Dawn of War II is the sequel to the first one, obviously. Despite its status it doesn’t really feel like a sequel, mostly due to the fact that it has been revamped a lot. Most RTS elements have been stripped, and replaced with squad based-RPG ones. While this change is refreshing, I really missed the base-building and resource collecting from the first game. Naturally, Relic has, in my opinion, done a good job to revamp the series with this new game, and I heartily welcome the changes it’s implemented.

First off, you’re no longer able to build bases or collect resources, as I previously mentioned. Instead, you have a main headquarters from where you deploy various troops on the battlefield. The game, as it claims, strives to bring us the front-line battle feeling, and in doing so, added several elements to enhance this fact. Warcraft III players will be familiar to this change, specifically, adding the ability to equip various weapons, armor and accessories to boost the abilities of the commander of your squad. Furthermore, you get to level up your commanders (and in the campaign, specific squad leaders) and add wargear collected to them. They have several abilities, usable and passive, that are able to be deployed on the battlefield, some more powerful than the others, and some that can change the course of battle.

Second, the campaign in the game is story-driven, meaning that you don’t have to pointlessly go around the galaxy and capture territories  just for the sake of ultimate conquest, in stead, here you fight as a Space Marine from the Blood Ravens chapter (order), and you are faced with several imminent threats across 3 different planets in a solar system (sub-sector). The Orks, that are causing havoc across the planets. Then there are the Eldar, that are mischievously scheming for an unknown purpose. Then there’s the greatest of them all: the Tyranids. Aliens from outside the galactic ring, that devour entire planets so they can grow. Not much is known about them, only the fact that they want to devour you and your planet. As a veteran of multiple wars, it is your duty to defend sub-sector Aurelia (the solar system you’re defending) from all these threats with only a handful of Space Marines to aid you. Are you up to the challenge?

While some missions in the campaign are repetitive, boss battles at the end of each mission provide a different flavor and a twist to all your missions, and I welcomed them heartily. I do love a challenge. You’ll find that different tactics are required for each mission, as the mobs that lurk in that are differently equipped or in greater numbers each time. There are also optional missions available to enhance your wargear, and some of them have time limits. You won’t be able to complete all of them, so choose wisely. During the campaign, you are provided with 5 different squads to choose from. They are unlocked as you progress, and each of them have different abilities. You can only deploy 3 in a mission to aid you, and as I previously mentioned, you might have need for all of them so its best to equip all of them regardless if you’re gonna use them in the future or not. You’ll never know. There are different categories of  traits in which you can spend leveling points, gained by leveling up, which is gained by experience, which in turn is gained by killing stuff or accomplishing missions. Each category of skills provide different abilities, as you progress through the tier. You won’t be able to invest in to all so you better watch out in what you invest. On top of all this, there’s a ranking system in the campaign which determines you current rank, which in turn is determined by how you progressed throughout your campaign. Complete missions faster, kill as many enemies as possible, lose as few squad members as possible, and you’ll gain points that determine your level. You can view your current statistics before any mission. While this rank doesn’t affect you in any way, it’s purely for your sense of accomplishment, if you have any. The campaign is fun and a refreshing experience from the boring one found in the prequels. Depending on your difficulty level, I completed it in 8 hours on medium difficulty.

Once you completed the campaign, you can play skirmish modes either online or in singe player. To do so online you need to register for Windows Live. In any case, in skirmish you’re only limited to 4 races: Human Space Marines, Orks, Eldar and Tyranid. Each have their own tactics to master, and in turn, each have 3 different heroes to choose from: assault, stealth or support. But they also vary for each race. Whats disappointing is the lack of emphasis both in single player and in multiplayer skirmishes, due to the fact that there only are 7 maps to choose from, 3 of them are 1v1 and the rest are 3v3. Furthermore, you only have 2 game modes to choose from: annihilation, where you need to destroy the enemies’ HQ(s), and Victory Point Control, where you need to control a certain amount of points until you gain enough resources to win the battle. In skirmish modes, your resources are determined by strategic points, and energy generators. Both are required to deploy units and buy upgrades. On top of that, there is a faction-specific resources determined by the amount of enemies you have killed, such as WAAAAAGH!! or Zeal. Nevertheless, skirmishes are fun especially on multiplayer.

