Hercules: Action game - Level passwords

If you don't want to play through the entire game to reach certain levels in the Hercules: Action game PC/PS1 game then you may select any level of any difficulty simply from the opening screen by entering the correct password. On the menu screen you'll notice that there's a section to input passwords, by selecting that menu option you'll then see something like this:

Input the following pictures on the jugs to be taken to the corresponding level. Alternatively, read my review of this game here.

Level	Password
Beginner level
Your Basic DID	Coin, Helmet, Hydra, Lightning
The Hero's Gauntlet	Hercules' Head, Medusa, Pegasus, Pegasus
Centaur's Forest	Lightning, Coin, Lightning, Archer
The Big Olive Part 1	Archer, Gladiator, Hydra, Lightning
The Big Olive Part 2	Lightning, Minotaur, Medusa, Coin
Hydra Canyon	Pegasus, Coin, Lightning, Archer
Medusa's Lair	Nessus, Helmet, Gladiator, Lightning
Cyclops Attack	Pegasus, Nessus, Nessus, Hydra
Titan Flight	Pegasus, Pegasus, Helmet, Coin
Medium level
Your Basic DID	Gladiator, Minotaur, Gladiator, Medusa
The Hero's Gauntlet	Hydra, Medusa, Coin, Medusa
Centaur's Forest	Nessus, Hercules' Head, Minotaur, Archer
The Big Olive Part 1	Nessus, Coin, Hydra, Hercules' Head
The Big Olive Part 2	Gladiator, Hydra, Archer, Gladiator
Hydra Canyon	Coin, Helmet, Coin, Gladiator
Medusa's Lair	Archer, Pegasus, Archer, Nessus
Cyclops Attack	Helmet, Pegasus, Hercules' Head, Archer
Titan Flight	Gladiator, Coin, Coin, Lightning
Passageway Of Eternal Torment	Medusa, Gladiator, Nessus, Pegasus
Vortex Of Souls	Gladiator, Lightning, Gladiator, Nessus
View FMV sequences	Pegasus, Gladiator, Nessus, Gladiator
Herculean level
Your Basic DID	Pegasus, Archer, Minotaur, Medusa
The Hero's Gauntlet	Nessus, Hydra, Helmet, Lightning
Centaur's Forest	Lightning, Minotaur, Gladiator, Gladiator
The Big Olive Part 1	Minotaur, Medusa, Hydra, Medusa
The Big Olive Part 2	Archer, Helmet, Archer, Coin
Hydra Canyon	Medusa, gladiator, Pegasus, Coin
Medusa's Lair	Hydra, Gladiator, Pegasus, Nessus
Cyclops Attack	Helmet, Pegasus, Minotaur, Medusa
Titan Flight	Hydra, Pegasus, Pegasus, Helmet
Passageway Of Eternal Torment	Gladiator, Hercules' Head, Medusa, Coin
Vortex Of Souls	Coin, Hydra, Minotaur, Gladiator
View FMV sequences	Nessus, Medusa, Helmet, Hydra

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Fable 3 Demon Door and Achievement Guide

There are seven demon doors to open for the 'Set Them Free!' achievement and it is worth 40G. Six of the demon doors are present in the base game whereas an additional demon door was added along with the Traitor’s Keep DLC and is found on Ravenscar Island. You cannot unlock this achievement without the DLC even if you open all other doors 

NOTE: There is a glitch present that may prevent you from unlocking the achievement, though I did not encounter it myself other people have done. It seems to be caused by opening the Ravenscar Keep door last or opening it before the six other doors have all been opened. To prevent the glitch you must open the Ravenscar Keep door before all other doors.

Ravenscar Keep 

To open this door you must be wearing every component of the prisoner outfit which includes: Bandana, Prisoner’s Top, Prisoner’s Trousers, Shackles and Boots. All of these items can be found in chests on the island.

Prisoner Bandana: In a chest within the small rock maze near to the garden, to access the garden face the bridge to Ravenscar Keep then go down the left pathway.

Prisoner’s Top: Located in a chest that is in the second cell on the left of the left wing of Ravenscar Keep, you need to have begun or completed ‘Prisoner Management for Beginners’ to access the cell.

Prisoner’s Trousers: You must have accepted the quest ‘Undead Sentence’, the trousers are then found in a chest near you after defeating the last group of hollow men.

