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Gears Of War 3 strategy guide announced and dated

gazzara — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:32:34 +0000

Official strategy guide expert, BradyGames, today broke from cover to reveal that it has joined forces with developer Epic Games to produce the official strategy guide to this year’s hugely anticipated Xbox-exclusive blockbuster: Gear of War 3.

With over ten years’ experience producing a succession of exhaustive, yet accessible, videogame guides for some of the industry’s biggest titles, BradyGames’ official Gears of War 3 Signature Series and Limited Edition Guides will ensure that gamers glean every gib-splashed morsel from the concluding chapter to one of the most popular franchises.

Created on site in Epic’s game studios, with direct input from the game designers themselves, BradyGames’ authoritative walkthrough will provide both casual and hardcore gamers with complete coverage of all locations and encounters, reveal every collectible, detail all single-player and multiplayer maps, and provide winning tactics from the pros.

As is customary with such a key title, BradyGames’ official Gears of War 3 strategy guide will be released in two formats: a Signature Series paperback with an RRP of £12.99, and a deluxe Limited Edition hardcover for £19.99. The latter features free, downloadable PDFs of original Gears of War and Gears of War 2 Official Strategy Guides, a soundtrack sampler of the official Gears of War 3 music CD, a redeem code to download a free Gears of War strategy video from XBOX Live Marketplace and a sneak peek at the Gears of War comic book. Both guides will go on sale alongside the Xbox game itself on Tuesday 20th September 2011.

In Gears of War 3, continue the fight as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war veteran and leader of Delta squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. BradyGames’ Gears of War 3 guides will be an essential companion in tackling familiar foes plus a fearsome new threat infects the planet from within, and both will feature:

IN-DEPTH WALKTHROUGH providing complete coverage of every area and encounter from start to finish. Four-Player Co-Op included!
COMPLETE MULTIPLAYER COVERAGE shows players every MP level and game mode, including team-based and solo tactics, comprehensive weapon stats, as well as new and enhanced multiplayer features.
DETAILED SINGLE-PLAYER AND MULTIPLAYER MAPS ensure that players grab every collectible , locate every objective, and never lose their way!
TACTICS FROM THE PROS and HINTS FROM EPIC’S DEVELOPERS reveal winning techniques and fascinating insight into every part of the game.
GRIPPING ARTWORK and RIVETING BACKGROUND CONTENT makes these guides a must-have for every Gears of War fan.
ACHIEVEMENT and TROPHY ROSTERS describe how to earn rewards and reach 100% completion.

MG guide to Christmas presents – Borderlands GOTY edition

gazzara — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:52:42 +0000

What Christmas would be without a spell of co-operative kicking ass in the world of Pandora – eh!

Most of you would have already been partial or heard about how good Borderlands is so for those who do not own it yet then the Game Of The Year edition is just for you.

Borderlands sends up to four co-op players to the harsh frontier planet Pandora in search of a mysterious Alien Vault. Featuring unique first-person role-playing shooter gameplay, you’ll customise your character as you explore and battle enemies in frantic first-person shooter combat.

And what would a role-playing shooter be without loot? Borderlands groundbreaking content generation system creates a near endless variety of weapons and items to customise your character! Players can join and leave other players’ games at any time, or choose to face the challenges of Borderlands alone. All these features combine with a deep, rich fiction and a bold art style to create a breathtaking experience that challenges the conventions of modern shooters.

The game also includes 4 tokens for all the downloadable content too and this version of the game can be found at Amazon for £22.99.

The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned: Enter the corporate owned small town known as Jakobs Cove, and put an end to the rumours of the walking “undead”…New areas ,new missions, new enemies, Oh My!
Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot: Are you god’s gift to gun fights? Think you’re the best? Wanna prove it? Then help us celebrate the grand opening of Marcus Bank by killing hundreds and hundreds of people in the only competitive arena around where your next of kin can be assured that you’re coming back famous.. .or not at all
The Secret Armory of General Knoxx: Want more of the Borderlands story? Want more loot than you could possibly figure out what to do with? Of course you do! Add new guns, missions, vehicles and increase your Level Cap!
Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution: This destructive adventure invites you back to the inhospitable environments of Pandora to battle a vicious new threat, a massive uprising of your former friends – the claptraps

Game plus all of the content = bargain!

MG guide to Christmas presents – Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

gazzara — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:58:00 +0000

This year, Namco Bandai took a huge risk on introducing a new IP to their stable in the form of Enslaved: Odyssey To The West.

This game must be one of the biggest games out there this year but has gone under many a radar due to it being released during a very strong release period. As the editors potential Game Of The Year for 2010, Enslaved delivers a captivating storyline, written by Alex Garland with full motion capture and provides compelling gameplay that will keep you busy during those cold nights.

