PvP: A Love / Hate Relationship

You know me: I love competition. I like getting into the thick of it, on the frontlines, so to speak. I love me some good old fashioned competitive multiplayer and, with the added luxury of online modes in practically every single game, there is always somebody to play against. Under certain circumstance, you can make the argument that developers tacking on a multiplayer mode is a bad thing—it could be a distraction after all in the development process, having to spilt resources—but I think that coupling a decent multiplayer experience with an engaging single player will keep a gamer on you product longer, and in general may get you more sales in the long run.

Getting schooled is never fun though haha; and while it happens less often, it does still happen, sort of putting a damper on a player’s mood.

The Game

I've still been playing a fair amount of Destiny, the majority of my time being spent in the multiplayer arena called: The Crucible. Sadly, I've noticed that there is a significant lack of sub-machine guns—being my weapon of choice in most shooters—in Destiny. And since I'm not the biggest fan of the assault rifle, I've been forced to adapt my strategy, instead opting for the single shot scout rifle. Coupling that with a fusion rifle for those close range bouts, I'm pretty set.

The rush you get when playing PvP can't be beat, at least not when you are winning. Nothing tops getting sucker punched by some asshat and still having the skill or the know-how to come out on top—all while screaming profanities at the schmuck who tried to attack you from the back like a coward.

The problem is that online FPS multiplayer isn't about your guns...I mean, it is about your guns but it's more about your map awareness. Investing time into a game might help your aim; might help you to familiarize yourself with a particular type of weapon you like. But overall, it really just helps you learn the maps and that's where games are won and lost. Learning the ins and outs of a certain map, how best to attack a point or the best escape route.

The Pain

You always hear over the internet about people always being pissed off by some pre-pubescent boy mercing them. Having to hear their stupid voice over the mic (thank god we don't have that problem in Destiny). The real thing you're angry about is how much free time this child has to spend on a game you enjoy and how you resent them for it. That's all it is.

Another member of this blog has informed me that the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is actually very enjoyable. I haven't delved into a CoD game since the second Modern Warfare and I would be lying if I said the sci-fi setting didn't intrigue the fuck out of me... Maybe I'll try to sucker some of my friends into buying it with me.

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Crucible Is My Destiny

The long awaited Bungie adoption has arrived, with a loadout that will flood your Halo nostalgia with warm fuzziness. I, for one, played upwards of 12 hours of Destiny on the first day and haven't been this addicted to a game since Halo 3. This unique re-creation of the 'Halo ideal' steers clear of 343 industries' botched COD-style Halo and offers the meat and potatoes of any true franchise fan. This is clearly a Bungie game. For those of like-mind and the individuals that believed Halo 2 and 3 were the height of console gaming, you will truly appreciate the single-player to multiplayer transition. The seamlessness that Bungie/Activision created is a genuinely innovative and revolutionary idea. The concept of bringing in-game single-player 'loot' to a multiplayer setting has yet to be achieved so successfully. Yes, you heard correctly: single-player RPG 'loot' into an arena style FPS PvP.

The most beautiful aspects of this game are the most simple. The idea of summoning a pocket rocket bike in 1.5 seconds changes the entire speed of play, and the wonderfully nostalgic Halo-esque music that begins to drum away in PvE firefights, for instance. It feels like Unreal Tournament mixed with Borderlands and Halo to create some freakishly different, exotic game. To the Halo fans that love the moon boots, they're back. Everyone gets jetpacks (unlike in Reach) so the ninja moves are real and fun as hell. The beauty of this MMORPGFPS is it's ability to diversify multiplayer settings incredibly quickly.

Nonetheless, Destiny has a few daunting features: a soft level cap of 20 leaves it open to quick and shallow criticism. The multiplayer's Titan smash is arguably too powerful and some vehicles need to be nerfed but otherwise the game is well balanced. The AI is moderately intelligent but overall quite predictable yet, it is extremely entertaining to kill nonetheless. The 'worlds' are large but not overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. Nor do they have a sense of endlessness that you would expect from a sandbox title. Regardless, there is a lot to explore with winding sub-level 'dungeons' to keep anyone entertained for extended periods of time.

If Destiny is carried properly onto the competitive platform, it has endless potential. The armour variants offered add countless complexities to multiplayer gameplay. The minute stat boosts offered through a wide variety of armour tweaks individualize play styles tremendously. Every player needs to understand their play style intimately to maximize their gear's efficiency. Destiny has the precision and fluidity of the Halo series but the gear complexities of great RPG. It re-introduced the beautifully simple, yet perfect concept of 'weapons on map': The brilliant idea whereby teams need to fight for control of key areas that spawn 'power weapon ammo'. While this game has the potential to be too far reaching to the point of self-harm, it is by no means a Molyneaux game (Fable 2-3). As long as the publishers release competitive outlets for its more genuine gamer audience, it has a lot of potential. That is, after all, the Halo way.

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The Killing Floor

The zombies are back only this time they're not zombies, they're more like creepy lab experiments with zombie-like tendencies. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Killing Floor which I picked up last year during the steam sale and hadn’t really gotten into playing it until lately. A friend of mine and I were looking for a co-op shooter to play and the horror theme of Killing Floor seemed right up our alley.

The game has an interesting story but it’s not at the forefront; it’s more hidden through dialogue in the objective gametype maps. From what I understand, you and your friends play as the military dropped into hostile areas around England and its countryside, with the sole task of cleaning up failed military cloning experiments, and you can't leave until they’ve all been dealt with.

There’s a ton of maps to play on—either in-game or community created—and they're all fairly open allowing you to adapt to situations and waves differently. For example: bottlenecking weak enemies that can swarm you at a choke point or using large open areas to more easily kite and kill the larger and stronger “Zeds” safely.

When you start the game it comes off as being a lot harder than it really is and it’s because the game has a slight learning curve. Most times when you play a horde-mode game they're slightly more forgiving with the early waves and Killing Floor is no different. But for a new player you won't realize how much damage and how easily the zeds can kill you. Add in the fact that their attacks slow you down, so getting caught in a crowd of even the weakest enemies can mean a quick death. Once you get a hang of the game and its controls, you learn how to kite and kill your enemies while at least attempting to keep them at arm's reach.

Killing Floor also has a class system with perks. They all have their own strengths and weapons, but that doesn't mean if you were playing as a commando you couldn't use a weapon that's good for a demolitionist. The only sideeffect to doing so is that it would just deal less damage because class perks increase damage and capacity while reducing overall weapon costs. Speaking of costs, the game rewards you for kills with cash and a bounty at the end of each round, which you then spend on better weapons, ammo, and body armor, all of which are pretty much necessary if you want to survive till the end.

