Killing Floor

Killing Floor
Platform: PC
Genre: FPS Survival Horror

Straight in with another game that I've played on and off for the last 6-7 years or so - Killing Floor.

I wont go into the background or anything, or even attempt to make out that the plot is remotely important - it isn't - but basically a mad scientist has unleashed a load of weird mutant clones onto the city of London, himself being the Patriarch of these mutants and it's your job as a part of what's left of either the Met Police or the British Army to kill the clones in waves ending with the Patriarch either on your own or with some chums/strangers online. Simple right? Right!

It's your basic wave style game with each wave increasing in difficulty and number of enemies until the final wave consisting of the Patriarch who is a bit of a bitch to kill and will hunt you down.

There are some DLC packs that you could purchase through Steam as well, and you can explore fan-made mods that you can then implement into your game via the Steam Workshop.

The music can get grating after a few minutes but the sound effects are pretty much as you would expect for a game such as this. The visuals are OK, but considering it was originally made in 2005 as a fan made mod from Unreal Tournement 2004, they aren't going to be as good as you would expect from more recent games - however this doesn't detract from how fun the game is and how it can pull you back in time and time again.

It's easy to pick up and play, it's difficulties scale up pretty well and it's damn good fun especially when playing online.

Gameplay: 8 - Easy to pick up and play, smooth easy gameplay, classic FPS game style.
Sound: 7 - Crap music, otherwise all good!
Visuals: 7 - Decent graphics, not demanding on your PC at all.
Replayability: 8 - Although it can be forgotten among your other games, it's ability to pull you back in time and time and time again is exceptionally high.
Fun Factor: 9 - Overall, this is as fun an FPS as you can get. Well deserved 9/10.

Overall Percentage Score: 78% - definitely worth going for whenever you have the cash to hand, fun, varying difficulties, and easy gameplay make this a really good game for your collection, sound and visuals let it down slightly but not enough to stop you purchasing it.

Toolbox24

Abyss Odyssey

Abyss Odyssey

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and PC (Steam)

Genre: Platform Action Adventure

I'll get right to it. In this new year of gaming reviews, Abyss Odyssey (number 2 on my list of games, chosen at random) was chosen as the first game for me to play and review, so here it is. 

This is an alright platform game cut from the same kind of cloth as Child of Light (even with some enemies looking incredibly similar, if not identical) only without the turn-based-combat-RPG element that helped make Child of Light so fun and playable. The combat can feel a little button-bashy, an the way your character Katrien moves is a little on the clunky side.

However, this game does have some truly beautiful art work and music, and the sound effects are of a high quality.

This game was created by Chilean games developer ACE Team and the game itself must be set in around 19th Century Chile, where a mysterious and powerful Warlock is dreaming deep underground, and due to his power, his dreams are creating weird and dark demons and monsters which are attacking the surface world. It is up to you, Katrien, who was also created by the Warlocks dreams, to defeat the evil, and stop the Warlock...

Overall a good little game, usually £10.99 on Steam but currently available for just £2.19 during the current sale (due to end 12-Feb-16), which I would definitely recommend - I would not however recommend paying the full price for it. Wait until the next sale if you're reading this too late!

Scores:
Gameplay: 5 - Not great, but not exactly terrible. A little too clunky and button bashy.
Sound: 8 - Beautiful music and well worked sound effects.
Visuals: 8 - Stunning art work, a beautiful game.
Replayability: 5 - Due to clunky gameplay and button bashiness, I doubt I'll be going back to Abyss Odyssey for a second or third helping any time soon, but it's not entirely out of the picture!
Fun Factor: 7 - Despite the gameplay and replayability middle of the road scores, it is a fun game and will definitely fill a few hours of gaming.

Overall Percentage Score: 66% - Worth a punt if it's on sale, otherwise I would spend your money elsewhere. Add to your Steam Wishlist to find out when it's on sale at quick notice!

Toolbox24

Steam Autumn Sale Day 5

Day 5 of the Steam Autumn Sale! Here are Toolbox24's best 5 deals!

Age of Empires II: HD Edition - was £14.99 NOW £3.74!!!

Tomb Raider - was £44.99 NOW £8.99!!!

garry's mod - was £5.99 NOW £1.49!!! WOWSERS!!!

The Stanley Parable - was £9.99 NOW £5.99!!!

Call of Duty: Black Ops II - was £39.99 NOW £19.99!!!

Well yes, that's it. garry's mod which isn't exactly a game, but a...mod. I'm sure if you like games and have been on YouTube, you've most likely seen a video made through garry's mod. For £1.49 you can do an awful lot, but be sure to take your time. You could end up making something like this...

Toolbox24

Steam Autumn Sale Day 4

'Sup mother funkies! Day 4 - you know the drill.

Far Cry 3 - was £19.99 NOW £4.99!!!

Metro Last Light - was £24.99 NOW £8.49!!!

Portal 2 - was £14.99 NOW £3.74!!! WOWSERS!!!

Civilization V - was £19.99 NOW £4.99!!!