Prices have dropped significantly since launch and can be picked up on PS3 or 360 for as little as £18 from Zavvi. We reviewed Enslaved a few months ago. To read our impressions on the game please click here.

MG guide to Christmas presents – Turtle Beach PX21 Headset

gazzara — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:20:46 +0000

We all know that sometimes you need that privacy in gaming. The uninterrupted calm of being able to hear sound effects that little bit clearer. Well, if you have both PS3 and 360 then Turtle Beach has the answer.

The PX21 headset is a universal headset which will allow it to be used on Xbox 360, PS3 and also PC. Retailing at a very good price point (Tesco had these in stock at £58!) the PX21′s are a great mid range alternative to it’s bigger brother, the DPX21 and although it fails to deliver on Dolby surround sound, the PX21 will provide you with a very clear, full bandwidth stereo sound and a built in mic which can be used with Xbox Live, Playstation Network and VoIP systems.

Features

Amplified sound lets you hear every detail in the game
Stereo expander widens the sound field for greater accuracy
Mic monitor lets you hear what you’re saying
Adjustable Bass Boost adds realism to the game sound.
Chat Boost automatically increases chat voices as the game gets louder.
Hear PSN chat and PS3 game sound with independent volume for each.
Also works with XBOX games and XBOX LIVE chat
Also works as a USB headset with PC and Mac.

Specifications

Headphones

40mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnets
Speaker Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, >120dB SPL @ 1kHz
Condenser Microphone Frequency Response: 50Hz – 15kHz
Cable length: 16 ft. (4.87m)
Weight: 6.4 oz (233g)

In-Line Amplifier

Headphone Amplifier: Stereo DC-coupled, 35mW/ch, THD <1%, Frequency Response: DC – 30kHz
Bass Boost continuously adjustable from 0dB to +12dB @ 50Hz
Mic mute switch
Stereo expander switch
Maximum analog input level with volume control on maximum setting: 2Vpp (700mV rms)
3.5mm plug for line output
USB connector for power, mic connection and stereo audio
2.5mm mic output jack
USB connector for power (5VDC @ <60mA max)
Dimensions: Height .5in (1.27cm), Width 2in (5.08cm), Depth .75in (1.905cm)

MG guide to Christmas presents – Kinect

gazzara — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:37:12 +0000

Well, the big day is getting nearer and as we all know, certain possible gifts become more scarce and a lot harder to find.

With this in mind, it is time to bring to your attention one of the most popular gifts that is available this Christmas and one that you may want to get ordered now before it is too late!

Kinect was released to the world a few weeks ago and definitely adds a new angle to your gaming setup. Microsoft’s motion tracking camera enables you to be part of the game and take control of your character via body movements.

Although, it is in its infancy, Kinect is looking like a nice piece of tech to introduce family members to gaming, add a little exercise to your gaming regime and with some of the games being developed, add a little more depth to a game that you are already a fan of.

Forza 4 is a prime example of how Kinect could be used which will allow head tracking etc, something that racing fans have been asking about for ages.

There is also a good range of release titles on offer and although most of them are based around fitness, dancing and party games at present, this is an ideal gift to bust open at Christmas for some family fun as well as burning off a few of those calories! Trust me, kids will love Kinectimals.

Kinect is available for £129.99 with Kinect Adventures thrown in at most game stores online and in the high street and is able to be used with original 360′s as well as the slim versions.

MG guide to Christmas presents – Red Dead Redemption

gazzara — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:16:59 +0000

Day three of our Christmas present guide kicks of with one of the games of the year, Red Dead Redemption.

Released by Rockstar Games earlier this year, Red Dead Redemption turns the western action genre on its head and delivers one of the highlight sandbox games of the year. Technically proficient in all areas with a solid gold storyline, Red Dead Redemption gives you tens of hours of gameplay at a price that cannot be argued with.

That’s not all. Red Dead Redemption has had some really solid support in terms of DLC. Multiplayer add on packs plus the horror favourite Undead Nightmare campaign add on steal the show and can be purchased online or via the hard copy version that was released last week.

Available on PS3 and Xbox 360, Red Dead Redemption can be picked up for around £22 new with the Undead Nightmare hard copy for another £18ish. Alternatively, you could always download the add ons individually to save a little cash but the best value for money comes in the form of the hard copy version.

MG’s guide to Christmas presents – MG merchandise

gazzara — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:23:10 +0000

Today is day 2 of our guide to looking for that little something for the discerning gamer just before Christmas.

Well, day 2 brings some clothing that will bring a little bit of originality to your wardrobe and is bound to put a smile on the recipients face!

