Thursday, April 7, 2011

Civilization V: Solo-play Review

In 1991 Sid Meiers created a video game called Civilization and was claimed to be one of the best strategy games of all time, since then, there has been 5 more games (Civ 2, 3,4, Revolution,5) A sequel (Alpha Centauri, which is a sequel based on acheiving the tech victory in the normal civ games.) Spin-offs(Call to power 1,2, Colonization) And Expansion Packs (Currently only for Civ 3, 4)
Personally i had only played Call to power 1 & 2 and didn't really understand what the fuss was all about. But when i bought Civ V out of curiosity and played it...well lets just say i played it for 10-15 hours straight...
So in honour of Civ V, which i claim is "The Most Addictive Videogame EVER" Here is my Amazing review.
Civilization V is a game which would appeal to many Chess or Risk game Fans, what with its war segments needing incredible strategy to pull off successfully.Now unlike most games, Civilization V doesn't contain a Story mode as such, although a normal Single Player game can take up to 16 hrs to complete, which is as long as a basic story mode. The game itself is Powered by Steam, So there are steam achievements, which there are currently 150 of for Civilization V. There is an acheivement for gaining a different type of victory (Scientific, Diplomatic, Cultural, Domination) and one for each Civilization you win as. The Acheivemants include references to other games (for example, the Domination Victory acheivement is called: Exterminate, Exterminate, Which references the Daleks from Doctor Who.)
The Graphics are alright, but to get them to be really good you need a really high powered computer, but either way they are still good, humans look like humans, Cities look like cities. The best part graphically is the incredible Diplomacy screen, which you use to talk to computer players. When you select a Leader (Computer's character) to talk to, it shows some really solid and smooth graphics of the Leaders that look almost lifelike, for example, Montezuma is standing over a fire moving his arms regularly and the fire in front of him blurs the areas slightly above it to give it a natural, realistic effect.
This Is Montezuma when he's happy....
and also before i accidently insulted him and started a war between us...
 The Gameplay itself is something you would regularly expect from a Civilization game. You Set up your first city with your settler and tell your only warrior to explore, and as your city grows from food, buildings and units take less longer to build. each civilization playing takes turns moving units around the board and building stuff for your city to improve food or Construction, research, culture and Gold.
Since this isn't a strategy guide or a tutorial (Civilization V Has short tutorial's on there, and they are also a good way to get achievements quick.)
Note...The City is mine....and i'm under attack.
Although the problem i have is that some things aren't explained in the manual (Which only explains how to install the product) Or The Tutorial's, but using the Civilization Encyclopedia on the game, i did find a lot of things, and since the search bar only searches for topic names, i can't find something i don't know the name of easily... Also the building: Pharoah's Tomb has no purpose really, because i checked and it doesn't benefit you, but if the enemy destroys the city with it in, they get loads of Gold.
The soundtrack is awesome. Despite the fact that its predecessor Civilization IV won the first ever Grammy to be awarded to a video game for its amazing main menu theme, Baba Yetu...which mean's the Lords Prayer in Swahili, so naturally this game had a difficult task of living up to Civilization IV's soundtrack standards. Each Civilization has a Theme song that plays during the main game, and they also have two Diplomacy themes, depending on if you are at war with them, or not.
You start the game in the ancient era and once you have researched some science, you advance to the Classical Era, Then The Medieval Era, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Post Modern/Future.
To be honest, the best ending is the scientific one because that's the only one with something remotely like a cut-scene, when you finished researching then building the spaceship parts, then watch as the marvellous rocket zoom into the great beyond known as Alpha Centauri.
I Win...
Although i'm not a big fan of the Domination Victory's Due to the fact that my cities fall like rocks...but for some reason, a nuke only damages a level 11 city till half their health is depleted...and they regain health every round...and nukes cost Uranium....and there is like only one or two Uranium tiles in a small map.
So Naturally... Whenever i play versus a computer player who want's domination, this happens to me...
Gandhi wins.....Fatality....of Millions....FUUUUUUU
There are about 18 different Civilizations Including American,English,Japanese and Indian. There is also currently 5 DLC available, with one of them free, and downloads onto the game as soon as you update the game.
So Overall, Civilization V Is one of the best video-games of 2010, and i rate it...........

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

New Amazing Ape Logo.

A New Logo, Made using Pictures of Winnie The Pooh And Donkey Kong.
Of Course, I turned Donkey Kong into Diddy Kong, if Mr T. Was The Mother and DK Was the Father.
Isn't Winnie The Pooh The Cutest you've ever seen....if not....then you will never open your eyes again after you go to sleep tonight....MUHAHAHA

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

The New Format of AmazingApe Reviews, I Give You, The First True Amazing Review.
KINGDOM HEARTS RE:Coded.

Graphics :
Wow, The game is probably the most beautiful graphically for DS, although because its so detailed in the graphics, it sometimes causes the game to jutter now and then, in scenes where lots of enemies appear.

