Game Review: Left 4 Dead 2

By Nydia Tungsten
Edited by: Brandi Tungsten

As the opening credits play, you see the first four survivors run through some of the levels you have to take them through, ending up with them climbing the stairs to get to the rescue chopper….that isn’t there for them.
So they have to fight their way to the Evac center, which of course is empty. Along the way, you will find there are stashes of ammo and weapons to help you keep armed for your journey, but they move from play to play, so it keeps you on your toes.

As you watch the video, you will see there are a lot of weapons to choose from, anything from a cricket bat all the way up to a grenade launcher and everything in between.

This is not a typical “Zombie apocalypse” game, this one has several “special” Zombies that can REALLY hurt as Bix and I have found out.

“Spitter” hawks a toxic loogey at you and burns you with its acid.

“Jockey”, this little back humper, jumps on the back of your hide and proceeds to ride your staggering form away from help.

“Charger”, okay this guy has one HUGE arm…( I will refrain from the obvious MJ jokes), he plows through you and picks you up and slams you into whatever is behind you then starts slamming you into the ground.

“Tank”, name saying it all, this bugger is HUGE and can rip up chunks of concrete to throw at you or just toss you around like a rag doll.

“Hunter”, now THIS little sneaky bugger likes to keep out of sight until he can pounce like 400lb fanboy at a comic con meeting sailor moon for the first time, but can be killed easily if you see him in time or your group is close by, but he hits hard so be warned.

“Boomer”, this big boy looks like he weighs as much as a Buick. His real threat is he will puke on you and/or your companions, which will drive every other Zombie into a frenzy and attack whatever it lands on, which is how bile bombs can come in handy.

“Witch”, don’t be fooled by her slight build and pale skin. This little girl is worse than a certain Vixen PMS’ing. You will hear her before you see her. She will be crying softly, but if you get too close or shoot her, you will “startle” her and have to deal with her. But be careful, she can take you down with just one hit.
The best way to deal with her is at a distance. Don’t just shoot her, thinking she will go down easy. You better have a full clip and use it all on her because if she gets too close, it’s all over.

Left 4 Dead 2 features a new cast of human Survivors, which include:


Coach (voiced by Chad Coleman), a portly high-school football coach with a bad knee (although it does not affect gameplay)

 Nick (voiced by Hugh Dillon), a rude and cynical gambler and con artist

 Rochelle (voiced by Rochelle Aytes), a low-level production assistant reporting on the evacuation for a local television station

 Ellis (voiced by Eric Ladin), a friendly (and rather talkative) mechanic who often talks about his friend Keith and their many misadventures.

In addition to the four playable characters, Left 4 Dead 2 also features a supporting character in the form of Virgil (voiced by Randall Newsome), a Cajun boat captain, who appears (voice only) in the game's final three campaigns.

I looked this one up on the Wikki ( Google is my friend ) and found something surprising; this game was originally banned in at least two countries, Australia Germany for its violent and graphic “deaths” of the undead, but hey…here in the U.S., that’s the average movie night at home.

There are many ways to play this game as well, alone, with a friend or in teams on the internet where you take turns being the survivors or the infected. I have tried the team play……let’s just say it didn’t go well, and I think I embarrassed my gaming partner, Dchan, at that time. He, on the other hand….was doing pretty well.

In this video, you will see Bixyl and I duking it out with some real hard core baddies, but we come out on top, and you will notice my character is not the normal one. This game is so popular there have been skins made for it and I am using “Krystal”, There are also a LOT of other skins you can get and use with a little looking. I like playing with Bix because I know when we die, I will be PUNished by Bixyl’s “puns” and humor.

I give this game a “Thumbs Up” and recommend it to those who enjoy FPS’s and don’t mind a little carnage.

Here is the play through we did, hope you enjoy it: http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/505544524

If you get the game, let us know and tell us what YOU think. And, as always, if you want to see me review a game, drop us a line and I will get on it. But in the meantime, “Good Hunting to you!”

Editor's Note: Forget the stereotype of slow, lumbering, undead. Between occasional lone walking corpses, You'll have to shoot your way through wave after wave of freakin' zombie banzai charges. This game is intense.

Nydia Tungsten

Meanwhile, Back in Rust

By Bixyl Shuftan

For the Sunweavers/Angels in Second Life, the adventures in the Rust game continue. Shortly after Jasmine made the base a couple weeks ago in the Player versus Player server we were going about when not in Lost Island (link), that server went offline. Lost Island also went offline briefly, so we checked out other places. One was the "ZZFun US PVE No Sleepers" server. Looking it over, there were a number of builds by players, more metal than I had seen.