MG clothing and merchandise has been around for a few months now and our store sports a wide range of designs with the MG logo on. If you fancy doing things a little more original then you can always e-mail our man Rob who will help you customise your own design, including ID’s and gamertags.

For more information and a look at our wares then please click on the shop link. Prices start at £9.50 and clothing is available in mens and womens styles, a wide and a wide selection of colours and sizes. Well, what are you waiting for ….. Go, go, go!!!

MG’s Guide to Christmas presents – Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Fallout: New Vegas – rare collections advice

gazzara — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:06:31 +0000

Soon after you collect your first Sunset Sarsaparilla Star Cap — a strange and rare bottle top with a blue star emblazoned on it — you’ll begin to realize you’re going to need a Companion to weigh down with the hundreds of Collectibles this adventure yields.

In this final Strategy Guide Blog, some of the finest rare items are revealed, along with information on the additional content contained in the limited-and-numbered Collector’s Edition.

Back to the Sunset Star Caps; if you know where to look, and who to be suspicious of as you’re met by others scavenging these odd trinkets, you’ll find the truth behind the Legend of the Star. Only the official strategy guide has the complete solution, but let’s just say it involves a cowboy with a wandering eye named Festus, and an old abandoned warehouse with a well-sealed secret.

If Cap-collecting isn’t your scene, there’s a large number of other Collectibles to find, too. Finding all the Gambling Dens is of paramount importance to those with a predisposition for Luck, Slots, Roulette, or Blackjack. For those wanting to perfect their games of Caravan, you’ll need to know where to look for additional cards, as well as NPCs that play the game. Knowing the location of all the Vendors selling Weapon Modification Upgrades is key to those focusing on Guns, Explosives, or Energy Weapons. But which vendor sells all three types? That strange Vendortron at the Gun Runners? Or Gloria Van Graff and her heavily-armored family? And it wouldn’t be a complete guide without information on the exact locations of every single Campfire, Reloading Bench, and Workbench.

There are other types of items to keep an eye out for, too. These include Snow Globes, fancy baubles worth more than their weight in Caps. And with far fewer Skill Books to hunt down, it’ll be vital to know where each of them can be found. Then there’s all the game’s Skill Magazines, which give you a much larger, albeit temporary boost in a particular ability — whether it’s Critical Chance or Survival. And your exploration wouldn’t be complete without picking up a Nuka-Cola Victory, Mini-Nuke, or Schematic; all unique items numbered and listed both in the extensive tour, and appendices of the guide. There’s a separate appendix just for unique weapons too, so you can discover how and where to find both the fabled That Gun, or This Machine, along with 40 other armaments.

The Official Strategy Guide to Fallout: New Vegas clocks in at 448 pages, and around 505,000 words. It contains hundreds of screenshots and maps, and dozens of tables. Every relevant stat you could ask for is on hand. Information for every major choice in each part of the Main Quest, and the same for all Side Quests and Free Quests. And if you’re eyeing the 480-page Collector’s Edition, expect an extra section filled with exclusive artwork, ranging from propaganda posters to Super Mutant treatments, and the history (and timelines) of the NCR, Caesar, and Mr. House. Don’t leave Goodsprings without it!

Fallout: New Vegas – brief look at enemies new and old

gazzara — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:58:12 +0000

Although it is possible to complete your New Vegas experience without personally slaying anyone yourself, much of your time exploring all the backwater settlements, chem-dens, and abandoned ghost towns involve tense interactions with entities that could best be described as “bloody entertaining.”

The Mojave Wasteland is filled with a multitude of enemies ranging from the savage to the refined, and by the time you’ve pissed off a major faction or two, you’ll be craving a complete list of every single monstrosity, or faction enemy — along with their Level, Perception, combat skill abilities, favored weapons, and even the likely loot their corpses contain. The guide is an amazing place to find accurate information on those foes you’ll be cleaving, culling, or cutting. But who’s out there in the badlands, waiting to pounce?

Human-sized foes dominate much of the landscape, and these vary from the White Glove Society Bouncers (who strike with their refined, but oh-so damaging fancy Dress Canes), to the sausage-fingered hired hands of Brahmin Baron Heck Gunderson. The shifty-eyed thugs of Freeside are more aggressive, to such an extent that you can employ the services of a bodyguard to watch your back in the sprawling maze of alleys where the less opulent eke out a grim existence. Both inside the gates of Freeside, and out in the wild blue yonder, the major Factions have their guardsmen. Take the Boomer tribe for instance, who greet visitors with howitzer fire and wield Grenade Launchers for good measure. The scattered settlements of Goodsprings, Primm, Novac, and Sloan all have a particular type of plucky soul attempting to make a living off the land (whether growing vegetables you can pick and cook, or blasting limestone from a nearby quarry).

