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Monster Prom (PC) | Review

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Meghan Kass

Ah, prom; its a time for excitement, a time for bonding with your fellow classmates and a time for anxiety. This can be especially true if you happen to be a monster! What is a monster to do about finding a date for the big event? Well, that is where you, the player, come in. Monster Prom, brought to you by Those Awesome Guys and Beautiful Glitch, puts you, and if desired, your friends in the position of a young monster looking for their last minute date for prom! Can you whoo the monster of your dreams? or will your future be bleak and horrific? Which one of your friends can be successful at finding love?

As stated above, Monster Prom is both a single player dating sim and a multiplayer competitive dating sim. How did Beautiful Glitch make a dating sim competitive you may ask? Well that is one of the things that make this game one of a kind. First, let’s go over the general gameplay

There are three times you perform actions in the game per day. In the morning you choose a class to attend (or maybe you choose to party or skip class if you’re really a rebel); at noon you decide where to sit at lunch and in the evening once again you choose a class or to goof off. Depending on the classes you pick in the morning and evening, you can raise one of your character’s stats. You can also choose to go to the shop and buy an item to help increase a stat. These stats include Smarts, Charm, Money, Fun, Boldness and Creativity. These will help you be desirable to one of the games wonderful bachelors or bachelorettes. Some events will also help you bond with certain monsters, but if you make the wrong choices interacting with them, it could drive them away from you.  Over the course of a number of weeks, depending on if you want to play the short or long version of the game, you must increase the right stats and make the right choices to get your dream date.

Multiplayer comes into play by allowing opposing players to affect certain players standings with certain monsters. You can also block opposing players from going to classes that you see will raise a stat they are trying to raise. You also have a chance to steal first player by playing a short debate game where you are asked to name something like an object, movie or even brand and then are asked a question such as “which object would be the strangest to use as a sex toy?” and the winner of the debate would take first player. If no conclusion can be reached, you can also click the “random” button to randomly select a first player.

After some time of going back and forth, you then each decide who to ask on a date. The winner is the one who successfully gets the date or its a tie if both or neither do.

 

So, the most important part of any dating sim are the eligible dates. So, how are the options? Well, its best if you don’t take these characters too seriously. The dates are played in a very tongue and cheek manner. You have Liam, the hipster vampire for instance, who is a very hyperbolic example of the hipster trope and only cares about irony, art and food photography. You also have Polly, the ghost who is the “afterlife” of the party and does copious amounts of drugs and only wants to have fun. Miranda is a Princess with a slightly sadistic streak to her when it concerns her enemies and commoners who is a clear play on Disney princesses. There is the werewolf Scott who is a real puppy of a sweetheart and the dumb athlete stereotype which was meant to be a joke on the movie Teen Wolf. You can chose Damien LeVay, the touch anti authority demon who pulls no punches and always ready to fight. Vera is the eligible gorgon who is all about good business and money.

None of these characters is particularly more than their tropes. This game is very light hearted and silly and really, I suggest playing through all the characters just to enjoy all the writing and humor. I did not feel connected strongly to any of the characters, but the banter and situations kept me interested. I actually found myself more interested in the outcast characters (the ones who you can not chose to date until you meet certain conditions) like the witch coven, the shopkeeper or the slayer than my first potential dates.

Overall, Monster Prom is a very fun time with cute art, fun gameplay, amusing writing and just over all a silly short game to enjoy by yourself or with friends. If you’re looking for something different, pick this up and enjoy the monster mash.

 

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Diner Duo | REVIEW

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Meghan Kass

So far, in it’s short existence, the Vive has had an interesting selection of games. These games range from literally nauseating to impressive, but most have the feeling as a tech demo at this point. Many Vive games have a lot of style and gimmicks, but lack in actual gameplay or even fun for a stretch of times. While the horror genre and arcade style games have shown us some virtual reality gems, what are other some other types of games that are worth the time and money that the Vive or, any VR system require? One of the more fun games I have played for the Vive recently is one called Diner Duo.

Diner Duo is an asymmetrical multiplayer game by publisher, Whirlybird Games. The game’s concept is simple; you and your partner are running a diner and have to keep the customers happy and served the correct food and drink in a timely manner. You achieve this by having one person, using the VR headset, be the cook and the other person using a traditional keyboard and PC controls running around the diner, taking orders and serving food and drink. The game closely resembles a two player Diner Dash in both its concept and mechanics if you are playing as the server and loosely resembled the chef level of Job Simulator if you are the cook. You can unlock hats and other cosmetic customization. If you don’t have or want to play with a partner, there is also a single player mode where you can see if you have what it takes to be the top chef.

I played single player and played the multiplayer with a partner and see if we had what it took to run a restaurant. As the chef, the controls were slightly clumsy and I tended to drop my fair share of food and it would occasionally take two or more attempt to grab the item I wanted.I also found it wasn’t obvious how to initiate some options, such as scaling the kitchen for the chef, but that didn’t inhibit the gameplay and could eventually be learned. I also noticed the table would knock ingredients out of your hands or the knife would get stuck while trying to cut cucumbers. While annoying, these quirks were not enough to stop playing and didn’t stop the fun.

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As the server, I found the gameplay to be smooth for the most part and fun. As someone who has played Diner Dash type games in the past, this was more of the same. It took a minute or two to get the hang of the controls, but once I did, the levels flew by and a rhythm was established and I found myself loudly, but efficiently communicating with my chef and making sure to keep customers happy with plenty of pie during more chaotic times. The only hiccup I experienced as server was that during more rushed and advanced levels, if I wasn’t paying attention, it would be very easy to pour the wrong drink or give the food to the wrong customer unintentionally, leaving a customer who had been waiting longer getting progressively angrier.

