Think ahead

While it’s most certainly assured that you need to supply your people with the essentials – heat, shelter and food, you should also be wary of how you accomplish this.  While it might not make much difference how you sustain the first group, you simply cannot afford to mow down an entire forest or plant your settlers too far away from a river.  Just like the burgeoning towns of old (IRL), rivers were seen as the lifeblood of a city, offering transportation, water as well as trading potential.  In short, you must be able to strategically position your settlement so that you both have room to grow and access to a river (not just a lake) while also avoiding to aforementioned clear-cut scenario.  Not only do forests provide lumber, but they’re also sources for things like herbs and uncommon foodstuffs.

On Commuting

Assuming that you’ve thought out the beginnings of your little civilization and are starting to erect structures, the next thing to begin thinking about is worker commutes.  It’s just illogical to force your citizens to have to make long treks to complete their daily duties, just like in real life; you want pathways to be as clean and direct as possible.  This helps in terms of boosting productivity.  So, when you have a lodge, cabin and hut, make sure to erect at least two houses to support this infrastructure (the residents should sort everything out on their own).

…speaking of critical infrastructure

When you’re starting out, you need to make sure to construct a forester’s lodge as it allows you to harvest lumbers as well as plant new trees.  Ideally, you want it located directly adjacent to both the hunting cabin and gatherer’s hut.  Most players seem to recommend waiting to build the lodge until after the other two structures have been erected as the forest density directly affects the flora collected from the gatherers, etc.

Jumpstart your economy

As soon as you can, initiate trading and stockpiling and try to jumpstart your village’s economy.  In particular, trading is extremely important and might be considered absolutely critical to your settlement’s long-term viability, so try to focus all your goals on establishing commerce.

The post Banished: Tops Tips That Will Improve Your Strategy appeared first on Cheat Index.

Try to think like Spiderman, or maybe a Ninja…

For starters, aside from simply playing the crap out of the game (to learn where everything is in each separate map) you really need to adopt a more geographic / geometric approach to combat to really succeed in Titanfall.  It’s not enough to simply jump into a Titan and try to physically overpower enemies with weapons fire like a mech-clad Rambo of sorts – do this and you’ll likely be quickly dispatched by any well-organized team.  To really give ‘em hell you’ll need to learn to let the environment do the work FOR you.

In order to accomplish this you really need to pay close attention to your ability to navigate the map as a pilot.  Before entering into any encounter you need to have already plotted a way out.  For example, quickly scaling a building on an opposite side, turned away from the action, should do the trick.  At the same time, you should try to behave like a sniper; long distance attacks are always preferable to directly confrontation.  Moreover, if you’re more of a stealthy gamer, always look for a quick and easy way to swoop down, open the hatch on a titan and shoot the pilot inside.  Of course, you’ll also need an escape route as well.

Thwart attacks on your Titan with the Vortex Shield

As you are no doubt already aware after playing around with Titanfall, it’s not incredibly difficult to dispatch a mech.  While this might be seen as a rather positive thing for those who prefer to remain free-running in pilot form, it’s quite distressing if you would rather suit up in a Titan.  In order to mitigate such losses, you can opt to take a Titan with a vortex shield in its loadout.  This will allow you to essentially capture bullets in a gravity well of sorts, hold everything there and then release it in a haze of fury upon the enemy.  Needless to say, it’s incredibly useful as you basically have a defensive capability with a weapon tacked on.  Combine this with regular attacks and you are talking about some serious firepower.

The “Smart Pistol”

Even if you’re a veteran badass who’s no stranger to pulling off headshots from the other side of the map, it always helps to have some kind of weapon that will increase your overall accuracy and effectiveness on the battlefield.  In Titanfall, this great equalizer (of sorts) is the smart pistol.  Since it can auto-lock onto targets, you can think of it as a very useful tool which can deliver results.  Combined with some careful maneuvering and a stealthy approach, it can become an instrument of punishment.

The post Titanfall Game Guide: Become A Pro appeared first on Cheat Index.

