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Nude Clan: A Video Game Podcast

From the creators of Ultima Final Fantasy comes the ultimate video game podcast! News, reviews, and discussions about everything in the video game world. Subscribe for weekly episodes, or go to nudeclan.net to find out more!
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Now displaying: Page 19
Sep 24, 2016

This time, it's for real! We have finally finished the long loved Diablo series. Before we get into our review, we delve into the origins of the elusive Zelda Podcast. Enjoy our thoughts on Diablo III!

 

 

Rating                 Joe                 Kaleb

Story                    6                     7

Gameplay             10                    10

Design                   9                     10

Sound/Music          7                       8

Replayability         10                     10

 

Overall 87/100

Sep 17, 2016

This week, we decided to clear up a few questions on the ole forums. We discuss our limited knowledge of Pixel games. We dive into the reasons behind the lack of Nintendo games in our reviews, and top things off with a discussion about how many movies we've seen in our lives. And, of course, the Batman V Superman discussion continues thanks to our good pal Joe from Michigan. Enjoy!

Sep 10, 2016

This week, we review Craig and Cameron's Castlevania Symphony of the Night. We delve into the storyline of the game, which features the son of Dracula traversing his fathers castle in search of answers. We move on to the interesting gameplay which features elements of sidescrollers, RPG's, and action games. We then discuss the atmospheric music present in the game, as well as it's general design, and overall replayability. Then comes the fun part. We derail for a bit when Joe and Craig faceoff over the movie Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Enjoy the episode!

 

Ratings

                  Cameron            Craig

Story                7                     9

Gameplay          8                    10

Design               10                   10

Sound/Music        9                     9

Replayability        9                     10 

Sep 3, 2016

This week, we discuss our less than rich history with fighters. We touch on what games we dig, and what ones we're not so great at. We also discuss a question involving our ideal mini console complete with games. Make sure to get your iTunes reviews in, as we'll be giving away a copy of Street Fighter soon. Enjoy the Nude!

Aug 27, 2016

It's finally here! This time, we review Rocksmith. We discuss the various elements of the game, and discuss whether or not it improved our guitar skill. We also discuss the impact of trophies on our gaming lives. Enjoy the episode!

 

The Score:

                         Schweiss                           Cameron

Gameplay                9                                      9

Design                     10                                    10

Sound/Music             9                                       9

Replayablility            9                                       9

 

Overall: 93/100

Aug 20, 2016

This week, the Clan, minus Cameron, embark on a journey back in time to discuss the second generation of consoles. This generation was dominated by the powerhouse that once was Atari, but it wasn't the only one... We also discuss our thoughts on the Nintendo NX as we know it, and talk about why we dislike where Nintendo has gone in recent years. We finally announced the winner for our Double Dragon giveaway. Congrats Cory! 

Aug 13, 2016

This week, the Clan discusses a certain listeners grotesquely awesome comic book collection, and then we dive into an epic review of Doom 2016. Enjoy!

Doom is a science fiction - horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published
by Bethesda Softworks. DOOM (2016) is a reboot of the Doom7 series, and is the fourth installment since 2004's
Doom 3. The game was released on May 13 2016.

The gameplay returns to a fast paced shooter with open levels to explore, similar to the first two games.
The game also features environment traversal such as ledge grabbing, and double jump. Character upgrades and
execution kills are also new to the series. DOOM's multiplayer contains a level editor called SnapMap which was
co-developed with id Software by Certain Affinity and Escalation Studios.

DOOM (2016) was originally announced as Doom 4 while under development in 2008, the game had quite the development
with different builds and designs. It's development was restarted in 2011 and was unveiled as DOOM in 2014.
Like the original DOOM (classic) DOOM (2016) was inspired by music particularly heavy metal.

DOOM (2016) was very well received by critics and players; the single-player campaign, graphics, and gameplay were
praised, whereas the multiplayer mode drew the most criticism. The game was ranked as the second best-selling video
game in the UK and the US on its first week and month selling 500,000 copies at the end of May 2016 on PC alone.

Story:
DOOM takes place in a facility on Mars owned by the Union Aerospace Corporation. The scientists tried to take energy
from the hell dimension to solve an energy crisis on earth. The leader of the UAC Samuel Hayden lead several expeditions
into hell bringing back demons and artifacts, among these was a sarcophagus containing the Doom Slayer.
Demons take over the facility after Olivia Pierce one of the head scientists makes a pact with them. Hayden
revives the Doom Slayer after Olivia opens a portal to hell unleashing the demons. Doom Slayer then
pursues Olivia through the base and hell until he finds her and she transforms into the Spider Mastermind and kills her.