Prisoner Shackles: Found in a chest after vaulting off the rocks to the right of the hole in the wall within the garden area, this is the same hole that leads to the demon door.

Prisoner Boots: In a chest behind the gallows, the gallows are in the opposite direction when facing the bridge to the entrance of Ravenscar Keep.
Once you have the outfit, wear it to gain entry, the door leads to ‘Cartographilia’ and contains the Prison Guard Suit. 
 

Summerset house 

You just need to be the king or queen for this door to open. There are no other requirements so just wait until you are crowned as monarch by following the main storyline and return to the door sometime afterwards. This demon door leads to ‘The Pools of Sorrow’ and rewards you 1,000,000 gold for opening the chest within. 

Mourningwood  

This door requires you to have your melee or ranged skill at level 5, despite common belief it does not require a fully upgraded legendary weapon. When you have level 5 draw the weapon that is levelled up to prompt the door to open. The door leads to ‘Planet One’ where the environment can be changed by interacting with the orrery within, the reward for accessing this door is the full military suit. 

Millfields  

The demon door in Millfields wants you to be, essentially, overweight and with poor dress sense. Start by putting on your full pyjama clothing set then dye each component a different colour. Next, gain a lot of weight until you are at maximum fatness, this can be easily achieved by eating a lot of pies from food stalls or drinking a lot of alcohol. It will take approximately 20 pies, fish or mutton to achieve this. When you have completed all of these steps, go back to the door to be granted entry to ‘Twitcher’s Curtains’ and you will be rewarded 40 guild seals. 

Aurora 

You must be either 100% pure evil or 100% pure good on the morality scale. Generally the way to influence this is via the main questline though if you’re too much in the middle you can try adjusting your rent to very high or very low or, something that is a lot faster, put a lot of gold in the castle treasury to quickly acquire good morality points. The door will lead to ‘The Moral View’ and will contain a legendary weapon, the weapon given depends on your morality extreme. 

Brightwall Village 

To open this door you need to bring your child to it, it doesn’t matter whether the child is biological or adopted. Simply grab your child by the hand and lead them over to the front of the door, after the scene, the demon door will open. Sometimes the door doesn’t recognize them at first so you can try performing a positive interaction with them to help prompt it open. The door leads to ‘Last Orders’ and will reward you with 30 guild seals and 3 summon creature potions. 

Mistpeak valley  

You will need either a second player or a second controller plugged into your console to open this door. Provided you have that, it’s the earliest door you may open. Locate the Mispeak Valley demon door on the map, after going under a bridge you’ll find it in a dead end, and bring in the second player. You should then scroll through various expressions that are romantic, finally ending with a kiss. It may help to marry the other player first so that the kiss option shows up more frequently. The door leads to the ‘Demon Door Retirement Home’ and contains a random legendary weapon. 

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ÆRENA: Clash of Champions - Guest Review (Online Multiplayer Game)

ÆRENA is a free to play, turn based combat strategy game based in a rather unique and beautifully designed steampunk world. Developed by Cliffhanger Productions the game is hero-centric and revolves around your team versus another aboard an airship, sailing through the skies and battling out your differences along the way. The game is primarily intended for multiplayer matches and these matches tend to last between ten to fifteen minutes rather than long winded rounds that test your staying power over strategic prowess. Whilst ÆRENA is by no means shaking up the genre of turn based strategy games, that’s not to say it’s not a good game. In fact, the depth of strategy and the intensity of the game are both incredibly addictive.

To read more of my review, check it out on DarkStation here. This is a genuinely good game and I'm pretty amazed that it's free, for those of you who love a challenging strategy game then this is the game for you. Plus, no Pay-To-Win features! Can't say fairer than that.

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The Stanley Parable - Quick Review ( + Intro video) (PC game)

The Stanley Parable is a fantastic, intelligent and highly amusing indie game that puts you in the role of a man whose entire life is about to be turned on its head, and at the same time, it won't be.

Developer: Davey Wreden (mod), Galactic Cafe (Davey Wreden and William Pugh) (remake)
Genre: Adventure
Release date: October 17th 2013
Platform:Windows and OS X
ESRB: Not rated

It’s very difficult to write a review about the Stanley Parable because so much of what makes it brilliant as its ability to surprise you with its multiple routes and endings. With this in mind, I’m going to keep this review very short so as not to spoil it but believe me when I tell you that you have to play this game, no really, you have to.

