Mark of the ninja PC Review

 I always wanted to be ninja and see what its like. I am not a joking, its on my bucket list. Well, Mark of the ninja took care of that now. :D 
Well if it isn't a pretty game?? Its all about ninja!! Cool, right? We play as..eh..i don't know, we are not told about who we are!! He has all these tattoos printed on him. They are not just tattoos. They are powers.To be frank, there isn't much to talk about the game. The game is very similar to shank and is a trade mark of KLEI entertainment-The art of scrolling games. And trust me, this stealth based game is the best i have ever seen of 2012 in this platform. 
The game mostly features stealth approach. The character is required to sneak through a series of enivronments while staying out of sight of guards. There are various type of guards. Intially the guards are basic men with guns, later as we can progress, guards/enemies become more deadly and can easily find you and catch you. 

Guards get alerted when the player makes a sound.

As all ninjas would do, we need to be silent in our approach. If we run, guards can make out the sound and start shooting at us. Ninja has to be in darkness so as not to comprimise his position. Player has arsenal of 'ninja' weapons at his grab. Basic darts are very useful and allow you to do many weapons. Also there are attack items like spike mine, catacombs etc to enhance our kill strategy. All these at our disposal, one can still get caught by the guards. If detected the player has to disappear from the sight of the guards till the time runs out after which the guards will return to their original position.

Some guards have the ability to pinpoint your last known location!!

The game at first is all about different ways of killing the people. But as the player progresses, he can use environment kills. Although we ourselves might into the same trap. 
The rewarding systems seems very satisfying. There are specific objectives for each level in the game. If upon completion the player receives what are known as honor points. Using these honor points the player can upgrade his skills. Before each mission the player is taken to an upgrade screen, where they can spend their seals in three sections: Techniques (passive skills and more types of stealth kills), Distraction Items (such as smoke bombs and firecrackers) and Attack Items (such as spike mines and caltrops). The next screen allows the player to select any unlocked costumes and equip items. Each costume (except the starting one) gives special bonuses, but also a side effect in order to balance its power. Completing the game once unlocks a New Game Plus mode where the enemy AI is smarter, the line of sight is more limited and sounds produce no expanding circles (aside from enemies' footsteps). Most  useful skills i found were the twilight, spike mine, brief shadow. Also there are scrolls we can find on the way or we need to complete a challenge in order to achieve them. These too count in getting honor points.

There isn't much about the plot or story. The ninja clan gets attacked by some people who are wealthy. Azai, Master of clan seeks revenge on those who attacked the clan. I wouldn't want to reveal cause that be would be a spoiler. 

These dogs are real bottle necks to stealth killing...they can sniff you
if you are in their domain.

The graphics are the usual comic style. The cutscenes are also in cartoons. I like it when in the game it rains, or when there is a sandstorm. Cause that definitely spell bounds you. 

Although there are some levels where the player can get frustrated cause the ninja sometimes on the surface and doesn't let go, or doesn't jump far enough etc, i would suggest you play this wonderful game. The ending was unexpected. I am not saying its bad, its just i am surprised.
KLEI has again done it. It certainly is becoming a pioneer in making such scrolling games. Looking forward to "Don't Starve" -another new IP from KLEI releasing in early 2013. Stay tuned!! 

+ NINJA
+ Beautiful comic style graphics
+ Wide range of weapons and deadly appoaches to killing

My rating is 8.5...

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Guide to Far Cry 3

In this post i want to give some tips about how to survive in the dangerous island of Far Cry 3 and make it more interesting. This is kinda my survival guide to the game. :D


1. So firstly try and liberate outposts. By doing this we can get multiple save points and fast travel locations on the map-easier for starting over again near the desired place in case you die.

2. Try poaching lots of animals and different varieties of them. This will enable to craft more syringes and a pathway to additional powers on the "Tatau". I crafted all the possible pouches,wallets etc before the game progress was 15 %.