Now the game has a wide variety of enemies. There’s clots, which are basically cannon fodder and only dangerous if there's a whole lot of them. Then there's gorefast which are a little bigger and angrier than a clot, and also weild a massive sword for an arm. There's also bloats which are massive bloated corpses that puke acid on you; stalkers which are invisible naked women; crawler's,a man spider hybrid that’s straight out of my nightmares; and husks, giant men with a rocket launchers for a hand. There's also sirens which are horrifying women in straitjackets who do a giant AOE scream attack; scrakes which are psychotic men who run at you with a chainsaw and lastly the two toughest enemies: Fleshpounds and Patriarchs.

Now Fleshpounds are these walking behemoths with metal fused to their bodies and giant spiked clubs at the end of each arm. They also have these massive glowing lights in their chest which lets you know there mood. Yellow means all good and red means I am to murder you and everything you love. Once the light turns red, they get increased movement and attack speed and if you don't kill them quick enough they can easily kill a group. Last but definitely not least is the Patriarch. Now the patriarch is the final boss who you fight in a bonus wave after you’ve been to each level. He’s definitely nothing to laugh at; you have to work as a team if you want even a hope of taking him down. He has a massive health bar and invisibility. He's also equipped with a chain gun and a rocket launcher that can kill you in one shot. He’s also the smartest of the enemies. Once you’ve weakened him he'll run away and hide to regain his health and come after you again, so you have to actively hunt him down or else he is nearly impossible to kill. He’ll pick you off one by one making it even harder to kill him in the end.

Killing Floor has seen a lot of love from the community over the years and has a cult following. I was surprised when I logged into it to see how many servers and active players there were. I’ve never started a game and had it just be me and my friend till the end, which surprised me considering the game is fairly old. Another cool note is that they do holiday updates, like for example: as of Yesterday (October 16th, 2014) and on until the 3rd of November, there’s a Halloween event where they reskin the enemies in festive and horrifying outfits. The same goes for Christmas and honestly it’s worth checking out around the holidays because nothing says Christmas cheer like blowing Santa's head clean off. If you’re looking for a shooter to play with a bunch of friends and battle back hordes of mutated freaks, look no further than Killing Floor! It’s on sale on steam now all the way to the 30th of October. There’s also a sequel on the way but there isn’t much info on it just yet, just a couple screen shots and some teaser footage.

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Disney Infinity 2.0, Part 1: Enter the Avengers

You've got your Iron Man, your Thor and your Hulk at the end of the month. What else do you need? Perhaps a bit more some substance. Disney Infinity 2.0 has been one of my most anticipated games for quite some time now. Take the magic of the first game and add a hefty cast of Marvelcharacters; the results sounded like a match made in heaven. By all means, it is definitely a fantastic team-up, with a few disappointments drizzled into the Avengers playset.

Disney infinity 2.0 is very much the same as the original but with quite a decent and well needed amount of upgrades. New skill trees will have you anticipating your favorite Avenger's super powers as they're gradually unlocked at a decent enough pace. A new combat system to accompany the new skill set is also absolutely fantastic. My gal and I have been playing non-stop and she simply can't get enough of flying around with Iron Man and unleashing all forms of death beams. It's a simple system that expands on the original by adding easy command. You may now hold your attack trigger to unleash one more, click another trigger to unleash a super, hold jump and a bumper to fly. It's all incredibly entertaining but simple, the charm of this series. The attention to detail on the characters themselves is brilliant. For example, Iron Man's flight is sweet and all but when Thortakes to the air, he's followed by a whirlwind of air which further demonstrates the speed he's flying at. Black Widow has an appropriately feminine and attractive hip-sway walk. The effects are bright and colorful and so are the humorous interactions of characters. There are a plethora of vocalisations that will leave you smiling. Since we had pre-ordered, we got Groot as our bonus free figure and we discovered that even the Avengerswill interact with him. You can't help but glee at the first time you hear the exchange: "I.Am.Groot." replied by Thor's "Yes....you are indeed Groot".  In essence, the characters are exceptionally wonderful. They feel severely more sophisticated than the initial cast and are far more immersive.

As a result, the playset for the Avengers is fun simply because you get to mess around with the cast via objective based missions and that is all. The Avengers playset is unfortunately the downside to your entire Disney Infinity 2.0 experience. It's not entirely bad, it's simply disappointing. When we first bought the original Disney Infinity, we were given three playsets in one. All three of those playsets took a few days to complete and were entirely fun. Even the frustrating bits were entertaining and bloody hell, you got to take part in sailing the seven seas and mess up some bad mothas in ship battles. This time around, you spend the same amount for one playset and two mini-game disks.  The Avengers playset started off fun. Initially, we were awed by how big the city was and the character abilities. Then it went downhill from there. Missions constantly repeated themselves and we found ourselves doing the exact same thing throughout the whole playset. It was both dull and frustrating. Sure, there's some fantastic cameos by Sif, Waspand Cpt.Marvel (Carol Danvers, who's one of my favorites), but there was nothing to keep us going except for empty promises. The antagonists are Lokiand Modok, which is fantastic, if only we were able to battle them. There's one Loki boss fight right at the beginning and that's it. We have no idea what happens to Modok afterwards. Supposedly, if you collect all the coins in the city, you unlock the option to play as Rocket and Nova. Through them, you face Modok. Which is the dumbest decision I have yet seen. Nova comes in the Spider-Manplayset which is another $35-45 and Rocketis another fifteen. Why would you have to spend more to get the entirety of the main storyline? They could've easily added some other obscure antagonist for those characters to face off against but why limit us to only one half of the bloody game? It feels stupid and if you're on a budget, you won't get the full experience within the first few weeks. WHAT!!? It's one of those two steps forward and one step backwards situations. The game is still great and you won't really be playing the playsets much other than to get all the unlocks for the toybox. However, it was such a pleasant surprise in the original game to find out that the playsets weren't just a bonus but a genuine fun and clever experience. You won't get that here in Avengers.

All in all, the game is fantastic; it truly is. You get a plethora of fantastic characters with different play-styles that will fill you with joy. Just don't expect much enjoyment out of their default story adventure. You'll get a few giggles as you run rampant in the city but that will be short lived. Oh well: perhaps the Spider-Man and Guardians playset will prove to be better. I'll make sure to review those as soon as I get my greedy little hands on them. Stay tuned for the second part of my Disney Infinity 2.0 article, as I delve into the far superior ToyBox mode, which will guarantee your need to own this game. Until then, ride some rainbows and wreck havoc with an Iron Suit.