One that stood out was a tremendously tall skyscraper, one that looked like it took many, many hours to get the metal ore for, forge, and build.

The second was an odd looking build held up by only a single set of stairs, looking like a big "smiley face."

I ended up talking to CWHughes, co-administrator of the server, after he happened to sign on while I was there. He  told me the server had been up for about two and a half months. He himself had created the smiley-face building and the skyscraper using his admin tools to skip making the metal. Both had doors unlocked for people to climb up and enter. And indeed people could, after asking him first, get a floor on the skyscraper if they wanted too. The top floors, however, were his alone to build in.

Getting up the tower took several minutes of stair climbing.

But once up, the view however was fantastic, with much of the island and a good deal of the road system visible.

At least what could rezz due to the distances involved. And this wasn't even Hughes' tallest build according to him. He told me he had made a 200 story tower before the server was wiped, and had to start over.

CW Hughes showed off a couple of his administrator tooks, such as a sparkling pipe, which he called his "admin hatchet."

He also had a bow that looked ordinary, but fired what he called "fire arrows." As Rust is still in "Alpha," they left a red outline after he fires.

If you're in the server, and find or hear CWHughes about, don't forget to say hello. He just might call down an airdrop just for you, or invite you and one or more others to take part in a contest.

Since then, Rust has had one more big update (link). There have been some visual improvements, such as the moon looking more detailed. But the big thing is "item durability." Tools and weapons degrade as they're used, and unless occasionally repaired become useless. They have to be fixed at a special "Repair bench" (image from the link). This has added to the challenge to the game, though can be disabled by server administrators. A couple friends grumbled weapons seem to degrade too fast in some places.

There's also been a number of Rust videos made of general funnery at the Alpha bugs and all, plus a man successfully defending his home from raiders (caution, one with naked men): (link).

Sadly to say, no new pictures from the Lost Island server. Our old friend Lomgren Smalls joined us on Rust (though is still taking a break from Second Life for personal reasons), and used the "remove" command available on the server (its only in some places) to make a fancy "reverse pyramid" with a one room ground floor, a nine room second floor, and a fifteen room third. Unfortunetly, the server got wiped before the thought came to me to take a picture. So we now have to rebuild.

That's it for now from Rust. Word is it's become one of the more popular games in open alpha development. No doubt there will be more to write on soon as the Angels see what they can do.

Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: Borderlands & Borderlands 2

By Nydia Tungsten

I have been playing the Borderlands series now for almost since the game was first available. For those who don't know of it, let me sum it up.

Borderlands

The story takes place on the planet of Pandora, and you play the part of one of four "vault hunters" who are looking for the legendary Vault of Pandora.

Brick, who prefers to punch things to death.

Mordecai, whom has his trusty bird "Bloodwing." Both are more into long-range combat and Bloodwing can help get more loot.

Lilith is the "Siren" of the group. Her special ability is the "Phase Walk," during which she turns invisible. As it develops during the game, she can gain abilities from healing herself to electrocuting anyone nearby as she phase walks through enemy ranks.

Last is Roland the soldier. He has the ability to throw turrets down to heal and resupply ammo.

As you can see, each vault hunter has their own unique abilities. I prefer the "Siren" myself as she fits my style, either sniper or up close and personal. You perform many missions that lead you to finding the vault. Every step of the way there, you pick up more and more abilities in your talent tree.

The graphics aren't exactly lifelike, and I think this was due to parental fears of their little dimpled darling who might actually get traumatized by a video game, which I consider to be on par to that they see on their favorite TV show ... but that is a rant for another time. The graphics are well done for the style they intended.

Along the way, you will meet many characters. A certain one you will meet throughout the game is the endearing, yet annoying, but always lovable "Clap-Trap unit.' Another is "Angel," the AI who only you can see, whom I have as one of my favorites. As you play, you will find yourself being "helped" along by her.

Borderlands 2

With the second game in the series, you have four to six characters you can choose from, depending on the download packs you can get. If you get the "Game of the Year" addition, you get access to all of them. Again, I like the Siren character, but this one has different powers than the one in the first game. As you play, you meet each of the playable characters from the first game, but they are NPCs, along with Angel, and of course Clap-Trap.

Your arrival isn't as peaceful as in the first game, as you are immediately under fire as bots from Handsome Jack try to kill you. Handsome Jack is the main antagonist throughout this adventure, and becomes the man you love to hate. He is the CEO of Hyperion Corporation, and has some very memorable lines in this story as he taunts and rants at you throughout the game as he throws harder and harder minions to stop you.

