move
through are well made and very
submersive in the layouts. Although I
always imagined Cybertron to look more
like a great city and not a maze of spires
and gun placements, but hey it's been in a
civil war for thousands of years so maybe
that have tarnished some of it. And there
are a lot of things to find in the way of
hidden audiologs and blueprints for
weapons you to find that causes me to
replay levels several times until I have
found it all.
I have not had time to play the
multiplayer for long but from what I have
seen it’s good, with plenty of upgrades
and customizations for you to use and I
find myself wanting to play more of it.
And just saying, how they have made this
is the way to go for future mech games.
Imagine if your mech could transform to a
jet and fly away or to attack from another
angle, it's cool and I want more of it.
Characters
Even though I have been going through
most of them already I wanted to say that
as far as who they are, I can say that many
of the characters are as I remember them
to be from the old series, and I love the
developers for that. And I had not just a
nice time but also a nostalgia trip that I
had to say I liked a lot and will be playing
it again and again just for that feeling
alone.
Round up
So over all the game is good, a few things
in the game that I could have been
without but I can see why it's in there, but
you have to play the game to get why I
think that. With good characters and a
good storyline I have to say I like the game
overall. And I think what makes the game
good from the get go was that it was not a
game based on a movie. This game was
based on the events long before the
movies, and as such the developers don’t
need to take any actors or "movie rights
BS" into account, and as such, created a
very good game.
Happy gaming people.
NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 760 ASUS
EDITION REVIEW.
Hey guys, its Corky (Reece).
I wanted to review my personal graphics card
this edition, yes that’s right! The GTX 760 OC
Edition by Asus!
This card will deliver you nothing but power
and awesomeness. With its special cooler
from Asus, overclocking this card won’t be a
problem.
It comes with 2GB GDDR5 Memory which is
ideal if you are a first time builder or even a
novice to gaming systems. This card in my
opinion is a great ‘Bang for the Buck’ card, it is
currently around £200-255 in the UK and
around $259 in the US.
Apart from looking cool, it will also stay cool
with its custom PCB by Asus… Yes, this card
was made for overclocking and even comes
with a free Utility called Asus GPU Tweak.
Personally, I use the mode that is labelled G.
The ‘G’ setting puts the card into Gaming
mode which will keep the card cool whilst
giving the card a little boost while in that
setting. The fans in game don’t tend to ramp
up that much compared to other cards.
The card itself comes with 2x DVI Ports, 1x
HDMI Port and 1x Mini-Display Port which is
plenty for gamers who might want to setup
Nvidia Surround or PhysX.
I personally only run 2 screens with this card,
but it is capable of running games with Nvidia
Surround enabled.
The card comes with a 6-pin connector, which
needs two 4-pins connectors to power. It also
comes with an installation guide and GPU
Tweak utility.
If you were to pick up this card, you would
also get 2 games free! – I personally got
Assassins Creed IV Black Flag and Splinter Cells
Blacklist. I think that getting a graphics card
and 2 free games is awesome and even with
some of the lower end cards like the 650, you
get 3 in-game codes.
This card is great at running the free games I
got with it and it handles anti-aliasing very
well, which makes this card a great gamers
choice.
Apart from the technical details, the nice Asus
edition PCB looks awesome compared to the
EVGA
edition of
this card.
With 2
fans you
can’t even
hear. It
looks even
better if
you have a
workbenc
h PC or a
tower
unit.
There is
one
downside
to the
card and
that is
when you
get
GeForce
Experience, you can edit the colour of the
glowing GeForce sign on some cards, but
unfortunately the gtx 760 doesn’t have that.
Now from a Gamer’s perspective…
Still me, but I think this card deserves a lot of
praise because of the very good constant
frame rate in games like Battlefield 4 and
Metro Last Light. It can run Battlefield 4 on
ultra at very constant frame rates.
**NOTE** you may require a better processor
if you don’t see a difference in games from
your last card. In the middle is a chart to
show the different FPS counts:
With a quad core processor and 16 GB of ram,
I still achieve very good frame rate whilst
playing
some of the
most
intensive
games.
Some
games like
DayZ are
not really
affected
much by the
graphics
card, as
they are
very CPU
intensive….
So if you’re
looking to
buy a new
card just to
play DayZ,
then you
may want
to up your
processor to a 6 or 8 core. But apart from
slight things, the card is very stable and can
support Shadow Play which is a really good
free recording utility in GeForce Experience.
So overall, I would highly recommend buying
this card if you’re a casual gamer who doesn’t
care about building one of the highest end
rigs as possible.
Thanks for reading my review and don’t forget
to check out my YouTube channel for more
reviews!
-Corky!
Robocop
By Nathan Scullard
I’ll be back...Wait! Wrong Film! But still from
the same great film making era that was the
80’s! With other greats such as; Back to the
Future, E.T. and Star Wars. In fact, Robocop
came out the year I was born, 1987! But all of
these films share something unique...they are
movies that are so good, they do not need to
be re-made, in fact ANY remake made of
them will surely be a flop...or will it?
So as you are all of course aware, they HAVE
decided to remake Robocop, so the real
question is “Why?”
The original Robocop was a turning point in
film making with highly controversial scenes,
such as the “Toxic Waste/Acid” scene, that
caused audiences to wonder if they had gone
too far. But as with any new thing it just took
a bit of getting used to.
After its North American launch it made $53
Million at the box office, which made it the
16th most successful movie of that year.
So when I first heard that they were making a
remake of it I was understandably very
synical.
The story does follow the same basic
principles of the original. Alex Murphy dies
and ends up as Robocop. But there are quite a
few notable changes.
First of which is HOW he dies. In the original
he was shot several times by gangsters in a
raid gone wrong, but in the new one, it’s his
partner who gets shot and survives during an
undercover sting that turn nasty. But when
alex returns home, his car alarm
unexpectently goes off and the key won’t turn
it off, so when he goes to investigate it he gets
caught in the blast of a car bomb.
But without question, the most unexpected
plot change is that his wife and son actually
KNOW that he is Robocop. He even returns
home after having the procedure, and it was
his wife who signed the papers for him to
have it done as she did not want to let him go.
I actually don’t have a problem with that plot
line, it’s actually more beleivable than the
original plot, it was just unexpected.
So the question that you all dying for me to
anwser...Is it a flop? Well...no it’s not...to a
certain extent.
While I didn’t like everything about the movie,
for example; I have no idea why Samual L
Jackso is even in the movie??? The character
is completely pointless! But that aside, it was
actually pretty good, it had good action
scenes, stuck quite closely to the story, good
actors and I really like that Robocop if black
now, he looks awesome! One other thing I
really liked which I felt was missed from the
original, mainly because technology has
advanced so much since then, is the effects
they did on the remains of his body. You really
got a sense of how little of him was actally
left, and with out the suit he would just be a
puddle on the floor slowly decomposing.
Good job effect department!
And while I still preferred the original movies,
because they had more shocking gore and
they are of course in my very blood as I grew
up with them, in terms of remakes...this is a
good one and I would recommend you go see
it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review,
if you liked this be sure to Like, Follow and
Subscribe to all that Tazer has to offer!
See you next month!
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