Man Fat » Games

Best Black ops video montage I have seen

Nick — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:24:24 +0000

The you tube widget on my igoogle home page does occasionally throw up some real gems and today it delivered in spaids. I have watched plenty of black ops montages in the past am sure I have become desensitised to 1 shot triple kills and cross map t-hawks scalping so much so that I have started to see them as a “normal” occurrences. The top 10 kill count downs were fun, till everyone started doing them and the kill streaks with commentaries tended to be audioed by 12 year old children with as much charisma as the accidental condom split that lead to the birth of the little…. I did not fined them to be of a generally interesting and/or informative nature (is a calmer way to put it). So, where to go from here, how can a new fresh spin be put on a black ops kill montage. Step up an odd combination of Mettifrags, Hazard Cinema, Skrillex and some mad editing skills. The music is so “fat and dirty” that it fits perfectly with the vid content, being shooting people in the face. Someone has also been very busy in their editing suit as the effects overlaid are superb. It amazes me that “non professionals” can produce something of such a high standard, for fun! Anyway I have bleated on enough click the vid and give it a thumbs up, the last thing I will say is that the bloke in the vid definatly did not take my advice on Black ops easy class set up.

Minecraft Quick Start Guide – First Day

Nick — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:59:11 +0000

As promised I have done my first Minecraft official video. The hardest thing for me to decide was where to start? “At he beginning” a small nagging voice said (aka “the wife”). So I settled on producing a very in depth, informative and serious quick start guide to Minecraft. FAIL! Unfortunately all I managed to produce was me, very quietly bumbling my way through a new start on a new world while dropping in some pretty poor and tasteless jokes. I should really have done a second take (or maybe a third) but again thanks to my crippling laziness and “that will do” attitude, I didn’t.

In short the video will show you what I do every time I start a new world, with a few quick tips thrown in that will make surviving the first few harrowing nights allot easier. It also shows you how to craft all the necessary tools that will allow you to easily harvest resources and go on to pimp out your first safe house. So I have put the video (and embed code) for your viewing pleasure and don’t worry if it is not detailed enough for you, I am planning on doing a Quickcraft series of vids that will break down all aspects of Minecraft into easily understandable bite sized chinks. Anyway, have a watch and I hope you enjoy:

Video by Man Fat

Embed Code:
 Video by <a href="http://www.man-fat.com/">Man Fat</a>

Man Fat on Minecraft – Minecraft Intro

Nick — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:41:19 +0000

After playing allot more Minecraft than was probably healthy for me, I have decided to preach what I have learnt to whoever will listen. Much like a new religion my followers will start small, but hopefully as people spread the good word, more heathens will see the light and start to play Minecraft and listen to what I have to say. I will help the newly converted survive there first harrowing night and teach them how to easily dig up there first precious ingots of iron. I will entertain the long standing Minecraft community with my witty and cutting banter (but will probably end up piss allot of people off, as usual. GET A SENSE OF HUMOUR!) and I promise always to follow my newly formed Minecraft 10 Commandments.

All that stuff aside, as I plan on doing a few videos I wanted them to all have a uniformity and as any good video maker will tell you, a good video needs a good intro. Due to my laziness I was unable to create a good into, so we are all now stuck with this: (enjoy!)

Video by Man Fat

Please feel free to leave any comments on, well anything really, but keeping it on Minecraft stuff will probably be helpful. Oh and if anyone wants to use any of my videos then please feel free as i will be posting the embed code below for each one (to save you having to click through to YouTube to get it, but please subscibe if your there picking it up anyway).

Embed Code: Video by <a href="http://www.man-fat.com/">Man Fat</a>

What was your favourite game you played this year?

Nick — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:07:22 +0000

Narrowing down one great game for 2010 is no mean feet as I have played allot more games this year than I probably should have. But, after much deliberation I have managed to pick my favourite game. Its probably a none controversial decision as it is one of the best selling games of 2010 and I have done a couple of post already on it, it’s Call of duty Black Ops. Don’t moan at me for picking something obvious as I have good reasons for my actions. The standard of games released this year has been unusually high but from my personal perspective Call of duty Black ops has ticked all the boxes. To show this I have broken it down into three sections to show the “ticked boxes”.