Overall, the campaign might bore you sometimes due to its repetitive missions, and the lack of variation in skirmishes can be a letdown. But ignoring those two, Dawn of War II is a great game and I will want to get my hands on Chaos Rising that is gonna be released soon.

- Leetgamer

My biggest pain is snipers. Now I love to snipe and even more so when they are at a distance and I actually can. Now in all games, you want the fluid movement of any scoped gun. But my .50 cal sniper rifle is another story. I was trying to take 1 guy on a turret and all I got was the metal on either side of his face. Why? My gun had to points on either side of his head. I couldn’t move the sniper right onto his head because of the points that the scope goes to. And if in close quarters, don’t even think about quick scoping. Your screen wobbles too much with the amount of rockets and grenades that the opposing faction tends to use.

Now in the terms of explosives. I survived so many of them I stopped caring. In CoD6, if you didn’t move, you died. In this, I didn’t care. Grenade lands at my feet, meh, I’ll survive. Rockets are pretty much the same except there is a pretty shitty explosion sound. Now granted that I was playing on Easy as I did with CoD6 and this game is easy as anything. Now But then again, the explosive power should really be expected from some crappy paramilitary group.

Ohh yea, that’s right this paramilitary group is hired by a Russian. Still no reason for them to hack. Seriously, they can see me when I can’t see them. They are also very rocket happy. Seriously, too many rockets is a bad thing.

The last thing I have to really complain about is the endgame. Running through an airplane with a shotgun really isn’t giving anyone else a chance. Not to mention that you blow up the entrance to the bad guys hide out and then all jump out of the plane. The end boss fight doesn’t even exist. It’s just jump out of the plane and shoot him twice and he is dead. Come on. Then the final video tells you that you didn’t stop the Russian invasion because they are already in bloody Alaska. Like seriously? Who attacks from Alaska, then you have to deal with Canada and its all to take out the US? Now the end video is where the game really wears out its welcome because you think that your gonna go and attack another few waves of Russians just to finish the game but no. The game just ends leaving it open for a sequel.

Hopefully the sequel or a patch or expansion fixes this crap.

–Everlast118

There are lots more articles to come, and with your help, we can make this blog better. That is why I encourage sending us feedback.

As a token of my gratitude towards the readers, I shall be giving out 50 BETA KEYS FOR HEROES OF NEWERTH, along with my thanks towards the S2 games team for providing me with them. Head over to this page, and contact me. I shall announce when the keys have been depleted.

Once again, thank you all for remaining loyal to us, and I hope you shall be sticking around this year as well for another round!

Comments posted on this article asking for a HoN key will be ignored. Please use the aforementioned page to contact me.

The game takes place in a futuristic future world that is heavily under video cameras at all times. Everything is watched over which means also information going between people etc.
In order to get a message from Point A to B this world have “Runners”. It’s humans who specialize in the art of Parkour. For those of you don’t know what it is, it’s a kind of sport where you have to get from A to B as fast a possible where nothing is an obstacle. That means if a building is in your way you find a way to climb it. If a fence is in your way you find a way to get over it etc. Same rules applies in this game as you have to deliver messages for higher-ups in paper form. The problem is that you are hunted by surveillance groups that will try to take your messages so they wont make it to those who needs them.