Overall, this game is best experienced in multiplayer mode and is a much needed addition to the VR collection. The world of VR can be a lonely one, so more asymmetrical games are not only welcomed, but necessary in a library full of arcade or horror games. This game may not be the most complex and it has no narrative, much like so many VR games, but the multiplayer aspect it brings and the fun that comes with it makes it worth the money.

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The Division is not off to a good start

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

The Division

It seems no company can launch a game these days with out headlines proclaiming that the game is not doing well. The Division, the new, much hyped, MMORPG shooter, from Ubisoft has fallen prey to the problems of  so many other massive multiplayer games before it. It appears that the games servers collapsed under the weight of the good ole USA’s player base. In case you missed it (or were sleeping like me) The division launched on Australian midnight last night, allowing players world wide to play at that time.

Players who woke up expecting to be able to log in and get an early start on the game found themselves confronted by errors ‘Romeo’ and ‘Sierra’. Which seems to mean that the game client was unable to reach the servers. Ubisoft sent out this tweet at 2AM

Fortunatly service was restored by the time of that tweet. There is rampant speculation that the error was server overload, but it seems unlikely and a post on the official Ubisoft forums seems to point to  “Ubisoft Services Degradation” as the issue. Perhaps they simply underestimated the number of players that wanted to get in to the game. That seems odd considering that “More than 6.4 million players apparently participated in The Division Beta” according to Ubisoft themselves. It seems like they ought to have prepared for this, but perhaps it was simple underestimation of demand. Service is now restored, and players are happily killing the cleaners and ganking each other in the darkzone.

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Everything you need to know about Halo 5 multiplayer

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Halo 5 is just 10 days away (review copies are allready out and if you want to see the first part of the campaign its on the web) and 343 are starting to give out massive details on the games multiplayer. New news today includes the games ban policy, a list of medals, the skill matching system and more!

First is a question many players have been asking since day 1, what about the ban system? 343 will track the following in a effort to make bans fair and effective

  • Quitting matches
  • Betrayals or team killing
  • Idling (AFK)
  • Intentional suicides
  • Excessive disconnects

The post details a system of temporary bans that will be metered out to players who engage in these toxic behaviors. This is the first time any Halo game has had this type of system and I for one am extremely great full. The blog post goes on to say “The duration of each ban is dependent on the offense and becomes more severe with each successive infraction, so continually killing your teammates to steal the Sniper Rifle will quickly lead to long time-out from matchmade play,” This is similar to systems that exist in other games with more toxic communities, and will in my opinion bring some much-needed law to the games multiplayer.

Other major announced details include

  • You will never join a match in progress except for warzone (30+ minute games need some drop in)
  • Competitive Skill ranking is in the game. Like most current multiplayer focused games, Halo 5 will make you play a series of placement matches when first going online, these will determine your ranking which will go up and down based on the seven color ranks in the game (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx, and Champion. See the blog post here for full details.)
  • The match making algorithm will prioritize “quality above all else” what this means is un-known., but it is speculated that it means it will try to find people in your same exact rank before matching you with better or worse player.
  • There will be seasons

The top two ranks will work much differently than the bottom 5, the blog post says

“Once you reach Onyx, you will be shown your raw CSR score,” 343 said. “Winning no longer increases your tier–it instead increases your CSR score. This allows you to compare yourself with greater precision to other players within the Onyx rank. If you establish yourself as one of the top 200 players in a playlist, you will earn the highly coveted rank of Champion and be shown your place within the top 200.”

this is similar to how other ELO systems work, expect this top tier to be mostly occupied by professional Halo players, with a few lucky (and skillful) folks also competing.
Check out the ranks emblems in the gallery below.

Commendations are also making a return, the will work about the same way as they did in Halo 5, primarily there to drive up your EXP in a fun, quest like way. There will a total of 5 tiers and each will reward with different amounts of EXP

“Every tier of a commendation rewards XP,” the blog post said. “Completing tier 3 of a commendation rewards a bonus REQ Pack with boosts and other single-use REQs. The 5th tier of every commendation unlocks a pack containing a specific emblem. This allows a player to flaunt their reward and let everyone know via that emblem and the corresponding back plate that they have put the time in and had the skill required to finish the commendation.”

Medals will also be making their return (this should surprise no one). They will be changed a little but as they will now be focused more on earning req points, and highlighting incredible feats, or helping with objectives (no more double kill medals?). 343 said they wanted to “preserve the classic feel of the legacy medals while giving all of our Medals a fresh new look.” Take a look at some of the new designs the full is available in the blog here. Halo 5 releases on October 27th and is available for pre-load now.

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Call of Duty Black Ops II Multiplayer Reveal Trailer

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

There is so much to dissect from the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops I trailer it’s insane. In just two minutes and seventeen seconds Activision shows us several weapons and tools of destructions. If you’re a fan of unmanned vehicles and gunships, there are tons of those. There are even a few up close and personal options I can’t wait to try like the stun-gun like proximity grenade shown at the begining of the trailer or the throwing knives shown at the end.

We’ll hopefully be able to dissect the entire trailer later on in the day. Until then check out the Multiplayer Reveal trailer below.

Blacks Ops II ships out on November 13th 2012.

[youtube id=”Dre21lBu2zU” width=”600″ height=”350″]

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Halo 4’s Multiplayer Includes Co-Op & Custom Loadouts

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Following on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that Halo 4 would be launching on November 6th Microsoft have announced some brand new details surrounding the games multiplayer mode. These majority of these details come from a GameInformer ViDoc released to promote the latest edition of the magazine. Other supposed details surrounding the multiplayer also leaked out last week.

The multiplayer suite of Halo 4 could offer a radically different experience from previous Halo games depending on how far reaching 343 Industries’ changes are.Read More

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