As in the first game, you are looking for a vault and you are "helped" along by not only Angel and Clap-Trap, but with the main characters from the first game as well.

If I am being a little vague with my descriptions, it is because I don't believe in spoilers. The video links are the playthrough to the first "boss" fights under level ten. In Borderlands, I am playing as the Siren, and in Borderlands 2 I am playing as the Mechromancer.

In both games, you are immersed into the story with plenty of humor mixed in. The stories and backgrounds are very well thought out and lighthearted as well at times. And so with this series of games, I give them my humble thumbs up.

BL 1 play through link:
http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/504224984

BL 2 play through link:
http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/504569563

Why write about games that are several years old? It's because the creators are at it again.

They have a third game in the works, and it may be released late this year or early 2015. Want a sneak peek? I have one for you, and it even has a surprise twist that if you played Borderlands 2 all the way through, it will jump out and slap you in the face!

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/9ahana/tales-from-the-borderlands-vgx-2013--world-premiere-trailer

I hope you enjoyed this review as much as I did.

If you have a suggestion for a game you would like to see reviewed, let us know and as always -

Good gaming to you!

Pre-edited by Brandi Streusel Tungsten

Image credit: HCL.HR Gaming Portal, softtonic.com

Nydia Tungsten

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Rust

From Nydia Tungsten

I first heard about “Rust” through the “Steam” community looking at what was on sale as I often do, where I saw the trailer for it, I remember thinking “ This reminds me a bit of Minecraft only with better graphics.” Then a few friends of mine start talking about it, so I tell them “IF I ever get it I will stream it.”

 The next thing I know, I am getting offers to join others on their server that they play on and told I “have” to get it because it is so much fun. Then I get an IM from a good friend and one of my Angels (Bix) saying that if I get it he will too and we can die horribly together.

Well I lasted a good 10 sec once I got in before I was Zombie chow, LOL, here is how it went.

When I first started the game it asks for the graphic settings I would like, with my system I can go for “Movie” quality in games, so I set it for that, then play, it will give you 3 types of server choices, I looked and looked for one of my Angels server (Pagan) but couldn’t find it so Bix and I decided to just go with the first empty one we found, so POOF! I am in Rust, and so is Bix, but we have NO idea where the other is, to me THAT is the biggest Draw back to the game for me, is the inability to find your friends you want to play with.

We spend over 4 hours trying to find each other. What doesn’t help is that IF you die you are sent some place TOTALLY random you lose everything even your start up base unless you have a sleeping bag made and put down. Add to the fact we had no firkin clue as to what we were doing, but that went both ways, we had no clue and had fun laughing at each other I will include a link so you can see how I did, when you watch it look closely at how everything looks, I was impressed with it, and believe it or not, this is just the alpha of the game. That is what is so amazing to me, is the fact it is not even in Beta yet.

Later Pagan came on and we were able to hop on the server she is on, and on that server we *could* TP to each other, which to me made it more enjoyable, BUT I did die more often, that chat on the stream was fun and upbeat, at one point Bix was killed ( again) by wolves and he comments on the fact that wolves seemed hungry at that point And Treminari  gave the wise answer “Wolves gotta eat too!”, a fact we all agreed on, but still wished it wasn’t us they tried to feed on.

The Nights are dark and mostly boring, if you’re lucky, in this game you don’t really want exciting nights, because that usually means something is trying to kill you.

So most of the nights I spent trying to craft items and weapons and figure out everything I needed to survive. Like minecraft there are recipe’s you need to gather for, but unlike Minecraft you have a crafting list of things you can make, you just need the items to make them, or even craft the items into the other items you need to make other things such as the ore to make metal and sulfur so you can make guns and ammo.

So here is the question you’re asking “Is it worth it to get?”

My answer is this, IF you like Minecraft there is a good chance you will like this game. But the biggest plus this game has over Minecraft: NO CREEPERS! (I really HATE those buggers)

It is a survival game with a little bit of a first person shooter mixed in, it is a lot of fun but it can be frustrating at times and depending on your play style, there is a server to match, if you like PvP there are servers that you kill each other to your heart’s content, Raid others homes loot, pillage and rob, because if you kill someone, all their goodies are in a back pack on the ground for you to grab, but be warned, they will be trying to do the same to you!