Development:
Doom 4
In April 2009, Hollenshead said that Doom 4 was "deep in development". When asked whether Doom 4 would be a sequel,
a reboot, or a prequel?", his response was "It's not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either.
Doom 3 was sort of a reboot.
On June 23, 2009, ZeniMax Media, best known for Bethesda Softworks, acquired id Software and announced that all
future id games would be published by Bethesda Softworks, including Doom 4 in addition to Rage and future Quake titles.

DOOM (2016)
At QuakeCon 2014, id Software Executive Producer Marty Stratton, the host of the presentation, announced
that Doom 4 was officially renamed as Doom for the reason that "it’s an origin game, reimagining everything about the
originals".

The greatest challenge that id Software faced while developing the game was to create a game that can
compete with other popular FPS games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, as they considered that the popularity of
the Doom series among younger audiences is relatively low when compared to the popular franchises, since
the last installment in the series was released back in 2004. Another challenge that they encountered was to
build a game that was unique enough to establish its own identity, while "being faithful" to other games in the series.

On July 2, 2015, Marty Stratton revealed that the game would not take place on Earth unlike the canceled Doom 4 and that,
unlike Doom 3 and inspired by the two originals, Doom would not take itself seriously and that it was being designed
to be comic and "very juvenile almost in their approach".
Martin later said that the game was heavily inspired by rock and roll and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
and that it's Hell-themed levels would feature much heavy metal. He also said that Doom's world was designed to
have a certain level of personality and be "over the top".

According to Hugo Martin, the game's creative director, the team did not put lots of emphasis upon the game's
story, as they believed that it is not an important feature of the franchise. He later said that he knew
that some fans would not like to see story be in the way of the gameplay of a first-person shooter such
as Doom and that players can optionally find codex entries for clues so that they can fill in gaps with
their own ideas and theorize about who the Doom Slayer is, from where he came, and why he is there.

 

Ratings           Schweiss           Craig          DeGolyer    Wilson

Story                    8                   8                  10             9

Gameplay             10                 10                 10             10

Design                  10                 10                 10             10

Sound/Music          10                 10                 10             10

Replayability          10                 10                 10              9

Overall: 194/200             97/100

We have a new champion!!!

 

Aug 6, 2016

This week, in light of Doom not being completed, the Clan talks mobile gaming. We discuss what makes a good mobile game, and also talk about our current favorites. We delve into our pasts, and bring up classics such as Snake and Tetris, both phenomenal games in their own right. We top things off with a recap on our PHAT lists. Congrats to Craig on being the leader of the Super Hog!

Jul 31, 2016

This week, Joe, Kaleb, and Kaleb clear out all the old questions on the forum. We discuss everything from the topic of piracy in gaming, to mainstream media overhyping games. Joe also loses his mind and goes on a massive rant part way through. Live always in the NUDE!

Jul 24, 2016

This week, the guys review everyone's favorite movie... Double Dragon! Join us for all the laughs, the slandering, and Schweiss going full Musketeer mode on the others.

 

Please leave your reviews on iTunes! We will choose the best review, and send a signed copy of Double Dragon off to that reviewer! Contest ends in two weeks!

Jul 16, 2016

This week, the Clan discusses the hit game Pokemon Go. We have each played varying amounts of the game, and have pretty solid experiences throughout. We run through the origins of the game, and discuss our thoughts on Gameplay, Design, Sound/Music, and of course the replayability. If you haven't already, check out this game! It's fun for everyone.

Jul 9, 2016

This time, we review Destroy All Humans. Enjoy!

 

Destroy all Humans



Destroy all Humans is an action adventure title released by the now defunct Pandemic Studios. You may remember Pandemic from popular titles such as the first two Star Wars Battlefront games, and the Mercenaries series. The game was released for the Playstation 2 and Xbox on the 21st of June, 2005.

 

The game takes place in 1959 USA, and features a technologically advanced race of aliens known as Furons. We start things off with a flying saucer investigating earth, when suddenly a nuclear missile is launched with the saucer just overhead. Cryptosporidium- 136 is captured by the US army. The game is then set up as a rescue mission, as well as to collect human DNA. Apparently some horny Furon’s visited Earth thousands of years ago for shore leave, following a war with Mars. You are seeking out this DNA, because the Furon’s have lost their genitalia over the years, and their leader Orthopox, has to resort to the ever degenerating clones to do his bidding.