You know close combat moves that have to be used in Quick-Time event style which means you have to press the right buttons at the right time or you will die. You don’t have that much HP but again you can’t see anything regarding your HP at all. It’s a very plain HUD (Heads-up Display) which have no elements at all. You see your hands, arms, torso and legs if you look around. All of the things you would normally be able to see on a person from your own view are visible which adds a very nice and realistic Gameplay when you do Hand-to-Hand combat with your enemies.
But you also get the feeling of the person running because the camera is also moving with the characters eyes.
When you run you don’t look straight ahead like in other games such a Half-Life 2 or the likes, if you jump or run fast or fights your camera is affected too!
Your name is Faith and you are a runner with a few others taking orders from someone you don’t see personally but hear over a microphone a lot of the time. You have a sister that works in the police and someone tries to frame her for a murder she didn’t do.
Your job is to try and find out why she is framed and also about all the corruption that truly is going on in the city.

The game starts out with a tutorial where you do some exercise with a girlfriend. She “refreshes” your training in how to get around and fight as well. Of course your character already know these things but as person don’t. You cannot skip this tutorial unless you have already been through it and saved the game which is annoying.

Another part that can be very annoying is that you have to be perfect when you do stuff. Else you have to do them over. I’ve been on several jumps where I had to take that single jump over about 30-40 times because I fell down and died or just didn’t do it the right way. It can get tiring in the long run but you in most cases you get used to it.
Another thing is that you can only choose 1 route from A to B. You cannot customize it by running other ways if you wanted too which is a shame since parkour is really about the ability to move freely.

The good things are that you are guided when you get close to things.
The whole game is made in a “Manga” kind of way, since it’s drawn graphics like we’ve seen with many, many Dragonball games up in the years. But it’s still very nicely done. The buildings around you are usually just plain white and it helps you as if you get close to something you can interact with, like a pole or a fence or whatsoever, it will light up in a strong red color so you will not be in doubt.

This picture above is of a kick that have just been performed and is about to send the guard over the edge so he will eventually fall down and die. The cutscenes in between are animated cartoons.

I played this on the Xbox 360 and tried it on the PC too. This should definitely be played on a console rather than a PC because it’s easier to control. It’s worth a try as you can really feel the action flow as you go. It’s fast paced but you have to be very precise which is close to near perfectionist in this case.

This is the trailer that EA Games released for the game. It is made with in-game Graphics.

I hope you might enjoy this game as much as I did when I played it.

- GirlGamer360

First of all, this game is about 8 months old at the time of writing this review and I still see it as an epic game for the some of the really cool game effects and style of gameplay itself. But be careful as this is not a game for little kids. It is a very violent game and is quite graphic about that as well.

Now this game is based in New York with a very common story. Zombie Invasion. I mean all games that are “zombie invasion” games are basing themselves around a very common point of there is an infectious disease/virus running around that is generally curable but only with a huge nuclear explosion. And thats what is supposed to happen here too. But I can’t give any real spoilers out now can I?

You run around as Alex Mercer, a man who finds himself in a morgue at the very start of the game and without any memory of how he got there. Your job is to find out what happened and why you are still alive, when there are so many obvious points where you should have died. As Alex Mercer, you have some pretty strange but awesome powers, like morphing into the last consumed human as well as making your arms into a variety of different weapons.

One thing is that the majority of the missions are easy as buttering toast, while others prove quite a challenge. I had to get a walkthrough just to do 1 mission, it was just that difficult. But there are many missions are just go kill this guy or consume him, get here and gather, and these missions you can do with your hands tied behind your back for the most part.

One of the better aspects of the game is the ability to free-roam. You can run just about anywhere you want on the island of Manhattan and kill as many enemies as you want. Blow up as many hives/military bases and still not void the story line.

If you take a close look at the map, maybe not this one but any other, you can find a few icons that are green. These are side missions. While this game does have side missions, they are only really there to make the game last longer as you eventually don’t really need the EP (Evolution Points) that are earnt by them because you have the most powerful weapons/upgrades in the game.

Ohh yea, did I forget to mention the upgrades? Silly me. Yea, the first mission that you do is only to get a feel of how much power you are going to have at the end of the game but for the most part, you have to buy your powers with the EP mentioned before. Now these can vary from the HammerFist weapon, very useful on tanks might I add, to a speed increase while running around, granted that it probably won’t be used once you buy Glide.

