The Forest

Sean Dibble and Zach Goodier

So, do you like plane rides or traveling over islands that seem uninhabited? Well, what you don't know is that some of those islands are not uninhabited, they are in fact full of blood thirsty cannibals. You must cut trees, kill animals, build shelter...and hide from the man eaters to survive. Are your willing to do that or will you just surrender?

The Forest is a survivalist's dream come true, you crash land on a island and when you wake up you see a mutated human taking a kid, who we assume is the character's, you then pass out and when you wake up again it's time to get moving. The plane has what you need to start out with such as an axe, meds, food, and of course, booze! From here you can head out to the woods, but keep your eyes open for the people of this island because they are not to friendly to outsiders. You must dodge crawlers, leaders and other types of enemies while hunting for food and keep your fire going to avoid the cold. The world is beautiful and you will get lost in the graphics that this developer has created for you. I like to compare this game to a high end, modded Minecraft. Why you ask? Because you need to chop down your trees and you can open up a survival guide (kind of like using NEI in modded Minecraft) to set up schematics for buildings/traps/and other things. You must also hunt for food, build shelter, and make a fire to hold off the deathly creatures that will come for you at night.

Sound wise, the game will scare the crap out of you. It will go from a nice sounding music as you frolic through the forest gathering berries and sticks to "HOLY CRAP YOU HAVE BEEN SPOTTED, RUN!!!" I kid you not when I hear the sound it makes when the enemies spot you outside of the game I jump and nearly poop myself because of it. I have to give the developers credit though because most games I have played lately have not done musically what this game has done, making me feel as though I was the survivor.

Graphically, the game has no equal in the Indie market. It looks as though it was developed by a AAA developer and would even beat some of those companies out easily. The sunsets and sunrises are beautiful, the water moves and looks realistic too. Trees and plants actually look like trees and you can easily tell blueberries from poison berries. Everything you touch will move and ripple as you run screaming by it. Again, all praise goes to the developers for taking the time to make such a beautiful game. 

There technically is no story mode yet but single player amounts to a how long can you survive alone type game mode and multiplayer works the same but with the added bonus of having up to 4 friends (if not more in the future.) Multiplayer is more fun in my opinion but I know Zach has liked the singleplayer part of the game. Because the game is still in early alpha, updates continue to come and more and more keep getting added to the game. 

The only problems at this point are technical. There has been trouble saving in multiplayer, and the game itself has been prone to a variety of bugs such as enemies and creatures running through walls of rock, sometimes there are trees you cut down that take a long time to turn into logs and once in a great while they don't change at all. Still, this is an early access game, and it feels more like a complete product than anything else I've bought on early access.

All in all, The Forest is amazing for early access title and even beats out a lot of so called "polished" games by big time developers. I certainly have enjoy it, I know Zach does too and a heads up to all our fans that watch the Youtube Channel. Once the next update comes out (within the next two months) we will start a series to see how long the staff of Scully Nerd Reviews can last in a world not suited for us.

Good:

- Beautiful graphics 

- Excellent survival mechanics 

- Overall feel is that of a realistic and brutal Minecraft

Bad:

- Still some bugs to work out, not all of them minor

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Fairy Tail Chapter 426 : Blackheart

Sean Dibble

Chapter 426: Blackheart

Natsu, Lucy and Happy continue on their mission that they stole from Rouge. On their journey Lucy asks what this mission has to do with Grey and Natsu informs them that a year ago future Rouge told him Grey killed Froche and that this may be the mission it happened on. Meanwhile Grey, now a member of the cult Avatar, is telling the others that for now he will work with them but if he has to use them to destroy the book of END he will, for that is his only true reason of living. We also meet Gajeel and Pantherlilly at the end of the chapter and what has happened with them, they have joined the Councils Detention Enforcement Division. 

I'm excited to see the chapters are moving at a good pace and ether not killing you with an abundance of information while also not dragging on at a snail pace. It seems that over the next few chapters we will continue to get a glimpse of what has happened to each member since the disbanding of Fairy Tail. I am hoping that next we will see Erza, because I believe that even though Natsu has always been stronger in my opinion that Grey we still don't yet know the full extent of his new Demon Slayer Magic. Only time will tell and I look forward to reading the next chapter.

Tokyo Ghoul √A

By: Robert Murphy 

It’s hard enough to be living in a world surrounded by monsters that you cannot see, it’s a whole other issue when you get thrown into that world and be expected to survive. This is exactly what happened to Ken Kaneki, an average student who loved to read his books and spend his days off in his head. This would all change though when he is attacked by a woman that turned out to be a ghoul, creatures that feed on human flesh and prey on human beings. He is fortunately saved by an unknown presence but in order to survive, parts of the ghoul were implanted in his body and permanently altered him into a mix between human and ghoul. After a series of grueling events, we find Kaneki finally awakening his powers as a ghoul. Viewers saw brief glimpses of his strength all throughout the first season but Tokyo Ghoul √A starts out with Kaneki’s powers being unleashed in full upon the world. We see a new, quieter but fierce presence from his character and I’ve eagerly awaited to see what he is now capable of and what lies in store. So without any further stalling, let’s dig in.

