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Almost three years ago, Shadow Cast started what would eventually become one of SCâs most famous habits. And, by that, I mean the SuperCheats Newsletter. Shadow Cast was soon unable to continue the publication, so, after a âshortâ break of three months, ieatwyverns (or Neko, as he used to be known) brought it back. Unfortunately, the Newsletter seemed to be haunted; after only two editions, Neko, too, had to stop running it. In August of 2008, a topic was made at the Staff Forum (or Mod Squad, for all the new Moderators) asking for members to continue the little publication everyone liked so much. After a brief discussion on msn (âlol, letâs do itâ), me and geezerguy decided to step in. With Flareon Dude_âs approval, we went forward. Who would have thought that, two years later, Iâd still be here, taking care of this damn thing?
A lot has happened, since then. Both Neko and FlareonDude_ (who was our Chief, and a great one at that) have left the site. Lukie, my best mate back then, eventually stopped contributing, as well. Of all the members who started the Newsletter, Iâm the only one remaining. But why am I bringing this up, all of a sudden? If you havenât guessed yet, this is my resignation as Chief and Host of the Newsletter. After two whole years ahead of all the work, I am leaving this to some fresh blood.
Running the Newsletter was a tough yet fantastic experience. Most of you probably donât remember, but, back then, we didnât have one person for every little article. Me and Lukie were the only article writers, and Qwertyuio was the one taking care of all the Interviews (and heâll be one of the few who remember this whole story, surely). Heck, one time, I wrote every single article on the Newsletter! Back then, we actually tried our best to have everything ready on time. I canât say we accomplished our goals, though! And the tradition remains, since this edition will be no exception: as usual, the Newsletter is late. Well, youâve had more than enough time to get used to it! If you check the old editions, youâll see a lot has changed (and no, I donât mean the banner!): more members started contributing, and the articles are now longer and â I like to think -, overall, better. Even this âlittleâ introduction is different. Two years ago, the introduction was no more than one paragraph of five lines. And that considered a lot. As we progressed, I started getting more comfortable as a Host, and my introductions started getting ridiculously long (in fact, Iâd say only 1/10 of the members who check the Newsletter are still reading this). However, the publication wasnât the only thing that changed; two years later, weâre more mature, and have a better idea of our place on the site. Now, I know I wonât be the last person taking care of the Newsletter. I know thereâs someone else who will take my place and, hopefully, have as much fun running it as I did.
I will not write any articles this month. My time on SuperCheats is quickly approaching its end, and I want this to be the last thing youâll actually waste your time reading from me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, thank you for sticking with us such a long time (and thank you if you just started reading this, too!). I had a great time.
Iâd like to give a special shout-out to Lukie (who started this thing with me), Loony (our major, major contributor), Neko (who gave us the chance to continue the Newsletter), FD_ (who supported us through everything) and Qwert (that little bugger whoâs actually a great friend) for all the help theyâve given me over these two years. Without you, the Newsletter would have stopped being published a long, long time ago.
Itâs now up to you to continue with this tradition, or to let it die in peace. Have fun reading it, guys!
~Contents~
- Shawnâs Interview
- Posting Achievements
- Anniversaries
- New Members: Octoberâs Newbies
- Video-Game Review: Dead Rising
- Graphics and Artwork: Replay
- Disclaimer
Shawnâs Interview
So this month, I decided to interview one of our huge contributors of the site altogether. He is a nice guy once you get to know him, and sometimes very misread, or misguided. So to get to know him a little better, let's gather around and read our lovely biography of hatershateme!
So as per the tradition of Interviewing, how do we know you are the loversloveme of ForumCheats, the one who loves playing games, and possibly revived FG!?
You?
Wow, I was just tricked into answering that question, very well played...
Ok, you have been on the site for two years now, what did you think of it when you first joined it?
What makes you come back to SC daily?
Time to have some fun....
If you were to have control of the site, and there was one huge fight on the forums, and only two members could be saved. Who would you save, with the other members being forced to be my sex slaves?
What's your favorite all time moment on SC?
Hmmm, why that one?
I see
That makes me think all the way back to where your mod spots were taken away from you. Do you think that was justified?
Do you think you'll mod again? If so, where?
What do you do outside of SC?