Overall, this isn’t actually that bad an action game. There is a good amount of gameplay in this and it may take a while to beat it if you don’t get a walkthrough for some bits. In any case, have fun.

–Everlast118

Aion is a MMORPG, similar to World of Warcraft. The game is, as you will be able to see in some images I will show, beautiful in graphics, with a lot of Asian influence. The funny part of the graphics is that it’s build on an engine I think everybody knows. The CryEngine, previously used in for example the graphic piece of art, Crysis. The fact that a MMORPG is build on an engine like this is exciting cause usually MMORPG’s use engine’s primarily to present the old fashion vibe, it’s not meant to be mind splashing to watch, but to enjoy the game as it is supposed to be. Aion successfully mixed these two components into a MMORPG perfectly! Props for the Aion Team for this. The detail put in the game compared to other MMORPG’s is simply astonishing.

Aion in the game is a god that created the world Atreia, humans and the Balaur to protect these humans. The Balaur, led by the 5 strongest among them, entitled the Dragon Lords. however got obsessed with power, and domination. Their goal was to enslave the human race, so they began destroying everyone not submitting to them. The Balaur in the end would demand their own creator, Aion, the power of their desire, Aion however refused and created 12 Empyrean Lords to make a safe haven, the Tower of Eternity, containing all the energy of the world, where humans were able to seek shelter en repopulate the earth. In this process humans began ascending to higher being’s, called ”Daeva’s”. These Daeva’s had the ability to fight the Balaur, and thus, time went by and there were enough Daeva’s to create an army to fight off the Balaur and take back their world. This war went on endlessly, until one of the Empyrean lords, Israphel, also one of the two Guardians of the Tower proposed the concept of peace towards the other Lords. 5 of the Empyrean Lords, led by Azphel disagreed, however the second tower guardian, Siel, agreed to this offering, and the decision was sealed. The 5 Dragon Lords were invited into the Tower to speak about the peace offering. However, as soon as the Dragon Lords entered the tower, one was swiftly killed by one of the Empyrean Lords, the dragon lords responded by destroying the tower, destroying Atreia as it was known. Atreia was split into two parts, Elysea and Asmodae. The Empyrean Lords were forced to give their life energy to make sure these two pieces would not end up floating away in space. 10 of the original 12 survived, the 5 opposing peace, now called the Shedim Lords moved to Asmodae, the upper part of the world, the part where there is only darkness and no sun. The other 5 went to Elysea, under the name of the Seraphim Lords.

Who are you?

You are able to choose between being a Asmodian, or an Elyos. The Elyos are regular humans, gifted with beauty, considering their constant exposure to light. The Asmodians however, adapted to the situation, their constant fight with beasts gave them claws, the absence of light made their eyes glow red, and the weather was constantly cold, adapting them, giving them some sort of furry mane on their back for warmth. In this whole story you can consider Elyos being the good guys, and the Asmodians the bad guys, however they simply fight for what they believe. You are to choose on of the core classes; Scout, Priest, Mage and Warrior. All of these classes give you an insider on the start, however as soon as you hit level 10 you will be able to choose your actual class. The Scout will be able to choose between being an Assassin or a Ranger. The Priest will be able to choose between a Cleric or a Chanter. The Mage will be able to choose between a Sorcerer or a Spiritmaster. The Warrior will be able to choose between a Gladiator or a Templar. These Classes seem pretty straight forward, but for those wanting more info on these classes, I’ll sum it up briefly;

The Ranger will be able to pretty much use any weapon, but their skills are based on bows, there are some skills requiring swords however. The Ranger can auto-attack with arrows while moving, meaning you can kite mobs very well, however this does not make you some sort of untouchable being, you will be hit very hard by any attack to balance it out.

The Assassin is pretty much what it says it is, you’re using two blades to kill your opponents, while lurking in the shadows, pretty much what every game’s version of an assassin allows you to do.

