Five Easy Achievements - Fable Anniversary

With a return to this popular series, I decided to finally start achievement hunting to bring you the return of Five Easy Achievements for Fable Anniversary! Do you only need a few extra points till you his that special number? This may be the guide for you!

1: Combat, Evolved
20 Gamerscore
This achievement will require a little searching but otherwise is an easy 20 gamerscore. The achievement asks you to drink a "Ages of..." potion (Any of the potions will do) while your combat multiplier is over 20. While you can search for enemies in numbers, it's easier to find a slower moving target that isn't great at attack, so I'd highly suggest Undead as they supply both. Find a large number of them or the Heavy Armoured Undead (as they're slow to move, attack rarely and knockdown easily) and hit away. Wait till you get well over 20 just to be safe and hit the inventory menu. Bam, 20 gamerscore.

2: Open Saysmemiddlefinger
20 Gamerscore
By far the most satisfying achievement I've done in a long time, this achievement asks you to either unlock all the Demon Doors or flip off a Demon Door. So while I do encourage you to find all the Demon Doors, the latter is quicker and simple.
I achievement this right at the end of the game but you can do this at any time by just playing the game and choosing negative quests (Killing people instead of protecting them, Assassinations ect). Over time your expressions will unlock, so then find a Demon Door, the most accessible would be the Demon Door in the Hero's Guild. Approach it, line up until the blue outline appears then cycle through your emotions to find the Middle Finger expression!

3: The Drinking Game 
10 Gamerscore
This achievement is simple and you can do this as soon as you're able to head for Bowerstone. Either get yourself, or a villager, drunk! You can buy a set of 10 beers, while the achievement only asks for about 7-8, but 10 is quicker than buying 1 singularly over and over. Either place them into your inventory quick box and drink them yourself or approach any villager and hand them away. Quick and simple.

4: Feed The Troll
10 Gamerscore
You'll encounter plenty on your journey, this achievement requires you to give the troll a taste of it's own medicine. A Stone Troll will throw rocks at your if you're too far away for physical attacks. When in battle, simply hold Left Trigger to lock onto the troll, wait till they fling a rock at you and swing your melee weapon. With luck, the stone will fly back and hit the troll. 

5: The Swinging Sword
20 Gamerscore
This achievement requires you to hit three enemies simultaneously with a melee weapon, while sounding hard, it's quite simple. I'd suggest doing this with Undead or Bandits, any enemy that usually doesn't attack afar. Wait till you're surrounded and swing your melee weapon. I'd suggest either a hammer or a longsword to do this: When the flourish (X) button glows, press and hold for your flourish attack. With a little bit of accuracy, you'll pop the achievement.

Also I should probably mention this insanely easy achievement

BONUS: See The Future
20 Gamerscore
Simply sync your Smartglass (Iphone or Android) through to Fable Anniversary with the Xbox 360 app. The app is free and quick to download, connecting can be a hassle but by simply staying on the menu screen and connecting you earn an achievement. 10X better than the Simpsons "Press Start" Achievement.

That's 100 Gamerscore right there! Happy hunting gamers!

How To Play your Xbox 360 through your Xbox One

Day One Xbox One and Accessories UNBOXING

Technically this is a repost but now the video appears on the blogspot! 
Enjoy!

Fatman's Wacky Adventures: Fable Anniversary

Updates - 2/16/14

G'day there guys and gals!

It's been a long while since I've written one of these and of course, those who come back regularly are probably noticing a lot of differences here. SO, let me explain.
For the last four years, I've written reviews, easy achievement guides, made videos and gameplays not only to entertain the bored people of the Internet but to supply you all with my #1 goal since day one: unbiased, 100% truthful reviews. So I've moved from being fatmanxviii to The GameCave, as you can plainly see.
Secondly, I'm still trying to write reviews for Betas and I've done a fair few in the last few weeks. I'll be bringing a lot more in the future, as well as future Five Easy Achievements. They were originally going to be moving to video but since I've started University, I just haven't had any time. Typing is much quicker that filming, editing, rendering and uploading a video, so expect some coming soon, Fable Anniversary will be the first.