3. Game progress is entirely dependent on the player. It can either go slow by exploring every possible location, doing challenges, doing animal hunting etc or fast just by completing missions. I suggest one opts the former approach. Cause this will enable us to be ready for the next mission which might require additional powers and certain important weapons which BTW will unlock by doing side missions.

4. Gain more Xp by doing story quests, trails of Rakhyat, or by finding relics, letters of the lost which give big xp boost. This will unlock more skills and a better Jason brody. :P 

5. Finding relics, letters of the lost unlock signature weapons which are way better than normal weapons but are not customizable.                ( though paint jobs :P) 

6. Liberating outposts: Almost every outpost can be liberated silently, giving additional 1000 xp boost. Try and watch for cages where the animals are kept. Release them, and the animal will finish the pirates,cool ain't it? So don't spoil your hands :D. If there ain't no animal, try to have sniper ( preferably silent one ) and a Molotov  flamethrower for creating fire on the houses. The pirates treat this as a natural disaster and in panic, they start shooting each other. 

7. Climbing radio towers will unveil the map. Climb all of them to have a look at what is present where. 

8. Keeping variety of weapons in hand is very useful. I carried a sniper, SMG, Assault, Flamethrower in 4 different slots. Doing this will make the gameplay/fighting easy. 

9. LOOOT!!! Loot as much as you can. Don't worry if you cannot craft anything out of animal skins. They also can be sold. Pirates carry lot of money with them. Try unlocking 'grab 25% more money' skill. 

10. Try taking down multiple targets at once. I find Knife throw take down, heavy take down, death from above particularly useful. 

Trust me, its a bad bad world out there on rook's island. Only trust yourself. Vaas and Hoyt are unpredictable and very dangerous. They should taken out cleverly. So if you wanna fight them you will need these tips. Remember "Exploring is rewarding", and bust every body's ass :D 

Happy gaming ~GamesBuzz~!!

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Far Cry 3 PC Review

Whoa if it isn't how insanity should be defined?? I never played far cry 2 completely, but i got the theme of how Far Cry 3 would not be less than badass. 

It improves a lot from its prequel in gameplay, graphics etc.
We can literally do anything in Far Cry 3. Hunt animals, play poker, be a true Rakhyat by completing challenges, explore the jungle, play knife darts etc etc. I would be joking if this is all we can do in far cry 3. The map is huge and exploring is very rewarding. Unlike Darksiders which has a large map but exploring is a lot of pain and not much rewarding, far cry 3 allows players to liberate outposts of pirates to use them as fast travel locations. 

The characters are very well developed. We play as Jason Brody. Although i dint like  his character at first, who is in fact very timid and scared all the time, but as game progresses he gets to become more and more badass. Well it is required to do that just to survive in the jungle. I love the character vaas. He is funny, unpredictable, and very very dangerous. After our escape from Vaas' camp, we are introduced to a tribal warrior Dennis who is more friendly and go-'get'er type of guy. And there is the hottie of the jungle 'Citra' whom the Rakhyat treat her as jungle goddess. She is very sensuous and hotter than my girlfriend(Liza). The game also portrays other friends who have been captured but enough justice to their roles is not done, although every character is very important. If you thought is badass, then you gotta meet Vaas' boss, Hoyt, who is beyond badass and devilish. 

The hottie i was talking about

As we make progress, we earn skill points. The skill points can be used in three different ways-heron, shark and the spider. Each skill set gives a edge to hunting, combat, fighting and surviving in jungle. We can view in 'tatau' how many skill points we have earned. 

Story 
As far as story is concerned, i can split it into two parts-rescuing our friends and taking revenge. Any minor detail other than this would be a spoiler. So i would like to keep it that way.Six friends travel for a vacation who in their blithe moments are captured. We as Jason Brody will have to rescue our friends. Story is decent, but its the characters that make the story exciting and make unexpected twists and turns in the playing. 

