Assassins Creed 3 Multiplayer Trailer

Check out this brand new video footage of Assassins Creed 3's online competitive multiplayer.

Video Game Community and Culture

Gaming and the gaming community have changed and in hand significantly over the last 10 years, and continue to change every day, the gaming industry is one of the fastest changing industries in the world and this is also true of the community that it has spawned, thousands of people every single day check their favourite gaming website, logon to their favourite gaming forum and chat to friends they don’t know in person but consider good friends, but where did this all start and why is the gaming community in the modern world so extensive and ever changing, to analyse the building blocks that have built up the gaming community, first you have to study the foundation that it was built on.

If you ask any gamer over 30 what was their experiences being a gamer when they were younger there is a high chance that the word taboo, or stigma will come up, this is because being a gamer or talking about a piece of gaming news in the school play grounds or at the park was considered unacceptable, gaming was a very niche subject therefor there wasn’t a large community. The gaming community 30 years ago would have been considered an underground phenomenon, gaming was not as elevated in popular culture as it is now, therefore there was a certain stigma attached to it. Almost to the extent that if you wanted to go home and play a videogame instead of going out to play football or go shopping you were in some way a lesser person, less masculine or less feminine, the sad moral upshot to this is that as the stigma grew and it became less “cool” to talk about games, the amount and severity of the bullying did too, anyone who put themselves in the proverbial gaming community was a target.

Another important area to explore is the actual term gaming community; this itself is a complex idea that has transformed over the last few decades, if you jump to present day a gaming community is a group of regular people who get together to discuss and partake in what may be either their hobby or career, inside the community there is a strong level of diversity, a roster of people from all around the world that are not judged by religion, sexual orientation, race, gender or any other act of discrimination.

Sadly this togetherness has only been achieved recently in the last couple of years, again going back to the 30 year old gamer, he would tell you that when he was younger gaming communities featured mainly males, this is at least partially the fault of the gaming media of the time, advertisements for games would be aimed at males and would feature some content now deemed sexist, the women would be largely over sexualised, and would be shown as weak or victims which lead them to be by default property of the “powerful, brave” men. Many famous videogames would make the user rescue the stranded female because she is weak and  defenceless, a prominent example of this is the Mario series which is one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world, this game featured a female constantly getting rescued. The underlining tone of sexism in some of the early games caused some females to in sense boycott video games, and therefor would not be involved in the gaming communities of the time.

To begin to explore how the gaming community got to where it is today at a basic level you simply need to look at the word community, what actually is a community? A community is a social group of people who all are all joined together by one common interest. A common community that most people find themselves in is their neighbourhood community, in this example you are all linked by location, and the fact you’re so close to them means it’s easy for the community to build, but why shouldn’t this apply to a gaming community. You might be thinking that it is a total different subject area and the two can’t be the same but in theory it isn’t, the only difference is you’re not seeing the people in person but you’re still having relations with them, and in a lot of cases you are becoming good friends. In the gaming community that I involve myself in I have a lot of people I would call very good friends who I may have never met or only met a couple of times, and there is nothing wrong with this, don’t fall into the stereotype of thinking everyone online who you haven’t seen in person is crazy and out to get you, I have met many people in person that I first met online and we instantly got on like we had been friends for years and this is because we had.

Bullying although not as prominent in the gaming community as it used to be still exists in small pockets, I must explain that when I say bully I do not mean the stereotypical school sort of bully I mean real bullying, serious bullying that happens long after you leave school and can happen through life, be it bosses, friends or even family members. A bully may say that because you’ve got a lot of online friends that you don’t have friends in real life, this is completely not true, having friends in an online community is not opposing having friends in real life it is the same thing because they are real friends.

In this modern world the gaming community is a lot more prominent in the media and is now a friendly place where any social and cultural group is welcome, and will continue to grow for many years to come.

Next Level Gamers Podcast Episode 11

Another Friday as approached us which can only mean one thing, a brand new episode of the next level gamers podcast, in this weeks episode ..

This week: Alex is back from Maga! The latest gaming charts and news, amazingly composed jingles, Tom only drinks schweppes lemonade but why? How many “oooo’s” can we cram into the charts feature? Do we need new IP on the current generation of consoles? Jonny develops moving his microphone tourettes, Driver Francisco, is Sony making any money? What are the most underrated games of 2012? Tom doesn’t know how to track time, MORE Train Simulator 2012 and Wordy thinks hes now a train driver, Jonny thinks naming 5 good things about Sony will redeem the company, Wordy cant get a word in, The greatest game sidekicks! Tom has sexual feelings for aliens, purple vasers, NEW FEATURE: Which fact is bullshit? Gears of War 3, does Alex like soundtracks? Game of Thrones, Dirt Showdown, Someone does well at gamebusters but who is it? and can Jonny ACTUALLY shut a window?