If you had to change any one thing about the site, what would it be?
We only wished :/
If you had to meet anybody from the site in real life, who would it be?
Alright, so enough of the site I suppose. I'm going to ask some personal questions, you have the option to pass answering them. We'll start off easy, and go from there.
What's your name?
Where do you live?
We have seen on the site you are a brother now, any details?
Any regrets in your life?
Would you like to explain that situation?
Josh, have you found love lately, or are you riding solo out there in the world?
Sadly, same here :( Alright, I'm out of questions, so for this shall be the end. Is there anything you would like to say, whether it is completely random or not?
Alright, this shall be the end. I'm willing to take any suggestions, provide me an MSN to the person, or confront me yourself, I'm willing to listen to all suggestions and requests.
Article by superbird5005
Posting Achievements
So now Iâm in a really bad mood. Iâm a senior in high school being drowned in homework and college applications, I have to take the SAT soon and the ACT after that, AND I just missed the first time I would have ever had someone to put in every section. Massive props to hatershateme though, he got not one, not two, but THREE separate achievements this month! Thatâs⦠actually pretty sad.
imaloony8.0 and the newsletter staff apologize if your achievement was not posted for whatever reason. If you did have an achievement and it was not posted, make sure to mention that so we can amend that, but you need to make sure you make those achievement topics, otherwise, I canât be sure of if you get achievements or not!
Article by imaloony8.0
Anniversaries
Welcome to this months edition of the anniversaries!...I can't think of a good intro other than telling that this is my first time doing this, soooo....
So yeah, that's it for these.If I missed somebody, feel free to send a angry email to Vasco, he will {Hostâs Note: NOT} be glad to have 'em.
Article by stormform
New Members: Octoberâs Newbies
This month of October, two new members have joined the SuperCheats crew of members. Their names are;
-coltfan66: October 11th - 3 Posts -AK GMAN14: October 18th - 23 Posts
There is 1 person over 10 posts. One is below 10 . Now, these members are new, so be nice.Also, Qwert, donât stalk them like you would to your daughter in the shower. Also, welcome to SuperCheats. These are the people who made a topic and introduced themselves, and possibly stayed in our Hell. Hopefully, you find the site fun, and you tell your friends, as we need more active people. Thanks for joining, and reading this article.
Article by hatershateme
Video-Game Review: Dead Rising (Xbox 360)
I hear your cries. âBut Dead Rising 2 just came out! Why arenât you reviewing THAT?â Well, obviously, itâs because I donât have it. I try to review stuff when itâs new, but considering I write one review a month and get only a handful of new games a year, that rarely happens. Next month will be something from this year, I promise, but I picked up this 2006 zombie classic recently, and I want to talk about it. So there.
Graphics:
For a 2006 game, I have to say that Dead Rising looks great. The animations are fluid, and, even when there are tons of zombies on the screen, the frame rate tends to stay pretty good. Blood splatters well, zombieâs ragdoll and slice well (which is 90 percent of why anyone is playing this gameâ¦), and little details like zombies being hit with pies are done brilliantly. Youâll occasionally get some pop-in (youâll be running through the mall and zombies will magically appear in the distance), but otherwise the game is pretty consistent in terms of graphics. I suppose there is sometimes an issue with clipping. In this game, Frank West, the main character, can dress up in a lot of costumes, but often his animations in the cut scenes will interfere with this. For example, if youâre wearing a hat, and Frank puts his hand against his head, his hand will move through the hat as if nothing is there and touch his head through the hat. But really, those are minor complains, and the graphics are nice otherwise.
Sound:
Sound was a bit off in this game. Firstly, the voice acting. While it isnât as bad as something like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, thereâs something stiff about how most characters deliver their lines, mostly having to do with Frank. Luckily, a lot of the Psychopaths actually do a pretty good job, like Adam the Clown and Cliff, whoâs voiced by my main man Steven Blum. A lot of other acts, however, like Jessie and Brad are pretty awful, to say the least. Still, thereâs some talent here, and itâs not a total bomb. The weapons sound nice, if nothing else. Each weapon has a fairly repetitive attack sound, but you wonât notice it a whole lot, and they all sound pretty good, if nothing else. Lead Pipes smash, Shotguns boom, and Chainsaws⦠chew. I guess. There isnât a whole lot in the way of music in this game. Each Psychopath tends to have their own musical number, which is generally pretty good, but often seems like the music is a little too heavy for my taste. Otherwise, the game is pretty quite, which is nice. The zombie sounds are good, they hiss, they groan, they gurgle, exc. They donât go much further than that, so I guess Iâll move on.