Fist off, in case you don’t already know, in order to actually unlock the cheats you need to be able to complete certain missions on specific difficulties within certain time limits.  While this might sound easy enough, you simply can’t run from the starting point to the extraction – you must also complete the objectives.  Here is a brief guide to help you breeze through this particularly daunting challenge.

The Facility – Cheat to unlock: Invincibility – Time to beat:  2:05

Needless to say, upon first attempting this one many will say outright that “it’s bloody impossible!”, and while it might seem that way at first, it’s actually not that hard once you know what to do.

Start off by getting out of the vented area as quickly as possible, quickly opening the two doors leading downstairs toward the room directly facing the room with the guard holding the key.  While going downstairs sideways, hurl a remote mine toward the wall above the door (and detonate it by pressing the A and B buttons at the same time).  At the same time, open and enter the door below the stairs and kill the guard there with a shot to the face, grabbing his key.

Turning around, take a right down the hallway and make an immediate left to enter the security area, which is filled with guards.  Instead of trying to dispatch them, dodge and run around everyone while pulling up a machine gun to kill the three guards down the long hallway (while still moving).  There is a door on your left to enter, to more easily beat the level in time Dr. Doak should be located here.  After he introduces himself, make your way back out and head off to the bottling area (with the tanks).

Pausing the game to get the door decoder equipped, open the door and meet with Trevalyan, but don’t stand around to chat, stick the remaining mines in locations which will blow up multiple tanks.  Moving toward the back of this room on the lower floor, shoot any guards entering and then detonate the tanks once Alec is out of the way (again, with A and B at the same time).  If you did everything right, the cheat should now be available.

The post 007 GoldenEye (N64) “Retro” Game Guide – Unlocking the Invincible Cheat appeared first on Cheat Index.

Transportation

When any military moves into a region with intent to incite violence and dominate they don’t roll into town on tricycles and mopeds, do they?  Needless to say, the same reasoning definitely applies to the war zone that is (frequently) GTA V Online.  What you want is access to (at the very least) a helicopter or (preferably) a fighter jet.  There are a number of places where you can find a chopper, including Trevor’s airstrip (duh), Vespucci Beach, the roof of the Los Santos Medical Centre and of course, the airport.  Of course getting into the airport isn’t as easy as one might like.  No matter, simply move up the flight school’s stairs and craftily jump over the wall and you should be free to peruse available transports at your leisure.

The more adventurous and crazy gamers will of course want to head on over to the “secret” military facility to hijack a tank or better yet, jet.  Don’t even try to go in on foot as waves of delta force-like soldiers will descend upon you very quickly.  Instead, chopper in, remembering to stay low and then dart out and run into a hangar, grabbing a plane.  If all goes well, you should be ready to dominate the board and rain hell fire down upon your enemies.

Car insurance?! ..What the?!

Assuming that you’re content to roll around in a conventional vehicle, the last thing you want to do is lose that expensive ride (and let’s be honest here, in a game called “Grand Theft Auto” it’s sure to happen, right?)  Well, in GTA V you can actually purchase insurance which will allow you to effectively replace a destroyed or stolen vehicle (by phoning them up).  Yes, you’ll have to install a tracker and pay some fees, but it’s a small price to pay when you’re riding high.

Going in alone

Let’s face it; the world of GTA V can be absolutely brutal as it’s filled with many other miscreants such as yourself, each one with criminal aims.  In order to build up your abilities and gain a greater grasp on key areas and items it’s highly recommended that you start your very own solo session.  Naturally, this won’t net you the massive profits you seek, but it will allow you to freely roam around and prepare for the mayhem you’ll encounter when connected with other players.

Use the action command for a quick health boost

Unbeknownst to most, there’s a handy little trick you can use which turns your interactive menu into a quick health boost (for when you’re engaged in a firefight, for example).  Simply set it to “eat snack” and all you have to do is push your analog sticks inward to regain health in a pinch.

As always, good luck and watch out for zombies, aliens and Bigfoot.

The post GTA V Online Game Guide: Top Tips appeared first on Cheat Index.