The server I am on is more of a co-op server, no PvP or raiding and you can TP to someone three times between server restarts. It is named “Lost Island” Come say “Hi” but mind the rules the admins are very active there and WIL ban but everyone is very helpful and willing to give you a hand.

I give “RUST” a humble Thumbs up, the price is only $20 USD, so very reasonable and the quality for it just being in alpha makes it well worth it as well.

As promised here is the link of my very first time seeing this game.
http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/499715319

And here is a bit once I hooked up with my Angel Pagan
http://www.twitch.tv/nydia_tungsten/b/499781638

Good luck and good gaming to you!

Nydia Tungsten

*  *  *  *  *

I dropped in with only basic info on how the game's played from a Youtube (link). It can be frustrating as you'll be getting hungry before long, and it can be a while before you can find a critter to hunt down for meat, and if you can't find any food (or get chased away by predators and zombies from what you find) plus burning more calories from shivering from the cold at night, you'll eventually starve. Building a campfire can help, but look around first before crafting something as anything hostile nearby can spot you and clobber you before you can respond and get away.

My advice is gather a few stones and wood at the start to make a hatchet.You'll be able to gather wood and stones/ore faster, as well as a better weapon for hunting pigs. Once you get a bit of cloth, make a bow and some arrows. You'll be able to take down deer, which run when you get too close, and should be able to take down wolves in two shots - if you have a steady hand. Bears require about four arrows, which means at least twice you'll have to quickly turn and run several seconds then turn around and fire again. Zombies need several hits. One can back away from the slow ones and fire again, but the quicker ones are trickier, and can be relentless in their pursuit. They might stop chasing you after several seconds, or they can keep it up for several minutes. Predators and zombies can also chase you up rocks, and open windows allow them to reach in if you're too close.

Check buildings for any crates that may be inside as they're likely to have useful items. If you're having trouble finding critters to hunt, you might find food, for instance. But if you hear your radiation detector clicking watch out for zombies, and if it's clicking heavily you'll get poisoned after several seconds. If airdrops are a feature on your server, it's fun to run over to see if you can get the goods. They can offer some very handy goodies.

And once you have a good amount of resources and goods, look for a chance to find a place to store some of them before the zombies get you. You do so by building a crate and putting them in. Even if you respawn at a random point, at least you have a chance to find your way to your stuff. Unless someone picks up items from a fallen player in a few minutes, they're gone.

For an alpha release, Rust is pretty good. It could use some improvements, thought. At the very least, it should offer an option for a female appearance, so women players won't feel awkward. Maybe add a few edible (and poisonous) plants. And perhaps changing the critters AI so sometimes the predators go after the pigs and deer.

Besides Youtube videos about Rust, one useful source of information is the Rust wiki (link). Besides more hints, there's a map (link) which will help you get around and meet up with people. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Biggest Battle in Eve Online's Ten Year History, Over $300,000 USD Worth of Virtual Weaponry Lost

By Bixyl Shuftan

The game Eve Online on Monday Jan 25th saw the biggest battle in it's history. The "Battle of B-R5" involved 2,200 players between two alliances of two factions each, and the loss of hundreds of ships on both sides, including about 90 Titans, an unprecedented number lost in a fight.

In Eve Online, the competitive nature of the game results in occasional warfare between factions of players. With diplomacy and dealmaking, sometimes the result is fights between alliances of factions. And the game allows major factions to build some pretty big ships if they have the resources and time.

In Eve, the biggest ship that can be built is the appropriately named "Titan." These ships are truly gargantuan in both size and cost. In the game, they are kilometers long and "capable of disrupting the tides of planets." How much does it take to build one? A total of 3400 hours, months to build, and about 7600 US dollars worth of game currency. If committed to battle, they're a force to be reckoned with as it's main weapon can blow away smaller vessels with a single shot. But it's not indestructible, and can be lost. Because of it's cost in time and resources, the loss of one is the loss of a strategic asset. It doesn't happen too often. In the past, a faction than managed to wipe one out and put it up on Youtube could enjoy some bragging rights for a while. More recently, there were some fights that saw the loss of a few. In February 2011, 12 Titans were lost in the Battle of Uemon.

What caused this battle? A space station controlled by one alliance of two factions ended up for grabs after they lost ownership of it. Not because of enemy action, but because the rent wasn't paid on time, possibly because of espionage. The station was the alliance's headquarters in their war against another alliance, and the opposition jumped at the opportunity to try and take it. Success would mean their enemy would be prevented "from accessing a great deal of their strategic assets and war material." Faced with losing the base, and with it probably the war, the defenders made the decision to risk their Titan ships. The attackers brought in theirs, the result being a unique battle in Eve's history, "for over 100 of them to just leap into a toe-toe slugging match where their chances of survival are quite low is... unheard of. These two powerblocs are really taking an insane risk here."

