Gun Monkeys (PC) Review - Oh the Simianity!

In a bleak future where mankind has been exterminated from the folly of creating a perpetual motion machine and monkeys are now seemingly infinite... Never in a million years did I think I would start a review with those words but that is now the case in the new game from Size Five Games, Gun Monkeys.

You run a power company in the future, staffed by monkeys toting guns, which could very well be where the game gets it's title from. Through the course of the game you collect little blue power cubes, up to three at a time, and you have to transport them back to your base to send them to the past to power all the appliances that modern day living says we need: kettles, TVs, computers etc.

The gameplay is easy to grasp but seems like it will be tricky to master, in my 3 games I have around 11 kills and 7 or so deaths but I have yet to win a game, finding the balance between killing the opposing monkey and collecting energy cubes is something I, as of yet, have been unable to do.

Above I mentioned an opposing monkey, this game is a 1v1 arena shooter, you on one side, your opponent on the other and energy cubes spawning to be collected at random intervals, to be returned to the players respective energy core. As well as the energy cubes the player is given power ups: stronger weapons, attraction of energy cubes and the like. This makes for some interesting gameplay scenarios.

From the moment I played the tutorial of this game, I was hooked on it. The humour brought to the narration by Kevin Eldon is masterful to say the least. I asked Dan (the developer of Gun Monkeys) why Kevin Eldon was chosen and his response was "Kevin Eldon is a hero of mine, he was just hugely influential on me. When it came to getting the voiceover done, I chanced my arm and sent him an email; he's not a gamer but liked the look of the game, it all just went from there. He is a very lovely, friendly man. It was amazing to work with him!"

What more do you need than that? Kevin Eldon has been in some of my favourite TV shows of all time, shows such as The IT Crowd, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Green Wing, Nighty Night and Black Books and every time I have seen or heard him, I have cracked up. Gun Monkeys is no different.
The music in Gun Monkeys is another strong point, fitting the action on screen perfectly and not at all jarring.

I pried for information about the game's development from Dan, being curious as to how the game formed the way it did. His response "OK. So, the game started out years ago as a silly game called Gibbage. It was local-only, 2 player 1 on 1. It was just incredibly good fun - the core mechanic of trying to grab cubes and return them to your base without dying just worked really well. When I had an opportunity to make something small in Unity, it seemed like a good concept to revisit, only this time I could make it online! The 1 on 1 thing stuck because that's what I knew worked- any more than that and Id need to invest in some serious prototyping, so I deliberately kept the project's scope small and manageable, but expandable if the game took off" 

The one problem I can foresee with Gun Monkeys is will the one game mode be enough to keep most players invested? It's not a problem for me in the slightest because it is such a fun game mode, not too hectic but hectic enough that you will end up blowing yourself up more than once (at least 3 of my deaths were from my own bombs.)

Gun Monkeys is great fun and well deserving of your time and money, especially if watching multi-coloured virtual monkeys explode into gore is your thing. You can find Gun Monkeys on Steam

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My FavouritE3 (My Picks of E3)

Now that E3 is over for another year, well and truly gone. A distant memory to some and a hazy mess of late nights and early mornings to most, I thought I would knock together my top 3 things that were at E3, hence "FavouritE3." It's witty and clever!

I will start off with the amazing video Sony showed about "Sharing games." It was as genius as it was an obvious and childish dig at Microsoft. Let's be fair though, Microsoft totally deserved it by being such massive idiots so far with what they have shown and said in regards to next gen, even going so far as to limit what countries an Xbox One will even be functional in at launch, which is ridiculous as some countries that are being excluded have a pretty high gaming population. Also, don't even get me started on what a PR failure Don Mattrick was, because after all, the point of this part of the article was how amazing Sony's video was.

Next on my list is Metal Gear Solid V. Really that's all I need to say on the subject of that. If you saw the footage from E3 of it you will know exactly why. It is a shame though that David Hayter will not be reprising his roll but Keifer Sutherland does a really good job of voicing everyone's favourite eyepatch wearing badass. The game is an open world game which blew my mind. Metal Gear Solid in an open world, just think about all the great stuff to do and see! No doubt there will also be a massive amount of hidden items an easter eggs that only the most dedicated players will find. Not to mention the fact that it is technically two games. 

And finally, my top pick from E3, is Watch_Dogs. This game looks set to be Game of the Year for the rest of time. The footage that was shown at E3 totally blew me away, having control over a whole cities electronics through a WiFi (technically a CtOS) network, raising road blockers to total a car that is chasing you, changing traffic lights to cause a horrific multi-lane multi-directional car crash looks so much fun! The protagonist, Aiden Pearce, has had a troubled past and it seems like his future and present aren't going to be a walk in the park either. Watch_Dogs is another open world game, you can go anywhere, do anything you want to do. Randomly hacking people's phones for bank account information then using that to withdraw all their money from an ATM. You can do that. I could talk about Watch_Dogs for hours but for the sake of keeping this less than 30 pages I will stop here.

What were your picks of E3? Let us know in the comments.