Payday 2 - was £24.99 NOW £11.24!!!

No contest today, snatching up Portal 2 for less than £4 is a bargain 100% guaranteed. It's gameplay physics are immaculate, the voice acting alone is worth more than £4, and the replayability makes this game a must - even if not on sale.

Let's not forget the 2 player MP mode. Awesome.

Toolbox24

Steam Autumn Sale Day 3

Evening chaps! Right you know the drill now, it's Day 3 of the Steam Autumn Sale - and here are Toolbox24's picks of the day!

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs - was £12.99 NOW £6.49!!!

Batman: Arkham City GotY Edition - was £19.99 NOW £4.99!!! WOWSERS!!!

Borderlands 2 - was £19.99 NOW £4.99!!!

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition - was £14.99 NOW £3.74!!!

Total War: Rome II - was £29.99 NOW £14.99!!!

From the 5 picks of today, it's clear to see that getting Batman: Arkham City for less than a fiver is clearly the way to go! Check out the Steam Store for more great deals! 

Toolbox24

Steam Autumn Sale Day 2

Evening MonkeyBoxers!

Right then, Day 2 of the Sale has begun and the Toolbox24 Pick of today's games are:

Call of Duty: Ghosts - was £39.99 NOW £33.19!!!

Surgeon Simulator 2013 - was £6.99 NOW £1.74!!!

Bioshock Infinite - was £24.99 NOW £6.24!!! WOWSERS!!!

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - was £11.99 NOW £2.99!!!

The Orange Box - was £14.99 NOW £7.49!!!

Day 2 of the sale sees some absolute hum-dingers including newly release CoD: Ghosts on sale with 17% off as well as the hilarious Surgeon Simulator 2013 for a steal less than 2 whole British Pounds! The deal of the day must be however Bioshock Infinite on sale for a ridiculous £6.24, some amazing games on sale and more to boot.

Oh, did I mention that all of yesterday's games are still on sale. I think they'll definitely run out tomorrow at 18:00 so get in there now that pay-day has come!

Tune in for tomorrow evening's picks of the day or just go to the Steam Store. Go on...GET!!!

Toolbox24

Steam Autumn Sale! Day 1

Hello MonkeyBoxers!

Today sees the start of the Steam Autumn Sale! HURRAH!!!!

The Toolbox24 pick of today's deals include:

The Walking Dead - was £20.99 NOW £5.24!!!

Outlast - was £14.99 NOW £5.09!!!

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - was £14.99 NOW £3.74!!!! WOWSERS!!!

Prison Architect - was £19.99 NOW £9.99!!!!

Final Fantasy VII - was £9.99 NOW £3.39!!!

Baulder's Gate Enhanced Edition - was £14.99 NOW £5.99!!!

Dead Island - was £19.99 NOW £4.99!!!!

XCOM Enemy Unknown - was £29.99 NOW £7.49!!!!

Game Dev Tycoon - was £6.99 NOW £3.49!!!!

There are more games on sale right now and these deals end at 18:00 on Friday 29th November 2013! They are also offering Flash Sales every 8 hours, so keep checking back on the Steam Store for some awesome deals!!!

Of the deals today, I would easily say that Skyrim for £3.74 is by far the best deal there, The Walking Dead (TellTale Games) is an amazing game and great for replayability, Outlast is horrificly good. XCOM is a pretty new game, I think you'd be hard pressed to find it that cheap anywhere else and Game Dev Tycoon is just pure great gaming fun!

Check back on here tomorrow evening for tomorrow's deals!!!

Toolbox24

Game Dev Tycoon - A Non-Labour of Love and Work

Hello there.

Right, my last post was something of a late night rush job. It was written because it had to be done, and it was posted because I had to share it. Now that I've put in a good lot more hours into the game, I can give you a much more realistic and thought through analysis of how good this game is.

It is definitely, 100% one of the few 10/10 games that I've ever played.

Other examples include Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption and Doom II. The game is extremely addictive and manages to make you really feel passionately about what is happening.

Right, firstly the main aim is to develop games and for them to be good. Ideally, for them to hit scores of 10. The higher rated the game, the more dosh you'll earn, the more things you can research and the further your company can expand.

I've yet to complete the game yet, but I know I cannot be far and it's been nothing short of superb.

The game isn't just about making games and money, there are opportunities to pursue; research to develop; people to hire, train and fire; new office's to expand into and game conventions to attend.

Not just that, but if you want a bit of extra cash or the chance to get some more research points, you can take on contract work - being mindful not to take on something your team can't handle though otherwise that chance for extra cash turns into you getting a financial penalty. 

From the things you research, you can then develop bigger and better game engines, giving your games an edge over competitors - at a cost though, engines can start off costing a few thousand quid, but as you research new technologies and better graphics, they can end up costing millions.