 

During the game, all of Crypto’s various crimes are covered up by the mainstream media, who blame everything on either freak accidents, or Communism. The game is a giant reference to the pop culture, and politics of the late 50’s, though the technology present is far superior to what was available in the 50’s. You are armed with multiple weapons, including an anal probe gun, Zap O Matic, Desintegrator Ray, and Ion Detonator. Your flying saucer is also equipped, and ready to devastate the world with a Death ray, Abducto Beam, Sonic boom, and the epic Quantum Deconstructor.

 

Here are some of the notable quotes from the game:

If you can bend the antenna in the direction of the Mothership me should be able to send the signal. That's the good news. The bad news is that for complex and highly technical reasons you have only three minutes to do this or very bad things will happen. Now let us never speak of it again. Now go out there and bend some rabbit ears!

 

C'mon, you glory hounds! You wanna live forever? Let's stop that little Commie! Find him, neutralize him!

 

Don't get mad, get sadistic.

 

Quick, he's heading to the white building! No, the OTHER white building! The one with the tall, ugly fellow with the beard! I think he's Amish or something!

 

Orthopox: Here's the keys, now do try and bring it back in one piece double O... I mean Crypto.

 

If only there were some way to electronically facilitate the private viewing of illicit photography, like some sort of computing device with a screen. Ah, it'll never happen.

 

[after being shot with the anal probe]

Suburban Female: Ooh! That doesn't hurt so much, maybe Bob was right.

 

Cow: Moo.

Orthopox: "Moo"? Primitive, yet profound. Scan another one.

Jul 3, 2016

This week, we discuss the formation of Steam, Valve Corporations greatest accomplishment. We discuss the programs ups and downs, and talk about our history of computer gaming, and how Steam changed it all. Enjoy!

Jun 25, 2016

This week, the clan discusses Heavy Rain. Enjoy!

Heavy Rain is an interactive drama action-adventure video game developed by Quantic Dream in 2010. Heavy Rain is a noir thriller, with four different characters the player takes control of, each of these characters are involved with the case of a serial killer who uses rain water to drown his victims.

The players decisions and actions made during the game affect the story. main characters can be killed, and certain actions can lead to different scenes and endings. Heavy Rain was a critical and commercial success, it won several game of the year awards and selling over three million copies.

It was re-released for the ps4 with enhanced graphics and resolution. Heavy Rain uses technology that was used in a demo at E3 2006 called The Casting included full body and facial motion capture, real-time tears and wrinkles on the face, advanced skin shaders, and some advanced rendering features, such as depth of field, spherical harmonics, auto exposure and high dynamic range rendering. The technology enables animations of pupil dilation, tongue, eyes, fingers, and dynamic hair with physics.

 

                               Craig                   Joe

Story                         7                         6

Gameplay                   8                         6

Design                        9                         9

Sound/Music                9                         9

Replayability                6                         10

NUDECLAN TOTAL 79/100

 

Jun 19, 2016

This week, we discuss our favorite moments of this years E3 conference. Kaleb Craig also covers a little back history on the expo's history. Enjoy!!

 

A brief history of E3.

1995: The first E3 saw the unveiling of Nintendo's virtual boy system, and the entrance of Sony to the gaming industry with the PlayStation. in its first year E3 had 50,000 attendees.

1996: E3 saw the beginning of the Nintendo 64 and Mario 64, Capcom showed up with the first resident evil, naughty dog had their PlayStation start with crash bandicoot, Edios interactive showed off tomb raider, the first unreal engine was shown for the first time, Starcraft in an early form made an apperence, and Square showed its first PlayStation game Tobal no. 1, it also showed a preview for final fantasy 7.

1997: The third e3 saw the rise of some first person shooters like, quake 2, Starwars dark forces 2, half-life, and unreal. metal gear solid for the PlayStation was unveiled, as well as panzer dragoon saga for the Saturn and Superman for the N64. (which is considered one of the worst games of all time) One of the first offline Esports competitions the Red Annihilation Quake tournament was held at E3 1997.

1998: Duke Nukem Forever was shown for the first time, and the final version of Ocarina of Time was presented.

1999: A new generation of consoles, the Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo announced the dolphin which was the codename for the GameCube.

2000: The sixth E3 saw the PlayStation 2, and the early form of the Xbox, and Halo: Combat Evolved.

