MeTime 'Gaming on a Budget' 3 - Braaaaaaaaains edition.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MeTimeGifts 'Gaming on a Budget' Halloween special! (Yes I know I'm a tad late.)

Today we shall be looking at some titles focusing on our greatest of horror friends the Living Dead.

Since our zombie pals are rotting every second we waste let's get right to it shall we?

1. Zombie Bites.
    Made by: Hairy Games.

All we wanna do is eat your brains.

 

 

 

 

 

This beautiful 8-bit game hold one simple idea... you are a zombie... a hungry hungry zombie.

And you want to eat things.

You run and jump around in a platformer style manner eating everyone you come across, once you eat a victim they also rise as a zombie, and here is where it gets difficult.

 There is always a minimum number of humans on the screen but theres a catch, the number of zombies you make dosent have a cap and they are trying to eat delicous brains too.

 So as the zombie to human ratio rises to becomes harder and harder to find food and stop yourself starving death.

You can play Zombie Bites: Here!

2.  Rebuild 1 and 2.
      Made by TwoTowerGames.com


We've all been there in books/games/movies/music... It's the end of the world, and you are surrounded by flesh hungry living dead, It's usually a hopeless scenario but what if it wasn't?

In the 'Rebuild' games you are tasked with pushing the undead menace back and rebuilding civilization.
A daunting task for sure but not an impossible one.

The graphics are minimal but nice to look at and serve their purpose.

The gameplay of 'Rebuild' is very much like SimCity.
You start out with a small area of land usually a police station as a town hall, a few houses, and a farm or two to generate food.

As the game progresses you will send out survivors to gather food, take territories and kill zombies.

The game can be won in 1 of 4 ways.

1: Take every location on the map.
2: Find a Laboratory and research a cure (good choice if you have a lot of smart survivors)
3: Find the old town hall and establish a new government (Good if you have got a lot of charismatic survivors)
4: Find the cursed graveyard and destroy it (Good if you have got a lot of soldiers)

As you play, more and more zombies will amass and siege your settlement, you need to make sure you have plenty of survivors watching the walls or they may break through, taking zones back, killing survivors and lowering morale.

I could ramble about this game for hours, but the best way to see how great it is, is to play it yourself.


You can play: Rebuild 1 Here!
You can play: Rebuild 2 Here!

In review... PAYDAY: The Heist.

Hello everyone, as you all know the holiday season is coming up and Halloween is just around the corner.

As some of you may not know, this is quite an important time in the video game industry, it gives big publishers a running jump at Christmas and it gives smaller or indie publishers a chance to release their games more around Halloween so they can avoid the big name titles later in the year.

Now a lot of people have been reviewing Batman: Arkam City, don't get me wrong it's a good game, but it saddens me when alot of reviews focus on one thing, because they can miss some real gems.

One of those gems that I will show you today is PAYDAY: The Heist, if you are tired of the shenanigans of the caped crusader why not try playing for the other team once is a while?

Why so serious?

Being a game that is the logical opposite to Batman, you play as one of four clown-masked criminals in a series of heists and other illegal activity.

PAYDAY: The Heist has a very strong emphasis on co-operation bearing some similarities to the popular zombie shooter Left 4 Dead.

During heists you will be given certain objectives that you will need your entire teams help to complete efficiently, these objectives range from... tying up hostages for future negotiation, attaching drills and saws to break through bank doors or planting explosives on a nearby wall to create a get-away route.

With so many roles to play in a team this is defiantly a multiplayer focused game.

(Although it is playable in single player, they are releasing patches to make the AI smarter, but currently they just follow you around and try and keep you safe.)

Don't be fooled though, even if you get a good team together the game can be very difficult, the long arm of the law will do everything in its power to apprehend you and lock you up.

Once a heist start it will be around 1-2 minutes before the police arrive on scene, after that its all down hill, sending it SWAT teams, riot squads, snipers, sometimes even resorting to special forces and FBI agents.