I am not going to lie, many of the issues that I had with the first season of Tokyo Ghoul had stemmed from Ken Kaneki not being an engaging main protagonist. He was a character that seemed to have great power locked away inside of him but was too afraid to use it. His character should have gone through the typical transformation that you see main characters do in order to get stronger but he never did, he kept getting his butt kicked and whining about it. I do however understand why he didn’t want to unleash his powers, in order to become more powerful as a ghoul you need to feed on humans, you need to let go of your humanity and that wasn’t something Kaneki wanted to do. Now though I have fallen in love instantly with his character transformation. Kaneki has dawned a new white haired look and gone all leather on us and it is frankly very epic. But, it isn’t just the fact that he looks better or even that he can now put up an actually fight, his character actually has some depth and interest to him now.

In Tokyo Ghoul √A, Kaneki is on the opposite side of things and joined forces with the very people that employed Jason last season and effectively got him kidnapped. Aogiri Tree is the name of this organization and they’re a group filled with insanely powerful ghouls (probably could tell in the last episode of season one). His reasons for joining the group are a little confusing to me, even after watching the season all the way through it’s still a tough one to nail down. It’s sort of one of those “I did this to protect you” things that you see people do but it ends up seeming too convoluted. Regardless of the reason, it puts Kaneki in an interesting position with things and his struggles became far less whiney in nature. He doesn’t go all full ghoul and starts killing humans, quite the opposite in fact and he goes through many new transformations and issues. It’s far more of an engaging process this time around and I was more invested in Kaneki as a main character.

As for the story, things mainly revolve around the inner struggles that I have spoken about at great lengths for Kaneki and his overall transformation. It may not seem like it but the whole series is really his show this time around. In Tokyo Ghoul’s first season viewers were subjected to a lot of introductions and character development that further bogged down the story. It seemed to take quite a significant amount of time to introduce all the players and people that you will be seeing throughout the shows entirety and it left little time for anything else. Now, characters have all been established on either side of the story and the new ones that come along get introduce but develop gradually as the story goes on. It seems the developers this time around found their groove with bringing in new people and were now free to work with the solid characters that got introduced.

Amon, the by the books CCG agent, is another example of how things are progressing more smoothly for characters in this second season. Amon was a bit bland and hard to figure out, you knew he had strong convictions but he still never stood out too much, perhaps it was his insane partner outshining him that caused this. This time around though you see a lighter and stronger side to his character when he is not only partnered up with Akira (daughter to his former partner) but you also see into his past and what made him become a CCG inspector. I burst out laughing when Akira finally goes out to drinks with Amon and another inspector and he ends up staying the night at her place because she drank too much. A lecherous thought pops into his head and he begins to do push-ups, almost like his own version of a cold shower.

This experience wasn’t entirely perfect however, there were four or five different characters that came into the story briefly but quickly disappeared. Two other half ghoul characters (Kuro and Shiro) appear in the story and bring up some memories for Amon and another CCG agent named Juuzou but then quickly disappear, never seen again. During the prison break episode, Aogiri Tree invades a secret CCG prison to release the high level ghouls imprisoned there but one powerful ghoul in particular was meant to be released and this guy ends up beating the snot out of Kaneki and is also never seen again. Perhaps the biggest plot hole character though would be Kaneki’s old friend from his human days, Hide. Hide appears numerous times throughout the season at the CCG headquarters, he apparently becomes some sort of delivery worker. But what is overall confusing about him is when he appears in the final two episodes in CCG armor and is fighting off ghouls. Was he doing it to find Kaneki? Why was he there at all? What was he trying to do the entire time at the CCG?

Confusing questions like this have popped up in my mind more than once with Tokyo Ghoul √A, despite my overall enjoyment of the series there is a fair amount of information that feels left out. This point especially comes up for me when I watched the final episode for the series when things abruptly come to a close. The final episode isn’t a bad one in anyway; it’s a very slow and quiet experience but does a great job of saying a lot about Kaneki’s character and what he’s gone through. The big issue though is that everything piles up and up and you get ready for the big finish and the screen fades to black. No more, no less and you can’t help but wonder what the heck just happened. It isn’t a brilliant cliffhanger to be left with, yes it makes me wonder what’s next but it ends so quickly that it doesn’t explain what you’ve just experienced and really is just bad storytelling.

Despite its problems, I cannot hide my overall enjoyment for Tokyo Ghoul √A. The characters are so much stronger than they were the first time around, before you were bogged down with their introductions and getting to know them took an insane amount of time. Kaneki also becomes a solid lead character for a change, he was so hard to like when you first met him and it was hard to sympathize with him when a lot of his attitude got in the way. The story does need some work though; there felt like plenty of information had been left out in certain areas of the story, plenty of confusing questions needing to be answered and some characters that weren’t explained well. Hopefully with the promise of another season on the horizon the developers can get these questions answered but for now it left a bit of an after taste in my mouth for a show that could have been rock solid.  