Awesome graphics

Gameplay
As i said, there isn't anything we can't do. we can explore the island, liberate outposts, climb radio towers to reveal the map etc. The game runs smoothly but with some glitches. To start off, radio towers are very tough to climb in second half of the game. When we stand in front of the stairs, the player is unable to climb the stairs , we need to jump for him to move forward.
Far cry 3 features variety of weapons each of which is unique in its own way. Also there are signature weapons which unlock after completing certain stages. We can collect plants and animal pelts/ skins to craft various medicines and items like for example- increasing our pouch capacity, having extra health etc.

I would like you to play this awesome game. This game is definitely as Vaas defines it-'Insanity'. I am not adding any other detail cause that will only spoil the game-play. Now play this game and have fun...:D

+ story                                      - climbing radio towers
+ graphics                                 - poor engine
+ exploring is rewarding
+ characters
+ weapons
+ hunting 

Badass-o-meter rating is 9.0/10....:D

( My first game which i completely played with Xbox controller and it felt great :D :D)

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2012: A year of best gaming sequels and new IP's!!

Hey there gamers!! how r ya??!! How did 2012 fare for you ?? As the year comes to an end, i would like draw and conclude some important events that happened in this spectacular year. Firstly i would like to call this year as "The year of sequels". This year saw some of the best sequels down the line. 
My favorite were :

1. Max Payne 3
2. Far cry 3
3. Mass effect 3
4. Assassin's creed 3
5. Darksiders 2
6. COD Black ops 2
7. Shank 2
8. Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings
9. Torchlight 2
10. Total shogun 2: Fall of samurai
11. Diablo 3
12. Crusaders kings 2
13. Darkness 2
14. Sid meyer's civilization V
15. Guild wars 2
16. Planetside 2
17. Orcs must die 2
18. Sims 3
19. Doom 3
20. Fable 3: The journey
21. Left for dead 2: Cold storm

Well there are many other exciting games which may not be considered as sequels but were very much anticipated and gained world wide whooping response like Hitman absolution after waiting for ages came out this year, and there is The walking dead series which became big hit, bigger hit than TV series i think :P. One cannot miss epic FIFA which releases every year before the year even commences. BTW did u screw around with the police, then you must have definitely played the " Most wanted 2". 

Not only sequels have scored points this year but also some of new IP's have caught the gaming community's attention. 

1. Dishonored
2. Xcom:  Enemy unknown
3. Forza horizon
4. World of warcraft: Mists of pandaria
5. Mark of the ninja
6. Quantum conundrum
7. Inversion
8. Vessel
9. Botanicula
10. Rayman origins
11. Alan wake
12. Dear esther
13. Spec ops : The line
14. Sleeping dogs

The list of awesome games of this year goes on, but due to lack of space i could only fill in the best ones here. Each game in the above list is of different genre and have done very good in the market too. 
Although i wanted to write only sequels and how 2012 has been, on an another thought i would like to give points to certain games in some particular fields. There are as follows: 

Best story : Spec Ops the line

Best co-op Multiplayer: Borderlands 2

Best campaign : Far cry 3

Best graphics : Assassin creed 3

Best puzzle game : Quantum conundrum

Best high octane killing : Darkness 2

Best high octane destruction : Dirt showdown

Best shooter : COD Black ops 2

Best stealth game: Dishonored and Absolution (well its a tie :P)

Best drama series: The walking dead

Best sports game : Fifa 13

Best 2D scrolling game : Mark of the ninja

Best ending sequel : Mass effect 3

Best racing game : Most wanted 2

Best new genre : Sleeping dogs

Best strategy : XCOM : Enemy unknown

Best horror game : Slender man

So these are my choices for their respective fields. What about yours?? Post your comments in the blog's official facebook page Gamesbuzz

Well that's that!! But what will be the use of writing this post without declaring Game of the year ??. :D Well what do you think??? 

And the Gamesbuzz's Game of the year goes to.....

Far cry 3 

Well, what is your game of the year ?? Comment below...:D

Almost forgot...wish you happy new year 2013.. Hoping to play as many awesome games as possible!