2001: The GameCube and Xbox were featured with a line up of games for each. it was also the last appearance of the Dreamcast.

2002: Xbox Live was unveiled, and several big games made an appearance like, Ninja Gaiden, Warcraft 3, Doom 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Starfox Adventures, Rachet and Clank, Sly cooper, Red Dead Revolver and Kingdom Hearts. Nintendo also unveiled the first major wireless controller called the Wavebird.

2003: Half-life 2, Halo 2, the Sims 2 and Call of Duty were all unveiled. it was also the first time the PSP was mentioned.

2004: The PSP and Nintendo DS were featured, and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was shown.

2005: The first time E3 was shown on TV. Sony debuted the PS3, Nintendo showed the Wii, and Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360.

2006: Focused on the upcoming releases of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, along with the next wave of games for the Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. some games shown were Fable 2, Gears of War, Super Smash Bros brawl, Super Mario galaxy, Grand Theft Auto 4, Final Fantasy 13.

2007: Attendance to E3 2007, the 13th annual E3 summit attracted only 10,000 attendees due to a change in format.

2009: Electronic Entertainment Expos beginning from 2009 reverted to the show's previous format before its 2007 restructuring. The show was greatly expanded in terms of size from previous years, it has been reopened to all qualified computer and gaming audience. The first show to revert to this format.

Jun 12, 2016

Join Kaleb, Cameron, Kaleb, and Dylan as they discuss the original Doom game. Enjoy!

Doom

How do you begin to do a review on a game as iconic and game changing as doom?

Who developed Doom?
ID software
John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.

The company was also heavily involved in the creation of the first-person shooter genre. Wolfenstein 3D is often considered as the first true FPS,Doom was a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general, and Quake is the first shooter to have online multiplayer, which is a widespread feature used in today's games of the same genre, as well as id's first true 3D first-person shooter.
What is doom?
1993 science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter (FPS) video game by id Software. It is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history, for having pioneered the now-ubiquitous first-person shooter. The original game was divided into three nine-level episodes and was distributed via shareware and mail order. The Ultimate Doom, an updated release of the original game featuring a fourth episode, was released in 1995 and sold at retail.
In an interview I watched about it by John Romero, he said that Doom is the most downloaded software because of how good it was, and because of it being free. In fact, Microsoft wanted to jump onto the success of doom with their release of windows 95:
Show clip

The version I played was the Ultimate Doom, the one sold on the BFG edition of Doom three on the xbox 360.

Plot

Doom, a science fiction/horror themed video game, has a background which is given in the game's instruction manual; the rest of the story is advanced with short messages displayed between each section of the game (called episodes), the action as the player character progresses through the levels, and some visual cues.

The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine ("Doomguy") who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation, a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Mars is considered by space marines to be the dullest assignment imaginable. This all changes when the UAC experiments go horribly wrong. Computer systems on Phobos malfunction, Deimos disappears entirely, and "something fragging evil" starts pouring out of the gateway, killing or possessing all UAC personnel.

Responding to a frantic distress call from the overrun scientists, the Martian marine unit is quickly sent by ship from Mars to Phobos to investigate, where the player character is left to guard the perimeter with only a pistol while the rest of the group proceeds inside. The marine hears assorted radio messages, gunfire, and screams, followed by silence: "Seems your buddies are dead." The player cannot navigate the ship off of Phobos alone and sees that the only way out is to fight through the Phobos complex.

As the last man standing, the player character's mission is to fight through the entire onslaught of demonic enemies by himself in order to keep them from attacking Earth. Knee-Deep in the Dead, the first episode and the only one in the shareware version, is set in the high-tech military bases, power plants, computer centers and geological anomalies on Phobos. It ends with the player character entering the teleporter leading to Deimos, only to be overwhelmed by monsters.

In the second episode, The Shores of Hell, the marine has successfully teleported to Deimos. He fights his way through installations on Deimos, similar to those on Phobos, but warped and distorted from the demon invasion and interwoven with beastly architecture. After defeating the titanic Cyberdemon, the marine discovers the truth about the vanished moon: it is floating above Hell.