Good:

- Kaneki goes through an amazing transformation that makes him a stronger lead character

- Other returning characters are much stronger and more engaging

- A quieter but fantastic story

- What action there was this time around was great

Bad:

- Plenty of new characters get introduced but immediately disappear

- Plot holes and left out information make the story feel like you’re missing something

Scully Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Parasyte -the maxim-

 By: Robert Murphy

The speculations that have been made about alien life are endless. Are we alone? Is there other intelligent life out there? Will it end badly for us if we find alien life? If pop culture and Hollywood have taught me anything it’s that we may end up dead or worse if an alien race ever did come across Earth. For high school student, Shinichi Izumi, this would definitely be the case as he casually returns home one night and unbeknownst to him and many others across Japan, unknown beings fall from the sky. Luck saves him from this creature burrowing into his brain and taking over his body, instead this creature enters through his arm and due to some quick action by Shinichi; he manages to stop it from going any further. However, this sentient being has now taken over his right arm and is beginning to think and learn. Shinichi gives it the name Migi as it does not believe in the concept of names and the two begin to work begrudgingly together to understand what Migi’s kind are doing and what they’re all about.

When I first started watching Parasyte, I truly had no idea what I was in for; I only had a cover art and a few gifs from the first couple episodes that I came across. The average high school student angle is abundantly common among anime and Shinichi starts off as one of those shy and timid types you’ve probably seen as well. However, the pace picks up incredibly quick as the parasites fall from nowhere within the first fifteen minutes of the show. The unlikely bond that gets formed between Shinichi and Migi is definitely and interesting one, especially considering Migi was meant to kill and make a copy of Shinichi to blend in with society. Add on top of this the fact that Migi’s kind eats human flesh and can transform into terrifying creatures, then you’ve got some big issues coming your way. The first few issues for the two start out pretty basic, Shinichi having to hide Migi from his parents and friends and then you have the other parasites trying to murder you too. There are more complex issues that do come later on though and this comes when Migi's kind start to attack them and Shinichi and Migi must aim to kill. Yes, it’s mainly in self defense and in the interest of staying alive but whenever Shinichi brings up being a hero and saving the human race, Migi chimes in with how he won’t due such a thing for humans. These are Migi's kind and he'd rather not kill them for the sake of humanity, so plenty of issues arise. 

As far as characters go Migi and Shinichi are both compelling on their own and together as they get to know one another and change each other. Migi and most of his kind are cold and calculating types who think rationally and without any emotion to them whatsoever. Over the course of the show though you will see not only Migi but other parasite characters change their ways as well and find some humanity. Reiko Tamura is perhaps my favorite and the most notable among the parasites to go through this change. She ends up having a human child and although she doesn’t show it, it changes her throughout the story and it’s quite interesting.

As for the human characters, there weren’t too many that jump off the page outside of Shinichi and his love interest Satomi Murano. Shinichi goes through a classic change from shy and timid to all around badass but it is done in an incredibly interesting way that I won’t dig too much into for it’s intricate nature to the story. Let’s just say that he becomes a threat all on his own and it even surprises Migi. As for Satomi, I only mention her because she comes up quite frequently and is the source of what keeps Shinichi grounded in humanity. A lot of the show does get bogged down though with some of the romance angle, time and time again you see Satomi berate Shinichi about the same thing and it really gets tedious after awhile. What is interesting in terms of the human story is the idea that humans are the real parasites in the story. This idea reminds of the topic I brought up in Tokyo Ghoul where many of the human characters are worse than the ghoul characters and it’s brought up here as well. It’s actually an idea that the parasites come up with as well during the story, it’s why some of them believe they’re here and that is to extinguish humanity because we’re a plague on the planet. We’re the real parasites basically.

Outside of all this philosophical nonsense, Parasyte does include some incredible action sequences. I mentioned previously that all the parasites in the show can transform and each one takes on interesting forms and characteristics. The most common thing that each of them does is sprout gigantic arms that have razor sharp blades on the end of them, there are countless scenes where Migi and Shinichi square off against an enemy and blades fly all over the place. There are some far more gruesome changes and minor variations but they’re all equally terrifying and deadly for the most part and lead to some compelling action scenes. Gotou is a parasite that undergoes the most gruesome of these changes though and his fights were insanely deadly.

These fights and a fair amount of the story are matched together with some compelling music. The opening sequence and outro for the show are brilliant on their own but the show also splices in some solid beats for the action. It does bring me back to my point about the melodrama that tends to take place in a fair amount of episodes though. Moments of sadness or quiet contemplation are accented by a one particular tone that drove me insane and made these sappy parts of the story an even worse experience. If there had been a bigger cut down on some of this stuff then I would have loved Parasyte completely.