The Stanley Parable is an updated version of a Half-Life 2 mod and has been made into a standalone game with a new, HD look. The game plays almost entirely in first person perspective and is beautifully crafted with tight, smooth graphics and one of the best narrator’s I’ve had the pleasure to listen to in a long time. The story follows a man named Stanley who’s entire existence involves pushing buttons on a keyboard as he receives orders on his monitor, the orders dictate to him how long to press the button for, which button to press and so on. One day, when he’s sitting at his desk at work, he realizes that no orders have come through on his monitor all day and, now that he thinks about it, the room outside his office door is completely silent. You will take control of Stanley and follow the story, or not follow the story, or if the mood takes you, try and find your own story in this explorative game of choices, or not choices, or half choices. There's bucket loads of replayability and it is guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours because, all in all, it’s simply a fantastic game. The story is introspective and entertaining and focuses strongly on the way a game is narrated with plenty of wit and humour. You’ll constantly be questioning yourself and the nature of what you’re going through but every step is both innovative and memorable. Truly, this is a game worth playing over and over again just to see what else you can find and what else you can do. When you think the game is over, it's not, there's still more to be found and more rules to bend, break or follow. Oh and if you want to watch the intro of the game to get you started, check this video out:

Find out what all the hype it about by grabbing it here whilst it’s still on sale on Steam. 

The Good:

• It's amazing.
• It's hilarious.
• It has the best narrator ever.
• The graphics are perfect
• So many options.
• Stop reading these, go play it now.

The Bad:

• I want more of it and there is no more. 
• I cannot write a proper review because it would spoil it.

The Score: 9/10

Last Thoughts: "I'm suprised at how genuinely hilarious this was, I found myself doing pointless things just to see the reaction of the game."

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The Sims 2 Castaway - Full Review (PS2 game)

'The Sims 2 Castaway' broke away from a home life based game and introduced the completely new concept of managing your shipwrecked crew as they try and survive on a series of islands. 

Developer: The Sims Division
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Life simulation
Release date: October 22 2007
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, PSP and Nintendo DS.
ESRB: T - Teen

'The Sims 2 Castaway' is a spin off title from 'The Sims 2' but all the elements of a life simulation game still exist, though in new and interesting formats. The game includes features such as having to collect resources, create a tribe, find collectibles and most importantly, find a way to escape the island paradise you’ve been stranded on.

Gameplay and story

You start out by creating a crew of between one to six crew members and, in this game, the initial character creation is extremely poor with limited editing of a Sim’s face and very few clothing options. Something which is interesting though is the ability to select what your Sim’s industry was prior to the whole, boat crash thing, choosing from several career options including chef, ranger, mechanic and doctor. The job picked has an effect on what skills they start out with but, of course, these skills can be raised over time. After you’ve selected your crew you get to pick a starting crew member then watch as, through a series of photographs, the boat they were cruising on encounters a terrible storm that ultimately capsizes them all. When you awaken, as your chosen Sim, you find that you’ve washed up, alone, on a sandy beach. With nothing on your person except a sleeping mat, knife and toilet paper you’ll have to work out how you’re going to build a new life for yourself on this seemingly uninhabited island.

During the game you have an increasing number of objectives that start out simple and become more and more complicated with the overall end goal being to find your way off the island. In the meanwhile, whilst you figure out how to do that, you have to get used to your new island lifestyle and adapt to the many challenges it poses. Now, it’s very easy to criticize this game from the off because there are many prevalent issues that cannot be ignored but, despite this, I do sincerely love this game so don’t take my criticisms too harshly. Before we launch into the numerous issues with the game however let’s look at the actual gameplay. 

Quite simply, the gameplay is very similar to the original Sims games in that you control a Sim and are responsible for his or her wellbeing by keeping their motives raised and giving them a home to live in. As you follow the objectives you’ll encounter your crew members, provided you made them at the beginning of the game, and from there you can build relations with them with the ultimate goal of forming a tribe and assigning everybody jobs. Skills are still present within the game only now they are increased in more obscure ways such as creating clothing from flowers, vines or leaves to raise your creativity skill or by harvesting ingredients for your cooking skill. Unlike previous games your motives, such as hunger, sleep and fun, are only discovered by doing certain things in the game, hygiene for example does not become an issue until you meet another Sim, which says a lot about the developers’ opinion on bathing. The ways in which you raise your motives in this game are admittedly quirky, inventive and resourceful and, away from the creature comforts of home, more of a challenge. Whilst later on you can construct yourself a functioning shower you start off by raising your hygiene motive using the old fashioned method; swimming in any bodies of water you come across. Initially, alone on the island, social can quickly become a problem for extroverted Sims but fear not for you can always create yourself an imaginary friend out of a coconut shell, berries and a whole lot of sand. Alternatively, you can always talk to the resident chimps or just track down your crew members and be done with it.