To download to podcast for free follow this link http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/next-lvl-gamers-podcast/id525183508

And finally don't forget to give a good review on iTunes. Thank you.

Crysis 3 Exclusive 18 Minute Gameplay Video

Check out this exclusive gameplay video showcasing 18+ minutes of Crysis 3 action 

Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD Trailer

Check out the first summer arcade game Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD right now on XBLA

Next Level Gamers Podcast Episode 10

Its friday again which as ever means another episode of the Next Lvl Gamers Podcast, in this weeks episode..

This week: Alex is back in Maga, this weeks gaming charts, does Tom's degree actually mean anything, Tom makes EVEN MORE mistakes, every game offends Tom but why? Spec Ops The Line, whats the biggest over-hyped let down? Tom and Jonny develop speech impediments, Jonny dies from pure disgust, Steam sales, LOTRO, Train Simulator, Batman Arkham City, will cloud gaming kill of PC gaming, Sony STILL aren't making any money, Tom cant be arsed to edit, a memorable Gamebusters and finally will Tom ever make a good link.

Please don't forget to rate and review the podcast 5 star on iTunes.

Pes 2013 Demo Release Date

The demo for the latest instalment in the Pro Evolution Soccor (PES) franchise will hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on the 25th of July, Konami have officially announced.

The demo will feature eight teams, four international teams and four club teams, the international teams will consist of England, Germany, Italy and Portugal whereas the club teams will consist of the Brazilian sides Santos FC, SC International, Fluminense and Flamengo.

The full game is expected to release October 2nd.

ZombiU Gameplay

Check out the brand new gameplay video from ZombiU exclusively from Comic Con 2012, ZombiU is expected to launch with the new Nintendo Wii U

Next Lvl Gamers Podcast Issue 9

Its Friday once again and that means another issue of the award winning Next Lvl Gamers Podcast, in this weeks episode ... 

"This week: Tom is back....but a bit stiff, the latest gaming news, this weeks gaming charts, is sony making any money? Jonny never plays anything, are video gamers too cynical? are Square Enix starting a new Nazi regime? Tom hates superman and wants to kill all cheaters, how many bald actors can we name? why Wordy hates the marvel universe, boobs of the week, Tom has an orgasm over The Walking Dead, how shoddy and drawn out can we make gamebusters this week?"

To listen to the podcast follow this link ...  http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/next-lvl-gamers-podcast/id525183508

And don't forget to rate and review the podcast on iTunes.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Review

On May 25 out came the latest Tom Clancy game, of which there are over 30 titles, but why should you care? what makes this one special? In a genre dominated by behemoths such as Call of Duty and Battlefield can this kid still hang? Your god damn right he can. 


Tom Clancy games have always been a relative success, spawning franchises such as Rainbow 6, Splinter Cell and of course Ghost Recon, but there as been a sense in the last couple of years that Tom Clancy games have grown stale and irrelevant and fallen behind the times somewhat, this is the exact feeling that Ubisoft wanted to squash with the release of Ghost Recon Future Soldier which takes the game in an entirely new direction. 


The very fundamental mechanics of this game have been kept the same, you are still in a small squad and still rely heavily on tactics but other than this the game takes on an entirely new appearance to any other in the series. As you may have figured by the title this game is set in the future, which in itself seems like a very simple thing to do to a game but the way the game has been moulded around this near future setting is unbelievable realistic, even though paradoxical in nature this realistic setting is the basis and foundation on which the game then grows.


Everything in this game screams futuristic, be that the invisibility suite, or drone control mechanic or the fantastic setting which sees you travelling worldwide with your squad to beautifully designed and rendered locations such as Russia, Nigeria, Siberia and many more. Each country you visit in the game seems unique and more importantly alive, some of the visuals at times will blow you away. Each location looks how it should, which as said before is essentially a paradox as its in the future, yet it still seems to work and you fully believe each location which is key to creating a realistic therefore exciting futuristic setting. As I've alluded to there are three main "themes" of this game and they are change, futuristic and realism, these three ideals are utilised in every part of the game. What is important to consider is that each of these aspects are equally important to each other, when one fails the others have to, that's why it was so important Ubisoft got this balance right. 
"Everything in this game screams futuristic, be that the invisibility suite, or drone control mechanique or the fantastic"


The game is split into three main parts, campaign mode, guerrilla mode and multiplayer mode, but I will focus on the campaign mode in this review. Staying with our theme of realism the story presents a realistic yet admittedly slightly generic story, which I won't spoil but will say like most games features Russians as the enemy (when will this trend stop?). But the story is often not the strongest part of games in this genre and this game is no different, the story is not terrible but not amazing either, its just acceptable, what makes the campaign special is the locations and the gameplay mechanics. 