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Super Smash In Your Pocket

Well the time has come, Super Smash Bros 3DS is here and I no longer have a social life...unless you count playing online, but that's not really social now is it? I’ve been playing Super Smash Bros. since back when it came out on the N64- back when the roster was just 12 loveable fan favourites, all from their own franchises. That roster seems tiny compared to the current roster of 49 characters that they've implemented—with an extra 3 tacked on for the Mii fighters—it seems things have changed quite a bit over the years and a lot of it's for the better.

So since its release, I’ve been spending most of my time playing Smash. The initial grind was for characters and stages but now I find myself trying to unlock more and more challenges and grinding away at them. That’s not to say it's a bad thing, honestly, it’s been the most fun of the game just trying to get better and better scores, more KOs and just general challenge oriented playing of the game. Now I’m not gonna lie to you and say that "I’ve played everyone" and "I've done everything in the game" just yet, but I have played my fair share and so far and it’s been a ton of fun. New characters, new stages to explore and new game types to try out—whether it's old favourites like Home Run Smash or the new Target Attack, you’re bound to find something you love. The new Target Attack is actually a play on Angry Birds, it's surprisingly a ton of fun and that's coming from someone who can’t stand Angry Birds.

I’ve played most of the new roster—except for a few that are just outside of my wheelhouse—and all in all I have to say everyone seems like they would be fun to play in the hands of the right players. I actually have gravitated to the Mii fighters over anyone else; although I find it a little disappointing that they can't be played online (I guess it’s for balancing issues).

One of the really cool improvements they've made on the game are the Omega stages, which basically removes the random elements from a stage but keeps the aesthetic and music, essentially turning every stage into a themed Final Destination, which is awesome. Normally with Smash Bros., there are some stages you just don’t play because some ridiculous elements make them unplayable in a fair fight kind of situation, but that's all gone now thanks to the Omega levels. I found it kind of boring after a while in SSB: Brawl because my friends and I would only play the same 5 to 6 stages, but now any stage can be played without that looming sense of “you won cause of some bullshit.”

I’m not gonna get into too much detail about the characters, because discovering moves and combos is innately part of the fun of the game, but I have to admit that the new editions to the roster have been a ton of fun. The slight changes they’ve made to the old characters have been really nice too. I honestly was really surprised by the game; I didn’t think it was going to be bad, but I had no idea how good it was going to be.

I also expected the controls on the 3DS to be average but I was really surprised at how responsive they were and how quickly I was able to pick it up and play. As someone who hasn’t bought a Wii U yet, I was actually really excited to hear that Smash was going to come out for the 3DS. It was nice knowing I didn’t have to buy a brand new console to play one of my favorite franchises and the game is well-polished to boot.

There's also a competitive online mode that I haven't put too much time into yet just cause of lag and some difficulty with patching but that's the next step for me. I’m gonna post another update next week after giving the game some more time and comment on any meta’s or power rankings I’ve noticed after taking a crack at the ranked mode.

So far, this game has been amazing, and the ease of access for playing local multiplayer is insane! It takes nothing to start up a lobby and start playing with your friends, kudos to Nintendo. If you don’t already have it, you should go out and get it because this is definitely one of the better Super Smash games they’ve come out with.

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Loading Destiny

I sunk my teeth into Destinya bit more this week. Probably put in another 6-7 hours. I was able to beat the "single player" campaign and did some grinding as well, if you can even call what I did grinding. At this point I feel as though I've experienced enough of Destiny to talk about it, although at the same time I've only scratched the surface of the late-game content.

Destiny Awaits

Currently I sit at level 20 which is the soft cap. I say soft cap because you are able to get to a level past 20 but not by any conventional means—you know, with experience. Instead what you have to do is find equipment that has a special attribute on it called light. It is this light that will level you past 20. It's an interesting idea for sure and I don't remember it being used in any other game before. But, it isn't without its faults. Destiny basically forces people to grind for equipment once they hit level 20. I have yet to take part in any real grinding since someone recommended that I focus my efforts in another way. But essentially the way to grind in Destiny is by focusing on kills per minute. Since each enemy has a drop rate for loot and the game ignores an enemy's level, enemies will drop equipment for your level instead—which is awesome by the way—so you can grind anywhere you like, be it against strong or weak enemies.

Now what got recommended to me was to focus on daily and weekly events. Doing these missions is not only more active and entertaining for the player, but I also gain money and I can work towards my bounties, which are these passive missions—like headshot killing 100 enemies, or melee kill 30 enemies without dying—that give you experience and faction points, the latter of which can be used to buy sweet ass equipment for level 20+ characters.

So to get to level 20 I went through the story, which is negligible at best. I can easily say I did not pay much attention to it, and maybe not because it was bad per say, but because it fell into the MMO trope, at least for me. The moment I start playing a game with a friend (or even when I was streaming games) I get too focused on the co-op / talking with people that I hardly ever pay attention to the narrative. The same exact thing happened in Halo. I never played Halo alone and to this day I could not tell you what the story was about other than you gotta go kill aliens before they wipe you out...which spoiler alert: That's more or less the gist of it in Destiny.

The missions are enjoyable at least, and the environments—Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars—are all unique looking and are host to different enemies and factions. The smaller 2-3 person raids in each zone are like longer missions with big ass bosses at the end. They're pretty cool, but unless you're a higher level, I would suggest going in with 3 people versus 2. The larger 6 man raid is only available to people that are at least level 25, so I have yet to try it, but it's supposed to be fantastic.

A few things do bug me about Destiny though. The load times are atrocious, and I really do mean atrocious. This is like first Mass Effect elevator bad. But whatever, it won't kill me. It's a fairly minor point that won't stop anyone from buying or playing the game, but it does get in the way everywhere.