Overall, Parasyte -the maxim- was still a great watch. The twenty-four episode series did a fantastic job of bringing the two opposing forces of Shinichi and Migi together. Shinichi had gone through some terrifying experiences that I wouldn’t wish on anybody and Migi was a character who I couldn’t help but love, he was sarcastic but didn’t even know it. The pacing for the show does get bogged down with some of Shinichi’s love life issues and one episode was entirely about this whole thing, the romance does serve it’s purpose but that doesn’t stop it from being a complete drag most of the time. However, with its great plot and its solid action, Parasyte is definitely worth the watch.

Good:

- Migi and Shinichi are both compelling lead characters

- Some incredible action sequences

- An interesting plot and storyline

- You can’t beat those tunes, solid music throughout

Bad:

- The pacing can be a little slow from time to time

- Romance mellow drama gets in the way of an otherwise great story

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Bleach 621: The Dark Curtain

Zach Goodier

http://readms.com/r/bleach/621/2729/1

Juha Bach is absorbing the Soul King. However, even Juha Bach can't contain the power he's taking. His body overflows, and strange creatures begin to pour out of him, and spill down to the Seretei. The invasion party, still unready to depart, starts to fight these creatures to prevent them overrunning the lab, and the rest of the Seretei. However, swords don't quite cut it against these creatures. Just in time to win the "good timing" award, Aizen shows up, explaining that the solution is to use their spirit energy to crush the creatures. Is Aizen really planning to help the Soul Reapers, or is there another motive we've yet to learn?

Aizen is looking to be a help at this point, but I definitely think there's more he's not sharing at this point. Even Kyoraku seemed to view Aizen as a desperate measure when he released him from prison, so I'm not the only one to anticipate some ulterior motives behind Aizen's assistance, ones that go beyond stopping the end of the world.

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 2 - Atlas Mugged

 By: Robert Murphy

Why is something so gruesome just so damn funny? This was a question I asked myself multiple times during this episode of Tales from the Borderlands and it is something of a Borderlands specialty to begin with. Atlas Mugged brings our rag tag group of characters into the light more, what kind of characters they’re and what they’re all about. On top of this, a monkey wrench is thrown into the pile when Handsome Jack is brought back in a holographic form. You also have skags, Psychos, an ancient Atlas project and a blood thirsty assassin thrown on top of it all among the long list of things destined to try and kill you. Whether or not you can come out on top still remains to be seen.

When you last left off in the story, the group found themselves in an odd Atlas bunker with a map to an unknown treasure, whether this is a vault or a vault key or just a hidden treasure trove is not known yet but your team is anxious to find out. Not like you have much else going on now that the 10 million dollar deal you had going before has blown up in both your characters faces. This trend of bad luck tends to continue onward in this episode, it seems you can never catch a break when you’re trying to pull off a big time heist and everything seems to want to work against you. I found myself wondering just how much more bad luck can come across my characters after narrowly escaping death within the first twenty minutes of the game. Assassins started to have it in for me, my old boss from Hyperion paid me a special visit, bounty hunters came for my head and old enemies with a grudge wanted to put a bullet in my back. I just couldn’t catch a break but God was it fun.

Rhys has found himself in a bit of an odd situation in this episode; it would appear the Hyperion drive I placed in my head last episode had an imprint of a long lost friend, Handsome Jack. Even stuck in a hologram mode hasn’t changed his attitude though as he tries to rip out your vocal cords for talking too much, I really did miss this guy. Jack pops in on many of Rhys’s storyline and causes him to come off as a little crazy. How you deal with him will especially cause this to happen but no matter how you treat him, he’s still better than ever. His humor throughout the story had me laughing non-stop, whether it’s giving me the rundown on who my former Hyperion boss use to be or phasing his hand through the crotch region of my buddy Vaughn and putting on a little puppet show, it was all brilliant. Handsome Jack’s presence also makes the story so much stronger, where before in the first episode we only saw Zer0 come into play, you now have a heavy hitter among your group and it makes the story feel more apart of the Borderlands games. You feel like you could have seen Rhys or Fiona somewhere in the background of one of the previous games and that’s something unique.

As for Fiona, she and her sister (Sasha) are going through a bit of an emotional time after their long time friend and mentor betrayed them. Depending on how you went in the previous episode things could be really somber between the two. Sasha is still young so her emotions come out more in anger over what has happened and it’s up to you to decide if you want to join in on that. You can also take the risk of trying to take the high road and getting her to forgive him for betraying you both. It’s not the sort of thing you have come across in a Borderlands game before that’s for sure. Yes, you’ve dealt with death and loss in the game before but this whole situation digs into an emotional angle that you don’t deal with a lot in these games and it was a nice touch by TellTale.