Single Player (Story Mode)
NO SPOILER, don’t worry if you have not played it I am not saying anything about the overall story line. Yes, as usual with nearly all fist person shooters the over running story line is “One man takes on the world” but you have to remember, its not the story line your interested in, its the way it is told to you. No mater what twists and turns they put into a story now we have seen it all before (probably ten times over) so they cant really introduce anything “new” to the mix. What they can do is immerse you in the story so that you buy into the games world that in turn leads to you growing affinities (love, hate or other emotion) for different characters. For me, this game delivered this in spades. This is something that the call of duty brand has been bringing to the table for the last few games they have released. In my opinion it is very difficult for a first person shooter to do this as it needs to be done with cut scenes and in action exchanges. If done wrong this can lead to people hammering the skip button more than the loud trigger as most of the time you just want to get to the action and shoot something, but call of duty seam to have hit the sweet spot for me and deliver just enough cut scene to shooter action. To top it all off there is a totally random and brilliant ending (after the credits) that makes it for me.

Multi Player
This to me is on of the most important elements of any new game as it extends the games “play life” from a couple of hours to a couple of months and I do not have enough good things to say about Black ops multi player experience. The maps are varied and exciting, the action is fast paced and satisfying, the characters customisations are endless and the levelling system is inspired. The introduction of in game money is a really good idea as it allows people to purchase perks and weapons specific to them and how they want to play the game. This means that you don’t have games full of snipers or “noobtubers” like the previous CoD offerings. The difficulty level has not been set to high either and there is always a Black ops easy class set up that will allow even the new players a chance to get their hands on some Easy Money in Black Ops. Another great addition to the multi player experience is the addition of contracts. These are more or less mini challenges within the multi player game that when complete pay you money and there are plenty of Easy black ops contracts to take as well as much more challenging ones. The reason why contracts are such a good addition is that they make people choose weapons or perks that they would not normally use, this again in turn make the multi player experience even more varied. I don’t want to ramble on to much about the multi player so I will bring up one more positive, the player card tag. This is where a player gets to put symbol(s) that they chose to give them an identity. The choice of colour and symbol is staggering and when you combine this with 14 layers it can lead to some very funny and interesting tags.

Game Tec
The graphics have been upped again. I played through this game on the xBox 360 and am still amazed on how far it has come since its release. I have not had any problems with glitches from bad code or any problems with frame rate. The single and multi player is smooth and silky and the in game environments and back drops are epic. The controls are intuitive and as would expect to fined them (although it is frustrating that they are not the same as halo) and the menus are easily navigated and do not offend my eyes.

All these ticked boxes and I have not even mentioned the return of Zombies (that can be played on one console or across the internet) or the addition of a bunch of mini games, a FULLY interactive opening menu (get up and take a stroll around the room) or combat training. The only thing I can say to sum up Call of Duty Black Ops is that if you don,t have this in your game collection you must have a pretty good excuse, so please leave your “excuses” bellow…

This post was part of Gamer Banter, a monthly video game discussion
coordinated by Terry at Game Couch. If you’re interested in being part
of this, please href="http://www.gamecouch.com/tbosky@gmail.com">email him for
details.

Other takes:
Aim for the Head

All Black Ops Covers

Nick — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:31:03 +0000

I have just been looking at the different Call of Duty black ops covers for each game format trying to see if there was any difference. I could not really see any apart from the obvious format logos plastered across the top. Some of the small (and very sad) things I did notice were:

1. That he seams to have 2 assault rifles equipped, cant do that in game (told you this was sad)

2. Sally (his right pistol) is an odd name for a gun for a start but then it also has eight marks next to it. He Still Gay is an anagram of Sally Eight, i am just sayin…

3. Rather than wearing tough commando gear he appears to be wearing some sort of extreme fishing riggout.

Any who, hear are the cover arts for the different formats, you make up your own mind…

Easy Money in Black Ops

Nick — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:07:42 +0000

Having played through all game types on the Black Ops multiplayer I have realised that there are allot of ways to make in game money. Some are allot harder than others. The two easiest ways to make money are entirely dependant on how confident you are in your Black Ops skills. So I have broken it down into two sections:

If you consider your skills to be above average and have no problems stringing skills together then wager matches are the way forward for you. You can really rack up the cash here and i am in the middle of doing a full post on this so please check back soon.

If your skills, still need a bit of refining, then the way forward is easy black ops contracts. That post will help you chose the easiest contracts to obtain the fastest return and with the help of a Black ops easy class set up you will be flying. You don’t need to be a CoD pro to pick up some of the lower contracts and as you can do them once an hour you can rack up some quick cash.