On the three islands you’re confined too you’re not going to have much trouble fashioning yourself a comfortable retreat as resources are varied and bountiful. As it turns out you washed up on possibly the best trio of islands in the whole Caribbean as the sea is full of clams and fish, the jungle is full of every single fruit, vegetable or nut you could possibly think of and there’s even the potential for chicken or boar meat, should you know where to look. Everything is very well integrated into the way you play and generally there are many things that can be done to continually enhance your island life. You begin, for example, by building a very simple fire pit and fire by collecting up washed up driftwood and once your fire is lit you’ll use it to cook food, keep warm and tell stories, when that fire eventually burns out, you can collect up the residual ash to be used for your own private farmland later on. Whilst you may start with just your sleeping roll beside your tiny fire pit you’ll eventually build up a complex mansion using harder to obtain resources such as metal ore and glass that was forged within the very heart of a volcano. No, really. Once you’ve got your basic survival down you can aim to live much more comfortably as is quite standard in a Sims game. Whilst house building and interior decoration is usually easy to muddle through when you have access to the build tool and a plethora of furniture items but here, on the island, you’ll have to make everything from scratch whether that’s the individual wall segments of your house or a pre-shaped layout that ranges from a scrubby little shack to a flamboyant wooden mansion. 

Something which I detest in games has made an appearance in this one and that’s the build limit, you may remember my fury at its presence in the console edition of ‘Zoo Tycoon’ but, for once, it’s not so bad in this game. A built limit restricts how much you can place down in any given area and is measured by a bar at the side, when the bar is full you can put nothing else down until you remove some things. Looking on the bright side of things, there are plenty of areas where the limit starts off as very low, it varies from section to section, allowing you to build your perfect mansion and, since it’s an island with very different content in each section, it’s quite understandable that you cannot put much down in a place consisting mostly of cliff face and jungle compared to a huge open plain with fruit frees and a pond around the outside of it. 

An undeniable problem with the game revolves around one of the primary gameplay elements and that is the gathering of resources. At later stages this involves a lot of grinding as it takes a fair bit of time to find and gather all of the materials you require for higher tiered objects. Resources are often used up very quickly too; vines are used for almost everything so you’ll frequently be hacking away at them in the jungle, constantly trying to replenish your supply. There’s also, sadly, a lot of lag in this game and the loading screens tend to be long and frequent, often leaving you frustrated with the slow pace of the game. Whilst I personally can cope with the length of the loading screens the worst crimes of this game is most definitely the horrible lag which will cause delays in selecting actions, turning the camera and waiting for your Sim to do anything. If this is not already bad enough, the camera is terrible as it often gets stuck on the environment leaving you staring awkwardly at plants or the hills that border the edge of an area. When placing an item sometimes it will appear well away from the area of play, as though it were on the other side of the map, leaving you to guide it slowly back into the placement grid. The houses too suffer from the poor camera as, whilst you can lower the walls, it’s annoying to have to do that just to see partially into a home and, even with the walls lowered, you’re still stuck looking at the supporting beams.

Graphics and environments

When playing this game in 2014 I was unsurprised to find the graphics a little harsh around the edges with plenty of blurry moments and a fair bit of choppy, razor sharp edges on things like hair and the leaves of the trees. What I was surprised at was how little it bothered me as, despite the obviously inferior graphics, the game has gone to great lengths to keep everything rather picturesque. Having gotten over the initial jolt of a low-end 2007 PS2 game I began to appreciate the detail that had gone into the design of each individual resource whether it was cucumbers, chicken feathers or fish as they swam visibly beneath the surface of clear, tropical waters. Nothing is beyond recognition and even tiny objects like different shaped shells or messages in bottles that you can pick up on the beach are noticeable from a distance so the frustration of searching through poorly constructed environments is thankfully not present. That said, the Sims look terrible but it’s mostly because of the lack of customizability, particularly of their faces, that has annoyed me. No matter what you do to the lips of women, for example, they’ll always be stuck in a wide, toothy grin so in that sense you’ll have your work cut out for you making each Sim look unique especially when, after enough time on the island, all their hair will grow to an identical shaggy length. Thankfully, a variety of clothing designs and the ability to trim your hair and beard back helps you keep track of who is who.