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Assassin's Creed III PC Review

The much awaited game of the year of one of my favorite series is here---Assassin's creed 3! Assassin's creed is a completely different genre of story altogether. I felt it was one of the best assassin games of this year next being absolution. 

AC 3 portrays Connor who is half British and half Mohawk. Born and raised in a tribal village he develops skills required by that of a hunter. The setting of the game dates back to American revolution. Connor with his undeveloped skills seeks help of an old person who helps him to seek revenge of the person who destroyed Connor's village. As the story progresses, much is revealed and questions are answered. The story is perfect balance of convoluted twists and turns and some temporary moments of happiness. 

Naval missions are pretty good!!

Gameplay and design of the game
The gameplay in AC 3 is much more developed than its sequels. The combat is much more deadly and fluid. The combat with the British shows the typical British style of line firing of the target. The player plays many characters in the game. Starting from Haytham to young man Connor the game develops and shows the important events happened in the life of Connor and of the American revolution. Advancing from tree to tree is so fluid as if we were walking on the road. Its really difficult to lose grip and fall down as Connor is fast and agile while travelling through trees. 

These kids are frustrating!! Arrrr...

Connor has arsenal of weapons stuffed in his robes. Way many than the Ezio or Altair  He can dual wield weapons. One can wield hidden blade, sword/Ax, gun, bow while wielding tomahawk on the other hand. But not at the same time. At first i found the gun's reloading time was longer and frustrating but then i understood its a game set in a ancient period where the weapons were not well developed and also its not a shooter game :P. I find the hunting feature introduced as welcoming gesture. But the hunting techniques are as not that well developed. Also the animals don't change tactics to evade. The game does not have any mission which us money to upgrade our weapons or buy new items instead one should rely on hunting and other side missions which produce just sufficient money. 

Improved combat

Desmond missions are too easy. But at the same time frustrating and glitchy. Particularly i hated the ending video and play where we need to find the key for the apple of Eden  There is no objective marker nor a map to set path where we should go.

The game has many glitches. One major glitch is when Connor jumps into cart filled with hay he immediately jumps back out. Which again is frustrating cause when guard finds out optional quest of 'do not get detected' fails. Also i dint like the children who beg as they wont leave you and can be really frustrating if triggered a open conflict. The game presents wide range of enemies starting from the ones who brawl to heavy grenadier with Ax. The game has about 200 species of animals and many missions to gain experience. 

There is lot to do in the game. In leisure time one can simply open and choose homestead missions or thief missions or simply hunt animals and sell their parts for money or help others or attack convoy or just admire the beauty of the game. 

Graphics and sound
Whoa isn't AC 3 a spectacular delight in every way. Those lively environments, animals in forests, live oceans---simply mind blowing  Its better to witness it rather describing it. Sounds play important role in AC 3. Rugged sound of carts, neighing of horses, growling of wolves, all these make us feel as if we are actually in that place.
The seasons change and it really makes difference in the game. Leaves shed in winter and more wolves are present for hunting whereas during sunny season beautiful grow alongside the path. 

Lively town of Boston!!

To sum up, it was a pleasure and its playable again and again. If not for those myriad of glitches and tricky optional quests it comes close to Game of the Year (GOTY). A gorgeous game!! 

+ Improved combat                                  - Many glitches
+ Gorgeous graphics                                    - Tricky optional quests
    and lively environments
+ open world-good for hunting
+ setting of the story
+ Lots of side missions 

My rating is 9/10...

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NFS: Most Wanted 2012 PC Review

Most wanted is back and with a bang!! Its tougher, better and cops are more gruesome than ever before. Most wanted has been one of the most anticipated racing games of this year. EA and criterion games work together to bring this awesome game for this year.

Just like in previous most wanted there is no story except we have a set of 10 racers who are known as the most wanted whom we should beat. For first timers the objective is simple- earn speed points and beat the rivals in the most wanted list. The game draws heavily from other franchises developed by EA and criterion games themselves. It is easy to notice the game has close details from NFS: Hot pursuit and burnout paradise. 