Easy black ops contracts

Nick — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:01:58 +0000

I have realised while playing CoD Black ops online that there are some contracts that i repeatedly take out. These are the simple ones that i dont really need to change my game type or class selections much to accomplish, as i normally just play team death match or CTF (the classics are the best in my opinion). So the contracts are normally always centered around a particular wepon, attachment or number of kills gained. So being the conscientious individual that i am (and feeling a little bored) i thought i would share my opinions and any tips that i may have. The first 3 contracts i take out are:

Hired Gun Get 3 kills without dying
Costs: 25 >>> Pays: 100

Cold Efficiency Finish a complete match with more kills than deaths.
Costs: 25 >>> Pays: 150

Steel meets spine Knife an enemy in the back
Costs: 25 >>> Pays: 100

These contracts total cost is 75 and once completed total pay is 350. Easy Money and you should be able to complete all 3 contracts in 1 round of TDM or CTF. You can only take these out once every hour. So i take out a second set of contracts:

Assault Rifle Prodigy Get 5 kills with an assault rifle without dying
Cost: 100 >>> Pays: 600 (and 600xp)

CTF or TDM Victory Win 2 games of CTF or TDM (depending on contract available).
Cost: 50 >>> Pays: 250

Shotgun Shock or Say hello to my little friend Get 2 kills in one life with the Masterkey or grenade launcher attachment (depends again on contract available).
Cost: 100 >>> Pays: 400 (and 400xp)

The total cost for the second lot of contracts is 250 with a payout of 1250 money and 1000xp as a bonus. So both lots of contracts work out to be:

Total cost: 325 >>> Total Pay: 1600 (and 1000xp)

Again these 3 contracts should be easily done in a couple of games and with the help of a Black ops easy class set up you should be raking in thousands of virtual bucks in a mater of minuets. Once you have some good cash banked you should really take a look at the wager matches to make your cash go through the roof.

Black ops easy class set up

Nick — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:10:33 +0000

As usual, picked up the new CoD (Black ops) on day of release and have put in a few hours straight away to take a look at the changes in class selections and to fined the easiest way to get your XP up. Straight away I have found a class set up that would enable the most poo players to rack up the kills. It wont make you popular and people will wine about you being a “noob” but, you will be leading the leader board not them. Its pretty simple but I will break it down for youanyway, starting with:

Main Weapon
Go to assault rifles and equip the Enfield. Go to attachments then buy and equip the Grenade launcher. If you don’t have enough cash to buy it, play a few games till you do have enough as this is essential. Because you cant play hard core till level 19 this will make all your kills, 1 hit wonders. The splash damage is not as good as MW2 but if you hit it at their feet, they will go BOOM.

Secondary Weapon
Go to launchers and equip the M72 LAW. For the same reason as the primary weapon attachment this is a 1 shot kill. Change this weapon to the RPG as soon as it becomes available because it then has 2 shots.

Lethal
Frag grenades, because they do what they say on the tin… frag people. Great for flushing someone out or testing to see if a room is empty. Remember to hold the trigger down for a few seconds before you throw it, you don’t want to give them time to get away.

Tactical
Flash bangs as always. These are brilliant at getting you out of a tight spot. They blind everyone near them for what seems a little longer than MW2.

Equipment
Claymore, claymore CLAYMORE! The easiest way of claiming a remote kill. As before just put them down in high traffic areas and walk away. I have noticed that they are not as powerful as the previous version and you need to pay a bit more attention to exactly where you are placing them.

Perk 1
Ghost. Buy it early and it will make life allot easier. All the noobs tend to use the auto map allot more than they should. If you get this perk it will make sticking a grenade in their face allot easier.

Perk 2
Slight of hand. Makes reloading between grenades on the launcher and RPG allot quicker which helps allot for getting kill multipliers.

Perk 3
Second Chance. Always good in my opinion as it nets me at least a couple of extra kills a game. Oh, and there is always that satisfaction of being put to second chance to the flaw by a sniper from miles away, then pinging him with a head shot with the pistol. Just to show him how it should have been done.

