Παρασκευή 30 Αυγούστου 2013

Cryostasis Review (PC)

Genre: Survival Horror/FPS
Developer: Action Forms
Publisher: 505 Games
Release Year: 2009
System: PC

This is gonna be a controversial review of a really deep yet simple game. I got u confused maybe? Well what i mean is that Cryostasis is a survival horror game with the classic gameplay but the story is its most attractive feature. Along the years we have seen many horror games but cryostasis is one that worth a gamer's attention because is a combination of X-Files, The Thing, The Thaw etc. You ll get my drift after reading the following review. Enjoy! 

PLOT: 9.5/10

You play as Alexander Nesterov, a meteorologist that investigates the nuclear ice-breaker "North Wind", using your unique ability "mental echo" that grants you the power to witness and influence the final moments of the dead. Really soon in the game will discover that you are not alone on the wrecked steell creature but something has disfigured and returned to life the members of the crew. As you work your way through the game you will see as flashbacks the captain of the ship and learn step by step its history. Cryostasis is a dramatic story about a captain his ship and his crew. The rest its up to you to discover!

GAMEPLAY: 7.5/10

Cryostasis' gameplay is really simple and quite known to almost any fps/pc gamer. You move Nesterov with W,A,S,D, jump with SPACE, duck with CTRL, run with SHIFT, turn on/off the flashlight with F, and interact with the environment with the RIGHT CLICK. When Nesterov is in combat more the right click serves as block. You can hit with simple punches by left clicking but you can also perform combo attacks by simultaneously pressing two of the navigation buttons and left click. At the beggining you fight just with ur firsts or with whatever u find around u such as chains, and later on in the game u can be equipped with a whole arsenal including tommy guns and riffles! 

The gameplay is as simple as it can be, you navigate through narrow corridors with frozen walls, click to open doors, or click on switches to unfreeze doors. The really attractive element about its gameplay is the "mental echo" mentioned above. Nesterov during his investigation comes across with several bodies and with his unique ability he can relive their final moments and eventually save them. To the lower left corner of the screen there is the temperature indicator along with a stamina indicator. In Cryostasis ur temperature is ur health so instead of meat, pills, potions or first aid kits u use sources of light to stay alive. Thats another one new and clever element! By pressing the ESC button u access the menu of the game where there are the classic choices such as save/load game, options, continue and the Diary option. In the diary he collects every paper he finds on the ship. Note that during the "mental echo" u can't save so u ve got to complete it or lose in order to be able to save! 

ATMOSPHERE/MUSIC: 8.5/10

Hmmm... well this is one of the strongest aspects of Cryostasis. Claustrophobic, lonely, icy cold, and helpless. These are some of the things that each gamer should feel when wandering through the narrow corridors of the "North Wind". The designers made a really good job at the claustrophobic part (u really feel that u can only fit in there and no one else). They designed the ship based on the designs of a real russian ice-breaker. That alone is enough and makes the game is a pretty realistic frightening experience. Throughout the game u can hear the heavy breathing of Nesterov, footstep, water flowing and metal clanging and of course the monsters roaring around  giving u that many reasons for heartattacks that u wont find elsewhere! A real ominous soundtrack can be hear in the main menu as well. 

GRAPHICS: 9/10

Cryostasis's graphics are quite impressive dark yet clear and simple. They give the impression that the gamer is trapped in the ice-breaker himself. There is also that nice visual effect at the screen edges that resembles that even the screen is frozen. Its noteworthy that the game is the first to make use of the Nvidia PhysX real time water physics as displayed in a tech demo of the game engine! 

OVERALL: 8.6/10

In a few words u can call Cryostasis a master piece of its kind because it combines dramatic yet horrifying scenario with a simple and addictive gameplay dressed with realistic sound effects and ominous soundtrack. Its what every horror gamer is looking for so if u haven't played it yet give it a try without thinking it twice! 

Πέμπτη 29 Αυγούστου 2013

The Witcher 2 - How To Kill Endrega Queens (PC)

This mathafucka-arachnoid beast is surely a tough one especially if u are playing at normal or hard difficulty levels. If you attempt to kill it by melee attacks then the only thing u ll see is the game over screen again and again because only even 2 of her hits can be proven quite lethal! So, if ur level is between 5-9 then the only safe way to slay those beasts is the following: 

You have to constantly try to avoid any physical contact, so when it firstly appears unleash all of ur igni attacks on her and then retreat to repleanish ur signs and to see the Queen retreating herself as well. (try not to move away from her too much cos she will vanish and reappear maybe in full health!!) When ur signs are full again run towards her until the auto-target system targets her and when it does just unleash ur Igni signs once again and immediately retreat with "space" and roll away. Keep doing that and eventually the Endrega Queen will be history 

NOTE: You can also reduce her health by setting traps around but be carefull of the following glitch: When she falls into a trap she gets hit and the trap is disarmed. So the traps just waits for u to collect it or to arm it again. If u just leave it be there on the battlefield there are very high chances for ur Igni spells to get interrupted by the trap if it gets between Geralt and the Endrega Queen. (it happened to me resulting in "missing hits" and the Queen repleanishing her health). Good Luck! 