Another thing is the public events. After completing a couple of missions at each location, you get the ability to do a patrol around the map. On patrol, you can pick up inconsequential side missions that don't take too long to complete, and on occasion a public event will occur. A public event is like a mission everyone can take part in together, and they just appear on the map. They usually consist of destroying a large boss character, or defending a point from a barrage of enemies. If you've played any MMO recently, they are all starting to do this. Guild Wars 2 was one of the first games I played with public events in it and it's quite a bit of fun...you know, when there are actually people in the zone helping! The first public event I took part in, there was a ton of people joining in. It was super cool and I had a lot of fun. Every other time one appears on a map, I'm apparently the only person around to do it. It's possible to finish with a gold rating on your own, but holy shit is it hard! One of the reasons for this might be that there is a cap on how many people are in a patrol instance at any given time, and if memory serves, it's not a very large number (8-12 people I think but don't hold me to that). It's just not enough.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all I'm enjoying my time with Destiny. I love playing online with my friends, and I really want to hit level 25 to try out that large scale raid. Tune in for more next week!

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Battleborn, More Like BattleAWESOME

Through the years, gamers are exposed to a slew of game producers who release titles that just may tickle your fancy. Some of these titles infatuate us so much that we find ourselves absolutely obsessed with them. Once the producer of said awesome game follows up with an equally awesome sequel then we come across, what I like to call, the team bias. Team bias is when you will eat up just about everything a production team will spoon feed you because you're convinced that they're the best. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong; in the case of GearBox and Battleborn, you're absolutely right!

Just to get this out of the way, I am all kinds of crazy hyped for this game. Gearbox have left their mark on the world with their fantastic Borderlands series. I've played countless hours of those titles and considering that they're putting the same kind of personality into a MOBA game results in me being more than enthused. That being said, there isn't too much information released yet on Battlebornbut, everything that is sounds incredibly promising. Like I expressed, it's a GearBox original, how can it possibly be bad?

Nevertheless, this week brought forth a couple of video previews allowing us to gaze at the intensity that is Battleborn. When I first heard that it was going to be a MOBA with a first-person perspective, I was really baffled. As a fairly new player to DOTA 2, I figured the whole genre was played the same way but watching it in action, whoa, excellent! It truly looks and feels like borderlands but in a more controlled environments framed by lanes and towers. There's a campaign mode that's available and allows you to play cooperatively, as well as the standard competitive multiplayer. The trailers also allowed us a peak into the narrative. So far, we know that all the stars in the universe have darkened except for one. The different races have retreated from their home worlds and find themselves together on this last planet struggling to survive. Nothing crazy, in fact it's a standard general storyline but considering their record, GearBox is sure to make it entertaining enough.

In contrast, the character information that has been revealed is pretty entertaining. We now know that there are a number of factions that your character originates from. The Peacekeepersare a law-bound people who enforce regulations in a strict manner. The Eldrid are lovers of nature and the natural order of things. The Jennerit Empire are your born-to-war conquerors. The Rogues are simply "factionless" characters and the Last Light Consortium are profiteers who sells arms to all factions. The characters revealed were some of the most unique designs I have seen in a long while. Montana is a giant soldier who wields a Gatling-gun but has an itty-bitty head. Miko is some fungi ninja, who turns out to be of the fairer sex. Marquis, my personal favorite, is quite a dapper android fellow, complete with rifle and monocle. There are tons of other characters to discover and many more that haven't even been revealed yet. Much like the Borderlands games, they present a lively, colorful and wild array of characters. The designs alone intrigued me enough to look into the game further.

Sadly, not much else has been revealed but the gameplay looks solid and with the standard M.O.B.A. setup of having to regain levels every time you play is an interesting mechanic for an fps. We know that there are two sets of trees that allow you to experiment with your characters. We also know that each character has a special move of sorts that is unlocked around level 6 or 7. There also seems to be some objective-based missions but nothing is too clear at the moment. Regardless, I, for one, am incredibly stoked for this game. In any case, what do you all think? Will this be as popular as Borderlands or DOTA? Looking forward to seeing any and all of you online upon launch. Toodles.

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Hide and Seek LOL

I’ve been playing League of Legends for about 4 years now but I’ve never been a huge fan of the ranked system; so when I hit level 30, it never gave me much endgame content or satisfaction until I discovered the player created custom game types and the wacky crazy fun that they offer. There are a bunch of different game types and this week I’m gonna talk about one of the more common ones: Hide and Seek. I'll give you a brief summary of the rules, and some strategies that are useful.

This game is always played on Crystal Scar, in Draft Mode. The blue team plays the hunters and receives first pick; purple side plays the hiders and will get the counter-picks. The objective of the game is to hide and seek obviously, and killing the hunters is pretty frowned upon. Hiders get 5 lives and the game lasts 40 minutes. The map objectives are off limits and capturing one means the game is over and the team at fault automatically loses. The game is won when all the hiders run out of lives, or if forty minutes pass without the seekers having killed all hiders. There are a few smaller rules like: only one person on each team may have a passive slowing item active items have no restrictions so long as they slow or speed up, etc..

Hunters have to wait 2 minutes to leave the base after the game starts to give the hiders a head start, and of course hiders must leave the base before the 2 minute mark. The centre fog of war is the only place you hide, as the outside rings of the map are off limits and if a hider is found hiding in this area (different from quickly getting the health relic) they automatically lose 1 life. Any side not sticking to the rules loses 3 minutes per fault, meaning if the seekers are caught cheating once, the hiders need 3 minutes less to win the game by surviving.

Three champs are auto banned and for pretty good reasons: Evelynn, for obvious reasons (she is always invisible unless you are on top of her); Kassadin, because he's impossible to catch or escape from; and Rengar, because the cooldown on his ultimate is too short making it either a guaranteed escape or kill depending on which team he’s on. The rest of the rules are more bureaucratic so here's the list. I had on a word document on my pc that was stolen from a forum post somewhere.

Seeking Rules

• Seekers are allowed 1 passive slowing item on the team (ex: Rylais, Frozen Mallet, Iceborn Gauntlet)
• Oracles are banned until 15 minutes
• Seekers must return to their base BELOW 300 HP. Likewise they must be given the chance to do so.
• If a seeker does not return to his base BELOW 300 HP then none of the kills he assists in or gets do not count toward hider lives.
• If a seeker does not return to his base BELOW 300 HP the hiders may kill him after a short period of 5 seconds.
• Once a seeker begins to "back" they must finish the channel, regardless of a hider stumbling onto them
• Seekers may not leave their base until 2 minutes into the game, while "their base" counts as the area where enemies get hit by the fountains laser.
• Seekers may not kill a unit on "Grace". If done, the kill does not count. If repeated, the hiders lose 3 minutes.

