MARCH - WIN a R500 Takealot Voucher with iGame's Game of the Moment

[Spartan]

iGame's Game of the Moment :

WINNER WILL RECEIVE A R500 TAKEALOT VOUCHER.

Entries close on the 1st of April at 5pm

• Have you recently played a game that sucked you into its virtual world?
  [*]Do you feel guilty when you have to stop playing this game?
  [*]Were you so glued to it that it caused sleep deprivation and emotional trauma?
  [*]Has your significant other threatened to leave you unless you put down that blasted contraption and spend time with her/him?
  [*]Have you awoken to find cheese curls in your pants and an empty red bull can fort surrounding you?
  [*]Did you forget to shower and scare the neighbour's cat with your yeti musk?
  [*]Have you grown a beard without even noticing?
  [*]Has the beard sprouted out of nothingness even though you are a female?
  [*]Did you accidently cut the couch open with your unclipped gamer toenails?
  [*]Has this game brought out the inner child or the inner hermit in you?
  [*]If this game was a female, would you date it?
  [*]Are you already dating it?
  [*]Should we leave the two of you alone?

If you have answered yes to any or all of the above questions, TELL US ABOUT THIS GAME!

Start your post with:

Entry: Game name

Follow it up with a short gut-wrenching, heart-warming, disco loving, stomach busting, panty dropping or emo kid punching paragraph describing your game of the moment. Tell us about the game and what it did to you, make us want to play it. Be creative or be funny or make us feel all warm and fuzzy like the armpits of a carebear. Users can start posting below.

The user/poster with the best writup about his/her game of the moment will win a R500 Takealot voucher.
Every month a new thread will be created and at the end of each month one winner will be selected and only one winner will walk away with even more cash to fuel his/her gaming addiction.
An iGame staff member will contact the winner at the end of each month and send the voucher via e-mail.

How we will pick the winner:
If the writeup prompts any of the iGame staff to spontaneously stop working and start playing the game.

*Users are allowed to post about the same game. If this game has moved more than one person then we are eager to hear about it.
**Users can post about any game they have recently played, but please do not tell us about that game you played when you still believed in the tooth fairy.
***iGame does not deny or acknowledge the existence of any or all fantasy figures mentioned herein.
****iGame does not conform to social convention.

Disclaimer - All decisions are final. When a winner is picked the threads will be locked and the winner announced. iGame reserves the right to disqualify,ignore or remove any post/entry that is offensive or abusive.

 

[Hagan]

Battlefield 4 (Single Player)

I know it's not new, but I only recently got it.

I personally found the Single Player story interesting; more than that - it is not the story that sparkled my attention, but the gameplay and dialogue.

Character interaction between NPCs was very believable. It seems DICE is going back to their roots with Battlefield: Bad Company 2. You feel a connection with these AI characters. Voice actors/actresses were superb (this, for a game focused on its MP primarily). Mocap was also very well done. Even though the campaign felt short (cause it is), It felt more like I was playing a movie, than a videogame.

I am quite astonished for how I felt at the end; more than I can say for its predecessor.

Then you get the NPCs:

Irish:

For the first time in a videogame I felt a connection with an NPC. He reminded me a lot of myself. A lot of the time letting his emotions "cloud" his judgement (in the field).

Pac:

I didn't feel a connection here however, but the mocap did a good job of making his character seem real(istic). There was a moment where I though "So, that's it... then", but was pleasantly surprised.

Hannah:

This one is a story. Did not know what to make of her at first, but as the game progressed more and more was revealed. Some surprised awaited me.

Everyone else just felt added on as necessary figures for the story line (for consistency).

 

[The_Imp_ZA]

Metal Gear Soild - The Twin Snakes: Legends Never Die

Metal Gear Soild: The Twin Snakes: Legends Never Die

You Haven’t Even Taken The Safety Off, Rookie.


This has to be one of the strangest games I have ever played. It tries to tell a serious and captivating story with an strong anti-war sentiment whilst also showering the player with bizarre, over-the-top humor and 4th wall breaking. I love it!

Yeah, you’ve got a great butt.