What makes Titanfall such a great exclusive game however, is its aim to blur the line between what constitutes a single player campaign and multiplayer action. Armed with a rather loose and somewhat standard story, Titanfall isn’t really trying to “hard-sell” you on dramatics or loads of options. No, this title was designed for one thing – providing an impressive platform for great team-based action and gunplay. Within its confines you get to explore a wonderful sci-fi-ish world which is satisfying both in terms of its design as well as context.

In game, you have two options to choose from: 1.) Move about as a nimble “pilot”; basically a single human character with some crazy nimbleness and rocket boots. Or number 2.) Climb inside your giant mech fighter, aptly called a “Titan” and unleash a barrage of heavy weapon fire on enemies. Of course you’re not invincible when inside of a Titan either, in fact, if you’re not careful you can be rather easily dispatched with a few carefully placed attacks. In other words, while you might be inclined to think that it’s always a great idea to be hulking around in your giant robot armor, the truth is that there are also some great perks to be gained as a pilot. More creative players will probably find the athleticism, explorative capabilities and smaller stature of a free-runner to be all they need to get the job done.

As far as visuals are concerned, Titanfall is truly a beautiful game to behold, even in light of all the hype that’s been surrounding it. Every facet of the title seems to be oozing detail and graphical prowess; from trashed tunnels to shaky, crumpling buildings, there’s plenty of ground to cover as well. Titanfall’s rather unique approach to delivering a horizontally expansive map, as well as plenty of additional areas both high and low, make it a dedicated multiplayer gamer’s best friend. In other words, there’s a very intriguing sort of strategy element buried within the level design itself, where there are multiple ways to undermine an opponent’s position or get where you’re going. In short, it’s very easy to get lost in the beauty of the scenery – you might find yourself wandering around in a daydream when you’re supposed to be providing support for your teammates.

With 5 multiplayer modes in tow, Titanfall certainly won’t disappoint. For instance, there are more traditional offerings such as “capture the flag” and “hardpoint domination”, as well as more specific modes like “pilot hunter”, where you receive points for wiping out human-controlled “pilots”. The game’s scaling is carried out courtesy of cloud computing services, which allows for greater optimization in terms of graphics as well as server performance.

To make a long story short, if you own an Xbox One (or an Xbox 360 / capable Windows PC) and you love multiplayer-centric FPS games, “Titanfall” won’t disappoint. This is a game which melds together a rather simplistic and fun gameplay core with amazing visuals and environments. All in all, a wonderful title which really should be on everyone’s “need to play” list.

The post Titanfall Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

To this end, there’s a huge variety of drivable vehicles to choose from, from sports cars to big rigs to police SUVs, motorcycles, even an ice cream truck.  All of them, of course, are significantly more lethal than their real-world counterparts, being equipped with a primary rechargeable weapon and the capability to carry secondary sidearms.  There’s even a helicopter, whose obvious advantage the designers have balanced by making it one of the game’s most fragile vehicles.  Nevertheless, seeing an opponent hovering over you in the aptly-named Talon gives you good cause for panic, because you’ll likely be snatched up, lifted into the air, and unceremoniously dropped, sustaining a back-breaking amount of damage.  The controls are responsive and easy to use, almost to a fault, as any of the cars available to drive (even the big ones) can corner on a dime – though that’s little disappointment as this is definitely a game where reality gets put on the chopping block in the service of fun.

One big difference between this Twisted Metal and previous editions is that choosing a driver character doesn’t stick you with their signature ride; you can mix and match maniacs and motorcars to your heart’s content.  Moreover, you can customize each car’s accessories and paint job.  Of course, the most enjoyable (and useful) way to personalize your car is to equip it with ridiculous weaponry, which you actually can’t do in the menus, but can accomplish by snatching up any one of the various firearms which litter each level like delicious, death-spewing candy.  Machine guns, shoguns, smart and dumb missiles, even napalm are all available for the sole purpose of blowing up as much shit as possible.