Hiding Rules

• A hider may not use an ability unless it provides "Hard Crowd Control (CC)" (SLOW, STUN, ROOT, PULL, CAGE, FEAR, TAUNT, PUSH), MOBILITY, SHIELDING or HEALING.
• Skills that provide only a SILENCE, VISION or DMG ONLY ARE NOT ALLOWED AT ANY POINT. ("Silence" and "Vision" are soft CC and are illegal.)
• Combination skills that lead to any of the named "Hard CC", such as brand stuns, kennen stuns, Lee Sin Q or Tempest are NOT ALLOWED. Riven's 3rd "Broken Wings" is allowed, so long as she is not INTENTIONALLY using the first 2 procs to deal damage and ONLY being used for escape purposes.
• No more than 2 hiders may hide together. This is to stop the popular group and run tactic.
• If there are 2 hiders in a brush together a third is not allowed to join them even being chased, if done, the hider loses 1 life.
• The group and run tactic is also not allowed at any point, even being chased it is only allowed to get help from up to 2 more hides NEVER from 3 or more.
• Thornmail, GA, Frozen Mallet and Sunfire Cape are banned for hiders.
• Any items that don't give movement, cc or defense are automatically banned in addition to items already mentioned. If bought, caught, and confronted you must return to the base and sell the item. You may not buy any additional items afterwards. You are given "Grace" for that time.
• Hiders must hide in the center of the fog of war.
• Hiders may NEVER auto-attack (even to heal) unless it is A HARD CC SKILL (udyr bear stance, blitzcrank popup, etc.) and even then only once per application. If abused and auto-attacks occur outside of CC, a warning should be issued, afterwards the hider will lose 1 life upon the hunter's discretion, if properly warned.
• Once a hider re-spawns, it is their responsibility to state the time upon when their "Grace" ends in /ALL. If they do not, they do not receive grace and may be hunted freely, the timer still applies for 45 seconds regardless.
• Once a hider dies, they may buy until they re-spawn and up to 45 seconds afterwards during their grace period. At the point when the hider spawns, they must write in the "/all" the exact time they have re-spawned and has 45 seconds from then on to leave the base and hide. This is "Grace" and is suggested to be used to run and hide, not stay and buy.
• If you interfere while on "Grace" your "Grace" ends promptly, you are now free game to hunt.
• During the 45 seconds of "Grace" hunters may not intentionally follow hiders.
• If a hider fails to leave base within "Grace" they lose 1 life and they are immediately free game to hunt.
• Hiders may not intentionally/accidentally/subconsciously/figuratively/literally prevent seekers from backing.
• Rylais does not legitimize a hider's spell, but one may be purchased among the group.
• Teemo Mushrooms may not be "Stacked" and are limited to 2 per bush or bush-sized-map-space.
• Shaco boxes may not be "Stacked" and are limited to 2 per bush or bush-sized-map-space.

Final thoughts

The game type is a ton of fun and takes very little to get up and running. It’s also the best way to teach new players the finer points of mechanics and escaping on a lot of champions. It’s a good way to train yourself how to juke and take advantage of player movements and vision control. This is the first “for fun” game type I ever played and I instantly fell in love with it. If you're looking for something other than ARAM (All-Random-All-Mid) and the basic Summoner's Rift, I highly recommend giving this a try. It has a great community of die-hard fans and it just shows that players can make anything fun, even Dominion.

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Starting Destiny

This week will serve as an abridge for my upcoming post. I am still currently playing Destiny, although much to my chagrin I have had other obligations that have stilted my play time. Within the first 2 days I had pumped a good 8 hours into the single player (part of that co-op / the 3 man raids) and another few hours into the Crucible which is what they call the PVP arena. Yes this is a lot of play time for 2 days, but now being a week into the game, I have not had much time to put anything else into it.

First things first, Destiny is a huge amount of fun. It's incredibly enjoyable whichever way you decide to play it. Want to run through the game solo? That works. Want to go around doing the campaign with a friend? Even more fun. Want to kill your fellow gamers in a blood bath? Go right ahead. It's all solid and the game really does control just like Halo—which isn't a bad thing considering how much that series is adored.

I would go into a lot more detail, but I feel as though I need to sink my teeth into Destiny a little more to get a full opinion if it. Right now, it's great any which way you decide to play—with or without friends basically—but I want to go through all the campaign content and see what's what. As of this writing, the 6 man raids have yet to open for the public to play, but they will be available shortly. Those 6 man raids are supposed to be "end game" content, and since I have yet to beat the game, I will stop writing and start pumping more time into Destiny! I have a few spare hours this week, so I will definitely put them to good use!

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F3AR: Sibling Rivalry And One Scary Pregnant Woman

Horror games have always been a popular gaming genre but always had a smaller pool of titles than most other choices. In the last few years, the horror genre has exploded with the consistently popular viewing of internet "let's play" videos. I was always really attracted to titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but never went out of my way to play anything else of the sort. Insert Fear 3 here. I picked this title up at a magical and spectacular place known as Wal-Mart for the fantastic price of ten dollars. I must say, a creepy grudge rip-off emblazoned upon the cover and the promise of couch co-op enticed me quicker than a beer fountain made entirely of gold and glory. That being said, I popped the disc into my Playstation 3; my lil' lady and I ventured off upon an adventure of morbid proportions. It was time to slay a howling, pregnant woman and deal with brotherly issues.

I must admit, I have not played the first two Fears, but the game does a great job at retelling you prior events. Pointman, our protagonist, was birthed alongside his brother Fettel by some evil little child-woman. Although both brothers were tested on for a super soldier project of sorts, Fettel gave into his rage and lust for power and sought vengeance. In other words, he's the evil brother, while the quiet Pointman is trying to be a pseudo-hero. Fear 2 seems to have ended with our hero putting a bullet in his brother's head and is now constantly haunted by their neurological link. In Fear 3, the brothers team up to seek out their mother who has raped a soldier and is about to give birth to some evil offspring. The brothers bicker about whether they should consume the child and "become like gods" or simply save the world. It's a strange story and somewhat clichéd, but Fettel's banter was entertaining enough to finish it.

In any case, the story isn't what you're playing the game for, especially if you make a dim-wit move as I did and picked the series up in its third installment. You play this game for the ridiculousness that is offered to you. Similarly to Resident Evil 5, the game allows you to play a horror with the splendour of two-player split-screen. You and your best bud will enjoy eight levels of a bullet-time slow motion skill and self-exploding body possessions. You'll tackle some demonic hordes and a serious number of S.W.A.T like forces. These elements coupled with an excellent ambiance that will have you fill your pants with fecal matter is an equation for success. Despite the graphics not being up to par with most games of the current-gen systems, it really presents you with a stressful mood when playing. You spend most of the game devastating teams of angry men with guns; however, every once in a while, you come across a decapitated corpse and demonic shadows. Toss in a few zombie creatures towards the end-game and you've got chills running down your spine. It definitely beckons you to experience more and more of it.