Once the siege begins it isn't really a case of IF you get captured but WHEN, so it's very important to keep moving, get the money and get out.



Games can typically last 30-45 minutes, they can be much longer and much more intense if the police are doing well... I remember a match where we were robbing some drug dealers of their 'hard-earned' cash and the police stormed in, 2 of my buddies were arrested and the other one was shot to bits and on the ground.

After a long shootout I managed to get to my injured partner in crime and get him on his feet, together we fought off the police temporarily, and then negotiated to get our other 2 buddies back by releasing some hostages, the group was back at full strength again and the police were very angry, we got away with the money but we were all sweating bullets on that final chase.

All in all a very good game, on top of all this there is also a leveling system, every time you complete an objective you can Notoriety, every time you hit a certain limit you level up, giving you new items and abilities.

(such as new weapons, body armour, carrying spare ammo, more handcuffs etc.)




One of my only complaints is the lack of ability to change graphics mods, you can change resolution but thats about it, all in all not too much of a problem the game is very well optimized and I havent heard many complaints on how it performs.

Long story very short, if you are looking for something to sit down with friends and have a criminally good time this game is for you

Just dont rob any banks in Gotham... seriously no amount of money is worth it.

Also heres a quick summary of everything thats on StansDiscountBargains!
With prices like this, you're robbing me blind.

Five Beautifully Lush Bath Bombs in a Selection Gift Box.  - £13.00 (Buy it now)

2 Pair pac of 'MAGIC FIT' 70 Denier Teen Tights.  - 99p (Bids only)


2 packs of 'TAMMY' Black & Grey Striped Fashion Tights - 99p (Bids only)
RRP £8.00

5 packs of Black Fashion Tights - 99p (Bids only)
RRP £10.00

2 packs of 80 denier Lg Grey Tights - 99p (Bids only)
RRP £6.00

As always, you'll never need to rob a bank, to afford our wonderful products at MeTime!

And Stan's Discount Bargains!

The Battle of Thermopylae, 300.

Well hello everyone, I do apologies for the delay, not only has my computer been not too well, but I thought someone had stolen my wallet, after cancelling all my card it turns back up... always the way isn't it?

Here we are back to our Spartan buddies and their finest hour.

The Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 brave (suicidal) Spartan soldiers held the line against a Persian force of something between 100'000 and 300'000 (i.e. a lot)

Now what most interpritations of 300 don't tell you, is the Greeks had a line infront of the Spartans consisting of 7000 men, with which they held off the Persian invaders for 7 days before the Spartan rear line had to go into the fray, pretty impressive if you ask me, and a shame most people leave it out.

As most of you know 'The Battle of Thermopylae' was mainly famous for the tactic of condensing numbers to remove a significant advantage from the enemy, even though the Spartans were few in number, the 'hot gates' (named not due to the gates of Hades as perceived, but the hot springs that surrounded the area) forced the enemy to fight on equal number.

Now to be brutally honest, I'm not sure how many forces at the time aside from the Spartans could have pulled this tactic off, think about it, fighting the enemy on equal number is a nice boon, but you still have the issue of they can constantly reinforce.

As you keep striking down waves of opponents you're getting tired, and your morale begins to falter.

Yet each fresh faced new group of cannon fodder that assaults you will be eager and energetic.



Basically if it wasn't for the Spartan training of to fight hard and to keep fighting till the end, I honestly don't think they would have made much of an impact.

Well thats all I have to say on one of the greatest battles of history, 300 Spartans and 7000 Greeks VS 100'000 - 300'000 Persians... is not a bad kill ratio at all.

Till next time everyone.

And now for somthing completely different... Sparta.

Greetings everyone, sorry for the less than usual updates unfortunately my computer has been rather poorly as of late but now its back on its feet and ready to bring completely unusual and bizarre information to the masses via blogs just such as this one. (A complete lie there, this is the second time of writing this blog since my computer decided to die while typing 10 minutes ago.)