Lastly, I want to mention that Blogspot is still being a massive pain when trying to sync videos, especially since Blogspot has moved to primarily Google+ and my Youtube account has all it's videos on the original setting. I do have one method which I'll try shortly after posting this. I'll be posting brand new gameplays soon that I'd love to share.
Also, just as a mention, it's occurred to me that this blog has been allowed Monetization for ads. I'm still highly considering doing this but for now, I'll keep this site ad free. I'd love to get paid to do what I enjoy but for now, I will only keep it consideration.

Well, that's about it! Take care and as always, have fun and game on!

Titanfall Beta - Summary and Suggestions

G'day there guys and gals!

Not for the longest time have I seen a community come together with a single though; Titanfall Beta. Now arguably the most wanted title of 2014, EA and Respawn Entertainment truly have the beginning of a Triple A title in the palm of their hand if they play their cards right with the community. For now, gamers worldwide are scrambling for codes for access into the Beta and as the fight continues, let's have a rundown of what to expect.
Immediately after starting the game, players are thrown into a tutorial mission set in a room of your character only referred to as "Pilot". The bulk contains the standard controls such as how to move, cloaking, movement and parkour, Titan maneuvers and so on. There are a set of 14 tutorial missions and each are short, sweet and incredibly fun. While there is a multitude of loading times between tutorials, they generally last less than 5 seconds and gameplay starts instantly. Immediately after the end of test run, you're allowed free roam of missions, for now only set to three; the standard Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Last Man Standing style matches (Named Attrition, Hardpoint and Last Titan Standing) with a fourth option for randomised selection between the three. Matches start with Pilot and Titan selection, you and your team stand waiting to be thrown into battle and your game mode of choice begins.
While there are only two maps, they are well crafted and allow massive free roaming while in a Titan (No, not like Eren) and small, condensed areas and rooftops for on foot battles. Fracture takes place in a small district, with cracked pipe lines, roads and the earth literally slanting upwards at points in match. Offering a lot of open area, the buildings are incredible for close quarters as well as wide roofs and rooms to fight in. Angel City is set in the middle of a large city, with open areas restriction but plenty of streets to navigate through, giving on foot players plenty of buildings to hide in.

Onto what everyone is waiting for: Gameplay.
While the game does offer a lot of FPS standard combat, the parkour aspect of the game really opens up the fights. A standard gun fight can move to climbing walls, rooftops or even so far as Titans being called to instantly destroy your opponent. Now keep in mind that you aren't the only players on the field. Randomly, NPCs, both allied and enemy reinforcements will drop from the sky to aid their team. At first they are easily killed but will harden over time. A single enemy NPC could turn out to be four players and a Titan battle. With quick respawn time, Titans don't have overpowered control of the battlefield as some gamers worried. One Titan can be the difference of a game, agreed, but all Pilots and NPCs have Anti-Titan weaponry on them, ranging from Lock On Missiles to Small missile attacks, either way in large amounts, deadly. Killing a Titan either with rockets, your own Titan or even hijacing their own and destroying it (Which is incredibly satisfying) is a motivational boost for your team, which definitely puts the Scouting Legion to shame. Titans take three minutes to be able to spawn in-game, another three minutes after your Titan is destroyed and so on so fears of no-respawn only restricted to game-mode choice.
In short, no matter the game mode, the action is quick, smooth and fun to play, with a mad dash to kill your enemies at your victory or retreat for a last small bonus of evacuation.
The only faults so far would be one of the weapons in particular. One of the three pistols in the Beta allows players to automatically headshot any player in a mid to close range. While you can manually aim if you're too far away, the pistol is much too overpowered, giving gamers too much freeway to instantly kill you if you don't notice them or they miraculously survive the encounter.

Overall, while Titanfall does have it's faults, the game is definitely aiming for the big leagues. Come March with the right idea and dedication, EA and Respawn could definitely give the Call of Duty series a run for it's money.

Suggestions:
+Pistol's targeting range/speed of targeting slower!
+Deeper customisation, currently limited to weapon/abilities. Characters too please, even if only armor!
+Limit down matchmaking time, waiting 90 seconds with a full team = counter-productive.
+More NPCs/Higher matchmaking numbers would fill out map more
+Cut back/switch up tutorial loading screens

The Elder Scrolls Online Beta - Summary and Suggestions

G'day there guys and gals!