Thats the basic setup I have come up with at the moment and it basically revolves around using your weapon attached grenade launcher to get a couple of easy kills then switching straight to the launcher for another 1 or 2 kills. Add them to your well placed claymore kill and you could have a streak of 5 kills. This in turn opens up your killstreaks selections:

Killstreaks
RC-XD – 3 Kills
This is a remote controlled car that you drive around till you fined someone. Once you fined them drive it up to them and pull the trigger. BOOM, another easy kill. REMEMBER to leave your body somewhere safe while you are off on your joy ride.

Napalm Strike – 5 kills
This is called in like an air strike and drops napalm on your desired location. Great for keeping and doping on spawn points. Easy kills again.

Attack Helicopter – 7 kills
Unlocked right from the start (so it wont cost you anything) its a great one just to click and forget about. Not as effective as the MW2 choppers but will still net you 3 – 6 kills on an open map.

So by using the combination of 1 shot kills, claymore and the RC-XD/Napalm Strike you should never be without a chopper gunner in the air. This in turn will make climbing those levels to the good weapons allot easier.

If you have any feedback please feel free to comment below. If you want to join me for a game of black ops then please feel free to add me as a friend or invite me to a game. My gamer tag is still MAN FATdotCOM.

Classic Space Invaders Game Clone

Nick — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 21:54:42 +0000

While on yet another random net romp i stumbled across this blast from the past. Although its launch date was well befor my time, it did bring memories flooding back as the arcade table game was in my local pub while i was at uni. As it as only 10p a go, and my friends were pretty unsociable, i spent many an hour trying to beat the top score that was set by BAZ. I never new who BAZ was and never did get to beat is score, happy days, with a bitter twist… Anyway, enjoy this nostalgic game for yourself:

How Important Is A Game’s Cover Art?

Nick — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:10:58 +0000

I still get that the excited childhood feeling that any real gamer gets when they obtain a new joy box (game) and in my opinion the cover art is an integral part of the experience. It is very important for a number of very good reasons of witch, I think, giving the game a visual identity is the most important. Yes, most people will also picture strong characters instead of cover art when prompted for games like Mario or Sonic but the covers tend to re enforce this by standing the Hero in some action pose with their name plastered over head. The cover art that I am talking about are the ones that try to sum up the game in one glorious picture. This does not mean that all cover art should use the same formula as different subtleties and ideas can look very different but yield the same satisfying results. Examples in questions:

Hear are 3 game covers arts from the golden ages of, the NES, or Nintendo Entertainment System for you youngens. They have all taken a different tack on the style of the cover but all convey very well what the game is about. Mega Man is like a can of white paint, it does exactly what is says on the tin. By looking at the game art you know you are going to be playing a boy with a big gun for an arm that he shoots at robots in an effort to get to the old man boss. Simple formula.

Final Fantasy has a completely different spin. It does not really tell you anything about the game you are about to embark on but it looks interesting and poses questions that you want to fined the answers out to. Questions like What is that floating castle, what is that floating eyeball thing and why do I need an 84 page handbook?

Finally Castle Vania 3 Dracula’s Curse (the best one). This cover has loads of stuff going on that just makes the cover look super exciting as your eye has allot of action to look at.

So now nearly 20 years since the release of the NES the formula for game art must have changed, right? Well hear are 3 more games taken from the machine of the minuet, the xbox 360. All three games have again taken a very different tack on there game art but all have very strong covers. Sonic the hedgehog could not be clearer. By the cover you can see that you are going to be playing a big blue running hedgehog, but if you did not know that already you need to get out a bit more.

Left 4 Dead poses more questions than it answers. Questions like, where is his thumb and how come he never married. But this is a very striking cover in its own right and again makes you want to play the game to fined out more.

Finally, Grand Theft Auto. A busy cover with lots of images of different exciting things. It does not make it clear what you will be doing in the game but again, you know it will be bad ass!

So in summery, I personally think that Game’s Cover Art is very important in defining the identity of the game. It can be made up in many different ways but they should all invoke that excited feeling when viewed… or maybe that’s just me…

This post was part of Gamer Banter, a monthly video game discussion coordinated by Terry at Game Couch. If you’re interested in being part of this, please email him for details.

Other takes:

Silvercublogger: Don’t Cover The Art, Unless…
The Average Gamer: Cover Art

Aim for the Head: Browsing the Aisles

SnipingMizzy: In the eye of the beholder

Extra Guy: On Books and Covers

Zath: How Important Is A Game’s Cover Art?

carocat.co.uk: Cover art? No, thanks!

Pioneer Project: The game box’s big moment

Man Fat: How Important Is A Game’s Cover Art?