But hey ho, since I've actually had a while to think about this, rather than just jumping around on popular culture and video games, let's get a bit historical (Dont worry there will still be plently of shenanigans along the way.)

Hop in the DeLorean and backtrack all the way to 650bc and onwards, chances are if fate dumps you in the area of Greece you will probably hear somthing about some chaps called the Spartans or Lakonians if they are speaking in the native tongue.

 

 

What the musical with John Travolta had to do with this I'll never know.

In a nutshell the Spartans were hilariously good at beating up everyone around them and taking their nicest things. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in superious weapons, training and tactics.

Now don't get me wrong, despite their massive military prowess the Spartans were most certainly not barbarians, for example, Spartan women could own and inheret land something very uncommon for the era, they also had (albeit limited) say in how the country was ran and its politics.

Unfortunately... or fortunately depending on whose side you were on, the Spartans could never really follow a dream of world domination, VERY long story short, they simply did not have enough guys.

You see for a Spartan it was pretty tough straight out the starting gate, when they were born they were examined for any symptoms of physical or mental disability, if they showed any sign of being weaker than the rest of the pack they were left in the fields to either die, or be taken on by the locals as farmhands and such.

Assuming they passed the first test, at the age of 7 Spartan boys were sent to the Agoge, a military training school where they were taught everything from stealth and assassination, to pain tolerance and brutal close quarters combat.

Girls had a slightly easier ride, when they turned 7 they were taught arts, culture and diplomacy, they also threw in some sports and gymnastics to keep the ever famous Spartan competitive spirit alive, and as with the boys they were taught in military tactics and some combat training.

Anyway I have gone waaaaay over my word limit for this blog, so I will have to call it a day for now, tune in next time to read about the Spartans finest hour and the famous 300.

If you'd like to see the closest possible thing to REAL LIFE Spartans, why not check out this re-enactment group http://www.facebook.com/SpartaMora lots of wonderful pictures depicting Spartan life.

And contanct info if you'd like to get involved.

This blog has been a MeTimeGifts presentation.

MeTime 'Gaming on a Budget 2'

Hello again everyone sorry for the delay in blogs, recently on top of my regular duties of selling fantastic hand made soap and lovingly wrapping them in wrapping paper made of love and wrapping, I have been purging the unclean and smiting the heretics as I have got a full copy of Warhammer 40.000 Space Marine. (Review coming soon don't you worry.)

But right now it's time one again for me to show you the not-so expensive side of gaming, while still getting some quality titles under your belt.

Ah quality... such a nice word.
In PC gaming terms 'Quality' was pretty much copyrighted in 1993 with Id software's release of the game DooM (disclaimer the term 'quality' has never been copyrighted and never will.)

Of course everybody knows DooM, and chances are if you know DooM you know it's good old buddy Quake.

Quakes' claim to fame (or infamy whatever) has always been DeathMatch, while it always existed in DooM since the Internet was still in its infancy, it wasn't really practical to play unless you had a LAN connection (Basically multiple machines connected through a string of cables)

The idea of DeathMatching against your friends and neighbors instead of just blowing away demons and aliens, became so popular it spawned its own convention known as QuakeCon, a place people could go and play MASSIVE LAN games with no lag or slowdown and enjoy every second of it.

Fast forward a few years and although Internet gaming has improved to the point where LAN games aren't nearly as important, QuakeCon is still going strong.

Now I know what you're thinking... "But incredibly wise, handsome, and all round cool blogger... what does this have to do with free gaming? All of the Quake titles are retail aren't they?"

Well young/old/alien reader... you would be right, and oh so wrong.

Woudln't it be amazing if we could just frag opponents through our browser for free... no discs... no other programs... running in the background at work. (Remind me to delete that one.)

Well guess what... YES WE CAN.   (Please read this in the voice of Barack Obama.)

Quake LIVE, is a free online browser based game, which is basically all the best bits of the Quake online modes, thrown together.