The challenge of remaking a game that many people regard as one of the best of all time, was bold to say the least. But with a Tri-Force of fantastic talent, the combined genius of Konami, Silicon Knights and Nintendo managed to re-make a masterpiece of both story and gameplay.

Metal Gear Solid is a tactical espionage stealth action game, whatever that means, which I’m sure everyone already knew. The player controls the impeccably named Solid Snake, whose snake is always solid when Meryl is around, if you know what I mean. You also get to meet his new friend, the primary antagonist named Liquid Snake. What do you get when you combine the two of them? Mashed Potato-Consistency Snake.

I’ve Been Waiting For You, Solid Snake. Now We’ll See If The Man Can Live Up To The Legend!


I’m actually really terrible so it’s a good thing that the game-over screens are very entertaining. In fact I’m pretty sure that when Psycho Mantis read my memory card, he said: “You sure do die a lot”. The soundtrack is fantastic though, my favorite tracks were Ahhh-hhh-hhh-hhh and SSSSNNNNAAAAKKKEE!

The Twins Snakes is more than just a dying simulator, it’s a fantastic game and you can see that a lot of hard work has been put into it. Aside from a few camera quirks, it’s aged remarkably well. The visuals still hold up, the art direction is excellent and the dialogue, music and sound effects are perfect. The series is known for being campy with some, or more like all, of the cutscenes, but it still feels as if the focus is centered around the gameplay.

You don't know how good a cigarette tastes in the morning.


The Twin Snakes has it’s quirks which it embraces with open arms. It may occasionally require you to backtrack 20 or 30 minutes just to go pick up some item you may have missed, like some rations. When you play the game for the first time it’s often not immediately clear as to what you’re supposed to do. It doesn’t hold your hand, and in fact you’ll find that there are many different ways to get through the different scenarios that you find yourself in. Everyone who loves video games needs to play this one, it’s just brilliant.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is the type of game that thinks outside of the box. Pun intended… because you know, the cardboard…nevermind.

You like Castlevania, don't you?

 

[TechThief]

Spec Ops : The line. (SPOILERS)

Spec Ops: The line


This game starts out just looking like a normal third person shooter with big burly men shooting an enemy with no feelings or emotions. That is, until you eavesdrop on two soldiers talking, it is then that you realize that this is not your average shooter, this game has a story.

As you progress your AI comrades start doubting your decisions, it is if they are not seeing what you are seeing...
With each choice you make in the game you get dragged further and further into the mind of your character, you believe what he believes, you see what he sees, and as soon as you start thinking that you are the good guy in all of this, you napalm what you think to be the enemy, what turns out to be a refugee camp, and the image of a mother and her child is forever burnt into your memories.

Spoiler: show

It is then when you realize that this is the reality of war. Gathering all the humanity of what you have left, you know that you must push on, you must find the one responsible for all this bloodshed. When you finally reach the end of the game, you find the one responsible, or so you think, you kill him thinking you have won, that the suffering is over, but it's not, because the one responsible for all the bloodshed the pain and the suffering, was you. You were the one who was the bad guy, you were the one who killed without question, without contemplating your actions... You were the one who was hallucinating your victory, and you know the only way to really win is to not have played the game at all.


As the end credits roll you take of your headset, climb in your bed and cry yourself to sleep in the pitch black darkness of guilt.

 

[DarthMol]

Banished

Banished is a medieval city management sim which I would best describe as being Stronghold without the castles and fighting. Essentially you are tasked with setting up a village utilising the resources available: trees, stones, iron, nature and your group of people. It can be a challenging game as you need to ensure you villagers neither starve nor freeze to death. But there is a third and very important lesson that I had to learn the hard way, THE IMPORTANCE OF SEX!


I began my village of Eghelberut (pronounced Ehgehegfdsdfbsk) with the importance of food production firm in my mind. I planted an orchard right at the outset, knowing that it would take a few years before the trees would produce. I set up a fishing dock, gatherers hut, hunters lodge, and eventually a farm. I was determined that my people would not starve. And my plan worked. The people of Eghelberut (Ehgehegfdsdfbsk) had plenty of food on hand. Not only that but they had good clothing and always enough firewood for the winter. What more could you want?