Developing a game comes in 4 stages:

• Pre Development
• Game Name
• Game Size (Small, Medium and Large - Only small games at first)
• Target Audience (Young, Everyone, Mature)
• Topic (Fantasy, Sports, City, Movies etc)
• Genre (Action, Adventure, Simulation etc)
• Platform (PC, PlaySystem, mBox etc)
• Game Engine (Your own custom made engines)
• Stage 1 Focuses On:
• Engine
• Gameplay
• Story / Quests
• Stage 2 Focuses On:
• Dialogues
• Level Design
• AI
• Stage 2 Focuses On:
• World Design
• Graphics
• Sound

Putting time and focus onto each area of each stage is controlled with simple sliders, and eventually when you can make medium or large games you can assign staff members to each area - being careful not to overuse individuals. There are certain genres of games that require more technical or design focus, so an RPG would have to have heavy focus of Story, Dialogue and World Design, whereas a Music game would have to have high focus on Sound for example.

In short though, there's not a lot I can tell you about the game that doesn't come from playing it, it's a clear 10/10 game that will suck you in massively, that will frustrate you (in the best way), that will get you tweaking, hiring and firing and finally fist pumping when you release a game that gets scores of 10 itself (that straight 10/10 all round game is still eluding me DAMMIT!!!) and the shock when you see your game that's done well has sold millions of copies. Also the strange pride you feel when your company goes to a games-con and it's the top-rated booth with millions of people visiting you.

The game is magnificent, it's simple yet complex and it will pull you in. Most of all, a sign that it's a great game is this: when it finishes, you'll be disappointed and a little upset that you didn't manage to do more. Of course you can carry on playing, however what you do after the end point wont go towards any score.

I must finish this with 1 piece of advice. Are you ready? Right...go now, and buy this game. Buy it now. I'll even help you (not financially of course you buffoon!) by giving you this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/239820.

Now leave this place. And enjoy yourself.

Toolbox24

Game Dev Tycoon Review

Game Dev Tycoon - Greenheart Games (http://www.greenheartgames.com/)

PC (Steam) - Casual, Indie, Simulation, Strategy

It's been a while since I posted a review of a game using the written word. So here it goes.

This is a very impromptu post because I only invested in Game Dev Tycoon (GDT) tonight. I got it on a whim after seeing it advertised on Steam's front page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/239820/) and for just over a fiver I thought "Sod it. It looks good fun, why not?!" and that gut feeling that it would be a good punt served me well!

Don't let the 68/100 Metascore put you off, it's intriguing, in-depth, extremely fun and so easy to pick up and play, it definitely fits the bill of being a "casual" game.

Previously I put PopCap games like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies in the category of "Casual". You know the type: games that you could play sat on the toilet as well as laying in bed or sat at the computer...although don't mix those up, my wife doesn't appreciate it when I go to the toilet while laying in bed playing PvZ...

I digress though. This review will follow in GDT's footsteps - being easy, quick and simple.

The premise of the game is that you are a lone games developer in the 80's in your garage just as the gaming market is about to get massive. You have to work out (to start with) 4 things about your game - Title, Topic, Genre and Platform. The title is free text, so call it what you want; the topic is things like Government, Airplane, Zombies etc; the genre is things like Action, RPG, Simulation etc and platform is what the game will be developed for. Now you then need to strike the right balance of how the game will be developed such as it's graphics, sound, engine, dialogue, world design etc and how much emphasis will go towards each area. Some games are more suited to different areas and it can take a little while to work out what areas each type of game needs more love in. The easiest way though, think about what you like in games of certain genres and go with that.

After a while, if you get enough moolah, then you can move out of your dingy garage and move into a fully fledged cool office and even hire extra staff to help make your games the awesome things you want them to be.

You can research new game topics, create your own engines and conduct staff training for yourself as well as any staff you might employ - this might cost a bit sometimes, but it'll be worth it in the end. You also have interesting moral choices to make from time to time, such as what action to take on fans of your games creating unofficial content - you can leave them alone, or sue them for example. I personally left them alone, because a lot of great spin-off games from fans in the past - look at Counter-Strike as possibly the most successful one!

The game itself is ridiculously easy to learn to play, which bodes well for me, being a father of 4 with a small window of "me time" to commit to new games!! I've yet to delve incredibly deep into the game, but felt real excitement when my Movies/Simulation game for the PC "Movie Director" took off with 10/10 reviews earning me close to 2 million smackaroos while working in the garage! It meant I could expand!!!

Anyway, I'm going to leave this review there, because time spent writing this could be time spent playing the game itself for gawdsake! Go check it out and visit their website (linked at the top of the post) for more information!

Trust me on this though, it's a game that gets more interesting the further you delve into it!

Until next time...

Toolbox24

MonkeyBoxGaming on Steam

At last MonkeyBoxGaming (MBG) is now on Steam. At present we are mainly playing L4D2 and GTA:IV (as well as EFLC) and we will be branching out soon to be playing Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 on Origin on PC.

You never know, if we find you on PC, and we really like you - I mean like actually like you...then you could be asked to join the founding fathers of MBG.

Anyway, that's it for now. There's not much on there but feel free to visit at:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/monkeyboxgaming

More to come from the MonkeyBox...this is a new dawn...