With this wonderful title, it can be QuakeCon everyday, and for newcomers to the Quake games, there is a handy tutorial system that will teach you everything from moving forwards and backwards, to rocket jumping like the Quake Pro's of the olden days.

Installation is dead simple, just head over to http://www.quakelive.com install the browser plugin, make your account and off you go. (Don't worry it's all very simple, and they'll guide you through it.)

There are premium options, such as new maps, dedicated server spots and other goodies, but although they certainly add spice, non of them are needed to enjoy the game.

Well that's me done for another day, and to you my good readers... I'll see you in the arena.

(And to all those who just stepped out of a match, why not freshen yourself up for the next round of carnage with a little something from MeTimeGifts)

MeTime hints 'Gaming on a budget.'

Hello everyone, as you all know here at Me Time Gifts we value the time to spend on yourself and on a hobby.

Also being Stan of StansDiscountBargains, I can understand that a lot of hobbies can be expensive and in todays very economically fragile world, we all want to save a little money.
So in this series of blogs, I shall be highlighting free games that are high quality and may have slipped under the radar, remember you don't need to shell out £40 for every new release to be a good gamer.

First up on our list is a rather special title, since I know everyone and their dog uses facebook these days I thought it would be a good start.

Dungeon Overlord, is a free facebook game in which you take control of a dark-lord building a dungeon within a mountain of evil, the objective of the game is to expand you dungeon(s) so you can amass resources and monsters, so you may raid and pillage towns and cities on the surface, and even other dungeons.

Overall the game is rather pretty, the environments are bright and vibrant and it has a wonderful art style where its not too realistic, yet not too happy-go-lucky cartoony.

Slight health and saftey issue with lava everywhere.

 Gameplay takes oh-so many pages out of the Dungeon Keeper games, which is every good, anyone who is familiar with those games, or similar titles such as Theme-Park or Theme-Hospital, will feel right at home.

The core meat of the game is expanding you dungeon with different rooms to achieve goals, for example you need a den for your creatures to sleep in, once you build a den monsters will start arriving and working for you.
If you build a library you will start gaining research points which you can spend on new technology to build more rooms that do different things.

The only annoying thing about this game is it's time sink mechanic and to be honest its not that bad.
Unlike games like Dungeon Keeper, resources will not be taken to your store room by themselves, when your minions mine some gold or harvest some food you will need to click on it to send it to your  store room and they cant put anymore resources on the ground until you do.

Basically this means, that when you log off for the day, your minions will continue to mine and craft, but they will leave their creations all over the floor, and until you order them to take it all to the store room, they will not mine or craft any more items.

Obviously this slightly annoying mechanic is a throwback to say Farmville, in which you have to log on at different times in the day to harvest crops etc. To be honest it isn't too bad, and it is satisfying coming to your dungeon 5 hours later, and seeing a horde of gold for the taking.

All in all it's a good game to have running in the background while you're working (heck I have it running in the background as we speak)

And (even though I wouldn't recommend it) it's a good game to be playing at work since it's rather low maintenance, and it might help you blow off some steam if you think your boss... might in fact be an Evil Dungeon Overlord.

Until next time, have a good weekend everybody.

MeTime Gifts... not just for soap?

Why hello everyone, so glad you could read this blog today because we have a special announcement.


MeTime Gifts the company that brought you copious amounts of amazing handmade soaps and bath bombs at fantastic prices, is now the proud owner of a new Ebay account!

StansDiscountBargains is all the brilliant things about MeTime (Customer care, quick posting, quality items, handsome blog writer) yet with a different product.

But hark I do hear the children sing... "But what does StansDiscountBaragins(tm) sell?"

To that I answer this... whatever fantastic savings we find in our day to day life.

If we see a bargain we shall grab it and pass the savings on to you on our ebay page...

So what are you waiting for, check out all the wonderful offers to be found at StansDiscountBargains! (Check back often, we'll always be putting on new stock.)

Just remeber where you got it... STANS!