Compared to a game like "World of Warcraft" in which a player getting clobbered results in the armor needing repairs worth roughly a fraction of an hour's worth of game cash, the losses in BR-5 were truly staggering. Iris Ophelia put it, "To understand the true scope of what happened in Eve last night, imagine instead loosing that same round ... And then loosing your car ... And that unfinished manuscript you've been putting all your free time into for months. ... 90 times."

One player posted in Facebook chat, "I lost a dreadnaught, but I'd been planning on loosing it gloriously for a while. ... Sadly, the node was totally borked. I never even got to fire a shot, since my grid never loaded for my client, but everyone who was already on field and had grid loaded nuked me in spades." Of his corp, FinFleet, "We got prison sodomized."

The battle went on for a while, until reinforcements for the attackers gave them the edge. The defenders then gave the order to withdraw to try to preserve what they could. The attackers continued to press their advantage scoring more kills and adding to the losses. "Both sides had lost an incredible number of dreadnaughts, and the price of Tritanium has been creeping upwards, anticipating the flurry of industrial production to come. While the final kill numbers aren't in yet, this fight has already blown past every single record for damage done in Eve."

And blown past every single record in damage done to dollars invested in virtual goods.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RCK-E5AopVI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(Click Here if the video fails to load)

*Update* For more information, check out Eve Online's Twitter feed at: https://twitter.com/eveonline

Sources: Polygon, New World Notes, Reddit Eve Online B-R5 Thread, The Mittani

Bixyl Shuftan

Getting a Luskwood Avatar In InWorldz

By Bixyl Shuftan

One issue some friends of mine have with InWorldz is the lack of variety of furry avatars. Although the Wingless freebie avs apparently have been around for a while, for some, this isn't enough. Some find the design a little dated. Others find them quite different from the particular look their used to. And of course people usually want as many choices as possible. While some might be tempted to get a copybotted avatar, this isn't a good idea. InWorldz's residents consider those just as bad as those in Second Life, if not worse.

So it seems for now InWorldz residents are limited to either sticking with the Wingless or learning to make their own avatar. As most are not really builders, the second seems like not really an option. So what about getting someone already skilled at making avatars here? If you're a user of Kinzart Kreatures (KzK) avatars, you can pretty much forget about having your look in InWorldz. On their Tumblr, the KzK spokesman branded Second Life residents thinking of moving to the smaller grid as cowardly, and dismissed the virtual world as a "haven for thieves and copybotters alike."

Luskwood had a different answer. Michi Lumin and others on the Lusk team have accounts on InWorldz.  Talking with Michi, she told me since I was a customer of theirs, they'd send me a copy of my red Fox avatar to me in InWorldz. Just allow for some time for it to arrive. After a few weeks, Michi sent me a message to look for a package when I returned there from Drew Luskwood. And heading back, I found a new box in my inventory, one for a Luskwood Red Fox. So I rezzed it on the ground, unpacked, and changed avs ...

And I was back to my familiar look from Second Life. Well, almost. I have a preference for flexi-tails, so I kept the one from the Wingless. Here's the avatar at Podex InWorldz.

Drew, whom is considered part of the Luskwood Core on his profile,  had sent a message asking if I got the avatar. I answered, and we had a short conversation.  Drew told me Luskwood wasn't quite ready to be setting up kiosks in InWorldz. They were waiting for the place to become a little larger, notably in the number of residents logging on daily. For now, they would have a limited presence in the smaller Grid, delivering avatars to individuals.

Still, Drew and others at Luskwood were impressed with InWorldz's rate of growth. It might not be long before Second Life's first avatar company has vendors in this virtual world.

Now if I can only find a fedora and light brown trenchcoat ...

Bixyl Shuftan.

Review of Cube World

From Xymbers Slade

I've been around, I just grew tired of writing for a couple years and thought I might pick up the digital pen again.

I recently heard of a game out on the internet called "Cube World" (https://picroma.com/cubeworld), marketed as "a voxel-based exploration RPG." Run by two people, it at the outset looks like some kind of Minecraft spinoff, but after I bought the game, I found that nothing was further from the truth. There's no building one's home or a base in Cube World, instead resting in inns and at various campsites found along the course of one's travels. It's very "pixel-ish" (but that's what one gets working with voxels, not that that is a bad thing) and looks like something Minecraft might be if it were done in a colorful, more basic style.