The third episode, called Inferno, begins after the marine climbs off Deimos to the surface. The marine fights his way through Hell and defeats the Spider Mastermind that planned the invasion. Then a hidden doorway back to Earth opens for the hero, who has "proven too tough for Hell to contain". However, a burning city and a rabbit's head impaled on a stake (named in The Ultimate Doom as the marine's pet rabbit, Daisy) show that the demons have invaded Earth, setting the stage for Hell on Earth. The sequel retcons the events of Doom as an alien invasion of the Mars moon bases.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In The Ultimate Doom expansion, in the fourth episode Thy Flesh Consumed, it tells that the marine fought valiantly against the hordes of demons that the Spider Mastermind sent through that hidden doorway but ultimately the forces of Hell prevailed in the invasion of Earth. The locales of Thy Flesh Consumed are varied, including a mix of high-tech bases and demonic temples, though the atmosphere appears to be Earth.


Development
The development of Doom started in 1992, when John D. Carmack developed a new 3D game engine, the Doom engine, while the rest of the id Software team finished the Wolfenstein 3D prequel, Spear of Destiny. When the game design phase began in late 1992, the main thematic influences were the films Aliens and Evil Dead II.
Tom Hall wrote an elaborate design document called the Doom Bible, according to which the game would feature a detailed storyline, multiple player characters, and a number of interactive features.[8]However, many of his ideas were discarded during development in favor of simpler design

Technology
Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its relatively realistic 3D graphics. The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine, including height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D have the same height), full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are flat colors) and varying light levels and custom palettes (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). The latter contributed to Doom's visual authenticity, atmosphere and gameplay, as the use of darkness to frighten or confuse the player was nearly unheard of in games released prior to Doom; palette modifications were used to enhance effects such as the berserk power-up which tints the player's vision red.

How did you feel when you stepped into a room that was lit only by a strobe effect?

Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its relatively realistic 3D graphics.[9] The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine, including height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D have the same height), full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are flat colors) and varying light levels and custom palettes (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). The latter contributed to Doom's visual authenticity, atmosphere and gameplay, as the use of darkness to frighten or confuse the player was nearly unheard of in games released prior to Doom; palette modifications were used to enhance effects such as the berserk power-up which tints the player's vision red.

John Carmack had to make use of several tricks for these features to run smoothly on home computers of 1993. Most significantly, the Doom engine and levels are not truly three-dimensional; they are internally represented on a single plane, with height differences stored separately as displacements (a similar technique is still used in many games to create expansive outdoor environments). This allows a two point perspective projection, with several design limitations: for example, it is not possible in the Doom engine to create one room over another room in a level. However, thanks to its two-dimensional property, the environment can be rendered very quickly, using a binary space partitioning method. Another benefit was the clarity of the automap, as that could be rendered with 2D vectors without any risk of overlapping.

Another important feature of the Doom engine is its modular data files, which allow most of the game's content to be replaced by loading customWAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, andDoom was designed to further extend the possibilities. The ability to create custom scenarios contributed significantly to the game's popularity (see the section on WADs, below).

Music
A heavy metal-ambient soundtrack was supplied by Bobby Prince.[6], heavily influenced by metal
Show video of comparisons

The iconic E1M1

If you want to see that interview with John Romero, look for Meet John Romero: One of the Godfathers of the First-Person Shooter

Jun 4, 2016

This week, the clan discusses video games that are either hated by critics and audience members, that we love to play. We discuss which ones we hold dear, and discuss ones that we know are bad, but are so good.... We also talk about the games we've beaten this week, Joe having the only one with Final Fantasy X-2. The clan touches on a bit of news, including the announcement of VR porn at this years E3. Thank you for joining, and live always in the nude!

May 29, 2016

This week, the guys talk DMC, and have a new VR idea they're ready to bring to market. Enjoy!

DMC: Devil may cry is a hack and slash action game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom. DMC is technically the fifth game in the series, but is a reboot and is set in an alternate universe. Capcom called for a reimagining of the series and capcom chose Ninja Theory to make the game. Capcom worked alongside Ninja Theory to make sure the the gameplay was reminiscent of the older games but different enough to be special. The game started to receive a lot of flak even before its release as fans did NOT like the redesign of dante. Critics and new fans of the game praised gameplay, art, story, and music, but because of fan hate towards the new Dante the game did not meet Capcom's expectations. Later capcom claimed they were satisfied with the sales probably due to the definitive edition that was released on ps4, xbox one, and pc 2 years later. Dante's design was supposed to be similar to the original but capcom told ninja theory to make it completely different to appeal to a younger audience. So while the original dante was a japanese perspective ninja theory made him from more of a western perspective. The redesign was so hated that members of the ninja theory staff started receiving death threats. (apparently some in the form of comic books and a metal song.) early reception for the game was negative especially with the original creator hideki kamiya, and reuben langdon Dante's voice actor from the 3rd and 4th' games bagging on the game before release. producer alex jones said that some of the harsh response had turned positive. langdon changed his tune a little and urged fans to try the game. Rich Stanton from Eurogamer was about Dante's re-design, calling it one of the best reinventions of a character in gaming history. In contrast, Chris Schilling from VideoGamer.com was negative about the redesign, as he found the new Dante lacking some of the original's iconic features.