Naturally, the main Factions of the NCR and Caesar’s Legion have a number of shock troops you might not wish to get on the wrong side of. If you’re at Hoover Dam to watch the arrival of Bear Force One (NCR President Aaron Kimball’s Vertibird), expect the security to be tight, and the President’s guard to be comprised of veteran Rangers with armor you’d almost give a companion up for. Or if you’ve been summoned by Caesar, and are visiting his sprawling Fort in Arizona, you’ll be sizing up the guards to see whether wrestling the ornate breastplate off his corpse is worth a declaration of hostilities. But for the real horrors that inhabit the lonely stretches of the Long 15 highway — the mutated, shrieking deviants shunned by Mother Nature, ready to devour and mutilate — the dank caverns and blasted heaths are where your mettle is truly tested.

Wilder foes are classified as “Abominations,” creations abhorrent to the natural order of things, and “Mutated Animals,” wildlife with a taste for human flesh. At the top of the “crap your pants in fear” chart are the Alpha Male, Female, and Legendary Deathclaws — taller, bigger, and sharper than their east-coast brethren. Geckos also dash around the countryside, bigger than a man, and skedaddling faster than you can run. Venture into an old Vault in the northwestern mountains, and expect encounters with atrocities that merge the line between plant and animal. Fight off the slithery and furry advances of the Nightstalker, then save some of your ammunition for the scatterings of Feral Ghoul settlements and encampments of blue Nightkin Super Mutants — and their lunatic leaders, Tabitha and Davison.

No matter what skills and weapons you’ve armed yourself with, there are rugged, rocky sandscapes, detritus-filled alleyways, or coniferous woodlands with something waiting to jump out and take a swipe at you. It’s up to you to meet and greet it, or beat and eat it.

Taken from the Fallout: New Vegas strategy guide which will be released at the same time as the game.

Fallout New Vegas Guide: Mapping the mojave

gazzara — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:25:50 +0000

A lonely shack, slowly rusting in the dry heat of the Nevada sun. But what oddities are contained within? Traps? A crazed Prospector? Moonshine? The guide knows all….

Sometimes you need to take a moment from your massacring of the Viper Gunslingers, and gaze out across the arid plains where sharecropper farmers are eking out an existence using a mixture of chutzpah and NCR-owned water. Or, go swimming in Lake Mead, and drink as much radiation-free H2O as you can… before you’re set upon by savage Lakelurks. Where the Capital Wasteland was a pock-marked mess of radioactive hot-spots and shacks containing madmen named Dave, the Mojave Wasteland has much more of its natural environment intact. New Vegas contains just as many shack-dwelling madmen. Perhaps the most deranged is known as No-Bark Noonan. He lives with his shotgun traps and showroom dummy friends.

Mapping the Mojave for the strategy guide was no easy task. While it didn’t lay me out in a fit of conniptions like linking the DC Metro Underground areas together, the number of locations that the guide covers (in meticulous detail I may add, which includes every single type of collectible you’ll want to find, and every Crafting location, Healer, Trader, and Caravan Player) is still immense.

New Vegas has a massive game world featuring well over 200 primary locations, and that’s not including around the same number of secondary locations not on your Pip-Boy’s map (which the guide tags). Basically, if there’s ammo, something to tempt you, an item of interest close by, or if there’s an Abomination prowling nearby, the guide lets you know. From threat levels to lists of every character that inhabits a location, the tour of the Mojave Wasteland is exhaustive.

Occasionally it’s okay to stop trying to complete every one of the over 70 side quests, and 90 free quests and sit a spell to marvel at the sunsets and check out the gleaming spire of The Strip.

But what kinds of locations are available to the sight-seeing Courier? Well, some personal favorites include The Devil’s Throat; a giant rock depression filled with Evolved Centaurs, radioactive barrels, and heavy Energy Weapons. There are stretches of lonely highway to trek down passing savaged caravans with Brahmin corpses stinking in the mid-day sun.

There’s a whole mountain wilderness where Super Mutants are the friendliest creatures you’ll face, and hidden pathways to find locations you previously thought inaccessible. There are mines, shacks, ravines, mountains, caves, sweeping plains, dry lakes, rocky promontories, and wild canyons where the thrill of traversing the rugged landscape changes to fear as your hunting rifle jams just before a Legendary Fire Gecko spots you. And that’s before you enter the outskirts of New Vegas itself. Finding out which locations are safe to explore and which are deathtraps filled with Deathclaws is only a glimpse of what the strategy guide offers. Expect a full, complete, and helpful tour of every nook, cranny, and secret safehouse there is to find.

The Fallout New Vegas strategy guide will be available on October 22nd.