Incidentally, the game has an interesting system that allows your characters to gain points and rank up. This is applied to your profile through all the game modes. You will also notice that there is a form of competition amongst the campaign that rates both brothers via points acquired by the end of the levels. The ending is determined by which of the brothers is the "favorite son". The title is given at the end of each level and the number of times this has happened is calculated at the end. Both endings are fun and it offers some replay  value or at the very least a second run through the game. Fear 3 also offers an online multiplayer mode, however we couldn't access it due to a lack of a player base. Okay well, maybe we didn't try to hard 'cause the offline co-op was so much fun. Expect yelling and jumping and rude comments. It can get intense and you may need your favorite Michael Bolton tune and a box of tissues after a rage filled fit when you died three times in a row. If you game with your significant other, expect to take all the blame and to present them a box of chocolates with the words "you were right honey" inscribed into each chocolaty morsel.

All in all, the game is pretty decent. Far better than I expected but I'd be lying if I said it was extraordinary. It does have lackluster graphics and it's got the standard FPS controls. A campaign on the short side doesn't work in its favor either. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable experience and another option for a good time with a friend. A terrifying atmosphere and fun character interactions provide for a decent time-killer. Besides, what other game pits you against an evil pregnant woman who's constantly howling from pain due to contractions. Morbid right? A success in my book, just don't run people over on your way to Wal-Mart. This is Charlie signing-off and thinking that a golden beer fountain ain't a bad idea.

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Local Multiplayer: Having Friends Has Never Been Better - Part II

Where Were We?

This is the 2nd article of a 2-part piece on couch competitive and co-op games. If you haven’t read part 1 yet you may do so here. If you have then let’s jump back into it!

Gang Beasts!

Gang Beasts! is a 4-player competitive beat ‘em up. It is in pre-alpha and hasn’t even hit Early Access on Steam yet but looks very promising indeed. It is a hilarious competitive game where you play as a humanesque thing that resembles Playdough. The control scheme is awkward and the object of the game is to kill or throw your opponents out of the game.

Everyone shares the same screen as it zooms in and out to fit everyone inside. You can move around, jump, collapse to the ground and raise your arms. Using an Xbox controller, the left and right bumpers control your left and right arms respectively. Tap a bumper button to throw a punch, hold it to grab. You can combine grabs with the X button to lift your opponent above your head which allows you to carry them around to dispose of them. The different ways in which you can kill another player include: dumping them in a fire pit, dropping them in some sort of mulching machine, tossing them into an ocean, throwing them off a moving truck, leaving them in front of a train, etc.

This is a game where the controls are manageable but not fantastically responsive. This is OK though as it really is one of the things that makes this game amusing and exciting. It also puts the rookies and experienced players on a relatively even playing field; Most of the time you will try to do something to be left thinking “This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to happen, but it will do”.

GangBeasts is currently a 4 player competitive game but it looks as though the final release is slated to have a co-op mode as well.

The GangBeasts! pre-alpha is free and available on Desura, it is soon to be an Early Access title on Steam.

Hidden inPlain Sight

Another offline only couch co-op/competitive game which is incredibly simple and pretty fun is Hidden in Plain Sight. It’s a basic isometric 2D game with very basic sprites and gameplay. There are 5 different game modes so I’ll explain the general flow of the game and then go into how each mode differs.

Each game starts with a room full of characters, the majority are NPC’s and some are playable characters. Everyone looks similar and there is no indication of who’s who on the screen. The first thing to do in all of the game modes is to find which sprite you are controlling.

A few of the game modes put hidden players against snipers. The hidden players must walk within the crowd of NPC’s, either collecting coins or killing NPC players. Now it would be obvious if you could see a player kill someone in plain sight, so the game cleverly hides each player’s activity with something similar to a fog of war. If a player kills someone or picks up a coin, a noise is triggered to indicate the event, but visually everything will go on as normal. Coins will only disappear and death animations will only trigger once a sniper pans over the coin collected or the NPC that was assassinated. Each sniper has only 3 bullets to find the target but may mark players who they believe to be innocent.

The game is 4 players and can be all vs. all, or 1 team against another where team sizes are irrelevant.

Hidden in Plain Sight is available on Steam as an Early Access title for $4.99.

Final Thoughts

All the games in this article and the one that preceded it are phenomenal. They provide laughs and cries and create gaming experiences that I haven’t had since the days of my PS1 and PS2 in regards to couch co-op and couch competitiveness. These games invoke some of the best gaming experiences I have had with friends in a really long time. They are not deep and they are easy to pick up and play. They provide hours of entertainment when played in moderation. You may or may not be able to sink hours and hours into each of these games alone but it's simple enough to jump from one to another. I’m incredibly happy that couch gaming is coming back and we are seeing titles being released for pure enjoyment with friends rather than in depth, story-driven, slow-paced games. I’m also glad that the Triple-A titles have bored me to the extent that I went looking for other genres to satisfy my need for fun in video games. If you want a fun time with friends look no further than this list. And if you want to know which title kept me up for hours and hours, it’s SpeedRunners: that game is fantastic and has a ranked online component too.

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Local Multiplayer: Having Friends Has Never Been Better - Part I

What’s Up

This article is a 2-part piece that primarily focuses on my favorite couch competitive and couch co-op games at the moment.

I’ve always loved competitive gaming. First Person Shooter’s were my entry point, starting with Counterstrike just over 10 years ago along with Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield 2. I played each during a period when these games were introducing new concepts, had large communities and they came packed with content. Nowadays, gaming companies are releasing reiterations of their franchises every year and it’s just tiring—I get bored and can’t actually afford to spend $100 for a full game when I know it’s so similar to last year’s version. Since I’ve found myself losing interest in FPSs and the player bases for my favorites are long gone, I went out on a quest of discovery to find a genre to fill the void at an affordable price point. This fix is indie couch co-op and competitive gaming.

Why You Should Care

Indie couch co-op and competitive games are simple, addictive and, most importantly, fun. They usually are under $15 and provide hours of entertainment. For example, the last few nights I have been playing one of these titles and saying to myself “just one more game...” That started around midnight. The next thing I knew it was 2AM. These games are pick up and play, easy to learn and difficult to master.