The Cleric is pretty much the healer in the whole game, your spells are focussed on healing, and this is what you will be needing to do, as your damaging spells are lesser compared to the other classes, the Cleric is however the most wanted class in the game, giving you a nice advantage if choosing one.

The Chanter is a mix of a Cleric and something people like, a buffer. You’ll be able to give your party and yourself stunning buffs increasing all kinds of stats, but also to heal, however your heals will be lesser compared to the Cleric, as your buffs do most work, this is a much wanted class to have in your party too.

The Gladiator is simply a melee combatant, you’ll be fighting with large two-handed weapons like Axes, Swords and Pikes, in order to deal heavy damage. Foe’s are going to hit you pretty hard too, however, as you are constantly within their melee/casting range if you want to attack them.

The Templar is a tank, whom simply has a lot of health, and can take on several mobs at a time with his protective abilities, however your damage is very lesser compared to other damage dealing classes, as you are supposed to take NPC attention (aggro) so the DPS can go all out. The Templar is most probably the most wanted class in the game, as there aren’t many templars.

Another very nice feature is the Abyss, this is a hell-ish kind of place, where basically all the wizznits happen, you will be able to fight the Elyos/Asmodian here, where the actual winged PvP is finally introduced, here you will be able to fly into the air using your wings to position yourself in the sky, and using it in combat, there are occasions in PvE to use this too. And let me tell you this, this is AWESOME.

The story behind these classes will be that you are on of the ascended Daeva’s, a great fallen warrior of your side’s army, along these quests you will see your past. You will be aiming to get to the level cap of level 50. This by questing, farming and all these things. Along the way you’re going to build up your skill system, which is based on chains, meaning you need to cast [Spell X] to cast [Spell Y] followed by [Spell Z], however there are skills without chains too, meaning you can just work out your own routine. Apart from this, the character customization is very enhanced too, you will be able to choose between 33 male haircuts and 32 female ones, you’re able to change the weight, height, scale of just about anything. There are some easter eggs involved in the character customization too, have a quick look at David Beckham Aion style for example:

Summing this up, Aion is a great game, the only disappointment is how fluently the switching from casting a spell to walking works, but this is just a matter of opinion if you ask me.

Aion official trailer:

So tell me bloggers, what kind of person are you? Asmodian or Elyos?

Signed,

The name is Wilmar, I’m a dutch student, thus living in The Netherlands.
I’ll be blogging some reviews on games, but since the goal of the blog is to grow into a recognized one I will be focussing on introducing vlogs about games too (Video reviews and such.). These vlogs will give you a insider on the content, not only from words or pictures, but with motion. I think you bloggers will like that! Besides only vlogging I will ofcourse submit information on the subject, along with pictures and anything alike. My reviews will range to pretty much all game genre’s, from MMORPG’s to FPS, RTS and all those things.

Apart from this I’ll just give you some personal information.
The name might be confusing, as ”Wilma” is a female name, however I’m a guy. I like to blog, game and all those things, I listen to most music genre’s, but mostly Drum & Bass and Psy-Trance. Favourite bands being Infected Mushroom, Pendulum and Black Sun Empire.

I hope you’ll enjoy the blogs, vlogs and reviews I’ll be making for Leet Gamer Blog!

Don’t forget to tell your friends, family, grandparents and that bully in your class about the blog, expanding means more reviews, more reviews means more inside information!

Friendly greetings,

My name is Kris and I come from the land down under.

I love to play a lot of various gameplay styles so you will see a bit of me around the place. Mostly though, I’m into FPS and MMORPG games. But I also play a few RTS games as well. As for the other gamestyles, who cares about them? But I will however make reviews and the likes to any requests.

I’ve been playing video games for quite a while. Easily a few years and will be posting bits and pieces from my experiences with those games pretty soon.

-Everlast118

Dead Space is not a game for those who gets scared easy.
It’s a game made for those who loves to creep around in cities like Ravenholm from Half-Life 2. It’s the kind of game you have to play in the evening, or in a room engulfed in darkness to get the right atmosphere and feeling.