 

                      Schweiss                     Craig

Story                  6                               8

Gameplay           10                             10

Design                9                               10

Sound/Music        9                                9

Replayability        9                               10                     

 

 

May 22, 2016

This week, we discuss the history of Rhythm games, such as Guitar Hero, and Rocksmith. We dive into the origins, dating back to the Magnavox, and discuss the eventual downfall of the genre. We discuss a glass filled story behind Kaleb Craig's acquiring of a PS3, and discuss Joe's hike. Enjoy the episode guys!

May 15, 2016

Diablo II

Kaleb Schweiss

Diablo II is an action based, hack +-and slash rpg by Blizzard north. The game was published in 2000 for Windows and Mac. The game’s design was done by David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who acted as a project lead for the game.

Diablo II built on the success of the first game in the series, and was one of the most popular game of 2000. The continuation of it’s fanatsy themes from the first entry, and the access to Blizzard’s free online play service through Battle.net were a major factor in it’s popularity. The servers are still available through Battle.net, and they even had a major patch release in March of 2016. There was an expansion for Diablo II, titled Lord of Destruction released in 2001, of which I have played about half of.

 

The game progresses through four portions, divided up into acts. Each one follows a set of objectives, but still holds true to the random generated areas of the first game. Diablo II also introduces more side quests, mainly in the form of optional dungeons with an uber loot chest at the end. Diablo II has much more variety in environments, where Diablo I only had the floors in, and below, the monastery.

 

Diablo II also introduces three difficulty levels. Normal, Nightmare, and Hell are unlocked once the game is beaten on normal. Higher difficulty means harder enemies, and less resistances, but it also means better loot. The player can return to a lower difficulty at any time.

 

Diablo II brings a couple more character selections to the table. You can play as an Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Lord of Destruction also added the Druid and Assassin classes.

 

Diablo II’s story begins right after the events of Diablo. The great and powerful warrior, Husk, defeated Diablo in the first game, and tried to contain his essence within his body. Since then, Husk has become corrupted by the demons spirit, and has caused demons to enter the world.

 

Stories begin to be told in reference to this “Dark Wanderer”. We later find that the soulstones were originally designed to capture the Prime Evils who were banished to the mortal realm after being overthrown by their lessers. When Diablo’s soulstone became corrupted, the demon was able to control the Dark Wanderer. THe soulstone of Baal, another demon, was united with the mage Tal-Rasha, who volunteered to absorb the spirit into his body and be imprisoned. The story is told from the perspective of a drifter named Marius. Marius is following the Dark Wanderer, and finds that he means to unite with the other Prime Evils.

 

Act I: Rescue Cain from Tristram, follow Dark Wanderer. Wanderer gets Andariel to corrupt the Sisters of the Sightless Eye and take over their monestary. Overcome, yada yada.

Act II: You head east, in search of Tal Rasha’s tomb. Marius and the Dark Wanderer get there first, and Marius is deceived into removing Baals soulstone from Tal-Rasha, and Tyrael, an Archangel, orders Marius to take the soulstone to hell to destroy it. THe dark wanderer joins Mephisto and Ball, opens a portal to hell, and sheds his skin to become Diablo.


Act III: Mephisto is killed guarding the entrance to The Temple of Kurast. The character takes his soulstone, and goes to Hell.

Act IV: Slay Diablo, and destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo on the Hellforge, preventing their return.

 

                Kaleb Schweiss             Joe

Story            8                                 8

Gameplay    10                                10

Design         10                                10

Music/Sound 10                              10

Replayability 10                              10

 

 

May 7, 2016

This week, we announce that Kaleb and Kaleb's next game will be DMC: Devil May Cry. We move on to discuss a video submitted by Cynyr featuring the showdown between a Fallout character, and a Skyrim character. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBlhXKjSy6M We then move on to discuss our experiences with multiplayer gaming, and move on to discuss what kind of multiplayer games we prefer, ranging from fps to rts. We top it off with a bit of Getting Phat. Enjoy the NUDE!