This brings me to the wonderful storytelling that comes together this time around. Atlas Mugged hits so many different layers; the first episode was fun and fraught with classic Borderlands danger but now you get to see a whole other side to things. Borderlands 2 did a great job of taking the characters from the first game and bringing them to life as unique people for your character to interact with in the story and that’s what I feel is being done here as well. Last episode Zer0 had more personality in the ten to twenty minutes he was on screen compared to the entirety of the second game. Rhys, Fiona and all the characters are terrific really and with additions like Scooter in this episode, I can see the future of Tales from the Borderlands getting even better.

In conclusion, episode two of Tales from the Borderlands is an excellent continuation to the story. Every minute was filled with laughs, danger and some more emotional scenes that will lead you to some tough decisions this time around. The addition of Handsome Jack to the story was also a great step forward and led to plenty of laughs and interesting scenarios. Our main characters get more revealed about them too and become more fleshed out in terms of their story and their relationships. I’m interested to not only see where everything headed but also to see just what will happen to present day Rhys and Fiona. All I can say is, keep things coming because I’m ready for what happens next.

Good:

- Plenty of laughs and hilarious dialogue

- Handsome Jack as well as other returning characters like Scooter

- Fantastic continuation of the story

- The emotional point between Sasha and Fiona (there’s one between Rhys and Vaughn too)

Bad:

- Ain’t got nothing for you here

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Interstellar Marines (Early Access)

Zach Goodier

(Note: This game was played a couple months ago, so some info might be dated)

Interstellar Marines is an early-access first-person shooter which has you play an aspiring soldier looking to sign on as a recruit for the first marines to serve in space. It all sounds super cool, but for the most part, it keeps things fairly domestic, at least at this point. You can play competitive multiplayer modes and co-op against robot programmed to patrol and kill players, but the weapons themselves are modern. There really isn't a story to speak of aside from that, which is disappointing, but it seems that the actual story is going to be included in the main game. 

Weapons are modern, not futuristic.

The mechanics and movement are a little clunky, but for early access, everything looks pretty solid all around. Models are all solid and the guns feel realistic and the environments, while still on the small side, are well made. 

Monsters like this are, as far as I know, part of recent updates, but I only did a free weekend a while back.

Overall, this game still feels early in the sense that isn't a whole lot to do, but it looks like the focus has been on getting the mechanics and modelling right, and offering some entertaining challenges through unique game modes. I find the levels to be fairly short, and the general feeling to be generic. If they could really work on making this game look and feel like something unique, there could be a real gem here. Perhaps in later updates, and with the inclusion of story mode, this game could be a fun title. Until then, I wouldn't recommend jumping in with high expectations. Like a lot of early access games, there is always potential, but it's too early to tell how the final product will look.

Good:

-Decent mechanics.

-Some interesting modes.

-Solid modelling.

Bad:

-Lack of story.

-Nothing unique or exciting to hook you at this point.

Scully Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Battlefield Hardline

By: Robert Murphy 

Over the years when people have heard the name Battlefield, their minds jump to huge/insanely big maps filled with explosions, realistic gunfire and massive amounts of vehicular warfare. Now, the series is going in a slightly different direction with it's latest title Battlefield Hardline and moves to the streets where brave men and woman also fight a war on drugs, corruption and lawlessness. Hardline bases much of it's style around police and criminals, it's a more urban aspect to warfare and changes up much of what players have seen from the franchise over the years. This isn't a bad thing though as new game modes, characters and story come into play and I was anxious to dig right in.

Whenever I start a new game, even if it has a heavily based multiplayer aspect, I immediately have to play the single player campaign first and right from the start of Hardline's single player campaign I was glad that I act this way. A catchy opening theme song pops on as you zoom in on our main character, rookie cop Nick Mendoza, he's being sent to prison now for a crime he didn't commit. After this admittedly funny and quirky opening you move to the events that set this whole thing in motion, flashing back to the events leading up to his arrest. After the first initial car chase and drug bust scene though, things start to slow way down in terms of this campaigns plucky appeal. The whole thing plays out like a bad cop series like the Cop Drama spoof on South Park or something like it. There is way too much over the top drama to sell what is happening in the story and if it had been more spoofy like Battlefield Bad Company then I would have been more on board with what I was sitting through. 

The other aspect to the story that doesn't sit well with me is the need to slink through the same basic level set up and enemy formats over and over again. For a game about a cop you sure do an awful lot of James Bond style sneaking around, this isn't to say cops/detectives don't have to sneak around and get the job done but I felt like I was playing Splinter Cell without all the gadgets and actual stealth options. The only way to sneak around in the game is to crouch and prone yourself, you hide behind various objects and get the jump on criminals, then you flash your badge and later yell and point at bad guys to arrest them. The new element to the game allows you to halt up to three criminals who are close together and move in to arrest them all, you have to be sure to stay out of sight of other criminals who will shoot your brains out though or notice one of their guys knocked out on the ground. You gain points for each arrest you make, you also can find and arrest people with outstanding warrants in levels too, this gives you access to more guns and gadgets. Don't get too excited though, guns are mainly police level so no grenades or anything huge and gadgets are just tactical vests and grappling hooks. You can go all out in levels and start shooting everything in sight, after six levels of sneaking around I almost felt I needed to shoot something. The whole experience really is a bust, there are no stealth attributes to this game and you spend all of your time doing just that, sneaking. Initially, arresting bad guys and skulking around has it's appeal but not enough and it really isn't in Battlefield's wheel house to pull off.