There are multiple races and classes with small skill trees (which I haven't messed about with any yet); I ran about as a human watching the procedural landscape generate for a good two hours instead. Races include Human, Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Goblin, Undead, Frogman (which looks like Frog from Chrono Trigger, a direct homage perhaps?), and Lizard Man, though I couldn't see any special racial bonuses between the various races. There are also several classes (Warrior, Ranger, Mage, and Rogue) each with two specializations (Warrior has Guardian and Berserker for example) to play around with.

Upon creation of a character, one enters a seed number (worlds with this seed number will always be alike, same as Minecraft) and a world name though I found out negative numbers can't be used as a seed, nor can word strings or anything like that. Hitting M brings up a map revealing the chunks of the world as they load up, with a town never far off, and battlegrounds the further you go from where you start. Get close enough to a battleground or "boss" area and you'll get a quest to wipe out the ruler of that area, which is easier said than done. Movement is with WASD (No key remapping, which was a turn off for me, I *loathe* WASD movement) and clicking the mouse buttons swings your weapon. There are multiple types of enemies to beat on, from bugs to animated onions to "biters" to boss monsters like ogres, and since you have to manually target or move to dodge, surviving such encounters is far harder than it looks. If you die, you respawn at what appears to be a statue of some kind somewhere nearby.

Ok, wandering around hitting monsters is fun enough, and there does seem to be crafting involved (which is something I haven't gotten involved with yet in any great detail). Towns have districts where you can trade, sell, craft and whatnot, so living out of them is very viable as you work to gain levels and become more powerful. Still, as I played it more and more I found myself asking "This is all nice and pretty, but what's the point?"

Cruising the forums briefly, I asked a few questions about the game having just bought it and all. There's no building of one's home or a base (yet --- looks like a planned feature). There are multiple quests (and what appears to be daily quests, as the game has an internal clock) for treasures and "Platinum Coins". I'd had problems with multiple mobs at once (a starting player is very weak) and while wandering there are often wandering parties of neutral or friendly NPCs. These guys, I learned, won't help, but if I lure monsters to them, they'll beat them up for me. It looks like there is a pet system (as I'd asked "how to deal with multiple mobs at once in a "boss like" area --- the answer is to tame a pet, which I have not yet figured out). I was surprised when I asked if I should have waited until more features were added and someone said "yes." There's no "ending quest" to beat the game, no "hardcore mode" for if you die you lose everything (maybe I'm too biased toward permadeath now).

Glancing at Wikipedia, it says that the game started in June of 2011 (by comparison, Minecraft would release its full first version in November that same year). Now I'm thinking 2011 up until now in 2013-2014 is more than enough time for multiple updates, but there doesn't seem to have been many at all. To be fair, there's only two people working on this: the creator and his wife. By comparison, the award-winning Cave Story was one guy over five years. I ran about the Cubeworld world for a good long time and thought "This could be fun, but there needs to be something more." There ARE multiplayer servers, so I hear, but I did not go looking either on the forums for newbie friendly servers or seeking out my own via google or anything.

So, after playing the game for about two or three hours, what do I think? This game has *potential*. I think Cube World could give Minecraft a major run for its money if it had more updates, more things to do, and more depth (or maybe I haven't tried hard enough, I've barely scratched the surface of the game so far). Its bright, colorful style is a breath of fresh air from the constant PVP and griefers of Minecraft. I think with the proper funding and if the creators had a proper programming/content team, they'd have a real hit on their hands that could compete on the level of Minecraft's popularity. I'm not even kidding. I did get constantly annoyed at getting killed so easily when I first started, and I'm not keen about no remapping of the keys, and throughout all of this I keep getting a "He's trying to reinvent the wheel" vibe here (but I think we can blame being overshadowed by hits such as Minecraft for that one).

I'm going to give Cube World three dragon hoards out of five, with the door wide open for a full 5-of-5 hit, because oh gods so much potential lies untapped here if done right. It's cute, bright, colorful, and probably has a lot more depth to it than I've tried looking for. But until there's more of an end goal/quest, more biomes, keymapping, and other things (besides the hang gliding and pet riding, two things I've gotten nowhere near trying yet), this game, while inexpensive, is going to live in Minecraft's shadow undiscovered.

Cubeworld is $20 USD, and can be found at https://picroma.com/cubeworld (though a free account is needed to be registered to purchase the game).

Xymber Slade