Which is a big task, to say the least.  All of the maps are enormous, and feature just staggering amounts of destructible buildings; since you need to tear-ass around the level searching for guns and ammo, the focus is almost as much on demolishing your surroundings as it is on destroying your opponents  There are several single- and multi-player game types, most of which revolve around the sheer joy of messy, violent vehicular combat.  The story mode is fairly engaging, and contains some pretty outlandish levels that will have you hopping off roofs, dodging juggernaut cars that zoom around repopulating levels with enemies, and battling monster bosses and flying robots that are heart-stoppingly huge.  The boss fights are broken into multiple stages, and none of them are easy; fortunately, after death you can restart from the end of a stage rather than having to replay the entire sequence.

Two players can play split-screen story mode, which is a hell of a lot of fun as nothing adds more zest to the onscreen mayhem as another human brain throwing its powers of creative demolition into the mix.  Sadly, there is no co-op online mode, which would have been almost preferable – as fun as it is sitting next to the person you’re busting heads with, the split-screen gets to feeling little cramped.  There is online deathmatch, however, supporting up to 16 players, as well as AI (which are always your de facto enemies; you learn real quick that these computer players hate nothing so much as slimy meatbags, and will routinely give preference to searching you out for a kill).  There are also a few other simple but enjoyable and suitably ruthless game types, such as “last man standing” which pits everyone against a single unfortunate player in a high-octane, high-explosive game of death-tag.  Online play currently suffers from some glitches, like connection dropouts trying to join games or just plain dropping you in the wrong game type altogether.  On the whole, though, for a couple hours of intense, unabashedly and willfully violent vehicular manslaughter of everything in sight, it’s hard to imagine how the concept could be done any better.

8 / 10

The post Twisted Metal Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

Visuals

From a visual standpoint, Punch Time Explosion XL has a very pronounced and cartoon-like art style.  Well, it’s essentially visually identical to the manner and style in which its (television) characters are portrayed on their home network.  The visuals are enjoyable, there’s no question about it.  The problem of course is in how they are used to reinforce gameplay.

Gameplay

Uninteresting combat, level design and a general lack of fun, those are just some of the problems with this title.  You would expect a bright, colorful, and animated brawler / fighting game to be somewhat entertaining, yet it isn’t.

The only redeeming feature of this game is its roster of familiar characters, and the aforementioned visual stylings that go along with them.   This version of the game, which is really an update from a previously released version, features several new content additions as well as an entirely new set of playable characters.  While these additions are still not enough to entice devoted gamers to take up the game, die-hard fans of the shows (from which the characters are pulled) like the Power-Puff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, or Samurai Jack, might find something redeemable about the game.  Good luck with that.

Verdict

This is the type of game that you really want to like, but simply can’t because it won’t do anything interesting for you.  Nevertheless, serious fans of Cartoon Network programming will probably still be interested in this game simply because of the affiliation with their favorite characters and so forth.  As far as the casual gamer is concerned, you would do best to stay away from Cartoon Network’s Punch Time Explosion XL.

Rating – 6 / 10

The post Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

To get a burst of speed, you’ll need to fill up your boost meter – and the way to do that is by pulling off tricks.  Tricks are the heart and soul of SSX, and the latest edition in the franchise makes the necessary maneuvers seamless, and the results (pass or fail) thrilling to experience.  You know you’ve reached the so-called “tricky state”– allowing unlimited boost and the performance of your super-awesome finishing-move-style ultra-tricks – when the background music warps into a remix of Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky” (apropos, no?) , allowing you to keep your eyes on the road and your hands firmly on the controls.

Actually, the controls are, one of the best parts of the new SSX; the control scheme  has been revamped and feels much more intuitive.  You can use the thumb-stick or buttons as per your preference, and pulling tricks is accomplished by indicating a body part, followed by a direction to go in or part of the board to be utilized.  It’s incredibly simple – almost more trouble to explain in words than it will be for you to grasp after playing for five minutes – but powerful, and lets you get right down into the business of working up ridiculous combos in no time flat.  Those who prefer the old control style can switch back to it at will, but it’s hard to imagine how the new setup wouldn’t be viewed as an improvement.