The environments in general are nice and varied and the fact you can freely venture between all three islands, using a fast travel option on the map if it suits you, is really notable. Deep, dark caves, lush jungles, sandy beaches and interesting places like an ancient forge within a volcano or a crystal strewn cavern. It never feels as though areas are repeating on themselves and you’ll spend a good portion of time carefully selecting which place will be where you finally settle down and build your ultimate home.

Overall

At its very core 'The Sims 2 Castaway' introduces a really interesting concept of surviving, either alone or in a tribe of people, on tropical islands. Everything is very well integrated from the way you raise your skills to the way you satisfy your Sims motives and there’s lots of curious elements such as quick-time fishing and making furniture out of resources. Primarily, the game suffers from terrible lag and a painstakingly awkward camera with little annoyances such as grinding for materials and the inability to have proper romantic relationships not helping its case. I particularly like the inclusion of objectives and a sort of story mode with the option to just play at your own pace and relish the island life should you feel like it. Overall, this is a great simulation game that is very pleasant and original so you can look past its low-tech feel and poor construct then you’ll likely enjoy this deviation from the classic Sims game.

The Good:

• Variety of tasks and objectives
• Open ended gameplay
• Original survival premise makes for interesting gameplay
• Ability to build everything up from scratch is really rewarding.
• Very well intergrated way of raising skills and motives.

The Bad:

• Lots of time is spent on gathering resources.
• The camera often gets stuck on environment.
• Sims relationships are limited.
• Character creation is boring, Sims all look very similar.
• Build limit a little annoying.

The Score: 6/10 

Last thoughts: "I wish this game wasn't so blurry and with such a terrible camera because, truly, this is a really addictive game and there's nothing out there on the market like it."

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Tony Hawk’s Underground - Full Review (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, PC game)

Tony Hawk’s Underground was a revolutionary addition to the extreme sports game genre as it not only introduced a storyline but also the ability to get off your board and walk among the people you’d been terrorizing. 

Developer: Neversoft (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox), Beenox (PC)
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Adventure, sports game
Release date: November 21 2003 (EU)
Platforms: PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and PC
ESRB: T - Teen

The fifth edition of the Tony Hawk series, T.H.U.G was released in 2003 by Activision for a range of platforms and brought with it a huge array of new features that set in motion an entirely new conception of sports games. From humble beginnings you’ll journey from rookie to pro skater by completing challenges and missions amongst a sprawl of urban cities and suburban neighbourhoods, this radical gamble on focus and gameplay structure really did pay off and these days you’ll see all modern skating games following a similar trend to Tony Hawk’s Underground.

Story and gameplay

The story is fairly simplistic though nicely tied together. You start out as an unknown rookie skater who lives in New Jersey with your friend Eric Sparrow. A pro skater, Chad Muska, is set to arrive in Muska makes an appearance he’s impressed by your task performing abilities and suggests that you try to earn a sponsorship from the local skateshop. I can only guess that he’s not that impressed since he makes no attempt to support you himself. This experience marks the beginning of your skating career as you journey from amateur to professional, travelling from city to city and visiting places like Hawaii, Moscow and Manhattan along the way. The story has a few interesting revelations as you’re pitted against old friends and some odd moments never seen before in a skating game. This is by far the most in depth storyline any extreme sports game has ever attempted and, whilst it’s nothing particularly special, it’s certainly a nice change of pace to your usual ‘pointlessly skate through these areas and rack up big combos’ experience. If you enjoy the casual skating element then have no fear as there’s a free skate mode allowing you to play pro skaters, and some special, secret characters once you unlock them. 

Tony Hawk’s Underground marks the first game where you’re able to get off your board and this is an ingenious idea as it means you can climb buildings, steal vehicles and reach new heights never before accessible. In terms of realism too it’s essential as, now and then, you do want to walk into a shop or down the street to talk to someone. The only problem with your new found feet is that the mechanism is poorly implanted and so often results in slow, staggering gameplay that can take away from the overall thrill of fast paced, combo bashing skating experience. On the other hand, the skating gameplay is much improved compared to previous Tony Hawk games and there are a significant number of new tricks that have been implemented and all of them require absolute precision. Complex tricks are tricky to pull off but when you manage it you feel a great sense of achievement as, quite often, it will take you several attempts to nail it. Frantically mashing at random buttons just won’t work in this game and the fiddly ‘caveman’ mode where you get off your board mid combo, only to jump back on before the timer runs out, is difficult to achieve in certain missions. 