With a highly sought after beta comes many willing gamers wanting to take the plunge, to be one of the few to roam the bare bones of a video game before it's released to the world. With special thanks to my friends Jacinta and Linc, they were kind enough to pass on a spare code and allow me to explore the world of The Elder Scrolls Online.

One of the most common used annotations for this title is "If Skyrim had a Multiplayer mode, this would be it." and to some degree, they are correct. While the world looks, feels and plays like an Elder Scrolls game, it has little aspects of a traditional MMO. Characters and enemies are bland and almost plain boring with the voice acting being their only saving quality to care about them at all. Combat, while absolutely enthralling, is the standard Bethesda enemy: If you're in sight, they'll attack, slash and bite. This also brings into mention the unfortunate item collecting. While doing side missions or main quests you will find a small variety of tasks to do; enemies to attack, sneak past/find and so on. However due to the amount of other players these characters, allies or no, can already be found dead, in combat with a dozen other players or already spoiling some sort of surprise mid-game. The reason I'm mentioning this is due to item collecting flaw; any quest item that needs retrieving will automatically be there, even if another character interacts with them first. However this does not apply to in-world items. If near-by chests, loot, barrels or other miscellaneous object, they will appear empty.  This can be a massive set back not only in improving yourself but in exploration of the world.

Don't get me wrong, exploring the world is one of the most fascinating things about the game; as always Bethesda has produced a game that not only looks utterly beautiful but it wide opened with many different veritable locations such as farmland, mountain ranges, snow and whole other areas to enjoy. 

The developers have definitely listened to the community about customisation and leveling, with by far one of the best customisation systems I've seen in an Elder Scrolls title. While still having presets, gamers can now modify their facial features even more, as in the Saints Row character creation system, by reshaping the different bone/face structure while still looking like a character from the lore.

Overall while short, the Online Beta was definitely a massive success. While I'm still highly unwilling to pay monthly rates for this title, hopefully Bethesda continues to listen to the fans and makes modifications and revisions. Until the release, it's just a waiting game.

Suggestions:

+Lower monthly fee (None at all will attract a larger crowd)

+Allow items to respawn for other characters

+Beef up interactive missions (Other players will take your portal/follower, let them be player based!)

+Make currency more available. 1 coin for one enemy, you can reach Level 10 before having enough before being able to buy new weaponry/items

+Loading screens can cause random deaths

Review: Fable Anniversary

G'day there guys and gals!

For the longest time, I've been a massive fan of the Fable franchise, right from the beginning. I may have had no knowledge at the time and simply borrowing a friend's game, but I have been a fan nonetheless, eagerly awaiting each new installment in the passing years. When I first heard rumours of a  return to the world of Fable, I was excited, already intending to purchase this game and return to my younger years of gaming, overflowing with nostalgia. Even with this fresh in mind and the game in my hands, I have been struggling to overlook the beauty and happiness this game provides for what faults I simply just cannot ignore or tolerate as I progress through the game.

Of course, the first few things you will notice is the graphics and new layout to the game. The graphics look absolutely superb in retrospect to the 2004 original release - each new detail in sunlight, shadows and eye eye movements and hair fibers blowing in a small winds look utterly stunning. These features are slightly faltered due to the camera angle issues, such as AI skeletons jerking and moving irregularly, heads tearing backwards into the character's neck to see a taller NPC and so on.
Pushing this aside, I want to make a mention of the menu. While it can be a little confusing to some, the navigation between the menu and character menus are simple and easy to navigate over time. However the odd glitch here and there will make some items recently found or unlocked unseen or the game won't keep up and fade out the graphic textures and selection boxes.
Gameplay and story are as great as ever, even improving the already sublime storyline from before. Magic, melee and range aren't overpowered as in Fable 3 but instead let players work for their upgrades and purchases for their new weaponry, clothing and more. Some players will even get lucky enough to find certain high-end weaponry simply by exploring the world. Voice acting is ripped directly from the original game and remastered clearly and definitely improved from the original game. While I'm still not a large fan of the voice acting in general, at least this time the words are more comprehensible.
Sound effects are really toned and sharp, hitting different objects, enemies or simply swinging your sword will be very noticeable as you progress through the game. It is a shame however as the limit of sound effects will generically loop eventually, especially so when battling Stone Giants.