Since the only way to win is to use every second of airtime to pull off insanely long combos, much of SSX’s gameplay carries a heavy element of push-your-luck danger calculation.  The AI opponents are no slouches, and getting supreme air and being able to nail that one extra trick before sticking your landing can mean the difference between a win and that other thing we don’t like to talk about (starts with “L”).  Misjudge the amount of time you have on descent by just one second, though, and you’ll plant yourself like a tree in the side of a mountain.  Big jumps can eat up speed as well, so while dodging and weaving through the terrain, you’ll have to be constantly measuring the benefits of doing long tricks and racking up points/boost ability against your desire to maintain the best time on course.

Level design in SSX also deserves some serious accolades.  Supposedly based on actual satellite reconnoitering of the real locations they represent, the routes you take have obviously seen a fair amount of tweaking and world-building by the hand of designers.  Each feels organic and singularly dangerous, being positively fraught with obstacles that require constant attention to avoid smashing into or flipping over.  A helpful helicopter pilot provides you with ongoing directional advice, but once you get used to the courses you can turn off his chatter.  As you’re racing down steep mountain slopes, the danger of falling into a chasm is ever-present; when this happens, the game forces you to “rewind” your progress to an earlier point, costing you time (as the race doesn’t rewind for other players) or to lose points, depending on the game type.  Speaking of game-types, there are two main single-player modes: a story-mode World Tour, and one-off race events that let you jump quickly into a competition.  Each level of the World Tour mode features one of the so-called Deadly Descents, and they are indeed aptly named; you’ll need to maneuver quickly and accurately in order to make it down in one piece, often as not assisted by some special equipment unique to the level, such as a wingsuit to bridge otherwise unjumpable gaps.

Of course, multiplayer modes are no longer really options in console games like this, and happily an above-average amount of thought and consideration has gone into the ones included in SSX.

There are basically two kinds of events: Explore, which lets you compete for time and points finding the best path through a level, and Global events that set a time limit (measured in days or weeks) in which thousands of players on the net can compete for the best score or time on a course.  The game is wired from the ground-up for online play, and assiduously keeps you informed from the very first screen about the status of your achievements on multiplayer events, so you can jump in and try to regain your footing if you drop in the rankings.  Both kids of events let you plant geotags, little markers which generate credits as long as they remain uncollected by other players.  These credits can be used to upgrade equipment, or to purchase bonus abilities or score multiplyers (you can also buy credits outright, which is a bit of a cop-out).  Additionally, when you play with friends, their progress through the levels leaves a glowing, illuminated outline, so you’ll know if you inadvertently stumble upon a path down the mountains that another player has already charted.  Sadly, there’s no built-in mode for simple local split-screen multiplayer, although you can create global events that are limited to just a few of your friends.

The very short version of this review, which I probably should have put at the beginning in order to save everyone time, goes something like this: the new SSX is not to be missed.  Bam.

8 / 10

The post SSX (2012) Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

Country club memberships aren’t cheap.  Golf is probably the single most exclusive sport in the world, where the time and money required to even practice is miles above any sport played by throwing a thing into a thing, or hitting a thing with another thing.  The patina of elitism that surrounds the game is one publicly poo-pooed by its fans but not-so-secretly relished by the entire institution of golf.  And now, Tiger Woods PGA tour brings that same sentiment of exclusivity to your living room.  I hope your wallet is within reach.

Before I tear into what an obnoxious travesty this game turned out to be, I want to come clean about two things.  One, I don’t like golf, real or virtual, and I don’t actually care that much about any game of said sport whether it takes place on my TV screen or outside on somebody’s oversized lawn.  You might think that makes me a poor choice to review a golf game – and that opinion is granted without contest, although I think my arguments against what EA has done here stand regardless  – but it should also cast my unqualified praise for certain parts of the game in a more trustworthy light.  I’d hate the shit out of this game completely if I could do so honestly.  The second thing is that in one important way, PGA Tour 13 revolutionizes the way video-game golf is played, and EA deserves high marks for having the guts to throw everyone who’s ever fantasized about being a computer-golf prodigy in with the sharks and letting them sink or swim.  Schadenfreude?  Maybe a little, but this is the way sports games are supposed to be.