The missions themselves are a nice mix between easy and agonizingly difficult and the variety is pretty surprising for a skating game. In some cases you’ll have to purposefully crash and burn up a vehicle whilst at other times you have to break into a location, impress various people or film a local skater as he himself performs some tricks. The story of the game also puts you in some new situations such as being able to pick which team you want to join after watching their videos before proving how cool you are by throwing an awesome party. The ending levels consist mostly of a huge competition against all of the opposition and if there’s one thing that will spur your competitive street it’s this moment as it really manages to rile you up and get you ready to fight for your place. The situations where you have to drive a vehicle tends to come off a little forced and the driving mechanics in general are poor with terrible steering and constant low speeds. That said, you cannot deny the developers determination to keep things varied and interesting and, though the driving is terrible, the ability to set fire to cars makes those problems seem distant. Either way the game has a great balance of challenging and easy missions making it challenging for pros but also accessible to the skating newbies. 

Customizability

The game has great lifespan and the career mode alone with last you many hours, not to mention the huge amounts of customization that has been included for the multiplayer game modes. Whilst the ‘create-a-park’ mode is nothing new in a Tony Hawk game, T.H.U.G brings it back with style and substance. There’s a significant amount of new items and the new ‘rail tool’ in particular is great as it means you can place a rail wherever you want to. Even more impressively is the ability to create your own cities with towering buildings and skate parks within them, compared to earlier ‘create-a-park’ modes this one is out of this world. Interestingly, you can create your own challenges including time limits and ‘spell the word by picking up the letters’ type challenges for you and your friends to try and complete and this adds in not only an extra layer of custom design but a fun one too. Tony Hawk’s Underground has also introduced the ability to create and then name your own tricks before allowing you to test them out in the actual game and, continuing on with the customizability theme, you can also design and create your own skateboard to perform your own tricks on. If that’s not enough you can also play yourself by importing your own face onto your character by using the face mapping tool, at this point I’m not sure they could cram any more customizability options into this game as the PS2 would most likely implode. All of these additional features are surprisingly ahead of their time as, though creating your own custom content is commonplace nowadays, this stuff was revolutionary for 2003. 


Graphics and audio

Graphically, T.H.U.G is painfully average but considering this is the first Tony Hawk game to attempt things like, making people look halfway realistic, they didn’t do a bad job. The characters in the game do attempt to blink and move their mouths along with the speech but none of it is particularly in sync and it’s quite apparent that this was an undeveloped feature. The best part about the graphics are, by far, the buildings and city surroundings as there’s a fair bit of detail and it’s a reasonably open world game. Great effort has been taken to ensure that buildings don’t often repeat on themselves and lots of little details have been added to make the streets and cities feel as vibrant as possible. 

The music is definitely something worth noting as the soundtrack is absolutely huge with well over 70 different tracks that range from pop to rock music, I’m pretty sure there’s some reggae and country music in there too. The huge variety of music simply means that you’re not going to get tired of listening to the same monotonous tracks over and over again, though you may want to change up your playlist a little if you’re not into the ol’ country songs. The sound effects of the game are also much improved and now you can hear the difference in terrain as you skate over it whilst the general background ambiance now accurately reflects where you’re playing. The voice acting is above average and in the very least it’s expressive rather than dull though, again, the lip syncing is a major problem.

Overall

As I keep mentioning; this was a groundbreaking game for its time. If you like the Tony Hawk series and have never played this then for that reason alone it’s worth playing as I’m sure you’ll see the origins of modern skating games within this one. Although though the graphics are so-so, the lip syncing is diabolical and some missions are a little tiring it’s still a very imaginative game with a fairly interesting storyline, plenty of variation and some really brilliant skating gameplay. The levels are large and interesting with some really great level designs that tend to be based around urban cities or suburban neighbourhoods. There’s a huge level of customizability now introduced and you can really personalize your T.H.U.G experience, particularly if you want to play the game in co-op. All in all, this is the skating game that almost everyone remembers as being the start of new extreme sports age.