As for the multiplayer aspect to the game, the new cops and criminals element is handle much better than it was in the single player. There are seven new multiplayer modes to choose from and they pit the good versus the bad with groups of cops and bad guys trying to complete various objectives. Among them all, Heist is perhaps one of my favorites and it is a mode where the criminals must crack into a safe and make their way to an extraction point with bags of cash before the cops take them out and return the money back to the start. It is a mad dash of people and explosions, I watched as a teammate booked out of a vault with cash pouring from his bag and then get knocked out a few minutes later, I kindly picked up the loot and took off. The other maddening mode is Hotwire, players race across the map in various vehicles to gain points for their team while the opposite team does the same and tries to take each other out. I had my teammates leaning out of the vehicle with rocket launchers trying to take out the opposing car and screaming for joy when they got them, I promptly drove over a mine a few minutes later. 

Online modes bring back the calamity for Hardline where the single player was far too quite and peaceful, online brings back the immense explosions and chaos to what I thought would be a lack luster game. There still may not be any huge tanks rolling across the screen, how would a cop get a tank or vise versa but their are new heavily armored troop vehicles that can take quite a beating and move a big group across the map. The game focus a lot on players on foot and fighting one another though and there is nothing wrong with that and it still separates itself from other first person shooters as it has done before. Maps are still full of different avenues and massive in their structure and even if their isn't an avenue, you can make one! The weather changing system also makes a comeback, in certain maps that will batter you with hurricane weather conditions. Then there are other maps with massive crumbling buildings and even a giant crane that can come crashing down on top of your entire team, it's simply a fantastic amount of chaos. 

In conclusion, I think Battlefield may want to turn in it's single player hat as the recent years have shown that it isn't their thing anymore. The whole affair is far too ridiculous and takes all the wonderful cops and robbers aspects of the multiplayer and turns into something far less appealing. As for the mulitplayer, I think Hardline did a wonderful job with it's new avenue here. Online is filled with new game modes, skills/weapons and plenty of that solid chaos that I have loved in the past. 

Good:

- A fresh new look to the multiplayer

- Stealing a big sack of money in Heist or whipping around in Hotwire were some of my favorite moments

- The look and feel is still fresh and polished just like previous Battlefield games

Bad:

- A very poor single player campaign

- A stealth game without any actual stealth options is a little ridiculous

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Fairy Tail 425: Sabertooth

Sean Dibble

Fairy Tail Chapter 425: Sabertooth

So this chapter moved along quicker than the last one, and very little happened. Natsu, Lucy and Happy are all on their way to Sabertooth, leaving Wendy back to take care of Juvia. On the way Lucy continues to ask if Sabertooth will know about Gray, but Natsu refuses to answer any questions just asking her to trust him. Towards the end of the chapter it is revieled why we go to a flashback of future Rouge telling Natsu who kills Frosh. Knowing this is the job where Rouge goes to the darkness Natsu takes the job from Sabertooth. Will this be the mission that helps them find Gray and get him back or will it be far too late to save him?

Like I said not a lot happened in this chapter but what did happen was very important to the story. Natsu and Lucy are re-acquainted with Sabertooths guild. I had a feeling last chapter that Natsu didn't want to go to Sabertooth to get info. A few chapters back when Rouge from a year in the future came through the eclipse door he told Natsu that a year from that day Frosh would be killed. At the time that is all we knew, so last chapter I had a feeling Natsu only went there to save Rouge from loosing his friend I NEVER thought more information would be reviled. Now granted Natsu will not let anyone know what was said but we know know who kills Frosh and all I can say is I pray Natsu has the power to save him.

Cities: Skylines

Sean Dibble

As most of our followers know, I love simulation games, city builders in particular. Why, you ask? Because these games give you the creative ability to build whatever you want however you want. Cities: Skylines takes it to a whole new level, adding many things that I wish other city builders had. This game has impressed me so much in just the few days I have owned it, and I cant wait to share my experience with all of you.

Cities: Skylines’s gameplay is by far, and I do not say this lightly, THE BEST OF THE CITY BUILDERS OUT THERE. Yes, the caps are needed to display how much this game has impressed me. Graphically, the game is beautiful. Mechanically, the game is so far beyond others of its kind that they simply have no chance of catching up.