Plot:
The plot is a little awkward. You play as Frank West, a photo journalist who has gone to the town of Willamette, Colorado to find out why there has been no contact from the city, and potentially getting the scoop of his career. Frank gets dropped off by a helicopter pilot and, surprise, surprise, the town is overrun by zombies. An incident lets the zombies into the mall, and Frank finds himself locked in the mall for 72 hours before his helicopter returns stuck with two Department of Homeland Security agents and a mall employee. From there, itâs a battle to survive, stop a terrorist named Carlito from spreading the zombie virus and killing the only man with answers. At first, the plot doesnât do a whole lot, but it soon opens up after learning about a research facility in a place called Satan Cabeza, the connection to a man named Barnaby, and, in Overtime Mode, how Carlito plans to get his revenge against those who wronged him. It is actually a pretty good plot and effective at drawing you in. But I said it is awkward. How so? Well, Iâll go into greater detail about this later, but a lot of cut scenes require you to be at a certain place in the mall at a certain time, and missing those deadlines will result in the game ending. One part in particular can be a trap that takes longer than you would think to complete, and often outright ends the game since you wonât have enough time to win. There are several endings to the game (E through A), and getting A will launch you into Overtime Mode where to sort of fills in the blanks and shows the true ending of the story. This is an interesting mechanic, but is annoying, since if you accidentally get ending B or C, you have to go through the entire game again to get ending A.
Controls:
Dead Rising goes for a fairly unusual control system that works quite well due to its control scheme. Upon watching game play for this game, I was a little concerned about switching through 4-12 items and how that would work. Luckily, itâs mapped to the bumpers, which is incredibly fluid and makes switching items a breeze (despite one of my controllers having a broken RB button), which is very helpful, as youâll need to switch between guns, melee weapons, and healing items more times than I can count. The triggers actually have fairly unique roles themselves. The left trigger is used to go into a first person âCamera Modeâ. In this mode, Frank can still walk and look around like normal, just from first person. However, now X takes pictures, and A and B zoom in and out respectively. For what it needs to do, it works well, although A being zoom in and B being zoom out takes a little time getting used to, since when you want to zoom in, youâll reflexively hit the button closest to the screen, which in this case will zoom you out instead. A minor complaint, but it would have been nice to be able to switch this. The right trigger gets Frank in a position to throw and item or shoot a gun (Or spit, if he has no weapon equipped, which is quite amusing). This results in what I like to call âResident Evil Syndromeâ. While aiming, it becomes impossible to move and aim at the same time. Because this mode uses X to fire and switches camera control to the left stick, it works better than the aforementioned counterpart, especially since you have to option to fire without aiming for mowing down zombies on a whim. The D-Pad sees more use than youâd think, with up switching to Frankâs bare hands, down dropping the currently held item, and right answering your walkie-talkie. Most of the other stuff is fairly standard. Menu buttons, A to jump, X to attack, B to interact, exc. However, what are really weird are the special moves. As Frank levels up, he gets access to a variety of moves, such as the Jump Kick, the Football Tackle, and a nice disembowelment. However, a lot of these moves require time to get used to, as they require button combinations you donât normally use, like clicking the left stick in and hitting A at the same time for the football tackle, hitting A and X at the same time while pushing forward into the front of a zombie for Disembowel, and hitting X just as you hit the ground from a jump for a Roundhouse kick (Chuck Norris would be so proudâ¦). This makes a lot of moves impractical to use, especially since hitting X and A simultaneously often doesnât work, making Frank attack or jump instead. Still, these are minor complaints, and for what itâs trying to do, Dead Rising does a fantastic job at making the controls responsive and extremely useful.
Gameplay:
You kill zombies. A lot of zombies. Okay, Iâm done here.