Upon starting the first level of the campaign, you will notice straight away the complexity of the enemy AI, it really does stand out from the offset, you are not fighting cut and paste terrorists in this game you are fighting well drilled, well organised, smart soldiers. As much as tactics is important for you it is equally important for them, and this is only exasperated with each step up in difficulty. How does this come across in gameplay? well if you find your squad grouped together behind what you thing is the "safety" of cover dont expect the enemies to just stand there putting lead into a sandbag while you pick them off expect a grenade to come over the top, expect enemies to break right and left in an attempt to flank. The AI insures that you and your squad are always thinking, always moving and always on edge.

Make your own unique weapon with Gunsmith 

You can't talk about Future Soldiers campaign mode for long without stepping upon Gunsmith, which on the face of it is a new revolutionary way of customising your loadout, but underneath is a brilliant mechanic that changes the game itself in so many ways. I will start by just explaining what Gunsmith actually is, Gunsmith lets you essentially "open up" your weapons and then change single parts of the weapon before putting it back together. To give you a sense of how in-depth this customisation is I'll list you some of the components you can customise; optics, stock, trigger, magazine, underbarrel, gas system and more. What this means is that when you play the game you are having your own unique experience and as it says on the box their is "over 20 million combinations". But how does this affect the gameplay? every mission that you play, because of Gunsmith, can be played in different ways, in most games in the genre you will ask yourself, shall I go with an assault rifle or a sub-machine gun but in this game you will be asking yourself what trigger system do I want for this mission. All this adds to a unique campaign that will be played differently by every single person who plays it, and also makes the re-playability aspect high as you will ask yourself what you could have done differently.

Co-op increases tension greatly

The only thing that made playing the campaign more enjoyable for me was playing it in co-op, which added a variable that made the action so much more tense and exciting. When you are lining up targets to sync shot (a feature similar to that of Splinter Cell Conviction) in single player you know that your squad will always be in a position to make the shot but when you are playing with another human character you have get everything right, you need to make sure your count is synchronised, and that you are in a good position but also have a backup position ready if anything goes wrong. The co-op experience in this game is helped by the large sized playing area as this allows you to approach each area tactically, be that staying close together with the safety in number attitude or splitting up in an effort to not get sense, you are always thinking and planning when in co-op. 


There are many things that this game has to offer but a feature often looked over in games is the 3D mode, I am lucky enough to have a 3D TV so I have been playing the game in 3D and I don't understand the negativity towards 3D in gaming. In the game the 3D essentially puts your HUD close to you (as if on your helmet) and adds depths to the actually gameplay area, this immerses me more in the game because it adds to the realism and you actually feel like your looking through a visor. I will continue to get behind 3D gaming because to me it adds an extra dimension to a game which makes the over all experience better. 


Ubisoft set out the make the Ghost Recon series relevent again, by essentially re-inventing it, and in my eyes they have done that, they have offered an altirnative to the generic run and gun shooter games that clog up the market and offered a game that truly requires that you plan each approach, think about priority targets and worry about the position your in. Tom Clancy games have been put back on the map and with the release of Rainbow 6 Patriots and Splinter Cell Blacklist in 2013 their not going away any time soon.



Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Buy or Rent = Buy              Score - 8.7/10

Total War: Rome 2 Trailer

Check out the epic new live action trailer for Total War: Rome 2 set for release in 2013

Sir Paul McCartney Writing Music For Bungie

Sir Paul McCartney has announced on his official Twitter account (@PaulMcCartney) That he is composing music for Bungie the makers of Halo.

"I'm really excited to be working on writing music with @bungie, the studio that made Halo,"

When questioned why he was making his first forage into the world of gaming he said that ..

"It's a fascinating market. A new computer game sells so much better than a new CD these days. Young people will hear my music for the first time in a game"

It is still unclear what specific Bungie game the Beatles star is working on but be sure to check out the soundtrack of the next game Bungie announce.

The Phoenix Rises ... A Little Later Than Expected

That's right JustHonestGameReviews is back, and even better. There will now be even more content produced to an higher level and I'm excited to bring forward the new podcast which I am host of... NextLvlGamersPodcast, check out this weekly podcast for reviews, news, games and general comedic gaming chit chat on iTunes or follow this link ...  http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/next-lvl-gamers-podcast/id525183508