PGA Tour 13 introduces “Total Swing Control,” which is exactly what it sounds like.  You, with your controller, have complete domain over every shot you make, and the game will not help you.  At all.  The game is Tiger Woods’s angry, demanding father, expecting more out of his little golf prodigy that even ten-year old Tiger can produce, wearing a stern and unforgiving expression the entire time.  The left stick controls every aspect of your golf swing, speed, arc, time, the works.  There are no shot types, no pre-sets, no meters, no meters to help you out.  A simple white arc guides you towards the perfect shot, and is all that separates you from total failure on the green.  If you can’t hack that, prepare to dig a lot of dirt and chase a whole hell of a lot of balls.

That is, as I think, it should be.  Games shouldn’t be easy.  Fun, yes, but being good at anything is its own reward, and to not succeed on your first try, all things being equal, is only a discouragement to the kind of people that video games shouldn’t be made for.  That said, this is where I part ways with PGA Tour 13.  I hope their system is mimicked – stolen, even – by a lot of other games, because it’s great, although one of the huge problems with this game is that they never teach you how to use it.

There is absolutely no guide system to walk you through making the perfect swing, or even just a relatively good swing.  You either get it right, or stand befuddled at your total failure.  The game is almost entirely an exercise in autodidacticism.  While I take a certain amount of pleasure at golf weenies suddenly sucking at their own favorite stupid sport, this is a video game, and video games are (again) supposed to be fun.  Sucking at a hard game is one thing; hitting your head against a wall for three hours because the designers didn’t have the foresight to at least include a short tutorial is a whole frustrating other thing.  This isn’t actual golf, I’m not a pro, and most importantly, I’m not getting any money from getting better at this – quite the other way around, in fact.  The Tiger Legacy Challenger provides some hint of a walkthrough, in that it presents you with increasingly difficult shots to master (beginning as a 2-year-old Tiger Woods and working your way up to the majors), but there still isn’t any kind of guide, and learning how to play is the worst kind of tedious trial-and-error.  You get better (or you don’t) as a result of repeating the same mundane tasks hundreds of times of over, often as not retrying the same level until you feel like taking a golf club to your game system in a very not-virtual way.    Don’t get me wrong – you feel like a god when you actually pull off a win.  But I don’t need to play 50 hours of computer golf feeling like I want to kill someone because the game doesn’t have the courtesy to show me what I’m supposed to do to master its artificial abstraction of the world’s stuck-uppiest sport.  Tiger Woods got to have millions of dollars and a sex scandal; I just get to be late for work.

That brings me to the single worst part of PGA Tour 13.  As with most sports games, standard career mode is probably the best and most polished area of play.  There’s an experience system that lets you unlock clothes, clubs, equipment, yadda yadda, and a “pin” system that gives you temporary advantages and enhancements to make some of the trickier levels more bearable.  You have to use them right away or discard them, which keeps it from seeming unfair, although you can use “Coins” to purchase or refill pins in a tight spot.  Coins actually let you buy a variety of things, so you really have to conserve and spend them wisely, as good coin-earning performance is not easy to come by in this game.  Here’s the problem with coins.

Out of the 36 courses available in PGA Tour 13, 20 of them are actually playable once you pay for the game and bring it home.  The other 16 are DLC, and can be rented – yes, rented – per play using coins.  What if you don’t have enough coins?  I bet you know the answer already.   You can buy them.  When you pay for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, you pay for the right to play just over half the game.  The rest of it comes at a premium.  Ain’t that some shit?

Of course, you can unlock these courses without cash, after completing a mind-numbing series of event challenges on each level individually, the so-called “Gold Mastery Tasks.”  These are so difficult, tedious, and time consuming you can’t help but be disgusted.  By the way, PS3 owners, you can’t use your PSN wallet to unlock the levels; you have to buy coins first, and the number of coins needed to open a level compared to the amounts of coins available to purchase doesn’t even match up.  Prepare to buy extra coins, just because!  What a fun game this turned out to be.