I had so much food eventually I had a second barn built, it wasn’t long before that started filling up too. Food was plentiful, life was good. Yet... as time passsed by I noticed that there was a problem. One day I checked on one of the houses and found that the people living there were all over 50 years old. It was a similar story at the next house, and the next. There were a few younger ones here and there who had been born Eghelberutians (Ehgehegfds..bur...rito... I give up!) but by and large most of the people were old.

My first thought was to lay out a graveyard, so that the villagers would not be too sad when people started dying off. At least their loved ones could rest in peace. Yet while I concerned myself with death, I should have been thinking of life...

Briel the forester was the first to go. Goodbye Briel, R.I.P.
Jaylor took her place as a lumberjack. Later that year another two died of old age, two more took their place in the workforce. It was then I realised I had a problem. My people started pegging off quite rapidly as their generation all began to die of old age, at first I had young, new replacements but there would not be enough. There weren’t enough babies being born, my people hadn’t been having enough sex!

It was my fault. I had made enough houses so that everyone had a roof over their heads, but hadn’t provided place for young couples to move into and... so to say, get jiggy with it. Hence, very few people were having sex and having babies. This wasn’t a problem at first, but now most of the women were too old to have children, or their elderly husbands had already bit the dust.


It’s a pity the herbalist didn’t stock Horny Goat Weed...

As time went by there were more people under the ground than those walking it! Fewer people were working the fields, chopping down trees. The smithy and tailor shop were empty. Eghelberut was becoming a ghost town.

There was a boy called Garving born in the early days of Eghelberut. He went on to become the village's first trader, carting supplies from the barns to the trading post, eagerly awaiting the next trader to come by. He would love hearing the stories that came along that river, tales from far off places. Many years Garving worked hard, always making sure the trade goods were well stocked. Out of all the townfolk, I grew most fond of hard-working Garving. He hardly lazed around like the builders did. Garving is 66. He doesn’t have too many years left. I’m dreading the day that the notice will pop up “Garving the Trader has died of old age. No labourer is available to replace him.”

No Garving, no one will ever replace you...

 

[Thadin]

Game = Magicka



This is the most fantastic, beautiful, masterful,well thought out most irritating, horrible, most.. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS PUSH W+A AND CAST THE SPELL

RESSSS ME !!! why make it rain now he cannot res me

Thanks I am up and will heal, dude that lightning storm will kill me if you cast it... sigh really ??

Ok just focus the boss now and ress me when this raid stops, thanks i have placed healing mines down use them quick.

METEORS !! why would you do that just focus the boss .. STOP MAKING IT RAIN !!!

W+A is revive

no W+A YOU HAVE DONE IT THREE TIMES NOW JUST W + A

not right click
not right click
not... YES finally

ok lets focus

No you cannot touch water just give me a sec i will revive you

dude if you go into the water you die

???

yes i know you can freeze it but you are still just dying like a chop .


FINALLY we made it to a save point.

easiest way to lower the amount of immediate gaming friends, best day ever

 

[Ichigo]

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Sapphire

If you ever played the originals and love the Pokemon series you will surely love these games.

They have added so many new things that the originals never had including 337 new Pokemon since gen 3 came out. The only thing which is still the same as the original is the Town names, PokeMarts and HMs.

I love that the water surf speed has been dramatically increased especially when using Sharpedo which gives an extra 50% boost.

They have added an Eon Flute which calls on Latios/Latias depending on which version you have and you can choose to fly anywhere you have already explored, not including the special islands.

The other awesome additions that you can find are some new mega stones and also included are the ones which were added in Pokemon X and Y.

They have also added special islands where you can find Legendary Pokemon if you fulfill the special requirements.

The Elite 4 and gym leaders line up has been updated and the gyms look different compared to the originals.

The games have a battle resort now which wasn't in the originals which is very handy if you like playing competitively or if you want to perfect your team.

Hope you enjoyed my review

 

[Edelweiss]

GTA ONLINE



I'm surprised no one has made this nomination so I'll take the opportunity to do so!