So This is how 60 minute makeover got rid of the carpetting in 3 minutes.. 
The game has 2 different types of cutscenes, either the basic RPG text box talk, or a CGI cutscene. The Games best part graphically is probably Hollow Bastion Part 1, due to the fact that Hollow Bastion possibly looks as good as the Original KH game on PS2's Hollow Bastion Part...
There are bad Points though...the Castle Oblivion segment isn't too atractive and its so white that my eyes start hurtin

GAMEPLAY:Now, The Gameplay is unique to this game, because the Keyblades in the game work differently than the other games, for instance...each keyblade has the same stats, although some work better with combos, and others critical hits etc. it also copies the commands from Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the Only difference is that instead of having a Command Style, you have a bar that slowly fills up and, when full the bar levels up and a power unique to that keyblade is temporarily unlock, when the bars MAX lvl is full, you can unleash a finisher that can seriously damage the enemy.
Replacing the panels from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, Re:coded has an interesting Stat Matrix, a machine which you insert chips (That you either find around the Datascape, or earn them in battle) to unlock Abilities,Cheat matrix's that help you while also dooming you (I noticed that using cheat matrixs actually make it harder, and aren't really worth it)
There is Also a Incredibly pointless minigame accessible from the main menu of the game, called the Avatar menu. in it, you have a character based on the KH mobile game (Not Coded) and you can make him wear costumes from characters in the KH Series from Yuna to Zexion. The Problem with this is that you start off with 1% Costumes and the only way to get extra costume parts is by:
A) Get a Sector quest from a friend (Its in the Avatar menu and you are basically sending a friend a randomly generated sector, while also recieving one)
B) Collect enough trophies (in-Game Acheivements) to unlock parts
 Also, in the game itself, there is a insane difficulty curve in Olympus Colliseum. This is a dramatic reconstruction of how i completed Olympus colliseum 1st time.
Sora: Hi i am level 10
Phil: Save The Day
LAYER 1
Sora: ooh warp...
LAYER 2
Hercules: Oh Hai, I'm Hercules, can i join you
Sora: Sure.
LAYER 3
Sora:HI PERSON
Cloud: SILENCE, I KILL YOU
Sora: Arggg im dead
3 lvls up later
Cloud: Damnit you beat me
LAYER 4
Sora: Wow, lets go to that door leading to the boss
Cloud: WAIT I'M HIDING IN A SPOT WHERE YOU CANT SEE ME
Sora: Lets go
They go to boss without Cloud
LAYER 5
I JUST WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND......JUST KIDDING ROOOOAARRR
----They Get Their ass handed to them----
7 lvls up later
Sora: Finally i beat Cerberus
Hades:Hello, I'm going to fight you now, and your health will not replenish
Sora: FUUUUUU----
So as you can see, you realise that you need Cloud, but because you notice the huge door first, you assume there isn't anything special on the floor, so its a long frustrating time to beat Cerberus & Hades
Also, Hollow Bastion part 1 may be graphically pleasing, but it is still frustrating...You lose your keyblade and cant use a weapon OR magic, you just have to run around until goofy and Donald join your team and fight for you. So all in all, The Gameplay is fun, yet really frustrating.
STORY:
This game didn't need to be made... for one, all the worlds in the game, featured in other games, so no originality...and the only major plot points is the Sora's Heartless and Castle Oblivion parts... The other segments were pointless because near the end....the journal gets reset, wiping all the journal charcters (Except Data-Riku)Memories of you.....in fact, since you are Data Sora, your mind gets wiped....and this is before the Castle Oblivion part...
The Mysterious Message
The Basic Story is that Jiminy Cricket has found a mysterious Message in his journal from Kingdom Hearts 1, so he goes to Mickey, who then digitises the journal (Why did he do it in a room full of books, what if something went wrong...he might merge the books together....) and creates Data Sora, who travel through the worlds beating the crap out of bosses, beating up Riku is Hollow Bastion Part 2, killing Sora's Heartless who is easier than Cerberus...Memory wiped, meeting with Mickey in Data Traverse Town because...Mickey forgot about the message and returned to the journal (Oh Yeah, i forgot to mention, Mickey, donald and goofy get sucked into the journal, but they do nothing until Hollow Bastion 1)so Mickey and Data Sora (Who wondering what the Fuck Mickey is because his memory was wiped and he hasn't met a furrie yet) head to Castle Oblivion, where Sora Beats the crap out of the final boss....Roxas, and get to Namine, who tells Mickey the only piece of information that would be useful in the series....Roxas, Xion, Axel, Namine, Terra, Ven And Aqua is in trouble and real Sora needs to go rescue them...Thats the only thing the story of this game was made for.... And i said it in a few words...
it would of been better if they put this in Kingdom Hearts :Dream Drop Distance as a flashback Mickey has.
FINAL VERDICT
Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 9
Story: 7 (4 for the length of the story and 3 for the story itself)