Youtube Gaming HAPPENING PLACE

“It’s best to do one thing really, really well”. That’s one of the 10 rules Google itself swears by. Shrugging off a panglobal or pan-industrial view of any market, Google became masters of creating and catering to niche markets. They were happy to act as a platform that other businesses used to prosper on, because when they made money, Google made money as well.

But Twitch was a bit different. The live streaming video platform specialises in streaming video gaming content, an area of speciality that should have been covered by Youtube (which is owned by Google). Youtube Gaming is Google’s answer to Twitch, which was bought by Amazon in 2014.

Before Youtube Gaming, it was still possible to find video game streams amid other videos on Youtube, but it wasn’t that easy. You had to know exactly what you wanted and what keywords to use before you got the search results you wanted. With Youtube Gaming, however, search is much simpler and more focused on gaming.

Critical to the success of Youtube Gaming is users feeling they are part of a gaming community. The app delivers what it’s asked of in this front. Gamers have the option of interacting in real time with fellow gamers over live gaming streams, play-throughs or walkthroughs. Youtube Gaming features a wide variety of games belong to all kinds of genres and played by all kinds of gamers.

VERDICT: TWITCH HAS DEVELOPED A LOYAL FOLLOWING THAT STILL MAKES IT THE LEADING PLAYER IN THIS NASCENT SEGMENT OF VIDEO STREAMING. BUT YOUTUBE GAMING IS A GOOD START BY GOOGLE, CONSIDERING TWITCH HAS A 4-YEAR HEAD START. YOUTUBE GAMING IS GOOD, AND WILL BECOME BETTER.

Fallout Shelter SUBURBIA UNDERGROUND

construct our own little worlds there, concocting living quarters for toys and stirring up imaginary skirmishes between them. We do more or less the same in Fallout Shelter, and it’s quite exciting. Fallout Shelter is set in the sobering climate of a possible nuclear disaster when people are constructing vaults deep in the underground to save themselves in the event of a holocaust. Playing the game, you are given the title of an Overseer who will have “total authority to create the perfect underground community”. Living in a vault sounds as bad as living in a submarine but Fallout Shelter makes it charming and enjoyable.

The game gives you real power over the dwellers of your vault and their life: right from choosing which dwellers to accept into your vault, you can build an entire city out of the muck, constructing living rooms, diners, water treatment plants, radio rooms, gymnasiums etc. You can send dwellers out to explore the wasteland and find new loot or weapons and protect your citizens from enemies from outside and within. You can even play matchmaker with your dwellers and make new babies!

VERDICT: FALLOUT SHELTER LETS YOU CREATE AN IDYLLIC WORLD OF NORMALITY DESPITE THE GLOOMY PREMISE THE GAME IS BASED ON. THIS IS THE WORLD WHERE PEOPLE CAN GO TO THE DINER AT THE END OF A TIRING DAY AT WORK AND HAVE A DRINK. CAN GO ON DATES AND GET HITCHED. PROTECT THEIR DWELLINGS AND EXPLORE NEW TERRAIN. BRAVO.

Earn To Die 2

In Earn To Die 2, a zombie apocalypse has swept the earth and the military is wrapping up its resistance (at least in the United States). There is one glimmer of hope for survivors in this dystopian world -- an evacuation ship set to leave the East Coast of the US.

You are caught deep in the West Coast, somewhere around California. All you have to reach the evacuation ship are a hollowed out shell of a car and very little cash. You have to drive the length of the country overcoming zombie-infested cities as well as the hulking ruins of buildings torn down by the undead.

Earn To Die 2 portrays its post-apocalyptic world pretty well: there’s hardly another sane soul about the streets as you drive on, except for the zombies who roam about everywhere. The buildings around you and the bridges you drive on are either destroyed or collapsing. At the outset, you’re given a shell of a car, which you’ll need to upgrade bit by bit. With each upgrade, you’ll be able to travel farther, faster and run over more zombies -- all of which earn you money.

Though you start the game with an apology of a car, the game allows you to upgrade a variety of attributes, like fuel tank, engine, boost and gun. By the time you have completed a handful of upgrades, your vehicle resembles one of those unholy beasts of the road in Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s strangely fitting.

VERDICT: THE PREMISE OF EARN TO DIE 2 CAN SOUND GRIM, BUT THE GAME ITSELF IS A LOT OF FUN. RIDING THE STREETS IN YOUR CAR MOWING DOWN ZOMBIES THAT TRY TO ATTACK YOU IS BLOODY BUT NEVER GRUESOME. USING THE BOOST TO BLITZ YOUR WAY THROUGH THE MAYHEM, WITH OBSTRUCTING ZOMBIES BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS, IS ALSO DELIGHTFUL. THE GAME HAS A LOT OF LEVELS AND ON THE WHOLE, ITS ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT IS VERY HIGH.