Where to begin? Well, let’s start with what brings most simulation gamers to the table: mechanics. Not to mention you can build a city 9 times larger than SimCity. As previously mentioned, the game’s mechanics are leaps and bounds ahead of other city builders like SimCity and Cities XXL (not by the same company). To start, you need to lay down a power source. However, in most other games, imaginary lines will link the city to those sources without question. Not Cities: Skylines. You actually have to lay down the power lines from the source, wherever it is. The player has plenty of options for energy, including windmills and coal for earlier in the game. Later on, you have the ability to build a dam and use nearby water as an energy source, or use solar energy to power your city.

Granted, once the lines hit the city, you don't need to build power lines down city streets. The power grid will expand as the city expands, but I'm happy that you need to think about the position of the power lines before you lay them down. For example, I had to seriously consider where I wanted to lay down my lines so that my underground lines received power. I tend to play this game from an efficiency standpoint rather than an aesthetic standpoint, so I had a line run straight under the middle of the city in my single-player game; but when Murphy and I were both mayors in a multiplayer game, we decided to run it to the side instead.

Another amazing mechanic is the water and sewage lines. Most other city builders let you place a water source or a sewage pump, and then the lines are automatically put down. Well, think again; Cities: Skylines makes you lay down the water lines yourself. Other than this, though, most everything else is the same as other city builder games. Yet, Skylines just seems to do it much better. It has a great leveling system based off of your population, and it makes you feel special as you grow from a little hamlet to a large city, unlocking things as you go. One thing to note is when you unlock something, the people of your city will actually start to demand it, making it hard not to try out new things.

Now, let’s move on to the graphics. They’re great for a simulation game. In fact, they compete with SimCity. It’s a close match, but I believe that Skylines wins by just a hair. They seem to have a lot of different buildings and the roads that look great. Water actually flows and you can see the flow as it goes downstream. You can see logos and physical characteristics of windmills and other buildings, you can even zoom in on people and cars driving down the street, and it looks just like the real world. This game is just so aesthetically pleasing, just thinking about it makes me want to get back in the game and see the beautiful world the game developers have created.

One thing that I wish though is that the game offered a day/night cycle, but I also understand that the development of games like this takes a lot of time and effort, especially on a budget. Besides, the days fly by in the game, so it would be difficult to actually show the day/night cycle in action.

Also worth noting is that the developers have announced that they’ll be releasing tons of new, free content, along with some paid DLC. This means that there will be new and interesting things to try out as time goes on, adding to the replayability of the game. One thing they mentioned was the ability to build tunnels, so that’s something that I can’t wait to mess around with.

Overall, the game is great, and I will be playing it for a long time to come. Skylines is so much fun that SNR Gaming will be doing a Let’s Play of it. So, if you’re unsure about the game, and I haven’t convinced you with this review, check out our YouTube series. Murphy and I will be trying our hands out as Mayors of Puztopia.

So, what are you waiting for? Go out and have fun building cities.

Good:

- Mechanics are leaps and bound better than all other city builders.

- Graphics are amazing and lifelike.

- Fun game worthy of hours of gameplay.

- Devs said more to come… for free.

Bad:

- No day/night cycle is my only gripe.

Scully Rating 9.5 out of 10

Empire

By: Robert Murphy

I have never been a big fan of any sort of dramatic programming that is being dramatic just for the sake of it, soap operas and other shows like that, you know the drill. But, when I first started to hear buzz about the new drama series, Empire, I was immediately hooked. I can’t say for certain what it was; maybe it was the fact that the incredible Terrance Howard was the main character or the great R&B and Hip Hop tunes that were previewed. Whatever the case, I was glad I gave the show a chance. The story revolves around iconic Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) who was/is one of the biggest names in Hip Hop and is a man who struck out on his own and made his own company that now represents big names in the industry today. The company is aptly named Empire and is about to be the first African American owned company to go for an IPO and not only that but it would be the first music industry giant to do so too. Lucious is about to get a blast from his past though as his former wife Cookie (Taraji Henson) is released from prison and wants what belongs to her. The two spent years together in the slums and after working so hard, Cookie ended up in jail and Lucious ended up on top, they did whatever it took to survive and now it’s Cookie’s time to live the life she’s missed out on.

When I first saw the commercials for Empire, I thought that I would instantly dislike Cookie’s character because she was loud, obnoxious and always spouting off. However, despite the show having many main characters such as Lucious and the three sons he shares with Cookie, Jamal, Andre and Hakeem, she is the one that usually stands out the most during the entire first season. You could practically call the show Cookie and I still would love it. The first few episode of the show mainly revolve around her trying to establish herself back into the world after being locked up and away from her family. She tries to make amends with her sons, Jamal being the only one who really has kept in contact with her all these years, Andre was busy helping with the company and going off to business school and Hakeem was the youngest and bares plenty of resentment towards Cookie for not being there. Cookie also takes every opportunity to cause trouble for Lucious, she obviously still carries a torch for him and she also wants to be a part of his “Empire,” it’s what she deserves. She never pulls any punches along the way, there is so much drama and fire that comes from her character and it’s one of the reasons the show moves along so well.