Oh, fine. This game uses a very unique style of gameplay. Itâs a third person action/horror/shooter game (very mild on horror, howeverâ¦) where you use a wide variety of weapons to kill zombies, from machine guns to machetes to fish, almost everything in the mall can be used as some sort of weapon, effective or not. This can make mowing through a giant horde of zombies more of a mad science experiment than a means to get from point A to point B. Will you hack your way through with a chainsaw? How about take a large umbrella and plowing down the horde with it? Or maybe youâd rather pick up a queen bee and smash it to explode the heads of all zombies close by? Maybe toss a Molotov Cocktail into the fray? A horde of zombies isnât an obstacle in this game, itâs the means for hours of entertainment! And thatâs what this game really gets right. Never before has killing zombies been so fun, and this game just loves to watch zombies die. In fact, it keeps a little counter at the bottom of the screen to tell you exactly how many zombies youâve killed, leading up to the mother of all zombie killing achievements: Zombie Genocide (Kill 53,594 zombies!). Sadly, the â72-Hour Modeâ has one feature that too heavily distracts from the zombie killing. This game has a time system implemented that does nothing but annoy you. Iâm not talking about something like Fallout 3 that has a clock in it to let you know when certain events happen daily. In Dead Rising, everything is on a timer. The beginning of a scoop. The end of a scoop. When a survivor will spawn and disappear. When a psychopath will appear and disappear. When the bloody mall will EXPLODE. Because this timer is so strict, it can be easy to miss a scoop because youâre hunting books, survivors, psychopaths, or just killing zombies. Doing everything in one game is nearly impossible because of it. Unless you plan the 3 days very carefully, youâll miss a lot of survivors, a few scoops, a handful of psychopaths, and chances for powerful weapons. To its credit, it does a good job of driving the story along, and it keeps things tense. Overall, however, it just gets in the way of zombie and psychopath killing. In addition to â72-Hour Modeâ, there are also two additional modes to add play time to the game. âOvertime Modeâ is unlocked when you get the best ending in 72-Hour Mode, and is sort of like an epilogue, without any of the DLC hassle of today. It takes place in the 24 hours following the game and show Frankâs final part of the adventure. Itâs fun, to be sure, but itâs full of annoying Special Operative soldiers that take tons of damage and can kill you very quickly. âInfinity Modeâ is unlocked after completing Overtime Mode and is just that, Infinite. Well, not exactly infinite. In this mode, all infinite healing item spawns are disabled, all survivors are hostile, and you must survive for as long as possible as your health slowly drains over time. Itâs fun, but not something youâd sink hours into at once, which is odd, considering that thereâs an achievement related to this mode that requires you to play for 14 hours straight without turning your console off. I mean, yeah, the gameâs fun, but itâs not something that you should put that much time in to just for an achievement and a new item. Itâs not the camera, however, that can kill the experience. Itâs the balancing of the game. When you start the game, youâre a level 1 Frank West. What does this mean? It means youâre slow, you deal crap damage, you can barley throw objects, you can only take a few hits before dying, you have no special moves, and you can only carry a few items. Basically, it means youâre screwed. Youâre so weak, that the first time through the game, youâll only get to level 10-15 before hitting a wall at a boss that you canât beat because they simply shred you to bits (COUGHAdamandCletusCOUGH). And what does THAT mean when you canât proceed? Well, you either need to find a way around the fight, or you need to start again from the beginning. When you restart the game, you retain all your XP and levels, but none of your in-game progress or items. This can actually be okay your first time around, but when you need to restart the game over and over for achievements or whatever, it can ware on your nerves fast. Once you hit level 50 though, man, youâre on top of the frigginâ world. Speaking of balance, nowâs as good of a time to bring up the bosses. There are only about 12 of them, and, for the most part, theyâre stupidly frustrating. We have bosses that attack you close up with unavoidable grabs and at range with powerful, hard to avoid attacks (Cletus). We have bosses that can drain a good potion of your attack with deceptive attacks (Adam). We have bosses that can blow you out of the area and make them disappear so you wonât get their special item drop (Steven J. B- I mean, Cliff). And letâs not forget simply stupidly annoying bosses (The Convicts). For the most part, these boss battles are optional, which is nice, but avoiding them makes you feel really dumb. Only when you come back as a leveled Frank with the best weapons in the game to tear them up will you finally feel triumphant, which, I must admit, is a very good feeling. Lastly, I suppose I should mention some novelty things. Firstly, you can play dress up with Frank, dressing him in a variety of hats, glasses, suits, dresses (Yes, dresses), vests, shoes, wrestling outfits, military uniforms, and video game characters. It feels slightly silly, but seeing your customized Frank in a cutscene is rather satisfying, and itâs something to do, if nothing else. We also have the photo taking system. With this system, you can have Frank pull out his camera and take pictures of anything in the environment. The game will then score your picture (giving you XP in the process) and give it a genre, such as Horror, Brutality, or Outtakes. Photo Taking is mostly just for the novelty of things, and while you can get a lot of XP doing it, you wonât find yourself taking tons of pictures unless achievements call for it.