You are an engineer named Isaac Clarke in the 26th Century. You were out on a mining mission on another planet, but a unit sends a distress signal to the ship you are on  and you are sent on a little ship to check it out.
As you get there you get  a brief description of what has happened and that you are about to dock on the ship that sent the signal. Right before docking the ship malfunctions and you land on the ship who sent the signal.
You are now forced to follow your other crew members into the ship and find another way to get back to your own ship.

As you venture inside you meet aliens that attacks and kills almost all of the crew except you, a person named Hammond and  a person named Daniels. Hammond finds out that most of the ships systems are failing due to a nearby asteroid belt and you will be sent out on various missions around the ship to fix the core systems, so that you can survive.

The game is a 3rd person horror shooter and is very well made. The game turns you into a one man army pretty fast as you hack and slash your way through the aliens. It’s kinda like a space version of Half-life 2. Just with a lot of horror and survival rather than saving the world from head crabs. You play the game in chapters as every time you have fixed a part of the ship, then you get access to new parts because you make an internal transporter work.
You will often get into situations where you get into Quicktime events. This is not a new concept as it’s been seen before. But sometimes aliens can come from behind or front and surprise you which means you have to think quickly and press the right buttons. A good example on the picture below. Nasty stuff…

As you play upgrades will come up in a shop like in Ratchet and Clank at different waypoints. It adds an RPG feeling to the game and is also a very nice element to add so that you can improve your chances for survival. You don’t only upgrade your suit. You can also upgrade your weapons to be faster at reloading, have room for more rounds, make the single bullets stronger etc. It’s up to you what bonuses you want to go for in their upgrade system.

A bad thing about this game is that you can’t save it when you want to. You have to find save points and which often means that you have to run back from where you were which can become irritating at times. There are certain surprise elements such as long octupus-like arms coming out from small holes in the walls that will grab you by the angle and drag you by the floor until you either manage to shoot the arm so it lets go of you, or you get crushed at the wall.
The game also have “tankers” that you might recognise from the L4D series, but these are of course made a lot better.

Dead Space Upgrading System

I played this game on the Xbox and it is very nice graphic-wise.  You see the blood stains everywhere, you see all the small dust particles flying around in the areas with oxygen and so on.
They did put a lot of effort into the atmosphere and small details to really make you feel like you were on an abandoned ship out in space where you have no one to rely on than Hammond and Daniels which will turn into aliens themselves because they weren’t careful enough of course.

There is also a few strange scenarios where you see a woman who the player doesn’t know but apparently the character knows her since the woman knows you. My theory is that it’s either an old partner, or his girlfriend/wife at home. Wherever that might be!

It is possible to download some things for the game like skins and all the strongest weapons and suits so you don’t have to play for it, but else there isn’t much DLC for this game.

Dead Space is a pretty scary game, and definitely got the “spook house atmosphere” around it. I would say that it is worth a try if you have a strong computer or just an Xbox/PS3 and loves adrenaline kicks (Who doesn’t!).

- GirlGamer360

As in most quality RPGs you will have to make a handful of tough decisions, which can affect the game severely, so it’s always best to make save games at such moments. The voice acting is superb, you might recognize some actors such as Tim Curry, and most importantly, they aren’t cheesy or anti-climatic. Side-quests are rewarding, and most importantly, fun to do. They aren’t your average ‘go there kill those and pick up x loot from them’ or simply ‘kill 20 of those’ quests, they’re varied and you can approach them in different manners.

On top of everything, you can unlock achievements, screenshots are automatically taken in important moments, you can share your character profile online and brag about ‘em hard-earned feats!

Overall, I would say that Dragon Age really is a game that you won’t forget soon. I certainly enjoyed playing it and can’t wait for its expansion, and will play through it again until it comes out. The main reason I chose Dragon Age over Mass Effect is because I loved medieval-themed RPGs more than futuristic ones.