Even with the remake's greatness, there are still so many bugs and glitches that I cannot hide. I have tried to ignore a lot of these, still trying to give this game the chance that it deserves, wanting the rush of nostalgia, but they are too great to ignore. More than seven times my console has frozen with or without the music still playing (Even after ejecting the disc!) by the simplistic things of gameplay. Entering a new area is common; the screen will stay black and only by ejecting the disc will work. The most frequent (And incredibly frustrating) is the in-map freezes. Entering a new part on the map (Such as running over to a nook in the in-game map you've never noticed before) may cause the game to freeze, sometimes with music still playing and will remain frozen until you completely unhook your Xbox 360 from the power point. Triple A titles such as these with these many bugs can be forgivable for a time, but even after several patches so far they continue to happen.

The achievement hunter community will be happy with the amount of hilarious and easy/hard achievements (even with the sneaky smartglass achievement) while the fans will be overjoyed to return to the wonderful world of Fable. But as of now, I would not recommend unknowns to play this game just yet. Set your mind off to Fable 2 or 3 or even The Journey before setting yourself to this title. Granted: it is an utterly fun game and an absolute joy to experience, but even it has caused an avid fan to rage quit more than once.

Out of 10, I give Fable Anniversary a 5.5/10

+Enjoyable gameplay/graphics
+Soundtrack and musical score will delight fans
+Skills are leveled and not overdone
-Still not a fan of the voice acting - flat and monotoned
-Guild Seal constantly flashes - constantly in the way of navigation
-Way too many bugs to ignore
-Game glitches and freezing consoles = not happy
-Doors/NPCs won't interact unless perfectly aligned
-Sound effects in combat will repeat

Fable Anniversary is out now for the standard price of $50

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition - Xbox One Impressions

G'day there guys and gals!

Before I continue writing this, let me be clear: this is not a review and will not receive a score or effect the original score of the review, only receiving a DLC rating. This is simply a small summary of my experience with the Definitive Edition on the Xbox One. The original review is at the end of this page.

With Next Gen titles only just beginning to surface as we move into 2014, Tom Raider Definitive Edition offered a brand new look into a game still relatively new to the community. Originally, the game had a lackluster release and Square Enix pointed the blame at Crystal Dynamics studios; despite this feud, the game had a great reception with the community and offered a fun and well mixed multiplayer to enjoy. As the title moves into the next generation of consoles, gamers across the world are ready to pick up once more the origin of arguably one of the most well known female gaming characters in the industry.

One of the first features I noticed was the extra added content; more pieces of artwork and collectibles, different costumes for Lara to wear and much more to offer. The downside was the costumes: one of the unfortunate mishaps is that they aren't character fixed. For those who have yet to play the game, Lara experiences many ongoing injuries, pains and elements that slowly effect her features throughout gameplay. While wearing a costume, these events are blocked and damage the mood and tone. For example: in one scene Lara is captured and while escaping, barely avoids an arrow where it cuts open her arm. Wearing any costume that covers her arm or any older injuries will not make them visible. 

Of course I can't progress without mentioning the updated graphics. While it's known fact that the Xbox One version is stuck with the 30fps, developers promised it would not effect gameplay or how the game looks, quote "Anything past 30fps is just gravy". Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Don't jump to conclusions, the game looks perfect and better than before - elemental graphics look utterly stunning while character movement and speech has been highly upgraded as well. The only issue are the drops in such cases. As of writing this, I have experienced frame drops in character movement in cutscenes (such as flames/rain/wind warping character heads), drops to dashboard and quite a unique one where I was dropped from game to dashboard, freezing the game and quickly my console. Multiplayer, however, is a completely different story; I have yet to experience any issues and overly enjoying the experiences.

While I am still progressing through the game, it is still overly enjoyable. While the game is still full release price, I would still suggest buying this title for it's incredible multiplayer, even if you're not a fan of the campaign. I have never been a fan of Tomb Raider but this may make me a believer yet.

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition: B-
To read my original review, copy/paste the link here: http://fatmanxviii.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/review-tomb-raider.html

DLC Review: Buried At Sea Part 1

G'day there gals and guys!