The Good:

• Lots of customizability
• Large soundtrack
• Huge, sandbox environments
• Fairly good storyline that breaks boundaries
• Varied gameplay elements
• Lots of new features proved groundbreaking

The Bad:

• Not much reason to replay the main storyline
• Voice acting and lip syncing generally poor
• Graphics can be bland
• Tedious in places

The Score: 7/10 

Last thoughts: "It's easy to see why this game started a sort of extreme sports revolution but, personally, Underground 2 is preferable as it irons out the kinks of tedious and repetitive gameplay"

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Daylight - Guest review on Darkstation (PS4 and PC game)

The success of a horror game is, very simply, measured by its ability to scare or disturb you. Daylight manages neither of these things and its fairly appealing hook of ‘constantly regenerating’ environments that allow for no two playthroughs to be the same is, in fact, fatuous and meaningless. Daylight initially looked to be a decent survival horror game and I hoped for something along the lines of Amnesia and Outlast only with a bit more unpredictability thrown in, which is always a good thing. The reality is that the game is bland, uninspired and lacking in character. The initial jump scares quickly become predictable and uninteresting once you realize they pose no real threat whilst the story itself is not only weak but agonizingly dull.

So as promised the Daylight review is now back up... only not here, but here instead so you can read the rest of it, undisturbed. Enjoy! Or in this case, don't enjoy, really it's a terrible game.

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Freaky Tup - Quick Review (Android app)

Freaky Tup is a simple but enjoyable free app for android devices that has been developed by indie company, FreakoutGames. Freaky Tup is their first mobile game and it's actually pretty decent. 

Developer: FreakoutGames
Genre: Action
Release date: May 23rd 2014
Platforms: Android
ESRB: Not rated

The game includes three different arcade minigames where the aim is to get high scores in fast paced levels where you tap to defeat the baddies who are, in this case, germs. It's very much a casual game but it's suprisingly addictive and well worth playing. 

Freaky Tup looks great with a vibrant, polished look that's really appealing for all ages and whilst the gameplay may be lacking a little in imagination that's not to say it's an awful game. It's an extremely accessible game with easy to learn controls and rules and is the sort of game that is perfect for dropping in and out of. When you've got some time to spare or you're having to wait for something it's exactly this sort of lighthearted, casual and fast paced arcade game that you can just flip open and get straight into. It's very addictive, very engrossing and is a great way to waste a bit of time in those gaps of life. Overall, I highly recommend it as a simple and fun android game whilst the fact it's from such a small indie company makes it all the more impressive as they're done a great job at developing their first mobile game.

The Good:

• Very user friendly.
• Polished, vibrant graphics
• Great for pick up and put down play

The Bad:

• Overly simplistic.
• Not a great deal of depth.
• Very little longetivity.

The Score: 4/10 

Last thoughts: "For a free android game, this is pretty good, but it's nothing special and it's not exactly an original idea."

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The Last Door - Chapter 4 Walkthrough

The Last Door, Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows is a point and click horror game from The Game Kitchen, an indie company who brought this game to life through donations and kickstarter, and what a game it is. Ancient Shadows follows on from Chapter 3, the Four Witnesses, after the drama-tic (hah) events of the last chapter we find Devitt travelling to visit his old friend Alexandre in his home in the countryside. What could go wrong.

Before we begin, if you're interested you can also check out my full review of The Last Door here. 
Or... 

If you've come too far then you can find your way back to the walkthroughs for Chapter 3 here, Chapter 2 here, or Chapter 1 here.

Now that that's out the way, let's get on with the final segment of The Last Door, Season 1.

Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows

Hints without spoilers:

I don't know how to develop the envelope: There are instructions in the room on what order to do things, you'll also need a red bulb and cannot do it in darkness or white light. You'll need a way of tinting the pre-existing one, not fixing the shards on the floor.

I don't know how to work out the clock puzzles: Read the notes around the house that relate to the clock and make sure to work out the time difference between the upstairs and downstairs clock. The upstairs one needs to read the time mentioned in the notes but only the grandfather clock can be changed.

I have a blue crystal thing, now what: Look around the house, inside and out, until you notice something different in somewhere you've been before. Follow the signs from there.

What do I do with the telescope: Have a good look through it and check in your inventory to see what the view may resemble then, looking through the telescope again, click the areas that are highlighted in the item you have.

What are the strange symbols for: The three important ones unlock a puzzle in the same room you're in, look around the room then match up the symbols with the positioning of the locks.