Adventure Games With Greek Subs (Ελληνικοί Υπότιτλοι)


Hello again dear gamers. Having very recently played Scratches in its greek version I started searching over the web for greek subbed games (adventures / point n' click mostly, dont anyone tell me about soccer games and shit likes this!!! We are talking about games here!!!) and i discovered that, unfortunately, very few games exist that have been subbed in greek (by downloading patches) or have been released with greek subs pack. I hope along the way i find even more than this tiny list presents and when i do I sure gonna update but for now these are the most known adventure games that have been subbed in greek (the sad thing though is that is extremely rare to find the ones that have been officially released in greek version such as Scratches) :

1. 1821 "Αγώνας Για Την Ελευθερία" (The Struggle For Freedom) (Icehole Games)
2. Atlantis III : The New World (Greek Edition)
3. Conspiracies
4. Conspiracies II
5. Drakensang Online (Greek Edition)
6. Grim Fandango (Greek Patch)
7. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (Greek Patch)
8. Loom (Greek Patch)
9. Monkey Island (Greek Patch)
10. Murder In The Abbey (Greek Edition)
11. Reprobates (Greek Edition)
12. Scratches (Greek Edition)
13. Select Quiz (Icehole Games)
14. WBM Tycoon (Icehole Games)

The Icehole Games is a greek development company and you can find the games for free downloading here : Icehole Games

To be continued (I hope so...)

Σάββατο 24 Αυγούστου 2013

How To Remove Stickers From Used Games

Hey Kupo!1UPers! I hope ur doing great and collecting more and more games. Well at least thats is what im trying to do but collecting games (especially used ones) is a bit risky. And the only reason is that u cant see the actual merchandise with ur own eyes. U only count to some pics and the seller's description (which most of the times are reliable). But what does it happen when you buy a used game online and its full of stickers?! DAMN! Thats a real pain in the ... *BEEP*! WHY U INFIDELS HAVE TO DAMAGE THOSE POOR LITTLE CREATURES U SAVAGE BEASTS?! Anyway ... when the stickers are on the plastic surface of the game then it's piece of cake. Some alcohol and a cotton bud can make it like new! But when it comes to stickers on paper surface on illustrated ones thats the hard part! But once again im here to give the solution to ur nerdy problem! 

What You Will Need:

1. A paper game cover with a damn sticker on it! 
2. A hair drier.











Process:

1. Firstly if u want u can scratch carefully the sticker in order to remove the bigger part of. Dont worry if the remains will be visble on the paper we will remove it in our next step

2. Then with the hair drier warm the reamins of the sticker in order to melt the remaining glue. 












3. Then just with ur nail with small and carefull movements scracth it and u ll be surprised with the easyness that it comes off! 












4. Finally ur game cover will look as if it was almost new! If u are patient enough u can finish off glue residue and you ll have a result almost like this! Have fun keeping ur games in mint condition! :)


Πέμπτη 8 Αυγούστου 2013

Scratches - Blue Screen Windows 7 (PC - Fixed)


Hiya, Whats up Kupo1UPers? I hope u leave in a cooler country than i do cos the temperature sitauation here doesnt allow me to use my pc too often?! Hmm i know ... thats a lame excuse for my so long absence but i guess u cant blame me trying huh? Well lets skip to the point. 

After 2 or 3 years and because of the lack of some decent adventure games nowadays i decided to install once again Scratches on my PC thats is using Windows 7. And once again i was completely frustrated. The installation was really quick but when  i tried to run the game a blue screen (of death) came up informing me that the pc will restart in order to prevent unwanted damage and then it rebooted... so, i thought it was irrelevant so i tried again but with no success. I tried also to run the game in Windows XP compatibility mode but i got the same blue screen ... (this was not happeneing in XP though).

So, i started googling the problem and after several tries i managed to run Scratches and enjoy its terrific atmosphere once again. Here are the steps so you wont have any trouble playing it (after installing the game).

1. From your desktop press Start and then type "notepad".
2. Right click on the notepad and select "Run as Administrator".


3. The notepad will open and then choose File and then "Open...".
4. Find the path where Scratches is installed - From the bottom right drop down menu select "All the files" and then all the files installed in Scratches folder will appear. Double click the "scream.cfg" file to open it with note pad.



5. There u can see the word rate and next to it the number "0" . You have simply to change the "0" to "60" just by deleting and retyping.


6. Save it and you are ready to go! That was it!