I've been dreaming of the sheer awesomeness of an MMO GTA game ever since the humble days of GTA 3 and it has FINALLY been realized in the fifth blockbuster release of one of the best gaming franchises ever!

The campaign itself is one of the best only coming a close second to that of San Andreas. And if you're worried that the quality of the online component will pale in comparison to the online content, Don't worry! It's still there for the most part!

I must admit that the initial launch of GTA online was a bit lackluster with more than its share of bugs and griefers deterring newcomers and even myself, but it is steadily making incremental improvements to the game and with each patch things just keep getting better and better.

GTA Online is an amusement park at your disposal where the player decides what to do and how to do it and when everything works, it can be a really fun experience.

Hey just today I was enjoying an impressively good golf game, went skydiving, killed baddies and sat literal shotgun doing a mission! There is really many fun things to do the list is endless (or seemingly endless) haha.

Personally I love playing survival, contact missions, motocross racing and of course a well-executed heist mission which goes down incredibly smooth and is really one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had to date!



This is super fun and satisfying especially with friends! Can't wait for more heist missions to be made available and I hope to see the user made content explode in the upcoming PC version! It may seem like this version will be the best platform to play this game as I'm already drooling at the steam version with its surprisingly low requirements..
I might just double dip... IT'S THAT WORTH IT!

 

[Solitude]

Entry: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls



When Diablo III came out I took a couple of days leave to play the hell out of it. Unfortunately it was met with server issues and a game that wasn't nearly as good as its predecessor. Now a couple of years later the game has changed quite a bit and with the expansion Reaper of Souls the game is one of the most addictive games I've ever played. Ladders, clans, new loot, seasons, new gameplay modes, paragon levelling, more loot...

I only need to do one thing to show how addictive and amazing Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is. Look at my Raptr history by hours played:
http://raptr.com/SolitudeSA/games?sort_by=hours_played

It is that good.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Entry: StarCraft II

Aliens. Humans. Human-aliens. Nekkid human-alien women. The colour purple. So many great things have never graced a game before in such a jam-packed offering as StarCraft II.

I joined the party a bit late when I decided to buy StarCraft II late last year when Blizzard had a sale on their online store. Upon reading the rave reviews and witnessing the foaming-at-the-mouth fanfare surrounding the game, I realised there are worse ways to waste money than buying both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. It seemed to be the ideal time-waster just before visiting the family in a small town nestled between the Swartland winelands in the Western Cape.

Download completed, I decided to fire up a skirmish match or two, because that's how I used to roll during the days of StarCraft's release. It felt instantly familiar, but fresh all the same. The polish applied to the game was immediately apparent - the small details such as the indigenous life forms roaming the landscapes whilst huge starships battle above and a swarm of Zerglings get ripped apart by the cannon-fire of a troop of fearless Terran soldiers, to the bits of debris bouncing around the battlefield after a hover-tank has been blown to bits and the general splotchiness of the Zerg exploding when dying. It all creates a sense of immersion that few RTS games can rival.

Knowing that the meat would probably lie in the campaign, I fired up Wings of Liberty expecting the standard RTS story fare. Some cut-scenes ensued settings the stage for a wild-west space adventure. The first couple of missions were obviously intended to ease new players into the game and genre, so they weren't exactly something to write home about, but the story and setting immediately grabbed me. Again I marveled at the amount of detail that went into crafting this elaborate story of love, revenge and survival. You could really feel Jim Raynor's love for Kerrigan as he would sacrifice everything to rescue her from the clutches of the Zerg swarm, while you feel the unease of his old buddy Tychus reuniting with him with apparent ulterior motives. I won't divulge more about this story, but I can confirm it's some of the best sci-fi brought to the small (and big!) screen in years.