May 1, 2016

This time on Nude Clan, Cameron and Kaleb Craig review the 2015 game "Dying Light". The game was praised for its music and replayablility, with good gameplay, design, and serviceable story to boot. Zombies and Parkour, oh my!

 

                                Cameron            Kaleb

Story                        7                       8

Gameplay                  7                      9

Design                       8                       7

Music/sound               10                     10

Replayablility              8                       8

 

Overall: 82/100

Apr 24, 2016

History of Video Games 2: Attack of the Clones

 

The first generation of videogame consoles were all related by the following characteristics:

  • Discrete transistor-based digital game logic gate. (an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function; that is, it performs a logical operation on one or more logical inputs, and produces a single logical output)
  • Games were native components of consoles rather than based on external or removable media.
  • Entire game playfield occupies only one screen.
  • Players and objects consist of very basic lines, dots or blocks.
  • Colour graphics are basic (mostly black and white or other dichromatic combination; later games may display three or more colours).
  • Either single-channel or no audio.




Manufacturer

Magnavox

Type

Dedicated console

Generation

First generation

Retail availability

Introductory price

US$99 (equivalent to $560.05 in 2015)

Discontinued

1975[1]

Units sold

330,000[1]

CPU

None

Controller input

Two paddles

Successor

Magnavox Odyssey²



  • The system can be powered by six C batteries, which were included. An optional A/C power supply was sold separately.
  • The Odyssey lacks sound capability.  Ralph Baer proposed a sound extension to Magnavox in 1973, but the idea was rejected.
  • The Odyssey uses a type of removable printed circuit board,[7] called a game card, that inserts into a slot similar to a ROM cartridge slot
  • The system was sold with translucent plastic overlays that players could put on their television screen[8] to simulate color graphics,[7] though only two TV sizes were supported. Some of these overlays could even be used with the same cartridges, though with different rules for playing.
  • Odyssey came packed with dice,[8] poker chips, and score sheets to help keep score, play money, and game boards much like a traditional board game.
  • The Odyssey was also designed to support an add-on peripheral, the first-ever commercial video "light gun" called the Shooting Gallery. This detected light from the television screen, though pointing the gun at a nearby light bulb also registered as a "hit". Only 20,000 sales were made and the peripheral could only be used with 4 compatible games.
    • This was also the first involvement of Nintendo in video games. According to Martin Picard in the International Journal of Computer Game Research: "in 1971, Nintendo had -- even before the marketing of the first home console in the United States -- an alliance with the American pioneer Magnavox to develop and produce optoelectronic guns for the Odyssey (released in 1972), since it was similar to what Nintendo was able to offer in the Japanese toy market in 1970s"
  • Magnavox settled a court case against Atari, Inc. for patent infringement in Atari's design of Pong, as it resembled the tennis game for the Odyssey. Over the next decade, Magnavox sued other big companies such as Coleco, Mattel, Seeburg, and Activision and either won or settled each suit.[14][15]In 1985, Nintendo sued Magnavox and tried to invalidate Baer's patents by saying that the first video game was William Higinbotham's Tennis for Two game built in 1958. The court ruled that this game did not use video signals and could not qualify as a video game. As a result, Nintendo lost the suit and continued paying royalties to Sanders Associates. Over 20 years, Magnavox won more than $100 million in the various patent lawsuits and settlements involving the Odyssey related patents.[16]
  • A total of 27 games distributed and 12 different game cards were released for the Magnavox Odyssey. All of them were developed by Magnavox in 1972, except for Interplanetary Voyage, which was developed in 1973. (Almost all were sports games).

 

The Magnavox Odyssey never really caught on with the consumers, possibly because of its limited functionality.

 

In 1974 Magnavox was bought by a company called Phillips, and they were put to work making newer and newer versions of their console to compete with the competitors that began popping up in 1975.

 

First Competitor

Japan

On September 12, 1975, Epoch released Japan's first console, the TV Tennis Electrotennis, a home version of Pong, several months before the release of Home Pong in North America. A unique feature of the TV Tennis Electrotennis is that the console is wireless, functioning through a UHF antenna.

 

Pong

USA

By the middle of the 1970s the ball-and-paddle craze in the arcade had ignited public interest in video games and continuing advances in integrated circuits had resulted in large-scale integration (LSI) microchips cheap enough to be incorporated into a consumer product. The first Arcades were being built, and multiple Pong Clones - Starting with the original smash-hit HOME PONG in Christmas of 1975. were being produced for arcades and at-home consoles.

