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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