SpeedRunners

SpeedRunnersis a 4-player, fast-paced racing game where you control a character racing around a 2D platforming environment. You can jump off walls, grapple on ceilings and shoot your opponents, all whilst avoiding the stage’s obstacles. Everybody shares the same screen, and the screen follows the player that is in the lead. As soon as someone falls behind and leaves the screen, they are eliminated. Once a player is eliminated, the screen size begins to shrink, making it increasingly difficult for the remaining players to stay alive. All this is going on while you shoot rockets at one another, drop mines and grapple your way to victory.

The game naturally becomes harder when you are the leader because you can’t see what lies ahead, this means the players behind have a chance to catch up while the leader trips and stumbles into objects. This is why it is difficult to master, if you want to be great at SpeedRunners, you have to be incredibly familiar with each level.

Not only does the game have 9 awesome levels, it has Steam Workshop support so that the list of maps is ever-increasing.

SpeedRunners is 4 players and can be played locally or online. It’s currently in early access on Steam and costs $10 but is often going on various sales on the bundle sites.

Nidhogg

Oh Nidhogg, the 2-player game which combines fencing, tug-of-war and Tremors, the movie about a giant underground worm.

Each game starts with you and your foe sharing the same screen facing one another with a sword in hand. The object of the game is to get past your opponent and keep on running. The catch: your opponent has to die in order for the screen to move in the direction you are headed. So if you kill your buddy, you can advance and they will respawn in your way further down the road. The game switches frantically between offensive, defensive and evasive gameplay. It creates many chaotic encounters, laughs and backstabbings.

To top it all off, if you do win, you end up being devoured by a giant worm known as Nidhogg.

Nidhogg is available on Steam and PS4 for $14.99 and is a 2 player competitive game with both online and offline play.

TowerFall: Ascension

TowerFall is a fast paced 4 player couch competitive game. You play within a 2D arena that loops around on itself, meaning that if you leave the screen on one side you will appear on the other. The object of the game is to kill everything on the screen whilst avoiding death yourself. Your weapon is a bow that can shoot various arrow types. You can also find items inside chests which provide you with different arrow types, defensive items or abilities. Your only defence against another player’s arrows (or your own), is a dashing ability. If you are going to be hit, you can intercept the arrow with a dash and you will pick up that arrow and cheat death.

The looping screen is a huge part of the gameplay as players aren’t the only thing that loop, arrows do too, meaning you can shoot an arrow off one edge of the screen and it can nail your opponent on the other.

There is both a 4-player PVP competitive mode and also a 2-player co-op mode where you fight against various monsters and minions. The co-op is fun but the game really shines when battling your friends.

TowerFall: Ascension is available on Steam and PS4 at $14.99. It’s only available for offline play sadly.

Final Thoughts

These 3 games are tremendous amounts of fun and I cannot recommend them enough. If you have friends to play with, pick them up now.

My personal favorite out of the 3 games above is definitely SpeedRunners because of it’s online match making and fast paced gameplay. It’s not a game with a real end to it so the pleasure comes from becoming a master at each level and destroying your friends.

Nidhogg is something I can pick up and play for short periods of time but is far more enjoyable if you play it alongside other similar games. I find that I get bored of it quite quickly and like to jump from Nidhogg to other games back to Nidhogg fairly frequently but I do know people that could play it for hours on end.

TowerFall is another favorite of mine as every game is completely different and unpredictable making it always fresh and fun to play, unless you are getting wrecked by someone that is far better than you. It is possible to combat the difference in player skill level by adding mutators which completely changes the dynamic of each game. These mutators force even the most experienced players to relearn how to deal with each levels environment.     

To Be Continued…

Come back for part 2 of this multi-segment article that will include a few other games that I have had ample amounts of fun with.

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Transformers Universe: Fun In The Cybertronian Sun

Ah, I've finally gotten the chance to cover a Transformersgame, a free one at that! Introducing Transformers Universe, a free-to-play action RPG developed by Jagexfor the PC. Incidentally, the term MMORPG has been given to the game, however there's a lack of roaming and instead the game provides quick multiplayer action. In other words, it's a multiplayer mode on steroids. Therefore, if you're looking for a story-line or single player option, your best bet is the two HighMoon Studiogames that I'll cover in a later review. The only sliver of a narrative here is "kill the opposing faction," works for me.

Firstly, I love Transformers and consequently, I have high expectations from any form of media that delves into the franchise, excluding Mr. Bay products which I go in with the lowest expectations possible. My initial reaction to the concept of Jagextaking over the reins of the Transformers universe was one of relief. I never played Runescape, but it was popular enough for me to hear of it, which means it's good right? Maybe not, but the company had a backing. They had a concept, developed it and by Charlie standards, they did a good job. Now, enough of this chit-chat, on to the game!

               

Transformers universe provides you the opportunity to take your preferred side in the legendary Cybertronian war. Shall you defend freedom on Optimus Prime's side or ride the waves of conquest under Megatron's regime. The game takes place loosely within the Transformers Prime universe. The aesthetics follow suit, a mismatch of the 1984 generation-1 cartoon and the bay-verse complexity. It's a decent look, though it took me a while to get used to the fact that they no longer had noses. Petty, I know, but noses are important. Do you even smell bro? Now I've made a "bro" joke and my reputation is now tarnished.

               

Furthermore, after you make your faction selection and pick out a name for your commander, you join the fray as one of three initial bots or cons. The three choices consist of a damage dealing sniper, a well rounded warrior and lastly, the medic. I personally picked Triage,the initial Autobot medic. I always found that in any multiplayer game, there was a lack of support and Triage seemed to hold his own very well. Once your choice is made, you load into your base of operations which allows you to either queue for Multiplayer matches or exit into the PvE area. At any given time, this will be the most crowded area in the game. The base definitely makes it easy to meet fellow players and form a team to meet your needs.

Let's begin with the cons, no pun intended. High Grand, which is the PvE area, is incredibly boring in my opinion. You are given a decently sized area to drive around in and complete missions that generate every fifteen or so seconds after your faction completes the last mission. Every time you decapitate easily agro-ed Terrorcons or unforgiving turrets, you're awarded energon cubes which were initially used to repair your 'bot after its demise. Due to a recent patch, the death mechanic has been changed as to no longer require repairs. This makes energon a little less desirable with its only use to create consumables. Secondly, you get relics at an incredibly slow pace. The relics are used to purchase new combatants to play as along with re-sprays for said characters.

