On June 1st, LEGO released a sandbox style game on Steam Early Access titled LEGO Worlds. This game resembles the already popular game called Minecraft, but has several features that are only available through mods in Minecraft or are limited. Such features include vehicles to drive or fly, multiple mounts including horses, bears, and dragons, to name a few, and a building design similar to that of LEGO's Digital Designer. The game's play mechanics are like that of other popular LEGO games (LEGO Star Wars, LEGO The Lord of The Rings, etc.). Controller support has already been implemented and mimics the controls available in their adventure games. But as with any game still in beta stage it still has it's bugs and lack of (what I think are important) features.

Here are what I think are important improvements or addictions that should be made to the game:

• First-person gameplay (similar to that of Minecraft)
• A greater emphasis on an adventure mode
• Multiplayer support with official servers as well as player made servers
• Randomly generated cities and villages (pyramids and other buildings with hidden treasure are already available in-game)
• More bricks to build with including doors and windows
• Steam Workshop implementation
• World options before creating new worlds to select what biomes generate, etc.

These are a few features that would, in my opinion, greatly improve the game. The game is currently singleplayer and building centered, which is what LEGO is all about, and this is what gears it towards a younger audience. If LEGO wants to reach a wider age range, two of the features I mentioned above, adventure mode and multiplayer support, will be an important components in this.

It has taken some time but I have finally built my custom PC! Which means I can finally start streaming on Twitch TV. If you are not familiar with what Twitch TV is, basically it is a website where gamers live stream themselves playing video games of all sorts. While I plan to start off small streaming games like Minecraft, The Binding of Isaac, and Spelunky, I plan to expand to more games in the future. Click here to go to my Twitch channel and follow me! Also, here is the list of my PC specs:



Follow me on Twitter to know when I will be going live and follow this blog for bigger updates concerning the stream as well as other things.

EDIT: Also, I have completely overhauled my website which can be found here.

-FxyNate

Originally released 2/7/12 for $14.99

Gotham City Impostors was released earlier this year on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC via Steam. Starting August 30th, the game became free to play on Steam. Taking interest in it now being free to play, I gave it a try. Surprisingly, I rather enjoyed the game. However, it does take some getting used to, and there is a major issue that hinders the game which I will explain shortly.

The game is relatively easy to get into, and you start out with a tutorial on how to play, and all the gadgets involved in the game. Once completed, you begin online play through one of the different game types available. There is no way to select a room to join, as you are automatically placed in a room by random. You can find yourself spending quite a bit of time in the game lobby waiting for it to start, and loading speeds are a bit on the slow side.

Gameplay is interesting, but fairly easy to pick up. Controls follow standard FPS controls, except that to switch first weapon to second weapon you have to use the mouse wheel, which can get tiresome as you will find yourself pressing 2 to switch, and nothing happening. With all of the gadgets, guns, and even bow and arrow to use, it is an unusual battle. But with only 6 maps available, it can start to grow old.

Customization took a bit to understand. You are able to change your players outfits by buying clothes and accessories with coins earned in-game. Package deals are available exclusively with Steam credit as well. Guns, Character physique, gadgets, and skills are unlocked by leveling up. When you level, you earn an unlock for a specific item that you can use to unlock any item under that category, like a gun mod. Also available are player cards, which serve as a players display picture, and can be changed by unlocking more items by leveling, or finding crates that randomly appear in-game.

Other items are available via Steam credit in the Black Market, but I do not see this as a game worth investing money in.

Here's the major con to the game: random disconnects and kicks. While playing, I was disconnected and even kicked repeatedly from the game. Searching online for this issue, I found a lot of people experiencing the same problem, without a solution to fix it. The issue does not always occur, and I can go hours without experiencing it, but there are times it will happen and keep happening until I am tired of trying to join and stay in a game.

Being a free to play game, it is worth downloading and playing. But unless the disconnect/kicking issue is fixed, I do not see this being a game that goes anywhere.

My final rating for the game, because of the server issues, is a 6 out of 10.