Of course, the especially hardcore pretend-golf-gentle-man-or-woman can join or form an “Online Country Club,” so you can pool your achievements and open up new levels more quickly than just sitting alone in your living room, crying.  Clearly, though, PGA Tour 13 is an attempt to bring realism in golf games up to a new standard – the standard where you have to spend enormous amounts of time, or alternatively just be rich and spend money like water, for the privilege of hitting a small ball with a variety of sticks.  I’ll bet PGA Tour 14 will break the mold again by forcing you to undergo a rigorous disclosure of your income, social life, and political affiliations before allowing you past the main menu.  They might even be generous and let those of us who don’t pass muster play on a single level that uses Google Earth to recreate the experience of hitting a putter into a cup in your backyard, or the nearest local park.  Co-op play will be possible, but you risk losing all your gameplay privileges if your friends drive their golf carts over the posted speed limits.  Welcome to America!

8 / 10

The post Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

Despite the incredible amount of things you can do in the game, the striking beauty of the environments and the sheer size of the various open world maps, Dead Island was given a lukewarm reception by most gaming critics.  This is a little unsettling because Dead Island performs extremely well in a number of categories and manages to pull this off while offering gamers a completely new gaming setup and experience.  This is truly one of the first open world quest oriented RPG’s to also feature addictive multiplayer action.   Sure, the characters and story aren’t really anything to brag about but the gameplay is absolutely amazing, which more than makes up for any shortcomings in the story.  One of the most rewarding features of the game (aside from the exploration) is the weapons customization.  While the game features the use of both (an extremely wide variety of) melee weapons in addition to conventional firearms, the sheer number of weapons present in the game is mind boggling.

While Dead Island isn’t a true open world game like Oblivion, it still retains the same level of openness and does this while simultaneously giving you the ability to chop the undead hordes to bits with your friends.  Most people in the gaming industry were expecting Dead Island to be either a complete failure or the future of gaming. In reality, the game is much closer to being the future of zombie-oriented gaming. Dead Island is definitely a title that should not be missed.

8 / 10

The post Dead Island Review appeared first on Cheat Index.

At first glance, you can be forgiven for thinking Fifa 12 is simply an update of Fifa 11. Once you start to navigate through the menus, you can see the difference.
The Menus are snappier, faster to navigate. There are the usual game modes such as career mode, player mode, and player-manager mode, but there is now the inclusion of manager mode. While this is not as technical as say, Football Manager, it is still fun and gives you an insight into how this mode works. There is also a Support Your Team Mechanic. Before you play, it asks you to choose your favourite team. As you progress in the game, it will then upload points for your club to a virtual league.

While playing I noticed a few interesting updates. The camera angle is now set lower to get you further into the action, and your attacking sprints are a little slower. The biggest feature in Fifa 12 is the new tackling system. While in the past we all enjoyed being able to sprint to the opponent with the ball and then slide tackle to regain the ball. Unless you are extremely skilled, DO NOT do this. With the new collision system, EA has included realistic results for certain types of tackles. This can be a nightmare initially, albeit challenging one. Then you settle in and start using the new tackles included, such as the shoulder-to-shoulder collision, pulling and pushing. When running to defend, you can now actually run into and disturb your team mates, giving the attacker an opening to shoot. You can also mark an attacker and stay within five feet of him without touching, then make your tackle at the best moment. Overall, this is a very attractive addition to the game, making it fun and even more realistic.

Attacking play is basically the same, and it still gives you the best feeling when after a series of well-timed passes, you see the ball strike the back of the net. Remember though, a well-timed opponents foot can clip your heel and throw your run right off.

There are still a few canned cut scenes, and the commentary is still predictably dull, but don’t let these minor flaws put you off, FIFA 12 is the best soccer game ever.

9 / 10

The post FIFA 12 Review appeared first on Cheat Index.