On the opposite end of things you have Cookie’s ex-husband Lucious. Despite now living it up in his luxury penthouse office, his massive mansion home, debutant wife and fancy suits, he is still a man who group up on the streets. He may have lost touch with that notion along the way as you’ll see in the season finale but he is still a criminal and a thug underneath all the money. Lucious did whatever it took to get to the top and you will see that he still will do whatever it takes to make his company go public and make himself into a God. A line that he even spouts during the series. He is an extremely self righteous and egotistical man and he in fact ends up being the character that I just hate to love throughout Empire. The show does a brilliant job of making all sorts of characters with so much raw emotion and back story to them that you cannot stop watching. Emotions are not phony or fake in the show, even though they actually are, but what I mean is that unlike a soap opera things feel genuine when Lucious or any character speaks. This also gets greatly represented when Lucious speaks about his music or music in any light, is raw and powerful and it can create empires. It’s what he used to create his after all.

As for our three sons, they too drive the story home. Each of them got along fairly well in story, they’re brothers after all but they each have their own crosses to bear and that cross mainly reads, Lucious Lyon. As I mentioned earlier, Lucious is an arrogant and blowhardy character who always thinks what he does is right and so that’s caused some serious issues in his child rearing. Perhaps the one son that has the most trouble with Lucious is Jamal (Jussie Smollett), despite being just as musically talented as Hakeem, he is looked on with distain for being gay. The two do not get along and Lucious spends a good chunk of the show being homophobic and does a good deal of gay bashing, a particular flashback scene involving a garbage can will leave you in tears. Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) can best be described as a Justin Beiber character, give an extremely young kid more money than a small country and you will have a spoiled and pompous brat on your hands. His character does evolve quite a bit and he has amazing musical talent that I loved to see come out during the series. As for Andre (Trai Byers), he is the one member of the family that doesn’t actually take part in the family business in a musical sense, he went to school and his brains are the only reason that Empire got so far.

The main trifle between them all though becomes who will run the company after Lucious is gone, he somewhat pits them all against each other for the keys to the kingdom and boy does it get messy. Each of them will eventually come to see themselves as the right choice for the job, the underhanded attacks on one another and the war that wages with each of them kept me on the edge of my seat each week. Again, it’s all about raw emotion and the music is what brings that out the most. Jamal cuts ties with Lucious at about the halfway mark for the series, giving up his swanky apartment and all of the money that he uses to try and control him. This leads him to go out on his own, move to the slums just like before and start fresh. He finds his own sound and ways to express his struggle in a scene where he walks around the neighborhood and bangs on garbage cans and throws around rusty chains. Even, Andre who doesn’t care much for music though still has raw emotion going on underneath it all as he struggled so much and the fact that he knows the business world, it would make him the choice to run Empire. His dad would see otherwise, music needing to be run by someone who knows music and all that.

When the foot isn’t constantly being put on the peddle during the story and pumping up your adrenaline, there is a constant stream of music performances and scenes spread throughout each episode. This is just as enjoyable as the dialogue and action and also serves as key points of expression during an episode, it usually relates to something taking place on screen. Jamal and Hakeem each create songs on the spot during Empire; whether it is Jamal singing about his recently discovered daughter or Hakeem singing about his new girlfriend. Music flows out of every orifice of the show and it’s a truly wonderful addition. My personal favorite scene takes place in the two part finale episode between Lucious and Jamal, Jamal bring Lucious back to their childhood home, a source of a lot of hate, rage and anger but also a source of inspiration. The two create an insanely catchy song with one another; it’s a clearing the air moment to the show that should be cheesy but just works. Viewers even have access to all the songs if they’re on Spotify or iTunes to listen to over again, every show or movie has a soundtrack but Empire has about ten.

One of the biggest sources of complaints that I have seen about Empire though has to be its cliché and classic score. The show is dramatic and of course there are bound to be tense moments but in shows like these there tends to be orchestral scores to point out this fact. A dramatic realization? That calls for a dramatic sting. A tense conflict is going on between two characters? That calls for another musical cue to play in the background. It’s all gimmicky and a classic move played by countless shows over the years and it really isn’t necessary because everything is already dramatic enough for Empire. I was already shocked at what was happening on screen, I don’t need the show to tell me the emotion that I need to be feeling. It’s the equivalent of putting a cue card in front of a live studio audience that tells them to “applause.”

Overall, Empire is off to a great start as a series. The twelve episode long first season just came to an end on Wednesday and already looks like it is setting up for the next season to start up. The characters, the music and the fast paced story telling pushed the story along wonderfully and I certainly hope that it will continue to keep it up.

Good:

- Fast paced story with drama that doesn’t make your eyes role 

- Brilliant and engaging characters

- Wonderful music from Hip Hop, R&B and Rap

- Fantastic dialogue

Bad:

- The cliché soap opera scores that go on during tense or bewildering parts of the story

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10