 

Binatone TV Master

Uk copy of Magnavox odyssey, also came with paddles and a light gun.

 

Telstar Colortron produced by Coleco

USA Pong clone that ran a series of consoles from 1976 to 1978

 

Nintendo's Color TV Game

Japan's most successful console of the first generation was Nintendo's Color TV Game, released in 1977.[4] The Color TV Game sold 3 million units,[5] the highest for a first generation console.

 

ARCADES

 

While all of these at-home consoles and pong clones were coming out, another surge of electronic gaming was happening in the form of Arcades.

Now, arcades already existed with physical games like pinball, but starting with Atari’s pong in 1972, video games were coming on in with companies  Ramtek, Allied Leisure, Williams, Chicago Coin, and Midway producing coin-operated arcade game machines.

 

Not long into the market, these companies began to produce more than just pong copycats, but racing games, dueling games, and target shooting games.

 

Hits include:

Gran Trak 10 (1974)

Tank (1974)

Wheels (1975)

Gun Fight, (1975)

Sea Wolf (1976)





COMPUTER GAMES

 

In the 1970s computers at universities were beginning to outgrow the game “spacewar” and various creative programmers were creating a whole new type of game.

 

As opposed to the real-time graphics of the at-home consoles, most mainframe and microprocessor computers lacked the display capabilities of those games, and instead opted for text-based input games. These games would often be printed in books as code to input.

 

Notable games include:

  • Colossal Cave Adventure created in 1976 by Will Crowther by combining his passion for caving with concepts from the newly released tabletop role-playing game (RPG) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Expanded by Don Woods in 1977 with an emphasis on the high fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, Adventure established a new genre based around exploration and inventory-based puzzle solving that made the transition to personal computers in the late 1970s.

 

In the late 1970’s, more computers were available that could handle graphics that weren’t text-only, allowing for a first person view of primative vector graphics mixed with text-input. Notable Games like these in the first generation include:  Moria (1975), Oubliette (1977), and Avatar (1979)

 

IN CLOSING

 

In 1977 video games both at home and abroad began to lag in sales, possibly due to a crowded market and possibly due to electronically enhanced pinball games, but that would all change with Midway’s Space invaders in 1979.

Apr 17, 2016

This week, the guys review the new and noteworthy Far Cry Primal. This time, all four members of Nude Clan team up to bring you all the girth you could possibly want. We give a standardly sloppy retelling of the games light story, where you play as Takkar of the Wenja tribe. You essentially gather your people together again, after they were scattered across the land by Ull, the leader of the Udam people of the north. You build homes for your villagers, and help them vanquish their mortal enemies. You eventually bring peace to the land, and begin accepting peoples from the other two tribes into your camp. We then move on to gameplay.

The Gameplay in Far Cry Primal is stellar. The ability to tame wild animals and turn them against your enemies is a lot of fun. The extra missions available on the world map allow for hours of content aside from the main storyline, and are a great way to explore the land of Oros.

Far Cry Primal is beautiful. The game is probably the best looking thing any of the Clan have played, and we can tell that they spared no expense to make this the most immersive game possible. The animations are fluid and precise, the characters look excellent, and the animals are stellar.

The games sound and music portion was a bit of a step down from the design of Far Cry Primal. The music is used sparingly, yet always feels right. The sounds are accurate for the most part, but still cut out prematurely at times, and creates a jarring effect on the immersion into the game.

 Replayability.... This game has lots of things to do. There are animals to tame, hunts to participate in, extra quests to do, people to save...etc. There are also a ton of extra items you can grab, and the new patch has added a much more difficult way of playing the game. You'll definitely be able to get your money's worth with FarCry Primal.

 

Ratings      Craig    Schweiss   Cameron    Joe

Story            7            7                8           7

Gameplay     9            9                9           9

Design          10          10              10          10

Sound/music  8            8                7           10

Replayability  9             7                8          10

TOTAL: 172/200 or 86/100

 

Apr 10, 2016

This week, we go full hog. We discuss our stance on achievements, trophies, and gamerscore. We talk about the elements that we like, and dislike about these systems. We then reveal Kaleb Craig as the top dog in these categories, and discuss why him and Schweiss are a cut above the rest. We also answer an excellent question from Pixel on the forums regarding whether or not video games are art. This question was derived from comments made years ago by Roger Ebert. The Clan discusses his comments, and also what they feel video games need to do to be considered a stand alone art form. Enjoy the episode!

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