The voice acting is phenomenal and the animation - mostly done with the in-game engine - was of a quality surpassing big-budget Hollywood movies of a couple of years ago. In between missions you are presented with interactive briefing sessions where you can catch up on Dominion news casts, upgrade your units, recruit new mercenaries, conduct research on new technologies and just chat with your crew. At some point you can even brawl with your buddies in the canteen, leading to one of the better and arguably most entertaining in-game cut scenes. Small details abound once again, with holographic dancing girls providing entertainment to the brutes in the canteen, various alien artifacts and life-forms evolving in the laboratory and the small mechanical movements of the various parts on your vehicles in the hanger. It all brings to mind the point-and-click adventure games of yore and with a bit more interaction could easily be converted into a stand-alone Telltale StarCraft game.

After the cliffhanger, heart-wrenching conclusion to the Wings of Liberty campaign, I couldn't wait to jump straight into the Heart of the Swarm campaign. I was relieved to see that the quality hasn't been sacrificed and continues on the same epic scale as the first campaign. In fact, it expands the horizon even further by allowing travel to various planets in the Queen of Blades' mission to reunite the swarm for the ultimate battle. I can't comment on the ending of the campaign yet, as I'm about 75% through and biding my time for the release of the last part of the trilogy. I won't be able to hold out a couple of months between campaigns, as the story is just so engrossing and the anticipation will probably kill me.

Other than the campaign, the usual competitive play is still there. Add to that the Arcade mode with loads of high quality hero battles, tower defense maps and various other game modes that will ensure countless hours of entertainment and challenges. Some of the tower defense maps like Element- and Gem TD are of such high quality that they could easily have been standalone games on their own and offer enough replayability to consume a whole month of your life.

With such a high quality package with enough content to ensure year's of entertainment, it's no wonder Blizzard has such a cult following among gamers. StarCraft II is, to me, the epitome of their development efforts and is a shining (literally, the game is bright with loads of sheen) example of what can be achieved if a developer pours loads of love and effort into their creations. I guess the enormous budget they have for the game helps a bit as well.

11/10. Would stare at scary nekkid alien-women again.

 

[brendanvb]

Ori and the Blind Forest

Two weeks ago, I started seeing some rumblings on the interwebs about a little indie game that had just been released by Microsoft on Xbox One and PC. Every gaming media site I browsed, this game was there, with high scoring reviews across the board. This game is Ori and the Blind Forest, and I do not for one second regret buying into the hype and buying it, as it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in recent years. Don't be deceived by the animated artstyle, which provides some of the most stunning visuals of it's kind, this game is very challenging. To give you an idea of how challenging: my death count upon my 11-hour completion ranking stood at 268. It's been a very long time since a game has caused me to countlessly scream out various expletives in frustration, but even with every death, I couldn't wait to get back into the addicting gameplay.

First off, the visuals: as said earlier, they are simply stunning. The world feels more alive than a lot of AAA titles I've played in my lifetime. From the very first second you enter the world, through the beautiful prologue which brought me close to shedding tears, and all the way through to the beautiful finale, the visuals do nothing but amaze. I read an article following my completion of the game where the developer, Moon Studios, explained that every single piece of artwork in the game is meticulously hand-painted and not ever is any of it duplicated in the game. If you run past a tree, that is the only time you will ever see that tree. If ever there was an argument for artstyle over realism in gaming, this game is it.

Second to the visuals is the music, with sweeping orchestral scores sending shivers through your skin with every beautiful note. The score feels emotional, and without it the touching story would not have had the same effect on me. You feel every moment of the game.

Of course, visuals and music are great, but then that didn't save The Order 1886's reviews. Gameplay is enjoyably addicting, challenging and frustrating. Basically, the gameplay consists of exploring the world, which is made up of interconnected pathways and locations, and as you go along you'll uncover and receive abilities that help you reach places or open doors you previously couldn't. You'll have to overcome some tough traps, fight a range of creatures, and survive some of the most epic set-piece moments ever to grace the 2d side-scroller genre. It's hard to put into words just how awesome the gameplay is.

Ori may be an indie title, but Moon Studios makes it feel AAA. I eagerly look forward to what they do in the future. It is the kind of game I would highly recommend to anyone. If I've not yet convinced you, just do yourself a favour and 1.Watch the trailer below, and 2. Go buy the game

 

[Spartan]

Competition closed. Winner announced tomorrow morning.