Bioshock Infinite left so many gamers confused about reality with it's impossible to predict ending, attracting mass media attention with everything from the story to the excellent voice acting, even going to as far as saving the career of Courtnee Draper. With the expansion of the world with Buried At Sea, hardcore fans were overjoyed to say the least with the return to Rapture.
I won't reveal all of the storyline but I will give you the basics: Awakened by a nightmare, Booker Dewitt awakes in his office to a rapping at the door, only to find a Rapture stylised Elizabeth, asking for his aid to find a certain little girl who he is convinced is dead. Through the game it's up to the player to discover the fate of Sally and why is she so important to this mysterious woman. With old friends to visit, new areas to defeat and old enemies to destroy once more, this DLC is obviously made for the fans of the series.

What Buried At Sea offers overall is a massive overhaul of lore; fans have only seen the briefest of moments of a Rapture before it's destruction. Buried At Sea offers to see the city lit up completely, to watch it thrive and feel the life it had before the darkness of the sea. Exploring different areas for recordings, extra content, the best view of a bustling city. Of course the gameplay is in the style of Bioshock Infinite and playing outside the controls for Rapture is a little odd but quickly adaptable, especially with all the natural enemies of the area you will fight. Elemental areas also make a play, one of the larger points of the game being freezing a stream of water to make a bridge. 

There isn't a lot I can say without revealing the storyline. The gameplay is as fun as ever with a story that will definitely keep your jaw dropped. As the time of writing this review, Part 2's trailer was released and the story thickens even more. Unless you've finished the main story's campaign, I'd highly suggest finishing that before diving back into Andrew Ryan's dream of a free city. 

Burial At Sea Part 1 Rating: B

Out now for the standard price of $15

Review: Battlefield 4

G'day there guys and gals!

For years, the competition of top dog game has been fought between the Battlefield and Call of Duty series, each year having mass amounts of promotion, advertisements and endorsements. Let it be known that I have played Battlefield 4 on both current and Next Gen consoles and although Next Gen have gorgeous scenery, it doesn't retract from the bug filled gameplay. In short;  an apple can be shiny on the outside but that doesn't mean the core isn't rotten.

Even on the previous generation of games, Battlefield 4's graphics look great, sleek and clean even with the overhaul of lens flairs. The sound effects and music score add a lot of drama and needed tension in gameplay, however this is where the issues begin. On both Xbox 360 and Xbox One, I experienced similar or exact same glitches, bugs and issues, although in fairness they were mainly in the Campaign. Such bugs as destroyed helicopters leaving burning black smoke in a ball in the sky, vehicles/items floating, open doorway blocking players, mission specific events stalling, never ending missions, cutscenes missing or broken and so on. 

Multiplayer holds some great parts to escape these issues but until the patch is released for the multiplayer, they still exist, especially issues with vehicles, doorways, elevators and even map changing timed events (to which they simply don't work or boot players that cannot update with the change). What is truly disappointing is the voice acting. Featuring a cast of well known to completely unknown actors in the gaming community, for people who play for the storyline, prepare to have your nostalgia mixed with a ton of melodrama: including yelling, lines blurted or simply flat vocal work. I'm not one to be too harsh, and even though Battlefield isn't known for its campaign, it's still such a letdown to get into a well written storyline but with poor execution. Sound effects and musical score isn't much to look at either, as many of the music is taken directly from the predecessor, Battlefield 4. Sound effects are well done and rounded but can seem almost blurred in a sense.

There isn't much more to say about Battlefield 4 that hasn't already been said. While I understand EA's rush to put out a game for the holidays, it seems a waste if the game needs constant updates and still isn't fixed, even after the Next Gen consoles have come out and for this, it earns one of my lowest scores to date. Often referred as a "buggy mess", as of the time of writing this review, the game has been banned for sale in China, despite their recent release of allowing video game consoles to be sold and distributed in the country.
For any gamers over there, don't worry my friend. You're not missing out on much. 

Out of 10, I give Battlefield 4 a 3.5/10

+Intriguing storyline
+fun multiplayer...
-...when it works
-too many issues for an $90 game
-bug/glitch overload
-voice acting = total mood kill

-campaign as equally flawed

-THREE months after Next Gen release, still not fixed