Furthermore, the Autobots being the "good bots," it probably attracts a lot more players and I find myself constantly teamed up with beginners who have no idea what they are doing. Everyone starts somewhere and when I started off, I had no idea how the game was played either. However, it's been a few months now and I use a better 'bot than the newbies alongside a higher ranking and level and yet I still get teamed up with them. Healing three other guys who don't know what they're doing for six matches in a row gets to be frustrating. The last complaint I have is that I wish a bit more was going on in the base, if you happen to play at awkward times when no one is there.....it's surprisingly dull. That's it! On to the good stuff.

               

The character selection is wonderful. Hopping into the hangar, located in the base, allows you to see all the possible bots you can acquire and they're all beautifully designed. They all have a unique look and their own set of skills and weapons. There's just about anything for anyone at this point and with constant additions to the roster, anyone's play-style will be met. My character of choice is Meltdown who is a mechanist. This class sustains itself by healing itself when damaged, healing others, knocking back opponents and slowing 'em down. He packs a decent punch too and looks totally kickass.

The gameplay has come a long way as well. It's so seamless now, going from bot to truck feels great and vice-versa. The special effects are a treat to the eyes, what with the Decepticons getting wings and tentacles when they proc a skill. The world is colorful and believable despite using a lower graphical engine than what most people are playing with nowadays. The community and mods are all friendly and competitive. Saving up a ton of relics and getting a new 'bot is satisfying. Getting revenge kills are exhilarating. Nothing beats taking down that one 'Con who's dominated your team. Lastly, the game is in open-beta. They're constantly improving and adding more content and it's all free. There are micro-transaction options but it's hardly a pay-to-win game. You can become a "founder" which means you donated a ton of cash and they allow you to play as three exclusive characters, but they're not overpowered. As long as you're not playing the starter characters, you can take 'em on.

For my final thoughts, being a closed-Beta tester, the opportunity was given to me to see how the game has progressed and boy, did it ever. The open beta and the patches have drastically improved the game. Having a higher traffic and fixing all the oddities here and there have made this game easily recommendable. Transformers fan or not, it's an enjoyable experience. It's worth it to try out at the very least. Lots of fun, lots of action, what do you have to lose? It's free!

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Why Disney Infinity Is Crack (In The Best Of Ways)

Want to build a snowman? Perhaps you want to release the Kraken? Maybe your dream was to create your very own Halloween townas you gazed upon the spiral hill in the distance? If any of these sound appealing to your Disney-oriented mind then Disney Infinity is the game for you! Likewise, "be prepared" to spend a pretty penny.

A couple of months ago, my gal got the Disney Infinity starter pack for her 360. In case you weren't aware of what the starter pack consists of, it basically hands you the game disc, the game base (which is where you house your figures to play), as well as three starter figures. We sat ourselves down and played through the incredible introductory level. That's all it took for me to go out in the world and spend two-hundred dollars on figures and power disks within the first week. Yes, you read correctly, I threw some big bucks to expand a Disney game. A twenty-five year old man, buying an Elsaand Jack Skellington is not as embarrassing as you think. I'm a '90s kid, I cried through Lion King in theaters when Mufasa died (ermagawd Spoilers). I love Disney and the Disney corporation knows that. Insert their flawless business marketing here. Much like their ingenious "Disney Vault" concept for their animated movies, they have a similar concept for this game. As previously stated, they give you three starter figures with the appropriate world to play with. However, if you want to play multiplayer within the story mode, you can only do so with characters of the same world. For example, Jack Sparrow is one of the beginner characters, therefore, a small trip to a nearby store and 12.99$ later, we returned home with Davy Jones. As a result, madness ensued on the raging seas upon the Black Pearl. Dear Zeus, this game is fun.

Likewise, they also have the concept of power disks which are character upgrades based on a ridiculous number of classic and modern Disney movies. You want to ride around on Angus from Brave? Maybe you want Mickey to use Stitch's blaster? Then pump yourself up and buy a butt-load of blind bagged power disk packs. With three series that cover most of the Disney classics, it's a bit ridiculous but oh so fun. The problem is that the bags only contain two disks each and I'm at the point where we constantly get doubles. There are chase clear orange and red disks that are "rare", but I've gotten three of those rare Dumbo disks. I really hate Dumbo, this hasn't helped. Stupid elephant, thank Ares that Tantor (the cooler Disney elephant) is a power disk.

I probably haven't said enough to convince you as to why I think this is one of the best games I've ever played despite how pricey it is. Let me break it down for you my would-be Disney-lovers. Options, the game's key feature is that there's so much you may do. There's a mode that allows you to play a pretty decent story for certain movies such as: Pirates of the Caribbean, Monster's University, The Incredibles, Toy Story in space, Cars, etc. Additionally, it has the Toy Boxoption, which allows you to create your very own world with an incredibly huge and detailed world-builder system. In this mode, you may roam around with characters who don't have a world in Disney Infinity yet—characters such as Vaneloppe from Wreck-it Ralph and even Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia.  Power disks further allow you to customize the world with textures and skydomes from those same movies. Furthermore, you can download fan made worlds for free. A lot of these are absolutely great as well as challenging. My gal and I have spent hours designing our perfect Disney world. In her mind, everything needs to be Sugar Rush themed while I keep trying to dump Halloween Town rejects across the world. The exciting thing is that there's so much more that they can do with this game. It's got a great feel, plays excellently, offers a variety of options and has incredible attention to detail. I can't count the amount of moments we've spent daydreaming about future playset releases and characters. There's a serious lack of classic playable characters and I've got the feeling that they're waiting for the perfect moment to unleash them. I'm sure they've got Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Alladin, Herculesand Lion King in the works. They could even supplement their already released characters with more, such as an Oogie Boogie and Sally for Jack.

With their announcement of Disney Infinity 2.0, it's hard not to be excited about all the new improvements. Level cap raised, skill trees for all the characters, Marvel themed aspects, oh boy, it's going to be an expensive next few years. Whoever dreamed of having Iron Man tag team with Lightning Mcqueen? No one and that's why it's amazing. It's a dream scenario that you never realized you wanted. So far, they've announced the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxyand Spider-Man. I hope they squeeze in the X-Men and perhaps some more obscure characters. Okay, forgive me but I've got to go build a magma surrounded Disney castle with turrets and candy cane trees. Fare thee well Disneyfans, feel free to sound off on what characters YOU would wish could make it into the Disney Infinity roster.

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