Full walkthrough for Chapter 4

Prologue:

Click on Devitt.
Click on the table.
Click on Devitt again.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.

Chapter 4:

Click through the conversations and go through all of the dialogue options.
When you regain control of Devitt, walk all the way left to the next screen.
Walk all the way left again before entering the house.
This is the foyer, go upstairs to begin with and enter the first room.
Talk to Alexandre and exhaust all dialogue options.
Leave the room and walk to the right into the next part of the corridor.
Open the chest and pick up a hook.
Go back downstairs and into the foyer.
Exit the room via the back archway to enter the parlor.
Cross the parlor and exit via the door on the far left.
Pick up the oil lamp on the table.
Walk to the far left of the room and read the note.
Go through the door on the far right to exit out into the back garden.
Pick up the rope beside the well.
Use the hook with the rope to get a grappling hook.
Use the grappling hook with the well to receive a brass bird.
Examine the grave then head to the gate at the back, unlock it and head through.
Walk to the far right and note the door to the greenhouse with the bar across it.
Remove the bar then open the door and head inside.
Walk to the far right until you see the statues, a bottle of Vitriol is between them. Pick it up.
Leave the greenhouse and head back into the house then upstairs again.
Walk down the corridor to the right, into the next part where the chest is, then enter the room on at the far end.
In the study examine the note and invoice on the table.
Examine the fireplace then pick up the black envelope from inside it.
Leave the room and enter the final door on the back wall.
This is a photographer's developing room, pick up the Cyanide on the back table and read the note on the floor.
Examine the light hanging from the ceiling then pick it up to receive a lightbulb.
Leave and go back downstairs then out the front door.
Walk to where the greenhouse is then look to the back where you'll see the exit to the forest.
Leave through these gates into the forest.
Walk along to the right until coming across a deer.
Use the lightbulb with the deer to get a red tinted lightbulb.
Go back to the house then the photographer's room.
Use the red tinted lightbulb in the hanging light.
Put the envelope in the sink, pour the Vitriol on it then the Cyanide, finally use the tap to rinse it off.
Click through the scene then leave the room and go into Alexandre's room.
Talk to him then pick up what he drops to receive a a clock hand.
Put the bird in the clock near Alexandre before examining the clock face.
Leave the room and go back downstairs to the foyer.
Use the clock hand in the grandfather clock.
Turn the hands of the grandfather clock until they read 3:00 (hold down mouse button)
Once the clock reads 3:00 click the switch beside the clock face.
Go back upstairs to Alexandre's room.
Pick up the blue object on the floor to receive the bird again.
Examine it then open it to get a key.
Go downstairs and out into the back garden.
Use the key with the trapdoor to the cellar.
Enter the cellar and move a little to the left to examine a set of drawers.
Open the drawers and take out the shovel.
Exit the cellar and use the shovel with the grave outside.
Use the Vitriol with the lock.
Pick up the blue object to receive a canvas.
Exit out of the screen then examine the canvas.
Walk back, via the front garden, to Alexandre's room.
Read the note on the wheelchair,
Exit out onto the balcony and pick up the object in the statue's hands to pick up a cristal.
Walk all the way back to the cellar only this time walk through to the far left.
In the laboratory, read the note then walk to the right until you see an opening in the wall.
Head inside into a makeshift observatory.
Use the telescope then use the canvas to note the positioning of the constallations. 
You need to click the stars that match up with the ones highlighted in the canvas.
Check out the image below if you're having trouble.

After the puzzle, put the cristal in the telescope then look through it again.
Note the symbols that match up with the three stars you just selected.
Open the cabinet in the room and enter the three symbols making sure the Altair symbol is at the bottom. (Far right is a U shape, bottom one is a sort of trident and the far left one is a vertical line with two wavy lines through it)
Examine then pick up a syringe from the desk.
Go down into the pit and use the syringe with Alexandre.
Sit in the chair.
Give the syringe to Alexandre.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.
Walk continually to the right.

End of Chapter 4.

And there we have it... the end of The Last Door and consequentially this walkthrough. Luckily, it's only the end of Season 1 as Season 2 is currently being developed; provided they get enough backers for it to be released of course! I hope you enjoyed the game and the ultimate cliffhanger it's left us all on again, if you also enjoyed this walkthrough don't forget to comment and +1 and so on and so forth :) I hope to see you all here next time when Season 2 makes its debut! Happy gaming!

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