World of Tanks Is Coming To Xbox 360

The only thing so far I have managed to gleam from E3, apart from how amazing Watch_Dogs and The Phantom Pain look, is that the popular tank warfare game World of Tanks, is coming to Xbox 360 later this year (very probably the Xbox One as well at some point.)

The beta, however begins THIS WEEKEND and if you feel so inclined you can sign up over at worldoftanks.com/xbox/. Which is something I highly recommend doing, especially if you enjoy explosions. I mean, really... Who doesn't love explosions!?

WoT: 360, in the beta, will feature tanks from the United States and Germany, but Wargaming, the company behind the game, has plans to add more tanks and nations, power-ups and other gaming good stuff.

Oh, did I mention that WoT: 360 will be free to play for Xbox live Gold members? Oh, also free for 7 days for unpaid XBL members. Free games for the win!

The Humble Indie Bundle 8 Is Amazing. Fact

Humble Bundle - Pay What You Want

A couple of days ago over at the Fair Play Facebook, I told you that I would be reviewing the latest Humble Indie Bundle, I have thought long and hard about what the best way to do that would be, and I think I have come up with something that works, what I'm going to do is tell you a little about what the Humble Bundle does and then give you a little information on each game, then I will give you the link to the Humble Bundle page and insist that you pay whatever you can. This article will focus on the games you get for paying under the average because unfortunately that's what I had to do.

By buying the Humble Bundle you are also supporting Child's Play, which is an amazing charity that a lot of people in the gaming community are always supporting. You can too.

I will start with the game I have played most - Awesomenauts: Awesomenauts is a "MOBA" style game where two teams vie for control over the map. The characters are all amazing. The art style choice really compliments the humour in the game

The two teams are the Reds and the Blues. You pick your Awesomenaut, from quite a small selection at first but as you level up your profile more become available to play as. So playing more and often benefits you sa you get more gear, more characters and better at the game. Wins all round.

If you aren't confident enough in your skills, you can play as much as you want against the AI and still unlock all the things, Taking the M and O out of MOBA. But my hope is that you will go online eventually so I can see you there and we can Awesome it up.

Next is Thomas Was Alone: In Thomas Was Alone you control a series of blocks with varying attributes, from being able to jump great heights or being able to fit through spaces that the other blocks can't.

Thomas Was Alone tells an amazing story and is supplemented with the amazing narration of Danny Wallace, who also was a voice actor in the Assassin's Creed series, so we all know how good he is at what he does.

The graphics aren't amazing but graphics DON'T make a game. The gameplay does, graphics just help. But the gameplay in TWA is so tight an easy to grasp, you will spend hours just hopping around taking in the story in this delightful puzzle-platformer.

Capsized is a weird game, but enjoyable all the same. It is a retro inspired 2D action game with a run and gun style. The game looks gorgeous, with its hand drawn style. There isn't too much I can say about Capsized apart from the game is fun, the satisfying "Pop" of the enemies, the fact that you have a Metroid style / hookshot inspired way to navigate the maps, as well as a jet pack and a high powered rifle makes this game a perfect addition to any games library.

Little Inferno is more of an experience than a game, if I am totally honest. A very engaging and clever experience all the same. The core mechanic is burning things in the titular "Entertainment Fireplace" to stay warm. The fire graphics and the wide array of things you can immolate, as well as the continuing narrative will keep you coming back for more. Also your "neighbour" is bloody hysterical.

Those are all the games from the bundle I have played, Dear Esther is also in the bundle but I have been warned to stay as far away from that as possible.

If you pay over the average you also receive - Hotline Miami, Proteus, Tiny and Big in Grandpa's Leftovers, English Country Tune and Oil Rush (with a map pack)

If you can afford to pay over the average I highly reccomend it, if nothing else than for Hotline Miami

Xbox Reveal... Underwhelming

So the live-blog thing didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, primarily because the reveal is underwhelming. I am strongly considering just turning it off. There is far too much focus on turning the Xbox One into some kind of Hub-like One-stop-shop for everything in your living room. I wouldn't be having one in my living room! It's all been TV and sport so far. Very little mention of games.

We will bring you a complete update tomorrow at some point, after all the dust has settled but for now, I really cant bring myself to keep going with the One reveal.

Update: Tomorrow Will Be A Busy Day

We are sorry for a massive lapse in content again everyone, but honestly neither me nor Sean have found anything worth reporting, that hasn't already been reported on in a greater amount of detail in other places. There are big things on the horizon though, don't worry. From me there will be a Bioshock Infinite DLC review as soon as it comes out and I get my grubby little mitts on it and Sean has some plans that I'm not too sure on, you would have to ask him, I'm afraid.

But tomorrow, tomorrow is a big day for 360 players such as myself, the Next Box, Durango, 720, Xbox Infinity... whatever you want to call it is being announced all across the world on 360 and Xbox.com, and I for one will be watching on the 360's Live Events Player at 6pm GMT. I will also be live updating a special blog post as the conference goes on to try and keep you up to date with all the ins and outs.

We are too nice to you.