Bottom Line:
Dead Rising is easily one of the best zombie games Iâve ever played. It doesnât have the cooperative experience of Left 4 Dead, the horror factor of Resident Evil, or even the sheer randomness of Zombies Took my Daughter (donât ask), but it does have zombies. And lots of them. And we love Dead Rising for it. With its current price tag of about $20, Iâd highly recommend it. It has a ton of lastability, and youâll have tons of fun mowing down the zombie mobs. Just remember that when the dead start rising, Frank West will be there to shove them right back down.
Final Score: 4/5
Article by imaloony8.0
Graphics And Artwork: Replay
Hello and welcome to the October edition of the Graphics & Artwork Replay, hosted by your friendly neighborhood PBO!
Graphics & Artwork News:
- Jam Jar, in all his glory, returned.
- HyperFox_ changed his âZakâ character for the third time.
- Layne created a âsmudgingâ tutorial. (Josh was apparently âsmudgeâ retarded.)
- roadkillman997 slowâ¦ly ⦠left⦠the⦠Graphics Forum for no apparent reason. DX
- A lot of people tried out different styles than what they were originally used to. What can I say? It was a subconscious Graphics semi-fad. Or somethingâ¦
- Dagron continued getting hype for her âTricksterâ fanfic drawings. ( Link much? )
This review was not intended to offend anyone and elaboration was used necessarily for enjoyable reading. Any attempt to re-create/rip this review will cause TestVirus, Volke and Loony to go after you with razor sharp words and, knowing them, quite possibly a baseball bat as well.
NOTE: What Iâve learned from all this time running the Newsletter? No Post-Preview sucks. SUCKS.
[b][u]The Newsletter Team[/b][/u]
Vasco â Host and Article Writer
Superbird5005 - Interviewer
Imaloony8.0 â Article Writer
hatershateme â Article Writer
TestVirus101 â Editor
If youâd like to help, please send your application at the e-mail bellow. Also, regarding the Special Article, we accept the Special from ANYONE. You can just make an article you think itâs pretty interesting, and send it to us. If itâs good enough, it will be posted, and of course youâll get credit for it.
For the above mentioned, or for further questions, e-mail me at:
inb4 during shift from newsletter thread to melodramatic "onoz vas is leevin DDD="
If you ran this thing for two years straight, or to any other point where it began feeling more like a chore than something to enjoy, you'd want to call it quits too.
It was a good run, Vas. And from past experiences I couldn't agree more about the no post preview thing.
It is a chore though. Maybe the host job should be rotated between 3-4 members, each hosting for a few months at a time. I dont know, it is alot for one member to do especially seeing as most here have school.
Thanx to Craizen for the sig, love ya babe, Hubby for the avi.
Overall good newsletter, not amazing but good. Looney nice review, I approve.
The artwork, Dagron and Vee, was amazing I have to admit. The both of you need to take credit where it's due!
So another switch huh Vas? Heh, I totally get why to. You're in the same position as me from what I can see, dropping responsibilities and chores that are unnecessary in favor of a better life. We do have newbies who still actually like doing these things, so thank god for Derek, stormform, sphynxx and the like huh? Like you said, I remember every single part of the NL's history. The times we've had, mmm. Well here's to the great run that you, Vas, and all of us, have had so far. Thanks for the kind words by the way, and the same applies to you. =)
Well, I can't say I'll be taking on any new responsibilities through this shuffle, but I'll talk with Shawn and some others about the Interview position and new possible hosts. Anyone that wants to host please say so in this thread, it makes getting everyone together easier.
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