The city of Fairhaven is deadly and filled with cops at every corner of the street. The beauty of the Fairhaven simply astounds you. Game developers have this city much more thrilling to explore and more to the racing genre. City is filled with lots of speed cameras, billboards and restricted gates etc smashing which will earn us bounty or speed points (here). 

Each podium unlock certain car part!!

Most wanted is filled with lots and lots of cars.There are different types of cars like muscle, exotic, SUV's etc. Unlike previous most wanted, cars can be found on streets, only we need to find them and its ours. Most wanted allows us to customise our cars. There are different mods possible for example burn nitrous, reinforced chassis, off road tires etc and many more. Only drawback i felt was each time i drive a new car i need to play race specific to the car and install the mods. This happens with every car. There is more to this mods. Each car has certain achievements if on completing them will unlock better mods. Like driving and using burn nitrous for 600s will unlock pro nitrous. 

Unlock pro parts completing these challenges!!

Cops are deadlier than before. There are no such "cool down" locations unlike in its prequel. Either you lose them or get busted. Again which is problem. Cause we get busted we got nothing to lose except the speed points we collected in the pursuit. Cops search the perimeter thoroughly before calling it an "end". By which again we can get caught if you are not paying attention. 

For me gameplay seems tricky topic to discuss. The handling of the cars initially is very bad and can make the person lose interest. I mean even i drive at 10 kmph and collide with oncoming traffic i am directed to cut scene and am showed how i crashed. Seriously @10kmph ?? One major drawback was accumulation of speed points. Whatever you do everything counts as speed points. That is a problem cause we may not be ready to take on a most wanted racer. Also if becomes difficult to race the most wanted we just escalate through the speed points requirements and are left with countless number of races to play.


Most wanted 2012 features a lot of races. There are different types of races like speed run in which a min avg speed is required to maintain, Ambush- where we are thrown at unknown location and told to escape the cops. Each type of car has specific kind of races to be played.

Different races for each car!!

Whatever i say shouldn't bother a true most wanted fan. cause this is the best racing game of series and it only gets better and tougher as you progress. Most wanted 2012 came out with a bang and lives up to its name. A must play...

+ All new cars - Gameplay initially bad
+ Cops are tougher - No more cooldown locations
+ Types of races
+ Lots to do 
+ Visuals are great

My rating is 8.5...

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LA Noire PC Review

Its unique, its thrilling, its great environments of streets of LA simply spell bounds you. Guys i am talking about the third person shooter LA NOIRE. After playing for a few hours itself the gameplay felt great. This is a unique detective game set in 1947 in LA. The time setting of the game is what makes the game it is.

LA NOIRE is a third person detective/ thriller game set in 1947 in the streets of LA. LA NOIRE is a typical of Rockstar production-an open world game filled with lively environments, buildings and featuring 1947 style cars.Players must investigate crime scenes for clues, follow up leads, and interrogate suspects, and the players' success at these activities will impact how much of the cases' stories are revealed.

MotionScan Tech

I heard the game draws the plot, style and aesthetic elements of film noir which included similar visual styles and themes. The game is known for the tech used in the game for facial expressions. The developers were able to achieve this by using a tech called motion scan, where the actors in the game were real characters in the real world , whose actions were recorded by 32 cameras. Recording from every angle,almost 360, each camera captures the slightest change in expression which is essential for the player as they will have to use that to detect whether the person is lying or not.

Beautiful streets of LA

Graphics 
The environments are lively. Sometimes i even thought twice whether the characters were real. Cause every person in LA is different as if in the real world. Not to exaggerate, but the graphics were bound to be good cause the player need to confirm whether the suspect is lying or not. Developers have done a really good job in making each building different and so real. Coming to the cars...what can i say? The cars in LA are so real and have that classy finish which look exactly similar to the cars in 1947. 

Audio
Audio is key element of LA NOIRE. There's different type of sounds for everything--wrongly accusing, answer the question correctly, when we pick objects to scan etc. Whenever we find a clue the chime sound is played, when we wrongly accuse a different sound is played.
The player has the choice to tick the option to stop the music when all the clues are found. I felt audio makes the game even more exciting. Some missions need creepy music, some need romantic effect,etc. This is how important the audio is in this game.

Finding Clues,eh?

Gameplay
In short i would recommend to play rather than asking my opinion. Not that i don't know how to describe the gameplay but to get the feel of the game one needs to play the game. The game takes place in the year 1947, in the city of Los Angeles, a meticulously planned (both in terms of gameplay and developers) for crime, felony, beauty,glamour, corruption and rife. The player assumes the role of Cole Phelps, a retired marine, who now works for LA PD as a detective. The game starts off with Cole being assigned with traffic desk as a patrolman. The game explains how the read people, find clues, how to go about the investigation, whom to accuse or whom to not. There are about 21 cases to solve. The best part being that each case is different than the other. All the cases are subdivided into four different categories-traffic, homicide, vice and arson. Each category differs from the other. Each case starts with same type of gameplay of briefing with the person in command, finding clues, interrogating possible suspects or neighbours, sometimes fighting some people sometimes just subduing the suspects. 

Accusing somebody?

Instead of the usual levels the player gets experience after interrogating people which will result in increase in rank. Each level increase rewards the player with an intuition point which eliminates one of the three possible answers(truth,doubt,lie) and gives the clue attached to the question in case of a lie. Instead of missions the game presents different categories of crime possible in LA. Each of the desk has 5-6 cases which the player pairs up with a partner who helps us to find the suspects or clues. In between the cases there will a cut scene showing the war memories of Cole Phelps which in turn unfolds the events of the overall plot/story.

Phelps has a notebook in which he records every clue, writes about the people likely to be involved in the case, general objectives to be followed. Its a useful tool to progress through the game. We need to use the notebook when you accuse someone of lying and need evidence to prove it. 

Sometimes we need to fight to get the evidence

To increase the player's chances to nail down the suspect one can use intuition. Intuition points are earned through experience.Players earn experience by correctly answering the questions, completing the street crimes, capturing landmarks, or reading newspapers. There are about 40 street crimes. I could complete only 12. But still i could achieve rank 17 without that. The game blends investigative elements such as mystery and crime solving, with fast-paced action sequences, including on-foot and car chases, hand-to-hand combat, interrogations and gunfights.

This man is weird-solve the case he praises, screw it up he messes with you

When the player is interrogating suspects and witnesses, the player must listen to the story that they give. The player will be given the option to either believe them, doubt them or accuse them of lying. (If the player accuses them of lying, the player must have evidence to prove that they're lying.) If the player interrogates two people at the police station, the player will be able to decide who to charge with the crime. The captain's attitude will tell if the player charged the right person.
If the player is having trouble completing an action sequence, after three failed attempts, they will have the option to skip past and continue through the narrative. I felt this was good.

Negative aspects
whenever i replay a mission the cut scene cannot be skipped. Sometimes is essential sometimes it is not. At least when replaying a mission we should be able to skip the cut scene. Also the rewarding system is limited. And of course they are usual glitches. 

Lasting appeal
I felt that this game is a must play. I loved this detective side to the game. The overall plot of the game unfolds in the last cases. And the cases are absolutely thrilling and heart racing. The game ends with Cole Phelps dead. This was not expected as usual cause nothing is so easily predictable in this game. Loved every part of the game and every case. The characters in the game are so different. I loved working with fellow partners especially with Roy Earle cause he is bitchy about things and finds the use of threat as a means to spill the answers of the suspects :D . 

My rating is 9.5...

A exciting game and must play game, unique in its own way...
If any other developers want to make a game like this, Rockstar and Team Bondi have set the bar high. Try and beat this...:P

+ I am detective           - Cut scenes cannot be skipped
+ Different gameplay
+ Beautiful streets of LA
+ setting of the game
+ Thriller

9-graphics
9-audio
10-gameplay
9-lasting appeal

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